Hey guys..

I was reading the interview that prince gave the german rolling stone today..

and there was a line where prince said something bout "the arms of orion",

translated, it would be this:

«I didn't make it, the joker wrote that one.. (laughs) ..did you know that the

batman album was planned to be a duet between michael jackson and me?

him as batman, me as the joker?»

not laughing after that so.. was he serious? i've heard a lot bout MJ's "bad"

album and that it was planned to be done with prince.. but i hear that batman

story for the first time.. is he joking or did i miss sumthin? what u guys know

bout it?

sugartuff said:

Hey guys..

I was reading the interview that prince gave the german rolling stone today..

and there was a line where prince said something bout "the arms of orion",

translated, it would be this:

«I didn't make it, the joker wrote that one.. (laughs) ..did you know that the

batman album was planned to be a duet between michael jackson and me?

him as batman, me as the joker?»

not laughing after that so.. was he serious? i've heard a lot bout MJ's "bad"

album and that it was planned to be done with prince.. but i hear that batman

story for the first time.. is he joking or did i miss sumthin? what u guys know

bout it?

Interesting is the usage of the word "geckert Prince" (like spoken from a Dandy, i think you can translate that way) in that quote - not "laughs" . I think he is serious...!

I remember my aunt telling me that back in 1989, except she said there would be another Batman movie with Prince as Joker and MJ as Batman. I didn't know where she got her source and since it obviously never happend I accepted it over the years as bullshit. Wow...

Heard of this before on MJ forums...not sure of what to make of it.

Not necessarily a duet with him and MJ... but Tim Burton (and J. Nickolson both being Prince fans) had wanted him, along with MJ and several other artist to submit tracks for the album. Prince was supposed to only submit a few tracks... but presented Tim with more than an Album's worth of tracks a couple days later. Tim decided to go with Prince exclusively at that point.

[double post error]

[Edited 7/22/10 18:47pm]

I've heard about this too. I've read two different stories before: One is WB wanted Mike to write/record solo songs for the soundtrack before Prince was chosen by Tim Burton. The other is the collaboration plan between the two. In either case, MJ was unable to participate because he was still on his BAD tour during production of the film (1988-89).

I'm surprised Prince mentioned this.

Prince is making sense again

From Liz Jones's book Slave To The Rhythm:

"Jon Peters, the producer, had had an idea to use both Prince and Michael Jackson on the soundtrack - Prince for the dark side, Jackson for the light. Jackson didn't get a look-in."

sugartuff said:

Hey guys..

I was reading the interview that prince gave the german rolling stone today..

and there was a line where prince said something bout "the arms of orion",

translated, it would be this:

«I didn't make it, the joker wrote that one.. (laughs) ..did you know that the

batman album was planned to be a duet between michael jackson and me?

him as batman, me as the joker?»

not laughing after that so.. was he serious? i've heard a lot bout MJ's "bad"

album and that it was planned to be done with prince.. but i hear that batman

story for the first time.. is he joking or did i miss sumthin? what u guys know

bout it?

That's why one day I had posted that the song, "Arrogance," from Prince's, "Symbol," Album, was intended 4 the Joker.

Yeah,I remember hearing about this.At an early stage,the producers wanted Michael to contribute half the songs (representing the "good") and Prince to contribute a handful of songs (representing the "evil").Presumably,MJ's songs would have been written about Bruce Wayne (Batman) while the Prince songs would be about The Joker.

it's an interesting concept but I have a feeling that Prince would not have agreed to this,lol.

Interesting. Thanks for posting, I have never heard about this before...

heard MJ was supposed to write the ballads with Prince doing the darker sounding songs

interesting!

well, i'm glad that batman and "bad" weren't a prince/mj thing..

WaterInYourBath said:

I've heard about this too. I've read two different stories before: One is WB wanted Mike to write/record solo songs for the soundtrack before Prince was chosen by Tim Burton. The other is the collaboration plan between the two. In either case, MJ was unable to participate because he was still on his BAD tour during production of the film (1988-89).

