I noticed this detail when posting in a recent topic:

"...In 1972, Prince’s cousin, Charles Smith, invited them both to play in his band, with Prince on guitar and Cymone on bass, and Smith noted how they had already developed a twin-like sixth sense when playing together. Cymone’s sister Linda Anderson soon joined on keyboards, and with Terry Jackson and William Doughty on percussion the band Grand Central was formed. By the time Prince started high school in 1973, Smith had left and Prince replaced him with drummer Morris Day. The “uptown” Minneapolis scene was starting to generate heat and included rival bands like Flyte Time (consisting of Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Jellybean Johnson, Monte Moir and vocalist Cynthia Johnson) and The Family..."

( Source: http://citinite.wordpress...re-cymone/ )

The Family also included Sonny Thompson........

Cool, thanks for the info woogie!

It was a completely DIFFERENT band of musicians known as The Family back then. Prince kind of stole that band's name when he put together the Paisly Park act we know from the 80's.

Thanks for the update funksterr!

mansep said:

Well, it does say that it's a different The Family in the very next sentence of that article. SMH

Copyright mainly he didnt copyright the name when another band did.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.c...657AA0S6oI

there are also alot of youtube links on that page as well it shows it dates back to 71 even.Clapton was even in this as it states.

mansep said:

Well, it does say that it's a different The Family in the very next sentence of that article. SMH

Of course i understand that the 70's group didn't include Susannah, Paul, Jellybean, Jerome and Eric. Just thought it was interesting that there also existed a same-titled group in Minneapolis before 1985, and wondered if Prince might've been influenced to name one of his protege-groups with the same name.

[Edited 1/1/12 3:52am]

But true, i should've posted the rest of the text

"...Unrelated to Prince’s future side project of the same name, The Family was bassist Sonny Thompson’s group, and Prince and Cymone would jam with him at his home, improving their techniques. The local scene was largely improvised; Linda Anderson recalls, “We just made our own gigs. We would go around and just play in neighborhoods, set up our equipment in the park and play, and have people gather round”. Grand Central soon attracted the attentions of a Brooklyn-based musican called Pepé Willie, and when he moved to Minneapolis he worked with the band to improve their sound. At the same time, Willie was working on material for his own band, 94 East, and invited Prince to perform on the recordings..."

Thanks toots for more info about this!

toots said: Copyright mainly he didnt copyright the name when another band did.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.c...657AA0S6oI

there are also alot of youtube links on that page as well it shows it dates back to 71 even.Clapton was even in this as it states.

Good link, although i couldn't find any Prince-related info over there. I've tried to google a link where is mentioned that Prince got the name from that 70's rock group.

Wiki or Allmusic both don't mention it, and so far i probably entered wrong key-words in google. Could you point out another link?...thanks in advance!

[Edited 1/1/12 4:09am]

Shango said:

toots said:

Shango said:

Good link, although i couldn't find any Prince-related info over there. I've tried to google a link where is mentioned that Prince got the name from that 70's rock group.

Wiki or Allmusic both don't mention it, and so far i probably entered wrong key-words in google. Could you point out another link?...thanks in advance!

[Edited 1/1/12 4:09am]

that is just it i was pointing out there was another group before the family prince group not even associated with prince and prince claimed the name anyway...aka he stole the name from a band prior trying to make it his own..kind of like he was trying to do with radioheads creep..he tried to take credit for it i believe or something like that... it was a mess.

Thanks again toots! Yeah, i can see how that went. I'm still having second thoughts if that 70's Minneapolis-version of The Family was his inspiration for naming his proteges what that title.

Funny coincidence also with Morris' "How's the family?"-quote, as 3 Time-members were part of The Family, lol.

Well, if it hadn't been such a poor idea 2 pick THIS name, I'd say that it's already a good point 4 not 2 have CREATED it

I always wondered WTF with this band name?! I mean it coulda been OK 4 a 70's soul band, but 4 a 1985 new-wave/mpls funk band which was meant 2 be successful? Gimme a break! Who could tale them seriously with such a ridiculous name?!

It's a blessing 4 them that they had 2 pick another name, fDeluxe sounds so much better than goddamn The Family

Am I the only one 2 think that The Family was the worst name 4 a band ever?