When were they 1st developed/recorded?

Are there any extended/demo versions of them? And if so, did you guys hear 'em?

In Dorothy, he said..

My pants were wet, they came off
But she didn't see the movie cuz she hadn't read the book first
Instead she pretended she was blind
An affliction brought on by a witch's curse

Can somebody explain what exactly is he talking about?

Thank you.

We all know there's a 12" of "Housequake", called "7 Minutes Mo'Quake". There are some fan mixes that put the two together. I love the song, and love it in the SOTT movie more.

With Dorothy, the song is almost like a stream of thought to me, opposed to a well laid out story (like "Another Lonely Christmas" or "Scarlet Pussy" or "The Ladder"). But it really seems to be a story about a man struggling with something, possibly his girlfriend, and this other bird tries to seduce him and take his mind off of it all. He's in conflict as what to do. It's like groping someone over the bra and under the sweater, but not admitting you did anything that wrong. Some of the lyrics are throw away, but not in a bad way. Almost like an after thought, or a joke or bit of irony that's only funny in your own head.

Susan Rogers talked about how the high end of that song is missing. She had missed something on the board, and most of the high end of the song was not recorded properly. She was scared to death that Prince would fire her, but he ended up liking it, and that is what we hear on the album. (gheez, between that and the "Forever In My Life" hiccup...she sure bumbled her way through that album! hahaha)

The WHOLE mixing process seemed more spontaneous and less polished now that you've mentioned it.

Ironically, The WHOLE Dream Factory/Sign O' The Times sessions are the LEAST dated when it comes to their sound, comparing to his prior albums(and hell, most of the ones after them).

I don't think I ever gave that verse much deep thought untill today when I was driving from school and my daughter was asking me about the meaning of it.

What book? Why is she pretending to be blind? And what the hell is this witch's business? Is it ALL a metaphor for something(ala Starfish & Coffee) WHAT exactly?

Thats the greatest thing about dude though, handful of artists intrest me enough to try and dig deeper to what they're trying to say. I'm a music listner as opposed to a lyrics listener,,,,it can take me years to pay attention to the sung words.

Thanx, Ernest

ernestsewell said:

Hi Ernest, what was the Forever in my life hiccup? to me it sits a lot lower then other track on SOTT, is that what you are referring to?

Harlepolis said:

If we take it literally, she's pretending to be blind when his pants come off. Remember that scene in Private Parts where Howard gets in a bathtub w/ a model, but he leaves his underwear on so he's not "cheating"? Same thing in the song. But when his pants came off, she already knew he had left them on to begin with because he was "kinda seeing someone". So she gave him his modesty by pretending not to see what had happened. She respected his status of "taken". But then you could also think that he wishes she did make a move on him, because he was cursing her courtesy, by calling it a witch's curse. "Damn, I'm glad that she didn't make a move on me, but I WISH SHE HAD HAVE MADE ONE!" Conflict, like I said before. All conjecture on my part.

Harlepolis said:

no goddammit.... ...sorry i got my habits today.

Gotcha

I'm listening to it as we speak.

Love the kick ass intro.

Love the Joni Mitchell nod.

Love the whole trippy/off-beat feel of this song.

Love the fact that it almost sounds like a spoken words track.

jonty1975 said:

That the vocals were off a measure or two compared to the backing vocals. That's why the backing vocals come ina measure or two before the actual lyric. It's almost like Prince is echoing the backing vocals, whereas it's usually the other way around. I think Susan Rogers just started the tape at the wrong time point, and Prince thought it was earlier or something. She, on his request, had muted the backing vocals while he did his lead vocal. When they played it back all together....it's what you hear on the record.

These great stories are in Per Nilsen's book DMSR Prince The First Decade. It's worth the effort to find it used on Amazon.com or something. Probably dirt cheap at this point. Fun stuff all around. I love the stories like this about any artist, because it gives me a bit more insight into the process of the record.

I remember one story about Led Zepplin recording "Cashmere" (I think), and how they had rented this huge house that was all marble and tile and echoed like a son of a bitch. but they put the drums in this foyer or something, and hung microphones all over the place, and recorded the drums that way. It's why some of those particular songs have that big BOOM to them that others couldn't ever quite achieve.

ernestsewell said:

Great insight

ernestsewell said:

I wish some of the stories were left unsaid though it only adds to our frustration.

