Whle we're on the topic, some related comments about "on the 1" and band cues.

The Time
I know on at least one Time song (either Chocolate or Jerk Out), Morris tells everyone to "keep it in the pocket, if you can't clap on the 1, dont clap at all". Which is weird cuz usually you clap on the 2 and 4.....and in fact that is what people are doing, so why he says that is weird!

Also, even though funk "is on the 1", a key sound that the Time and Prince use is to accent the 2 with a chord hit.... listen to a lot of Time songs, the keys do a synth hit on the 2, like hwen you're not expecting it..... (e.g. the chorus to Jungle Love or verse in Chocolate)

Sheila's Cues
Back in the 80's Sheila used to use P's same stage antics and call out "on the 1". She ends her self-titled album, doing Love On A Blue Train with it in fact.

Live, she uses a lot of cues in Love Bizzarre:

* "Strawberry!": cues the horn riff that appears in "Gonna Be A Beautiful Night", I think the one that comes after Prince says "Detroit Crawl!"

* "Whipped Cream!": cues the next horn riff in IGBABN, the one that gets repeated when Jill yells out "one more!"

(I've always wondered if these 2 riffs come from antoher song)

* "Jazz!": the band plays a cool jazz line, that "calms the song down a bit" (again wonder if this comes from a jazz song)

* "Turnaround": Same as P did it on the Romance 1600 live video

* "Squirrel Meat": not sure what this cues, but I've seen her do it in Love Bizarre


She also does this cool thing where she calls out the "A,B,C, D" but one letter at a time, and not always in the same order..... there is a differernt chord associated with each letter, and so she might say "A", B, A, A, and each letter the band just plays the chord by itself and waits for her to say the next one, then she counts off "A B C unnh!" and they go into the song. (It's very cool live, even though I'm not describing it well).

From George Clinton's official website funk.cyclo.pedia

The One:

The First Beat; wholeness, metafoolish perfection, as in "Everything is one the One"

http://www.georgeclinton.com/ - select 'Funkateers', then 'Funkcyclopedia'

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langebleu said:

TALK!!!!

From Morris Day: When he screams "Chilli Sauce," that's a cue to the band to "smoothe" out the groove, or "slide"/trill down the scale.

From Prince: "Confusion" means to just play anything, wrong notes, crazy chords for a period of time. Like at the end of "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night," he yells "confusion" at the end of the song, and the band plays wildly for a 4-beat measure, then finishes "on the one."

From Prince: "Turn Around." The best example is from the song "Loose." It just means repeat the measure over and over again for a period of measures, then finish "on the one."

He'll also usually yell out "high C" or in the key of "G". Obviously he's telling the band to switch to the respective key or range.

This is the most interesting topic I've read in a long time.

Good job, folks!

...also, I'm not sure if this is true or not, but doesn't "Squirrel Meat" refer to a kick drum beat? I'm thinking specifically of the segue between "Super..." and "2 Nigs..." from the Black Album.

laylow03 said:

We've already mentioned that "Turnaround" is actually a musical term that has a meaning..... which is to play a certain pattern or chord progresion that takes you back to the initial progression or section of the song. It's possible that the turnaround could be the same measure, but probably not, cuz i beleive it has to "progress" back to the original chord .....like if the song is mainly in a particular key, or say based on 2 chords e.g. Ebm and Ab, but later goes into a section with different chords, the Turnaround kind of brings the chords back to the Ebm Ab pattern again.



Assuming you are not being facetious , I completely agree! I thought I was the only one who thought about these things!

"Kick some ass" in the live versions of Beautiful Night also signified another fantastic horns break and he resurrected it with the same break in the America finale of the Act 2 Tour years later (possibly one of the best moments of my life when I was at the front of Wembley Stadium and this happened!!)

BTW, I'm not sure "confusion" is really totally random..... I ahve a feeling the band and Prince make it SOUND ilke ti's random, but they kind of know what they're doing.

Kind of like the first time you see a P show you think it's all improvised and spontaneious, but then you become a bigger fan, see the same show twice and see the same "improvs" happen, and you hear rehearsal tapes of them practicing the cues, and coughs, etc.

langebleu said:

Fo Sho
[Edited 9/15/05 12:39pm]

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BobGeorge909 said:

"Fishtail" is a polite way of saying "Bullshit".