I'm watching the Making of Purple Rain documentary and frankly, a little baffled as to why Jimmy is there.

bluegangsta said:

are you talking about the 20 year edition of PR? Probably because he knew Prince about as well as just about any other musician and also, Jam and Lewis were his most successful progeny. They were still ripping prince off on janet jacksons control and also, Escapade had a similar riff to "I could Never Take the Place of Your Man".

PeteSilas said:

They were still ripping prince off on janet jacksons control and also, Escapade had a similar riff to "I could Never Take the Place of Your Man".

bluegangsta said:

I'm watching the Making of Purple Rain documentary and frankly, a little baffled as to why Jimmy is there.

At what point did Prince fire them? and what point did the music and rehearsings/classes etc begin.
Vanity wasn't in the movie either but she could probably say a lot about PR from the time she was there before she left.

If I'm not mistaken work on the music started very early 1983

bluegangsta said:

I'm watching the Making of Purple Rain documentary and frankly, a little baffled as to why Jimmy is there.

Well...... The Time that exists in "Purple Rain" wouldn't have existed without the original lineup. As much as I love St. Paul, nobody really remembers that he played keyboards in The Time. A lot of people don't even realise that's him in the movie.
He's rightly remembered for The Family and his solo career.

Purple Rain is obviously based on what Minneapolis was really like. Jimmy Jam was an integral part of that scene. His dad, Cornbread Harris was/is one of the OG Minneapolis musicians, just like John L Nelson was.

So I see no reason why Jimmy shouldn't be involved in these things, even though he wasn't in the Prince camp when the movie was made. He's still a key figure in the Minneapolis Sound.

bluegangsta said:

I'm watching the Making of Purple Rain documentary and frankly, a little baffled as to why Jimmy is there.

Jimmy Jam, is one of the most famous Music Producers of all time, who ALSO was in The Time, who ALSO went to school with Prince, who ALSO stayed afflilated and friends with Prince and you are asking why would he be there?

IF anybody can attest to Prince's mentality and work ethic, it would be Jimmy Jam. Yeah, he was "around" during the Purple Rain movie.

Militant said:

bluegangsta said:

I'm watching the Making of Purple Rain documentary and frankly, a little baffled as to why Jimmy is there.

Well...... The Time that exists in "Purple Rain" wouldn't have existed without the original lineup. As much as I love St. Paul, nobody really remembers that he played keyboards in The Time. A lot of people don't even realise that's him in the movie.
He's rightly remembered for The Family and his solo career.

Purple Rain is obviously based on what Minneapolis was really like. Jimmy Jam was an integral part of that scene. His dad, Cornbread Harris was/is one of the OG Minneapolis musicians, just like John L Nelson was.

So I see no reason why Jimmy shouldn't be involved in these things, even though he wasn't in the Prince camp when the movie was made. He's still a key figure in the Minneapolis Sound.

Speak for yourself. Lots of people knew who St. Paul was because we knew he was in The Time.

Militant said:

bluegangsta said:

I'm watching the Making of Purple Rain documentary and frankly, a little baffled as to why Jimmy is there.

Well...... The Time that exists in "Purple Rain" wouldn't have existed without the original lineup. As much as I love St. Paul, nobody really remembers that he played keyboards in The Time. A lot of people don't even realise that's him in the movie.
He's rightly remembered for The Family and his solo career.

Purple Rain is obviously based on what Minneapolis was really like. Jimmy Jam was an integral part of that scene. His dad, Cornbread Harris was/is one of the OG Minneapolis musicians, just like John L Nelson was.

So I see no reason why Jimmy shouldn't be involved in these things, even though he wasn't in the Prince camp when the movie was made. He's still a key figure in the Minneapolis Sound.

I think a lot of people that know the Family(FDeluxe) and the time period might know.
Not general people who watched Purple Rain, because he didn't have a significant role. and the Time wasn't visible anymore outside of that for the PR/Ice Cream Castles era.
But when interviewed with the Family questions of his role with the Time always come up.

OldFriends4Sale said:

bluegangsta said:

I'm watching the Making of Purple Rain documentary and frankly, a little baffled as to why Jimmy is there.

At what point did Prince fire them? and what point did the music and rehearsings/classes etc begin.
Vanity wasn't in the movie either but she could probably say a lot about PR from the time she was there before she left.

If I'm not mistaken work on the music started very early 1983

So it seems Jimmy & Terry were fired during the very end of the 1999 tour around April/May 1983

Do we know of any music that was being recorded/worked on for the Time-Ice Cream Castles or to what extent Purple Rain was in the works at this time?

