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Thread started 03/17/16 11:30am

OldFriends4Sal
e

Prince Sheila E. & the Glamorous Life 1984-1985

"Would you like to play with my timbales?"

The Belle Of St,Mark Shortberry Strawcake Noon Rendezvous Oliver's House Next Time Wipe The Lipstic Off Your Collar The Glamorous Life 2 Sexy Erotic City

Directed by Sheila E. & The Starr ★ Company

Sheila E Juan Escovedo Eddie Minnifield Karl Perazzo Ken Grey Susie Davis Bejamin Rietveld

Miko Weaver Stephen Birnbaum

Jill Jones Susannah Melvoin Brenda Bennett Novi Novog David Coleman Nick DeCaro Larry Williams

Peggy McCreary Terry Christian Bill Jackson
Prince

@ Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA

AND THEN CAME THE RAIN

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Reply #1 posted 03/17/16 11:39am

OldFriends4Sal
e

"The Belle of St. Mark" is a song written and recorded by singer/percussionist Sheila E. The Latin-tinged dance song was released in November 1984 in the Netherlands, and in February 1985 in the U.S. and elsewhere. It peaked at #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #68 on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles Charts in 1985. It reached the top ten in the UK, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, and was an NME "Single of the Week".

The song's lyrics tell of an androgynous "frail but passionate creature," referred to as "he" throughout, but called the feminine "Belle". (Androgyny was a prevalent theme in the music of Sheila E.'s mentor, Prince, and common in pop music of the period), The song implies the Belle is French (viz. the lyrics, "His Paris hair, it blows in the warm Parisian air / That blows whenever his Paris hair is there") but St. Mark is commonly known as a location in Venice, Italy.

The Belle of St. Mark was a frail but a passionate creature
Ebony hair and eyes a deep blue-green
The Belle of St Mark wore clothes that belonged 2 his father
Even though he was only 17

CHORUS:
I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love with the Belle of St. Mark
It tears me apart whenever I hear him cry
I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love with the Belle of St. Mark
And if he doesn't love me I think I'll probably die

U can tell from expressions that he makes public
That he suffers from a badly broken heart
He smiles as he feeds the afternoon pigeons
But he cries as he walks the night streets of St. Mark

CHORUS

The Belle of St. Mark, he don't talk 2 strangers, he's so mysterious
His erotic persuasion provokes me like no other man
The fire I have 4 him is undoubtedly serious
I need 2 make him see that he needs love 2 forget
And if anyone can help him, I can
I can help, I can help U

His Paris hair, it blows in the warm Parisian air
That blows whenever his Paris hair is there
The woman that hurt him surely must have trouble sleeping
Cuz the Belle of St. Mark is a beauty extraordinaire

Oh, I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love with the Belle of St. Mark
It tears me apart whenever I hear him cry
I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love with the Belle of St. Mark
And if he doesn't love me I think I'll probably die

Ooh, I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love with the Belle of St. Mark
It tears me apart whenever I hear him cry
Ooh, I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love with the Belle of St. Mark
And if he doesn't love me I think I'll probably die
And if he doesn't love me I think I'll probably die
And if he don't... I'll die

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Reply #2 posted 03/17/16 11:42am

OldFriends4Sal
e

L 2 R

Bejamin Rietveld - Bass Karl Perazzo - Drums Eddie Minnifield - Saxaphone Sheila E - Vocals/whatever Miko Weaver - Guitar Stephen Birnbaum - Guitar Susie Davis - Keyboards

*not shown

Juan Escovedo - Percussion

Ken Grey - Keyboards

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Reply #3 posted 03/17/16 2:20pm

SoulAlive

I remember seeing this video late one night and I had no idea who she was.As I watched it,I was thinking that she kinda reminds me of Prince! A female version of him.A few days later,I go to the record store and check out her album.I see that it is "produced by the Starr Company" smile I knew who that was,lol

OldFriends4Sale said:

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Reply #4 posted 03/17/16 2:21pm

SoulAlive

Out of all of Prince's female proteges,Sheila E. was the most dynamic.Sexy and very talented.

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Reply #5 posted 03/17/16 6:21pm

thedance

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^ Yes I agree SoulAlive. True, dynamic, sexy and talented.. Sheila E is all that. nod

Prince 4Ever. heart
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Reply #6 posted 03/17/16 6:30pm

thedance

avatar

The Belle Of Saint Mark, I have never seen this pic sleeve before..

Wow, Sheila E. really looks amazing in that pic.. eek

Prince 4Ever. heart
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Reply #7 posted 03/17/16 6:39pm

OldFriends4Sal
e

SoulAlive said:

Out of all of Prince's female proteges,Sheila E. was the most dynamic.Sexy and very talented.

