InternationalLover82 said:

Spinlight said:

http://princevault.com/in...Movie_Star

Is that really Susannah on moviestar?? Hmm I always wondered who it was

It was actually Wendy. Her voice is little younger sounding then her sister and Susannah could never sound that clownish.

Jestyr said:

Spinlight said:

The source is The Vault from Uptown. Unless you're a member of Uptown, I'm unsure as to what makes you think their information is wrong?

I knew many of the folks who contributed to Uptown, They are fans just like us and while they did an incredible amount of research that we and a myriad of Prince authorities have benefitted from for years, they have also (self admittedly) gotten things wrong in the past. I believe this is one of those times.

Ufoclub brings up a good point about the composition and arrangement. To me, it makes more sense that this song was recorded sometime in late 1985 or early 1986. He was using these kinds of drums, the tone of the song is definitely post-movie stardom and would make sense given he would be preparing for the release of UTCM. Just speculation, of course.

Movie Star was definately written in late 85 - early 86, hence the lyrics at the beginning "If I tell Gilbert and 'Rome to meet me at the club at 10, that would give me an hour of free reign"

Jerome joined the Revolution in late 85 after the break up of The Time and toured with Prince. Gilbert was heading up Prince's security at this time.

So I think this pretty much lends to the era at when this song was written. Definitely post Purple Rain.

Jestyr said:

InternationalLover82 said:

Is that really Susannah on moviestar?? Hmm I always wondered who it was

It was actually Wendy. Her voice is little younger sounding then her sister and Susannah could never sound that clownish.

renfield said:

Spinlight said:

It's hard to really pinpoint what tracks were intended for what projects because a lot of misinformation exists within all the knowledge we have.

Example 1: In the liner notes for Crystal Ball, Prince states that "Crucial" was the original album closer for Sign o the Times. It is known from session documents, personal accounts from witnesses and bandmembers, and other anecdotal evidence that "Crucial" was never intended for Sign o the Times and that the album itself only ever had 2 possible closing tracks: "Adore" and "...Beautiful Night". Where did Prince get this idea from in 1998 when he wrote these liner notes?

Example 2: Prince states in the Crystal Ball liner notes that "Movie Star" was a track written for The Time. This song, according to gathered data, is from March 1986. The Time was disbanded for over 2 years at that point. Further, the reformation of The Time began as early as 1987 when the drafts for Graffiti Bridge were first written and included the band*. Prince either must've known shortly after The Family's and The Revolution's dissolutions that The Time would make a comeback. Perhaps Prince felt he would have more time to devote to the band. Who knows. What we do know is that "Movie Star" has always been a contender for release since it showed up on nearly every configuration of The Dream Factory and the proto-Crystal Ball record.

* All we know at this point about what "the band" consisted of in those early drafts is anyone's guess. We see, further, that it may have been intended to have Corporate World as the followup to Ice Cream Castles, but was scrapped in favor of putting the movie's tracks on Prince's album (which they perceived to be a mistake with the handling of the Purple Rain soundtrack before).

Those facts don't necessarily negate the Crystal Ball liner notes: Although "Crucial" had been recorded earlier, Prince could have toyed with the idea of making it the final track, an idea he might not even have expressed to anyone else.

Also, "Movie Star" was recorded in '86, well after The Time, but it could have been written (or at least conceived) much earlier.

But, we also know Prince lies a lot and deliberately spreads misinformation, so really we'll never know. Ah, the joy of being a Prince fan...

Back to the topic though, I doubt there was ever even the tiniest plan of releasing an album in 1983. The 1999 tracks were blowing up at pop radio that year and finally getting him the crossover he wanted, and all attention was focused on Purple Rain. As much as he wanted to release new material and a constant rate, I don't think even he thought a new album in 1983 was feasible, especially since it could have derailed his burgeoning superstardom (which he so desperately wanted at that time).

wow no u didnt lol u said we all know prince lie alot and spread misimformation and u know better than prince about his music and all things prince???

alphachannel said:

In Prince's Rolling Stone interview from 1985 he says:

"I want to show you the archives, where all my old stuff is. There's tons of music I've recorded there. I have the follow-up album to 1999. I could put it all together and play it for you, and you would go "Yeah!" And I could put it out, and it would probably sell what 1999 did. But I always try to do something different and conquer new ground."

Surely we can all guess, but does anyone have real insight to the tracks considered for this unreleased album?

There was no unreleased 1983 album.

Prince wasn't saying that he'd specifically recorded another album inbetween 1999 and Purple Rain. He was saying that he's always got tons more songs than he releases, and he could've easily put together a "1999 Part 2" album and released that, but he's more interested in trying new directions than repeating himself.

^It's a pity he no longer thinks that way...

joyinrepetition said:

Movie Star was definately written in late 85 - early 86, hence the lyrics at the beginning "If I tell Gilbert and 'Rome to meet me at the club at 10, that would give me an hour of free reign"

Jerome joined the Revolution in late 85 after the break up of The Time and toured with Prince. Gilbert was heading up Prince's security at this time.

So I think this pretty much lends to the era at when this song was written. Definitely post Purple Rain.

Gilbert Davison is listed on the Purple Rain tour book under 'Security' and had probably been around much longer than that. Look, I appreciate that you guys want to believe that Movie Star was recorded after Purple Rain, unfortunately the facts just don't line up. There's no compelling reason to believe Prince lied to the Crystal Ball liner notes team when he told them it was written for THE TIME, who were disbanded by the Cherry Moon era and we know that Morris was well into his solo career by late 1985-1986. The musical pallette used does not fit in to the 1987 reunion period of THE TIME, so the only conclusion to be drawn is that it was recorded in 1984, when Morris was being groomed for movie stardom.

Then again, none of us really know for certain, so it's an unresolvable argument anyway.

Jestyr said:

joyinrepetition said:

Movie Star was definately written in late 85 - early 86, hence the lyrics at the beginning "If I tell Gilbert and 'Rome to meet me at the club at 10, that would give me an hour of free reign"

Jerome joined the Revolution in late 85 after the break up of The Time and toured with Prince. Gilbert was heading up Prince's security at this time.

So I think this pretty much lends to the era at when this song was written. Definitely post Purple Rain.

Gilbert Davison is listed on the Purple Rain tour book under 'Security' and had probably been around much longer than that. Look, I appreciate that you guys want to believe that Movie Star was recorded after Purple Rain, unfortunately the facts just don't line up. There's no compelling reason to believe Prince lied to the Crystal Ball liner notes team when he told them it was written for THE TIME, who were disbanded by the Cherry Moon era and we know that Morris was well into his solo career by late 1985-1986. The musical pallette used does not fit in to the 1987 reunion period of THE TIME, so the only conclusion to be drawn is that it was recorded in 1984, when Morris was being groomed for movie stardom.

Then again, none of us really know for certain, so it's an unresolvable argument anyway.

You're right about the stick noise sounding like an older style, but he resurrected that percussion trick for the later version of "Can't Stop This Feeling I Got".

The other weird thing about it being for Morris is that it says "did one spin, did a second, did the splits, came up looked around, the joint was hopping!" - I never saw Morris do those James Brown moves in anything.