i read that Tim Burton the director of 1989 movie Batman

was not pleased

with the songs Prince contributed.

Prince wasn't his choice for doing the music but studio and Jack Nickolson insisted.

Interesting indeed!

Cause Tim Burton makes bad decisions.

Maybe thats the reason so small amount of Prince songs are used in the movie

Then Tim should have stuck to the original use (in rehearsals and early filming) of "Baby I'm A Star" and "1999". Or asked for other songs. There were some songs that Prince submitted that Tim didn't want to use, and Prince brought back others he DID use, so who's to blame? Prince could have been easily pulled off the project, despite Nicholson's insistence (allegedly), and someone else brought in. Yet, here we are, with a Batman soundtrack and Tim Burton's face in it, if I'm not mistaken.

Let's see....Tim Burton...has made a few ok films, but has made tons of dark dreary films nobody I know likes. Batman...hmmm....Michael Keaton is a little guy, but wears a suit that makes him big. They may as well have had Gary Coleman, Prince, or Adam West play Batman. Mel Gibson would have been a better Batman. At least there would have been somebody even crazier than Prince and Burton.

All I'll add is that I was surprised in the Batman DVD commentary and special features how little TB talked about Prince and the soundtrack tie-in. I don't recall him saying anything specifically negative, but I remember getting the feeling that for TB it was just something the studio wanted, and something he had to do as a director of a big budget blockbuster. Who knows though. I'd love someone to ask him this question some time.

[Edited 8/27/10 22:20pm]

toejam said:

All I'll add is that I was surprised in the Batman DVD commentary and special features how little TB talked about Prince and the soundtrack tie-in. I don't recall him saying anything specifically negative, but I remember getting the feeling that for TB it was just something the studio wanted, and something he had to do as a director of a big budget blockbuster. Who knows though. I'd love someone to ask him this question some time.

[Edited 8/27/10 22:20pm]

I'd ask Tim Burton how he feels about Christopher Nolan totally whipping his ass in Batman movies? Batman Begins is the best film, and the Dark Knight is the best grossing Batflick. Yes, our little Purple Yoda Guy has the best soundtrack, hands down. I wanted to like The Dark Knight as much as Begins, but despite all the praise for Heath Ledger's overacting, and everything else, I saw it as the slightly weaker of the two good Batmovies . At least Begins knew when to end. The Dark Knight was a great film for the first half, but fell victim to the Hollywood Ending Syndrome. In fact, I was wanting it to end at one point. Still, a very good film, but not the best. (Dark Knight is much much better than Tim Burton's crap job, however.)

From a crazy point of view....the Prince soundtrack alone makes Burton's hack job the best!!! Ok...just kidding, but to even suggest that shows how much I love Prince's music.

Last thing on Burton: Ed Wood is a fantastic film....and I believe his only one. Planet of the Apes alone is enough to make me think that Burton was worse in some ways then Ed Wood himself. At least Wood probably knew deep down that his movies stunk.

Burton actually has some taste! lol

The original Batman score is a masterpiece, whereas Prince's Batman is his weakest album from the 80s. If I were Burton, I would have denied to use any of these songs.

[Edited 8/28/10 0:33am]

Tim Burton is terribly over-rated.

Posting about someone making a disparaging remark about Prince without a source.... Quick! Get the pitchforks!

funkomatic said:

The original Batman score is a masterpiece, whereas Prince's Batman is his weakest album from the 80s. If I were Burton, I would have denied to use any of these songs.

[Edited 8/28/10 0:33am]

Yeah right. Let me see: electric chair, the future, scandalous, Vicki waiting, Party man... All these tunes are simply bloody great and the worst thing about it is you know it.

[Edited 8/28/10 3:40am]

If you read the book Burton on Burton. He talks about the soundtrack. He says he liked it and thought it was very clever... but just didn't know how to make the songs fit in with edit of the film.

I think Scandalous, Vicky Waiting, Lemon Crush and Arms of Orion are very good songs - but I agree that the rest of the tracks rightfully could´ve been replaced with stronger tracks to make a better album.

It sums a bit up what I think could be Prince´s weakest skill: the ability to choose the right songs for each album, to make one totally amazing album consisting of just fantastic songs instead of an album with some amazing tracks and others not that great (like Batman).

