I was wondering if Prince was still a part of the Revolution when the BATMAN soundtrack was created, or did he already split for the NPG?

OfficerShockadelica said:

Neither. Batman, for the most part was a solo effort. The credits might list some past or future band members, but it was in between the Revolution and before the actual use of the "NPG" as the name of his band.

Oh, I see.

Yeah, I can understand that now. Thanks for clearing that up LSXIT1.

Then that's sorta cool that Prince did the entirety of the soundtrack by himself. I'm not sure if any other artist could do that. THanks again.

Yeah...he was "still" with the Lovesexy Band although there was never an "officail" band with that name. I can see plenty of reasons for this. I do believe he did it solo as I think it needed to be made quickly (hence some of the sloppy production and songwriting). He was still touring for Lovesexy when Batman came out.

Actually the Lovesexy tour ended on February 12, 1989.

The Batman soundtrack was released June 20, 1989, 3 days before the movie. So he had a few months to throw it together.

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

I still think the Lovesexy band was the original nameless NPG. Levi had it on his back and his bass and when Prince called for "New Power" they gave it to him good!

EverlastingNow said:

Agreed!

I don't have the liner notes with me... were any of the Lovesexy band members involved with the Batman soundtrack?

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

thats a good question.

sosgemini said:

Eric and Bliss played on Trust and Miko later claimed that some of his licks were used on Partyman.

Acording to Uptown...he was ask by Tim Burton to do the soundtrack at the tail end of the Lovesexy tour. He wanted to cancell the last Japaneese gigs to work on it, but was talked out of it. Onece those were done he went to work on the songs and presented them with an album full of songs. So it was solo...for most of it.

I think I can remember some articles back in the day saying that he recorded it in just one week. Wether that means he wrote-played-recorded the songs just in one week (that would be very impressive, but Prince is almost never sleeping and he is the one...) or he just recorded it in one week having written all the songs before...
anyone having a clue on this?

Anyway, if the oneweek option is correct then that almost neessarily imply a solo project.
It ould also explain the homogenity of the album.

spx said:

I know some of them were already in the vault like Partyman. I'm sure The Vault has some info on this, but I don't have the book.

The Revolution broke up in 1986. The Sign O' The Times and Lovesexy band with Sheila E and Cat was never namned. The NPG started in 1990. Batman was recorded solo by Prince alone in the studio.

It might be even that the only songs really written exclusively for the project were "The Future", "Vicki Waiting" and "Batdance".

Novabreaker said:

Vicky Waiting was a re-write as well. It used to be Anna Waiting,
written for Anna Garcia's 18th birthday or something.

I always wondered what the original first two verses were like
in the original song.

I think they may have been pretty darn fantastic since the one
that remained the same after the re-write


talk of children still frightens me
is my character enough to be
one that deserves a copy made?
this on one day, I hope to see

OfficerShockadelica said:

Where have you been? Prince does the majority of his music on all his albums by himself, his bands are mostly used for touring and don't usually have too much input into his albums, apart from the odd bit here and there or if it's originally from some live jam.

And in a way, Prince didn't do all the 'soundtrack' himself, since only 2 or 3 song snippets were used in the film - most of it was orchestral music which was released on a seperate album by Danny Elfman. Prince's album is at most music used in, but mostly just inspired by, the film.

rudeboynpg said:

Try reading the liner notes.

metalorange said:

I know that, but I guess I forgot for "BATMAN." Whenever I listen to it, I'd always been under the impression that it was done with a band.

OfficerShockadelica said:

Funny, if there's one album that I'd say sounds most like Prince on his own in a studio, I'd pick Batman. The drums sound very drum-programmed throughout, there's a lot of synth work - nothing live sounding.

IstenSzek said:

I really should keep myself updated. But I'm not buing the vault book when I can't even really afford to feed myself properly at the moment.