In March's MOJO (p30), Jill Scott is interviewed for the 'Last Night a Record Changed My Life' feature with Parade.

Jill's Princely Pageant
How mid-'80s Prince did it for Jill Scott.

{{{"It's the clearest definition of creative freedom I have ever heard. I was 16 and went to see the film Under The Cherry Moon and fell in love. The soundtrack went from rock to computerised blues to jazz to pop and classical. I grew up listening to jazz and blues, to Ella Fitzgerald, Hendrix, and sure, I loved Bach and Mozart. But Prince came along and amalgamated them al.l. The writing was so descriptive and colourful. I used to stay up and listen to the album over and over again on headphones. When eeveryone else was outside playing and running about on a Saturday afternoon I'd be locked in my bedroom or sat on the porch listening to the LP, and I'd be immediately transported away from all the problems in my neighbourhood to the French Riviera, where the movie is set."}}}

"Prince uses so many different vocal tones and that was a real beginning for me. His voice would change to accomodate the story, the lyrics - something I chose to do with my music. Any poet, singer, writer wants to live in the moment of each and every song and this is the method by which to do it. He switches Anotherloverholenyohead to a song like Do U Lie (sings), 'When I lie awake at night in my boudoir' and automatically the sun comes out, the rays shine through the window, the room becomes light. The track Christopher Tracey's Parade taught me a new sense of rhythm. Using a computer he created a different heart rhythm. You don't listen to that song, you fall inside it and become it. He added car sounds - I mean, who did that in those days? And he sings like he never planned a thing, like they play the music and he's not sure how it's going to go. He just opens his mouth and starts to sing. It doesn't feel rehearsed but fresh, full of life.

It's a classic album and lyrically an inspiration. He's capable of being a very personal writer but he's also very skilled. When you listen to the music the picture is always clear, the imagination is provoked - that's the kind of writer I want to be. Like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, he makes forever music.

The instrumentation is wonderful. He had a computer create the sound but didn't falsify it by pretending it's another instrument. He chose to play a computer as itself! His guitar - how he would go from being rock and out-there to strong and immediately change the sound to sensitive and loving and soft - that is brilliance. I don't know if the music was a genuine reflection of a part of his life or a fictional creation, but quite honestly I don't care because I feel it regardless. I feel blessed just listening to this record." Interview by Lois Wilson

Soundtrack to the film which followed Purple Rain in the Prince canon, it (UTCM) built on the winning mix of psychedelic whimsy and pop intelligence of preceding album Around The World In A Day. It spawned his third Number 1 single, the sexy, sensuous funk song Kiss.

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In the editorial of THE FACE (UK, March 2002), they include some of the things that would have normally been left out of the magazine. The two Princely ones are:

• According to director Kevin Smith, Prince once hired him to make a movie of fans reacting to tracks from his new album while holed up in group session rooms in Paisley Park stuidios. Smith says that the movie will never be released - it was for Prince's private collection. Prince can also record music from his toilet - he has a link from the bathroom to the studio.
  
• Prince also reprimanded Kevin Smith for his use of bad language in his movies. He said that Kevin made people feel uncomfortable by swearing so much.
  

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That's it, and viva Prince.org 2.0!

I hear Prince is a big Jill Scott fan. Let's cross our fingers...

Rumor has it that they have worked on a song on Commons new album, but I'm not sure if they actually worked on it at the same time.

Hi Chris!

It makes my heart glad to read that someone in todays system is actually letting everyone else know that Prince has been the influence in her life. I listened to Dirty Mind and actually heard the message, I was very bitter, filled with hatred for a different race, and the album made me look within myself and ask my self, Am I really thinking for myself or am I a product of my invironment (society) I had to admit that most of my views and dislikes came from without and not from within, and for that I am Truly Grateful. It opened up a part of me that has kept me free since. Thanks Prince and thanks Jill for sharing.

The whole of this Mojo article was reported here only 3 days ago!

See http://www.prince.org/msg...1&tid=9034

A simple search under 'Mojo' would have revealed this and saved Chris the bother of having to type out the entire article.

That's my exact point about Under the Cherry Moon...

I love it, but in no other movie is the music so critical to enjoyment of a movie, and vice versa.


Some time ago, I saw Under the Cherry Moon, and I thought, what a waste of my time.

Then a while later I listened to the soundtrack, and I thought, this stuff is really weird.

Now though, I find the movie and the soundtrack are perfect for each other, and it's now one of my fave soundtracks. Course the movie is not Oscar material, but I give it points for style.

What's really amazing about Parade is that Prince dissed it a few years after it came out. Yet there are people out there whose lives were touched by it in a very positive way.

This new site design sucks (no offense). It's too busy and a pain in the ass. There is such a thing as overdoing it. See ya!

Kelly sucks. Back to the topic-

I think Prince dissed "Around the World" but not Parade. I am not a huge fan of parade, I hated "Life Can Be So Nice", Mountains was just OK, Do you Lie was silly, Christoper Tracy was Around the World part 2. I did like New position, Venus De Milo, Girls and Boys, Anotherlover, Kiss and Sometimes It Snows. It was better than ATWIADAY but not near his best work. Too Beatlesque and not enough funk.

I may suck, but I do it well, and when I'm not, at least I know what I'm talking about. Direct Prince quote:

"The trouble with Parade is that I wrote it too soon after Around the World in a Day. I won't make that mistake again."

Sounds like a diss to me.

kellyanns right, and if she sucks well I want a go.

I also read in RS that he said that after ATWIADay and I said you suck cause every friggin link has you bitching about the new site. Would you rather they didn't do it at all? I don't think they make any money on this, unlike everything else Prince does these days, and I appreciate the site no matter what it looks like.