I was watching a live clip of Prince performing Partyman in Japan (surprised by all the live Prince clips on YT btw) and I can't help but notice when it segues into WHYDFML he keeps asking "Who wrote that?" I'm probably late but is he alluding to the fact that he wrote the song?

Janet always owed her career to Prince and Michael Jackson but if this is true then even moreso.

on wikipedia it says jam, lewis and janet wrote it

CynicKill said:

I was watching a live clip of Prince performing Partyman in Japan (surprised by all the live Prince clips on YT btw) and I can't help but notice when it segues into WHYDFML he keeps asking "Who wrote that?" I'm probably late but is he alluding to the fact that he wrote the song?

Janet always owed her career to Prince and Michael Jackson but if this is true then even moreso.

.

[Edited 8/6/10 6:19am]

I think this was just a dig at former employees Jam and Lewis. I don't think there's any doubt who wrote the song (don't think there's ever been any indication that they "stole" any songs from P).

I do, however, find it interesting that P's 3121.com site posted clips of his tune for Apollonia 6 (Blue Limousine) and Jam/Lewis' tune for the S.O.S. Band (Borrowed Love) and mentioned the similarities between the two songs (Limousine came before Borrowed Love). Wasn't a direct accusation, but it certainly hinted at plagiarism.

Prince did not write that song. Matt Fink himself told me he knew it was nonsense as well.

I think it was more of him talking about Jam & Lewis, although I don't know his motivation. The Nude Tour was right after Batman, but before Graffiti Bridge, so it doesn't make sense that he would be making a nod to The Time having reunited, since it didn't happen yet.

But did Prince write that song? No. Not even close.

And it's bullshit and dismissive to say Janet owes her career to anyone but herself, and Jam & Lewis. What a narrow, and very untrue, statement.

Goodness gracious...anyone with an ounce of...insight...would realise Prince is being playful and joking around...he's not in the least insinuating that he wrote the song.

He's said "Who wrote that"...that many times when he sings a cover...sheesh.

.

[Edited 8/6/10 8:28am]

Ive always liked that live version he did on Nude tour.

I think he was just giving Jam/Lewis some props.

And Janet owes them the most gratitude for her success since they

wrote all her hits. Of course, she is a helluva dancer and performer so she did alot of the work too.

PRINCE WROTE DAT SONG!

ernestsewell said:

Prince did not write that song. Matt Fink himself told me he knew it was nonsense as well.

I think it was more of him talking about Jam & Lewis, although I don't know his motivation. The Nude Tour was right after Batman, but before Graffiti Bridge, so it doesn't make sense that he would be making a nod to The Time having reunited, since it didn't happen yet.

But did Prince write that song? No. Not even close.

And it's bullshit and dismissive to say Janet owes her career to anyone but herself, and Jam & Lewis. What a narrow, and very untrue, statement.

Indeed! As for the "Who wrote that?" comment; since it was Rosie singing a song that was obviously not written by him, I would guess that was Prince mocking being indignant about the band doing someone else's song.

[Edited 8/6/10 8:25am]

SPOOKYGAS said:

PRINCE WROTE DAT SONG!

Other unknown Prince compositions:

"Don't Worry, Be Happy"

Good Times Theme

"Party All the Time" - and traded it to Rick James for "Jughead"

All of The Sound of Music

"What Do Tigers Dream Of (The Doug Song)" from The Hangover

"I Believe I Can Fly" - and traded it to R Kelly for "The Arms of Orion"

"The Star Spangled Banner"

For real.

KevinLucyMe said:

SPOOKYGAS said:

PRINCE WROTE DAT SONG!

Other unknown Prince compositions:

"Don't Worry, Be Happy"

Good Times Theme

"Party All the Time" - and traded it to Rick James for "Jughead"

All of The Sound of Music

"What Do Tigers Dream Of (The Doug Song)" from The Hangover

"I Believe I Can Fly" - and traded it to R Kelly for "The Arms of Orion"

"The Star Spangled Banner"

For real.

Dat B rite.

Prince may not have written WHYDFML, but it sure sounds like him.

Jam and Lewis did not listen to Papa Joe! He told them "Dont make her sound like Prince", but the Control album and quite a bit of Rhythm Nation sound like Prince was involved.

I'm sure he wasnt, but you coulda fooled me.

ernestsewell said:

Prince did not write that song. Matt Fink himself told me he knew it was nonsense as well.

