SoulAlive said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I had disappointing feeling of the disbanding of the Revolution and the Lovesexy band.

I mean with all the talk about them, before they even got started they were done ...

When the Batman videos/music started coming out I saw no Cat, No Sheila E. Dr Fink popped into the Party Man video near the end, Mico was still there, No Boni, No Eric or Atlanta Bliss

the changes didn't do well 4 me, too much change isn't always a good thing

And its my personal feeling that I just love all of them from that 1980 period.

I remember in early 1989,there was talk that the Lovesexy Band was over,and that Prince was,once again,gonna start over with a new line-up.I felt that there was so much magic created with that band,so I was kinda sad to hear that news I don't think that any of the other bands that came after can compete with the Lovesexy Band.

LOVED the Lovesexy Band, Loved the SOTT set up best though

I'm with some of the other "old timers" when I say that I barely really "noticed"...

...I became a true Prince fan AFTER Lovesexy. Once I attended the concert, I got hooked.

I ordered SOTT (on vinyl) through Columbia Music Club.

Can't remember if I ordered it before or after Lovesexy...but I liked half of the album, and the other half I skipped.

I remember reading through the liner notes and wondering why The Revolution was on some tracks and not others.

But it was a big for me. I was in love with Sheila E. and the whole Lovesexy troupe.

TrevorAyer said:

u are all forgetting .. prince was sold as a one man band .. otherwise nobody and I mean NOBODY would have bought his first record .. once this selling point was engrained with the public it continued .. every thing had to say it was written by prince even if it was not .. often prince and band would come up with songs that prince would then record by himself .. prince is NOTORIOUS for not giving credit where credit is due .. and much of his protege work was heavily collaborated with lisa coleman and others .. whatever extent to which u all believe or do not believe one fact remains .. there was a LARGE group of musicians who contributed both on and off record .. both credited and uncredited to prince first 10 years .. the good years .. the REVOLUTION YEARS .. and ever since prince music has been poo save for some old reworked songs from the past such as joy in repetition or crystal ball

it did not phase me when prince dropped the revolution .. i was a fan but had no clue about the inner workings at the time .. but I am sure we can all agree .. how could we not .. that PRINCE IS NOTHING WITHOUT THE REVOLUTION .. from lovesexy forward his records got sketchy and bad and eventually completely unlistenable ... the revolution was no set line up .. it was a whole community that got behind prince to push him to be the star so they could all have jobs and let their music be heard ... prince ego killed the revolution and it killed prince legacy ... he will always have those first 10 records plus the b sides and protege work from that period .. he will always be known as great during that time .. but prince will also always be known as a fucking joke from that point forward .. yes we all cringed thru tony m just to get a little moment like money dont matter .. but after wb prince compeletely fell off into self absorbed diarhea .. sad but true

I thought he was famous for quite the opposite: giving credit to others (proteges) for music entirely written and recorded by Prince alone?

paulludvig said:

TrevorAyer said:

u are all forgetting .. prince was sold as a one man band .. otherwise nobody and I mean NOBODY would have bought his first record .. once this selling point was engrained with the public it continued .. every thing had to say it was written by prince even if it was not .. often prince and band would come up with songs that prince would then record by himself .. prince is NOTORIOUS for not giving credit where credit is due .. and much of his protege work was heavily collaborated with lisa coleman and others .. whatever extent to which u all believe or do not believe one fact remains .. there was a LARGE group of musicians who contributed both on and off record .. both credited and uncredited to prince first 10 years .. the good years .. the REVOLUTION YEARS .. and ever since prince music has been poo save for some old reworked songs from the past such as joy in repetition or crystal ball

it did not phase me when prince dropped the revolution .. i was a fan but had no clue about the inner workings at the time .. but I am sure we can all agree .. how could we not .. that PRINCE IS NOTHING WITHOUT THE REVOLUTION .. from lovesexy forward his records got sketchy and bad and eventually completely unlistenable ... the revolution was no set line up .. it was a whole community that got behind prince to push him to be the star so they could all have jobs and let their music be heard ... prince ego killed the revolution and it killed prince legacy ... he will always have those first 10 records plus the b sides and protege work from that period .. he will always be known as great during that time .. but prince will also always be known as a fucking joke from that point forward .. yes we all cringed thru tony m just to get a little moment like money dont matter .. but after wb prince compeletely fell off into self absorbed diarhea .. sad but true

I thought he was famous for quite the opposite: giving credit to others (proteges) for music entirely written and recorded by Prince alone?

