I never see this song mentioned as a Camille song, but I'm listening to it and it sounds like the same sped up voice from "Good Love", etc. Would this be the first Camille song?

No.

Love or Money was released way before 'Camille' had even been invented.

BorisFishpaw said:

I never took Camille that literally. Technically, there's only one credited Camille song, anyway: Scarlet Pussy.

I'd say Love or Money fits the general bill. No, it wasn't part of the original "Camille album" set, but then, neither was Scarlet Pussy.

If the only thing that distinguishes Camille is that voice, why not? And I'd say that the "New Power Generation" circa 1998 recruited Camille as a guest vocalist on Come On, while we're at it.

You know what I mean... it's all Prince.

skip said:

Yeah, that's what I meant. Sorry for the confusion. I guess what I was asking is, would Prince consider that the first song he recorded as his alter ego, Camille? And maybe that's only a question Prince could answer.

People often confuse 'Camille' with 'Prince with his voice speeded up'.

And by the way, 'Scarlet Pussy' isn't the only track credited to 'Camille'.
All the Camille tracks on 'Sign O The Times' are credited to 'Camille' as well
(just read the album credits).

So my answer still stands.
No, Love or Money is not a 'Camille' song, and Prince doesn't consider it such
(in fact it was recorded before he'd even dreamed up 'Camille')
[Edited 4/14/06 18:25pm]

who knows but that shit sho is FONKAY !!

BorisFishpaw said:

[/b]

Is this in a Prince book or something? I don't have The Vault but I have some of the others I can't remember seeing the actual date he came up with Camille. Has he ever said that?

BorisFishpaw said:

Forgot about those SOTT credits, I stand corrected.

But honestly, I don't think I'm confused. What's the other difference? I just feel like that's saying "People often confuse Jamie Starr with 'Prince when he was producing The Time and Vanity 6.'"

I think u2prnce is just saying that Love or Money may have been the first released example of that voice (not entirely sure it was, but I think so).Everyone knows he hadn't invented that pseudonym yet, but that's all it is.

Would you say that you can't consider Prince as having written "Sugar Walls" because technically that was written by Alexander Nevermind?

What if he came up with some androgynous mythology around the "Alexander Nevermind" persona and there was a rumor that he was releasing an album under that name? Would we be collecting all existing Nevermind tracks and drawing a line around them like this?

I'm just saying it's all just Prince. We actually do not know if, in retrospect, Prince did consider Love or Money a "Camille song" or not, unless it's come up and I missed it.

Well, if you're gonna call "Love or Money" a Camille song, then so is "Erotic City" which would be the first known use of his sped up vocal.

u2prnce said:

yes of course it is a camille song...before Prince created a persona to go with it...but as you said just like the real happy song Good Love the voice is the same.

By the way Love or Money appeared after Erotic City which is really the first Camille song

skip said:

very good!

Here we go again!

Camille is not a voice, its a character. So no, Love Or Money is not a Camille track, nor is Come On, or 3121.

Camille is not just the speeded up voice. Hence the Bob George "Camille" on Livesexy.

Camille is a character based on a state of mind. Not a studio effect.

Prince had been using vari-speeded vocals before Camille showed up, and after
he had long gone. Camille (as a concept) grew out of a couple of tracks he
recorded with speeded up vocals (Housequake and Shockadelica) in late 1986.

Prince had previously recorded a few songs with speeded up vocals over the
years (Erotic City, Love Or Money), but it had just been a vocal effect with
no further meaning or 'character' intended. After he'd recorded 'Shockadelica'
he had the idea of expanding the 'Camille' character he namechecks in the song
into a a fully fledged alter-ego or character (like Ziggy Stardust or Sir Nose).
It was at this point that he decided to make an entire 'Camille' album.

Camille was a character created at a specific period, and was not synonymous
with speeded up vocals. What many people may not realise is that Prince was
originally going to release the original 1987 Crystal Ball album under the
name 'Camille' (but the idea was later dropped), and only some tracks on that
album actually had speeded up vocals. It's also worth noting that 'Scarlet
Pussy' (which is officially credited to 'Camille') actually has slowed down
vocals instead. The 'Camille' character was also resurrected for the Lovesexy
tour, with act-1 being performed by 'Camille' (Prince's lustful bad side)
who is killed off after spiralling into excess and going too far, being
reborn as just 'Prince' for act-2.

