IYO, who you thought was Prince's best backing band?

The Revolution

New Power Generation

3RDEyeGirl

[Edited 10/8/22 15:03pm]

[Edited 10/5/23 8:23am]

In order of preference:

The Revolution

New Power Generation

3rd Eye Girl

but his best back band was IMO the 1988 Lovesexy tour line up.

[Edited 7/27/20 8:25am]

I saw The Revolution in Austin about a year ago. Got to meet them too!

Even though they were off a long break and even though they aren't in their 80s heyday

THEY BLEW THE ROOF OFF THE JOINT! 2 straight hours of PURE ROCK N FUNK!!

There's just something magical about them...they aren't the world's most preficient musicians but - by God - they have something innefable, powerful, and real. When you hear Wendy and Lisa in harmony combined with Mark's thunderfunk bass and Fink's sizzling synth riffs IT MAKES YOU DANCE.

Sign and Lovesexy band.

The Revolution

NPG.

the Revolution the noituloveR

the Lovesexy Band

The ONA NPG band version

1. Because overall most of these musicians were there from the beginning, I do look at the Revolution as the culmination of what started in 1978. And overall this group overall backed Prince the best. They had a complete package, in that this group over all the groups, helped present 'Purple Music' that thing that Prince was formulating and setting up to set him apart. And it did. It wasn't Purple Rain. Purple Rain definately helped like many of his videos helped. Of course the visuals helped. But as Prince said, what he wanted back then was a community. And it showed. This period to me, was just that. And we have to connect the protoges to this period: the Time, Vanity 6, Sheila E, the Family, Mazarati, Madhouse. No other band era ever produced what happened in that 1981-1986 period. The music from this period was the best. Get over it.

2. The SOTT album I cannot really apply to this group as a full era. this pre New Power Generation post Revolution group of course for me is going to be next because they came out of the previous period, not as long as the previous group, but they came under the Purple Reign. They exhibited beautifully the era's, not AS perfect, as the previous in their manifestations, but nicely that I wanted more. I miss what the Black album era could have been.
But the flaw was that 1. Sheila E was mor clingy, and jealously affected things more closely with Prince (and her hot/cold dealings with Cat). Not only that but this group also connected the that MALADY (Oh my la-di-da-da) aslo affect Prince's connection to this group. I knew at the beginning of 1989 that this band was about to be over.

3. ONA NPG for the nostalgia. At this time, it seemed all the angst and weird energy was off Prince, and he was able to relax and night fight against himself as much or his past. We saw him including more people from the 1980 period as a result:Sheila E, Eric Leeds, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Morris Day/Jerome Benet etc

When you say NPG what do you mean? Just the incarnation from the 90s? Or are you including people he played with in the 2000s and 2010s?

My choice, The Revolution.

In terms of musicianship, then it would his bands from 2002-2012. I think that the SOTT/Lovesexy band would be a close second and I just loved that band too much not to put them near the top.

:

The Revolution gets a lot of commercial notoriety from the fans that jumped on the bus in that time period, but the 1979-1982 band was better than the Revolution. Dez was a better guitarist and background singer than Wendy and I love Brown Mark, but I think Andre is a better overall musician.

:

I really like 3rd Eye Girl, but I cannot put them over the 2002-2012 bands or over the power triio with Sonny and Michael B. I'm not a huge fan of most of the bands from the 1990's outside of the Gold Experience era. I am probably overpenalizing those bands because of Tony M, etc. The late 90's bands just were not that noteworthy either.

[Edited 7/27/20 12:19pm]

IAdoreWeronika said:

Sign and Lovesexy band.

The Revolution

NPG.

The Revolution.

What's the criteria? Is it best all around musicianship, the era of music, or onstage energy?

I would say the Revolution had the best all around image and energy. But after listening to a lot of the rehearsals, Prince had to work to an exhaustive level to get that band to sound the way he wanted. You could really feel Prince's frustration in the Someone to Call rehearsal. Wendy can't sing high enough, Eric keeps missing his cues, Brown Mark playing the wrong notes, and Wendy and Lisa flubbing very simple lyrics. That was a way to simple a song for them to struggling with it for an hour. I think the Revolution was great but also limited in what they could do musically.

The Dirty Mind/Controversy band was just great, stripped down rock and roll revue. The energy was raw, frenetic and dangerous.

The SOTT/Lovesexy band had the best musicianship. They had that perfect balance of polished perfection and gritty rawness that lot of his later NPG incarnations didn't have. The original NPG were great. The back to basics pure musicianship and showmanship fo the Nude Tour was one of his best outings.

Third Eye Girl were ok. I put them in the same category as Josh and Cora. Servicable but nothing truly earth shattering most of the energy was Prince's presense. Although I will give Josh and Cora props for that Sticky Like Glue live set. That bass and drumming was funky as hell.

