paisleypark4 said:

VaultCurator said:

This is what I have heard regarding Janet Jackson’s ‘What Have You Done For Me Lately’.

Apparently in the early 80s Prince had a piano motif that he would often play during jams and rehearsals. He recorded a track (no idea if it had lyrics or if it was just an instrumental) in either 1982 or 1983 based around this motif.

I’ve never heard this track as it isn’t widely circulating, but I have been told that it is recognisable as both an early version of Partyman, and also the genesis of ‘What Have You Done For Me Lately’.

If you check out the ‘Baby I’m a Star’ official video (which was a live performance recorded on 20th November 1984, predating the recording of ‘What Have You Done For Me Lately’) at around the 10:15 mark, Prince plays a small part of this piano piece.
https://www.youtube.com/w...Lgf2VU_M70.

Allegedly, Jam and Lewis either used this early 80s track as inspiration or possibly ripped it off.
Again, if you listen to the video for ‘What Have You Done For Me Lately’ at the 3:10 mark you can hear the same piano motif. The bass line throughout resembles this piano part too...
https://www.youtube.com/w...9uizdKZAGE.

Legend has it that Prince wasn’t pleased about this, so he took this old demo and reworked it into what we know as Partyman in retaliation.
Partyman video: https://www.youtube.com/w...jY8HvpNu6o (Piano motif appears again at the 3:00 mark).

This is why he got Rosie to sing the lyrics to WHYDFML over Partyman on the nude tour. It also explains why he would also add “Who wrote this?”.

That’s everything I was told (not directly, but via a semi private forum) and the info comes from a trusted source. However (and this is where I begin to speculate so take this next part with a huge grain of salt), there may be a bit more to this story.

Rumour has it that Partyman wasn’t the first time that Prince had revived this early 80s track and reworked it into something we’d recognise. Allegedly, the piano part that we hear in the longer version of ‘Good Love’ (Good Love Part 2), was also born from this original piano track, although using a different segment of it, hense why we do not recognise it from either Partyman or WHYDFML.

The reason I find this interesting is because according to PrinceVault.com, Prince recorded a song on the 25th July 1985 entitled ‘(U Got The) Good Drawers’. There is also a piece of trivia claiming that ‘Good Love’ was initially going to be titled ‘Good Drawers’.

Prince Vault doesn’t outright say that ‘(U Got The) Good Drawers’ and ‘Good Love’ are musically related as it may just be a title that Prince re-used, but it does open up the possibility. The reason I find this fascinating is because according to Wikipedia, ‘What Have You Done for Me Lately’ was recorded two months later in September 1985!

This could just be coincidental, but if there is a possibility that ‘(U Got The) Good Drawers’ also shared DNA with Prince’s early 80s piano piece, that means that both Prince and ‘Jam & Lewis’ both re-worked Prince’s earlier track with the space of a couple of months of each other.

Could Jam and Lewis have heard ‘(U Got The) Good Drawers’ in advance? Was Prince on better terms with them at the time than we realised? Did he offer it to them as a demo?

Probably not. ‘(U Got The) Good Drawers’ was recorded a month after ‘Old Friends 4 Sale’ so Prince was probably still bitter towards them at the time. I just thought it was an interesting connection. For all I know, ‘(U Got The) Good Drawers’ may have nothing to do with ‘Good Love’, or Prince’s piano piece for that matter. However, given the timing involved I thought it was worth mentioning.

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[Edited 12/5/21 14:58pm]

YOU CAME WITH RECEIPTS. See this is what I like.

That piano 'riff' (it's not even really a riff, it's 2 notes) is not really an integral part of WHYDFML.

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What have you Done is based on the bass line, and the main keyboard stab, that happens one time as a chord hit, and the other time as 3 chord hits (da-duh-da) with the little 3-note pickup preceding it.

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That's the whole song (not including the bridge).

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Jimmy Jam using those same 2 piano notes to begin his piano solo is not the same as them creating the song from Prince banhing those same 2 notes during a Baby I'm A Star jam.

[Edited 12/8/21 21:48pm]

GaryMF said:

Jimmy Jam using those same 2 piano notes to begin his piano solo is not the same as them creating the song from Prince banhing those same 2 notes during a Baby I'm A Star jam.

