ebonyrhythmbuddha said:

It is kind of interesting that now Prince himself refuses to use lyrics/sing songs like that anymore.

ebonyrhythmbuddha said:

Well probably for most people the positive message went over people's heads but I heard it in there.But I can't say when I was thirteen when this song first came out I totally understood what Prince was talking about. But at the same time Prince's sexual "persona" attracted me to his music (I think alot of his fans expecialy female fans, got into him because his overt sexuality made us really curious) So if nothing eles Prince got his music sold.

ebonyrhythmbuddha said:

I have to agree with you Michael. It's the same argument I have with my son about some of the hard core gangsta rap. For most people, (especially younger people) the so called message gets lost in the guttural presentation. The wrong thing ends up getting reinforced over and over.

You had me cracking up talking about your mom. It took my mom quite ahwile to get past Prince's vulgarity and into his music. She eventually grew to really like him, but there was still some stuff of his that I would NEVER play for her.

So what, if anything, does your mom think of Prince now?

Krystal666 said:

frank sinatra said it in the 1940's, or something like that.. "sex sells.."

michael b.

Sowhat said:

that, to me, more or less, is an admission that something began to feel wrong about it to him, as well.. also, he probably took a look at modern music and realized, "everybody is being really overtly sexual, now.. when i started out, it was novel.. i have to evolve.. get beyond this.. it's not controversial, if everybody is doing it.." and he would have been right.


michael b.
[Edited 5/19/06 19:23pm]

babynoz said:

we really haven't discussed him in a while.. not sure what she thinks.. i'll ask her when i go by my folks' house for a visit, and get back to you on that.. i do, however, remember when we released "damn u" as a single.. my ex mother-in-law was into it.. LOL


michael b.
[Edited 5/19/06 20:22pm]

Michael, its so great for to take time and talk to some of the fans. You're not only one hell of a musician but clearly also a scholar and a gentlemen. Thanks so much.

Oh! Wait...I have a question or 2; I love the symbol album and think its greatly underestimated. One of my favorite tracks is "Love 2 the 9's", the drums on it are just beautiful ( especially the bridge section). How much creative input did you have on that track?

Also, what are your memories of the Australian tour in '92? I caught you guys in Sydney....you probably remember me, row 7, seat 1 at the Entertainment Centre? I was wearing a blue shirt with large yellow lettering on it? I yelled "wooohooo!" and whistled a couple of times.....yeah that was me!!

Warm regards,
SDN

SDNafka said:

we had alot of fun in australia.. people were really great to us, and the audiences were really enthusiastic.. prince, apparently, had never toured there, before.. it was like being in the beatles.. people were screaming their heads off!!

the drumming on "love 2 the 9's" was mostly the product of a dialogue between me and prince. he had an idea of what he wanted it to sound like, and i kept throwing combinations at him until he heard something he liked..

michael b.

Michael B
I cannot tell U enuff how much I Njoy reading this thread.
Your insite, stories and anecdotes R priceless.

If Tommy does not return from GnR U can replace him with SONNY T!

after 2 months my copy of "News From the Jungle" finally arrived!!!
(the first one was lost in the mail)

When i crack it open I will give a review.

Even though "3 chains O' Gold" is like Prince does Queen i still dig it.
I love, Love, Love the drums and Prince's solo at the end.
Any memories - fond or otherwise on this one?

showing U Love here:

http://blog.myspace.com/i...8ef47ad7d5


7
[Edited 5/20/06 14:49pm]
[Edited 5/20/06 15:06pm]

thaCONcept said:

that was, essentially, the first session after the european leg of the diamonds and pearls tour. we had a few days off, and got called right back to work.
during that session, if i remember correctly, we recorded "love 2 the 9's" and "johnny", as well as "three chains o' gold".. it was probably 8-10 hours long.
prince had all the music written, basically, for "three chains o' gold" before we got to the studio.
but, the arrangement was what took alot of time. we kept re-arranging the parts until they seemed to make logical sense.. then, we had to play it, perfectly, all at the same time.. every time one of us would make a mistake, we would have to start all over again.. it took all night..
even after all that work, prince still ended up making one edit, later on.