Trevor is bad faith made flesh when it comes to this: we all know what credit Prince gave and what credit he stole. The first list is dozens of songs, probably more than a hundred, the second list is about a dozen songs at most: I could probably list these from memory

I certainly wouldn't go as far as to say that the people around Prince from 78 to 86 were talentless: some released wonderful solo albums afterwards, and even the others managed to record some really decent music even if it wasn't groundbreaking. It would be unfair to deny these people's individual talents.

Now I DO agree that their talent had very little to do with Prince's success and genius or even the protégé's albums' success. Prince always was the one who had the vision, the concepts, and when all is said and done, he was the one who made the music. All of this has been documented SO MUCH, we more or less know PRECISELY who did what on what and when, so whoever is saying the opposite either doesn't know what he's talking about or is just talking bad faith. Of course the protégés are always trying to make a point: The Time, fDeluxe, even Sheila: they're always trying to say "we exixt, we were important": how could they not, their own career started like that, being intrumentals. But the Revolution members, whose solo careers started afterwards and who therefore don't have so much to prove, have always been the first ones to say in interviews: "this was all Prince, we were only instrumental in his vision and he made all the creative decisions". But Trevor and the others here know better than Dr. Fink, that's for sure These people contributed and influenced, undeniably, but in the end they weren't very important in what defines Prince's genius, and of course whoever goes and claim that Prince recorded nothing but shit after 1987 has once again to be a champion of bad faith

Nothing personnal, Trevor, + you ain't the only one to say that u've just been the last one ro say it in this thread

Byron said:

Didn't care at the time - although I jumped ship around the time of Parade - insane, I know as it's my favorite album now. Didn't come back until D&P, which is oddly not one of my favorites.

So there was definitely some disappointment in the loss of what I considered the "classic" Prince sound - though in my "second life" fandom, I dug more into the earlier albums, and realized how different his starting point was.

PurpleLotusFlower said:

Some of you really need to get out of Susannah's and the Revolutions A$$. They were not the best band Prince has ever had and Susannah was not his Greatest Love (dude never stopped banging other chicks on a regular) Please stop romanticing these relationships, geesh. I get soooooooooooooooo tired of hearing people on this board say that the Time, The Family, The Revolution made Prince. GTFOH, Prince is The Time, The Family and The Revolution (sh#@ even Sheila E. was his creation, no matter how she or anyone else tries to spin it). None of these people would have the careers/life they have now without Prince. None of these people have went on and created any groundbreaking materials. Prince made Prince, if you did not know who Prince was b4 When Doves Cry, you sure as hell knew who he was after you heard that song. When Doves Cry put him on that map and the movie/soundtrack and subsequent tour just solidified him. Did the people around him contribute, of course, that can be said about everyone in the entertainment industry. But is the bulk of Prince's work/vision just Prince, yes and yes

To me, it seems that Prince has always had a plan/vision on how he wanted the world to view his music. None of these people came up with the idea to put Prince in a film. None of these people came up with the idea, Hey let's record these songs live for the soundtrack. His band is just that his band. I never bought a Prince and The Revolution album or wanted to go to a Prince and The Revolution concert. I bought a Prince album and wanted to see Prince in concert, who was in his band was irrelevant.

As someone previously said, some of you really need to take off the rose tinted glasses when it comes to these peoples. Dude was in his 20's in the 80's, he moved different, thought different and sang differently then.

Again if Wendy/Lisa were these fantastic writers/musicians that some of you on here wants everyone to believe, then where are their number 1 records/album. Ok, since they are definitely not the best singers, then where are the number 1 songs that they wrote for other people. Hmmmm, I am going to go out on limb and say maybe, they are/were only as good as the band leader they kept from 84-86.