Of the Prince albums I have heard I only think that Purple Rain and Parade are the two albums that are perfect, that I feel that he didn´t need to exchange any of the songs. (although I have heard outtakes that could replace a couple on Parade according to my personal taste, but didn´t have to). I think that even SOTT, which I´ve noticed is to be considered by many as P´s best album, has a couple of weaker songs that could be replaced.

There's no doubt the Prince soundtrack contributed to the overall success of that movie. Didn't Prince at one point offer to do the entire score for the movie?

During an interview on the set with Burton, P is very admiring of TB's work and challenge with the film. He stated that he was giving TB whatever he needed as far as sounds and songs. Weren't the Batman songs recorded in one month?

Personally, I am always slightly discipointed in Burton's films. They always are interesting and he definitately has a genius vision, but they usually are a little weak in character development. Nightmare Before Christmas is an underrated classic. And Helena Bonham Carter is a cool actress.

nuthinbuttamuffin said:

If you read the book Burton on Burton. He talks about the soundtrack. He says he liked it and thought it was very clever... but just didn't know how to make the songs fit in with edit of the film.

And that's exactly the feeling I got when I first saw the film last week. I think the museum scene is a great scene, I think Partyman is an awesome song, but to me the two didn't fit together well. When I later saw the Partyman music video, I realised that was the sort of scene I expected. Too bad...

The first song I thought fit in the film at that scene was Trust, but when I heard the line: "What makes you a real lover" at that scene, I started laughing. The lyrics didn't match at all, I still can't believe 200 Balloons didn't make it

Furthermore, the other soundtrack did fit the film, but didn't work alongside the Prince soundtrack. They sounded completely different, worked against each other and got the flow out of the movie soundtrack. And to me the only function a movie soundtrack has is to create flow and insert a certain mood in the film. The Danny Elfman soundtrack succeeded by itself, but got interrupted by the Prince songs. Prince should have collaborated with Danny Elfman to adjust the sound of the songs to each other, it might have worked out a little better.

I also thought the moody, introspective and darker songs on Prince's soundtrack were the standout tracks and they were not used properly in the movie. Vicki Waiting, Scandalous, Electric Chair, The Future deserved more face time. I thought they were perfect thematic fits for the movie. TB has not really utilized pop music in his films as has someone like Scorcese.

Tim Burton is a nerd who makes nerdy movies sustained by a nerdy cult following. His word is worthless for me...

Batman is still his best movie, mainly because it was a studio project, and not one of his personal crappy/nerdy projects...

and the Prince songs fit PERFECTLY well, specially Partyman and Trust... I strongly believe Prince's songs gave the film a modern, urban edge...en edge lost during the crappy, gothic and silly Batman Returns, with that overblown Elfman score...

My only problem with the Batman soundtrack was the lack of any release of the Vicki Waiting intrumental/extended version.

I will also add that while the 1989 Batman today looks very dated compared to the great Begins and The Dark Knight ,it was a kick ass movie for the times.

muleFunk said:

My only problem with the Batman soundtrack was the lack of any release of the Vicki Waiting intrumental/extended version.

I will also add that while the 1989 Batman today looks very dated compared to the great Begins and The Dark Knight ,it was a kick ass movie for the times.

GB I see U still trying 2 find that long Vicki Waiting huh lol

I remember one of the first questions U asked me when we first met was if I had it or knew anybody with it! That's your holy grail!

muleFunk said:

My only problem with the Batman soundtrack was the lack of any release of the Vicki Waiting intrumental/extended version.

Dude, same here. It sounded... in the casino scene... to be crazy.

Well, I personally consider Batman one of Prince´s weakest albums ever, although there are some interesting parts (if u listen to it with earphones, there are some funky rythm guitars). But the production was too ´dry´ for my taste. I wouldnt be surprised if Tim Burton really didnt like it much.

On the other hand, ´Batdance´ was underrated. Prince wanted to modernize the old Batman theme, and he did it well. But it was too ´fun´ for the Batman fans who love the dark moody hero.

Tim Burton is great when it comes to art direction, but his movies arent that great IMO. Christopher Nolan made Batman fans dream come true. A ´clean´ Batman, sober, dark and Christian Bale was a good one. Not to mention Heath Ledger, who made a killer joker (I am a big fan of Nicholson, but Ledger was a kick ass Joker).

