chapter 6 Hangover p74 Possessed

...he now opened himself more to genuine exchange of ideas.

America, America
God shed his grace on thee
America, America
Keep the children free

Paisley Park/Warner Bros.
20389

1985

Prince unveils new studio album
'Around the World in a Day' should be out in April

BY MICHAEL GOLDBERG

PRINCE'S SEVENTH ALBUM, Around the World in a Day, should be in record stores before the end of April. The LP, which was recorded both at Price's home studio in Minneapolis and at Hollywood studios, contains nine tracks that, according to the LP's credits, were "produced, arranged, composed and performed by Prince and the Revolution."

Prince unveiled the record on Thursday, February 21st. Warner Bros. Records executives received a phone call late in the afternoon that day informing them that the label's biggest star would be arriving at their Burbank headquarters in forty-five minutes. Interoffice phones buzzed with the news, and a huge crowd of Warners staffers hurriedly assembled in the front lobby.

At about five p.m., a shiny purple limousine pulled up outside the record company's building.

Prince stepped out of the car, along with his father, John L. Nelson; his bodyguards; his managers; and Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin. Dressed in a long, purple antique kimono and striped, pajama-type pants, Prince clutched a single pink rose as he entered the building. Obviously pleased and looking quite confident, Prince smiled as the crowd greeted him with tumultuous applause. "I've seen Fleetwood Mac and David Lee Roth and Shaun Cassidy and everyone walk into this building," said one Warner Bros. employee, "but nothing like this."

Prince's entourage trooped past more fans crowded along the stairways and corridors, up to a fourth-floor conference room that had been hastily decorated with hundreds of purple helium balloons and white streamers. About 150 Warners staffers and executives -- including president Lenny Waronker and board chairman Mo Ostin -- were crammed into the room. Except for a few words with Ostin, Prince was silent. He sat on the floor with Wendy and his father, stared at the ground and held on to the rose as tapes of the album played at full volume.

Side two contains "America," which plays off "America the Beautiful" and has an American Indian feel ("America, America, God shed his grace on thee/America, America, keep the children free").

ROLLING STONE, APRIL 11, 1985

A m e r i c a
Tamborine: Brad Marsh
Recorded at Paisley Park by Susan Rogers
full Revolution composition

America - Girl [Bside]
The Warehouse, St. Louis Park; 1984 12" single: 21:46 2 October 1985

America" was the final U.S. single off Prince and The Revolution's 1985 album, Around the World in a Day. The song is appreciative of the mid-1980s United States, condemning Communism, and worrying about nuclear war. The song begins as if it is a record being spun by a DJ. This leads into a guitar solo and a rising keyboard line. The main tune is standard rock and roll and fades out at 3:40. The 12-inch single extended version is notable for being over 20 minutes and including various instrumental solos. The song even fades in this version; in the original extended version the listener can actually hear the audio tape run out, being that Prince and the Revolution had jammed the song out until there was no more room on the tape. The video for this song was shown on MTV during an entire segment dedicated to the single. Prince refused to speak during the inteview and thus bandmates spoke for him. He did appear playful and introduced his use of the phrase "Good God!" (inherrited from The Godfather of Soul James Brown), a phrase which would soon be adopted by his entire band and all of his protogee's during this prolific era in his career.

Clocking in at nearly 22:00 long, this "original version" of "America" was the version Prince and bandmates wanted to include on "Around The World In A Day," but agreed to instead use a less lengthy, edited version for the LP at Warner Brothers' request. Warner Brothers desire to truncate the song on the LP stemmed from concern that putting a 20+ minute jam session version of one song would be great for die-hard fans, but as "Around..." was the follow-up to the "Purple Rain" soundtrack, WB wanted to keep as many people coming back to buy "Around..." as possible. Original version or not, WB didn't want to risk a 21:46 song possibly putting off critics and consumers alike.

So Prince and crew released it as the 3rd single from "Around The World In A Day" - all 22 minutes of it and nowhere on it or in WB's catalogue was it listed as an "Extended Version"... instead the 7" version was promoted as the "Edit."

America

"America" was the final U.S. single off Prince and The Revolution's 1985 album, Around the World in a Day. The song is appreciative of the mid-1980s United States, condemning Communism, and worrying about nuclear war. The song begins as if it is a record being spun by a DJ. This leads into a guitar solo and a rising keyboard line. The main tune is standard rock and roll and fades out at 3:40.

Peace!


