...and Lenny told the story to Naomi Campbell.

What I wouldn't give to have any sort of photo or video snip of them two hanging out (and not be on stage with James Brown thankyouverymuch).

lenny is on various TGE songs isnt he?

its obv they did quite a bit of recording and jamming together.

whether its good or not, who knows.

be interested to know though.

i cant lie, id love to have had lenny produce a prince album in the 90s.

hed have been a good choice to produce prince with the npg trio (if anyone not prince was going to do it that is).

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

lenny is on various TGE songs isnt he?

its obv they did quite a bit of recording and jamming together.

whether its good or not, who knows.

be interested to know though.

i cant lie, id love to have had lenny produce a prince album in the 90s.

hed have been a good choice to produce prince with the npg trio (if anyone not prince was going to do it that is).

- Yeah, according to PrinceVault, he did background vocals on Dolphin and Billy Jack Bitch (uncredited). They were friends, and certainly jammed a lot. Lenny said he has some tapes of it.

.

BTw, there is a cool video of Lenny at Paisley on bass jamming with Sonny T and Michael B

.

https://www.youtube.com/w...GAE_T38ANo

I'd love to hear any collaborations they (Prince and Lenny) did together that never got released, even if just jamming, would be a lot of fun!

GustavoRibas said:

BTw, there is a cool video of Lenny at Paisley on bass jamming with Sonny T and Michael B

.

https://www.youtube.com/w...GAE_T38ANo

I never knew about this video. VERY cool.

TrivialPursuit said:

GustavoRibas said:

BTw, there is a cool video of Lenny at Paisley on bass jamming with Sonny T and Michael B

.

https://www.youtube.com/w...GAE_T38ANo

I never knew about this video. VERY cool.

- Yes, VERY cool indeed

cool to see. but sonny t cannot sing. at all.

I always thought it was Prince's voice at the beginning of Don't Go and Put a Bullet in Your Head (thank you Jesus...) from Circus (1995)...

Marco81 said:

I always thought it was Prince's voice at the beginning of Don't Go and Put a Bullet in Your Head (thank you Jesus...) from Circus (1995)...

I just listened. Sorta sounds like him to me.

Didn't Kravitz said that Prince is indeed on some of his records but uncredited?

psyche2 said:

Didn't Kravitz said that Prince is indeed on some of his records but uncredited?

yeah he said that until I think the album 5 that Prince was uncredited on all of his albums and Lenny was on one of his (I think The Gold Experience) uncredited.

i wonder sometimes if lenny inspired prince going full band after 1989. i mean, lenny releases let love rule, gets a hit, a year later, prince has got himself a band and isnt really using much modern sounds anymore. hmmmm.

[Edited 11/21/23 6:18am]

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

i wonder sometimes if lenny inspired prince going full band after 1989. i mean, lenny releases let love rule, gets a hit, a year later, prince has got himself a band and isnt really using much modern sounds anymore. hmmmm.

"Prince got himself a band" is about the most hysterically obtuse thing I've heard this year. And it's November.

It seems we will never know. But Michael Bland shares an interesting story about how Prince got a horn section:

.

I wanted to ask you specifically about horns getting pulled into Prince's sound, because when I think about what defines the Minneapolis Sound of the '80s with Prince, it was the horn parts being replaced by these synthesizers. And you were really there at a time when the horns were getting pulled in, in an analog way, and being pulled into the show. Was that something that you were thinking about and observing? What was it like to add that to the band?

.