I love The Rebels, The Revolution, SOTT/Lovesexy Band, The NPG and 3rdeyeGirl!!! But when these bands were/will be no more, it did not make or break me one way or the other, cuz Prince is the only relevant factor and the only reason why I know any of their names.

Why are you so bent out of shape over other people's opinions?

....and yet, you gave yours.

OldFriends4Sale said:

EddieC said:

I'm not really following it either--yes, many of thesongs were planned to be on Dream Factory, and Dream Factory would have been credited to Prince and the Revolution. But many solo songs (or songs with very little non-Prince contribution) were co-credited. Depending on Prince's mood at the time, several songs with just as much non-Prince contribution would be co-credited with whatever band name he was using. Certainly there were with the Revolution and with subsequent bands recordings that justify co-crediting (if he wanted to do so)--but he could just as well release them without the performing artist co-credit. It all seems pretty arbitrary to me. I liked the core Revolution, I felt more of a band-feel to them than most other bands Prince has had--but whether Dream Factory would have been credited to Prince and the Revolution or not doesn't seem that significant. Heck, according to Princevault, Dream Factory (the song) didn't have any Revolution input (yes, Susannah's on background vocals, but that wouldn't really mean "and the Revolution," would it?) Much of the album would have been solo, or contained very minor contributions from others. This is the case with the other Revolution albums, and with the New Power Generation albums. The bands have some influence, occasionally significant influence, in the making of specific tracks--and I think Prince "writes for" the people he has around him, trying to play on their strengths in recording or (probably more importantly) live situations. But much of what I like in "the Revolution" has more to do with Prince's youth and desire to make his mark, and how that drove him beyond the comfortable, than in any definite contribution from the band--similar things matter with the mid-90's NPG. Much of what I dislike about later NPG's has to do with Prince's own feeling of comfort--he was okay with being an established legend, offering music that had as its greatest recommendation that it was "real" and by "real musicans" rather than that it was "interesting" or "good" or "compelling" or anything that many people who maybe weren't "real" (whatever he really meant by that) were managing to do with their own music.

That said--I'm also just nostalgic for the Revolution because, hey--I was a teenager then, and I'm in my forties now. I felt a lot more intensely about a lot of things, including music. I don't care about the most incredible things I first hear now (no matter when they're from) as I did back then.

go back to my first comment and why I said what I said. I replied to a comment that the Revolution wasn't a part of the process,,, Was the Revolution a part of the process weither it was 1 member or all?

Look at the bolded in my comment--the band was a part of the process. But they often are whether or not there's a credit (or would have been a credit, in the case of Dream Factory). The Dream Factory album would have been more of a Revolution album (with or without the credit)--but certainly Sign o the Times was affected by, influenced by, the Revolution (or at least some members of the Revolution). But he did change the project when they left, and did minimize their representation on the album (except for including the live track--which I consider one of the Revolution's low points, honestly). He probably would not have done much of what he did on Sign o the Times without the Revolution's being around--but they had been his band (and thus who would be playing his music in any live situation--thus who he's writing for) for all of his professional career (obviously core people left and were replaced, but they did it over time, allowing the "band" to have continuity). He had grown and changed organically as the band did. It's impossible to remove them from the process.

I don't think I disagree with you on that--perhaps I felt the question of what the credit would have been on the Dream Factory album was being overemphasized, or something. I don't know.

paulludvig said:

TrevorAyer said:

prince is NOTORIOUS for not giving credit where credit is due ..

I thought he was famous for quite the opposite: giving credit to others (proteges) for music entirely written and recorded by Prince alone?

A little from column A, a little from column B...

There are plenty of examples of both.