And Nolan´s movie score fits very well into the movie. It´s dense.

GustavoRibas said:

Well, I personally consider Batman one of Prince´s weakest albums ever, although there are some interesting parts (if u listen to it with earphones, there are some funky rythm guitars). But the production was too ´dry´ for my taste. I wouldnt be surprised if Tim Burton really didnt like it much.

On the other hand, ´Batdance´ was underrated. Prince wanted to modernize the old Batman theme, and he did it well. But it was too ´fun´ for the Batman fans who love the dark moody hero.

Tim Burton is great when it comes to art direction, but his movies arent that great IMO. Christopher Nolan made Batman fans dream come true. A ´clean´ Batman, sober, dark and Christian Bale was a good one. Not to mention Heath Ledger, who made a killer joker (I am a big fan of Nicholson, but Ledger was a kick ass Joker).

And Nolan´s movie score fits very well into the movie. It´s dense.

nuthinbuttamuffin said:

If you read the book Burton on Burton. He talks about the soundtrack. He says he liked it and thought it was very clever... but just didn't know how to make the songs fit in with edit of the film.

I think a big part of the problem with making Prince's songs work is that he already had the instumental score form Danny Elfman. It's had to work songs written with lyrics in with the film score. It works perfectly in the scene where "Partyman" is used since one of the joker's sidekicks is carrying a boom books and queues up the song. Elsewhere in the film, Buton used instrumental clips from the Prince soundtrack, in essense almost having two different scores.

Taken fron the Rolling Stone interview n 634-635, 07.09.1992-07.23.1992:

The other thing in the first one that felt horribly intrusive was the Prince music. We're in this Tim Burton world, and all of a sudden, like him or not, in rides Prince.

Yeah, it's true. It's the unholy alliance of me and . . .

Warner Bros. marketing, pure and simple?

This is what happened. You learn something new every day. Now, here is a guy, Prince, who was one of my favorites. I had just gone to see two of his concerts in London, and I felt they were like the best concerts I'd ever seen. Okay. So. They're saying to me, these record guys, it needs this and that, and they give you this whole thing about it's an expensive movie so you need it. And what happens is, you get engaged in this world, and then there's no way out. There's too much money. There's this guy you respect and is good and has got this thing going. It got to a point where there was no turning back. And I don't want to get into that situation again.

It had to be painful for you to put that music into that movie.

It was . . . it was . . . it completely lost me. And it tainted something that I don't want to taint. Which is how you feel about an artist. And actually, I liked his album. I wish I could listen to it without the feel of what had happened.

As far as I know, Burton hasn't stated anything of the kind.

Burton just probably didn't think the movie needed more pop music than what he had already planned to use for those two scenes that have "Partyman" and "Trust" in the final movie. He had used "Baby I'm A Star" and "1999" during the shooting in the first place - so he wasn't exactly opposed to using Prince's stuff. Prince substituted two new songs for them and the rest of the album consists of music that he was working at the same time.

This is just one of those "I remember reading from somewhere" type of threads.

Per my previous post, Tim Burton liked the music, but he didn't want it in the film - read the Rolling Stone Interview...

Okay. You posted that piece while I was writing my reply.

Yet, he used two Prince songs during the filming process. Doesn't really sound like he didn't want any Prince type of music involved. Or, it's possible that the decision to have Prince's stuff in the film had been made before he even shot those scenes. Another possiibility is that he might have wanted Danny Elfman or someone else to do new pieces in place for those in the final movie instead.

I think it really should have been left at those two songs. Prince could have released "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic" - or whatever the album would have been called - on his own. Of course, he ended up having that much needed hit record this way.

ohYeeeeeah said:

funkomatic said:

The original Batman score is a masterpiece, whereas Prince's Batman is his weakest album from the 80s. If I were Burton, I would have denied to use any of these songs.

[Edited 8/28/10 0:33am]

Yeah right. Let me see: electric chair, the future, scandalous, Vicki waiting, Party man... All these tunes are simply bloody great and the worst thing about it is you know it.

[Edited 8/28/10 3:40am]