Like Prince destroying the master tape for "Empty Room", "Billy's Sunglasses" and the couple of other songs that were about Susanna.
[Edited 12/17/09 15:06pm]

Harlepolis said:

Ditto!

Harlepolis said:

I think that was "Wally", and he did rerecord it for posterity.

ernestsewell said:

Not the same thing, though.

I don't think I EVER enjoyed listening to a rerecorded song by him, except In A Large Room With No Lights On,,,,,and even this song has its own cringe worthy moments.

Harlepolis said:

Yes, but you'd never know it anyway. We'll never know what the original sounded like, and the rerecorded version he did a day or two later would be the only version we'd know. There's nothing to compare it to. "In A Large Room..." has a counterpart to compare it to. Same goes with "1999: The New Master". We have the original, and can compare them. Same with "U're Gonna C Me", or "The Dance". Two released versions each for comparison. "Nothing Compares 2 U" is another example.

"Wally" is what it is, and that's all we'd have to work with or draw from in opinions.


.
[Edited 12/17/09 15:24pm]

ernestsewell said:

Is there another version beside the ONA piano album?

It sounds like Prince's analogy about the movie might mean that she didn't get to experience Prince as himself because she didn't know him. She was just looking at a wet naked guy and there wasn't real emotion between them. That's my interpretation.

Harlepolis said:

The ONA CD set and the ONA piano album are 2 seprate releases, with the piano album being slow ballads and just him, and the doves;) I don't know if there is anymore.

Harlepolis said:

Yuppers...its on MPLSound too...

NormaRae said:

Are you guys Prince fans? LOL "U're Gonna C Me" is on MPLSound, totally rerecorded. "The Dance" was released on NPGMC, and on 3121, rerecorded for the latter.

ernestsewell said:

I'm not as attentive to his discography post-ONA.

ernestsewell said:

heres hoping ebay Santa will get me the book for Xmas

Harlepolis said:

Yes, Ur gonna C me is on the ballad ONA, I was thinking about Dorothy Parker, however on the ONA 3 box set, slight confusion...sorry.

sometimes i wish i could just sit in the studio (as a ghost maybe) while prince was putting together the differnt tracks on that song. i still love it.

Harlepolis said:

i always took it to meant she wasnt gonna get anyfurther with him than that.they werent gonna fuck cause he was "kinda goin with someone" lol

.
[Edited 12/17/09 20:26pm]

Harlepolis said:

In the movie based on the novel Rosemary's Baby, Rosemary's husband is chosen for an acting part because the original actor cast for the project was blinded by a witch's curse.

Awesome book, awesome movie. You can watch the entire film on YouTube. The book was written during the author's fascination with Anton Lavey and the Church Of Satan.



.
[Edited 12/17/09 23:33pm]

squirrelgrease said:

And Roman Polanski's first, I believe.

Harlepolis said:

The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker was recorded early March 1986 during the initial
Dream Factory sessions. It appeared on every incarnation of the Dream Factory
album until it was shelved. It also appeared on the subsequent Crystal Ball
album and survived when this was edited down from a triple to a double album
and released as Sign O' The Times in March 1987.

It was considered for a single release and an extended version was made
featuring a sax solo by Eric Leeds. Unfortunately, this version was never
released and is not circulating.

Housequake was recorded in October 1986. It was this track and the previously
recorded Shockadelica which inspired Prince to record an album of tracks
using speeded up vocals. He started the Camille album sessions later the
same month and completed it by the beginning of November. The album was
sequenced on November 5th and a single with Shockadelica on the A-side and
Housequake on the B-side was planned. Prince abandoned the idea for a separate
Camille album later in the month, deciding instead to expand the project into
a triple album entitled Crystal Ball. This would feature both regular and
speeded up vocal tracks using a combination of new songs, camille songs and
songs recorded for the earlier aborted Dream Factory project.

Housequake wasn't initially planned as a single, however, once the Sign O' The
Times album was released, the track started to get a lot of airplay. WB then
wanted to release it as a single and various extended versions and remixes
were made. By the time these were completed, they'd missed the boat as far as
a single release was concerned and the track ended up appearing on the B-Side
to U Got The Look. Only one of the remixes was officially released, the 7 Minute
Mo' Quake mix. An officially comissioned remix by Razormaid was rejected by
Prince and shelved, though this did subsequently appear on various DJ Mix albums.

.
[Edited 12/18/09 1:24am]

^^^

Thanx a million

ernestsewell said:

Uhm, shouldn't that be the low end that's missing?