Lately I've been listening a lot to The Family album, there's some incredible stuff on there! For example Susannah's Pyamas is a great piece of jazz/funk with lots of very interesting musicianship.

I wonder how much of these tracks are played by Prince himself? Obviously the sax is played by Eric Leeds, but what about the rest of the parts? Is it all Prince?

Prince did everything except vocals, horns and strings. Wendy also plays on the album.
He is however only credited to one song on the album art.

Amazing!!! This album really displays what an outstanding multi-instrumentalist Prince is! Bass, guitar, keyboards, drums: all to the point and well funky.

I am really appreciating the whole 85/86 period at the moment. So much wonderful music going on here, both on his own albums as on the related artist ones.

Indeed, musicsally The Family album is on top form, I still think Paul Peterson was a poor choice for vocalist though.
But yes, a golden period indeed.

TheDigitalGardener said:

Prince did everything except vocals, horns and strings. Wendy also plays on the album. He is however only credited to one song on the album art.

Really? Never knew this. I was under the impression is was actually band. Did Prince also write all the songs?

robertlove said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

Prince did everything except vocals, horns and strings. Wendy also plays on the album. He is however only credited to one song on the album art.

Really? Never knew this. I was under the impression is was actually band. Did Prince also write all the songs?

yep prince did the majority of it i guess that goes 2 show y he wants control over his work they were only hired hands 2 do a job they didnt have owernship over the music or any of the ideas

cbarnes3121 said:

robertlove said:

Really? Never knew this. I was under the impression is was actually band. Did Prince also write all the songs?

yep prince did the majority of it i guess that goes 2 show y he wants control over his work they were only hired hands 2 do a job they didnt have owernship over the music or any of the ideas

I know what your saying, but it I think 'hired hands' is a bit harsh

there is Jerome & Jellybean who were friends of Prince and from the the Time

Susannah his lover who inspired a lot of his music from Purple Rain - SoTT

Eric of course who had to come up with those parts on his own really cause Prince can't play sax

Wendy Melvoin & Mico Weaver play guitar on the album

But as stated by a lot of the Revolution a lot of this music came out of thos 5-10hour live band jam sessions. My favorite is the Screams of Passion studio with the Revolution on instruments with Prince

From some of the stuff I have I belive a lot of those studio outtaks of the Family recordings are Prince & the Revolution with Eric Leads St Paul & Susannah

who knows who else was in the studio Jerome Jellybean... why not

oh And didn't Jill Jones lend backup vocals too?

robertlove said:

Did Prince also write all the songs?

All except River Run Dry, which was by Bobby Z (great track too!) - The instrumentals are co-compositions with Eric.

Miko did'nt play on the album, only Wendy did.

NouveauDance said:

robertlove said:

Did Prince also write all the songs?

All except River Run Dry, which was by Bobby Z (great track too!) - The instrumentals are co-compositions with Eric.

is this really true?? river run dry has always been one of my faves .. the talent around prince back then never ceases to amaze me

TrevorAyer said:

NouveauDance said:

All except River Run Dry, which was by Bobby Z (great track too!) - The instrumentals are co-compositions with Eric.

is this really true?? river run dry has always been one of my faves .. the talent around prince back then never ceases to amaze me

Yes it's true.

It's all here http://www.princevault.co...The_Family and elsewhere.

TheDigitalGardener said:

Miko did'nt play on the album, only Wendy did.

Mico Weaver: Yeah, actually we did the Purple Rain Tour. It was like 100 shows in the States. The last show was in Florida so everybody was chillin'. Now the tour was over, 'what are we gonna do right after this?' So he called me and said 'Hey come up to my room, and he showed me "Around The World In A Day", the cover and all that stuff. He said 'this is the new thing'. I thought 'this is cool' -- it showed his own label and then he told me 'I want you to play in The Family'.

