just watched BATDANCE for the first time in years(with my wee boy-he loved it but was a little scared!)

its fuckin genius- a real overlooked gem-prince looks like a one man demonic funked up lunatic on this

i love the fact so many people would have watched this and went wtf??

shooting himself?sending himself to the e3lectric chair?spinning mavis staples?that heavy metal guitar?the whole funky "ooh yeah"turn around

and of course the licking the lips and sliding imbetween the vicki vales

GENIUS!!!

Find the original version, which is a bit longer. It stops, and you hear The Joker say, "Ooooohhhhh, what a day!" from the movie, then it goes into a screaming guitar solo. That whole section was cut from the final album cut. It clocks at about 8:58, which is quite a bit longer than the 6:14 album cut. It's sometimes noted as "Alt Version".

This is NOT the "Vicki Vale Mix" (which is the shuffle break down as its own 12"), nor "The Batmix".

ernestsewell said:

he's talking about the video, not the audio track, and i'm pretty sure he has the long version

totally agree.. this song gets dismissed probably because of the batman connection.. but its really incredible.. and the screaming guitar at the end is awesome.....

unique said:

Well I was talking about the audio track, not the video. And we're not sure whether he has that long version or not, because he's not stated as such.

ernestsewell said:

we'll i'm pretty sure he has the long version of the track, whether he realises it or not

ernestsewell said:

I've never heard this!

The song, the video, and the album R highly underrated. Prince was inspired... He took his style, and completely revamped the sounds. The sampling and edits R out of this world... frantically Funky. The parts were so tight, and he tracked most of that without sequencing.

Songs that stood out me:
"The Future"
"Partyman" (now there's another GREAT video!-long version)
"Trust"
"Lemon Crush"
"Batdance"
and "Electric Chair"...


.
[Edited 1/10/10 13:09pm]

The long and the short of it is.... "THIS SITE NEEDS AN ENEMA!"





.....

In retrospect it might sound a bit 'cheesy', but at the time of release this was a groundbreaking single, using techniques that were 'common' in the dance / techno-music of that era.

I remember people around me who were no Prince fan at all, were really digging that song because of its 'novelty'-character.

Love the videos and album...esp. my fav. Electric Chair!! I even love my boot of The Nude Tour in Tokyo. A few silly moments, but The Future, The Question of U, Bambi, Partyman, and Vicky Vale performances of that show make it for me. Wish SNL and/or Prince would release an official version of the anniversary special he performed EC on!! (Que Jeopardy jingle )

Riverpoet31 said:

People throw that word around a lot, "Cheesy", but what's cheesy about a great, driving beat instrumental with awesome guitar parts? The sampled movie parts are secondary, yet still carry the song. Plus we were getting bits of "Dance With Power" (or whatever it was), plus "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic", "The Future", and "Electric Chair". It was like a damn advert for the album as a whole, and the movie. It was a #1 hit too.

Giovanni777 said:

[luv4u - pins t'nod uoy on] - I can read reverse backwards too

Maybe 'cheesy' isnt exactly the right word, youre right about that: english isnt my first language, so i was looking for a word to describe the sound of the song in retrospect.

Maybe 'dated' is a better word: you can clearly hear which period its from because of the cut-and paste techniques aka bands like S-Express.

I hated the song (it was a bit of a shock when I bought the 7" the day of its release), but I loved the video and the tune grew on me

unique said:

Oh stop it you two

ernestsewell said:

What'd I do wrong? I told him to Org note me. Is that bad?

I never made proper research but I used to think that Prince was the first to use characters quotes in the songs, and it was such a brilliant idea...(Tarantino will do it a lot - between songs- after that).
Correct me if I'm wrong, has someone ever do it before the Batman soundtrack, for another movie???

Haha thanks unique-i have the other versions;-)

agreed 100%.

what a diverse jam, with the different sections.
the complex structure of the song resembles prince's
own mind...gemini in effect

Always hated it.

Utter shit and a complete embarassment.

MattyJam said:

i actually converted a couple of deadheads to become prince fans with
the video and this tune...the guitar solo is sexy

ernestsewell said:

[Edited 1/11/10 1:51am]
going all fammy here...love P in the video to Batdance, his look, his hair