Beautifulstarr123 said:

PurpleLotusFlower said:

Some of you really need to get out of Susannah's and the Revolutions A$$. They were not the best band Prince has ever had and Susannah was not his Greatest Love (dude never stopped banging other chicks on a regular) Please stop romanticing these relationships, geesh. I get soooooooooooooooo tired of hearing people on this board say that the Time, The Family, The Revolution made Prince. GTFOH, Prince is The Time, The Family and The Revolution (sh#@ even Sheila E. was his creation, no matter how she or anyone else tries to spin it). None of these people would have the careers/life they have now without Prince. None of these people have went on and created any groundbreaking materials. Prince made Prince, if you did not know who Prince was b4 When Doves Cry, you sure as hell knew who he was after you heard that song. When Doves Cry put him on that map and the movie/soundtrack and subsequent tour just solidified him. Did the people around him contribute, of course, that can be said about everyone in the entertainment industry. But is the bulk of Prince's work/vision just Prince, yes and yes

To me, it seems that Prince has always had a plan/vision on how he wanted the world to view his music. None of these people came up with the idea to put Prince in a film. None of these people came up with the idea, Hey let's record these songs live for the soundtrack. His band is just that his band. I never bought a Prince and The Revolution album or wanted to go to a Prince and The Revolution concert. I bought a Prince album and wanted to see Prince in concert, who was in his band was irrelevant.

As someone previously said, some of you really need to take off the rose tinted glasses when it comes to these peoples. Dude was in his 20's in the 80's, he moved different, thought different and sang differently then.

Again if Wendy/Lisa were these fantastic writers/musicians that some of you on here wants everyone to believe, then where are their number 1 records/album. Ok, since they are definitely not the best singers, then where are the number 1 songs that they wrote for other people. Hmmmm, I am going to go out on limb and say maybe, they are/were only as good as the band leader they kept from 84-86.

I love The Rebels, The Revolution, SOTT/Lovesexy Band, The NPG and 3rdeyeGirl!!! But when these bands were/will be no more, it did not make or break me one way or the other, cuz Prince is the only relevant factor and the only reason why I know any of their names.

Why are you so bent out of shape over other people's opinions?

....and yet, you gave yours.

there is always some like that, who jumps in in the middle of a discussion thinking they know the opinions and viewpoints of people focusing their attitude in one post toward everyone.

Madhouse6 said:

I was shocked but then when SOTT was released it was soon forgotten and even more so when he toured with Lovesexy. We all need to gro and we can't do that unless we have new experiences in life and a new band added a different viewpoint and certainly more Funk to his music

Totally agree. It's always bittersweet when one chapter ends, but the new chapter can be even more exciting. However, after SOTT, the music quality declined IMO. Sad.

djThunderfunk said:

paulludvig said:

I thought he was famous for quite the opposite: giving credit to others (proteges) for music entirely written and recorded by Prince alone?

A little from column A, a little from column B...

There are plenty of examples of both.

Yes, but not an equal number. Far from it! As databank pointed out maybe a dozen of credits stolen and several dozens of credits given.

As someone posted above, all was forgiven/forgotten when SOTT came out. It was outstanding. Only later did I find out that a lot of it was actually Revolution material.

.

I do remember being excited about the solo Wendy & Lisa album too though, so the split seemed to benefit everyone IN THE SHORT RUN.

.

Keeping Dr. Fink and including Sheila E. really helped with the transition. If you ask me, Sheila was more his muse/counterpart than Wendy & Lisa ever were.

paulludvig said:

djThunderfunk said:

A little from column A, a little from column B...

There are plenty of examples of both.

Yes, but not an equal number. Far from it! As databank pointed out maybe a dozen of credits stolen and several dozens of credits given.

Stolen credits I can think of:

- My Love Is Forever, lyrics by Chris Moon (Moon retaliated by taking P's songwriting credits off Make It Through The Storm).

- Baby, strings played by Charles Veal and keyboards played by Patrice Rushen.

- Partyup, songwriting by Morris Day (Morris agreed and got the job with The Time in return).

- Do Me, Baby, songwriting by André Cymone.

- The Bell Of St. Mark, linn drum programming by Jesse Johnson (but the song was not credited to Prince but to Sheila E.).

- The Bird and Jungle Love, songwriting by Jesse Johnson (but the song wasn't credited to Prince but to Morris day and Jamie Starr, and Jesse later retaliated by taking P's arrangements credits off Do Yourself A Favor).

