Please post pictures, articles, events and promo items which depict Prince in 2009, January to December.

I'd like to get a sense of all that went on this past year, would you?

I'll try posting a picture, but I'll have to search. Thanks.

www.lotusflow3r.com







/////
[Edited 12/6/09 19:44pm]

Dr. Funkenberry: www.drfunkenberry.com

Prince Concert News; Feb. 28th Show In L.A.

"This is an update of the story from Tuesday about the Icon, PRINCE playing a benefit concert for Tavis Smiley’s Annual State Of The Black Union Symposium.

We found out a couple of hours ago that the show will be at the Conga Room In L.A. at the Nokia Center. (We took a while to post to make sure everything was on the up n up.) The show is scheduled to start at 8 P.M.

Tix will be $300 (seated) and $150 (standing room general admission) and there is a 4 ticket limit.

You can purchase the tickets here.

I have never heard of this site before but went through it all without purchasing the tickets. It seems secure but be careful is all I can say. Anyone wanna pick up my ticket tab? =-)

Please keep in mind, it is a benefit concert. Hope some of you can attend in this economy."-Dr.FB

Who's playing with Prince on March 28? Check it out...!

got a message from a little purple jack-headed bird again:


MUSICIANS SLATED 2 PER4M WITH PRINCE 4 THE MONTH OF MARCH R AS FOLLOWS:

on Drums:
MICHAEL BLAND
CC. DUNHAM
JOHN BLACKWELL

on bass:
RHONDA SMITH
JOSHUA DUNHAM
SONNY T.

keyboards:
RENATO NETO
MR. HAYES

backing and co-lead vox:

SHELBY J.
LIV WARFIELD
ELISA FIORILLO

harmonica: YONNET

http://www.eurweb.com/sto...r49771.cfm



PRINCE OUTLINES 2009 SCHEDULE: Artist says he's dropping three albums and will introduce Sade-flavored protégé.(January 2, 2009)


*Prince has revealed that his plans for 2009 include the release of three new albums, including an electro-flavored solo effort tentatively titled MPLSOUND that was recorded at Paisley Park Studios.


"Prince experimented with Pro Tools and 'new ways of recording' on these trippy, experimental pop songs," reports Ann Flowers of the Los Angeles Times music blog Pop & Hiss. "One features a Q-Tip rap; another calls a 'Funky Congregation' to worship and may become a live set piece."


He also plans to drop a guitar-driven album titled 'Lotus Flower," sometime this year, an album previewed earlier this month on Indie 103.1. "Prince said he refocused on his playing while performing live dates with the singer Tamar Davis in 2006; with the spotlight trained on someone else, he could fall back in love with solos and riffs," writes Flowers. "'Lotus Flower' is a varied album, featuring cuts recorded over the course of two years, but standout tracks include some heavy rockers -- especially the apocalyptic 'Dreamer,'" which Prince said was partly inspired by radical comedian Dick Gregory.

This year, the artist also plans to introduce his newest singing protégé. "We got sick of waiting for Sade to make a new album," Prince said, introducing Bria Valente's new album, "Elixir." Flowers writes of the disc: "The tracks are chill, with Valente's buttery voice melding with beats by Morris Hayes and Prince's guitar lines. Some are explicitly sexual."

"This music is nasty, but it's not dirty," Prince said, explaining how sensual music fits in with his much-discussed Jehovah's Witness faith. "There's no profanity. It isn't promoting promiscuity. She's singing about her lover, who could be her partner for life."

He also addressed quotes from a recent New Yorker interview that made national headlines, among them, his refusal to vote in the November election because of his religion.

"I didn't vote for Obama either," he explained to the Times. "Jehovah's Witnesses haven't voted for their whole inception."

Prince felt the New Yorker piece wrongly implied that he supported California's gay-marriage ban. "I have friends that are gay and we study the Bible together," he told Flowers, adding that the two sides fighting "only benefit the third person" who instigated the fight.

http://www.blackweb20.com...llets-cry/



Prince’s Opus Makes Wallets Cry

Icon, phenom, genius, sexy mfer, whatever you want to call him, when the word gets out that Prince is working on a new project, fans are always chomping at the bit, waiting to be enthralled once again by the “Purple One.” But this latest offering is sure to cause some controversy.

Prince in conjunction with British publisher Kraken Opus present the limited edition Prince Opus iPod Touch. The iPod comes preloaded with 40 minutes of never before seen footage from his 2007 21 Nights performance at London’s O2 arena. In addition to the movie is a 15-song soundtrack from the Indigo Nights live concert. The iPod is decked out in Prince’s signature purple and features his symbol on the back.To sweeten the deal, the luxe iPod is accompanied by an equally luxurious picture book. The leather hand-bound 230-paged tome includes hundreds of pictures from the tour as well as poetry and lyrics from you know who. The book is so high-end even the paper its printed on is hoity-toity, coming from “a techincally superior grade of silk paper.” The box set comes enclosed in a velvet case.



So what’s the going price on this premium Prince package? Try a wallet-smashing $2,100. The reasoning behind the Marie Antoinette “Let them eat cake” pricing? Well beside the pricey paper and the iPod with the mysteriously unspecified memory capacity with the fancy leather the picture book is bound in, there’s only 950 copies of the Opus package being made, which could potentially make it a collector’s item. And if that’s wasn’t ridiculous enough, there’s another version of this package called the Number 1 Edition. In this version the book is bound in alligator skin and is emblazoned with Prince symbol. The symbol is made of platinum and encrusted with 21 brilliant round diamonds and 5 rare purple diamonds. The Number One Edition will be auctioned sometime this year. The lucky winner not only gets the Number One package, they also win an intimate performance from The Purple One for them and 50 of their closest friends as well as the jacket Prince wore on the final night of the 21 Nights tour.

