jaawwnn said:

Genesia said:

All you have to do is listen to the early early bootleg of Kiss with just Prince and his guitar to know it's the song, not what Mazerati did with it, that's great.

And they never would have had the kind of hit with it that Prince did - so thank goodness he took it back. (Even though I maintain to this day that the song is out of place on Parade.)

Oh I don't know, you could go a lot of directions with that Prince demo, I think they did a lot with it. How far they would have went I don't know, it's certainly not finished in the Mazarati version we have and Prince's finishing touches make it genius rather than very good.

[Edited 3/11/21 10:46am]

Agree. Mark/Mazarati/David Z did a lot with that song. It was literally just a 1-3-5 blues. Prince brought it over the top, but people should get credited for their contributions.

Genesia said:

Think of it this way (just for shits and giggles):

1. Prince gives a groove, ditty or a type of rough melody to Mazerati

2. They work on it and make it pretty good

3. He takes it back because he now recognizes it's potential

4. This song had meaningful contributions made by several musicians

5. Subtract costs to run Paisley etc

6. Pro-rate a fair percentage.

7. GOOD KARMA...priceless

[Edited 3/12/21 17:40pm]

[Edited 3/12/21 18:22pm]

endiadj said:

All these people claiming credit for Prince's songs, why didn't they sue him for credit? Were they that afraid of him or maybe their claims are a bit exaggerated.

Prince had more money, lawyers, power.

Levi Seacer did sue.

Sandra St Victor had a similar situation and said she did not have the same resources to sue.

FrankieCoco1 said:

He gave Mazarati 100mph, that was how he complimented/paid for contributions. Did it many times over the years.

He should have given them appropriate credit for Kiss which was a block-buster hit. 100 MPH not even close.

Margot said:

FrankieCoco1 said:

He gave Mazarati 100mph, that was how he complimented/paid for contributions. Did it many times over the years.

He should have given them appropriate credit for Kiss which was a block-buster hit. 100 MPH not even close.

Artists need to be compensated for the work they do, not what someone randomly decides to give them instead. Prince would not have tolerated what he did to Mazerati. There are laws about this.

[Edited 3/27/21 0:19am]

Margot said:

Margot said:

He should have given them appropriate credit for Kiss which was a block-buster hit. 100 MPH not even close.

Artists need to be compensated for the work they do, not what someone randomly decides to give them instead. Prince would not have tolerated what he did to Mazerati. There are laws about this.

[Edited 3/27/21 0:19am]

They were his employee's and not solo artists. Big difference.

Margot said:

Margot said:

He should have given them appropriate credit for Kiss which was a block-buster hit. 100 MPH not even close.

Artists need to be compensated for the work they do, not what someone randomly decides to give them instead. Prince would not have tolerated what he did to Mazerati. There are laws about this.

[Edited 3/27/21 0:19am]

Is that so? Well, then why didn't Mark just take it to the court? I mean, obviously that law is in his favor, isn't it? If he had credible proof that he made kiss, then I'm sure he would've been able to settle this issue with legal actions, right?

ThatWhiteDude said:

Margot said:

Artists need to be compensated for the work they do, not what someone randomly decides to give them instead. Prince would not have tolerated what he did to Mazerati. There are laws about this.

[Edited 3/27/21 0:19am]

Is that so? Well, then why didn't Mark just take it to the court? I mean, obviously that law is in his favor, isn't it? If he had credible proof that he made kiss, then I'm sure he would've been able to settle this issue with legal actions, right?

Obviously, suing Prince is an expensive proposition. Probably not worth it to try. We should acknowlege the power differntials when we have these conversations.

That said nearly everry musician who worked with Prince on the regular talks about how Prince would lift their riffs or things they wrote.

PennyPurple said:

Margot said:

Artists need to be compensated for the work they do, not what someone randomly decides to give them instead. Prince would not have tolerated what he did to Mazerati. There are laws about this.

[Edited 3/27/21 0:19am]

They were his employee's and not solo artists. Big difference.

.

Prince was a Warner Brothers employee. (sure, talk about work for hire and employment contracts, but he had a contract that said that everything he recorded was for Warner Brothers. Close enough for me) Sure didn't stop him complaining about the deal he got. The band members never complained about songs being released under the Prince or "Prince and the whatever" name. However, writing credits, which are separate from artist, solo or not, are about the song, not about who performs it. The bands did get performer credits where they performed, but the songwriting credits (oddly enough the credits that pay more) were hardly ever shared by Prince. Not in the album credits, not in the actual registrations (which is the important one).

.

Prince was an asshole and extremely generous person, often at the same time. Doesn't mean that nobody got screwed over by him.

.

As to Kiss, the released track is the Mazarati track with several Prince vocal tracks and guitar added and a number of things (including bass) removed. It is the clearest entry where Prince didn't share credit appropriately. Not sure who deserved more credit, but it's more of a collaboration than most Prince tracks.

[Edited 3/28/21 2:48am]

Peggy MCreary was the engineer and commented on this already. It's on the recent interview held @

Sunset Sound.

Margot said:

The latest episode of Sinnik22's Youtube series on Prince discusses this very incident in detail, including clips of the original demo and the changes that were made by all involved parties (starting at 15:33). It sounds a lot like what was alleged in the interview honestly. Check out Prince's last words in the clip and tell him if he sounds serious.

This is awesome series by the way, it should be heavily featured on the org.

WHEN PRINCE & EVERYBODY WROTE KISS

https://youtu.be/CG8YkPRwT-g

[Edited 4/7/21 7:53am]

guys i have a question,did Brown Mark made such a claim that he co wrote Kiss while Prince was alive?

thebanishedone said:

guys i have a question,did Brown Mark made such a claim that he co wrote Kiss while Prince was alive?

I don't think publically, but likely his friends/associates were aware.

I bet he was fearful to open that can of worms w/NDA's and Prince's litigious proclivities.

Margot said:

I forgot to mention Wendy,Lisa, Jesse in the list of complainants.

I know that not every riff or groove qualifies for credit, but I get the real sense that

many of these musicians contributed quite a bit that was not properly acknowledged.

[Edited 2/20/21 10:52am]

Agreed. I'm not so blinded by my love for Prince to exclude the contributions of other musicians to some of his best work.