Aristocrats on a mountain climb
Makin' money, losin' time
Communism is just a word
But if the government turn over
It'll be the only word that's heard

CHORUS:
America, America
God shed His grace on thee
America, America
Keep the children free

Little sister make minimum wage
Livin' in a one-room jungle monkey cage
Can't get over, she almost dead
She may not be in the black
But she happy she ain't in the red

CHORUS

Freedom - Love - Joy - Peace

Jimmy Nothing never went 2 school
They made him pledge allegiance
He said it wasn't cool
Nothin' made Jimmy proud
Now Jimmy live on a mushroom cloud

CHORUS {x2}

Freedom - Love - Joy - Peace

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! (Oh Lord)
And the bomb go
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! (Oh Lord)
And the bomb go
Boom!

Teacher, why won't Jimmy pledge allegiance?

23 February, 1985, The Forum, Inglewood, CA, USA

• Prince - all vocal and instruments, except where noted
• Bobby Z. - drums and percussion
• Brown Mark - bass guitar and background vocals
• Wendy Melvoin - guitar and background vocals
• Lisa Coleman - keyboards and background vocals
• Dr. Fink - keyboards
• Jonathan Melvoin - tamborine (uncertain involvement)

• Brad Marsh - tamborine

This has become my favourite cut from the album over the years. I used to consider it the weakest for a long time.

This was their apex for me.

Didn't go much on it on the album. Then I got the 12".

Shit hot.

A m e r i c a (extended)

"America" was the final U.S. single off Prince and The Revolution's 1985 album, Around the World in a Day. The song is appreciative of the mid-1980s United States, condemning Communism, and worrying about nuclear war. The song begins as if it is a record being spun by a DJ. This leads into a guitar solo and a rising keyboard line. The main tune is standard rock and roll and fades out at 3:40. The 12-inch single extended version is notable for being over 20 minutes and including various instrumental solos. The song even fades in this version; in the original extended version the listener can actually hear the audio tape run out, being that Prince and the Revolution had jammed the song out until there was no more room on the tape.

Teacher, why won't Jimmy pledge allegiance?

That's enough {5:35 mark}

CHORUS

Drums!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
And the bomb go
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! ([...])
And the bomb go
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
(And the bomb go... Boom!) {x2}

CHORUS {x2}

Freedom - Love
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Purple mountain majesty

Aristocrats on a mountain climb
Makin' money, losin' time
Communism is just a word
But if the government turn over
It'll be the only word that's heard

U gonna stand in my way? Hey!
[Come on, they said, can I sing ...]
Yeah

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
And the bomb go

Clocking in at nearly 22:00 long, this "original version" of "America" was the version Prince and bandmates wanted to include on "Around The World In A Day," but agreed to instead use a less lengthy, edited version for the LP at Warner Brothers' request. Warner Brothers desire to truncate the song on the LP stemmed from concern that putting a 20+ minute jam session version of one song would be great for die-hard fans, but as "Around..." was the follow-up to the "Purple Rain" soundtrack, WB wanted to keep as many people coming back to buy "Around..." as possible. Original version or not, WB didn't want to risk a 21:46 song possibly putting off critics and consumers alike.

So Prince and crew released it as the 3rd single from "Around The World In A Day" - all 22 minutes of it and nowhere on it or in WB's catalogue was it listed as an "Extended Version"... instead the 7" version was promoted as the "Edit."

Fonkyman said:

Didn't go much on it on the album. Then I got the 12".

Shit hot.

the album cut 2 me was a tease, but by this time I was used to expecting extended versions, and the way this song ended felt like there was an 'extended version' coming

The video for this song was shown on MTV during an entire segment dedicated to the single. Prince refused to speak during the inteview and thus bandmates spoke for him. He did appear playful and introduced his use of the phrase "Good God!" (inherrited from The Godfather of Soul James Brown), a phrase which would soon be adopted by his entire band and all of his protogee's during this prolific era in his career.

As a teen, when i first saw this vid on mtv i was like wtf did prince do to his hair cool vid though

this makes me wonder ..

would 1999 have been bigger had they shortened all the songs?

or would Purple Rain, Around the World, Parade and Sign have been more cherished by fans had they been presented 1999 style with the extended versions intact?

I can see the appeal of both formats. Must be tough to be WB and have to sell this stuff to people who don't really listen to music that much.

Slicin and Dicin all those full versions down to a radio friendly snippet. I personally can't stand the short version of Let's Go Crazy and love the long version, but would it have been the hit it was if not for the editing?

Those were the days...