1) 1994-96 NPG - Tommy, Sonny T, Michael B and Mr Hayes (sorry, no Mayte)

2) 2004 Musicology tour band

3) 1988 - Lovesexy band

4) The Revoultion (sorry, I always thought they were way overrated)

For musicmanship and versatility?.The S.O.T.T band..........for visual presence, electrofunk and nostalgia?..The Revolution.....for raw funk and roll?...The band with Dez and Andre (1980).

SPYZFAN1 said:

For musicmanship and versatility?.The S.O.T.T band..........for visual presence, electrofunk and nostalgia?..The Revolution.....for raw funk and roll?...The band with Dez and Andre (1980).

This!

Honorable mention for the NPG (2002-2004), they also were a tight funky unit. The one 'weak' point in that band was Renato Neto IMHO, I didn't enjoy his 'cocktail jazz' style of playing and a lot of his synth patches were weak IMO.

The Montreux 2009 lineup.

IAdoreWeronika said:

Sign and Lovesexy band.

The Revolution

NPG.

This!!! Infact I would put the NPG way down from the Revolution. Preffered Shelia E on the drums, and Dr Fink was gone, and so was Miko Weaver.

Or maybe they just weren't feeling the song? What time was this happening, were they just learning this on the spot etc Compared to a rehearsal like Screams of Passion that I think is more complex that Someone 2 Call...

I agree, that there has to be some kind of criteria

And to compare earlier bands to later bands, for me never seems balanced.

lrn36 said:

What's the criteria? Is it best all around musicianship, the era of music, or onstage energy?

I would say the Revolution had the best all around image and energy. But after listening to a lot of the rehearsals, Prince had to work to an exhaustive level to get that band to sound the way he wanted. You could really feel Prince's frustration in the Someone to Call rehearsal. Wendy can't sing high enough, Eric keeps missing his cues, Brown Mark playing the wrong notes, and Wendy and Lisa flubbing very simple lyrics. That was a way to simple a song for them to struggling with it for an hour. I think the Revolution was great but also limited in what they could do musically.

The Dirty Mind/Controversy band was just great, stripped down rock and roll revue. The energy was raw, frenetic and dangerous.

The SOTT/Lovesexy band had the best musicianship. They had that perfect balance of polished perfection and gritty rawness that lot of his later NPG incarnations didn't have. The original NPG were great. The back to basics pure musicianship and showmanship fo the Nude Tour was one of his best outings.

Third Eye Girl were ok. I put them in the same category as Josh and Cora. Servicable but nothing truly earth shattering most of the energy was Prince's presense. Although I will give Josh and Cora props for that Sticky Like Glue live set. That bass and drumming was funky as hell.

I will always answer the expanded Revolution band lineup from the Parade tour, but...

lately I have been listening a lot to the 3121 "house" band bootleg recordings, particularly from 2009 with Frederic Yonnet on harmonica, and I feel that lineup deserves kudos. The show from the Avalon ballroom was lit! If that wasn't Prince's best backing band they would surely have given them some stiff competition that night, and in most best of lists I read they wouldn't even rate a mention. Sorely underrated

By far the ONA NPG. No other band could take Prince to that level. All the other bands were decent but Not great. The 83-85 Revolution gets points for nostalgia, the 86 Revolution for expanding their talent base.

But overall the most talented and best to list to is the ONA NPG.
.

I also love the Third Eye Girl band

v10letblues said:

By far the ONA NPG. No other band could take Prince to that level. All the other bands were decent but Not great. The 83-85 Revolution gets points for nostalgia, the 86 Revolution for expanding their talent base.

But overall the most talented and best to list to is the ONA NPG.
.

I also love the Third Eye Girl band

But I don't think the band helped take him to high levels in music creation as that '1982-1986' the Revolution/the Time/Sheila E period did

For me the ONA band helped my nostalgia kick back in for Prince

OldFriends4Sale said:

1. Because overall most of these musicians were there from the beginning, I do look at the Revolution as the culmination of what started in 1978. And overall this group overall backed Prince the best. They had a complete package, in that this group over all the groups, helped present 'Purple Music' that thing that Prince was formulating and setting up to set him apart. And it did. It wasn't Purple Rain. Purple Rain definately helped like many of his videos helped. Of course the visuals helped. But as Prince said, what he wanted back then was a community. And it showed. This period to me, was just that. And we have to connect the protoges to this period: the Time, Vanity 6, Sheila E, the Family, Mazarati, Madhouse. No other band era ever produced what happened in that 1981-1986 period. The music from this period was the best. Get over it.

a hundred times:)

What are you talking about? What is Malady??