I think it was more of him talking about Jam & Lewis, although I don't know his motivation. The Nude Tour was right after Batman, but before Graffiti Bridge, so it doesn't make sense that he would be making a nod to The Time having reunited, since it didn't happen yet.

But did Prince write that song? No. Not even close.

And it's bullshit and dismissive to say Janet owes her career to anyone but herself, and Jam & Lewis. What a narrow, and very untrue, statement.

Ernest-I have now started searching for your responses to subject matter coz I quite liek and rate them but on that last statement are you taking the piss?? (And don't go"Why are you using two question marks?" Mr pedant). I remember singing along in parents car as a young teenager thinking it was like a pop rip off Prince-even the hair on one side was swept back. You like to state opinion as fact Ernest-so I will say you are absolutely WRONG. The 90's stuff had a far sublter feel that Idoes not belong to P or The Time but for heaven's sake she couldn't have got there without P& The Time and let me be cruel some diet help coz she suddenly went quite horney. Talent she ain't-good package she was. I loved that control period -it was how I feel people (or the industry) took the best of the era without the personality issues. She took (managers) the crap out of what most people want and leave them with pop fun-nothing wrong with that as long as you don't argue superiority over the source

CynicKill said:

Janet always owed her career to Prince and Michael Jackson but if this is true then even moreso.

What?!

It's highly likely producers of the Calibre of Jam/Lewis would probably have made it without being in the Time, so nope, she owes absolutely nothing to Prince.

As for Michael, it might have helped being the youngest of a successful musical family, but really the only Jacksons she may owe a career to are her mother and father.

jcurley said:

ernestsewell said:

Prince did not write that song. Matt Fink himself told me he knew it was nonsense as well.

I think it was more of him talking about Jam & Lewis, although I don't know his motivation. The Nude Tour was right after Batman, but before Graffiti Bridge, so it doesn't make sense that he would be making a nod to The Time having reunited, since it didn't happen yet.

But did Prince write that song? No. Not even close.

And it's bullshit and dismissive to say Janet owes her career to anyone but herself, and Jam & Lewis. What a narrow, and very untrue, statement.

Ernest-I have now started searching for your responses to subject matter coz I quite liek and rate them but on that last statement are you taking the piss?? (And don't go"Why are you using two question marks?" Mr pedant). I remember singing along in parents car as a young teenager thinking it was like a pop rip off Prince-even the hair on one side was swept back. You like to state opinion as fact Ernest-so I will say you are absolutely WRONG. The 90's stuff had a far sublter feel that Idoes not belong to P or The Time but for heaven's sake she couldn't have got there without P& The Time and let me be cruel some diet help coz she suddenly went quite horney. Talent she ain't-good package she was. I loved that control period -it was how I feel people (or the industry) took the best of the era without the personality issues. She took (managers) the crap out of what most people want and leave them with pop fun-nothing wrong with that as long as you don't argue superiority over the source

There is no doubt about Prince's major influence on music and almost anything remotely related to music in the 80's. But let's not assume that everything he did was unique and trend setting. There are a lot of things that he maybe made more famous, or was accredited with afterwards, but did not really invent. As for instance your statement about the hair being swept back. Just new wave, nothing more. As for the musical influence, I humbly suggest we consider the possibility that this typical sound was (mainly) Jam & Lewis their contribution in the The Time / Janet ' music, not Prince's. If you listen closely to The Time, you might arguably even hear what parts are influenced by them, and what are pure Prince's - if there is even such a thing.

I totally agree with Marrk's statement about jam & Lewis.

[Edited 8/6/10 11:01am]

Marrk said:

CynicKill said:

Janet always owed her career to Prince and Michael Jackson but if this is true then even moreso.

What?!

It's highly likely producers of the Calibre of Jam/Lewis would probably have made it without being in the Time, so nope, she owes absolutely nothing to Prince.

As for Michael, it might have helped being the youngest of a successful musical family, but really the only Jacksons she may owe a career to are her mother and father.

Just compare her to the other Jackson's without Michael...

I like how Prince tells Jimmy Jam to not steal his groove for one of the songs during the First Ave. rehearsal gig on March 3, 1986! I think he even sang a quick line, jokingly, of WHYDFML as well. I'll have to pull that DVD out again.

ernestsewell said:

Prince did not write that song. Matt Fink himself told me he knew it was nonsense as well.

I think it was more of him talking about Jam & Lewis, although I don't know his motivation. The Nude Tour was right after Batman, but before Graffiti Bridge, so it doesn't make sense that he would be making a nod to The Time having reunited, since it didn't happen yet.