Camille was also the lead character in the original Graffiti Bridge concept,
and again, would not have featured speeded up vocals as an 'identity'.

So as you can see, 'Camille' was more of a concept and character than he was
simply a vocal style.

SquirrelMeat said:

Right. I know everything about the Camille character, right down to the Lovesexy tour book.

I'm just putting it out there that, in reality, the fictional Camille is performed by the real Prince.

Would you really correct someone who referred to Scarlet Pussy as a Prince song?

I love the Camille tracks and character and everything else, but nothing besides the voice effect would tell you it was "Camille" unless you were reading liner notes.

And I think Prince could be a little arbitrary about things like that back then. It was all moot after he scrapped the Camille album. He had fun with the concept circa Lovesexy, but don't tell me there was a spiritual reason why he "resurrected" Camille for Scarlet Pussy other than a wink to the fans that this song would be fun, funky, and have a sped-up vocal track.

Not trying to be argumentative really... awful mood. But am I crazy here?

BorisFishpaw said:

All that is true but the Camille voice was a mistake by a tape that Susan Rogers had run at the wrong speed, he liked it and kept it. The mistake was made on If I Was Your Girlfriend.

All yall shutup.

When somebody say Camille, a P fan think of Prince usin his vocal sped up or the unreleased album either one, fuck it.
[Edited 4/14/06 21:30pm]

EverlastingNow said:

That was just for that one particular song, he'd been using the sped up vocals before then, and since, and they hadn't used the same method as IIWYGF.

IIWYGF wasn't the inception of Camille (as Boris states above).

As Boris says, Camille isn't just about the sped-up vocals, which explains why songs before and since the Camille album and idea are NOT 'Camille' tracks.


One realises this is pontification on the ridiculous, but this is what the forum is for, no?

EverlastingNow said:

That's not true, the 'Camille' voice was not a mistake.

EverlastingNow said:

She DID make a mistake on that song, but it wasn't a mistake that led to what is considered the Camille-voice (or not, because Camille is just a character, not a voice blabla), but to a slight distortion of the vocals on this song.

For those who note Camille is not a voice but a character, I'd like to add that the name Camille is unisex, or can be the name of both a man or a woman in French. So it sort of makes sense the character can have a high voice in one song and a deeper one in another.

Oh and I love Love or Money.
[Edited 4/15/06 6:21am]

From Possessed:


Later, at Sunset Sound during the recording of the avant-garde funk number If I Was Your Girlfriend", Rogers committed a rare technical error that caused Prince's vocal to distort on certain words. "I thought he was going to rip my head off" Rogers remembers. But when Prince came into the control booth to hear the playback, he seemed to like the effect, which is still present on the released version.


This is what I was thinking.

EverlastingNow said:

This is true, but she's not refering to Prince's voice being speeded up, it's
refering to the vocals being recorded too loudly and therefore suffering from
a small amount of distortion.

So who was "Spooky Electric"?

BrotherMaurice said:

Christopher Tracy

StoneCrib said:

FruitToAttractBears said:

There's a diagnosis for this: multiple personality.

BrotherMaurice said:

Spooky Electric is Camille's dark side, and a personification of the Devil/negative forces in the Lovesexy mythology, where it is part of the Camille story, but it was not part of the *original* Camille story, i.e. that of the album.

BorisFishpaw said:

actually scarlet pussy does have a sped up vocal as well as a slowed down vocal, mostly in the background,but its there(like when he says "someone come get this meow meow off my leg"

I say that any mischievious/sexual song with the slightest speeded up vocal is the "Camille" flavor, whether Prince intends it or not... his intention is not important/valid once the songs are put out and listener perception forms a shape or pattern.

Erotic City doesn't fit the bill, there is no slightly speeded upvocal, is there? There is a cartoonishly speeded up vocal.

"Love or Money" DOES fit the bill, as does "Come On".

3121 does NOT, his normal voice is just doubled with a wah/too high pitched voice.