Well of course you might not say Morris Day / the Time was the most sexy or Mazarati or St Paul & Eric Leeds were the most sexy lol

.

I still don't think anyone could top Vanity's sex appeal and charisma out of the women proteges. But I tend to not compare them back then much because I believe they all expressed a certain aspect of Uptown. And it all worked.
.
Sheila E 'lucked out' in a way because if Vanity was still on, Sheila would not have gotten some pretty good songs. And I think Prince didn't focus heavily on the Time's album and promotion, so Sheila E got a lot more attention, with all the projects happening and things being prepared for. 3 Protege albums, 1 movie, Tours, Music galore etc I love how the Glamorous Life turned out. It has a wonderful flow, cohesive theme and look. I wish there were outtakes for this album just 3 would be perfect and 1 more B side.

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Reply #8 posted 03/17/16 6:55pm

OldFriends4Sal
e

thedance said:

The Belle Of Saint Mark, I have never seen this pic sleeve before..

Wow, Sheila E. really looks amazing in that pic.. eek

Yes the other one was an image from the album, I prefer the one I posted above. She had a lot of photos taken right before her definative Glamorous Life image

Paisley Park is in your [heart].:

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Reply #9 posted 03/17/16 7:04pm

thedance

avatar

^ thank you OF4S, the info, much appreciated.

You are really making excellent threads, like always, cool... cool cool cool

Prince 4Ever. heart
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Reply #10 posted 03/17/16 7:06pm

OldFriends4Sal
e

thedance said:

^ thank you OF4S, the info, much appreciated.

You are really making excellent threads, like always, cool... cool cool cool

U R Welcome

here is the other Belle of St Mark cover

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Reply #11 posted 03/17/16 7:18pm

OldFriends4Sal
e

1. The Belle Of St,Mark
2. Shortberry Strawcake
3. Noon Rendezvous
4. Oliver's House
5. Next Time Wipe The LipsticOff Your Collar
6. The Glamorous Life
7. The Glamorous Life (Club Edit)

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Reply #12 posted 03/17/16 7:46pm

OldFriends4Sal
e

7.17.1984 @ the ARD Studio in West Germany

1. the Glamorous Life

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Reply #13 posted 03/17/16 7:53pm

OldFriends4Sal
e

10.7.1984 on Top Pop

Den Bosch in the Netherlands

1. the Belle of St Mark

2. the Glamorous Life

The belle of St. Mark was a frail but a passionate creature Ebony hair and eyes a deep blue-green The belle of St. Mark wore clothes that belonged to his father Even though he was only 17

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Reply #14 posted 03/18/16 2:09am

SoulAlive

yes,Vanity was the sexiest but I think Sheila was a better performer than Vanity and Apollonia.She was also a better dancer.Her stage presence was dazzling.

OldFriends4Sale said:

SoulAlive said:

Out of all of Prince's female proteges,Sheila E. was the most dynamic.Sexy and very talented.

Well of course you might not say Morris Day / the Time was the most sexy or Mazarati or St Paul & Eric Leeds were the most sexy lol

.

I still don't think anyone could top Vanity's sex appeal and charisma out of the women proteges. But I tend to not compare them back then much because I believe they all expressed a certain aspect of Uptown. And it all worked.

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Reply #15 posted 03/18/16 4:44am

PacManPlus

OldFriends4Sale said:

thedance said:

^ thank you OF4S, the info, much appreciated.

You are really making excellent threads, like always, cool... cool cool cool

U R Welcome

here is the other Belle of St Mark cover

She looks a little like 80's Susanna Hoffs in that pic.

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Reply #16 posted 03/18/16 5:08am

OldFriends4Sal
e

SoulAlive said:

yes,Vanity was the sexiest but I think Sheila was a better performer than Vanity and Apollonia.She was also a better dancer.Her stage presence was dazzling.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Well of course you might not say Morris Day / the Time was the most sexy or Mazarati or St Paul & Eric Leeds were the most sexy lol

.

I still don't think anyone could top Vanity's sex appeal and charisma out of the women proteges. But I tend to not compare them back then much because I believe they all expressed a certain aspect of Uptown. And it all worked.

