Could someone kindly tell me who Camille is? I feel like a for asking this.

boomboomboom said:

That's not nice. You should be thankful for us. Pass the knowledge onto us and Prince's music lives on. I'll let one of the old people answer this though.

Get over yourself - just proving yourself to be just post newbie - look at my face am I bothered.

.. point is - that even though I know it's only a recent development - at the top of this forum is a guide to Newbies - and OH MY GOD ! one of the questions is who is camille. People can search and find pretty much any information as lets face it when there's no music the same subjects come up over and over and over like....

QUICK EVERYONE - I really REALLY need to know ...if prince was a window dressing would he be a Curtain or a Blind - and like oh my god I think he'd be dark blue and a heavy silk curtain. Vote now - curtain or blind.

Next week's survivor round - Elephnts OR Flowers. QUUUIIICCCCKKKK vote now.

-----

get a room.

boomboomboom said:

oh, you're soooo damn cool by getting a new name and being a sarcastic ass. the incessant whining about "We need new music now omg the n00bs are so freakin' annoying!" is just as bad as repetitive questions.

that newbie thread doesn't seem to be finalized yet, so wading through all that information is probably confusing. if you don't like it, just stay out of this particular forum.

evenstar3 said:

If said newbie has managed to achieve posting a new thread - chances are they probably know cntl F on a PC ...wading suddenly becomes ooo v quick.

Yawn.

Thanks MetroArea! Not all newbie questions are a "waste of time." I've been a fan since '83 and I never knew there was supposed to be a Camille movie. Where did that info come from, 'The Vault'? I'm not doubting you, just wondering how I missed that. I haven't read 'The Vault' yet, so I'm sure there are a few hardcore-super-secret-underground details I've missed.

The thing that always bugs me is that everyone always says that there were only those 8 songs, plus Scarlet Pussy and U Got the Look - but clearly Bob George is a Camille track - when played live he always says "This is Camille". It's never officially credited as such only because there are no credits on the Black Album.

Back ON topic: Who is Camille?

A character Prince assumed for a projected album 1986. He started recording songs with the sped up vocals in 1985, and soon began to think of this vocal style as a seperate "alter-ego" - the LP was canned, but expanded into Crystal Ball (which as we alllll know was trunkated into SOTT).

At this time there was also the idea of a movie, where Prince would star as two characters, and only at the end of the movie, would the audience discover they were the same person.

That's the ORIGINAL Camille idea.

The only official Camille tracks, the ones that are credited to Camille are the tracks that made up the LP, plus 2 others - Scarlet Pussy, and U Got The Look - no other track is officially a Camille track, although there are several other tracks from the time period that use a similar vocal - for example, Crystal Ball. Earlier tracks with this vocal style: Love or $, Dream Factory - later tracks, Sex, Partyman, and much later: Come On and (Eye Like) Funky Music.

The Camille LP:
1. Rebirth Of The Flesh
2. Housequake
3. Strange Relationship
4. Feel U Up
5. Shockadelica
6. Good Love
7. If I Was Your Girlfriend
8. Rockhard In A Funky Place

The recording/compiling of the Camille project began in late October 1986, Prince recorded Rebirth Of The Flesh, Good Love, IIWYG and Rockhard.., as well as a new version of the 1981 track, Feel U Up. Prince added the previously recorded Shockadelica, Housequake and reworked version of the Lisa/Wendy version of Strange Relationship, thus making up the LP as it was sequenced.

The LP was completed, given a Warner Bros. catalogue number, and a projected release date of January 1987. A test pressing was also made of a possible single of Shockadelica b/w Housequake. The LP's cover is not circulating, but had a stick-figure with x's for eyes - There are several well-made fan covers circulating with this idea used.

Prince decided not to follow through with the LP, instead exanding it with tracks recorded earlier in the year - the project then became the 3LP set 'Crystal Ball', Prince dropped the 'Camille' moniker for the LP soon after.

Everything but Rebirth of The Flesh has since been released, although a live rehersal version of Rebirth was released through the NPGMC in it's initial year of business. This leads one to believe that Prince was not entirely satisfied with the studio version, much like Days Of Wild, which has also been released (several times) as a live version, but never the studio version.

The character/name of Camille was then used for the original Graffiti Bridge (a track named 'Camille' was one of 13 songs mentioned in the original script), and Camille was also blamed for the creation/non-release of the Black Album, and thus the creation of Lovesexy (or at least his 'dark side' Spooky Electric was). This is all a mythology as spun by Prince himself in the Lovesexy tour book liner notes, and it's worth noting that this is kind of separate to the initial idea of the Camille LP - so although it's the same name, 'Camille' - it's upto you whether you consider it part of the same lineage of ideas.

Stretching the imagination further, it's possible to argue that the Black Album (The Funk Bible) is also a 'Camille' album - since it came relatively shortly after the shelving of the Camille LP, and used much of the same ideas, i.e. a side-project release without mention of Prince (obviously they also share the track Rock Hard In A Funky Place) plus Bob George, performed live on the Lovesexy Tour, was atributed to Camille).