- Kiss, lyrics by David Z and intruments by Mazarati (but the song's writing and instruments credits were credited to Prince And The revolution, not just Prince)

- Power Fantastic, songwriting by Wendy & Lisa.

- Well Done, songwriting by David Z and Levi Seacer Jr.

- Soul Santuary and Eye'll Never Be Another Fool,songwriting by T. Hammer and Vince Reid (that's most likely because Prince didn't know they'd cowritten the songs Sandra St. Victor had sent him, since he accurately credited her).

- Van Gogh, songwriting by Sandra St. Victor (the joke here is that to this day Prince hasn't ever registered the song at ASCAP, so he probably just forgot to inform the band Van Gogh that she was cowriter at the same time he forgot to copyright it ).

I'm sure there must be one or two others that I can't think of right now, plus if u REALLY wanna be picky there are probably a few other background vocals or instruments forgotten in the credits here and there, or uncredited when there was no credits at all such as with The Black Album, but basically we now have... tadada... THIRTEEN songs.

Now if someone wanna try and make a list of all the songs where Prince credited his songwriting, arrangements and/or performances under someone else's name, or a pseudonym, or his whole band, be my guest

[Edited 10/29/13 10:04am]

Se7en said:

As someone posted above, all was forgiven/forgotten when SOTT came out. It was outstanding. Only later did I find out that a lot of it was actually Revolution material.

.

I do remember being excited about the solo Wendy & Lisa album too though, so the split seemed to benefit everyone IN THE SHORT RUN.

.

Keeping Dr. Fink and including Sheila E. really helped with the transition. If you ask me, Sheila was more his muse/counterpart than Wendy & Lisa ever were.

I don't think Sheila had the song writing composing chemistry Prince had with Lisa Coleman & then Wendy Melvoin. From Eric Leeds Dr Fink Alan Leeds and others they all have said it was Prince Lisa Coleman & Wendy. Sheila E benefitted from that.

.

Sheila was never known for that.

We(I) liked Sheila E as a frontman, I love her upfront with Prince, that's the 'counterpart' because she was basically his protege like Morris Day.

EddieC said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

go back to my first comment and why I said what I said. I replied to a comment that the Revolution wasn't a part of the process,,, Was the Revolution a part of the process weither it was 1 member or all?

Look at the bolded in my comment--the band was a part of the process. But they often are whether or not there's a credit (or would have been a credit, in the case of Dream Factory). The Dream Factory album would have been more of a Revolution album (with or without the credit)--but certainly Sign o the Times was affected by, influenced by, the Revolution (or at least some members of the Revolution). But he did change the project when they left, and did minimize their representation on the album (except for including the live track--which I consider one of the Revolution's low points, honestly). He probably would not have done much of what he did on Sign o the Times without the Revolution's being around--but they had been his band (and thus who would be playing his music in any live situation--thus who he's writing for) for all of his professional career (obviously core people left and were replaced, but they did it over time, allowing the "band" to have continuity). He had grown and changed organically as the band did. It's impossible to remove them from the process.

I don't think I disagree with you on that--perhaps I felt the question of what the credit would have been on the Dream Factory album was being overemphasized, or something. I don't know.

I'm with you on that.

oops

[Edited 10/29/13 21:56pm]

I remember not liking the fact that Wendy & Lisa no longer were part of the band. I was happy though to find out that Eric Leeds still was there.

The real drama for me came, when I first heard of the new band name a few years later on ....

NPG ... "new power generation" WTF ...

Totally uncool band name and generally spoken a rather infantile, poor choice.

And albeit containing the word "power" it had the opposite effect on me.

Go figure

from

The Revolution ...

to

NPG ...

To be honest I think that band name, might have been one of the the turning points in me being a Prince fan back then.

I'm of the mindset that after the Revolution, he should've just remained "Prince". Bring in new bandmembers and such, but don't change the name. "Prince" is almost a household name . . . nobody gives a damn about the NPG or who's currently in it.

.

On a side note: I've read/heard that Prince announced the disbanding news to the Revolution in the same California house that the Menendez brothers later murdered their parents. The band was renting the house. Anyone else remember this?

