For a long time, Prince was a hell of a musical talent. During the early to mid 80s, he released a string of amazing albums, not to mention a pretty good movie. I’m sure you know all the big hits: “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” Little Red Corvette,” and “Purple Rain.”
And as news broke about Warner and him teaming up to reissue expanded versions of his albums, I started thinking about what extras they’d throw on: live stuff? Outtakes? It’s a daunting task: Prince’s unreleased archives are infamous for their scope and depth. But I’m to the task, so let’s plow into it.
(Editors Note: Prince’s music is impossible to find streaming anywhere, so you’ll have to track these jams down yourself)
Camille
He’s a good live act, but Prince has always been a studio musician first and foremost. On his first few albums, he played everything himself and over the years, his music took odd twists and turns. Take When Doves Cry, for example, and how he erased the song’s bass line. But to me, the most striking example comes from the aborted album Camille.
As Prince’s fame grew in the 80s, so did his eccentricities: at one point he played with the idea of releasing an album under a different name. But this wouldn’t be just any different name; he’d have a different persona for the album and hide behind it like a mask. He’d even have a new voice to match.
On Camille, Prince used studio trickery to raise the pitch of his voice, singing songs written from a female perspective: “If I Was Your Girlfriend,” for example. Despite being nearly completed, the album was abruptly cancelled. Over the years, a few stray tracks from the project found their way out as b-sides, on soundtracks or in re-recorded versions. But the whole thing exists only in the bootleg netherworld.
Now would be a perfect time to finally release this album; I’d love to see Camille juxtaposed against Lovesexy, an album that deals with the extremes between love and sex, having a good time and being a good person.
“17 Days”
Back in the days of 45s, B-Sides were usually home for an album’s leftovers. Sometimes, musicians stuck their experimental material there; other times live versions of popular songs or covers. Prince? He usually stuck his best songs there.
In the early 90s, Prince compiled a two-volume best of set, each CD available individually. But those who splurged and bought them together were rewarded with a third volume, a collection of some of his B-sides. And the tracks there more than hold their own against his more famous cuts. Personally, I’m a fan of the skeletal George Clinton-like funk of “Erotic City,” a tune as famous for introducing Shelia E. to the world as it’s infamous for it’s “we can fuck all night long” chorus.
But the best B-side is “17 Days.” A bouncy, lightly psychedelic tune from the Purple Rain era, it prefigures Around the World In A Day while keeping one foot firmly in his funk-rock roots:”17 Days” is the missing link between Around the World and Purple Rain.
Lyrically, it’s pretty typical heartbroken Prince: his women’s been gone for over two weeks and he misses her as he sits and stares out at a rainy day, but he juxtaposes this against the upbeat music: jangling guitar, sprinkles of new wavey keyboards and Wendy and Lisa’s backing vocals. It’s four minutes of him at his absolute best – and now that The Hits is out of print, it’s been all but forgotten. It’s time to remedy that.
“Screams of Passion”
If B-sides were the cast-offs from Prince albums, I bet most artists would love to have a lead single as strong as one of Prince’s worst. But then again, some did.
When Prince wasn’t recording, writing material or touring on the road in his 80s heyday, he was giving songs away to musicians he liked. And more than a couple of these gifted songs ended up as their recipients’ biggest hits.
The Bangles’ “Manic Monday?” “Nasty Girl” by Vanity 6? Sheila E.’s “The Fabulous Life?” Morris Day and the Time’s “Jungle Love?” All written by Prince, although not always alone.
One of my favourite tunes is one of the more overlooked: “Screams of Passion,” by a Minnesota group called The Family that more or less best remembered now for recording “Nothing Compares 2 U” years before Sinead O’Connor turned it into a hit. Vaguely new wave, almost bordering on dream pop, “Screams of Passion,” The Family’s best song fits right in alongside Prince’s best. It sets a churning rhythm against woozy keyboards, lush bursts of strings and the call-and-response vocals of Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin. It’s an overlooked gem.
Surely demo versions of all these songs exist somewhere in the Paisley Park Records vaults; a live version of “Nothing Compares 2 U” was released on a best-of compilation in the 90s. I know I’d love to hear his original version of “Manic Monday” and I bet I’m not alone, either.
“America”
Finally, everyone knows Prince’s chops as a musician. But really, how many times does he – or the Revolution, for that matter – really cut loose? Live, he’d occasionally rip out a tasty guitar solo but on his studio albums, he’s more concerned with polish and craftsmanship over flashy guitar work. And remember, a lot of the time Prince was overdubbing one instrument at a time, too. But occasionally, things slipped through.
I have a copy of Around the World In A Day and easily my least favourite song is “America”: it’s a short, snappy song about being patriotic. “Johnny didn’t think it was cool to salute the flag and before long Soviet atom bombs have blown him to hell.” It’s more than a little trite and Reaganish. On the LP, it fades out after a couple minutes.
It doesn’t on the 12” single. On this long out-of-print slab of vinyl, Prince and the Revolution keep going, turning up their amps and jamming like the world’s about to end. They trade solo after solo and Prince just about rips apart his fretboard. For 20 minutes they go at it, only ending when the tape machine runs out of tape. It’s one of the fieriest chunks of funk-rock the purple one ever recorded and only a little taste, of course the only dull part of a monster jam, saw wide release. I hope he changes that.