I thought he had Mico Weaver & Jill Jones as session arts for the Family

OldFriends4Sale said:

cbarnes3121 said:

yep prince did the majority of it i guess that goes 2 show y he wants control over his work they were only hired hands 2 do a job they didnt have owernship over the music or any of the ideas

I know what your saying, but it I think 'hired hands' is a bit harsh

there is Jerome & Jellybean who were friends of Prince and from the the Time

Susannah his lover who inspired a lot of his music from Purple Rain - SoTT

Eric of course who had to come up with those parts on his own really cause Prince can't play sax

Wendy Melvoin & Mico Weaver play guitar on the album

But as stated by a lot of the Revolution a lot of this music came out of thos 5-10hour live band jam sessions. My favorite is the Screams of Passion studio with the Revolution on instruments with Prince

From some of the stuff I have I belive a lot of those studio outtaks of the Family recordings are Prince & the Revolution with Eric Leads St Paul & Susannah

who knows who else was in the studio Jerome Jellybean... why not

oh And didn't Jill Jones lend backup vocals too?

not actually harsh if u read back innerviwes with people like dr fink he said they all knew there role and they werent as close as the movie or people thought they knew what they were hired to do

cbarnes3121 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I know what your saying, but it I think 'hired hands' is a bit harsh

there is Jerome & Jellybean who were friends of Prince and from the the Time

Susannah his lover who inspired a lot of his music from Purple Rain - SoTT

Eric of course who had to come up with those parts on his own really cause Prince can't play sax

Wendy Melvoin & Mico Weaver play guitar on the album

But as stated by a lot of the Revolution a lot of this music came out of thos 5-10hour live band jam sessions. My favorite is the Screams of Passion studio with the Revolution on instruments with Prince

From some of the stuff I have I belive a lot of those studio outtaks of the Family recordings are Prince & the Revolution with Eric Leads St Paul & Susannah

who knows who else was in the studio Jerome Jellybean... why not

oh And didn't Jill Jones lend backup vocals too?

not actually harsh if u read back innerviwes with people like dr fink he said they all knew there role and they werent as close as the movie or people thought they knew what they were hired to do

I know they knew they were 'hired' musicians

But those earlier musicians it wasn't that black n white.

Of course they had no 'ownership of the music' but the contributions and the chemistry was a bit more than hired help. Again, when Susannah was cowritting Ballad of Dorothy Parker and singing backup on Play in the Sunshine & Rock Hard In a Funky Place, I don't think he looked at her as a 'hired hand'

Nor when the Revolution & Sheila E were with him in the studio /warehouse or his house studio jamming and creating music jamming for hours on end, I don't think that was just a 'hired hand' situation.

Even the earlier group Fink Dez Andre Bobby Z etc came up with their own look for the band, Dez actually influenced Prince's look early on. That's more of Dez's idea than Prince

Prince & Lisa lived together for a while, she did laundry with him and made him sandwhiches, not to... hired handish...

But I know what your saying.

It really wasn't until after the DreamFactory break that Prince looked at the bands in a different way and every few years changed them up.

from For U - Parade/Dream Factory anyone who left left because of their own needs/issues:Gayle Chapman, Andre Cymone, Dez Dickerson. Prince never recycled the band in that time period.

Mico was in the live line up.

Mico / Miko?... Whatever, Mr Weaver!

[Edited 8/21/11 12:36pm]

OldFriends4Sale said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

Miko did'nt play on the album, only Wendy did.

Mico Weaver: Yeah, actually we did the Purple Rain Tour. It was like 100 shows in the States. The last show was in Florida so everybody was chillin'. Now the tour was over, 'what are we gonna do right after this?' So he called me and said 'Hey come up to my room, and he showed me "Around The World In A Day", the cover and all that stuff. He said 'this is the new thing'. I thought 'this is cool' -- it showed his own label and then he told me 'I want you to play in The Family'.

I thought he had Mico Weaver & Jill Jones as session arts for the Family

Miko did'nt play on the album, only Wendy did.

TheDigitalGardener said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Mico Weaver: Yeah, actually we did the Purple Rain Tour. It was like 100 shows in the States. The last show was in Florida so everybody was chillin'. Now the tour was over, 'what are we gonna do right after this?' So he called me and said 'Hey come up to my room, and he showed me "Around The World In A Day", the cover and all that stuff. He said 'this is the new thing'. I thought 'this is cool' -- it showed his own label and then he told me 'I want you to play in The Family'.

I thought he had Mico Weaver & Jill Jones as session arts for the Family

Miko did'nt play on the album, only Wendy did.

I'm not arguing with you. But do you have the info on that?

OldFriends4Sale said:

There is no mention of Miko playing on the album in either The Vault or on princevault.com, thats as good as being certain to me.
I know you are not arguing.

TheDigitalGardener said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I'm not arguing with you. But do you have the info on that?

There is no mention of Miko playing on the album in either The Vault or on princevault.com, thats as good as being certain to me. I know you are not arguing.

I mean where did u get the info on Wendy?

OldFriends4Sale said:

The Vault book states that Wendy played a rhythm guitar part on "Yes," as does The Family page on princevault.