With all that said only true Prince fanatics with major bank should even consider purchasing the Opus. $2100 is a steep price to pay for a movie, a measly track offering on an iPod with unspecified memory, and an overly important photo album. But if you really love Prince that much and don’t have the $2100 up front, the kind people at Kraken Opus have set up a 0% financing program so you can get your Prince fix.

Here is the track listing for the Prince Opus iPod Touch:

3121

Girls and Boys

Song of the Heart

Delirious

Just Like You (monologue)

Satisfied

Beggin Woman Blues

Rock Steady featuring Beverly Knight

Whole Lotta Love

Alphabet Street

Indigo Nights

Misty Blue featuring Shelby J

Baby Love featuring Shelby J

The One

All The Critics Love U in London

http://www.newsweek.com/id/189242

Pop’s Virtual Royalty
Prince once ruled the Web. Now he's got to step it up.

By Seth Colter Walls | NEWSWEEK
Published Mar 14, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Mar 23, 2009



Prince has always wanted to be your everything. On his first hit single, back in 1979, the R&B Romeo declared his intention to become not only your lover, but "your mother and your sister, too." The public compromised by letting him become pop's polyamorous changeling. During his "Purple Rain" guitar solos, Prince could be our Jimi. When funking it up with "Kiss," he was a falsetto-voiced James Brown. He even showed an affinity for Joni Mitchell–style lyricism, giving her a shout-out on "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker." So when Prince ditched his record company in favor of self-distribution during the '90s, anticipation ran high. Since he had been battling over the right to release as many albums as he wished—instead of a measly one per year—the upside was implicit: Prince was going to tear it up on the Web. There were rumors of unreleased, would-be hits, deliciously out-there funk sessions and hundreds of other Princely experiments that could finally hit the marketplace. That treasure trove never fully materialized. His online "music clubs" came and went with each new Prince recording, but they were frustratingly uneven. Worse, the best new tracks came saddled with antipiracy technology that didn't play nice with your iPod. Prince's last site went dark mere months after charging for "lifetime" memberships.

Now Prince—the first marquee musician to flirt with the Web—wants to go on another virtual date. While he is partnering with Target to sell a new three-CD set for the recession-proof price of $11.98, Prince will also offer subscriptions to his new site, Lotusflow3r.com, for a not-so-recession-proof $77 per year. With the physical albums available so cheaply at a bigbox retailer, you'd be forgiven for wondering whether the site could possibly be worth that much. More important than the economic rationale, perhaps, is whether Prince can use the Web to advance any artistic payoff.

Prince's counterintuitive move to charge top dollar for a digital home that duplicates music available on CDs is a new strategy for inducing hard-core fans to pay more. Nine Inch Nails tried the reverse in 2008 by offering multiple MP3 downloads for virtually nothing, and then enticing fans to pony up as much as $300 for deluxe, fetish-object box sets. While Radiohead's own pay-what-you-wish MP3 gambit is cited as a revolution, it's often forgotten that their site also sold a premium box-set version of "In Rainbows" for $81. Even smaller acts are getting creative. Cult country wit Robbie Fulks recently released 50 new songs—a Prince-like deluge—exclusively via his Web site for $35. Fulks isn't sure whether he'll release the music on CD, but says this is not just an eco-nomic experiment. By writing many more songs than could fit on a standard disc, Fulks says he was trying to discover new musical ideas that might not have occurred "under more stringent self-censorship." (His plan worked.)


As other artists learn to harness the Web for creative reasons as well as financial ones, Prince can no longer skate on his reputation for being pop's first online mover. Scott Addison Clay, the artist's latest Web developer, gave NEWSWEEK AN advance tour of the Web site, and it seems better designed than Prince's past efforts. The music, by the way, sounds exciting. "Boom" mixes psychedelia with funk rhythms and orgiastic guitar. When Prince deigns to adopt modern fads, such as Auto Tune–like pitch-bending in the song "Chocolate Box," he innovates by harmonizing with the digital sounds in a way T-Pain could never accomplish. But all that mere music can be had at Target for less than $12 starting March 29. Ultimately, the site, which is set to debut before the Target street date, will have to thrive apart from those first three albums. Clay says future plans for Lotus flow3r.com include a hybrid documentary-music video. But the deal-sealer, he concedes, is the potential for streaming live, VIP-only concerts from Prince's Los Angeles mansion. "There could be a live chat going on with members watching a concert, and Prince could actually play requests," Clay says. He also claims a colleague has organized 10 albums of old Prince music never released in any form. Should there exist an all-tuba record Prince recorded half out of his mind back in 1988, now he's got a place to let it toot—if only he can commit to digitizing all his diamonds and pearls.

© 2009

Credit Edit.
[Edited 12/6/09 23:25pm]

http://latimesblogs.latim...ews-p.html



Pop & Hiss
THE L.A. TIMES MUSIC BLOG

Album reviews: Prince's 'LotusFlow3r' and 'MPLSound,' and Bria Valente's 'Elixer'
March 23, 2009 | 2:30 pm

By now, most music fans are well aware that Prince will self-release three albums that will sell in one $11.98 bundle at Target and on the artist's website starting Sunday. Which one you fancy the most depends on what flavor of Prince "u" prefer -- the nasty antiquity of "MPLSound," the guitar-hero antics of "LotusFlow3r" or the VIP-lounge purrs of his protégée Bria Valente on "Elixer."

"MPLSound" is a valentine to Revolution-era traditionalists. The nine-song collection pays homage to Prince's beloved Minneapolis and trades in nostalgia, lifting the syncopated drum machine beats from "When Doves Cry" and name-checking Rick James. But it's not all naughty retro: "MPLSound" also incorporates Prince's faith as a Jehovah's Witness, like when he shouts "thank you, almighty" and "hallelujah" to a lover in "Dance 4 Me."