Se7en said:

I'm of the mindset that after the Revolution, he should've just remained "Prince". Bring in new bandmembers and such, but don't change the name. "Prince" is almost a household name . . . nobody gives a damn about the NPG or who's currently in it.

.

On a side note: I've read/heard that Prince announced the disbanding news to the Revolution in the same California house that the Menendez brothers later murdered their parents. The band was renting the house. Anyone else remember this?

Yea, Lisa and Wendy recalled that story during a live chat promoting their last record. It was kind of a funny story the way they told it.

Se7en said:

I'm of the mindset that after the Revolution, he should've just remained "Prince". Bring in new bandmembers and such, but don't change the name. "Prince" is almost a household name . . . nobody gives a damn about the NPG or who's currently in it.

.

On a side note: I've read/heard that Prince announced the disbanding news to the Revolution in the same California house that the Menendez brothers later murdered their parents. The band was renting the house. Anyone else remember this?

Well it makes sense when u think of it. Prince was like a father to the Revolution and he betrayed them, condemning them to the limbo of those people who've been close to being major stars but didn't make it in the end, which is worse than hell (any priest will confirm). So by doing so Prince sort of put a curse on that house, I mean it was so bad, so terrible that the house was left haunted by that terrible event and when the Menendez motherfuckers moved in that place the 2 sons were litterally possessed by the house, haunted by the curse, and eventually they went mad and murdered their folks because in their confused minds parental figures had become synonymous to evil and betrayal, all because of Prince. I'm quite surprised that this angle wasn't studied at the trial, proving that the poor kids were not responsible for their actions in the end.

Se7en said:

I'm of the mindset that after the Revolution, he should've just remained "Prince". Bring in new bandmembers and such, but don't change the name. "Prince" is almost a household name . . . nobody gives a damn about the NPG or who's currently in it.

.

On a side note: I've read/heard that Prince announced the disbanding news to the Revolution in the same California house that the Menendez brothers later murdered their parents. The band was renting the house. Anyone else remember this?

wow, never heard of that one

I always wondered if Prince named the Family after cult called the Family

databank said:

paulludvig said:

Yes, but not an equal number. Far from it! As databank pointed out maybe a dozen of credits stolen and several dozens of credits given.

Stolen credits I can think of:

- My Love Is Forever, lyrics by Chris Moon (Moon retaliated by taking P's songwriting credits off Make It Through The Storm).

- Baby, strings played by Charles Veal and keyboards played by Patrice Rushen.

- Partyup, songwriting by Morris Day (Morris agreed and got the job with The Time in return).

- Do Me, Baby, songwriting by André Cymone.

- The Bell Of St. Mark, linn drum programming by Jesse Johnson (but the song was not credited to Prince but to Sheila E.).

- The Bird and Jungle Love, songwriting by Jesse Johnson (but the song wasn't credited to Prince but to Morris day and Jamie Starr, and Jesse later retaliated by taking P's arrangements credits off Do Yourself A Favor).

- Kiss, lyrics by David Z and intruments by Mazarati (but the song's writing and instruments credits were credited to Prince And The revolution, not just Prince)

- Power Fantastic, songwriting by Wendy & Lisa.

- Well Done, songwriting by David Z and Levi Seacer Jr.

- Soul Santuary and Eye'll Never Be Another Fool,songwriting by T. Hammer and Vince Reid (that's most likely because Prince didn't know they'd cowritten the songs Sandra St. Victor had sent him, since he accurately credited her).

- Van Gogh, songwriting by Sandra St. Victor (the joke here is that to this day Prince hasn't ever registered the song at ASCAP, so he probably just forgot to inform the band Van Gogh that she was cowriter at the same time he forgot to copyright it ).

I'm sure there must be one or two others that I can't think of right now, plus if u REALLY wanna be picky there are probably a few other background vocals or instruments forgotten in the credits here and there, or uncredited when there was no credits at all such as with The Black Album, but basically we now have... tadada... THIRTEEN songs.

Now if someone wanna try and make a list of all the songs where Prince credited his songwriting, arrangements and/or performances under someone else's name, or a pseudonym, or his whole band, be my guest

[Edited 10/29/13 10:04am]

lol we talked on the side ...