michael b.

thaCONcept said:

ps. went to the myspace page.. thanx for the dap!! much appreciated!!

michael b.
[Edited 5/20/06 22:48pm]

Hi Michael,

Back in 1997 on VH1 Chris Rock asked Prince who his dream band would be and he said Wendy and Lisa, Sheila E on percussion, Rhonda on bass and you on drums. How did that feel being the only guy that Prince wanted back?

If you could put together your own "Prince All Star" band of former bandmates, who would you pick? I know there's a lot of them that you didn't play with but who do you think would make an interesting combination.

By the way, the Glam Slam West aftershow in 1993 was off the hook. Your drumming that night is the reason I play drums today.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to these questions!!

ebonyrhythmbuddha said:

three chains o' gold is one of my all time faves! I also like Queen. The only part of 3 chains that reminds me of B.R. is the middle. So tell me once and for all Michael, did Prince have Queen in mind when he did 3 chains?

If so, I say y'all wrote Queen a damn receipt on that one....



When you coming to Florida? edit
[Edited 5/21/06 11:26am]

EverlastingNow said:

every group had something different.. i enjoyed the revolution as a band..
i enjoyed the sign o' the times and lovesexy band, in it's entirety..
i never really considered an all-star scenario. the npg had everything, for me.. i can't ever imagine playing with prince, without sonny there..
for that matter, things get really different for me, if you take away either tommy or morris, too.. it's not just their talent, but those are the cats i bonded with.. we came up together.. we have a common discipline, an understanding that comes from working with a person, under high stress levels on a regular basis. we had each other's back..

michael b.

babynoz said:

here's the thing.. one of the aspects of prince's music that has always been astounding, is his background arrangements.. prince has some of the most imaginative ideas for background vocals i've ever heard..
"three chains o' gold" just happened to feature the vocals in a way that drew more attention to that.. i don't think he ever brought up queen, once, in the whole 7 years that i worked for him.

don't know when i'll return to florida.. could be a while.. i hate the heat!! LOL

michael b.

Mr. Michael Bland, first off let me say thanks for taking the time to answer all of our questions. I met you in Memphis several years ago, you were playing drums for Chaka Khan, and you were kind enough to give me your autograph. A couple of questions....

1. I have read before that "Money Don't Matter Tonite" was really a melody put together by Rosie Gaines and Prince wrote the lyrics to it. Can you enlighten us on the origin of this song, it happens to be one of my favorites.

2. Wendy Melovin has stated that a lot of Prince's material in the late 80's and 90's was subpar. Mainly because the musicians he worked with during that time never questioned if the material was any good or not, they just played what they were told to play. During her tenure, she stated that she had the courage to let Prince know if something wasn't working or if sounded like sh!t she would let him know. Do you believe there's any validity to this?

Thanks, again Michael B. I am a big fan, and really admire your work.

Peace & love - Taurus

Taurus said:

1. i don't know anything about the origin of the song.. all i did was play on it.

2. i think that the revolution, in general, had a more casual relationship with prince than any of us ever did.. the space they occupied was more personal. i think we suffered for that. prince maintained, very much, an employer/employee relationship with all of us. probably, because being friends with your band members is a difficult thing to do. when you get close to people, they can criticize you, talk back, tell you what they will and won't do, tell you when your material is crap, etc. you can't have a professional relationship, with all of that going on. prince very rarely asked my opinion about his work.. his role was to judge my work, and my role was to deliver results..
every time i thought about saying something, the same thing came to mind..
"this is his ship to steer into the iceberg... i just work here.."
i never had any sense of entitlement to question his musical judgement.
and, it wasn't worth risking my job to express my feelings..

i will say, however, that i would disagree with wendy, about all of prince's music in the late 80's and 90's being sub-par..
some stuff is really brilliant, to me.. lovesexy is still one of my favorite records.. i really liked batman.. sign o' the times? who doesn't like THAT record?

michael b.
[Edited 5/22/06 10:35am]

ebonyrhythmbuddha said:

Oh I agree, I love a lot of the stuff post-revolution. And for the record, she didn't say ALL she just said a lot. Anyways, thanks again for taking the time to answer my question.