All three albums have a touch of the spirit, an abiding cleanliness that elevates sex to heavenly communion, but "MPLSound" might be the most pristine for what it ultimately lacks: the sense of real, lusty sin.

Ballads "Better With Time" and "U're Gonna C Me" leak syrup all over the soundboard, but "Chocolate Box," a strutting bit of funk braggadocio set in the club with a guest spot from Q-Tip, is electrifying. In "Valentina," Prince addresses Salma Hayek's daughter: "Tell your mama she should give me a call." Hayek might be one of the world's most voluptuous movie stars, but new mothers and their "nightly feedings" are not the typical pop subjects.

Possibly the album's most notable track -- for reasons fine and regrettable -- is the spirited romp "Ol' Skool Company." Here Prince, his voice doctored to sound like he's taking hits of helium, lets his curmudgeon rip for more than seven minutes, longing for an "old-school melody when God, his son and the love of family ruled in the community."

Valente, Prince's latest in a storied line of beautiful muses, has a lovely voice that matches his current tastes for the clean line. Her soundscapes, produced and arranged with Prince, are lighter than her mentor's, traipsing from velvet-chaise funk to street tales of girly crushes to dance-floor siren calls.

The problem is that not enough of "Elixer" sounds strong or fresh. Her single "Another Boy" is sweetly reminiscent of '80s freestyle icons Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam, but it doesn't have that group's rhythmically inventive backbone. In "2Nite," Valente whispers "disco," a genre that needs at least one modifier to not sound mummified in polyester -- and then reports that there are "no drugs or guns up in this place," just "old-school jazz put a smile on your face."

It's one of the many times when Valente feels uncomfortably like the mouthpiece for Prince and his oldster agenda.

The biggest challenge of Prince's triptych is "LotusFlow3r," a guitar-steeped odyssey that bounces from Steely Dan jazz chords to James Brown-esque mandates for funk to the tattered-flag psychedelia of Jimi Hendrix. Though Prince has covered Radiohead's "Creep" on several occasions, he's not interested in mimicking Jonny Greenwood's articulated melancholy. Instead, Prince's guitar is a warm explosion, sometimes self-indulgent but always rendered with starry-eyed fascination for the instrument, endearing from a masterful musician who plays so many.

In an effort to align himself as a true rocker, Prince includes a reverb-soaked cover of Tommy James and the Shondells' "Crimson and Clover," but it doesn't improve on Joan Jett's definitive rendition. His own compositions are much more twisty and tasty. "Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful" is a jaunty slice of party funk with Prince's most charismatic vocals this side of "Kiss" -- screechy, swaggering and caterwauling. "Love Like Jazz" swings the other way, a bewitching gem that wouldn't sound out of place as the intro to a '60s sitcom.

Prince geeks out on the whammy bar, drawing long, noodly jams on "Boom" and the songs that bookend the album. But it's more rewarding when he introduces control and structure, delivered by a crew of stars including Maceo Parker and keyboardist Morris Hayes. "MPLSound" might be comfortingly familiar, but "LotusFlow3r" is the work of a musician who's still curious after all these years.

-Margaret Wappler

Prince
"LotusFlow3r"
Three stars

Prince
"MPLSound"
Two and a half stars

Bria Valente
"Elixer"
Two stars

http://www.popmatters.com...rple-rain/



Let’s Go Crazy: Celebrating 25 Years of Purple Rain
By PopMatters Staff
Friday, June 5 2009

Introduction

*cue church organ*

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today 2 get through this thing called life ...”

... and thus begins one of the greatest pop culture phenomena of our time.

Back in the summer of 1984, Purple Rain was more than just a movie: it was a genuine experience, a transcendent multi-media event that celebrated commercialism and creativity in equal measure, turning a mid-level R&B singer into an overnight superstar and international sex symbol. At one point during that year, Prince had not only the Number One movie in America, but also the Number One album and the Number One single. In fact, when Purple Rain entered the album chart at peak position on August 4th of 1984 (displacing Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A., of all things), it wouldn’t vacate that spot until January 19th of the following year.

Yet all these accomplishments wind up leading us to one very simple question: why?

The truth of the matter is simple: Prince picked the perfect time to perfect his art. Though unfairly relegated as a straight-up R&B singer for his first few years, a few people could already pick out the fact that the barely 20-years-old Prince Rogers Nelson had talent that wasn’t exactly easy to classify: aside from the fact that he played every instrument on every album he ever produced, his mixture of genres was remarkably unconventional. 1979’s Prince had numerous hard-rock overtones, and the genre-busting 1980 disc Dirty Mind was a lo-fi explosion of new wave, classic rock, and synth-based soul experiments. With 1982’s 1999, however, Prince had finally found a way to meld his experimental pop tendencies with more “commercial” song structures, resulting in the first two major mainstream hits of his career (the title track and “Little Red Corvette”). Each become substantial radio staples at the expense of absolutely nothing: Prince’s sexually-charged lyrics—always a point of controversy—were still kept front and center, pushing the envelope of what was considered “acceptable” radio play without compromising Prince’s increasingly-insular artistic vision.

During 1999‘s subsequent tour, however, Prince—in the midst of also writing and producing acts like Vanity 6 and Morris Day & the Time—had finally assembled a backing band that could keep up with his own incredible abilities: the Revolution. With drummer Bobby Z., bassist Mark Brown , keyboardist Matt Fink, and guitar/keys duo Wendy Melovin & Lisa Coleman , Prince was finally able to stop worrying about playing everything himself. He had a found a group of creative individuals who were able to open his mind to new sounds and styles. During this time, he also expressed interest in starting a movie project based on his life. After numerous financial hurdles and personnel mishaps (protégé starlet Vanity very famously left the project just prior to filming, leaving Prince to cast the unknown Apollonia Kotero as his own love interest), filming went underway for Prince’s own faux-biopic, starring himself in the lead role and featuring nothing but brand new, completely unheard songs. Even with 1999‘s relative chart success, Warner Bros. was predictably nervous about how the film would fare.