BrownMark was also involved in the creation of Kiss
Power Fantastic, the composition by Lisa Coleman (Carousel) I believe Prince wrote the lyrics

Also the many songs that Jill Jones contributed too aren't see easily recognized

I still remember the story of Prince sneaking Jill in on Glamorous Life, and then passing Sheila E who went to work on the same song. But neither knew at the time...

What were the early days like? How would you compare those experiences to your times “officially” with the Revolution?

FINK: It was a very creative time. I mean, there was a lot of influence and input from band members towards what he was doing. Even thought he was doing most of the recording and writing on the first two albums, there was still influence there and still a lot of ideas being thrown around that he could draw from. He was always open to anybody trying to contribute creatively to the process of writing. It wasn’t really until Dirty Mind that he brought in myself to perform on that record. I’m trying to remember: I think the first two albums he really did all himself; I don’t believe he had any other people involved from the band at that point. Then going forward from there, he kept bringing in group members, to do some session work or have some co-writes here and there.

When the whole “Revolution era” started up, it opened up a lot of possibilities for Prince’s sound. How did the writing process work with him? For example, how did you got about writing a song like “Computer Blue”?

FINK: Well “Computer Blue” really grew from a seed, so to speak, that took place during a jam session. We’d always warm up before rehearsals doing free-form improv rock/jazz music jams, and someone would start a chord progression (or Prince would or one of us would) or in this case on that day, I started playing that main bass groove which was the main bass part for “Computer Blue” which was later brought into that. So the band started grooving on it, next thing you know we’re all sort of joining in, doing some jam on that. Prince started coming up with some stuff we recorded a rough version of it and he took it into the studio and just incorporated it all and made it fly that way. Lisa & Wendy came in and they did some of the stuff on it. Prince borrowed the bridge/portal section from his own father who had given him some music over the years to play around with. So that particular song was a real mixture of different people and influences. So that’s how that one came about. So I kind of germinated the beginning of it—the bassline, the main groove, Bobby Z. was there to play the drums, of course—and that’s how it evolved. Prince, ya know, he really was the main lyricist and melody maker for the songs and I’m pretty sure very rarely took or did not take any lyrical content from people. He was really the main guy on that.

You were also there during the time that he made the transition from the Revolution to right before he formed the New Power Generation.

FINK: Exactly yes. Then he incorporated a lot of Shelia E.’s people into the NPG and the Sign ‘O’ the Times/Lovesexy-era, and then by 1990, he had brought in Michael Bland on drums and Rosie Gaines on keyboards and vocals by then.

Was there a different vibe that you felt with the NPG in contrast to the Revolution?

FINK: Whole different vibe. Completely different.

Good different or bad different?

FINK: All good, for the most part. Some of the newer people that were involved were a little green and were making some demands that maybe weren’t all that realistic. They wanted star treatment when they really hadn’t paid their dues yet. That kind of stuff: there were just some people who hadn’t paid their dues and were asking for certain things and they were coming to me as the “senior member” to go to management to ask for favors or ask for special things to come along their way. I said “You know, that’s really not my place guys: I think you should address that yourselves”—and I’m not naming names!

databank said:

Se7en said:

I'm of the mindset that after the Revolution, he should've just remained "Prince". Bring in new bandmembers and such, but don't change the name. "Prince" is almost a household name . . . nobody gives a damn about the NPG or who's currently in it.

.

On a side note: I've read/heard that Prince announced the disbanding news to the Revolution in the same California house that the Menendez brothers later murdered their parents. The band was renting the house. Anyone else remember this?

Well it makes sense when u think of it. Prince was like a father to the Revolution and he betrayed them, condemning them to the limbo of those people who've been close to being major stars but didn't make it in the end, which is worse than hell (any priest will confirm). So by doing so Prince sort of put a curse on that house, I mean it was so bad, so terrible that the house was left haunted by that terrible event and when the Menendez motherfuckers moved in that place the 2 sons were litterally possessed by the house, haunted by the curse, and eventually they went mad and murdered their folks because in their confused minds parental figures had become synonymous to evil and betrayal, all because of Prince. I'm quite surprised that this angle wasn't studied at the trial, proving that the poor kids were not responsible for their actions in the end.