The idea of a dual-personality alter-ego was also used in 1989 for the Batman LP and the two promo videos for Batdance and Partyman (which incidently has Camille-style sped up vocals). Prince played 'Gemini', half Batman, half the Joker, playing out the dualities of human behaviour on the LP, good vs evil, Camille vs Spooky Electric, making Gemini, and Camille, very much part of the Prince tradition of exploring seemingly opposing ideas of Sin (Sex) and Redemption (God), that share an undeniable link, or symbiosis..

In an interview in 1997 (or 6 or 8, I forget), when asked if the androgynous Camille bore any relation to the famous 19th century hermaphrodite, Hercule Barbin who was nicknamed Camille - Prince's answer alluded to the notion that the person asking the question could be correct.

Camille is kind of Prince's 'Ziggy Stardust'. It's worth noting that although Prince has used lots of pseudonyms - all the pseudonyms aren't alter-egos like Camille was. For example, Alexander Nevermind is a pseudonym, not an alter-ego.

For me, Camille is the album and projected film from 1986 - after that, although the name was used for other projects, I consider that a different cannon to the original story/idea.

And, I guess, that's who Camille is
[Edited 5/12/05 3:29am]

Back ON topic: Who is Camille?

A character Prince assumed for a projected album 1986. He started recording songs with the sped up vocals in 1985, and soon began to think of this vocal style as a seperate "alter-ego" - the LP was canned, but expanded into Crystal Ball (which as we alllll know was trunkated into SOTT).

At this time there was also the idea of a movie, where Prince would star as two characters, and only at the end of the movie, would the audience discover they were the same person.

That's the ORIGINAL Camille idea.

The only official Camille tracks, the ones that are credited to Camille are the tracks that made up the LP, plus 2 others - Scarlet Pussy, and U Got The Look - no other track is officially a Camille track, although there are several other tracks from the time period that use a similar vocal - for example, Crystal Ball. Earlier tracks with this vocal style: Love or $, Dream Factory - later tracks, Sex, Partyman, and much later: Come On and (Eye Like) Funky Music.

The Camille LP:
1. Rebirth Of The Flesh
2. Housequake
3. Strange Relationship
4. Feel U Up
5. Shockadelica
6. Good Love
7. If I Was Your Girlfriend
8. Rockhard In A Funky Place

The recording/compiling of the Camille project began in late October 1986, Prince recorded Rebirth Of The Flesh, Good Love, IIWYG and Rockhard.., as well as a new version of the 1981 track, Feel U Up. Prince added the previously recorded Shockadelica, Housequake and reworked version of the Lisa/Wendy version of Strange Relationship, thus making up the LP as it was sequenced.

The LP was completed, given a Warner Bros. catalogue number, and a projected release date of January 1987. A test pressing was also made of a possible single of Shockadelica b/w Housequake. The LP's cover is not circulating, but had a stick-figure with x's for eyes - There are several well-made fan covers circulating with this idea used.

Prince decided not to follow through with the LP, instead exanding it with tracks recorded earlier in the year - the project then became the 3LP set 'Crystal Ball', Prince dropped the 'Camille' moniker for the LP soon after.

Everything but Rebirth of The Flesh has since been released, although a live rehersal version of Rebirth was released through the NPGMC in it's initial year of business. This leads one to believe that Prince was not entirely satisfied with the studio version, much like Days Of Wild, which has also been released (several times) as a live version, but never the studio version.

The character/name of Camille was then used for the original Graffiti Bridge (a track named 'Camille' was one of 13 songs mentioned in the original script), and Camille was also blamed for the creation/non-release of the Black Album, and thus the creation of Lovesexy (or at least his 'dark side' Spooky Electric was). This is all a mythology as spun by Prince himself in the Lovesexy tour book liner notes, and it's worth noting that this is kind of separate to the initial idea of the Camille LP - so although it's the same name, 'Camille' - it's upto you whether you consider it part of the same lineage of ideas.

Stretching the imagination further, it's possible to argue that the Black Album (The Funk Bible) is also a 'Camille' album - since it came relatively shortly after the shelving of the Camille LP, and used much of the same ideas, i.e. a side-project release without mention of Prince (obviously they also share the track Rock Hard In A Funky Place) plus Bob George, performed live on the Lovesexy Tour, was atributed to Camille).

The idea of a dual-personality alter-ego was also used in 1989 for the Batman LP and the two promo videos for Batdance and Partyman (which incidently has Camille-style sped up vocals). Prince played 'Gemini', half Batman, half the Joker, playing out the dualities of human behaviour on the LP, good vs evil, Camille vs Spooky Electric, making Gemini, and Camille, very much part of the Prince tradition of exploring seemingly opposing ideas of Sin (Sex) and Redemption (God), that share an undeniable link, or symbiosis..

In an interview in 1997 (or 6 or 8, I forget), when asked if the androgynous Camille bore any relation to the famous 19th century hermaphrodite, Hercule Barbin who was nicknamed Camille - Prince's answer alluded to the notion that the person asking the question could be correct.

Camille is kind of Prince's 'Ziggy Stardust'. It's worth noting that although Prince has used lots of pseudonyms - all the pseudonyms aren't alter-egos like Camille was. For example, Alexander Nevermind is a pseudonym, not an alter-ego.

For me, Camille is the album and projected film from 1986 - after that, although the name was used for other projects, I consider that a different cannon to the original story/idea.

And, I guess, that's who Camille is
[Edited 5/12/05 3:29am]