Taurus said:

awright.. noted..

michael b.

Greetings from Germany, Mr. Bland!
(BTW, your name is a total reversal of what you can do!!!)

I discovered these threads last night and read through their entirety.
Really amazing stuff!

Thanks to everyone who asked many questions I would've liked to ask, so here's one I didn't come across:

On the "Cream" maxi single, there are segues involving a telephone survey.
I have always wondered who was making the calls, and if they were, in fact real.
Do you have any recollection of this EP?

Thanks for all the great answers so far!

One more question Mr. Michael Bland. I've scanned this thread twice and i didn't see where this has been asked.


Out of all the songs or projects that YOU have particpated in (still in the vault); is there one that you would love to see released?

If so why?

Thanks again, Taurus

-Michael (best reason to bother to read the org)

Was "Habibi" a whole session of Hendrix covers that were recorded?

origmnd said:

Huh? Habibi is a Hendrix cover???

nayroo2002 said:

yes, those calls are real. it was not staged. we went around in a circle, and shouted out numbers, without saying who's number it was.

we used a machine that was designed to pipe music through a handset phone, like it sounds when you're put on hold..
we "frankensteined" it so we could monitor it like a speaker phone through the console in studio A, which made it possible for us to record it, as well..
i can't tell you who was taking the survey..

michael b.

Taurus said:

i have been asked this, already. possibly, on the other thread, part 1.
but i'll tell you like i told them.
in the recording process, quite often, the drums happen amongst the first of the instruments to be established.. this is what's known as recording "basics".. it also includes bass, possibly rhythm guitar, and some keys.. depends on how well the idea is though out at the time..

prince, quite often, works alone, after the initial process, "overdubbing" guitars, vocals, keyboards, background ideas, etc. whether a song will live or die, has to do with how he judges the work in it's entirety, after he's had some time to shape it into something closer to finished.
if he likes it, he may let us hear what he's done.. if he doesn't, it's likely to go into the vault, unfinished, never to be heard from again..

so, understanding that, and the fact that most work that is completed eventually gets released, i really couldn't tell you.. if it's not intended for release, i usually never hear it again..
so, i can't speculate about what i would really like to see come out..
i have no idea what state any of that material is in.. my part of the process ends first.. i have no perspective.. good, bad, or otherwise.. but, there's alot, and i'd hate to have to be the guy to weed through it.. that's gainful employment for years..

michael b.

shaomi said:

i don't know this song, or recognize the title..

michael b.

ebonyrhythmbuddha said:

mike you dont know machine gun by Hendrix?. Org note me i'll hook ya up , and btw way.. prince shouldnt attempt Hendrix, he always blows it

ebonyrhythmbuddha said:

Without getting into the details of how much (none of my business), when you do work with Prince, how do you get paid? By a certain time period by contract (for example - 6 months/ 1 year)? By recording session? By the day? By the hour? By the song? By concert?

Finess said:

I think he means he doesn't recognize the title Habibi (since Machine Gun wasn't mentioned in the original post), which is probably because it was recorded somewhere around 1999-2000, years after Michael left the band, most likely with Kirky J as the drummer...

But, to answer the question, there was a post on NPGOnlineLtd. somewhere around 1999-2000 that Prince had given a whole album of Hendrix covers to the Hendrix estate to do with as they wished - I would guess that this included both Habibi and Purple House, later released on the Power Of Soul Hendrix-cover compilation.

booyah said:

i know but thou hast evaded my statement about Nelson Blowin' it