Apollonia is not even in the equation lol
Yes Sheila's stage presence and persona would be more dazzling.
I wish Vanity 6 had a visible band to interact with, I think that makes a difference too in that Sheila E wasn't out on the stage by herself. It wouldn't have worked without the band synchronized dancing and such. I wish we had more info on the developement of Sheila E as a protege, like we did with the Time and Vanity 6

Sheila E was/is dazzling

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Reply #17 posted 03/18/16 5:15am

iZsaZsa

avatar

OldFriends4Sale said:



SoulAlive said:


yes,Vanity was the sexiest but I think Sheila was a better performer than Vanity and Apollonia.She was also a better dancer.Her stage presence was dazzling.





OldFriends4Sale said:




Well of course you might not say Morris Day / the Time was the most sexy or Mazarati or St Paul & Eric Leeds were the most sexy lol


.


I still don't think anyone could top Vanity's sex appeal and charisma out of the women proteges. But I tend to not compare them back then much because I believe they all expressed a certain aspect of Uptown. And it all worked.





Apollonia is not even in the equation lol
Yes Sheila's stage presence and persona would be more dazzling.
I wish Vanity 6 had a visible band to interact with, I think that makes a difference too in that Sheila E wasn't out on the stage by herself. It wouldn't have worked without the band synchronized dancing and such. I wish we had more info on the developement of Sheila E as a protege, like we did with the Time and Vanity 6


Sheila E was/is dazzling



She does a bad (good) Prince impersonation.
What?
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Reply #18 posted 03/18/16 5:23am

OldFriends4Sal
e

Shortberry Strawcake – 4:46 (Sheila E., Jesse Johnson)

A steamy sexy instrumental

Sheila E. – lead vocals, percussion, director Jesse Johnson – guitars

The Starr ★ Company

Shortberry Strawcake was nominated at the 27th annual Grammy Awards (1985) in the category 'Best R&B instrumental performance' (which was won by Sound-System by Herbie Hancock).

Initial tracking took place on 9 January 1984 at Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA, USA (four days after Oliver's House and The Belle Of St. Mark), and the song was originally intended for Apollonia 6 until Prince began to work with Sheila E. in February 1984, at which time he set the song aside for her. Sheila E.'s percussion was recorded in the first few days of April 1984 at Sunset Sound. Some distorted and backmasked vocals by Prince can be heard in the background of the track, marking the earliest Prince-related release to feature backmasked lyrics (released three weeks before Purple Rain, which also contained some).

-PrinceVault

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Reply #19 posted 03/18/16 5:24am

OldFriends4Sal
e

iZsaZsa said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Apollonia is not even in the equation lol
Yes Sheila's stage presence and persona would be more dazzling.
I wish Vanity 6 had a visible band to interact with, I think that makes a difference too in that Sheila E wasn't out on the stage by herself. It wouldn't have worked without the band synchronized dancing and such. I wish we had more info on the developement of Sheila E as a protege, like we did with the Time and Vanity 6

Sheila E was/is dazzling

She does a bad (good) Prince impersonation.

Yes she does

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Reply #20 posted 03/18/16 5:34am

OldFriends4Sal
e

SoulAlive said:

I remember seeing this video late one night and I had no idea who she was.As I watched it,I was thinking that she kinda reminds me of Prince! A female version of him.A few days later,I go to the record store and check out her album.I see that it is "produced by the Starr Company" smile I knew who that was,lol

OldFriends4Sale said:

lol I remember that same sensation

It was really interesting and fun then that proteges popped up, and you had to search the keywords and credits to connect it with Prince.

It was all unique, each one.

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Reply #21 posted 03/18/16 5:50am

OldFriends4Sal
e

Sheila E. Warms Up the Crowds for Prince, but Her Own Career Is Cooking TooIf you pencil in a mustache and pour her vital assets into pegged trousers, Sheila E. could pass for her musical mentor, Prince. She has his chilly eyes, sculpted cheekbones and pouty mouth. And if her own black curls weren't frosted, she would be his hair apparent. Sheila has more in common with Prince than smoldering good looks. She shares his record label, his management team, his costume designers and even the bill on his current world tour (she's the opener). But Sheila E. (for Escovedo) is more than just another sultry siren in a long line of pop protégée acts that Prince has molded in his own image. She's a multitalented musician who left a percussionist post with Lionel Ritchie for a stab at solo stardom. As her manager told a colleague, "This isn't just Prince. This one writes her own songs."
.
Of all the sexy women that Prince has beckoned to his artistic court, Sheila E. is the most promising. Her new album, The Glamorous Life, seems destined for gold. Its title cut, a percolating brew of synthfunk and Latin rhythms, is a dance-club smash that cracked the Top 10, and this fall Sheila and her seven-piece band sold out club dates across the country—possibly because Prince is known to join her onstage often.
.
No stranger to show business, the 26-year-old musician from Oakland, Calif, is the oldest child of Juanita Escovedo and her husband, Pete, a percussionist best known for his work with Santana. Sheila got her first hands-on experience pounding her father's drum kit when she was 5, and by 15, she was drumming with local Latin bands. One night she stepped in when a member of her father's group became ill. "I got a standing ovation," she recalls. "That was it for me—all I wanted."
.
Sheila dropped out of high school after her sophomore year, went on to record two LPs with her father and toured with such heavies as George Duke, Billy Cobham, Herbie Hancock and Diana Ross. Playing—often simultaneously—congas, timbales, cowbells and cymbals "is very tough physically," she admits. "Sometimes my hands go numb. I look down at the drums and see blood over everything."
.
Friends for six years, Sheila and Prince regularly swapped musical licks but never played together professionally until last March, when he got her to record with him on a hot-breathing single, Erotic City. Afterward he told her, "You've been playing behind people for too long. You should just do your own thing."
.
Escovedo's "thing" has come to look and sound suspiciously like Prince's. Although Sheila dismisses any musical similarities ("We've been friends for such a long time; we've picked up on a lot of the same influences"), there's no denying she's picked up on his stylish funk and raw onstage sexuality. More femme but no less fatale than he, she recently teased a Los Angeles crowd with the brazen come-on, "Would you like to play with my timbales?" Her saucy act prompted a high-minded rebuke from one critic who sniffed, "Sheila E. wasn't any more inspiring than the dancers at adult theaters."
.
Offstage Sheila's more sedate than seductive. Her Hollywood apartment is adorned with stuffed animals, and she clutched an orange Tootsie Roll Pop for an entire interview. Though rumors of romance between the Prince and the protégée may inspire rock tabloids to purple prose, Sheila is girlishly coy about their relationship. "It's the same as it always has been," she says, barely suppressing a smile. Pause. "We're still good friends."

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Reply #22 posted 03/18/16 2:18pm

SoulAlive

I wonder why there wasn't a music video for "The Belle Of St.Mark".I guess there was so much going in 1984 that she probably didn't have time to make one.That song is undeniably catchy and would have been a much bigger hit if it had a music video.

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Reply #23 posted 03/19/16 12:09am

whitesockedfun
k

avatar

SoulAlive said:

I wonder why there wasn't a music video for "The Belle Of St.Mark".I guess there was so much going in 1984 that she probably didn't have time to make one.That song is undeniably catchy and would have been a much bigger hit if it had a music video.

there was a live video for Belle in Europe, it was recorded in Landover, Md, on the Purple Rain tour.

http://www.dailymotion.co...live_music

Just like the white winged dove...
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Reply #24 posted 03/19/16 8:17am

Averett

avatar

Um - this pic scares the hell out of me eek

A robin sings a masterpiece that lives and dies unheard...
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Reply #25 posted 03/19/16 8:24am

Guitarhero

Averett said:

Um - this pic scares the hell out of me eek

Look in to my eyes , your my slave lol

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Reply #26 posted 03/19/16 8:30am

Averett

avatar

Guitarhero said:

Averett said:

Um - this pic scares the hell out of me eek

Look in to my eyes , your my slave lol

An attempt at a "glamorous" mug shot? lol

A robin sings a masterpiece that lives and dies unheard...
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Reply #27 posted 03/19/16 12:32pm

OldFriends4Sal
e

Averett said:

Um - this pic scares the hell out of me eek

She means business, get out of her way, she's heaing to the glitz and glam of Erotic City and Hollyrock

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Reply #28 posted 03/19/16 12:35pm

OldFriends4Sal
e

June 4, 1984 the Glamorous Life w/Sheila E. drops
June 7, 1984 1st Avenue Birthday show with Prince & the Revolution
June 25, 1984 Purple Rain w/Prince & the Revolution drops
July 9th, 1984 Ice Cream Castles w/Morris Day & the Time drops

July 7.29.1984 Purple Rain movie premiere






July 26. 1984

Mann's Chinese Theater Hollywood
6925 Hollywood Blvd.
MTV"Live! Purple Rain Party Movie Premiere

performance by Sheila E.

1.) the Glamorous Life

After a performance by members of the Minneapolis Dance Theatre, Sheila E., Prince’s latest musical find— also rumored to be his new girlfriend—took the stage and performed, followed by Prince and The Revolution, who played three songs.



"Who did you come to see?" or did he ask "What was your favorite part of the movie?"
She replie "Prince"

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Reply #29 posted 03/19/16 12:39pm

OldFriends4Sal
e

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