Why is the "Girl" on that song Prince.... wouldn't it have been more effective to have him use one of his Girl Friends.. record that part.. just sounds weird.....

I've always thought that Jill Jones could have played the "girl" on this song....but I think it was more scandalous to have Prince play that part it puts a whole new 'twist' in the song's meaning,lol

Love this song, one of the funniest songs he ever did, it wouldn't work if one of his proteges did it, the fact it's him doing an impression is the funny part...

At the time it was out, you wouldn't really know it was Prince. I don't think people really even knew to consider the question, if he was playing on the album or featured or what. Now it seems so obvious, but I don't think I really knew for sure it was Prince until CD's came out and Uptown magazine confirmed it was Prince. And by then I had been listening to the song for a decade or more! And then the part was even funnier because now Jimmy apparantley had a guy at the house, not a girl.

funksterr said:

At the time it was out, you wouldn't really know it was Prince. I don't think people really even knew to consider the question, if he was playing on the album or featured or what. Now it seems so obvious, but I don't think I really knew for sure it was Prince until CD's came out and Uptown magazine confirmed it was Prince. And by then I had been listening to the song for a decade or more! And then the part was even funnier because now Jimmy apparantley had a guy at the house, not a girl.

When the album was released,I just assumed that it was Morris Day many years later,I found out that it was Prince.

funksterr said:

Prince has played a lot with gender confusion...

.......and Brenda's Rap is INSANE!!!!! LOL!!!!!

the Vanity 6 album was really ahead of its time.It was bold,groundbreaking and edgy.There was funk,New Wave,even some rap (at a time when there weren't alot of female rappers).

sovembol said:

Why is the "Girl" on that song Prince.... wouldn't it have been more effective to have him use one of his Girl Friends.. record that part.. just sounds weird.....

For one thing at the time I don't think so many people realized it was P, let alone a man. Do u know that on Positive K's classic "I Got A Man" from 1992 Positive K is also rapping the girl's part with a distorted voice? I just learned this recently

Anyway "weird" is the key word indeed. Everything was weird about Vanity 6 or P's music in general at the time, that's what made it all so brilliant.

August Darnell (Kid Creole And The Coconuts) said in an interview than his brother who led the first band he was part of, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, taught him a very important lesson: they would record a song, listen to it then Stony would say "ok, now let's fuck it up": he understood that a song has to be fucked up a bit to get a unique sound. Same was said by Tricky's first album's producer: Tricky and him would record a part, then listen to it, and Tricky would say "no, it sounds to normal, let's fuck it up". That's how Maxinquaye became one of the most acclaimed album of the decade. Funnily enough, long before I read those 2 interviews, I would often take a poem or a song I'd written, read it and think "naw it's too ordinary, let's fuck it up" and completely trash it. I've turned many very average texts into brilliant pieces using that method.

Would a girl have rapped Prince's part in If A Girl Answers, the song would have lost most of ts appeal.

Another great lesson is to be taught from the way If I Was Your Girlfriend, Forever In Your Life and U Got The Look were done (according to Per Nilsen IIRC). There was a distorsion on the voice on IIWYG and when Susan Rogers offered P to rerecord it he said "no, let's keep it that way". The background vocals on FIYL weren't originally supposed to be unsynchronized with the lead vox and when Susan and P listened to it she told him" wait, I'll syncronize it" and P said "naw, let's keep it that way". As for UGTL, P had recorded it as a midtempo track and he was frustrated with the result and he suddenly said "fuck this" and sped up the whole track and that's how it became the brilliant uptempo track it is. I think it's funny to think that 3 songs on what is P's most universally critically acclaimed album are the results of engineering accidents for the first 2 and the decision to completely mess with a track for the third one.

woogiebear said:

.......and Brenda's Rap is INSANE!!!!! LOL!!!!!

her lines are outrageous and hilarious

SoulAlive said:

the Vanity 6 album was really ahead of its time.It was bold,groundbreaking and edgy.There was funk,New Wave,even some rap (at a time when there weren't alot of female rappers).

Agreed, great stuff on that album!!! Well ahead of its time...

if there had been a second Vanity 6 album,they could have done a "sequel" to this song.....a continuation of this concept I suppose that's what Prince might have had in mind when he created "Vibrator",lol...it contains the funny skit with Vanity going to the store to replace the batteries in her sex toy.

SoulAlive said:

if there had been a second Vanity 6 album,they could have done a "sequel" to this song.....a continuation of this concept I suppose that's what Prince might have had in mind when he created "Vibrator",lol...it contains the funny skit with Vanity going to the store to replace the batteries in her sex toy.

was that VIBRATOR

audio a rip from a video???

luvsexy4all said:

SoulAlive said:

if there had been a second Vanity 6 album,they could have done a "sequel" to this song.....a continuation of this concept I suppose that's what Prince might have had in mind when he created "Vibrator",lol...it contains the funny skit with Vanity going to the store to replace the batteries in her sex toy.

was that VIBRATOR

audio a rip from a video???

As far as I know,there was never a video for "Vibrator".If there was,I would love to see it

Hi All,

Does anyone have an accurate list where Prince is playing a character? I can hear him on:

The Walk (When Morris says "If you want to sing its cool, and he vamps out)

He plays the waiter on multiple Time songs

I know there are more, but I cant think of all of them now

Mutts....