The other day I listened to the Family rehearsal and show for the first time and I was pretty stuck by how similar the band sounded to... the Parade Tour era Revolution!

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The band was as follows:

St. Paul - Vocals

Susannah Melvoin - Vocals

Jellybean Johnson - Drums

Alan Flowers - Bass

Jonathan Melvoin - Keyboards

Bill Carrothers - Keyboards

+

Eric Leeds - Saxophone, flute

Miko Weaver - Guitar, Background vocals

Jerome Benton - Background vocals

Wally Safford - Background vocals

Greg Brooks - Background vocals

.

Clearly, Prince was testing the ground for a more R&B oriented sound, and many horns licks composed by Eric would end-up being played as such during the Parade shows.

.

Which made me realize... What if Paul hadn't left? We have to keep in mind that The Family was supposed to tour the US extensively, and last more than a season: a second album was even taken for granted according to Susannah (who said she and Prince had agreed to keep Miss Understood for the second record, as she felt the son,g had to grow a bit more).

.

In a way similar to how he bulit The Family on the ashes of The Time, Prince build the so-called Counter-Revolution on the ashes on The Family. The fact that the Family may have remained operative in 1986 doesn't necessarily means that Prince couldn't have borrowed some of its members if both bands weren't touring at the same time (or if TF had opened for Prince), but on the other hand, had The Family toured and made TV appearances as planned in late 1985, adding 5 of its members to the band would have made The Revolution look like a clone of The Family, which probably wasn't something Prince would have wanted.

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So that raises the question: could it be that the 1986 Revolution and live shows would have been totally different if not for The Family disbanding?

.

Opinions?

Why has this been moved here?

This was a thread about PRINCE making decisions regarding PRINCE'S bands and PRINCE's music...

Result of putting it here: no one saw it.

My guess is that it would probably not have happened the way it did, and The Family would likely have opened up for the Parade tour after doing a series of smaller gigs, the way that Sheila did with the Purple Rain tour.

[Edited 12/10/17 22:02pm]

databank said:

Why has this been moved here?

This was a thread about PRINCE making decisions regarding PRINCE'S bands and PRINCE's music...

Result of putting it here: no one saw it.

I don't know--same reason the thread about the article about There's Something In My Hair was moved here--an associated artist was mentioned. Sometimes that seems to be all it takes. Heck, that thread title actually started with the word Prince, so he's clearly the subject, the song is a Prince song...

My opinion is, if the thread is about Associated artists SEPARATE from their work with Prince, then it should go here. Anything involving their work with Prince should be in the Prince thread--because it's his too. This forum should be here for those people wanting to follow those artists they got to know in connection with Prince, whether to follow and discuss their non-Prince work or their personal lives and squabbles. I can see why there should be a forum for that separate from the Non-Prince music one, and if it's not connected to Prince it shouldn't be filling the Prince forum. But this is a Prince thread, and a lot of others that get moved here are too. I also wonder why this forum is listed where it is--it seems more Prince connected than the Non-Prince forum that comes second in the listing. Especially since so much Prince music actually gets relegated here.

EddieC said:

Love this discussion topic.

I think (strongly) that Eddie M was going to be the sax player for the Revolution.

Atlanta Bliss most likely would have joined the Revolution as well.

the extended Revolution as of 1986 would not have happened.

databank said:

The other day I listened to the Family rehearsal and show for the first time and I was pretty stuck by how similar the band sounded to... the Parade Tour era Revolution!

.

The band was as follows:

St. Paul - Vocals

Susannah Melvoin - Vocals

Jellybean Johnson - Drums

Alan Flowers - Bass

Jonathan Melvoin - Keyboards

Bill Carrothers - Keyboards

+

Eric Leeds - Saxophone, flute

Miko Weaver - Guitar, Background vocals

Jerome Benton - Background vocals

Wally Safford - Background vocals

Greg Brooks - Background vocals

.

Clearly, Prince was testing the ground for a more R&B oriented sound, and many horns licks composed by Eric would end-up being played as such during the Parade shows.

.

Which made me realize... What if Paul hadn't left? We have to keep in mind that The Family was supposed to tour the US extensively, and last more than a season: a second album was even taken for granted according to Susannah (who said she and Prince had agreed to keep Miss Understood for the second record, as she felt the son,g had to grow a bit more).

.

In a way similar to how he bulit The Family on the ashes of The Time, Prince build the so-called Counter-Revolution on the ashes on The Family. The fact that the Family may have remained operative in 1986 doesn't necessarily means that Prince couldn't have borrowed some of its members if both bands weren't touring at the same time (or if TF had opened for Prince), but on the other hand, had The Family toured and made TV appearances as planned in late 1985, adding 5 of its members to the band would have made The Revolution look like a clone of The Family, which probably wasn't something Prince would have wanted.

.

So that raises the question: could it be that the 1986 Revolution and live shows would have been totally different if not for The Family disbanding?

.

Opinions?