I'll tell you exactly what happened. Prince stopped me in the hallway at Paisley and said "You need your own band, you need an instrumental group, like with a horn section." And I had been working with Steve Strand and Mike Nelson and Brian Gallagher, rest his soul, on another project at that time. I said, "I know three," and he said, "You need five." And he turned around and walked away from me. So then the Jensens, Dave and Kathy, were employed so I had five horns. We were working up arrangements of some of the Madhouse material, and we were recording the rehearsals from day to day. And Tommy and Sonny were also playing with me, so it was me and Tommy and Sonny and the horns. And Prince was getting these cassettes of rehearsals for about a week, and he comes in at the beginning of the following week and says, "Can you have those dudes come to the studio tonight?' And I knew as he was walking away from me again that my band was done — he was going to hijack the horns and they were going to become a part of the larger picture. So yeah, not only did I observe it, it's my fault. [laughs]

.

https://www.thecurrent.or...erberg-and

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

i wonder sometimes if lenny inspired prince going full band after 1989. i mean, lenny releases let love rule, gets a hit, a year later, prince has got himself a band and isnt really using much modern sounds anymore. hmmmm.

[Edited 11/21/23 6:18am]

I reckon he eventually paid attention, but probably more in regard of Kravitz' popularity a bit later on his career. His first albums were definetely retro, using vintage amps and instruments, recording analog, and with an eye on the 60's and 70's rock -He evoked Lennon, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and the likes. Prince's sound and output during 1989-92 couldn't have been any further away from this, even if he was indeed transitioning to a bit more organic sound. By 1993 I can see some similarities, when Prince did The Undertaker and all those rock songs like Calhoun Square, Peach, Papa, Interactive, etc. But by then Lenny was already an established artist going strong with his 3rd album and a few smash hits under his belt.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Get over it. Also, read better. I said prince went full band. Not that he got himself a band. And if you think prince wasnt inspired by lenny then you need to do some homework. [Edited 11/21/23 13:10pm]

Prince was inspired by Lenny who was inspired by Prince. susposedly they jammed and recorded a lot of times so no surprise. A bit like when Prince was said to be inspired by D'angelo who was inspired by Prince exept for the jamming and recording part.
no biggie right? Prince was even inspired and impressed with Bryan Adams.. BRYAN ADAMS of all people.

[Edited 11/22/23 0:43am]

JorisE73 said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Get over it. Also, read better. I said prince went full band. Not that he got himself a band. And if you think prince wasnt inspired by lenny then you need to do some homework. [Edited 11/21/23 13:10pm]

Prince was inspired by Lenny who was inspired by Prince. susposedly they jammed and recorded a lot of times so no surprise. A bit like when Prince was said to be inspired by D'angelo who was inspired by Prince exept for the jamming and recording part.
no biggie right? Prince was even inspired and impressed with Bryan Adams.. BRYAN ADAMS of all people.

[Edited 11/22/23 0:43am]

sure, prince was inspired by lots of artists.

but he didnt invite bryan adams to record, jam with him, or discuss doing a joint tour together. which he did with lenny.

psyche2 said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

i wonder sometimes if lenny inspired prince going full band after 1989. i mean, lenny releases let love rule, gets a hit, a year later, prince has got himself a band and isnt really using much modern sounds anymore. hmmmm.

[Edited 11/21/23 6:18am]

I reckon he eventually paid attention, but probably more in regard of Kravitz' popularity a bit later on his career. His first albums were definetely retro, using vintage amps and instruments, recording analog, and with an eye on the 60's and 70's rock -He evoked Lennon, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and the likes. Prince's sound and output during 1989-92 couldn't have been any further away from this, even if he was indeed transitioning to a bit more organic sound. By 1993 I can see some similarities, when Prince did The Undertaker and all those rock songs like Calhoun Square, Peach, Papa, Interactive, etc. But by then Lenny was already an established artist going strong with his 3rd album and a few smash hits under his belt.

im not saying that D&P was modelled on let love rule.

it wasnt retro like LLR was.

but lenny came out at the end of the 80s sounding nothing like commercial 80s pop (ie. no synths, drum machines etc).

and he brought a certain focus on a live setup, with a sound that i think prince would totally understand, i.e. hybridised funky pop-rock, rnb, soul, etc.

so i WONDER (note, i am not saying THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED) if he saw that, and thought hmmm.

prince always paid attention to and competed with guys who were inspired by him, or not that far off, and i guess with lenny, he had some kind of connection and mutual respect he didnt have with dangelo or maxwell, etc. cos they were friends, hung out together, recorded together, appeared on each others records, etc etc. its impossible though that prince would not have been aware of lenny when he debuted.

i wondered how aware he was of living colour for instance too, but i think they are further off princes area of interest (less pop too).

there is also something about hip hop at that time bringing atttention onto the records that were being used for samples and all those 60s and 70s bands too. but i dont think, at least not until TRC, that prince was that interested in replicating the sound/sonics of old 70s records.

