Welcome to Sunday Morning Vinyl (SMV) where we feature ‘Originals’, the posthumous release of Prince that has demos of songs he wrote for other artists. My intention today was to show you the diverse music of Prince and some of the artists he inspired or had a direct hand in developing, writing, or producing for. Let’s just say things didn’t go as planned, and is a prime example of ‘My Squirrel Self’ running down the proverbial rabbit-hole.
First let’s give you the track list. I will also include who is listed as the original artist to commercially release the title.
Side A-
- Sex Shooter – Apollonia 6
- Jungle Love – The Time
- Manic Monday – The Bangles
- Noon Rendezvous – Sheila E.
- Make-Up – Vanity 6
Side B-
- 100 MPH – Mazarati
- You’re My Love – Kenny Rogers
- Holly Rock – Sheila E.
Side C-
- Baby You’re A Trip – Jill Jones
- The Glamourous Life – Sheila E.
- Gigolos Get Lonely Too – The Time
- Love… Thy Will Be Done – Martika
Side D-
- Dear Michaelangelo – Sheila E.
- Wouldn’t You Love To Love Me? – Taja Sevelle
- Nothing Compares 2 U – Sinead O’Connor
So what started as an exhibition of Prince music and artists that he wrote for, turned into a short lesson on the Minneapolis Sound.
About The Musical Genius
Prince Rogers Nelson, or Prince as we all have come to know him, was born on June 7th, 1958 and was taken from us all too soon April 21st, 2016. His mother a jazz singer, and his father a pianist and songwriter, they gave their son the his father’s stage name because they wanted him to do everything his father wanted to do. All signs pointed to a long life of music when Prince wrote his first song on his fathers piano at the tender age of 7 called ‘Funk Machine’.
Prince’s family life was a tumultuous one and after his parents divorced when he was ten, he moved between his parents home, and later was kicked out by his father where we has taken in by a neighbor. This trial in his life introduced him to to their son André Cymone, whom Prince later collaborated with. Prince continued with music to such a level that in 1973 at the age of 15 he had to chance to meet producer and writer Jimmy Jam (yes that is a real name) who was impressed with his musical talent, early mastery of a wide range of instruments, and work ethic. The reason this fact is important will be become evident later – trust me.
In 1975 the husband of Prince’s cousin started a band called 94 East, a Minneapolis based funk group. At 17 years old, Prince and his childhood best friend André Cymone were hired to record tracks on their album which would eventually be titled ‘Minneapolis Genius – The Historic 1977 Recordings (credited as 94 East featuring Prince)’ and released in 1985. The band broke up when Prince began to become a star in his own right, but it gave him a chance to work with early dance music pioneers that helped provide a foundation to his sound.
Prince was originally signed in 1978 to Warner Bros. Records for a three album deal that (in an unusual coup for the music industry) scored Prince absolute creative control and retaining his publishing rights – something that we still see as a sore point in today’s top musical acts (George Michael was one, but more recently think of the Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun fiasco).
The first album of this arrangement, ‘For You‘ put Prince’s desire to have everything ‘just so’ on display. The liner notes credit him as writing, producing, arranging, composing, and playing all 27 instruments on the recording except for ‘Soft and Wet’ for which he co-wrote with Chris Moon. The album ok by some standards, but “Soft and Wet” reached No. 12 on the Hot Soul Singles chart and No. 92 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song “Just as Long as We’re Together” reached No. 91 on the Hot Soul Singles chart. In the grand scope of Prince’s career, this was a mere warmup I think many would agree
In 1979 Prince built a band with André Cymone, Dez Dickerson, Gayle Chapman, Dr. Fink, and Bobby Z. He followed in the footsteps of one of his idols, Sly Stone, by creating a multi-racial, multi-gendered musical ensemble. This group was the beginnings of what would eventually become (after a couple of small lineup changes) The Revolution. Later that year, this original lineup would release the album ‘Prince‘, which was No. 4 on the Billboard Top R&B/Black Albums charts and No. 22 on the Billboard 200, and went platinum. It contained two R&B hits: “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?” and “I Wanna Be Your Lover”, which sold over a million copies, and reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 for two weeks on the Hot Soul Singles chart. A nice sophomore release for a musical prodigy who was developing his own sound.
In 1980, Prince released the album Dirty Mind, which contained sexually explicit material, including the title song, “Head”, and the song “Sister”, and was described by Stephen Thomas Erlewine as a “stunning, audacious amalgam of funk, new wave, R&B, and pop, fueled by grinningly salacious sex and the desire to shock.”[39] Recorded in Prince’s own studio, this album was certified gold, and the single “Uptown” reached No. 5 on the Billboard Dance chart and No. 5 on the Hot Soul Singles chart.
