"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
I wouldn't be suprised if more were involved on this one. Sounds like more than Prince & Susannah singing 'This is what it's like in the Dream Factory woooow'
| |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Wendy's slightly snobbish and deluded comments on changes to the band post 85 in the possessed book are quite revealing.
She thought they were going from the Beatles (lol) to an 'overblown rnb band' I do wonder if prince also had reservations about letting his music get too influenced by two women much more into pop/rock than rnb/funk [Edited 11/30/20 0:55am] | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
lol OK
but if you were a Prince fan in that 1982-1986 period, you would agree. It was more about the MANIA, and it was in that direction.
why would he? In 1997 he wrote a song called In This Bed I Scream dedicated to them
also who said they were more into pop/rock? Wendy was more into Rhythm guitar playing, I don't get what you are trying to convey here. None of that is true | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Fair enough. I did a lol cos the Beatles were self contained and a BAND. The rev were a prince band, I.e. led by him, not a democracy.
I guess I was working on the premise that with the 86 tour, prince was going both left and more trad rnb at the same time. And let's be real, wendy n lisa were highly able and broad minded,but their heart was more joni than James. Thats what made the band work, why they made so many brilliant songs with prince, but if you look at black album and lovesexy, he was going for a more groove based thing, less about melody. [Edited 11/30/20 7:38am] | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
She was talking about the hysteria and the mass cult following. New Breed Fan Club. Not the band format. . Wendy fell in love with Prince music when she heard Soft n Wet, so I don't know about that. She also loved Hip Hop. . Prince was also more Joni than James . Yes, Sheila E said she didn't like the music direction in the 88-89 period. She said there was no melody.
| |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Did a bit of googling and there's this reference on princevault | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
OldFriends4Sale said:
She was talking about the hysteria and the mass cult following. New Breed Fan Club. Not the band format. . Wendy fell in love with Prince music when she heard Soft n Wet, so I don't know about that. She also loved Hip Hop. . Prince was also more Joni than James . Yes, Sheila E said she didn't like the music direction in the 88-89 period. She said there was no melody.
No she was talking about the band structure . If it was the mania, what would being an 'overblown rnb band' have to do with that?? Tbh I get that disappointment too, the idea of settling for tradition (big rnb band format) rather than trying new things (which the Beatles did in their peak period) | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
No she wasn't, she was talking about the mania. Unless she was in the band to know how they functioned, she wouldn't be able to compare. Prince & the Revolution ruled the world, like the Beatles.
Exactly the band formation had nothing to do with it. Of course, nothing done on the Parade tour was "RnB" comparison, she was talking about the focus on dancing, and the run through, over the deeper presentation of the music.
Can you look at the Parade tour run and see an 'RnB' set?
1. Around The World In A Day | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
lol at you being so insistent that she was talking about the mania. unless she wasnt in the band to know how they worked, she cant comment? honestly? you dont think there was enough written about the beatles by the late 80s, the most famous band in the world, to know how they worked? LOL. pretty sure she understood. the songs werent 100% RNB but its pretty clear, if you read alan or eric leeds, or any critics of the time, to know the 86 tour was more R&B in both presentation and sound. it was horn based - no prince band before was. it was a much more expansive band, like the big rnb bands of the 70s were. the 84 band (not including the encores) were much more contained, it was a smaller unit, like most rock bands were. up to 86, princes bands were small. so the comment was clearly about what kind of band it was turning into, what kind of show they were presenting, NOT the fame or the mania. idk why you are denying what is so obvious here. | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
The problem is we only ever hear what they gave to or did for him and not the other way around or them getting way more credit for certain things then what it really was. You really think a black kid from mpls with a jazz musician father never heard jazz? or a person from the midwest never heard the beatles or joni mitchell? Most of their contributions were remixes at best to stuff that already existed. Now whether they were good or not depends on the listener or who you like or what kinda music you prefer.