[Edited 11/22/23 6:53am]

JorisE73 said:

psyche2 said:

Didn't Kravitz said that Prince is indeed on some of his records but uncredited?

yeah he said that until I think the album 5 that Prince was uncredited on all of his albums and Lenny was on one of his (I think The Gold Experience) uncredited.

When did Lenny say that? ...Since his first album? I didn't know that

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

psyche2 said:

I reckon he eventually paid attention, but probably more in regard of Kravitz' popularity a bit later on his career. His first albums were definetely retro, using vintage amps and instruments, recording analog, and with an eye on the 60's and 70's rock -He evoked Lennon, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and the likes. Prince's sound and output during 1989-92 couldn't have been any further away from this, even if he was indeed transitioning to a bit more organic sound. By 1993 I can see some similarities, when Prince did The Undertaker and all those rock songs like Calhoun Square, Peach, Papa, Interactive, etc. But by then Lenny was already an established artist going strong with his 3rd album and a few smash hits under his belt.

im not saying that D&P was modelled on let love rule.

it wasnt retro like LLR was.

but lenny came out at the end of the 80s sounding nothing like commercial 80s pop (ie. no synths, drum machines etc).

and he brought a certain focus on a live setup, with a sound that i think prince would totally understand, i.e. hybridised funky pop-rock, rnb, soul, etc.

so i WONDER (note, i am not saying THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED) if he saw that, and thought hmmm.

prince always paid attention to and competed with guys who were inspired by him, or not that far off, and i guess with lenny, he had some kind of connection and mutual respect he didnt have with dangelo or maxwell, etc. cos they were friends, hung out together, recorded together, appeared on each others records, etc etc. its impossible though that prince would not have been aware of lenny when he debuted.

i wondered how aware he was of living colour for instance too, but i think they are further off princes area of interest (less pop too).

there is also something about hip hop at that time bringing atttention onto the records that were being used for samples and all those 60s and 70s bands too. but i dont think, at least not until TRC, that prince was that interested in replicating the sound/sonics of old 70s records.

[Edited 11/22/23 6:53am]

I see what you mean, and my comment is pure conjeture too.

Let's not forget the pre-fame days of Lenny Kravitz when he went by the name Romeo Blue, didn't he try to get in Prince's orbit then? ... Seem to remember some story like that, but I don't know.

I guess if anything, Prince's actual interest in him picked up when Kravitz proved to be commercially succesful from his second album onwards.

psyche2 said:

yello1 said:

JorisE73 said:

yeah he said that until I think the album 5 that Prince was uncredited on all of his albums and Lenny was on one of his (I think The Gold Experience) uncredited.

When did Lenny say that? ...Since his first album? I didn't know that

Yeah, I've never heard that, and would love a source on it. How did Lenny know Prince in the late 80s ??

There is an interesting note there that Prince did mention "Lenny Kravitz's mama" in "MPLS." So - I wonder if that was there because a relationship already existed? Folks meet folks, I just dont' know when or why.

TrivialPursuit said:

https://m.facebook.com/lennykravitz/photos/tbt-paisley-park-111893-one-of-the-secret-recordings-i-made-with-prince/10154139957353390/

https://youtu.be/KF1ql0Opz5o?si=U80pBlKWWlGi_w3M

Great links! Thank you.

TrivialPursuit said:

Great links! Thank you.

No worries. The cassette pic has been around for awhile, and I don't know how to post pics. If someone here does and wants to - go for it!!

jazzz said: