Jerky said:

Fischer http://www.clarefischer.com/


He was born and I believe he lives in the US


The Lovesexy tour performance has only officially been released on the VHS video and LaserDisc.

.

I don't know if the music for the 'Cross the Line' Lovesexy tour segue is on one of Fischer's own albums - but essentially that segue with the dialogue has never been released on a proper album.

Clare Fischer's music always seemed to complement Prince's beautifully. I wonder when was the last time he recorded music for Prince?

Clare Fisher was one of the worst mistakes Prince ever made.

vainandy said:

No way! Some of my favourite Prince songs have Clare's orchestra, he really added to Prince's work.

The music used in Lovesexy 88 is also partly used in the DVD Rave Unto The Year 2000 - just before he plays 'Nothing Compares 2 U'when he's messing with the 'BATMOBILE PIANO'. I must get these albums.

I think their best moment together are the strings right before the drums climax in Crystal Ball. Prince recorded the lines on keyboard I think and the strings then make it to one of my favorite Prince moments.

calldapplwondery83 said:

Yeah, I love Crystal Ball too and the strings have a lot to do with it.

Yeah they work well together. He's never actually met Prince, i seem to recall reading on here.

vainandy said:

How so?

Jerky said:

Clare Fisher is the f***** man. Wicked!!!

My fav P/Clare song is Screams Of Passion

Yes, dont forget the orchestra Clare Fischer arranged for Princes side-projects:

- The Family - Screams of Passion
- The Family - River Run Dry
- The Family - Nothing compare to you, the best arrangement for this song ever released in my opinion, a shame that St Paul dude ruins it, that guy couldnt sing, Prince should have sung it himselve
- Jill Jones - Mia Bocca (see my earlier post about this song)
- Jill Jones - Violet Blue (a song that reminds of Paris and Marlene Ditrich )
- Jill Jones - Baby youre a trip

And when it comes to the songs released by Prince himselve:
- Crystall Ball: a creepy, dreamlike cut, strengthened by Clare Fischers arrangement
- Damn U - simple but effective
- The Future (I know Prince did used samples of Clare Fischer orchestral sounds for this song, but they still sound great)
- Graffiti Bridge (the titletrack, and YES, i do enjoy shome overblown cheese from time to time )
- Do U lie (reminding me of Paris also, one of my favourite cities!)
- Sometimes it snows in April (in the movie Under the Cherry Moon, you can hear a version of the song which was released on Parade, but accompanied with a large orchestral arrangement.....i never heard that version on cd / bootleg / tape, whatsoever)

Wow, I'd forgotten The Family and Jill Jones - not to mention parts of Chakka's 'Come To My House' album.
Damn U Clare Fisher! [b]

Because he brought classical music into Prince's music. I like hard jams, not "pretty" songs.

The good thing about Clare Fischer is that he ADDs to the music. I mean, most rock/pop musicians usually use an orchestra as a background for their music (like a ´sophisticated keyboard´). With Clare, it´s different. He has unique style. And adds to the music
Loved what he did on ´The one´, the end of ´Sun Moon and Stars´ (don´t know it´s because he worked with Joao Gilberto, but I can always smell the brazilian sea breeze when I listen to it) and ´Pink Cashmere´....he interacts with Prince very well.

vainandy said:

There are many "hard jams" in classical music. Have you ever listened to Beethoven? Some of his symphonies make Metallica or G'n'R sound like Al Martino.

Though I must admit, that "hard" is not the style of orchestral music Clare made for Prince.

Alexa De Paris! Venus De Milo!

Vainandy

Mia Bocca, has a damn hard electrofunk beat in my opinion

vainandy said:

I can respect that answer but for me, for every Lady Cab Driver,Sexy Dancer and Let's Work, I want a Pink Cashmere,the One and Sometimes It Snows In April. It all depends on the day,the mood and the setting.

vainandy said:

I was anticipating your response when I saw the thread. And you know after our Parade discussion a couple months ago I went and listened to parade. I hear what your saying about the classicism, the cultured bs that Prince was supposedly aspiring to but I think that's a little to simple. I for one, am a rocker and history shows a lot of great rockers getting lost screwing around with strings and winds. I've also never seen anything wrong with the Beatles and Buddy Holly's foray's into different intrumentation. I agree that rock is and should be all of their strong points, just as funk/rock should be Prince's strong point. But my conclusion was this after listening to Parade, I think it's a funky fucking album, the classical elements make it even funkier and quirkier, which has always been prince's signature. And if it comes down to a battle of classical and rock, well, listen to the way the winds and strings are used and you can hear that they lean to funk, not the other way around. Your opinion has credence but I wanted to say that.

Also what about the great string work from soul acts of the seventies? The way the intstruments are used take away any classical connotation for me. The O'jays great production. Ship ahoy has strings making the sound of slave ships, I guess you could say they took a white man's instrument and made it black.
[Edited 4/10/05 11:37am]

There's a difference between sexy and "pretty". "Do Me, Baby", International Lover", etc. are sexy songs. "Alexa de Paris", "Venus de Milo", etc. are "pretty" songs and extremely boring.

vainandy said:

Stay away from Power Fastastic. You will hate this "pretty" song!

SLOW LOVE!

i Love adventorous music, music that takes risks, is original... Prince work with Clare Fischer is that kind of music.... I mean the sound of bare electronic beats and orchestra was very original at that time, and the way the strings / orchestra on songs like Mia Bocca and Crystal Ball weave around the beat, just sounds delightfull to me.

Not only i think its a joy to listen to this unusual combination of instruments, Prince did some pioneerwork with it also. Look at the developement of he rap / r&b in the nineties to use orchestral samples in the background, listen to Bjorks Homogenic, combining modern dance beats with strings, listen to the orchestral arrangements in a lot of Trip-hop, i am not saying that Prince directly influenced all this artists, but he was (as far as can remember) the first to try that kind of things.

By the way, Vainandy, that doesnt mean i dont like Prince during the dirty mind - Purple Rain period, instead, especially on 1999 you can hear him put influences from Kraftwerk, Africa Bambaata, Devo and the Talking Heads into his funk/rocksound, creating 'dance-music' that was very unique at that time.

I think it lies in Princes natures to combine influences / put them in new angles to keep making music exciting for him. In the period 1985 - 1988 in my opinion he just continued on the way he has working since he began as an artist. The influences he wove into his music (psychedelic pop, world music, european styles of music, classical influences) might be different, I am just hearing a musician wanting to grow artisically, who dares himselve to broaden his horizons.

Maybe its the fact that he did put more nuances, subtlety into his music during the period 1985 - 1988, that he sounds more loose, playfull on records from those period, more matured also.....not so much the one dimensional sexfreak, but an artist exploring the possibilities of his music and personality.

The period 1982 - 1984 sounds to me as an artist defining his trademark style. The period 1985 - 1988 is the sound of an artist knowing what he's capable of and trying to dare himselve and his public by experimentating, playing with expectations, an artist searching for freedom....I guess that why i love that period the most.

RiverPoet, while we all snpie and argue with each other on this thread..... I think U just summed it up for all of us. well done. In fairness, I think we are all in agreement (apart from some Pretty-song-Haters) that Clare Fisher added a lot to our favourite era of Prince. He influenced him and moved him on from just those amazing FUNK jams. He added another STRING to Prince's bow. Clare Fisher never really gets any recognition amongst the fans. If he ever reads this forum.... Thank U Clare.

RiverPoet -

Jerky said:

His wife sends updates to an orger - pimpdoutt - who posts the details here occasionally:

Examples:

http://www.prince.org/msg/5/87254

http://www.prince.org/msg/5/72514