As the multiple hit singles, Grammy wins, and Best Original Song Score Oscar later proved, this was one of those rare gambles that paid off in droves.

Purple Rain is more than just a movie, however, and far more than just an album. The track “When Doves Cry” was a revolutionary, avant-garde single that rewrote the playbook on what pop songs were supposed to sound like. “Darling Nikki” was the track that set Tipper Gore on a personal vendetta to clean up pop music (ultimately resulting in the Parental Advisory stickers that pepper albums to this very day). And that’s not even counting the contributions that Purple Rain made to fashion, the rock-film genre, and sales of purple motorcycles the world over.

Some 25 years after it was released, PopMatters proudly celebrates Purple Rain in its entirety, looking at it from every angle. Over this week, you’ll see a track-by-track dissection of the album, a look at Purple Rain in the context of Prince’s short filmography, analysis of the movie’s effects on the fashion world, that so-called “Minneapolis sound” that the film helped popularize, a deep psychological examination at the supposed rivalry between Prince and Morris Day, the way that Prince was able to transcend genre and move even a crowd of metalheads during one writer’s live performance experience, how his music was able to band together some Florida skinheads in a shared love of his genre-busting funk, a look at how Prince created his masterwork out of an anxiety of influence, and—to top it all off—we interview Prince’s long-time manager Alan Leeds and Revolution keyboardist Matt Fink about their experiences during the peak of Purple Rain‘s popularity.

So strap yourself in, and—as The Kid himself would say—let’s go crazy ...

Evan Sawdey

http://www.popmatters.com...lution/P0/



Inside the Revolution

[5 June 2009]

By Evan Sawdey
PopMatters Interviews Editor

It seems that we have all been misinformed about the Revolution.

During their creative and commercial peak in 1984/5, there was no band alive that was bigger—or better—than Prince’s touring ensemble, known simply as “the Revolution”. Though the group had been around for awhile—they served as the backing band during Prince’s 1999 tour—it wasn’t until Purple Rain that they began contributing to Prince’s songwriting and recording endeavors. A good deal of songs from Purple Rain, in fact, were recorded live and in one-take, the band so in sync with each other that you wouldn’t even be able to tell that they were live recordings (with a few studio overdubs) unless you listened very, very closely. There was bassist Mark Brown, longtime Prince drummer Bobby Z., keyboard maestro “Dr.” Matt Fink, and the immortal guitar/keys duo known as Wendy Melvoin & Lisa Coleman, and together, they played on (and sometimes even co-wrote) some of the biggest songs of the ‘80s, tracks that still hold up remarkably well to this very day.

Yet the more that you read about the Revolution, the harder it is to determine fact from fiction, as so much of the Revolution’s dynamic has been hyperbolized and dramatized to the point of caricature. Many people cite that band’s role in the Purple Rain movie was somewhat indicative of what was really going on behind the scenes: each member wanted to make their own songwriting contributions, but Prince wouldn’t have any of it, leading to in-fighting and even an unnecessary (though interesting) rivalry between the Revolution and Prince’s other band, Morris Day & the Time. Yet is any of this true? According to the people who were there: not really.

Over the course of three albums (Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day, and Parade), the Revolution wound up expanding Prince’s creative reach by introducing him to new bands and styles, providing ample room for jam-based improvisation and more, all leading His Royal Badness to some of the greatest pop singles ever made (“Kiss”, “Raspberry Beret”, “Let’s Go Crazy”, etc.) Following the dissolution of the band after Parade, Prince would eventually try and recapture that same energy by forming the New Power Generation, who—despite playing on one of Prince’s most commercially successful ‘90s albums (Diamonds & Pearls)—simply didn’t have the same creative dynamic that the Revolution had, the NPG ultimately becoming more of a glorified backing outfit than a cohesive group of musicians.

So it’s no wonder we’re still fascinated with the Revolution over decades later: their myth and their music still live on, so many critics often holding up Prince’s latest work to his time with the Revolution for comparison, as, truly, his time with the band was a time when he was truly untouchable. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Purple Rain, PopMatters got a chance to talk with two of the most instrumental figures to the Revolution’s success: longtime keyboardist and “Computer Blue” co-writer Matt Fink and Prince’s manager of 20 years Alan Leeds. Together, they share their stories, insights, and personal experiences as to what made the Revolution as groundbreaking as it was, and why—25 years later—we still adore them as much as we do.

+++
First off: wow, it’s been 25 years since Purple Rain first came out. What are your initial reactions to this? Are you surprised the film’s legacy has lasted as long as it has?

FINK: Am I surprised by that? Yes and no. I mean, I think it’s a wonderful thing that people are still remembering it and [are] still influenced by it and still watching it. It’s still being played regularly on stations like VH1 and other cable [channels] on a fairly regular basis; ‘cos no matter what, every year it’s played several times. So it’s a wonderful thing: it’s become a classic from that period of time, much like other movies of the day—like The Wizard of Oz, they air that every year, no matter what ... Casablanca—ya know: classic movies. So yes, in that respect, I’m not surprised. I’m grateful that it was so successful and still is in people’s minds.

