Does Prince play the instruments on the Bangles' version?

yes, and you can hear brenda on backing vocals. the bangles used the basic prince tracks. in fact i think susannah is the only bangle on the record

GO UNI!!!!!
[Edited 12/7/09 22:43pm]

Thanks. So slick.

nyse... ! !

unique said:

really? The tone of the music doesn't sound like Prince at all. The actual sound and beat sound much more conventional. Normally his snare is more loud and full and up front, as are his bass drum, you know that signature Prince mix/sound that all his songs had.

I believe it's a band recording, not Prince as a one-man band.

The Bangles do sing on the track, but the basic track, and the backing vocals, are from Prince's demo for A6. If you dig deep, you can hear Brenda's husky voice as a backing vocal on it as well.

ufoclub said:

if they had the master tapes or a copy of them to work, a different producer/mixer would perhaps bring certain instruments higher in the mix or use different eq or effects

the accoustic guitar and harmonica sound like they were added afterwards. my view is that the original prince version was a solo recording in a similar way to the time and vanity recordings from the same period

unique said:

There's no doubt a guitar and a few other things were added later. But listen to the demo and the Bangles version. It's not the first time someone has used Prince's demo (Kid Creole) rather than rerecording the song (Nona Hendryx). Despite The Bangles being talented, it's more likely that they just used Prince's recording. And let's also remember that the demo isn't the greatest quality (as are most of the leaked tracks), so to compare the EQ's and such might be a bit unfair overall. The Bangles version does sound a bit more "clear", but again, it's not a demo either on the album.

Prince's one-man band stuff has a much different 2 dimensional sound opposed to when the band plays on a song. Compare "Let's Go Crazy" to "When Doves Cry". Even "I Would Die 4 U"/"Baby I'm A Star", despite their overdubs, still sounds like a band recording (and recorded live of course) opposed to something else.

ernestsewell said:

But the snares and the bass drum are quite consistent through all the Prince songs regardless of solo or band involvement.

why can't he write like that anymore?

ufoclub said:

That's not evidence to either side of the argument, though.

Marrk said:

I know. It's sad, isn't it? To be expected perhaps, but wouldn't it be nice if he were to surprise us with a new song even half as good?

I will be the first to admit, I have no proof of this, but the sound in "Manic Monday" feels like Wendy and Lisa had a STRONG influence on this song. My gut tells me this is a Wendy and Lisa sound not Prince. Just my opinion...
Peace,
Aaron6ix

Aaron6 said:

dunno about that, it has the structure of "Never Take the Place of your Man" and "1999". Just in a pop femme style.

ufoclub said:

Agreed. It's a girly song (obviously written for girls in the beginning, and was recorded by girls), and has that straight ahead pop sensibility.

ernestsewell said:

Listening to the Prince/A6 version, I like the feel, to me it has a similar feel to Take Me With U a romantic PR era song. It has a bit of that 50's rock in roll feel to it

ernestsewell said:

lyric-wise, yes girly 'valentino' etc, but the melody, the intro. exquisite.

ufoclub said:

actually the drums on the bangles version are completely different to the drums on the demo version, the demo has live drums and the released version has programmed drums that sound like a bit like live drums, but it's not a linn drum

Marrk said:

Because he's 50, and a human being's mind isn't as sharp at that age as it is in their 20's.

Paris9748430 said:

I'll disagree with that one,


But he also had good musical channelling and challenging coming from the people in his camp during those times.

TwiliteKid said:

Well just to kick things off, Ol' Skool Company kicks the living shit out of Manic! Thats just for starters.

It's true that Manic Monday is a pretty and nice pop tune, but I do feel like he could do that easily now, but always chooses to sidestep it with at least slightly different territory and attitude.

I think something like The One You Wanna See is an example of this kind of pop construction but slightly in a different vein. I think it is easy for him, but it wouldn't open any new doors of accomplishment.

He really should sell "The One You Wanna See" to a truck commercial!

I do like it.

I asked Lisa Coleman's wife to ask her about "Manic Monday", just to get the record straight. She was kind enough to do so.

I asked: "Can Lisa pls solve a bet some of us P fans have. Is the demo of "Manic Monday" a band recording, or just P as a one-man band?"

Her answer was this: "It's only Prince. and the 1st 2 lines of the song are true! and he also realized it was 1999 again, in tune and ideas....and both were hits!"

It took me a minute to realize what she meant by the "1999" reference, but the melodies are almost identical. So thanks to Lisa's word, I stand corrected on the band vs. Prince only thing.

I see that the line about "It's 6 o'clock already, and I was just in the middle of dream" might have been the "true" parts, meaning perhaps Prince was snoozing and late for something or whatever. Fun trivia.

Thanks Renata!

ernestsewell said:

wow, this is awesome information! i didn't even know that the bangles version had prince playing on it at all before i came to this thread as i have never heard the prince version... i've often wondered why he doesn't play this one live more often, i'm sure he could replace the 'valentino' part with something, and no one knows he wrote that tune, i still run into tons of people that don't know he wrote 'nothing compares 2u' but NOBODY knows he wrote 'manic monday.' outside of the folks on here obviously.

either way, great tune, one of my favorite straight ahead pop ditties that used to seem to ooze out of him.. (raspberry beret, take me with u, i could never... little red corvette,play in the sunshine, etc...)

wait, i just read your post again ernest, it doesn't really solve the 'who's playing on the bangles version' question does it? is it p or did they re-track it?

electric said:

he's only played the song live on a handful of occassions, and it's mainly because he never normally sings live any tracks that he wrote for female artists. the few times he has played manic monday live he hasn't sang the vocals. the most recent times he played it live he got fans onstage to sing, such as at paisley park and the karaeoke soundcheck in london 2002

the song manic monday kept kiss from being number 1 in the uk. he was number 1 and 2 in the charts with songs he gave away (although he later took back kiss)

electric said:

My question to Renata was for Band vs. Just Prince playing on the demo.

However, it's Prince's track that the Bangles used, with a few tweaks.

ernestsewell said:

nice one.
I once saw an interview with The Bangles where the interviewer asked them what it was like to get a song written by Prince.The bassist Michael said that Prince didnt actually write it and that they did.
I have searched youtube high and low for that video again but I cant find it.
At the time I was put into doubt about Prince's involvement with the track because lets face it we know how Prince can be with other people music that he likes.But then I was reminded of my copy of The Work Vol 1 disc 4 with Manic Monday on it and apart from Susannah Hoffs vocals I dont hear much difference between the 2 tracks.
I wonder why Michael would have said that?I wonder if years of being asked Prince questions just finally pissed her off...who knows?

ernestsewell said:

ok cool, i didn't know if that was a for sure thing or not. i just listened to the bangles one again, that middle 8/bridge/'all of my life...' section is so awesome, one of his best.
i totally hear the 1999 melody lisa referred to but i still put this tune with 'take me with u' for overall vibe and arrangement. that and raspberry beret which seem like cousins to tmwu anyway.