Love love love Batdance

and still get a kick out of hearing P's music in the movie

Jack was THE Joker...til Heath took his throne
[Edited 1/11/10 1:53am]

yankem said:

loads of soundtracks have film dialogue on them. not as many have the dialogue as part of the music track unless it's a musical like the remake of wizard of oz from 1939, about 20 years before prince was born, but you have tracks like flash gordon by queen from 1980 that use the dialogue as part of the track in a similar way to batdance, so having a hit record with memorable movie quotes as hooks was done 20 years before prince

even then you had artists and bands like big audio dynamite that would use loads of movie samples as part of the tracks. batdance seems to be more influenced by tracks like beat dis by bomb the base than anything else. there was a ton of similar sample based records around at the time. theme from s-express being another key track, with william orbit from s-express remixing batdance a decade or so before he produced madonna, although he did remixes for madonna for stuff like justify my love (written by ingrid chavez, but credited to lenny kravitz)

the track batdance originated as a remix of 200 balloons, which is the tracks b side. it incorporated samples of other tracks from that era and was released as a single. as well as the standard batdance video there are also official videos for the vicki vale and batmix remixes. the footage has been re-edited to synch the remixes better

when the batman movie was being made, the director used prince tracks as guide music when editing the film together, and as he and jack nicholson were prince fans, they invited him to the set, and about a week later prince came up with pretty much the entire album. some of the tracks like partyman were material from the vaults that was rerecorded and amended a bit, so he didn't quite write and record the soundtrack in a week, but put it together pretty quickly

i also remember a rumour about a 16 minute version of batdance being used to open the film, but that seems to be rubbish, as i've never heard anything since about a 16 minute version or even batdance being used to open the movie. there was another rumour that prince wanted to buy the batman car, but mtv won it in an auction instead and gave it away in a competition. mtv also gave away prince black batman era cloud in a competition, the winner was presented with it onstage by the band. at the time of the batman movie, prince had an arc light outside paisley with the batman logo

i think the batman and partyman videos are two of his best, certainly two of my favourites. the gemini outfits are cool

i remember when i first heard batdance on the radio in the gym and i couldn't believe it. i thought prince had went in a dance direction like bomb the bass, and thought if this is what he is doing now, i don't think i'll be a fan much longer. the track certainly grows on you though. i also remember getting an import of the maxi cd of remixes. my mate in my local record store got it for me when the rep was in. we were fans of s-express and to have the two mixed together was so cool, and the batmix was a great mix. the other orbit remixes for electric chair and the future were also very much appreciated. there are two or three other orbit remixes that were unreleased for electric chair (two mixes) and partyman. the partyman remixes were also great, the video mix, purple party mix and partyman music mix, and then you got the 20 minute scandalous sex suite, and the b sides were some of the best. that was a prime time to be a prince fan, the hottest movie in a long time with the hottest music by prince. jack nicholson dancing around as the joker to partyman, and prince's girlfriend, kim bassinger as vicki vale. you couldn't get much better than that

unique said:

Thanx !
I too used to love S-Express at the time and was happy to hear Prince nod at the british house scene ! Batdance is really a clever song !

unique said:

great background and history...much appreciated; such discussions will always keep me coming back to the org

It's great. It's manic and dark and funny and FUN, and everything I like about Prince. It's interesting that it's viewed as a mere novelty record because of, I guess it being a movie tie-in and it's unorthodox structure for a hit single. But how many novelty singles have musicianship like this really, the guitar work and classic Prince vocals.

I think the genesis of it is in the Madhouse records, which also contain sampling and, especially 16, is similar musically in terms of instrumentation and energy.

In turn, I think Prince had to be influenced by stuff around at the time like Art Of Noise and Colourbox (who went onto to release 'Pump Up The Volume' as part of M/A/R/R/S, which I think was a definate influence). Both of these acts used sampling and synthpop in a similar way to Madhouse and Batdance.

yankem said:

the story was that he heard the "this is not music, this is a trip" part of alphabet street that was copied from theme from s-express and wanted to work with prince

there are also at least a couple of unreleased remixes of alphabet street floating around, plus the accoustic demo

most of the other prince house mixes and attempts were pretty bad, apart from gett off and round and round. the rave un2 remix wasn't bad either. i'm pretty sure i heard a different better remix of rave at paisley one night. it was a while before the released remix on the rave remix album, so it could just be my memory, or perhaps the dj mixing it with something else, but i'm sure it was a bit harder edged and houselike. the unreleased hotwitu remix was also pretty good

This song is pure genius, as is the video.

Anyone that says this song is a collection of samples is plain wrong.

Riverpoet31 said:

But they are so uncommon now. Realizing now and days sampling went from bits and pieces to full out arrangments are two completly diffrent styles of sampling. Prince wasnt just sampling pieces from the video, but pieces from his own personal tracks and voice overs that were not even complete...throughout the album and to 200 Baloons, that was probably the most extensive use of sampling after this track. The way he sampled things were almost unrecognizable. Who knows where he pulled some of those sounds out. Just listen to that ...screaming thing at the end of 200 baloons...what IS THAT?

Prince still has not been that experiemental in sampling since, but doesnt mark a lack of creativity but a part of....been there, done that.