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Coz I guess some folks get tired of answering the same old same old over and over and over and over again. Folks round here don't mind helping out but it is sure nice when someone does their research first and if they still cannot find an answer then by all means ask the question Ohh purple joy oh purple bliss oh purple rapture! REAL MUSIC by REAL MUSICIANS - Prince "I kind of wish there was a reason for Prince to make the site crash more" ~~ Ben |
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OK!!!!! IM SORRY , IM WRONG, IM BEGGING FOR FORGIVNESS, IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN, ILL SEEK COUNCELING, I WILL CONFESS AT CHURCH ON SUNDAY , IM NOT WORTHY . PLEASE FOGIVE ME!!!!!!! LMAO Pray Daily!!!!! RIP AMY WINEHOUSE Keep Calm, Carry on | |
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^Your answer clearly shows you aren't able to behave properly on a forum.
You should grow up or transmit the question to your kindergarten teacher.
Now it's more than clear who's seeking for attention. | |
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I love when people ask questions. I don't know where they are in Princology, some people are very new fans, some are returned fans. I wasn't a big fan during the 1992-1999 yrs so I have a lot of missing pieces.
When I do my threads I love for people to share and ask questions. It keeps the thread active. | |
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The following is the story of how the recordings on the 2-CD set, 94 East featuring Prince; Symbolic Beginning came into existence. It also reflects the intimate involvement that Pepé Willie had in the early development of the Minneapolis Music Scene. It's fairly lengthy to read, but worth it! When you play these recordings listen very carefully. You don't know what we went through to get these tapes and we don't want you to miss a thing. What you have in your possession is a collector's dream. These songs are very special because they feature the performances of Prince when he was just 16 years old. The songs which are referred to as the Cookhouse Five are Better Than you Think, I'll Always Love You, If We Don't, If You See Me, and Games. The name "Cookhouse" refers to Cookhouse Recording Studios where these recordings took place. The performances in these songs mark the very first time Prince was ever in a recording studio and the beginning of Prince's illustrious recording career. These recordings are a must for all Prince fans.
"Pepé Willie, DO NOT USE - 1975". He found it in a storage closet at Cookhouse. Imagine that! He called us and asked if we wanted the tapes or did we want to get rid of them. Get rid of them? You can imagine what was going on in our minds at that moment, but we didn't let on. We nonchalantly told him it was OK, we'd just come down and pick the master up. If he only knew what he was leaving at the front desk for us. The eight additional songs on this album are the Cookhouse Five PLUS three additional recordings: You Can Be My Teacher and Love, Love, Love, which were recorded on four track recorders and Dance To the Music of the World which is a practice session recording. (Done the night before we went into Sound 80 Recording Studios with Prince). They are presented on this album in their original form. We refer to this collection as Minneapolis Genius II: The Historic Recordings (a.k.a., Symbolic Beginings). "I remember it like it was yesterday", recalls Pepé, "everybody working together for a common cause." In any case, we were able to bring to you a truly extraordinary piece of work that not only reflects the incredible talent of Prince, but also several other teenage musicians from the original group 94 East. What makes these recordings so incredibly valuable is that they reflect an important part of the development of Prince and the history of the "Minneapolis Sound." Prince was born with a gift for creating music, but somehow, somewhere, Prince had to learn the business. Someone had to have given Prince the inside information he needed to become so successful so quickly. Therein lies the importance of the relationship between Prince and Pepé Willie.