Music is a young man's sport. Once you get to a certain age or a place in life, you're going to be less creative as you were in your younger years. He also wasn't having the same experiences as he did as a young adult...cause that's how life works. That doesnt't meant he wasn't still making good music. H just wasn't cutting edge or quote unquote innovating anymore and that's ok. Prince's music was ALWAYS art despite the purpose and regardless of whether or not you liked it. | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
That isn't true. They never said Prince never heard of jazz. They said they took him to a jazz club. Very different. Not to mention if anyone understands the relationship Prince had with his father, it wasn't the 'hey son come sit with me and let me teach you/show you my life' Prince said himself his father would not let him come see him perform and Prince had to sneak out one time to see him. | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Post the quote
If you were present and following Prince in 1984-85 and realize what was happening you would understand she was talking about the mania and the creative scene that WAS happening. | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
wilmer said: Wendy and Lisa enriched Prince's vision just as Dez and Eric. Some of these experiments yielded great tunes, others not so great. But Prince also hipped Wendy and Lisa to the funk. So, I guess it was a symbiotic relationship. However, Prince transcended this period, albeit with mixed results, while Wendy and Lisa, well, they sorta tanked
Not only Wendy & Lisa. Morris Day, Brownmark, Appolonia, you name them... None of them had much success without Prince. W&L's first two albums were quite succesful in Europe, Waterfall, Lolly Lolly and Are You My Baby were hits. But a lot of that was because people remembered them from the Revolution. But it also proves that the influence went both ways: without Prince, W&L would never have been as funky as they were on Fruit at the Bottom. And the most succesful Prince protegé of them all, Sheila E, would never even have thought of making solo albums if it wasn't for Prince. [Edited 12/6/20 8:57am] If you take any of this seriously, you're a bigger fool than I am. | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Sheila Escovedo was not a protégé; she was a successful musician with her own career long before she ever met Prince. "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Well technically she was a protege. She was Sheila Escovedo before 1984. And Sheila E dressing as Prince styled her, made her up to resemble him, and doing Prince music under his direction, look, sound, label etc
Yes she was a musician before Prince. If she just did a song or two with/by Prince then, like Sheanna Easton it would be different. But from 1984-1989 she was his protege.
| |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
I disagree, Wendy and Lisa have won awards for their work. Soundtracks and movie scores. They are very successful. They never wanted to be frontmen overall. I think everyone whose been in a band or group have taken a step out front to do a song, album or two. New Edition. They all did an album outside of the group. But their success was with New Edition (accept for Bobby Brown)
I think Morris had a pretty succesfully run for a bit, with the sitcome roles and continuation as a an entertainer. Maybe he didn't want huge success, but Morris is living good. Andre Cymone had huge success as a producer for Jody Whatley. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were having success outside of Prince while with Prince, and when they left it took off as producers.
Apollonia was never an technical protege, Prince knew she was only signing on to full fill the movie role contract. Vanity on the other hand, might not have been a HUGE move/acting star, but she had more longterm success than Prince.
Yes the magic was Prince tapping into the individuals and exuding that synergy. But as you see, after 1987 that never happened again, with any other proteges and Prince. | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Let's be real though, how do you have two record industry heiress types in your band that group up with celebrities just hanging around, and you're not open to their ideas, and you don't get exposed to the vast privileged musical upbringing they had? Seriously. How do you think that makes Prince sound?
He did some of his most experimentic music with that band or immediately after...maybe give Prince credit for who he put together then? He was just leaving his childhood friends band, he could have worked with anyone, and he didn't pick the best players, so maybe he knew what he was doing and picked people who inspired him to push the envelop? Lisa's thing was playing textureds and weird ethereal fills. He liked it, he knew how to add that to what he'd started doing already..and then knew how to give him clay to mold. He would jam and give his band a lot of freedom...and we've heard "on the downbeat, no not that one, try another....not that one either...that's not ours....keep that going, "E"......where are my horns?".
As for turning someone on to music. Come on, it was a big deal to buy a record and these girls had access to 1 of the 3 biggest catalogs of the era, and every new record they wanted. It's in their blood. You might know the Beatles, or some other popular band, but then someone comes along and really plays it for you, and really opens you up to it in a new way. Maybe you know the hits, but you don't know Rubber Soul.
Yeah some white girls with money in LA might have got excited about different music than Prince when they went into a Tower Records on tour...and yeah, Prince had the depth to hang out with his girlfriend and her sister and pick up on some of it because it was music he felt inspired by. Kind of insulting to Prince to think otherwise. Also insulting to think the period Prince was inspired by people around him and new music when he made Parade or ATWIAD. He had some ideas cooking long before he met W & L but these are people he spent time with...like, 4 members of the W&L family worked on ATWIAD, how is it even a discussion? If the made the beat for Mountains, it was informed by Prince and what they thought Prince liked, and it used Prince's own sounds....but they're still musicians composing elements of a song in that case. [Edited 12/6/20 19:51pm] | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
As far as the Led Zeppelin thing is concerned, I've always felt the lyric on "Raspberry Beret": "She walked in through the out door, out door" was a reference to their 1979 LP "In Through The Out Door"...their final studio album before their disbandment in late 1980 due to the passing of drummer John Bonham. [Edited 12/15/20 7:16am] Exiles of the Nation
"Liquidation", the NEW 18th LP. Available everywhere now. https://youtube.com/chann...-ieACvEQMA | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
I see this all of sudden revisionist history of Wendy & Lisa as a part of today's very "Woman Powered", "Girl Powered", "LGBTQ", "Representationalism" centered media...mixed in with the fact that Prince is dead, and his vault is generating sales for The Estate. I'm not trying to be cynical or Anti-Wendy&Lisa here. Wendy & Lisa come from a very connected white families within the Los Angeles Music Community. Susannah worked for David Geffen for god's sake, and was auditioning to sing for Quincy Jones before she decamped to Minneapolis, and all things Prince, following her sister and Lisa. I respect W&L (and Susannah), but I absolutely LOATHE their post April 21, 2016 version of their relationship with Prince. Almost as much as I loathe Sheila's version of events. These are all talented people and they were in Prince's camp for a reason. But for them to act like they showed Prince how to use a knife and a fork, and Miles Davis, and all of this other stuff like he was just some ghetto savant, who wasn't playing with his own image by employing them in the first place...just makes me want to vomit. I also can't stand looking at "The Revolution", minus Prince doing their "T.G.I.F." version of their time in Prince's employ. Prince was very prolific during the 80's, I'm not trying to diminish the contributions of any of these musicians, but the way that the Sign O' The Times SDE version was rolled out, as "The Lost Prince & The Revolution" album, born of this 3 headed monster that was Prince, W&L is just obnoxious. Again...these are two very well connected women from L.A., that grew up surrounded by the music industry. Does their existence/contribution make for better "copy" for all the magazines, newspapers, etc. to run with THEIR CUDDLY "Prince as E.T.", version on EVERY reissue coming within the scope of their employ? To ME, it looks like it., because mainly I was a Prince fan before Wendy and Lisa were "a thing", I was a fan of Wendy and Lisa after they left, and I can guarantee you...98% of these W&L Johnny Come Lately's are "I'm With Her" carpetbaggers who need to attach this sort of petty "represenatationalism" all over everything in sight (think of the "Live Love Laugh" sign) so that they can see that this to is a safe space, and they are free to spend their money and revise history IN SPITE OF the Jill Jones-es, the Sheila E.'s-es, that were providing the same sort of feminine energy for Prince before, during and after Wendy & Lisa's time of employment. Or how about the influence that Morris, Andre & Dez had on Prince? It's a miserably cheap deflection from a true Icons talent focusing on just a period during his rise and reign as a Pop Star. Prince is more complex than these kinds of Jane Goodall puff pieces that they can't seem to stop finding themselves in the middle of, with the help of the estate, The Current, and every other writer who can see the money train that surrounds the Purple Rain era. Don’t Say, “Damn”, Just Say, “Whoa” | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
| |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Huh? W&L's version of Prince has pretty much stayed the same post 2016 as it was before that, albeit they're now a bit freer to talk about him than they were before. And they were doing "Girl Powered", "LGBTQ", "Representationalism" centered music in the late 80s. | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
What are you talking about, W&L weren't "out" in the 80's. You can't assume anything isn't "showbiz" in the Prince world, until you hear differently. Until W&L came out in the late 90's, I never knew they were LGBTQ. I thought that Eroica jumped the gun on Sheryl Crow's Tuesday Night Music Club big time, and is tremendously slept on. Don’t Say, “Damn”, Just Say, “Whoa” | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Their music and image just screams gay is all. I suppose it's a bit George Michael or Freddie Mercury, its all so blatant once you know but it might never occur to you before. | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
We don’t mourn artists because we knew them. We mourn them because they helped us know ourselves. | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Yeah, that sounds about right... I remember kids dissing the Beatles when Elton John came out with his version of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds." That old band?! Elton does it so much better! "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
But are the questions starting to get a little mixed here? | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
. Sure, buddy. © Bart Van Hemelen
This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties, and confers no rights. It is not authorized by Prince or the NPG Music Club. You assume all risk for your use. All rights reserved. | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
. Also worked with Joni Mitchell and Grace Jones and plenty other artists. . © Bart Van Hemelen
This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties, and confers no rights. It is not authorized by Prince or the NPG Music Club. You assume all risk for your use. All rights reserved. | |
- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |