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THE FAMILY - A brief history
The Family – a brief history The formation of The Family in 1984 was Prince's reaction to the disbanding of The Time. Morris Day was no longer interested in being a band member and moved to Los Angeles, severing ties with the other band members, Prince and The Times management team. With Morris Day in L.A it was basically Jesse Johnson who ran The Time. Prince originally wanted to continue work with The Time by adding Paul Peterson as singer, an idea that was rejected by Jesse Johnson. After failing to convince Morris Day to return, Prince finally decided that The Time was indeed over. Jesse Johnson had also decided to attempt a solo career and took Time members Jerry Hubbard and Mark Cardenas with him.
Late June 1984. Prince invites Alan Leeds and the remaining Time sidemen Paul Peterson, Jellybean Johnson and Jerome Benton to a meeting at his house. Prince's idea was for a new band and wanted Paul Peterson to be the lead vocalist. This came as something of a surprise to Peterson. Prince had become aware of Paul Peterson's vocal ability during the filming for the Purple Rain movie, they had adjoining dressing rooms, Prince overheard Peterson singing and must have liked what he had heard. The new band were named The Family and were also joined by Susannah Melvoin as a second singer. While The Time's music had been rooted in R&B, Prince wanted The Family to be more musically versatile. Jellybean Johnson said “Prince wanted The Family to be more like a classy, jazzy type of band that would show more different sides, he wanted to do jazzy instrumentals and feature great pop and funk tunes.” Work began on the debut album for The Family in late June 1984 at the Flying Cloud Warehouse in Eden Prairie. Prince very quickly recorded a number of songs for the project. Prince was also coming up for a look for the band, he was looking through a lot of film and glamour magazines, he wanted Paul Peterson to be a very dash Rudolph Valentino type of character. Susan Rogers, Prince's sound engineer remembers Prince chatting with Paul Peterson and saying “Paul, 20,000 woman! That's how many woman Valentino had at his funeral, 20,000 woman!” Working alone, Prince recorded High Fashion and Mutiny, recording them in sequence, he followed them with Desire and River Run Dry. Susan Rogers remembers, “once he had High Fashion and Mutiny, the rest of the album just flowed.” River Run Dry was a song that Bobby Z had written, but Prince recorded his own version after asking Bobby Z if he could use it for The Family's album. During the initial sessions for The Family, Prince recorded an instrumental titled Mazarati, which was originally intended for Mazarati's debut album. Prince decided that the music suited The Family better and renamed the track Susannah's Pajamas.
Prince wanted to try and incorporate the saxophone into The Family project. He had heard a tape that Alan Leeds' brother Eric had made when he had auditioned for the band that Sheila E had put together in spring 1984. However, Sheila had already hired Eddie Minnifield on sax so the tape sat around for a while. A while later Prince came up with the concept for The Family, and having decided that he wanted saxophone in the music told Alan “if your brother wants a gig, tell him he's got it.”
2nd July 1984. Eric Leeds arrives in Minneapolis to begin recording saxophone overdubs on four tracks for The Family album, they are High Fashion, Mutiny, Desire and Susannah's Pajamas. Prince was said to be delighted with Eric's saxophone work and realized that Leeds was going to be a valuable addition to the project. | |
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14th July 1984. Prince records the song Feline at the Flying Cloud Warehouse for use in The Family project. The song did not make the album. Feline was one of Eric Leeds' favourite tracks recorded for the album, Eric remembered “It was a manic track, I love it, I remember being there when he was doing most of his work on it, he was like a man possessed, the track was the odd man out from the album, it stuck out like a sore thumb.” The song is sexually explicit and featuring a rap by Paul, who says “St. Paul's my name, makin' love's my game.” The rap was later altered and used in Sheila E's Holly Rock. Also in July, Prince recorded Nothing Compares 2 U. Prince now had nearly all the songs available to put together an album. The following sessions were to have Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin replace Prince's “scratch” vocals. David Rivkin was brought in to produce the vocal sessions. This was a slow painstaking process as Prince wanted exact reproductions of his vocal tracks.
19th August-October 1984. Prince records The Screams Of passion for The Family project. Between August and October two other songs were recorded for the project, they were Yes, and Miss Understood. A track from 1980 called Rough was also taken out and considered for the album but in the end it was not deemed appropriate. Miss Understood was also left off the album. The instrumental track Yes was originally close to eight minutes long and was edited to fit the album.
In addition to having saxophone in the music of The Family, Prince also wanted to add strings, for a more lush sound. David Rivkin contacted Clare Fischer on his behalf. Fischer was sent a tape of the song River Run Dry to see what the outcome might be. Prince was delighted with the results and further songs were sent to Clare for additional work. David Rivkin, Susannah and Jerome Benton went to L.A to oversee the recording sessions with Fischer. Prince could not attend the first session for some reason, and afterwards he got superstitious and did not want to see his face. Prince even averted his eyes when he received a record that contained Clare's face on the cover. To this day Prince has still not met Clare Fischer face to face.
The recording of the album was now complete but the album was put on hold till after the Purple Rain tour.
Early May 1985. Prince begins mixing The Family album at Sunset Sound Studio in L.A. Some tracks underwent changes during the mixing stage, with Prince dropping the bass parts to several tracks. Eric Leeds recalls, “Prince was in a no bass minimalist mood, there was bass guitar in a lot of those cuts that he did not include in the final mixes, and I missed it then and I miss it now. To hear the bass guitar that exists on those songs, particularly High Fashion and Mutiny, my God, those songs are on fire! And just listening to those rough mixes with the bass on there, that to me is quintessential funk, it doesn't get much better than that.”
Mid May 1985. The Family begin rehearsals at the Washington Avenue warehouse in Eden Prairie. After the conclusion of the Purple Rain tour, a winter tour with other Paisley Park acts Sheila E and Mazarati was planned. The Family's core group of Paul Peterson, Susannah Melvoin, Eric Leeds, Jellybean Johnson and Jerome Benton was added to for the proposed tour. Sheila E's guitarist Miko Weaver was drafted to play guitar. Lisa's brother David Coleman was asked to play bass but was replaced by Minneapolis bassist Alan Flowers. Billy Carruthers who was also from Minneapolis, and Wendy's and Susannah's brother Jonathan Melvoin, both joined the band to play keyboards. Two backing singers and dancers were also added to the lineup, they were, Wally Safford and Greg Brooks. | |
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Early June 1985. A video for the single The Screams Of Passion is shot in L.A. Jerome Benton choreographed the dance moves. Since the song had no horn part, Eric Leeds is seen in the video “playing” bass guitar.
The Screams Of Passion was released a few weeks before the release of the album. It reached number 63 on the Billboard chart.
[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related%20album%20and%20singles/R-435549-1236976893.jpg[/img:$uid] Single cover art. [img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/BW7RUwBGkKGrHgoOKi0EjlLmWvIBKZvgKjp1_12.jpg[/img:$uid] DJ version of single.
[Edited 10/5/10 9:12am] | |
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13th August 1985. The Family make their live debut at First Avenue in Minneapolis. They played a short but well received set.
19th August 1985. The debut self titled album by The Family is released. With the exception of Eric Leeds' horn parts, Clare Fischer's strings, and a rhythm guitar part on Yes by Wendy Melvoin, Prince played everything else on the album. Prince only takes credit on the album cover for Nothing Compares 2 U, but with the exception of River Run Dry (which is correctly credited to Bobby Z) Prince wrote all the songs. The album reached number 62 on the Billboard chart. [img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/FAMILY.gif[/img:$uid]
[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related%20album%20and%20singles/family-family.jpg[/img:$uid] Album cover art. [img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related%20album%20and%20singles/R-1286218-1268670224.jpg[/img:$uid] Back cover.
October 1985. A second single from the album, High Fashion was released but did not chart.
[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related%20album%20and%20singles/R-569868-1133137169.jpg[/img:$uid] Single cover art.
[Edited 10/5/10 9:05am] | |
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The Family's rehearsal and tour plans had been put on hold while Jerome Benton and Susannah Melvoin were in France with Prince, who was filming his second movie Under The Cherry Moon. During this time Paul Peterson was also in L.A taking acting lessons for the possible inclusion in a future Prince film project. With various band members in different parts of the world doing other things, The Family's album and singles were left to fend for themselves with no promotion.
