This is a man who handled a spiritual epiphany and realisation of the soul the year before. By comparison, and appropriately, Batman and the material surrounding it, seems light, upbeat and almost comical in character. It's as if 'the forces' that govern his existence were subconciously trying to lighten his load. Following such a lengthy period of spiritual angst and inner turmoil, the Batman project was nothing short of a much-needed 'enema'.

love

Looking back, in the scheme of things, it seems pretty inconsequential now.

The movie isn't really regarded that highly, nor is the soundtrack, the only track that made any impact at the time was Batdance, and that was seeminingly due to the movie hype, since none of the following singles did anything, chart-wise. Even Batdance has been pretty much erased from popular history.

The album is pretty much a simple, consise pop exercise in Prince's sound at the time, it follows logically on from Lovesexy and it's b-sides in terms of sound, and it's the amalgamation of that album and the Black Album, in terms of themes and image, that fans often say they would've liked to have seen.

Prince fluffed it all up again with stubbornly continuing the Graffiti Bridge project, before creeping back with the commercial venture of D&P.

I like Batman the album a lot, but it's pretty light fluff in the Prince canon, I'd say it's closest companion in sound and theme was NPS

How's that idea for you?

This album was definitely unique project in a sense. Some of the material on the album was departure from his usual approach but at the same time it was funky and sensual at the same time.

NouveauDance said:

I'd disagree with that. The film reinvented and reinvigorated the genre of superhero movies - look at all the films that followed, and are still being made - and as such, it's place in movie history is assured. It was a huge success because people liked it not just because it was hyped at the time. They say the big blockbusters are created by people going back and seeing the film several times over.

As far as Prince doing the 'soundtrack', I think it was more a case of it simply sparking off a creative surge after the Lovesexy tour. He met with Burton, went to see the set, and it gave him lots of inspiration. People always go on about financial certainties after the fact, but at the time the superhero genre produced consistently awful films and Batman could easily have been a flop.

Batman (the album) was in many ways the last "true" soundtrack for a movie of Batman's magnitude. What I mean is, if they ever have a soundtrack for a movie, besides its orchestral score, usually it is a hodgepodge of artists that really have nothing to do with the movie. Usually, they are on the soundtrack to broaden it's appeal to more people.

You'd be hardpressed to name a summer blockbuster whose soundtrack had only one artist on it.

skywalker said:

That's a great point.

In fact, what soundtrack within the last 10 years has been about just one artist that didn't star in the movie? Not sure I can think of any.

One of my favorite Prince albums. Doesn't get enough credit though, I'll give it all the credit in the world. Scandalous is #1. Has 2 B in my top 5 Prince song. I love Electric Chair. The Future is cool as well too. " C the future and it will B".

Rinluv said:

The following tracks you mentioned are also my favorite on that particular album.

When 2 Rinluv their bodies shiver at the mere Contemplation of Penatration.
I gotta Jones baby. Bathe with me, Let's cover each other with perfume and lotion.


One of my favorite songs, just so exspressive and real 2 me.

NouveauDance said:

Not exactly Prince & Batman, but the movie About a Boy had a great soundtrack by my boy, Badly Drawn Boy. Like Batman, it's an album in its own right, not just a soundtrack.

Some of THE BEST B-side came from Batman-I love U in me a GREAT song.
Batman is what Prince stand for Good Vs Evel--dark side vs good side
at the time it WAS RIGHT-And it sold a SHIT Load of Copys.

ravewithdawn said:

the Batman project was during the supposed "Rave" era he was working on the original Rave un2 the joy fantastic.at the time when shelved he put a lot of the rave un2 ideas into Batman.

andyman91 said:

But, was "about a boy" a huge blockbuster movie? That's what I am saying. Batman was as commercial as hell, but they still let Prince have the soundtrack all to himself. You'd never see that with any giant movie and a single artist.

skywalker said:

not american huge..but huge for a euro film.

I'm sure Prince could see the possible commercial benifits from doing the album, but I don't think that was his sole intention. Director Tim Burton was (and still is) a true visionary. I think that after visiting the set, Prince was inspired by the "light vs dark / good vs evil" theme, and this coincided well with his "Spooky Electric/Camille vs Prince / Black Album vs Lovesexy" etc. For me, it was the logical step after Lovesexy.

