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Hi people.

I'm doing an analysis of this song for my sound engineering course...

I'd really appreciate anything you know about this song that I might be able to include.

In particular, I'm really looking for who the engineer was, who the producer was (Prince, I assume), the studio location (where it was recorded) and the exact date/s of the recording. Any other information about this song would be appreciated, too.

Cheers and I hope you can help!

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[This message was edited Sat May 31 21:36:15 PDT 2003 by mrdespues]

I believe it was Prince as one man band on that one. I love this jam! Gotta go listen to it...

Wow. You people really know about as much about this song as I do, huh?

mrdespues said:

He recorded Crystal Ball on April 17th 1986
in his home studio.


Here's what DMSR has to say about the song:


"Crystal Ball" was recorded just after Prince's return from
France following the Libya air attack and the song xpresses
some of his fears of an impending war.

The track was sent to Clair Fischer for his input. "Prince
wrote a note saying that it was one of the most important
things he had done in his life", says Clare's son Brent
Fischer. "He felt it sort of summed up his life to that
point".

"We had a 60-piece orchestra, including 8 French horns, and
we overdubbed 12 or 13 separate percussion parts on top of
that".

One of the more obscure lines in the song referred to a
mural of two full-sized naked nymphs, complete with nipples
and pubic hair, that Susannah had drawn in a room that was
adjacent to Prince's studio.

"Prince never expressed any appreciation or liking for the
painting", according to Rogers. "It offended him because
[surprisingly] he was somewhat a prude. He had no frame of
reference to a nude body other than sexual.

He was not tapped into the art community and he didn't
visit museums; he didn't have time for that".



That's about all the info I could find. Not a lot of real
technical data, except for the orcestra bit. I couldn't
find any reference to whom engineered or recorded it but
since it's so intimate and was recorded at his home studio
I suppose it was mostly Prince himself with possibly some
aid by Susannah.
[This message was edited Sun Jun 1 3:01:29 PDT 2003 by IstenSzek]

Susan Rogers engineered it, without a shadow of a doubt.

Two versions of this odd song, slated to be the title track of the Crystal Ball LP, are circulating. The differences between the versions are the length of the introduction and the overdubs. The longest version has a string arrangement by Claire Fischer.
Dubbing a track that's as long as this one is, can change its length by as much as fifteen seconds! Just because one version is longer or shorter than another does not mean it is a 'different' version.

A close reading of A Documentary and a stack of old Uptowns gives us the following info...

March-July 1986:
With a tour coming up, a movie to finish, and a new album coming out, Prince remained itchy enough to begin recording an new album with the working title Dream Factory . Work began in Los Angeles (Sunset Studios) in March, while Prince was putting finishing touches on Under the Cherry Moon.

These sessions were the first step on the long road to what eventually became Sign o' the Times. Dream Factory was originally intended to be a two-LP set by Prince and the Revolution. Like the previous three albums, some tracks were full-band collaborations, others were mainly Prince with help from Revolution personnel, and some were Prince alone.

The Dream Factory sessions represent Prince's last recordings with the Revolution. The project has all the trappings of the "back-to-basics" theme bands often turn to when their collaboration is in its final days. While the last three albums had presented ground-breaking fusions of styles, the Dream Factory songs are solid, whole-hearted dives into familiar areas.

Work stopped when Prince, on tour with Revolution but already starting the process of leaving them, began recording Crystal Ball as a solo project.*

*Note: The Camille/Crystal Ball sets went thru a number or configurations, so much remains unknown and guess-work.
ORG NOTE ME!

eg:
Wendy Melvoin: "We recorded hundreds of tunes between Parade and Sign o' the Times...
I only wish I had tape copies!"

Thanks so much for all your contributions! I now have all the info I need! Great y'all!

Any other info would be helpful though!

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[This message was edited Mon Jun 2 0:19:17 PDT 2003 by mrdespues]