LEEDS: Initial reaction is purely personal: time flies! I suppose the film’s legacy standing is a bit unexpected given the normally brief shelf life of pop art. But the long term impact of Purple Rain may be abetted some by the fact that youngsters playing “real” music on traditional instruments is so less common than it was twenty five years ago. In my lifetime, the idea of a bunch of young hopeful musicians getting together and starting a band was almost cliché-ish. Today, it’s almost unheard of. Youngsters with musical ambitions today concentrate on computer skills and the entire process of writing and recording music has become completely masturbatory. I suppose, in the sense that he played all the parts on many of his recordings, Prince was a precursor to that which makes the impact of Purple Rain all the more ironic.

[To Leeds:] In the chronology of things, you were brought in at a very interesting time in Prince’s life: right at the tail-end of the 1999 tour when relations between the touring band (and the Time and Vanity 6) weren’t exactly ideal. What events transpired that lead this spat of internally bickering musicians to become one of the most powerful, cohesive bands of the ‘80s?

LEEDS: I don’t think the so-called rivalries between Prince’s groups had any meaningful bearing on the Revolution’s accomplishments. The Revolution and the original Time were both outstanding bands comprised of unusually talented individuals. Prince, of course, egged on the rivalry. He sensed, correctly, that fostering a competitive environment would motivate both bands when on tour together and, at times, keep things interesting for himself as well. What’s important to remember is that The Time was, if anything, Prince’s own alter-ego, notwithstanding the talents within that group. The Time’s concept, songs, style and records were all Prince.

Any real bickering was more about the members of The Time wanting to stretch the boundaries and assume more creative control over their careers - something that was greatly exacerbated when Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis famously missed a gig, stranded in an airport after spending an off-day working on an outside project.

What were the early days like? How would you compare those experiences to your times “officially” with the Revolution?

FINK: It was a very creative time. I mean, there was a lot of influence and input from band members towards what he was doing. Even thought he was doing most of the recording and writing on the first two albums, there was still influence there and still a lot of ideas being thrown around that he could draw from. He was always open to anybody trying to contribute creatively to the process of writing. It wasn’t really until Dirty Mind that he brought in myself to perform on that record. I’m trying to remember: I think the first two albums he really did all himself; I don’t believe he had any other people involved from the band at that point. Then going forward from there, he kept bringing in group members, to do some session work or have some co-writes here and there.

What were your first impressions of him? Did you think he was an avant-garde genius or a pompous asshole or something inbetween?

FINK: [Laughs.] I thought he was an extremely gifted and talented hardworking artist. I think, of course, he had the abilities there to develop his talent, which he obviously did—like all of us. Some of us are born with that innate ability, so obviously he had that and was in a musical family, growing up with a musician father. I’ve always found that people born into musical families tended to grow faster and are able to tap into their talent in a better way because they’re exposed to it so early and groomed for it so early on the way Prince was. In my case, I came from more of a musical theatre and theatrical background with my family ‘cos my parents were both actors. They studied acting in college and performed in the theatre once they graduated from college and even though my father had a separate business that he ran to make a living at here locally in the Twin Cities, he was very active in community theatre and was doing professional voiceover work as well as my mother, and my mom even had her own consortium of actors that she booked for talent work here on the local scene—so there was a lot of that going on in my family. I participated in theatre growing up as well and did musical theatre and learned a great deal from that and then also started playing in bands by the time I was about 12, 11—somewhere in there. So they had me studying piano around the age of 7 or so and then also bringing me in for theatrical work at the Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis and doing some educational recording work—it was sort of a combination of the two.

I feel like if you got the innate talent, you’re born with it, and then you have someone there to nurture it, it can really bring that out like [with] someone like Prince, who obviously has oodles of the talent and then started early with it. So as far as [him] being a genius? Yeah, you could say that. He also worked very hard—just like all of us—to achieve what he needed to achieve. It takes dedication and work and discipline to get to where he is, and learn all the instruments and be self-taught, primarily. I know he had some other people around him growing up that his father knew that helped him to learn some of the instruments, and I’m sure his father was an integral part of that, as far as teaching him piano and things like that.

When the whole “Revolution era” started up, it opened up a lot of possibilities for Prince’s sound. How did the writing process work with him? For example, how did you got about writing a song like “Computer Blue”?

FINK: Well “Computer Blue” really grew from a seed, so to speak, that took place during a jam session. We’d always warm up before rehearsals doing free-form improv rock/jazz music jams, and someone would start a chord progression (or Prince would or one of us would) or in this case on that day, I started playing that main bass groove which was the main bass part for “Computer Blue” which was later brought into that. So the band started grooving on it, next thing you know we’re all sort of joining in, doing some jam on that. Prince started coming up with some stuff [and] we recorded a rough version of it and he took it into the studio and just incorporated it all and made it fly that way. Lisa & Wendy came in and they did some of the stuff on it. Prince borrowed the bridge/portal section from his own father who had given him some music over the years to play around with. So that particular song was a real mixture of different people and influences. So that’s how that one came about. So I kind of germinated the beginning of it—the bassline, the main groove, Bobby Z. was there to play the drums, of course—and that’s how it evolved. Prince, ya know, he really was the main lyricist and melody maker for the songs and I’m pretty sure very rarely took or did not take any lyrical content from people. He was really the main guy on that.

I find that interesting ‘cos in the books upon books I have about Prince’s life, a lot of times he comes off as standoff-ish and introverted—but in talking to you, it sounds like he was much more open than a lot of people gave him credit for.

FINK: Yeah, he was more open than people gave him credit for. He’s also not as introverted as people claim either, ‘cos when you get to know him and get to be friends with him, he opens up quite a bit. You’re able to speak with him on a regular basis and he also had a very gregarious nature to him and a great sense of humor. Very funny guy. I mean, he could really put you on the floor with his humor sometimes.

How about you, Alan? How collaborative was Prince during this time? Who did he play best off of in the ever-changing Revolution lineup?