As far as being a "blessing in disguise", I can kind of see that. Actually, it is quite strange how it's a resting point between two highly spiritual albums. It's a great album in my opinion.

Also, Prince himself didn't really promote it much. Apart from a couple of videos, he dropped the project fairly quickly.

1234rave said:

I love When 2 R in Love, but it's not on the Batman soundtrack. That's a Lovesexy/Black Album track.

Batman worked for Prince, in that it was a character-driven project that enabled him to explore aspects of his creative personalities. I think it was great in that it gave him cover to be schizophrenic self, by using the vehicle of the film's characters and theme songs for them.

Following the dueling perspectives of the Black Album and Lovesexy (not to mention Prince's very public renunciation of the former), Batman's schizophrenia seemed more a continuation of his creative arc than a departure from it.





Yeah, what Toejam said...


justsawtheirpost edit...


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[Edited 9/15/05 20:29pm]

sosgemini said:

Right. My point is that NO BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE seems to allow one artist to handle all of the soundtrack. "About a Boy" was not "Spider-Man 2". Batman's soundtrack was cool because Prince was allowed full reign on one of the biggest movies ever made. The anticipation/hype was huge and WB said "Here's the key Prince. Make us a record to go with this movie." Nowadays they just cobble together a bunch of "hot" artists in attempt to appeal to everyone.

There has never been a time where I didn't enjoy this album. It's great, full of amazing music and lyrics.

It should, in NO way, ever be compared to NPS (which is crap).

this was the last album with decent b-sides. the end of an era. the end of the 80's

i love u in me, batmix, vicky vale mix, sex, 200 balloons, the sex suite, purple party mix, partyman video mix
are all really great stuff

i even like arms of orion

monte said:

The Sex Suite and Partyman was my shit.

After four artsy/fartsy albums filled with "that song changed my life" type songs, the "Batman" album seemed to be Prince attempting to return to his previous mainstream success. It was a very brief return to the cold futuristic "old Prince", just not quite as strong as before. It was a decent album and was much better than the artsy/fartsy ones in the recent years before it. Too bad it wasn't a huge success. Maybe he would have slipped back into his old self.

It's always been one of my favourite prince albums, and at one time it WAS!

vainandy said:

By artsy fartsy albums, you are referring to Around The World In A Day, Parade, Sign O The Times and Lovesexy? Only containing some of Prince's strongest work ever!

Batman (the album) WAS a huge success commercially, selling more than the previous albums except Purple Rain I believe.

As I've said, pinning your music to a film is no guarantee of commercial success, it was still a gamble by Prince. After all, he essentially supplied all the music for Spike Lee's Girl 6 but that wasn't a commercial success. If Batman (the movie) had bombed, I should think that Prince's album would have as well.

Thankfully it was a success, and Warners realised Prince was still a bankable star and kept indulging him for a few years more.

In answer to Anji's question, I'd say it had its good and its bad points.

The plus side is the Batman project itself and I disagree with the notion that neither the film or the soundtrack are regarded highly. The film is a one of the Burton greats (such a shame the franchise was taken out of his hands) and I've seen many positive reviews about Prince's album - most of them alluding to the dynamic that Prince achieves on the album through his playing out of multiple characters, personalities and themes all himself, managing to reflect real tensions and story-line from the film and make them an extension of what he'd been doing throughout his career anyway!

The downside, as I've mentioned here before, is that I think his little dalliance with the movie industry only served to heighten his fervor to make Graffiti Bridge the movie. His good albums are like movies anyway, musical pictures, being illustrative and descriptive, always having a concept and a definite sense of a journey (Exodus is a comical, but great example of this), so I think he could have still translated the ideas he was having then better in an album, rather than delivering what is, by any standards, a poor film.

vainandy said:

Poor vainandy---always wishing that Prince hadn't gone the direction he went in 1985. "artsy fartsy" huh? Has this wishing obscured his vision so much that he can't see that "Batman" was one of Prince's best sellers ever? Maybe....

Anji said:

think it was more a much-needed paycheck

toejam said:

That said, Prince's vocal per4mance on Scandalous reaches almost spiritual proportions.

love