Was BATMAN really that bad?? I mean it wasn't groundbreaking or anything but keep in mind I feel Prince's focus was to create songs for each scenes to be used in the film, rather than an overall "ALBUM" kind of like Parade... Funny thing is Tim Burton didn't even use the majority of the songs for the film.

Batman was the first CD I ever bought. All my Prince albums were on cassette up until that point. I got completely caught up in the hype of the movie and loved the album. I still like it to this day. Prince certainly isnt stretching himself on it, but that was never the intention. He needed the cash and a hit, and the movie provided the perfect opportunity to get both without digging deep.

It's a bit confused, with some songs shoehorned in to fit the theme and one or two lacklustre numbers on it but no, it's far from bad. It is, however, a slip in overall quality after his decade long streak up to that.

I liked that whole era, including the tour that followed. Was it the nude tour?

I thought the videos to Batdance and Partyman were quite funny. I had been a Prince fan then for so many years, it was nice to actually see him have a hit in the UK.

Strange I know, but I felt quite proud to be a Prince fan then.

As an album, sure its not his best but I play it often. I just wish it didn't have so much film dialogue between the songs, as it's difficult to seperate the album from the movie.

But still, the highlites for me are:

Vicky waiting

Trust

Lemon Crush

and yes even....Arms of Orion.

It may be a bit cheesy, but sometimes I like a little cheese.

It seemed to be his most accessible period. My daughter got in to the movie/album a couple of years ago. Although I haven't introduce her to some of the singles or b-sides, as they wouldn't be appropriate.

It took me almost a decade until I liked it a bit. The whole BATMAN hype got on my nerves back then. Didn´t really like the movie either because I´m more into the dark and gritty and realistic Batman (Eugene O´Neill, Neal Adams) than Tim Burton´s Batman or that Adam West TV show.

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The album as such is not that bad but I hated Batdance and still do. The songs I liked and still like are Partyman, Scandalous, Electric Chair, The Future and sometimes Lemon Crush albeit it has questionable lyrics but I like the beat of it and the bass. I would love to have an instrumental version of that song.

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What also irks me about that album is that it wasn´t really meant to be a movie soundtrack by Prince. There is the Danny Elfmann score soundtrack and to this day Tim Burton and Elfmann don´t sound very positive when they talk about Prince´s involvement since the original idea was just to use a few already existing Prince songs, and not have Prince write new songs from scratch (though we now know that some songs on that album were taken from the vault).

Leaves a bit of a bitter aftertaste when you hear the full story of how that album came to be.

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Also hated the look, the vibe and the hairdo back then.

To me, the "Batman" album is a fun time capsule of an amazing time, the last big burst of 80s pop culture. But looking back at the history of Prince's style and production, it's definitely a yellow flag signaling the end of what we super-fans consider the "classic period".

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We've argued before on the Org that the classic period probably ended with "Lovesexy", but I let that range slip one more album to "Batman", just because it closes out Prince's big decade with one last hit album.

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Personally, I love a great deal of the material on the album: the title track (man, that mid-song switch-up with "Stop the press!" and the funky bass is still awesome), "Vicki Waiting", "Electric Chair", "The Future"... yes, I even think "The Arms Of Orion" is great.

As mentioned above.......

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* Loved the new dark look Prince.

* It was my first ever CD

* I'm a big Batman fan

* Kim Bassinger was.............

* And The Future (with movie segue) was an awesome track to open with. "Who are you!?" "Im Batman."

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Still love it to this day.

Batdance was an average song, yet it topped charts all over the work. Just goes to show what HYPE can rfeally do. Just like CREAM two years later.

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And Partyman backed with Feel U Up.

callimnate said:

I consider it an extension of the Sign/ Black/ Love era.

Batman is still one of my top 10 favorite Prince album, even for only 7 of the 9 tracks:

The Future
Electric Chair (NOTE: The best song on the album! My professional opinion of course.)
Partyman

Trust

Lemon Crush

Scandalous (NOTE: One of the top 5 greatest Prince's slow jams of all-time!)

Batdance

People are gonna hate me for saying this lmao but I was listening to this album yesterday and I love it so much but I honsetly think Scandalous ruins it. Like, it's not that I don't like the song, I just think it's really awkwardly wedged inbetween Lemon Crush and Batdance. I'd rather of had him put Dance with the devil in there as the other slow song on the album.

KoolEaze said:

What also irks me about that album is that it wasn´t really meant to be a movie soundtrack by Prince. There is the Danny Elfmann score soundtrack and to this day Tim Burton and Elfmann don´t sound very positive when they talk about Prince´s involvement since the original idea was just to use a few already existing Prince songs, and not have Prince write new songs from scratch

...interesting. are there any quotes from them on this very subject? Seems odd if they felt like this (especially Burton), to then use Partyman and Trust as the musical basis for a couple of key Joker scenes. Surely Prince would not have outranked a director's final cut decision. Would WB records have held more power than WB pictures?

KoolEaze said:

It took me almost a decade until I liked it a bit. The whole BATMAN hype got on my nerves back then. Didn´t really like the movie either because I´m more into the dark and gritty and realistic Batman (Eugene O´Neill, Neal Adams) than Tim Burton´s Batman or that Adam West TV show.

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The album as such is not that bad but I hated Batdance and still do. The songs I liked and still like are Partyman, Scandalous, Electric Chair, The Future and sometimes Lemon Crush albeit it has questionable lyrics but I like the beat of it and the bass. I would love to have an instrumental version of that song.

-

What also irks me about that album is that it wasn´t really meant to be a movie soundtrack by Prince. There is the Danny Elfmann score soundtrack and to this day Tim Burton and Elfmann don´t sound very positive when they talk about Prince´s involvement since the original idea was just to use a few already existing Prince songs, and not have Prince write new songs from scratch (though we now know that some songs on that album were taken from the vault).

Leaves a bit of a bitter aftertaste when you hear the full story of how that album came to be.

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Also hated the look, the vibe and the hairdo back then.

I believe it was Jack Nicholson who requested Prince to do a full soundtrack after they sampled 1999, Baby I'm A Star in a few of the scenes. Originally the album was going to be done by Michael Jackson but schedule was booked filming the Moonwalker movie and the planning of the BAD world tour shortly after. Another idea which was also scrapped was it would be an MJ/PRINCE collab with MJ singing the "Bruce Wayne" songs, and PRINCE singing as the "Joker", which also obviously was scrapped.

So in the meeting with Burton upon Nicholson's request Prince offered to compose a whole new album for the movie with the concept of each song trying to fit the scenes, as Prince was on set behind the scenes watching the shoot, taking in the sets and imagery of Burton's vision... Prince went back to Paisley Park with the BATMAN concept for the album and recorded the album very quickly, I believe more quickly than any of his previous albums.

From the stories I heard, Burton wasn't thrilled with the final product, and incorporated the songs throughout the film.

KeithyT said:

KoolEaze said:

What also irks me about that album is that it wasn´t really meant to be a movie soundtrack by Prince. There is the Danny Elfmann score soundtrack and to this day Tim Burton and Elfmann don´t sound very positive when they talk about Prince´s involvement since the original idea was just to use a few already existing Prince songs, and not have Prince write new songs from scratch

...interesting. are there any quotes from them on this very subject? Seems odd if they felt like this (especially Burton), to then use Partyman and Trust as the musical basis for a couple of key Joker scenes. Surely Prince would not have outranked a director's final cut decision. Would WB records have held more power than WB pictures?

Tim Burton was VERY negative about Prince's album,in an interview published in Rolling Stone in the early 90s.He basically claims that Warner Bros. sorta "forced" him to use the Prince music.He said he liked the album but didn't feel that the songs work in the movie.For his part,Danny Elfman got a little ticked off when a June 1989 article in Rolling Stone was titled 'Prince scores the Batman film'.It was actually Elfman who did the original score for the movie.

In my opinion,Tim Burton is an idiot who totally screwed up Prince's music in the film.There are only two songs that can be heard clearly in the film ("Partyman" and "Trust").It's a shame that other songs like "Vicki Waiting" and "Electric Chair" are used as instrumental background music "The Future" could have been a stunning opening song for the movie,yet Burton uses only a few seconds of it. Furthermore,parts of "Batdance" should have been utilized in the film....maybe the fast,instrumental part in some of the action scenes? It's obvious that Prince conceived "The Arms Of Orion" as the big love theme of the movie and yet,Burton didn't use it at all! What a waste of Prince's hard work.

Would've been cool if 200 Balloons was used in the actual scene where Batman collects the balloons with the Batwing and takes them away. At least the music part of the song, if not the lyrics.