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Interesting insights OldFriends4Sale, thanks for the quotes

It's certain that Eric, Wendy & Lisa were very influential in exposing Prince to other kinds of music. It's also well known how he tripped on Kate Bush's Couldbusting for example. It's somewhat sad that he quit being curious musically speaking after that, from what he has shown ever since in his "radio shows" and interviews, Prince mostly listens to mainstream R&B and pop music, and he totally missed the electronic revolution of the 90t's. That was particularly obvious with Kamasutra: while P had been listening to classical music in the 80's (and, according to Fink, sampling a lot of it in GB, in such a distorted way that we can't even recognize anything), he was obviously totally unaware of the works of contemporary composers, which led him to provide quite a ridiculous piece of contemporary neo-classical music.

databank said:

Interesting insights OldFriends4Sale, thanks for the quotes

It's certain that Eric, Wendy & Lisa were very influential in exposing Prince to other kinds of music. It's also well known how he tripped on Kate Bush's Couldbusting for example. It's somewhat sad that he quit being curious musically speaking after that, from what he has shown ever since in his "radio shows" and interviews, Prince mostly listens to mainstream R&B and pop music, and he totally missed the electronic revolution of the 90t's. That was particularly obvious with Kamasutra: while P had been listening to classical music in the 80's (and, according to Fink, sampling a lot of it in GB, in such a distorted way that we can't even recognize anything), he was obviously totally unaware of the works of contemporary composers, which led him to provide quite a ridiculous piece of contemporary neo-classical music.

I would think it was reciprocal. Prince probably exposed Wendy and Lisa to a lot of funk and soul music. Wendy said Prince was her biggest influence on guitar. Maybe Prince felt he got as much as he could out of their creative relationship and it was time to end it. If the Revolution stayed on, eventually the music would have gotten stale and tired. It could be everything was getting too comfortable creatively and Prince needed to shake it up. I always respected him for taking different directions even if the results weren't always successful.

lrn36 said:

databank said:

Interesting insights OldFriends4Sale, thanks for the quotes

It's certain that Eric, Wendy & Lisa were very influential in exposing Prince to other kinds of music. It's also well known how he tripped on Kate Bush's Couldbusting for example. It's somewhat sad that he quit being curious musically speaking after that, from what he has shown ever since in his "radio shows" and interviews, Prince mostly listens to mainstream R&B and pop music, and he totally missed the electronic revolution of the 90t's. That was particularly obvious with Kamasutra: while P had been listening to classical music in the 80's (and, according to Fink, sampling a lot of it in GB, in such a distorted way that we can't even recognize anything), he was obviously totally unaware of the works of contemporary composers, which led him to provide quite a ridiculous piece of contemporary neo-classical music.

I would think it was reciprocal. Prince probably exposed Wendy and Lisa to a lot of funk and soul music. Wendy said Prince was her biggest influence on guitar. Maybe Prince felt he got as much as he could out of their creative relationship and it was time to end it. If the Revolution stayed on, eventually the music would have gotten stale and tired. It could be everything was getting too comfortable creatively and Prince needed to shake it up. I always respected him for taking different directions even if the results weren't always successful.

Even Prince said in 1985 they were just touching on the creativity, when we look at the unreleased catalogue of music from 1984-1986 there is no way they were close to stale. I'm talking about the whole creative energy of that whole group, the Sheila E & band, the Revolution (extended) the stuff that came with the Time, the Family, Mazarati

(just because Wendy & Lisa were not 'black') doesn't mean they weren't exposed to funk and soul music. Wendy said the first time she heard Prince was when she and Susannah went to some dance club back in the early 80s and she heard Soft n Wet. Of course they all probably shared various different artist/musicians with each other.

But the relationship shifted because of the personal level. (emotional) Prince has talked about it in a 1990 interview.

by that time everyone knew how he plays games...so it was accepted as norm