Who is auctioning off all of these things? I saw only 1 that had a bid on it, the rest have 0 bids, it's embarrassing.

1contessa said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

jaawwnn said:

Yeah, word.

In regards Kiss, I appreciate that a lot of the arrangment is Mazarati but how close to finished were they when Prince got his hands back on it? I've always wondered that. The version we have by them is good, very good even, but Prince's final version really adds the magic!

[Edited 3/10/16 9:07am]

DAVID Z

"We did a bunch of songs for Mazarati's album,” Z recalls. "Then, when we needed a single, Prince gave me this demo of him just playing straight chords on an acoustic guitar — one verse and one chorus — while singing in a normal pitch; not the falsetto that's on the finished record. To us, it sounded like a folk song and we were wondering what we could do with it. No way was it funky. Anyway, starting with a LinnDrum, I programmed the beat and began experimenting. Taking a hi-hat from the drum machine, I ran it through a delay unit and switched between input and output and in the middle. That created a very funky rhythm. Then I took an acoustic guitar, played these open chords and gated that to the hi-hat trigger. The result was a really unique rhythm that was unbelievably funky but also impossible to actually play... I'm sure that sound influenced the fabulous new Daft Punk song 'Get Lucky', because it uses the same trick, with the guitar gated to some sort of rhythm and sequencer.

"Next, I remembered a little piano part from a Bo Diddley song called 'Say Man' and put it on there, and then Tony Christian sang the lead part, an octave lower than what Prince wound up doing. The background vocals I adapted from the Brenda Lee song 'Sweet Nothings' — good music is always taken from somewhere else — and that was that. The whole thing was done in a day.”

Or David Z and the guys in Mazarati thought it was. The fact is, in this form 'Kiss' sounded OK — a so-so dance number. However, Tony Christian's lead vocal was a little soulless and uninspiring, and when Prince heard the track he decided to head in a different direction... with himself at the helm.

"When I came back into the studio the next morning, Prince had already taken it off the machine, replaced the vocal with his own falsetto performance — which, I guess, he felt it needed — got rid of the bass part and added a James Brown 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag' guitar lick,” Z recalls. "'What happened?' I asked, to which he replied, 'It's too good for you guys. I'm taking it back.'”

Boasting a four-octave range, Prince sang virtually the entire song in head voice, reverting to chest voice for the final line, as well as a single note before the last chorus. "At the time, I think he was into using a [Sennheiser MD] 441,” says Z.

"We only used nine tracks for that song, including a bass drum on one track, the rest of the drums on another and the hi-hat on a separate track. As for the lack of bass guitar, we always ran the kick drum through an [AMS] RMX16 and put it on the Reverse 2 setting to extend the tail of the reverb. That served as a kick drum and a bass, and it was a signature sound that we used all the time with Prince. We didn't need a real bass. And there was no reverb on anything else; just the kick. The guitar was dry and gated, and everything else sounded kind of different to the corporate rock that was on the radio at that time.”

Mazarati's backing vocals ended up on the finished record, yet this was scant compensation for what they had hoped would be their breakout hit.

"They were pissed,” says Z. "Prince had promised everyone a share of the songwriting credit, but that never happened and they were kind of mad about it.”

Oh I never saw that explanation before! I also never noticed the piano was taken from Say Man, that's great! Cheers Oldfriends

[Edited 3/11/16 1:03am]

Guitarhero said:

IstenSzek said:

On side B, Prince had his work versions of 6 songs, which I left intact for, at that time, unknown reasons (obviously, we now know it preserved a piece of musical history)." The Side B, containing Prince's songs, opens with an early, acoustic version of "So Blue", followed by two unreleased love songs with bouncy, upbeat choruses and risque lyrics. Next is an early version of "Gotta Broken Heart Again", which later appeared on Prince's seminal "Dirty Mind" album. The fourth track features heavy guitar distortion and a chorus that include very candid sexual pleas from Prince. The tape ends with a very early, virtually unrecognizable version of "Sometimes it Snows in April", with only a couple of lines from the chorus making the final cut onto the later version of the song that's featured on the "Parade" album, released some eight years after this tape was created. The audio quality on the tape is very good, with Prince's voice very clear and the overall sound still quite sharp. Tape is offered as collector's piece only and does not come with rights for reproduction, manufacturing or distribution. Cassette is housed in its plastic cover with "Prince Worktape '78" handwritten on it by Dez. From the collection of Dez Dickerson.

So Sometimes it Snows in April was acutally always a Prince song and W&L added something to the Parade version. Me thinks people give too much credit to other people in his bands without prove.

[Edited 3/5/16 12:36pm]

There is the proof. It was a totally different song until somecame along and ghanged it. (W&L?)

Prince could sue him.

Bighead said:

Guitarhero said:

So Sometimes it Snows in April was acutally always a Prince song and W&L added something to the Parade version. Me thinks people give too much credit to other people in his bands without prove.

[Edited 3/5/16 12:36pm]

There is the proof. It was a totally different song until somecame along and ghanged it. (W&L?)

Yes Prince and W& L.

put these contents of his vault up 4 auction!!

Militant said:

Stop saying Prince had help making songs....he did everything himself...I have to believe that's true or else my life is over and OMG who am I?