SoulAlive said:

In my opinion,Tim Burton is an idiot who totally screwed up Prince's music in the film.There are only two songs that can be heard clearly in the film ("Partyman" and "Trust").It's a shame that other songs like "Vicki Waiting" and "Electric Chair" are used as instrumental background music "The Future" could have been a stunning opening song for the movie,yet Burton uses only a few seconds of it. Furthermore,parts of "Batdance" should have been utilized in the film....maybe the fast,instrumental part in some of the action scenes? It's obvious that Prince conceived "The Arms Of Orion" as the big love theme of the movie and yet,Burton didn't use it at all! What a waste of Prince's hard work.

There's an early workprint of the film where more songs are used.

bluegangsta said:

SoulAlive said:

In my opinion,Tim Burton is an idiot who totally screwed up Prince's music in the film.There are only two songs that can be heard clearly in the film ("Partyman" and "Trust").It's a shame that other songs like "Vicki Waiting" and "Electric Chair" are used as instrumental background music "The Future" could have been a stunning opening song for the movie,yet Burton uses only a few seconds of it. Furthermore,parts of "Batdance" should have been utilized in the film....maybe the fast,instrumental part in some of the action scenes? It's obvious that Prince conceived "The Arms Of Orion" as the big love theme of the movie and yet,Burton didn't use it at all! What a waste of Prince's hard work.

There's an early workprint of the film where more songs are used.

Not available I presume?

Rebeljuice said:

bluegangsta said:

There's an early workprint of the film where more songs are used.

Not available I presume?

It might leak one day. I've only seen parts of what I've been told was Burton's "favourite cut" of the film.

bluegangsta said:

Rebeljuice said:

Not available I presume?

It might leak one day. I've only seen parts of what I've been told was Burton's "favourite cut" of the film.

See this is what I mean in my exchanges with KoolEaze and SoulAlive above. If Burton's alleged favourite cut had even more Prince, and even the theatrical cut had two fairly high profile scenes with Trust and Partyman. That seems to contradict these later interviews that he wasn't that happy with Prince's involvement.

I love the Batman album, it has a nice dark atmosphere.

Great songs, Lemon Crush & The Arms Of Orion, these are my least fave songs..

Otherwise the songs are fantastic..

iZsaZsa said:

Where was all this love when wildgoldenhoney started a thread about Batman? And besides that, the OP of this thread seems to be asking people who think the CD is bad if it really is so bad. Not any of you lovers.

I know right?

I think the Batman album is fine. But it can barely hold a candle to Sign O the Times or Lovesexy. Its reputation is made even worse as it's the clearest moment to point to as the end of Prince's 'classic era'. Batman is Prince's first disappointing album in a string of absolute gems. After Batman it took ages for Prince to really find himself again musically. Some would say he never did.

IaFunk said:

I think the Batman album is fine. But it can barely hold a candle to Sign O the Times or Lovesexy. Its reputation is made even worse as it's the clearest moment to point to as the end of Prince's 'classic era'. Batman is Prince's first disappointing album in a string of absolute gems. After Batman it took ages for Prince to really find himself again musically. Some would say he never did.

^ thats the socalled "negative mantra" isn't it..?


I personally love the big and succesful singles from D&P and the Symbol album (1991-1992),

AND also the 1993-1995 era was phenomenal, especially with Come and The Gold Experince.

After THAT I somehow agree that Prince's career took a nosedive, (talking albums).

[Edited 5/21/15 23:39pm]

thedance said:

IaFunk said:

I think the Batman album is fine. But it can barely hold a candle to Sign O the Times or Lovesexy. Its reputation is made even worse as it's the clearest moment to point to as the end of Prince's 'classic era'. Batman is Prince's first disappointing album in a string of absolute gems. After Batman it took ages for Prince to really find himself again musically. Some would say he never did.

^ thats the socalled "negative mantra" isn't it..?


I personally love the big and succesful singles from D&P and the Symbol album (1991-1992),

AND also the 1993-1995 era was phenomenal, especially with Come and The Gold Experince.

After THAT I somehow agree that Prince's career took a nosedive, (talking albums).

[Edited 5/21/15 23:39pm]

This.

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P still had it in him until the release of Emancipation.

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After that it was all R&B. THIS is what caused the nosedive.