Prince has credited himself as Jamie Starr, Alexander Nevermind, Cristopher Tracy and many others because when he was involved in the creation of other peoples music. This is a fact that I have just recently found out and I was very Intrigued by this. I was also releived cause I would always here a song and think, damm I know this is Prince, then when I would look to see if he was credited I would'nt see his name, this drove me crazy for years. In an article I found on the net I found out that Prince has used many names while credting himself for artists like Sheila E, The Time, Kenny Rogers, The Bangles, Vanity 6 etc. etc. I assume he did this to give the artist the credit and help them to further their careers. The thing that amazes me the most is that he would humble himself in such a way. I could see him doing this later on in his career before he had made such a name for himself, but I believe he started doing this before The Purple Rain days, when he REALLY made a name for himself. I think the fact that he did this is a definate testiment that the artist didn't have the huge ego that some of the press would have liked us to believe. I'm interested in anymore information on this subject, so if you have any please post! Oh, and I've also seen credits on The Time and Sheila E works that said, Produced by The Starr Company. I think that it is safe to assume that this is Prince but would just like some more validation. Thanks for taking the time out to read my thread!
[This message was edited Wed Mar 13 18:46:18 PST 2002 by electra]

The alter egos, masquerades, and pseudonyms are (collectively) one of my favorite aspects of Prince's career. I'd love it if he tried something along the lines of Madhouse or Camille again. When he's allowed a facet of his personality to grow into a fleshed-out character -- for musical purposes -- he's achieved brilliant results. You could argue that the "Morris Day" persona is a particularly long-lived example. It gets even more interesting when he deals with them as separate people (e.g. "Jamie Starr is a thief" in "DMSR," and "Bob George."). I don't have any solid information about the various songwriting/production pseudonyms, but I'd guess you could find something in one of the FAQs.

p.s. The Purple Rain "error"!?

Yeah. Its true. He did write numerous songs under pseudo names, even long before the Purple Rain days. When we were in high school, it was difficult to know for sure which songs he wrote. We would hear a song that sounded like Prince's music, but one way to know for sure was through the publishing credits, "Controversy Music". That always remained he same. No one can say for sure, but I believe it was because he wanted the music to become popular on its own merit. The greatness of the song got it to the top of the charts and not its affiliation with Prince. There are a couple of books published regarding his discography.The best source right now, however, is his website NPGmusicclub. He doesnt leave anyone out and there are a couple of suprises.

Great Question and comment.

Icarus said:

Madhouse, thats one I don't know. Could you tell me anymore about him?

Madhouse was made up of The Revolution and Sheila E's band. they were in between jobs so Prince decided to create a couple of "new age" jazz albums(no vocals). He even consulted with the legendary Miles davis for advise. He called the band Madhouse. Im not sure of the entire band, but

Drums: Sheila E.
Saxaphone: Erick Leads
Keyboards: Dr. Fink
All other instruments played by Prince.

(3) Albums released. Each track/song was given a number. Starting with Number 1. They are some tight albums. Very difficult to find.

Madhouse is the name of the band, not an individual.
[This message was edited Wed Mar 13 19:08:03 PST 2002 by Fonkay31]

Fonkay31 said:

Thanks for the comment. Checked out the Discography on NPGclub. I noticed Sinaed O'Conner was not there hmmm. if she was left out there must be a possibility that Mr. Prince (the genius) worked with more artists then that! Oh and Cyndi Lauoper just came to mind she covered When you were mine! Thats a COVER. It would be cool if they had all the songs that were covered (that were written by prince)!

The coolest thing about the Madhouse albums as it relates to this topic was how they came out with almost no promotion and no overt evidence of Prince's involvement. True, Madhouse was not an actual alter ego of Prince, but it's a classic example of purposefully disguising his contribution to a project to the point of anonymity.

What's interesting is,in a 1982 interview,Prince denied that he was Jamie Starr.He said "One,my real name is Prince...two,I'm not gay....three,I'm not Jamie Starr".

He lied about not being Jamie Starr,so how can we believe him when he says that he is not gay??? (JUST KIDDING FOLKS)