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Thread started 09/05/04 7:29pm

EcstaticFanati
c

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? of Parade...?

I vaguely remember hearing something about Parade originally being intended as a 2-disc album.

Was the idea canned before recording began, or are the songs from the lost 2nd disc floating around in studio quality somewhere in the aether ?
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Reply #1 posted 09/05/04 10:56pm

jonylawson

no it never was tho there is alot of outakes circulating that could of made a double
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Reply #2 posted 09/06/04 12:18am

Moonwalkbjrain

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EcstaticFanatic said:

I vaguely remember hearing something about Parade originally being intended as a 2-disc album.

Was the idea canned before recording began, or are the songs from the lost 2nd disc floating around in studio quality somewhere in the aether ?


hell it shoulda been a two disk..get charade u'll c what i mean.
Yesterday is dead...tomorrow hasnt arrived yet....i have just ONE day...
...And i'm gonna be groovy in it!
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Reply #3 posted 09/06/04 1:40am

TheKid

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I think you've read the review from Allmusic:

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Undaunted by the criticism Around the World in a Day received, Prince continued to pursue his psychedelic inclinations on Parade, which also functioned as the soundtrack to his second film, Under the Cherry Moon. Originally conceived as a double album, Parade has the sprawling feel of a double record, even if it clocks in around 45 minutes. Prince and the Revolution shift musical moods and textures from song to song — witness how the fluttering psychedelia of "Christopher Tracy's Parade" gives way to the spare, jazzy funk of "New Position," which morphs into the druggy "I Wonder U" — and they're determined not to play it safe, even on the hard funk of "Girls and Boys" and "Mountains," as well as the stunning "Kiss," which hits hard with just a dry guitar, keyboard, drum machine, and layered vocals. All of the group's musical adventures, even the cabaret-pop of "Venus de Milo" and "Do U Lie?," do nothing to undercut the melodicism of the record, and the amount of ground they cover in 12 songs is truly remarkable. Even with all of its attributes, Parade is a little off-balance, stopping too quickly to give the haunting closer, "Sometimes It Snows in April," the resonance it needs. For some tastes, it may also be a bit too lyrically cryptic, but Prince's weird religious and sexual metaphors develop into a motif that actually gives the album weight. If it had been expanded to a double album, Parade would have equaled the subsequent Sign O' the Times, but as it stands, it's an astonishingly rewarding near-miss.


There are lots of 85/86 outtakes to be found in great quality, but I haven't seen a 2lp tracklist... cool



Life's what u make it, stop whining baby
Love comes 2 those who care...


Prince - A Place In Heaven
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Reply #4 posted 09/06/04 2:34am

Novabreaker

There probably were some plans to make it into a double album, as probably with Prince's all post 82 output. I don't think it was ever as seriously considered as with the various The Dream Factory projects.
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Reply #5 posted 09/06/04 2:45am

BorisFishpaw

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Parade was NEVER intended to be a double album, despite what that reviewer said.

I expect he's got his facts mixed up with the Dream Factory project, which WAS going to be
a double album (had it ever been released). There was certainly enough material in the way
of Parade outtakes for a double album, but then that's true of almost any Prince album.
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Reply #6 posted 09/06/04 7:08am

madhouseman

BorisFishpaw said:

Parade was NEVER intended to be a double album, despite what that reviewer said.

I expect he's got his facts mixed up with the Dream Factory project, which WAS going to be
a double album (had it ever been released). There was certainly enough material in the way
of Parade outtakes for a double album, but then that's true of almost any Prince album.


I agree with Boris, PARADE was never intended as a double album, at least by tracks alone. The line up was:
Wendy's Parade
New Position
I wonder U
UTCM
Others Here with Us
Life Can Be So Nice
Sometimes it Snows In April
Old Friends 4 Sale
All My Dreams

Most of these were recorded within the last two weeks before this configuration, but this is the first assembly, and this is a single disk worth of stuff. The only thing that article may have meant is that it was to be a double album, like 1999 which had 11 songs that Prince divided among 4 sides. Perhaps that is what the reviewer meant because I have never heard that it was supposed to be two disks.
The expanded version of my book PRINCE and The Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions 1983-1984 was released in November 2018. (www.amazon.com/gp/product/1538114623/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0) or www.facebook.com/groups/1...104195943/
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Reply #7 posted 09/06/04 4:33pm

EcstaticFanati
c

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I want to thank all ya'll for your input.

I remember how disappointed I was when I found out the band Live's "Distance to Here" record was intended as a double album, and that the 2nd disc had in fact been recorded in the studio, never to be released. Live fans were lucky enough to mysteriously receive three or so of these songs via the internet.

However, I'm not so disappointed in this case. I think Parade is perfect how it is.

I really love this record, it has a very personal place with me. I enjoy playing it the most on my off days in my car when I choose to get up early in the mornin' on a beautiful day, dress the hell up, and go embark on a leisurely, funky 'parade' all my own. It's just such a crisp, clean record- I don't see it so much as a chronicle of the events of the movie, personally. But rather, it sort of envokes the feel I get from the setting and characters. It's a very crisp, luxurious, free-spirited, rambunctiously funky affair.

Also, there's a small quiet shopping center near my house modeled after a French plaza. Everything's white, there's fountains and plants- it reminds me of Under the Cherry Moon. I love to go in a snazzy suit and sit and drink coffee while listening to Parade on my earphones, write, and dream of my own fantasy Tracy-esque (...or Tricky-esque..?) adventures in money, honey, pomp, and circumstance.

I know, it's indulgent, but hey- we all have a little Christopher Tracy in us- and that part tells me "indulge"!

Anyway, I'll have to hear these outtakes someday. But in retrospect, I think I like Parade just fine the way it is.

Now when it comes to Dream Factory, I own the Crystal Ball collection, and remember hearing something about that... was it a song on there, or does Crystal Ball contain the 'remnants' of Dream Factory..?
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Reply #8 posted 09/06/04 9:14pm

mrdespues

You should seriously get the "Music From The Motion Picture, Under The Cherry Moon" bootleg compilation which features all of Parade, plus the extended version of the singles and b-sides and also other Parade-era tracks in a wonderful sequence.

I'd love to help you out with it, but my burner is down right now...

shrug
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Reply #9 posted 09/07/04 6:16pm

EcstaticFanati
c

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Moonwalkbjrain said:

EcstaticFanatic said:

I vaguely remember hearing something about Parade originally being intended as a 2-disc album.

Was the idea canned before recording began, or are the songs from the lost 2nd disc floating around in studio quality somewhere in the aether ?


hell it shoulda been a two disk..get charade u'll c what i mean.



Charade...? What 'n where is this ..?
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Reply #10 posted 09/07/04 6:17pm

EcstaticFanati
c

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mrdespues said:

You should seriously get the "Music From The Motion Picture, Under The Cherry Moon" bootleg compilation which features all of Parade, plus the extended version of the singles and b-sides and also other Parade-era tracks in a wonderful sequence.

I'd love to help you out with it, but my burner is down right now...

shrug



Damn, this sounds cool... I can't believe I've never heard of this stuff before now...
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