Madhouse is awesome! Compare 8 and 16 to the instrumentals he puts out today and there is a striking difference. Xpectation, News, etc. sound like he said, "Oh yeah, why don't you hit that record button while your at it." Not a lot of soul or work. 8 and 16 sound like he labored, sweated and worked those songs into tight albums. And to think he did it all coming off of Sign O the Times is another mind-blower.

And to also think that to non-Prince fanatics they aren't even aware of there existence. Truly hidden gems, legacy material, will someday be brought forth to reveal another side of his genius.

Glad I bought them on CD when tney came out.

paisley4me said:

Did they officially come out then? Where might they be now?

Jon said:

Did they officially come out then? Where might they be now?[/quote]

Very hard to find, and expensive, I'd imagine. Start w/e-bay (but look out for pirated copies). I've also got the CD's when they were released and they are great.

Eric Leeds first two solo CD's are a solid follow up (the first on, "Times Square", has some of the remenents of Madhouse 24 on it, "Things Left Unsaid" is the other one). If you like the Madhouse CD's, you'll likely like those as well. "Now & Again" is also good, but different...

I just got hold of a copy of madhouse8 on vinyl @ bricklane market last sunday for a fiver. Was soo happy. Its dope.

The vinyl is easy and cheap enough to find, unless you're lucky or rich, I wouldn't bother with the CDs, too expensive, transfers of my vinyl does me fine.

Everything released by acts like Madhouse, Sheila, The Time, Jill Jones, etc, etc is just as worthy and every bit as part of the cannon as stuff released under the name Prince (or ) - and no fan's collection is complete without the related artists material.

im still waiting for someone to burn these for me...I AM Mad...



artist.




Ahhhhh,...

I have both original cd's.I can make you copies if you like.

rockwilder said:

really? cool !!

I've got Madhouse 8 on Vinyl and it is very good....16 I have on tape.

I have two 8 CDs and a 16 CD.

Do you know I just went to a record store and got a perfect and mint conditioned copy of Madhouse 8 for ONE DOLLAR?

ONE DOLLAR, MAN!!!

You know..I think I have all the Madhouse remixes and/or long versions,but have never ventured to listen to them. I've always felt that they must be totally unnecessary and probably ruin a good idea. Are they any good? I'm really kinda' scared to listen.

Also, does anyone know of samples or other uses of madhouse tracks or sounds? I think of Digital Underground's excellent "sex packets" cd and how they used "9" and also, Questlove uses a drumbeat from ,I think,"7".I'm sure there are more.

rockwilder said:

The only 1's i can think off off the top of my head are DU's 'Hip Hop Doll', 'Holdin' on'- a jazzy house track from the Oxygenmusicworks label, and of course Pharcyde's 'Return of the b-boy'

paisley4me said:

I think that the inclination to automatically compare the Madhouse recordings to NEWS and Xpectation is quite flawed. True jazz aficionados recognize the vast difference between the musical directions of these albums. NEWS and Xpectation are inherently more jazz than Madhouse. The musicians are different from the Madhouse lineup. The obvious intent was to stretch out in the true contemporary jazz tradition - not unlike the 70s Miles Davis music. No one else can pulls this off and do all the other genres of music with this level of creativity and technical prowess except Prince and the NPG.

Madhouse was jazz for pop listeners that dont kow anything about jazz. That is why you get comparisons - these people think that if there are no lyrics and repetitive, easy-to-understand beat that is all "jazz". This is obviously a product of today's "smooth jazz" radio format which has little if anything to dop with jazz. I call it the GrapeNuts cereal theory: like Senfield said "open the box - no grapes, no nuts - why is it called GrapeNuts?"

You're right - the remixes are nothing special (although the 'madhouse 13 rock this mutha, need some competition ain't no other' chant always makes me laugh), but the b-sides are a must. 6-and-a-half is awesome! wonder whether we should start the great miles vs atlanta on trumpet debate on this one yet again...