Now I read the FAQ, and this wasn't noted there. A while back I read something in reference to the origina of Camille, that Camille was patterned after a real person who lived. Does anyone have any information on this person? I don't remember the name, or even if this person was a guy or girl (or both?)

1nonly said:

Herculine Barbin

See Uptown's, The Vault entry for 27 October 1986:

http://www.uptown.se/2005...AMPLES.pdf

Also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...ine_Barbin

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langebleu said:

Thank you, i'll make sure to bookmark these links.

what's bizarre is that that person (aside from being a hermaphrodite) doesn't seem to really relate to the concept of Camille.

Prince seems to regard his Camille character as male, there was a thread about Prince talking about Camille doing a concert:

http://www.prince.org/msg/7/214002
once upon a time in the land of sin-a-plenty there lived a little brother named camille. now camille thought he was the baddest muthafucka in the world. you understand? camille wasn’t afraid of nobody. alright? now someone in camille’s mind told him, “who’s that, man? you the baddest muthafucka in the world. screw him up. why don’t you put out like the baddest album in the world? fuck em. you know all these people runnin ‘round talkin ‘bout making love. fuck it. just put out an album of sex with no feeling. in other words, let’s just fuck.” so camille sat down and said, “eric come on and blow the horns just a little bit. just toot a little bit.” he said “eric, come on, can you just…” see, he said, “you know i ain’t scared of nobody when i got that. so i’m just gonna fuck em. see, can’t nobody fuck with that. alright? so you got all these people runnin ‘round talking all that smack ‘bout makin love. i’ll do that and just say, man, i want to fuck.” okay, so that’s what camille did. he sat down and made this album, right? and it was bad. he looked at it and said, “it’s so bad i ain’t even gonna put my name on the mothafucka.” no, no, wait. get to that mentality. it’s so bad, i ain’t even gonna put a name on it. you just holdin it, you understand? you just taste it.

ufoclub said:

Yeah, I really never bought this explanation, I think people read too much into it.

The interview was from like 1996/7, and he doesn't say Camille was inspired by Barbin, all he says is that the questioner's friend (who brought up Barbin as he was nicknamed Camille) was clever.

At a stretch, he might have got the name Camille from Barbin's nickname, but that's all, I don't think Camille is based upon this person at. all.

Camille is Prince, simple as that. Camille isn't a hermaphrodite, Camille is a man.

NouveauDance said:

I agree.

It has always sounded too studied and intellectualised to be the source of inspiration for a Prince alter-ego.

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