But did Prince write that song? No. Not even close.

And it's bullshit and dismissive to say Janet owes her career to anyone but herself, and Jam & Lewis. What a narrow, and very untrue, statement.

The Time were reunited by the beginning of the Nude Tour. Graffiti Bridge was pretty much complete before they went on tour, besides editing and such. I remember an interview of Matt Fink and Rosie Gaines in Keyboard magazine and Matt saying he was not in the movie because Prince had him preparing for the Nude Tour.

Totally agree about Janet owing her career to Prince and MJ. BS! Although I haven't been much of a fan of her music since she started working with other producers.

Ahhh, gotta love the org.

GuardianAngel said:

ernestsewell said:

Prince did not write that song. Matt Fink himself told me he knew it was nonsense as well.

I think it was more of him talking about Jam & Lewis, although I don't know his motivation. The Nude Tour was right after Batman, but before Graffiti Bridge, so it doesn't make sense that he would be making a nod to The Time having reunited, since it didn't happen yet.

But did Prince write that song? No. Not even close.

And it's bullshit and dismissive to say Janet owes her career to anyone but herself, and Jam & Lewis. What a narrow, and very untrue, statement.

Indeed! As for the "Who wrote that?" comment; since it was Rosie singing a song that was obviously not written by him, I would guess that was Prince mocking being indignant about the band doing someone else's song.

[Edited 8/6/10 8:25am]

Co-sign...Like in a play (Prince joke)

Ahhh, it's been a fair ol' while since we've had a WHYDFML thread, a welcome return

Now remember, don't anyone dare look at song writing credits, or even dream of doing a search for past responses to this question, you just go right ahead and make another thread asking the exact same thing in 6 weeks time.

ernestsewell said:

Prince did not write that song. Matt Fink himself told me he knew it was nonsense as well.

I think it was more of him talking about Jam & Lewis, although I don't know his motivation. The Nude Tour was right after Batman, but before Graffiti Bridge, so it doesn't make sense that he would be making a nod to The Time having reunited, since it didn't happen yet.

Bullcrap. Nude Tour was Summer 1990, Batman was early 1989. In mid 1989 P and Morris etc had started working on Corporate World; a configuration was assembled in Sep 1989 with an eye at a Nov 1989 release. WB then said they wanted a reunion, so there was a meeting and the rest of the band joined and started recording new tracks (without P) in late 1989.

StonedImmaculate said:

Prince may not have written WHYDFML, but it sure sounds like him.

Jam and Lewis did not listen to Papa Joe! He told them "Dont make her sound like Prince", but the Control album and quite a bit of Rhythm Nation sound like Prince was involved.

I'm sure he wasnt, but you coulda fooled me.

Pur-lease. Jam & Lewis had their own sound, and it's all over those albums. Sounding like P? Nonsense.

He has also been performing it normally last year on tour.

it sounded nice when he sang it with the twinz

I read on this forum some time ago that either Jam or Lewis were in the studio/rehearsal with Prince while he was playing piano. The piano line that Prince was playing then appeared in WHYDFML - which was why he performed the song live both on the Nude tour and more recently. However, I can't verify this.

I think of his "Who wrote that song?" as a playful accusation of borrowing - in a similar to vein "Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do" and Lenny Kravitz's "Again", which he mentioned on his website.

BartVanHemelen said:

ernestsewell said:

Prince did not write that song. Matt Fink himself told me he knew it was nonsense as well.

I think it was more of him talking about Jam & Lewis, although I don't know his motivation. The Nude Tour was right after Batman, but before Graffiti Bridge, so it doesn't make sense that he would be making a nod to The Time having reunited, since it didn't happen yet.

Bullcrap. Nude Tour was Summer 1990, Batman was early 1989. In mid 1989 P and Morris etc had started working on Corporate World; a configuration was assembled in Sep 1989 with an eye at a Nov 1989 release. WB then said they wanted a reunion, so there was a meeting and the rest of the band joined and started recording new tracks (without P) in late 1989.

You know what I meant, Bert, don't get the stink eye on me. The point is Prince did not write that song.

Maybe he thinks Jam & Lewis stole a riff he did and then put extra music to it. I don't think Prince was saying he actually WROTE the full song.

If it sounded Prince-ish... WELL IT WAS THE MINNEAPOLIS SOUND, of course it was gonna sound Prince-ish. DUH!

The hilarious thing is that how often has Prince "lifted" other's ideas without credit. Dude should have just kept his piehole shut.