2 different jam sessions. One guitar heavy, the other drum driven. Which is best?
I have tried to get thru Cloreen but have only been able to twice. Billy's, on the other hand, I love listening to. I woulda paid a hefty admission price to see him do this live. I'll even throw this on every once in a while when I workout.

Both are pretty perfect records. It would depend on the mood at the time– cloreen is fun and billy is a bit more dramatic [to me anyway].

Yeah, I love Billy's sunglasses, it's just the drum loop that keeps chugging that gets me I think.

NouveauDance said:

At 1st I thought that drum loop was the same one that Wendy & Lisa used in Purple Rain for the demo they gave P but just sped up.

I never get tired of Cloreen Bacon Skin. Billy's Sunglasses was an astounding find many years ago and I played it a lot back then, but It really isn't a song, just a jam session with some off-the-cuff lyrics. I guess the same could be said for Cloreen Bacon Skin, though.

where can I find Billy's Sunglasses? I've never heard it before.

It can't compare
Billy's Sunglasses is 40 minute long Hendrix oriented jam
while Cloreen is greesy Mpls sound raw funk

My vote goes fro Billys Glasses.

It sounds like sunshine. It reminds me of something, but I cant quite put my finger on what it is.

funkman777 said:

It's an unreleased studio rehearsal. Prince plays guitar by himself with a drum machine backing him for about 45 minutes. Improvised lyrics about Billy Sparks and his big ol' sunglasses are sung during a portion of the jam. During the recording Prince calls out chord changes to someone, but I don't remember who else was there.

The session first showed up on a bootleg called "Dirty Mind" in 1990. Other tracks that first made their appearance on this boot were Vibrator, "Climax" and Lisa.

The session is now available on other bootlegs.

thebanishedone said:

I agree

just 2 very different sound out of Uptown
This is PRINCE music
so much potential from then that I still think he was just scratching the surface

squirrelgrease said:

He didn't mention any names when he was calling out the cord changes (did you catch that he messed up on one...when he said "oops, sorry"), but toward the end for some reason he keeps yelling "Wendy, put the bat down!" WTF? Also, he asked someone if they'd ever seen The Shining then says "Redrum" a couple times in a weird ass voice. Sounded like he just sucked some helium.
That's another reason I like jam sessions like this, it gives you a glimpse at what he's like outside of the personna.

7souls said:

Billy's Sunglass is obviously a classic pre PR era studio jam session
where the band just jammed all night long
I remember BrownMark talking about one in particular that went so long he took his bass to another part of the room to fix a sandwich and then came back and just fell back in place

I have a few of these, some shorter like the Scream of Passion, but you just feel the connection and passion

Cloreen Bacon Skin
Tricky
Irresistable Bitch

Coffee & Cocaine

all have the same James Brownish jam feel

7souls said:

I totally forgot about that Redrum thing. So this would date to around 1980, when the movie came out.

OldFriends4Sale said:

OK. When was this recorded? Because The Shining came out in 1980, but Wendy wasn't around yet. Maybe Prince had just watched it on his Betamax.

squirrelgrease said:

I say pre PR era which means 1999 leading into PR

But Wendy was around during the Dirty Mind album she was on the road with them

I originally thought it was from the Rebels sessions which is also around the Dirty Mind years give or take

He also said Blade Runner(SciFi) was inspiration for 1999 and Purple Rain
If you ever see this movie the piano sound are just like Purple Rain (Fathers Song in particular)
[Edited 7/31/09 21:32pm]

OldFriends4Sale said:

I know Wendy was hanging around early on, but I wouldn't think she'd be in the studio during the Dirty Mind period. The boot that it appeared on being called Dirty Mind lead me to believe it was from that era. I wonder when Billy Sparks came into the picture for Prince to make a song about him. So this would be a session from 1982-83, probably?

squirrelgrease said:

Right that's why I thought of the pre PR era because of Billy Sparks

I don't quite remember how Prince & Billy know each other but from little bits of memory I think they knew each other for a while. I'll try to look up the info

I think with all the studio jams Prince put out, it's easy to believe Wendy could have been in the studio with him

I think the boot collection is just called that because of the music included, Climax wasn't a Dirty Mind era boot(?) that was a Vanity 6 (1st or 2nd album?) boot Vibrator

The Vault says it's 1984.

it sounds like 1984

"Billy's Glasses" most definitely!

Thy're both essential to me for one reason or other.

this is a very hard question...but bakon skin is my choice

NouveauDance said:

Thanks!

I love both. LOVE.

Sadly, can't find my copy of Billy's Glasses.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Is Coffee & Cocaine the session he's on piano the whole time. Didn't he also do a piano version of Kiss during that recording?

7souls said:

I have to listen again, the Coffee & Cocaine version I have is something like Tricky & Cloreen Bacon Skin

CBS any day like em both CBS better

Billy's Sunglasses hands down. Very hendrix-esqe
[Edited 8/5/09 12:16pm]

SirPsycho said:

how many of you have listened to the whole song?

I noticed after the middle of the songs, after the lyrical parts
Billy where did you get those glasses
Lisa where did you get those glasses ...

Then there is a change in guitar playing and it's distictly blatently Strange Relationships

This is probably one of those all night jams with the Revolution that created other songs... this could be the songs that birthed Strange Relationships