Early November 1985. With Prince still in France, Paul Peterson, who was still in L.A had a “10,000 mile showdown” with Prince, he announced that he was leaving The Family. Various factors contributed to his decision, but the main ones were that Peterson was very frustrated with the lack of support and promotion in The Family project, another reason was Peterson's disappointment in the lack of creative input he was allowed to contribute to the album. Another factor may have been the lack of money that was being paid to the band members. Paul's announcement to leave surprised other band members, but many shared Peterson's frustrations. Paul Peterson's announcement to leave the band spelled the end of The Family.
[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/thefamilyoldschool.jpg[/img:$uid] | |
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[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/o_rtMTxOO5LVCUDap.jpg[/img:$uid]
This is not an official release.
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Whoa no, whoa yeah (Woo, oh) There's a gentle autumn breeze that blows © 1985 Parisongs Music - ASCAPLyrics: dtt. | |
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Man that sounded like a killer show line up
Prince really had a lot of creativity for his protege act
I wish he was more focused, the Family could have really put him on the map in a different way. Sheila E's 3 album was killer 2 & Mazarati brought the dirty minneapolis grease
That would have been a hot show and would have replaced that competitive vibe he had with the Triple Threat tour:Prince, the Time, Vanity 6
Paul Peterson, Susannah Melvoin, Eric Leeds(sax/violin), Jellybean Johnson(drums), Jerome Benton
Miko Weaver(guitar) Alan Flowers(bass) Billy Carruthers(keyboards) Jonathan Melvoin(keyboards 2 Backing singers ? 2 Backing dangers: Greg Brooks Wally Safford
Mid May 1985. The Family begin rehearsals at the Washington Avenue warehouse in Eden Prairie. After the conclusion of the Purple Rain tour, a winter tour with other Paisley Park acts Sheila E and Mazarati was planned. The Family's core group of Paul Peterson, Susannah Melvoin, Eric Leeds, Jellybean Johnson and Jerome Benton was added to for the proposed tour. Sheila E's guitarist Miko Weaver was drafted to play guitar. Lisa's brother David Coleman was asked to play bass but was replaced by Minneapolis bassist Alan Flowers. Billy Carruthers who was also from Minneapolis, and Wendy's and Susannah's brother Jonathan Melvoin, both joined the band to play keyboards. Two backing singers and dancers were also added to the lineup, they were, Wally Safford and Greg Brooks. [Edited 10/5/10 11:15am] | |
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^ I agree, the tour would have been a fantastic thing. Mazarati were to open, then The Family, and Sheila to headline. Clearly Prince was too wrapped up in filming Cherry Moon to do anything more about it, but he must have known that the tour would have been a great way to promote these bands. And i'm guessing that more promotion would have meant more album sales. Crazy that it did not happen.
From what i can gather the backing "singers" were Wally and Greg.
[Edited 10/5/10 11:44am] | |
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1996. Prince and St. Paul (Paul Peterson) spoke for the first time in ten years in 1996. Peterson says, "It was a very nice conversation, we talked about the possibility of maybe working with each other. Who'll say, we might work together, but you know it's pretty difficult. He treats me the same old way, he thinks of me in the same way he did ten years ago."
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Back in 2002 at the Family Jamm, they came out and freakin NAILED IT! They were on fire that night, definitely the highlight of the show!!! OMG! Amazing! Paul even brought out the Robe!
[img:$uid]http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s102/tricky2_2007/FamJamm041-Copy.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s102/tricky2_2007/FamJamm043-Copy.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s102/tricky2_2007/FamJamm032-Copy.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s102/tricky2_2007/FamJamm042-Copy.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s102/tricky2_2007/FamJamm035-Copy.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s102/tricky2_2007/FamJamm037-Copy.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s102/tricky2_2007/FamJamm125.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s102/tricky2_2007/FamJamm124.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s102/tricky2_2007/FamJamm038.jpg[/img:$uid]
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This video shows Paul Peterson in better voice than on the album imo. He just sounds better in his own voice rather than trying to emulate Prince in every way as on the album, more releaxed. Pity about the video quality.
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