phoenixrising said:

https://m.youtube.com/wat...3t9htxbIAc love this sly cut, and am wondering if his vocals were inspiration for the birth of Camille

Prince covered the track live, but is it pitch adjusted, or just sung in a high register? That really makes all the difference. Great song.

I clicked on the link thinking "Please let it be If You Want Me To Stay"...

I love this song so much, and I'm greatly indebted to David Blaine's original Street Magic special for including Sly and Jimi tracks that helped shape my taste in music.

I've covered If You Want Me To Stay in several bands, and there has often been a dispute about what key the song is in. When I first tried playing the song along with the recording, I found that there's an issue with the tape being sped up or slowed down either intentionally or accidentally. The key of Bminor sounded the closest, though, so I usually play the song in that key.

Sly and the Family Stone played it in Aminor live, and I've heard various bands play it in Aminor, Bbminor, and Bminor.

I'm now fairly certain the song was originally recorded in Aminor (remarkable, because it means Sly's lowest note would be a E - which is pretty freaking low). The tape has been sped up, and I believe it sounds as if it is between Bb and B minor.

When I listen to If You Want Me To Stay, it doesn't strike me as being sped up. It just sounds...normal. And because of that, I doubt that it single-handedly inspired Camille or taught Prince about tape speed.

Maybe that's just me, though. Maybe it just sounds normal because I listened to that song on repeat for months when I was in 4th grade.

Very interesting connection, though!
I always dreamed of one day being good enough to jam with Prince on If You Want Me To Stay.

phoenixrising said:

Sly is the fucking truth. I put off listening to Fresh! for a long time. I was pleasntly surprised by how good it is. This track is one of the best of the bunch too.

There's at least two versions of If You Want Me To Stay, and I prefer the alternative version though any version he did was great.

I don't think it inspired the Camille voice in any way, pitch experiments were nothing new and wasn't the idea initially a way to release more music under a different name?

Still thanks for reminding me of this super soulful Slu track.

If you play Love or Money on slow speed it sounds exactly like a Sly song.

I'm waiting for someone online to post "Love Or Money" at that speed. Was blown away the first time I heard that.....George Clinton altered his voice on those early P-Funk records too.

It was not uncommon in the pre-digital recording days to adjust the tempo of the song by speeding up or slowing down the tape and I'm positive that is the case for this song (it was sped up).

Is it that time of year to point out that Camille has nothing to do with a voice type? Camille was a character, with Prince using his sped up voice (Housquake), his regular voice (Le Grind) and his slowed down voice (Bob George).