I'm surprised Prince mentioned this.

I have never heard this before. But one could assume that they chose just Prince-seeing how it is a Warner Brothers movie. You know promote in house talent (Prince) and not Michael Jackson.

sugartuff said:

Hey guys..

I was reading the interview that prince gave the german rolling stone today..

and there was a line where prince said something bout "the arms of orion",

translated, it would be this:

«I didn't make it, the joker wrote that one.. (laughs) ..did you know that the

batman album was planned to be a duet between michael jackson and me?

him as batman, me as the joker?»

not laughing after that so.. was he serious? i've heard a lot bout MJ's "bad"

album and that it was planned to be done with prince.. but i hear that batman

story for the first time.. is he joking or did i miss sumthin? what u guys know

bout it?

I'm really not sure what to make of it. If the "Batman" album was planned to be a Prince project, why would Warner Bros go out of its way to get MJ in discussions to do the duet. As far as I know, the only known duet MJ and Prince was to do was "Bad" and Prince left at the last minute because, according to Quincy Jones, he felt "Bad" didn't need him on it. For some reason I don't even think he's serious. And if he is, I don't remember it being discussed openly either here or at MJ boards...

RealMusician said:

From Liz Jones's book Slave To The Rhythm:

"Jon Peters, the producer, had had an idea to use both Prince and Michael Jackson on the soundtrack - Prince for the dark side, Jackson for the light. Jackson didn't get a look-in."

Hmmm...interesting.

sugartuff said:

Hey guys..

I was reading the interview that prince gave the german rolling stone today..

and there was a line where prince said something bout "the arms of orion",

translated, it would be this:

«I didn't make it, the joker wrote that one.. (laughs) ..did you know that the

batman album was planned to be a duet between michael jackson and me?

him as batman, me as the joker?»

not laughing after that so.. was he serious? i've heard a lot bout MJ's "bad"

album and that it was planned to be done with prince.. but i hear that batman

story for the first time.. is he joking or did i miss sumthin? what u guys know

bout it?

can u post the whole interview please

SoulAlive said:

Yeah,I remember hearing about this.At an early stage,the producers wanted Michael to contribute half the songs (representing the "good") and Prince to contribute a handful of songs (representing the "evil").Presumably,MJ's songs would have been written about Bruce Wayne (Batman) while the Prince songs would be about The Joker.

it's an interesting concept but I have a feeling that Prince would not have agreed to this,lol.

Are we sure that it wasn't nothing but a rumor? MJ was working on the Decade project at the time and was finishing up the Bad tour. Plus he was working on lots of other projects and finishing up the development of Neverland when this was going on. I was only 5 at that time period so I don't know but I hadn't seen no big news headline saying "MICHAEL JACKSON AND PRINCE TO TEAM UP FOR SOUNDTRACK".

Hmm so I was at one of the MJ boards a few minutes ago...

APPARENTLY Michael was supposed to do the Batman soundtrack but was unable to do to prior commitments (i.e., busy schedule) so Prince was the second choice.

But I still don't get where people got those rumors that Michael and Prince were even teaming up. Even Prince's statement is confusing because the quote from Prince comes from him discussing who was gonna duet with him on "The Arms of Orion" and it cut into what the film producer wanted to do but Prince didn't seem to either confirm or deny this, only leaving it out for people to figure it out (usual Prince trait).

Timmy84 said:

SoulAlive said:

Yeah,I remember hearing about this.At an early stage,the producers wanted Michael to contribute half the songs (representing the "good") and Prince to contribute a handful of songs (representing the "evil").Presumably,MJ's songs would have been written about Bruce Wayne (Batman) while the Prince songs would be about The Joker.

it's an interesting concept but I have a feeling that Prince would not have agreed to this,lol.

Are we sure that it wasn't nothing but a rumor? MJ was working on the Decade project at the time and was finishing up the Bad tour. Plus he was working on lots of other projects and finishing up the development of Neverland when this was going on. I was only 5 at that time period so I don't know but I hadn't seen no big news headline saying "MICHAEL JACKSON AND PRINCE TO TEAM UP FOR SOUNDTRACK".