And his career only went up from there. One thing to remember in all of this (in relation to our featured album) is that Prince was quite prolific in his writing. So much that rumors are that his vault in Paisley Park held more music that any one person could feasibly finish in a lifetime, let alone the number of artists that he fostered, inspired and developed. The second to remember: when I listen to the tracks on ‘Originals’, I am not hearing demos for the most part. I am hearing fully fleshed songs and instrumentation that with a little more work could have just as easily ended up on one of his records. In fact, Jungle Love sounds like the commercial release but with Prince on vocals instead of Morris Day. His demos were professional recordings of many of his contemporaries of the time.
So where are we going with this?
There is so much information available on Prince, the man and his music. And really, what I didn’t know already I found it on Wikipedia quite readily. And I can say by researching one of my idols – yes, I said idols – there is always more to learn about this man and it just gets more amazing with every turn of the page.
The bottom line is that I tried to put together a show on music of Prince that he wrote for others and it ended up being a treatise on the Minneapolis Sound.
What Is The Minneapolis Sound?
According to Wikipedia, “The Minneapolis sound is a subgenre of funk rock with elements of synth-pop and new wave, that was pioneered by Prince in the late 1970s.[1] Its popularity was given a boost throughout the 1980s, thanks to him and his musical adherents, including The Time, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Morris Day, Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Ta Mara & the Seen, Sheila E., Jesse Johnson, Brownmark, Mazarati, The Jets, The Family and most of his The Revolution back up band, such as offshoot duo, Wendy & Lisa.”
Wikipedia goes on to quote Rolling Stone Album Guide, “the Minneapolis sound… loomed over mid-’80s R&B and pop, not to mention the next two decades’ worth of electro, house, and techno.”
This ‘sound’ is considered a sub-genre of funk with the following characteristics that distinguish it:
- Synthesizers generally replaced horns, and were used more as accent than as fill or background.
- The rhythm was often faster and less syncopated than traditional funk, and owed much to new wave music.
- Guitars, while usually (but not always) played “clean” for rhythm parts, were frequently much louder and more aggressively processed during solos than in most traditional funk.
- The “bottom” of the sound was less bass-heavy than traditional funk; drums and keyboards filled more of the “bottom”.
- The drums were more highly processed than in traditional funk.
Where Prince pioneered the sound, music workhorses like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis of Flyt Tyme Records and other compatriots – adherents of the faith some would say – took off with the sound. They helped develop and influence artists like Janet Jackson, Gwen Stefani, and Bruno Mars.
On A Personal Note…
When it comes to my personal vocal artistry and music, I have come to identify certain idols, as many do. These include Dan Fogelberg, George Michael, Kenny Loggins, and Prince. I was quite devastated with what felt like a void in my soul when we lost both Prince and George Michael in the same year, but having the music they gave to the world has definitely helped.
I keep trying to come up with a way to explain why Prince was someone I worshiped musically, why his art made me so happy and his commitment to excellence spurned me to do better in my music. I have only once every been able to put it into words in way that felt right. Unfortunately, I wrote it the day he died that evening and put it on Facebook. For those that have seen it, I apologize for spamming you but I present it again.
Music effects all of us in different ways. I know this because of the years I spent working in various aspects of music and performance. The best way to describe how music effects me is like a drug. While I appreciate music in many of its forms, there are a four “dealers” that I easily call my idols. It is not just because of what the music does for me, my emotions and my wellbeing. It is because of how their collective works have affected my growth in my art. The four that have influenced me the most are Kenny Loggins, Dan Fogelberg, George Michael and Prince – eclectic doesn’t even begin to describe the combination. There is no rationalizing how or why these artists have fed my soul and my purpose to help others enjoy music. In light of todays events, I will try to explain one of them.
Prince Rogers Nelson spent most of his career being the bad boy of the music industry. As a kid, listening to his music felt like staying up all night, watching a movie only adults should watch, eating candy: it was a bit of a rush. As my appreciation for what my family and friends were teaching me about music and performance grew, I also began to recognize the genius of it all. As a young padawan of the entertainment industry, I respected his stance on artist rights, and I enjoyed the effect his music had on the people around me. And much like a drug, I became addicted to what he created out of pop, funk, rock and soul. I found the effect to be quite profound, and my attempts to learn from his work product were so frustrating, but fun. Even today, I find his influences in other artists. His contribution to society as well as the music industry is incalculable.
Prince told us stories about sex, love and in some cases our confusion between the two. He wrote about how we relate to the other people in our lives, how we party and cut loose. He spoke of salvation, originally in those carnal appetites as well as more heavenly aspects. He sang about social justice and the beauty of people, no matter what our bodies look like. And amongst it all he exhibited a pure joy in making the simplest of melodies seem so complex, throwing funky beats, screaming guitar notes, and falsetto lines like food to a hungry crowd, all the while exciting something so primal in many of us:
Love
Enjoy the afterworld, Prince. Rest in peace.
You will be missed but definitely not forgotten.
David Hemmer, Facebook post 4/21/2016
Prince Rogers Nelson
Musical Genius, Performance Extraordinaire
6/7/1958-4/21/2016
Thanks for listening to another edition of Sunday Morning Vinyl. I hope you enjoy the show.
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