LEEDS: Wendy and Lisa particularly brought Prince a musical camaraderie he was unaccustomed to. During the course of the Purple Rain Tour, his posse of musicians swelled to include Sheila E. and horn players Eric Leeds and (Atlanta) Matt Blistan. Prince spent scores of hours jamming and recording with various combinations of these musicians—sometimes also including Levi Seacer and Matt Fink. While much of this activity was just jamming for fun, Prince was unusually open to learn from those around him. Lisa, a wonderfully talented keyboardist, brought a sophisticated arsenal of chordal ideas. Wendy brought a Joni Mitchell-inspired melodic sense. Sheila brought her rich variety of rhythms and Eric brought his background in jazz and arranging. Their frequent jams casually brought these things out. It’s also been well documented that Wendy, Lisa, and Eric were exposing Prince to musics he was unfamiliar with by regularly turning him onto albums by a wide variety of artists including Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. In short, it was probably Prince’s most curious phase of his evolution as a musician and thus he was the most open to “outside” influences. On the other hand, most of the wealth of material recorded during this phase remains officially unissued. So the songs that Prince did choose to include on his albums were more often those he had written himself.

After the film and soundtrack went on to garner huge profits and incredible acclaim, all reports that I’ve read indicated that Prince became more introverted and secluded during this time, almost as if he was deliberately shying away from the spotlight even after he designed Purple Rain to be the very thing to turn him into a superstar. In your view, how did the success of the project alter Prince’s personality? Additionally, how did it change the fabric of the Revolution?

LEEDS: I don’t think it changed Prince much ... maybe just exaggerated who he already was. His increased seclusion was more a result of the degree of his popularity/notoriety than any changes within himself. Thanks to avid fans and media attention, it simply became more complicated for him to appear in public. Trading his “freedom” for the spotlight was a “deal with the devil” that he willingly made way before Purple Rain.

As for his professional “personality”, Purple Rain doubtlessly increased his self-confidence. While he always had decided what was best for his career, NOW he KNEW what was best. All the skeptics who thought a black wanna-be rock star with but a couple mild hit albums under his belt could never succeed in the film world had to eat a lot of crow.

The Purple Rain phenomenon may have ultimately had more of an effect on the five core members of the Revolution than on Prince himself. There were indications that they felt the significance of their unit was more than that of simply Prince’s back-up band. Prince’s post-Purple Rain quest to enlarge his band to include additional musical elements and input put that theory quickly to rest. Without speaking for anyone, I suspect there were some members of the Revolution who would have preferred the band remain the same and intact with a somewhat inflated sense of self-importance.

FINK: It became a little bit more [of a] business-oriented relationship [between band members], but there was still socializing that took place. He wasn’t 100% divorced from playing in the group at all.

During his time with the Revolution, a lot of people argue that this was Prince’s most prolific and creative period. Of course, you were there for those three major Revolution albums (four if you count 1999), so what do you feel the Revolution’s greatest challenges were, and—conversely—what were its greatest successes were as a band?

FINK: Well, obviously the Purple Rain album was the most successful and we got the most creative input on the record as far as some co-writes and playing on the album. Around the World in a Day—I really didn’t really participate in very much. That one was another one of Prince going in and doing what he wanted to do away from the band except for maybe a little bit of input from Wendy & Lisa on that record. After that, same thing. Going forward from there, he really had his own vision. By the time Sign ‘O’ the Times rolled around, I was fortunate to have, again, a co-write on the song “It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Night”, but that was also primarily a Prince-induced song. It was taken from my influence of musical jam much in the way that “Computer Blue” was germinated. Lovesexy: another Prince production all the way through.

So, as a band, you had less input over the years.

FINK: Yeah, but Wendy & Lisa, I’d say from Purple Rain through Parade, were pretty integral to the session work on those records.

How would you describe your own relationship with the Time during that period?

FINK: Oh I was always good friends with those guys.

Jammed with ‘em?

FINK: A little bit. Not too much jamming, but just when we were on tour with them, we were all good friends for the most part. Until the big food fight [Laughs.]

The food fight?

FINK: Oh yeah the food fight. The famous food fight at the end of the 1999 tour. We had a two-day food fight with them backstage, off-and-on. A food-fight war, culminating in a full-bore cream pie fight backstage. It was kind of fun.

I can imagine Jerome having one helluva arm for some reason.

FINK: It was pretty fun, actually. It turned into sort of a competition. That’s gonna be coming out in a book someday.

A quick hit: what’s your favorite song from Purple Rain?

LEEDS: Maybe “Father’s Song” which wasn’t on the album. Seriously, probably “Let’s Go Crazy”. Purple Rain was a brilliantly crafted album of pop music but the songs didn’t lend themselves to much flexibility. As a result the shows, except for the extended jams on “Baby I’m A Star”, pretty much all seemed the same and the songs got “old” about half way through the tour. For whatever reasons, songs on other Prince albums seemed to better lend themselves to various interpretations so arrangements could change from year to year and keep the songs fresh. Purple Rain just is what it is—such a perfect album that nothing should change and it’s almost difficult for me to separate the songs. I honestly hear it more as an album, one solid piece of music with nine different parts.

FINK: That’s really a tough one. That’s a tough question, and I’ve been asked that before—I’d have to say I like “The Beautiful Ones”, ‘cos artistically it’s a really beautiful song, followed by “Darling Nikki” maybe. Right in there.

So it’s kind of the sexual/soul duo though. The one that always gets me is “Take Me With U” ‘cos that’s such a pure pop song.

FINK: I almost said that one. That’s what I mean: it’s really difficult for me to pick those, to choose the tracks that are my favorite. Those are my Top Three.