Remember,this was at an early stage.It was probably something that the producers were considering but didn't actually follow through with.With these types of movies,producers and directors always "dream big" It's unknown if they even contacted Michael.

...

[Edited 7/26/10 3:44am]

SoulAlive said:

Timmy84 said:

Are we sure that it wasn't nothing but a rumor? MJ was working on the Decade project at the time and was finishing up the Bad tour. Plus he was working on lots of other projects and finishing up the development of Neverland when this was going on. I was only 5 at that time period so I don't know but I hadn't seen no big news headline saying "MICHAEL JACKSON AND PRINCE TO TEAM UP FOR SOUNDTRACK".

Remember,this was at an early stage.It was probably something that the producers were considering but didn't actually follow through with.With these types of movies,producers and directors always "dream big" It's unknown if they even contacted Michael.

...

[Edited 7/26/10 3:44am]

Knowing how Michael was, I doubt they got in contact lol

Michael was always working, he didn't wanna be bothered with anything that interrupted his schedule. His brothers couldn't get him to the studio with them so I doubt some execs were gonna call him and say "Hey Michael, we got a great idea, why don't you and Prince work together on the Batman soundtrack!?"

Timmy84 said:

SoulAlive said:

Remember,this was at an early stage.It was probably something that the producers were considering but didn't actually follow through with.With these types of movies,producers and directors always "dream big" It's unknown if they even contacted Michael.

Knowing how Michael was, I doubt they got in contact lol

Michael was always working, he didn't wanna be bothered with anything that interrupted his schedule. His brothers couldn't get him to the studio with them so I doubt some execs were gonna call him and say "Hey Michael, we got a great idea, why don't you and Prince work together on the Batman soundtrack!?"

I'm surprised that Michael didn't do alot of movie soundtrack work.That would have been right up his alley.He loves big Hollywood productions,special effects,etc,and was friends with powerful people like Steven Spielberg.

^ I think MJ did a soundtrack song for the Killer whale movie "Free Willy"?

thedance said:

^ I think MJ did a soundtrack song for the Killer whale movie "Free Willy"?

about killing whales? Man, I musta fallen asleep or something cuz that's not what I thought it was about.

either that, or you meant the film was great, which it wasn't.

I'm so glad that never happened. Some idea like this one should be left out in the air and not made a reality.

Didn't he offer the re-recorded version of "Wouldn't U Love 2 Love Me" to MJ instead of singing in "Bad"?

I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere.

Harlepolis said:

Didn't he offer the re-recorded version of "Wouldn't U Love 2 Love Me" to MJ instead of singing in "Bad"?

He sure did

p4life said:

can u post the whole interview please

i'd love 2 but i'd have to translate it from german 2 english..

and my english ain't that good.. maybe some1 else can post it!?

kewlschool said:

WaterInYourBath said:

I've heard about this too. I've read two different stories before: One is WB wanted Mike to write/record solo songs for the soundtrack before Prince was chosen by Tim Burton. The other is the collaboration plan between the two. In either case, MJ was unable to participate because he was still on his BAD tour during production of the film (1988-89).

I'm surprised Prince mentioned this.

I have never heard this before. But one could assume that they chose just Prince-seeing how it is a Warner Brothers movie. You know promote in house talent (Prince) and not Michael Jackson.

That makes sense. However, I don't think the WB movie studio that wanted MJ for Batman were the same folks as the WB music company. I should have specified that the WB film people/producers supposedly requested Michael at first since he was so huge and could have helped popularize initial promotion, and increase overall sales of the movie (even though it was a major success without him, as well as both of its soundtracks). So I don't think MJ not being under the WB music label mattered.

Regarding Prince, I've also read that the WB record label agreed with Burton in the end to have him do the entire album alone not only to assist the movie but also because they wanted to start trying to control Prince's output. They figured that letting him do the Batman album solo was a way to allow him to put out new music without releasing a separate "Prince" record in '89, satisfying both him and the record company that year.