[Edited 12/8/21 21:48pm]

Nobody said that.
There is was a song from '82 or '83 (Partyman the early version of it) that was based on riffs that Prince played a lot during rehearsals and whenever. And appatrently WHYDFML shares alot with those riffs.

paisleypark4 said:

Jimmy and Terry did it again on Janet Jacksons "Night" on Unbreakable I may add.

Yeah, that was a full on jam. I loved it. I think there's always a little of that on Janet's albums, though. Big or small.

TrivialPursuit said:

paisleypark4 said:

Jimmy and Terry did it again on Janet Jacksons "Night" on Unbreakable I may add.

Yeah, that was a full on jam. I loved it. I think there's always a little of that on Janet's albums, though. Big or small.

Yeah...shows they can still do it, if they feel like it.

paisleypark4 said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Yeah, that was a full on jam. I loved it. I think there's always a little of that on Janet's albums, though. Big or small.

Yeah...shows they can still do it, if they feel like it.

I agree. It's never there just for the sake of it. It's there when it's organic to the album or fits the moment. And it's not always a huge synthy reverby moment. Their production is a wide range of sounds.

TrivialPursuit said:

paisleypark4 said:

Yeah...shows they can still do it, if they feel like it.

I agree. It's never there just for the sake of it. It's there when it's organic to the album or fits the moment. And it's not always a huge synthy reverby moment. Their production is a wide range of sounds.

Yes!

I have been listening to some of Janet Jacksons multi tracks honestly...and I have noticed they do have so many varies instruments and samples at their picking. Jimmy Jam's percussion is something else though. He literally plays a whole percussion set all the way through a song non stop including cymblas, marimba, chimes and mrkas. Really cool to hear.

Hamad said:

I don’t think Jimmy & Terry ever claimed the Minneapolis sound, or even gave their own sound a name. Prince wanted to assume more control over this type of situation than they did. It was a great way to affirm his agency, but at the same time it was to his detriment in certain instances.

Prince also did NOT invent the Minneapolis sound. He popularized it and took it out of Minneapolis. Prince did not emerge fully-formed. Jam and Lewis influenced him before he ever made a record. So did Sonny T. So did Andre. Jimmy and Terry have just as much right to the Minneapolis sound as Prince.

For me, even more than the usage of the Linn Drum machine, the quintessential element of "The Minneapolis Sound" for me has been the "brass" synth sounds and the voicings used - usually close harmonies/clusters that has the effect of a full sound in the higher register despite the often minimal surrounding instrumentation. And over the years, there has seemed to be conjecture as to whether such usage of harmony came from Prince...

I think he borrowed a hell of a lot from other people with regards to this - Sonny Thompson's name does seem to often crop up as an...well, early "inspiration".

But Prince did appear to have the gift of encapsulating all of this in an accessible pop song form - and he was clearly extremely driven and ambitious.

At least he had the talent to back it up, eh?

You could argue songs like All The Critics Love U In New York and Housequake were Prince's takes on Rap / Hip Hop...

My Name Is Prince is a total embarassment.

SquirrelMeat76 said:

You could argue songs like All The Critics Love U In New York and Housequake were Prince's takes on Rap / Hip Hop...

My Name Is Prince is a total embarassment.

Even before that he wrote Nasty Girl and If A Girl Answers Dont Hang Up which are basically some of the first female rap tunes there are

SquirrelMeat76 said:

You could argue songs like "All The Critics Love U In New York" and "Housequake" were Prince's takes on Rap / Hip Hop...

My Name Is Prince is a total embarassment.

Yeah, I agree. He definitely tipped his toes in the water before hiring D-grade rappers for his records. It's not just Tony M. It's T.C. Ellis, Carmen Electra, Robin Power, and any other miserable sack who was looking for a career.

He had to be aware of things like "Rapper's Delight," Run DMC or whoever, and thought, "I can do that." Although he did have a grim view of rap early on, allegedly, he certainly flirted with it. Even parts of "Lady Cab Driver" or "Annie Christian" could be considered forays into the idea.