.

[Edited 6/19/16 17:28pm]

FUNKNROLL said:

Then there's this, which I've always loved.

Art direction seems consistent w/his career.

Seems like he was just as creative visually as he was musically.

Tying back to the OP: He's always had graphic concepts in his liner notes. They seemed directly from the man himself.

FUNKNROLL said:

I read he did not do the 20ten cover, it was artist Rex Ray (who passed away).

And I thought the club drawings were another artist as well.

ufoclub said:

I read he did not do the 20ten cover, it was artist Rex Ray (who passed away).

And I thought the club drawings were another artist as well.

Sure, he's worked w/album artists, photographers throughout his career.

Would be great to hear more about his liner note / album art collaborations... wonder if he provided them w/his actual sketches and we've seen them used in their pieces.

I liked the 3rdEyeGirl torn collage artwork... believe that was by an artist called "woodkid" that may have also did Montreux festival posters. One thing I lament about digital - not easy to research the people who work together.

[Edited 5/29/16 8:23am]

nice read, thanks 2 u.. Ufoclub...

Some of P's art work reminds me (a little) of Pedro Bell's work. (P-Funk album covers)

FUNKNROLL said:

I seem to recall some sort of quote by Susannah Melvoin that they used to spend time coloring / doing watercolors together.

I found that very fascinating, something very vulnerable/sweet about it... seemed to fit his personality and add another dimension.

Susannah may have said that at the first Family / FDELUXE reunion show in Minneapolis 2011. They took questions before the show (I was there).

I put the attached images together.

The art direction seems consistent, from the earliest phase of his career.

I might be wrong, could be mistaken.

The ever talented Sam Jennings did stuff from Love4OneAnother.com and forward until recent years (at least through Planet Earth). That includes the NPGMC stuff, Xpectation, LotusFlow3r (which might have been his last project before moving on), and more. He didn't design 20Ten.

I wonder if Steve Parke did Exodus, or if he had bigger input from Prince (sometimes he'd have very little from Prince until mock ups were created). I did send him a note, so we'll see what he says.

That Camille artwork is fake, to me. "I am here, where are you?" isn't a phrase Prince was even close to using neither in 1987 or 1994. That's definitely fan made (and badly). The face might have been the official one, but I forget. It's certainly not the 1999 meets Exodus meets Gett Off drawing.

EDIT: I asked Steve Parke about Exodus & all that stuff just now. He said the actual drawings were by Debbie McGuan. She designed some of the clothes back then, too. She was very much under the radar, but a cool gal. She's listed first in the design credits on Exodus. She did the actual drawings, and Steve Parke and Michael Van Huffel used them to make the artwork for Exodus stuff. She also did the drawings that Sam Jennings used for the NPGMC stuff. She drew the people, and he put them against a background, etc. So it was colaborative. Prince did not draw them. Parke confirmed to me that she also did the MPLS drawings. Sam Jennings used her drawings for NPGMC like The Slaughter House, and Chocolate Invasion, etc.

_______

My favorite liner note from The Hits/The B-sides was about "17 Days", where Leeds called it a single always in search of an album.

[Edited 5/29/16 11:02am]

"We are here, where are you?" is a lyric from "Rebirth Of The Flesh" -- The first song on this album.

TrivialPursuit said:

That Camille artwork is fake, to me. "I am here, where are you?" isn't a phrase Prince was even close to using neither in 1987 or 1994.

For someone who released so much music. He didn't often talk about it in public? Not specifics anyway. Music was talking about in broad terms. Rarely did anyone manage to pin him down and ask him about specific songs. I'd always hoped Jools Holland would be the one who sat Prince in front of a piano and conducted the interview in that kind of setting...

I always liked the Crystal Ball booklet because after each song is a small tit-bit of information about each song. I appreciated the same thing on The Hits/B-Sides & Gold Experience. I think his instrumental albums would have benifited from this kind of treatment too.