"Let me tell you a story So, what's this got to do with Minneapolis Genius? First of all, you have to understand that Pepé had the presence of mind to watch, listen and absorb everything he saw and heard. He observed how people worked with one another – what worked and what didn't. He learned about the business – managers, agents, studio recording, performing, record executives, songwriting, contracts. He gained THE KNOWLEDGE. It was this priceless information that he brought with him to Minneapolis. It was this same information that he passed on to Prince. Pepé moved to Minneapolis and began working with Prince in 1974-75. It wasn't long before he realized that Prince was more than good, he was a phenomenal musician, and a singer as well. He also showed a deep desire and serious determination to make it. It was at this point that Pepé committed himself to passing the THE KNOWLEDGE to Prince; and Prince listened and listened. Prince was on guitar, André Anderson (now known as André Cymone), was on bass, Morris Day (later of The Time) was on drums, Linda Anderson (André's sister) was on keyboard and William Doughty was on Percussion. I remember asking them to play one of their original songs. It was a disaster. Of course, there was raw talent there, but when they began to sing, everyone was singing something different. Prince was singing "she", André was singing "he", the rest of the group was singing something else; and the name of the song was You Remind Me of Me (written by André). I couldn't believe they didn't take the time as a group to learn the words. So I had them put down their instruments and start learning the lyrics. You know , it was like Song Construction 101 had begun. Of course, my No. 1 student was Prince. Prince and Pepé spent the next several months working intensely with Grand Central. As Pepé recalls it . . . I taught them about song construction, singing together, the best ways to rehearse together, but I didn't have to tell Prince anything more than once. Even though the members of Grand Central were talented musicians, they were still 'kids' and they often acted like it. These guys would laugh and tell jokes all the time. Prince would show-off doing gymnastics in our living room. Man, that was great! They especially loved to tease Wendell Thomas, the bass player from 94 East by writing funny little names and comments about him on the chalkboard. Grand Central had made quite a bit of progress when Pepé decided to bring them into Cookhouse Recording Studios in 1975. Prince was so excited! Arrangements had been made for Grand Central to play for a co-owner of Cookhouse. He was fairly impressed with their original material, but then asked them to do one of their cover songs, an Earth, Wind and Fire tune. Unfortunately, they played Earth, Wind and Fire better than they played Grand Central. They were not ready. Back to practice
Kristie Lazenberry, background vocalist, met Pepé while they were both performing in a musical in St. Paul. Kristie introduced him to her good friend, Marcy Ingvoldstad. It was pure coincidence that one day they were all riding in Pepés Volkswagen Beetle, singing to the radio – in harmony. Pepé had found his background singers. If You See Me, one of Prince's favorites, gives a simple picture of Pepés feelings at that time: "Now I'm alone feelin' free/Freer than a butterfly, flyin' high now, yea, yea baby/...If you see me/Walk on by, girl/Don't say nothin'/...". What's interesting is that Prince took such a liking to this particular song, he recorded it himself. As Pepé remembers . . . One evening in 1982, Morris Day and I were sitting in my car outside a mutual friend's house, when Prince came up and handed me a cassette through the window. He told me to check it out. There was Prince's own funked up version of If You See Me (a.k.a. Do Yourself a Favor). It was a fairly long version of it and Prince had added some pretty humorous vocalizations. You could tell Prince had a lot of fun doing it. Sorry we couldn't share that one with you! I remember, Prince would call me up and tell me that he wanted to redo his tracks. I trusted Prince enough to let him go into the studio by himself and redo the track(s). I mean, that's how talented he was at 16.
We know you'll love Better Than You Think not only for the beautiful ballad that it is, but also the melotron string parts by Teddy Randazzo, the solo lead guitar by Prince and Pepé's acoustic guitar. When you listen to the solo lines Prince plays at the middle and the end of Better Than You Think, it's so full of feel that it sends chills up and down your spine. If you listen real carefully in the last verse, you'll hear the special effect Prince adds on guitar. It sounds like a light switch. Was he thinking that at the time? Who knows. With the completed Cookhouse songs in his possession, Pepé and Wendell, the bass player for 94 East, flew to New York in April of 1976 and literally beat the pavement until 94 East was signed with Polydor. 94 East had to prepare to go in to the studio and record a single. By this time, Dale Alexander had lost his position as drummer with 94 East and was replaced by Bobby "Z" Rivkin. Bobby later became the drummer for Prince's first band, the Revolution. When Prince began working on his own demo recordings at Sound 80, André Lewis, Pierre Lewis' younger brother was given the task of learning all of Prince's guitar parts. Even though the Cookhouse Five songs got 94 East the deal with Polydor, two other songs were actually recorded for the single. They were Fortune Teller and 10:15. These two songs were co-produced by Pepé and producer, writer, A&R man, Hank Cosby. Hank Cosby wrote Fortune Teller and Pepé wrote 10:15. Hank Cosby brought in a singer by the name of Colonel Abrams to do the lead vocals. In an unfortunate turn of events 94 East's contract was cancelled and their single was never released. It was devastating to the group and what struck Pepé was how personally Prince took this loss. Prince was upset and the only retaliation we had was to go right back in the studio and do some new recordings. That's when we rehearsed and recorded Dance To The Music Of The World – the practice session on our own 4-track recorder. The very next day, Prince, André Cymone and Pepé were in Sound 80 Recording Studios, recording new material. From these sessions came Dance To The Music The World, Lovin' Cup and Just Another Sucker (the song Pepé and Prince co-wrote). If You Feel Like Dancin' and One Man Jam were recorded at a studio in New York. That trip proved to be an excellent experience for Prince and André (Cymone). They got the kind of professional studio exposure that would prove invaluable to them in the future. These five songs really show the fast-growing maturity and versatility of Prince since the Cookhouse Five recordings. On Just Another Sucker, Lovin' Cup and Dance To The Music Of The World, Prince not only played guitar, but also drums, keyboards, and did vocal work. André Cymone played bass and Pepé played rhythm guitar. On If You Feel Like Dancin', Prince is on keyboards and guitar. One Man Jam, André Cymone is on bass and Prince "went crazy" playing everything else. Pepé added synthesizer parts in the overdub. We guess Prince really wanted to "show them" for Pepés sake. The songs, Love, Love, Love and You Can Be My Teacher are from our 1/4" tape collections. The music tracks were done on a 4-track tape recorder. The beat was done on a Korg rhythm machine (this was before there were drum machines). On Love, Love, Love, Prince is playing bass and guitar. Pepé is playing keyboards. Marcy Ingvoldstad is singing vocals. On You Can Be My Teacher, Prince is playing bass and Pepé is playing guitar. Pepé talks about their collaboration . . . It was great how Prince could play off my style of writing. We worked well together. We decided to add Dance To The Music of the World – the practice session – to give you an indication of how intense practices could be. After 94 East's contract with Polydor was cancelled, the only remaining members were Pepé, Marcy, and Kristie. So in this practice tape, you'll hear Prince on guitar playing bass parts. Pepé on rhythm guitar, and Prince, Pepé, Marcy, and Kristie on vocals. You'll enjoy hearing Prince cracked a joke before they start to play ("I was out with my old lady and she said jive sucker I'll kick you too."). Everyone laughs, of course, and in Prince's characteristically shy way of speaking, he responds, "I'm embarrassed." (Yeah, right.) Really listen to Prince's falsetto note in the harmonies. He has an amazing vocal range. We the members of 94 East recognize that we were extremely fortunate to have played and worked with a musician like Prince. We think these historical recordings are a classic addition to anyone's music library. We sincerely hope you will enjoy these recordings as much as we do, especially when we dusted them off and listened to them for the first time after all those years. It was a once in a lifetime experience to have been the first to have worked with a phenomenon like Prince at such an early age.
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94 East -- Minneapolis Genius - The Historic 1977 Recordings (1987) Incredible piece of Jazz/Funk/Disco from Prince and his bestest childhood buddy André Cymone. Recorded one year before Prince's solo debut, For You, at the tender age of just nineteen this record has that definite Minneapolis sound.
Track Listing side 2
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With the completed Cookhouse songs in his possession, Pepé and Wendell, the bass player for 94 East, flew to New York in April of 1976 and literally beat the pavement until 94 East was signed with Polydor. 94 East had to prepare to go in to the studio and record a single. By this time, Dale Alexander had lost his position as drummer with 94 East and was replaced by Bobby "Z" Rivkin. Bobby later became the drummer for Prince's first band, the Revolution. When Prince began working on his own demo recordings at Sound 80, André Lewis, Pierre Lewis' younger brother was given the task of learning all of Prince's guitar parts. | |
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Anyone who has this album/or the song If U Feel Like Dancin' noticed the keyboard melody is the same used for the Times the Walk?
If U C Me by 94 East Prince took the words and did the 1999 outtake Do Yourself a Favour Anyone who hasn't heard these songs should, it's a must, for those interested in Prince and music/times that influence the Prince's music and the 1st 2 album especially
Track Listings side 1
Track Listing side 2
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Thank you, finally, i should have just sent u an org note and avoided all this . Pray Daily!!!!! RIP AMY WINEHOUSE Keep Calm, Carry on | |
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Because he likes to make his pen (actually his entire keyboard) do a dip in the sulfuric acid that he revers to in his name. He can't help is it's a bit pathetic. | |
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Maybe, but Mod no one is forcing anyone to click on a thread or post. We all can tell right from the start if it's something we want to or do not want to get into.
I know at times the search box works for me, but it depends too. That's why I like doing those era threads or reading thru Swa's appreciation threads | |
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Love those threads Ohh purple joy oh purple bliss oh purple rapture! REAL MUSIC by REAL MUSICIANS - Prince "I kind of wish there was a reason for Prince to make the site crash more" ~~ Ben |
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Prince's arrangements on Do Yourself A Favor's were stolen by and used on Jesse Johnson's 1986 album Shockadelica. The song splits credits & copyright between Jesse & Pépé Willie (while If You See Me, though being basically the same song, is copyrighted as a Pépé Willie composition only). There's also an extended version of Jesse's version.
Jesse probably did that as a retaliation 4 Prince stealing the drum-beat of The Belle Of St. Mark from him, and erasing him from copyrights on the very profitable The Bird and Jungle Love.
The very ironic thing here is that, while apparently not knowing about Jesse stealing his work, Prince retaliated "in advance" by broadcasting Shockadelica (the song) a few weeks before Shockadelica (the album) was released, making Jesse look as if he'd stolen his title from Prince (when it was actually the opposite way). And in the end, Jesse's Do Yourself A Favor (and the whole album) are mainly forgotten while Prince's Shockadelica will be included in future collections/remasters.
Despite his legal obligation 2 credit and pay Jesse for his "writing input", i hope Prince will release his superb (and superior) version at some point. Having it with perfect sound quality would be THE shit! A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |
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