In rewatching Purple Rain, I find it surprising how many real-life details were brought into the script, ranging from Morris Day and the Time promising that they were going “to kill” the Kid performance-wise on stage during a given night right to Wendy & Lisa arguing over the Kid’s refusal to hear any of their songs. For someone as often closed-off as Prince, why was he so ready and open to reveal some of his less-pleasant mannerisms in a format as broad-reaching as a movie?

LEEDS: Perhaps naively, I think Prince felt that by altering some aspects of the “Kid’s” biography from his own, he bought himself a smokescreen for the traits that more accurately reflect the real Prince. His “aversion” to interviews never hid the fact that his meticulously devised media campaigns revealed an artist that very much wanted fans to know and understand certain things about him as long as he could maintain control over the flow of information. One can argue that Prince was remarkably ahead of his time in recognizing the boom in media attention that international cable television and the digital age was going to thrust on the entertainment business. He understood “branding” and what aspects of an image were most likely to retain media’s attention. Along with Michael Jackson and just a bit later Madonna, Prince helped create what has become a template for the marketing and promotion of young celebrities.

The Revolution were around for three of Prince’s most important albums, given full credit on the album covers (and partial-credit on 1999). In your opinion, why was bringing in a full backing band important during this stage in Prince’s artistic development? Or to put it another way: what did the Revolution allow Prince to do that he wasn’t able to accomplish on his own before?

LEEDS: Coming from the world of James Brown where spontaneity in the studio was paramount to his genius accomplishments, I personally prefer music that embraces the rapport between an artist and his or her collaborators and accompanists. Like jazz, most R&B music had traditionally depended on this kind of musical interaction. Stevie Wonder, and then Prince became the notable exceptions. Of course without the advancements in studio technology and the development of synthesized musical instruments, none of this would have been feasible. Like Stevie, Prince uniquely combines the skill sets of writer, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist. Unlike Stevie, Prince is actually more than good at every instrument he plays. So his recording needs simply never depended on other musicians. That he chose to record with various members of his bands said more about the flavors and individual voices that Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Eric Leeds and Sheila E. brought to the table. The caliber of musicianship in his band grew during the Purple Rain period and I think it was simply a case of Prince recognizing the elements that these musicians could contribute to his palette.

Of course the very plot of Purple Rain required Prince to have a band that was heavily involved. I suspect Prince wanted the “spirit” of having certain songs recorded with the band for the film and album. And for authenticity sake, he encouraged the band on tour to carry themselves with the appearance and presence of their roles in the film. The fact is that the band was never as close to a “democratic” unit as the film hints at. Everyone in the Revolution deep down knew they were “hired hands” and, as time has demonstrated, could all be replaced with little hindrance to Prince’s box office appeal.

Looking back at your tenure during the Revolution, were there any moments that stick out to you, especially during the Purple Rain era?

FINK: Well the process for getting ready for the film during the summer of 1983 leading up to actual filming, we were basically in “Boot Camp”—a disciplined regimen of dance class, acting class, and band rehearsing throughout that whole summer for about three months straight leading up to the start of the filming process. Prince had an acting coach brought in, a dance instructor brought in—it was just day after day filled with all those elements taking place six days a week. I think we usually had Sunday off, sometimes Saturday. For the most part it was a standard work week, morning ‘til early evening filled with all that stuff.

Exhausting slightly.

FINK: Not too bad. I didn’t find it to be exhausting. Actually, I really thrived on that because it brought back my days of studying with the Children’s Theatre again when I was studying dance and acting, so it was kind of fun to get back into it again, and, also, you know, sharpen up my old skills which had fallen by the wayside.

I was watching the film the other night, and there were the scenes where the band was arguing over their input on the songs. I can only imagine how many portions of that were taken directly from real life experiences …

FINK: None of that was really true to life—and if it was, nobody voiced those sorts of thoughts to Prince [Laughs.] Even if they maybe thought them inside, no one ever in real life would say something like that because the reality is that this was his career, and we were just allowed to fortunately be along for the ride as his sidemen. In 1978 he was signed to Warner Bros. as a solo artist—he had no band, and much like a Madonna or someone doing that sort of thing, they had to hire a backup band. Now with Madonna, her main collaborator was Patrick Leonard in the early days, her keyboardist, and he co-wrote a lot of material but the rest of the band members didn’t—they were just there to play. They were touring musicians in that sense. Fortunately for us, we were at first brought in as strictly sidemen—touring/live players—and then allowed to be brought in on the creative process as well, which was really nice of him to do that. He didn’t have to do that, really. He could’ve had his pick of just about any great sidemen that were around out in L.A. or New York. He could’ve hired people out of town but he choose to go with primarily Minneapolis people to begin with, and then later he brought in Wendy & Lisa who were based out of Los Angeles.

You were also there during the time that he made the transition from the Revolution to right before he formed the New Power Generation.

FINK: Exactly yes. Then he incorporated a lot of Shelia E.‘s people into the NPG and the Sign ‘O’ the Times/Lovesexy-era, and then by 1990, he had brought in Michael Bland on drums and Rosie Gaines on keyboards and vocals by then.

Was there a different vibe that you felt with the NPG in contrast to the Revolution?

FINK: Whole different vibe. Completely different.

Good different or bad different?

FINK: All good, for the most part. Some of the newer people that were involved were a little green and were making some demands that maybe weren’t all that realistic. They wanted star treatment when they really hadn’t paid their dues yet. That kind of stuff: there were just some people who hadn’t paid their dues and were asking for certain things and they were coming to me as the “senior member” to go to management to ask for favors or ask for special things to come along their way. I said “You know, that’s really not my place guys: I think you should address that yourselves”—and I’m not naming names! [Laughs.]

Unless it’s Tony M. That’s the only exception.

FINK: [Laughs.]

