I still have the cd somewhere...it was actually not *that* bad. I'm sure it has not aged well, tho. If he would have focused more on music and less on trying to be like Prince I think he could have actually gone somewhere.

blue22 said:

I don't know if you guys know this,but Georgio almost became a Prince protege.In 1985,his demo tape made its way to Paisley Park Records (I think Sheila E. may have brought him to the attention of Prince?) and there were plans to sign him to the label.However,according to Georgio,Prince wanted to take control of the entire project,even though Georgio already had a bunch of songs written."Prince and BrownMark wanted to take all the credit for writing and producing my album",Georgio complained."Now I understand how Prince's organization works.He finds people who will do anything to become a star.I'm not one of those people".

Georgio eventually signed with Motown,where he was given full creative control.

blue22 said:

I don't think Georgio would have been better off with Prince. Other than Sheila E and The Time, how many Paisley Park acts had more than one hit? How many Paisley Park acts even had ONE hit? Georgio did better being on his own. If you don't think so then look at how well the late Tony LeMans' album did on Paisley Park.

I remeber his 1st album very well. Typical Prince clone stuff of the time but he did have a great cut in 'bedrock'. The guy even looked like Prince. I didn't know he had any affiliation until I saw a pic of him with Brownmark on this web site posted by Shellanswerman.

I did hear an album called 'Rollin' from 1991 and it had a couple of good cuts but by this time he seemed to abandoned what made him mildly interesting to me - a derivitive Prince sound.

So where is this guy now?

Ronny said:

I know. This is my question. I wondered what others thought about him and his cloning. But also if there was any longeivity in cloning

No, seriously....oh hell, I just can't be

sextonseven said:

mmm-kay, having prince control your career is the kiss of death for musicians.

He did a movie quite a few years ago called Tapped Out. It seems he lost his Prince image for a wannabe thug image.

sosgemini said:

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B.S . Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis started with P and never looked back. He has an eye for talent and some have done well and some have not.

laurarichardson said:

oh yeah, your right...well, except for the eye for talent part.

what was his first cd like? did it sound like a prince rip off?

laurarichardson said:

Jam & Lewis are the exceptions. Most Paisley Park/Starr Production artists have not done well commercially.

The Time
Vanity 6
Sheila E
Apollonia 6
The Family
Mazarati
Madhouse
Jill Jones
Taja Sevelle
Good Question
Tony LeMans
Ingrid Chavez
Carmen Electra
T.C. Ellis
Eric Leeds

I'll exclude artists that had already established careers when they were signed to Paisley Park like Dale, Three O'Clock, Mavis and George.

Now from that list, The Time and Sheila had multiple hits. Vanity 6, The Family and Madhouse had one each. The rest = no top 10 hits.

dancerella said:

Oh man, it was the BIGGEST Prince rip-off. But I liked it. Get the reissue with the 12" versions in place of the album cuts on the CD if you can find it. It's rare and out of print.

sextonseven said:

hmm..i need to see if i can find it. the songs are mostly dancey cuts right??

sextonseven said:

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Gee let' me point out the issue. Accordint Alan Leeds PP was not even a real record label. WB gave the P no money for promotion. No promotion no radio airplay and no sales. In addtion, according to Alan P's management signed most of the acts and P would just stick one or two songs on the CD. In other words Prince was not involved in signing all of the acts.

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The Time- A great band who had Top Five RnB hits. No way in this world they could have had a top 10 pop hit back in the early 80's.

Vanity 6- I guess you forgot Vanity left the group after one album.

Sheila E - Stopped recording to go play drums behind Prince.

Apollonia 6 -One CD to help promote the film.

The Family Group- cease to exsist when lead singer left to pursue solo carreer after CD was out for two weeks.

Mazarati - No RnB or Pop station is going to play anything by a bunch of black drag queens.

Madhouse- Top Ten RnB hit. No why an instumental funk record is going to get pop airplay. Not today and not back in the 80's.

Jill Jones_ can't sing and no promotion for this cd

Taja Sevelle- Single got some play but once again no promotion.

Good Question - Signed by P's managers (WTF)

Tony LeMans -died in motorcycle crash.

Ingrid Chavez -no one buys poetry records ask Saul Williams.

Carmen Electra- Can't sing, rap or dance. No promotion

T.C. Ellis- Can't rap, no promotion and WB was not going promote anyone ass with GB

Eric Leeds- Jazz recording No one buys unless it is sorry ass Kenny G, No promotion.

Paisley Park Records failed because Prince didn't structure it like a real record label.He was spreading himself too thin,turning it into a vanity label.When he first started the label,he should have hired Jam and Lewis,Andre Cymone and even BrownMark to be in-house producers and songwriters for the label.By the late 80s,those guys were giving away all those big hits to other artists,while Paisley Park Records was struggling.Also,Prince signed alot of questionable acts who didn't really have alot to offer (Dale Bozzio?! Good Question?!).


Yes,Warners didn't do their part (promotion-wise) but that's because they didn't take the label seriously.They knew it was just a vanity label.Why waste money promoting Taja Sevelle when you know that no one's gonna buy it?
[Edited 1/23/08 2:46am]

laurarichardson said:

The REAL point is Georgio benefitted by not signing with Paisley Park.

dancerella said:

There are only two ballads on the first album. All four singles made the top ten on Billboard's dance chart. The last single "Bedrock" was heavily remixed for the 12" release so that's why I said try to find the later version of the CD which has the remix versions in place of the album versions because the 12" versions are better.

sextonseven said:

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If you think so. I think he was a no talent from the get go. With or without PP he was not going anyplace.

SoulAlive said:

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I guess you missed the interview that Alan Leeds did on Housequake. He was the VP so less assume he knows what is talking about. According to him the label was just a carrot to keep P around after PR. He said that WB was never serious about it from the very begining and that P's mgmt began to sign up any and everybody they wanted to and P lost interest. ( We can see that from the people he did bother to sign up himself).

laurarichardson said:

Oh yeah. Motown pushed four singles out of that first album. No way would Warner have that kind of patience. I'm surprised Jill got three singles from her album.

laurarichardson said:

Warners wasn't serious about the label because they knew it was nothing more than a vanity label.Many of those artists weren't even real "artists".They were either Prince's friends (T.C. Ellis) or women he was sleeping with (Carmen Elektra).Not much talent there,and Warners knew it.How could Warners get excited about promoting stuff like that?

If Prince had been serious about having a record label,and signed some truly talented artists,I bet Warners would have been much more interested.

SoulAlive said:

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You are really not getting it. WB was not interested from the very start.
(Info coming from Alan Leeds)
The same thing happens today look at most artist run labels. With the exception of LAFACE, BADBOY or UPTOWN most never receive the promotion dollars and as soon as the start to faulter a little they are closed.

sextonseven said:

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Motown was on their last legs in the late 80's that is why they signed a Prince cloan in the first place.

laurarichardson said:

I'm saying that they WOULD have been "interested from the start" if Prince had formed a real record label in the first place.Look at Madonna and her Maverick Records label.From the very beginning,it was a serious label and Warners treated it as such.Alanis Morrissette sold 15 million albums.

With few exceptions,Prince wasn't interested in having a "real" label.He wasn't always looking for truly talented artists who could sell records.He was playing games.Rosie Gaines complained that her Paisley Park album didn't even come out "because I wasn't sleeping with Prince".