Are there other examples of Prince talking about specific songs? Back in the days of the earlier fanzines? He must have often been asked to describe upcoming singles?

Another observation from this article:

Prince Said:

“DAMN U” -

one of the songs PRN is most proud of; he adores it. Used to play it live even fore it was released. Through the years this has been the indication of his feelings about a new composition.

For a song he loved and seemingly intended to include on the Hits/B-Sides, (and why wouldn't he, it's a stunning ballad) I don't recall it being played live that much... after the "Act" tours, it seemed like he only pulled it out once in a while?

TrivialPursuit said:

Great, thanks!

.

I'm reading Matt Thorne's updated Prince Biography and in there it says that Lisa's pink car for LRC was a mini. (If I remember correctly).

Noodled24 said:

Se7en said:

Imagine if Batdance and Partyman had been included! This hits collection is so good, he could have retired then and still been one of the biggest stars of all time.

Aren't there issues with anything bat-related?

Even owning the masters to the "Batman" album, wouldn't he still have had to pay in order to use the bat-logo and probably also the trademarked term "Batman".

Any thoughts on the line about "7"?

"Jevetta Steele asked Prince 4 an explanation of this song. He only smiled."

svadhyaya said:

FUNKNROLL said:

Very cool. Thx for confirming. Wonder who did the 1999 logo? .

I don't know, but none of those folks were around in 1981 or 1982. I'd always assumed that was Prince, especially because it was particularly phallic in parts, and "and the Revolution" had been put in there so purposely. But who knows.

TrivialPursuit said:

svadhyaya said:

BillieBalloon said:

svadhyaya said:

Any thoughts on the line about "7"?

"Jevetta Steele asked Prince 4 an explanation of this song. He only smiled."

I always thought it was about his fight with warners. .

"Dolphin" definitely was, IMO. I always figured "7" was just a religious song for him.

all7even said:

svadhyaya said:

Any thoughts on the line about "7"?

"Jevetta Steele asked Prince 4 an explanation of this song. He only smiled."

I didn't quite understand this one either

That was actually part of an interview with her in the TV special that featured him performing Sexy MF, 3 Chains of Gold, Sacrifice of Victor, wasn't it?

TheFreakerFantastic said:

Very revealing.

This makes sense now, he's singing about how he always gets new ideas and has to work on them!

“DAMN U” -

one of the songs PRN is most proud of; he adores it. Used to play it live even fore it was released. Through the years this has been the indication of his feelings about a new composition.

I think the inference there is that Prince playing a song live before its release is an indication that he really likes it.

BillieBalloon said:

svadhyaya said:

Any thoughts on the line about "7"?

"Jevetta Steele asked Prince 4 an explanation of this song. He only smiled."

I always thought it was about his fight with warners. .

Absolutely not, it precedes the WB wars.

all7even said:

svadhyaya said:

Any thoughts on the line about "7"?

"Jevetta Steele asked Prince 4 an explanation of this song. He only smiled."

I didn't quite understand this one either

I did!

databank said:

all7even said:

svadhyaya said: I didn't quite understand this one either

I did!

What's your understanding?

databank said:

BillieBalloon said:

svadhyaya said: I always thought it was about his fight with warners. .

Absolutely not, it precedes the WB wars.

The war only started a year later. (I do agree it's not about WB.) Prince was fighitng with them for a few years prior to the name change, though. We discussed in another thread how Prince needed a hit, and that Diamonds & Pearls was really a record for the record company to prove he could still pull it off. It's commercial, it's pop, it's what he needed. I think WB had him on a short leash by that point, especially with the failure of Graffiti Bridge (the success of a #1 from Batman wasn't enough to sustain his credibility).

All that aside, I do wonder what all the allegories and stories were from in "7". He noted in the jacket that some of it was from Revelations. Hell, a lot of it is written like a bible verse. "And I saw an angel come down..."