Alan, how would you equate the Revolution to the New Power Generation later on? Are they even comparable?

LEEDS: For my personal taste, the most exciting Prince bands were the expanded Revolution on the European Parade tour and the band with Sheila E. on drums for the Sign ‘O’ the Times tour. Sonny Thompson and Michael Bland may have, in some ways, been Prince’s best ever rhythm section simply because they play so extremely well together. But I never felt the music recorded during the NPG era was as interesting as the 1980’s albums. Unfortunately, the format of Prince’s heavily produced tours, and even his increasingly predictable after-shows, didn’t consistently afford the band members much opportunity to display all their abilities. It was, after all, Prince’s show. But I never felt he got everything he could have out of players with such diverse vocabularies as Sheila and Eric.

For you, what was the hardest part of managing Prince and co. during the Purple Rain era?

LEEDS: It wasn’t hard. I had youth, compassion and commitment on my side, all of which easily overcame any adversity. In retrospect, the only difficult aspect was finding time to rest.

Finally, taking your whole career into consideration, so far, what has been your biggest regret, and—conversely—what’s been your proudest accomplishment?

FINK: I have a few regrets about leaving Prince after working with him for 12 years. It was a very difficult decision for me at the time.

Do you mind if I ask why did you?

FINK: Well, it’s a bit personal. So I can’t really get into that. I mean, I parted in good company with Prince. Regardless of that, I was looking to get into other things at that time and stay off the road. I was in 12 years of a lot of travel and touring …

It takes its toll.

FINK: Yeah, and I was kind of looking to get married and have kids and all that stuff. I had met somebody: the woman who I’m married to now and have a family with. I really wanted to stay off the road and raise my family and not miss out on being there for my kids—so that was part of the reason. Later on down the road, 10 years after leaving Prince and then reconnecting with him again, expressed my interest in working with him again, but he really did not seem to care about that at that time and did not really want to go there. Other members of the Revolution have also tried to see if he’d be interested in a reunion of sorts—and not necessarily usurp his current band members, but just to do a separate side-project or possible live dates with the Revolution or a side-album as a reunion effort—but so far, with several of those offers being made to him by each band member, he’s those them down, pretty much—or totally—since about 2000 and then [during] other points during this current decade. There’s been overtures made to him. So, that I regret. I have some regrets about that and wish that he would work with us again in some capacity, because the desire is there on the part of the band members. Also there’s a few regrets about leaving maybe too soon, maybe not. I don’t know. Over the years I thought “Oh, maybe I should’ve stayed on longer”, so I don’t know. I’ve had some of those thoughts, but I don’t use sleep over them.

And you, Alan?

LEEDS: Biggest regret is not having followed D’Angelo’s ground breaking 2000 Voodoo tour with a follow-up show. The table was set for what easily could have been for this decade what James Brown was for the 1960s and Prince was for the 1980s. Coitus interuptus is never fun.

Proudest accomplishment is having played however modest a role in spreading these artist’s wonderful music around the globe—from the smiles tour shows put on fans faces to, in more recent years, the CD reissues I have been fortunate enough to be involved in producing.

+++
As you can see, when it comes to the Revolution, there’s still quite a bit to talk about all these years later.

[Editor’s Note: a very special thank you to Matt Fink and Alan Leeds for their contributions to this project.]

http://www.spin.com/artic...bute-album



Available Now: SPIN's 'Purple Rain' Tribute Album!
Cover Story
By Spin Staff on June 13, 2009 1:45 PM

PURPLISH RAIN
SPIN presents a tribute to Prince's Purple Rain

The July issue of SPIN will be your key to downloading the album, so pick up your copy today! Then, check spin.com/prince for details.

Purplish Rain tracklisting:
1. "Let's Go Crazy" RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS
2. "Take Me With U" SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS
3. "The Beautiful Ones" FOL CHEN
4. "Computer Blue" OF MONTREAL
5. "Darling Nikki" CHAIRLIFT
6. "When Doves Cry" THE TWILIGHT SINGERS (Click to preview!)
7. "I Would Die 4 U" MARIACHI EL BRONX
8. "Baby I'm a Star" CRAIG WEDREN
9. "Purple Rain" LAVENDER DIAMOND

http://music-mix.ew.com/2...e-tribute/



Twenty-five years ago this month, a classic album touched down on Earth in Minneapolis. Perhaps the most classic of new classics, even. I'm talking, of course, about Prince's untouchably awesome Purple Rain. Spin magazine is celebrating this momentous anniversary by putting together a tribute set titled Purplish Rain (ha), featuring track-by-track covers of the entire original album by hip folks like the Twilight Singers, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Of Montreal, Fol Chen, and more. Spin readers will be able to download the whole thing for free on June 23; in the meantime, the mag is currently streaming a cover of "When Doves Cry" by Greg Dulli's band the Twilight Singers online. That cover happens to feature additional vocals by actual Purple Rain co-star Apollonia, which is pretty much too cool for words. Head over to Spin's site to hear how "When Doves Cry" turned out and read the rest of the tracklist — then let us know how you think Purplish Rain measures up to your favorite Prince covers.

for some reason i thought this picture was funny

squirrelgrease said:

sweet!

i wonder what hes saying to her?
[Edited 12/6/09 23:57pm]

just the other day

[I
MG]http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn235/chriseagle08/4420.jpg[/IMG]

PurpleDiamond2009 said:

Coachella was 2007 or 2008 non Lotus Flower related

I wish I had a full picture with those smoothe shoes






































[Edited 12/7/09 10:59am]

where did these large limo interior photos come from?

OldFriends4Sale said:

ufoclub said:

Funkenberry posted them. I think it was while he was in France.

[/img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2450/4026839517_3beb65e150.jpg[img]

[Edited 12/7/09 14:23pm]