GaryMF said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

1. Because overall most of these musicians were there from the beginning, I do look at the Revolution as the culmination of what started in 1978. And overall this group overall backed Prince the best. They had a complete package, in that this group over all the groups, helped present 'Purple Music' that thing that Prince was formulating and setting up to set him apart. And it did. It wasn't Purple Rain. Purple Rain definately helped like many of his videos helped. Of course the visuals helped. But as Prince said, what he wanted back then was a community. And it showed. This period to me, was just that. And we have to connect the protoges to this period: the Time, Vanity 6, Sheila E, the Family, Mazarati, Madhouse. No other band era ever produced what happened in that 1981-1986 period. The music from this period was the best. Get over it.

a hundred times:)

. The SOTT album I cannot really apply to this group as a full era. this pre New Power Generation post Revolution group of course for me is going to be next because they came out of the previous period, not as long as the previous group, but they came under the Purple Reign. They exhibited beautifully the era's, not AS perfect, as the previous in their manifestations, but nicely that I wanted more. I miss what the Black album era could have been.
But the flaw was that 1. Sheila E was mor clingy, and jealously affected things more closely with Prince (and her hot/cold dealings with Cat). Not only that but this group also connected the that MALADY (Oh my la-di-da-da) aslo affect Prince's connection to this group. I knew at the beginning of 1989 that this band was about to be over.

What are you talking about? What is Malady??

lol oh sorry
WALLY the song wasn't about Wally, but his break(up) with that previous time period and the people including his break up of Susannah

.

One evening shortly after Sussanah's departure, Susan Rogers could tell something was very wrong when Prince came down to the basement studio. Looking disconsolate and barely speaking, he began constructing a song around a meloncholy piano pattern. His spoken lyrics portrayed a fictional dialogue between himself and Wally Safford, a dancer in the band. Sounding sad and lost, Prince asks Wally to borrow $50 and some sunglasses so he can impress his lover, but then changes his mind and returns the items telling Wally that since he is alone now, he has no one to spend the money on. Prince was accompanied only by piano throught the verse, but guitar bass and drums enter as the song built to a chorus on which he sings the phrase "o-ma-la-di-da"


Watching Prince construct the song which he called "Wally", Rogers was stunned by the honest emotion and wistfull resignation it conveyed. She saw the song both as a farewell to Susannah and a means of expelling the poison of failed relationship.

"Do you know that malady means sickness, illness in French?" Prince asked Rogers. Refering to the phrase he sings in the chorus. "It's almost like the word melody, isn't it?" Prince who rarely exposed his inner feelings, even in his music, was groping for a metaphor that would convey his feeling of loss. Rogers felt it was a turning point in his songwriting.

But as the session continued, Prince started to distance himself from the creation. He added extraneous instruments to diminished the songs clarity. A percussion part that cluttered the verse, detracting from the lyrics.

OldFriends4Sale said:

GaryMF said:

What are you talking about? What is Malady??

lol oh sorry
WALLY the song wasn't about Wally, but his break(up) with that previous time period and the people including his break up of Susannah

.

One evening shortly after Sussanah's departure, Susan Rogers could tell something was very wrong when Prince came down to the basement studio. Looking disconsolate and barely speaking, he began constructing a song around a meloncholy piano pattern. His spoken lyrics portrayed a fictional dialogue between himself and Wally Safford, a dancer in the band. Sounding sad and lost, Prince asks Wally to borrow $50 and some sunglasses so he can impress his lover, but then changes his mind and returns the items telling Wally that since he is alone now, he has no one to spend the money on. Prince was accompanied only by piano throught the verse, but guitar bass and drums enter as the song built to a chorus on which he sings the phrase "o-ma-la-di-da"


Watching Prince construct the song which he called "Wally", Rogers was stunned by the honest emotion and wistfull resignation it conveyed. She saw the song both as a farewell to Susannah and a means of expelling the poison of failed relationship.

"Do you know that malady means sickness, illness in French?" Prince asked Rogers. Refering to the phrase he sings in the chorus. "It's almost like the word melody, isn't it?" Prince who rarely exposed his inner feelings, even in his music, was groping for a metaphor that would convey his feeling of loss. Rogers felt it was a turning point in his songwriting.

But as the session continued, Prince started to distance himself from the creation. He added extraneous instruments to diminished the songs clarity. A percussion part that cluttered the verse, detracting from the lyrics.

Thanks. I knew the Wally story but not the part about "malady". Didn't he then erase the tape? Or was that the original Empty Room?

That's a good question but I love the Exodus line up most I think. I really dug when he brought in Micheal B and also later John Blackwell that gave his drums a harder bottom end and a more organic beat/sound. I think limiting the choice to "NPG" is disingenuous because that lineup changed so much, so I would add certain specific line ups instread of just looking at 3 "names".

Truth be told, I think the Revolution was one of his weakest backing bands but they were good for what he was doing at the time. But I don't look at that lineup and see a ton of stellar musicians really.

The Lovesexy and SoTT bands were pretty great.