OldFriends4Sale said:

GhostChick said:

Militant said:

Well...... The Time that exists in "Purple Rain" wouldn't have existed without the original lineup. As much as I love St. Paul, nobody really remembers that he played keyboards in The Time. A lot of people don't even realise that's him in the movie.
He's rightly remembered for The Family and his solo career.

Purple Rain is obviously based on what Minneapolis was really like. Jimmy Jam was an integral part of that scene. His dad, Cornbread Harris was/is one of the OG Minneapolis musicians, just like John L Nelson was.

So I see no reason why Jimmy shouldn't be involved in these things, even though he wasn't in the Prince camp when the movie was made. He's still a key figure in the Minneapolis Sound.

Speak for yourself. Lots of people knew who St. Paul was because we knew he was in The Time.

That's not what I said.

When people think of St Paul, now, in 2016, they first associate him with fDeluxe/The Family, and then his solo career, and THEN his brief stint in The Time which barely lasted a year.

You completely misunderstood what I said.

Militant said:

GhostChick said:

Speak for yourself. Lots of people knew who St. Paul was because we knew he was in The Time.

That's not what I said.

When people think of St Paul, now, in 2016, they first associate him with fDeluxe/The Family, and then his solo career, and THEN his brief stint in The Time which barely lasted a year.

You completely misunderstood what I said.

st paul hardly had a solo career. somehow, many prince fans go gaga over some of these associates but only a couple of the projects are really worth remembering. The Family? never really felt em. the time and sheila e had some outstanding material as well as the early vanity stuff.

PeteSilas said:

Militant said:

That's not what I said.

When people think of St Paul, now, in 2016, they first associate him with fDeluxe/The Family, and then his solo career, and THEN his brief stint in The Time which barely lasted a year.

You completely misunderstood what I said.

st paul hardly had a solo career. somehow, many prince fans go gaga over some of these associates but only a couple of the projects are really worth remembering. The Family? never really felt em. the time and sheila e had some outstanding material as well as the early vanity stuff.

Paul's debut album was very popular here in the UK. "Intimacy" and "Rich Man" both got a lot of play.

So the answer that I'm pretty much getting is that he really had nothing to do with Purple Rain. Thanks everyone.

bluegangsta said:

So the answer that I'm pretty much getting is that he really had nothing to do with Purple Rain. Thanks everyone.

IIRC, Jam has said in the past he was around for 'The Bird' studio version, and some other songs that eventually made it to Pandemonium, but were considered for ICC. He also has known Prince since childhood, toured with him, they have common friends and influences and was a fixture in the early Minneapolis Music Scene and the events leading up to Purple Rain, to the point that he's a legit expert on all things Prince, Purple Rain included.

So of course he was interviewed.

On another note, you always hear how Prince needs the people around him so much to bring out the best in his music. He was a chameleon and literally channeled the people he's around most through his music. Keeping that in mind, it's worth noting that with J&L in the camp Prince made street-smart, hard hitting sexy R&B, and when they parted he was NEVER that again, though they continued to be that a decade or more later without his involvement. You also see it with the addition of Wendy and Susannah to his life, where his music just became smarter and hip, and once they left, he was NEVER that again.

And that's how it worked with Prince, for better or worse (see LG).

The bandmembers are major influences on Prince's thought-process and creativity, to the point that he's customizing his music to their personalities and abilities. So they are really important to the final result even if they are not always responsible for melody and lyrics.

They deserve our respect and admiration as well.

I wonder how much similarity was between the 2nd Coming film and Purple Rain?

funksterr said:

bluegangsta said:

So the answer that I'm pretty much getting is that he really had nothing to do with Purple Rain. Thanks everyone.

IIRC, Jam has said in the past he was around for 'The Bird' studio version, and some other songs that eventually made it to Pandemonium, but were considered for ICC. He also has known Prince since childhood, toured with him, they have common friends and influences and was a fixture in the early Minneapolis Music Scene and the events leading up to Purple Rain, to the point that he's a legit expert on all things Prince, Purple Rain included.

So of course he was interviewed.

On another note, you always hear how Prince needs the people around him so much to bring out the best in his music. He was a chameleon and literally channeled the people he's around most through his music. Keeping that in mind, it's worth noting that with J&L in the camp Prince made street-smart, hard hitting sexy R&B, and when they parted he was NEVER that again, though they continued to be that a decade or more later without his involvement. You also see it with the addition of Wendy and Susannah to his life, where his music just became smarter and hip, and once they left, he was NEVER that again.

And that's how it worked with Prince, for better or worse (see LG).

The bandmembers are major influences on Prince's thought-process and creativity, to the point that he's customizing his music to their personalities and abilities. So they are really important to the final result even if they are not always responsible for melody and lyrics.

They deserve our respect and admiration as well.

I agree with all of this.