Prince

[RRA]

Have you downloaded THE GOLD EXPERIENCE? That was pretty damn good too. (Even better if tracks like "Days Gone Wild" had been included as they originally were supposed to be.)

[Disco Wolf]

I have that on here! I'm doing Rubber Soul-Revolver-Sgt Pepper and I just did Prince's first three LPs so eventually I shall get to that.

[aurélie]

weirdly while I adored the original song from Prince, my favorite rendition for When doves cry is in Romeo+Juliet

I'm old enough to know that Prince was big in the 80's.

[RRA]

"She's Always In My Hair" (B-side to "Raspberry Beret," and one of his best tracks) performed pretty recently in a chilled-out version, available to listen.

http://soundcloud.com/drfunkenberry/...r-live/s-g6flv

[RRA]

LOVESEXY came out 25 years ago today. Pretty good album which went Gold and had several killer tracks ("I Wish U Heaven," "Anna Stesia," "When 2 R in Love," and of course the Top 10 hit "Alphabet Street") but mostly remembered for this, which might've dented album sales.





EDIT - 25th Anniversary retrospective column: http://according2g.com/2013/05/happy...sexy-by-prince

[Ben7]

I've always been interested in how Prince, Michael Jackson, and Madonna's careers have intersected. I won't go into the Michael Jackson/Madonna stuff here, but since this weekend is the Billboard Music Awards, where Prince and Madonna are both confirmed to attend, (Prince will receive the Icon Award and Madonna will receive the Top Touring Artist Award), I wanted to take a look back at their history with each other:

January 1985: Madonna and Huey Lewis present Prince the award for Favorite Black Album, for Purple Rain, at the American Music Awards, seen here at the 2:55 mark:


Interesting note: In this video, Prince is accompanied to the stage by a man who is presumably a bodyguard.. "Weird Al" Yankovic attended this ceremony and later said that Prince's people sent a memo out saying that no one was to approach him, to which "Weird Al" responded by sending Prince a memo that he didn't want to be approached either.

February 1985: Madonna attends Prince's concert in Los Angeles (wearing the hat she wore in her "Borderline" video), with Rosanna Arquette:



Also in 1985, Prince designed at least two jackets for Madonna. One of them is seen in this photo, from a book of photographer Franseco Scavullo's work:



The other jacket Prince designed for Madonna was the one she wore at Live Aid in July of 1985:




Madonna wore that jacket again at a Pro Peace rally in October of 1985:



and again in 1989 at the Women in Film Awards:



In 1987 Prince approached Madonna to play a part in his film Graffiti Bridge (released in 1990). I'm not sure what part she was considered for, but she turned it down.

In 1988 Prince and Madonna collaborated on her album Like A Prayer, released in 1989. The only song Prince contributed vocals to was "Love Song:"




Director Jean Baptiste Mondino told the French edition of Rolling Stone magazine that "Love Song" was going to be released as a single, and that he had been approached to direct the video, where Prince and Madonna would only show their skin. However, Warner canceled those plans in favor of having Prince promote the Batman soundtrack.


In addition to "Love Song," Prince also played keyboard and had a guitar solo on "Like A Prayer," which was cut out (but later released on the LAP maxi single). There have been rumors that Prince recorded a cover of "Like A Prayer" that has never been released. And, Madonna confirmed to Songwriting magazine that Prince played guitar on "Keep It Together" and "Act of Contrition."

Taken from her Songwriting magazine interview in 1989:

Interviewer: You and Prince wrote "Love Song" together, which is a wonderful
song. Did you and he work together or did he give you a track?

Madonna: No, he didn't give me a track. We sat down and just started fooling
around. We had a lot of fun. What happened is that he played the drums and I
played the synthesizer and we came up with the original melody line; I just,
off the top of my head, started singing lyrics into the microphone. And then he
overdubbed some guitar stuff and made a loop of it and sent it to me, and then
I just started adding sections to it and singing parts to it. And then I sent
it back to him, and he'd sing a part to it and add another instrument and send
it back to me...it was like this sentence that turned into a paragraph that
turned into a little miniseries. So it was great. It was a completely different
way to work. And because of our schedules and everything, and he was in
Minnesota and he likes to work there and I like to work here. So we kind of
sent it back and forth. He's great. He's a real interesting...unique talent.

Interviewer: And it was an easy connection from the beginning for the two of
you?

Madonna: Yeah, it was. We started out being real admirers of each other's work.
And, you know, we're already successful so we didn't have to prove anything to
each other. We were on the same level. And I don't think he's had that same
opportunity with other people that he's worked with. Because generally he tends
to dominate everything.

Interviewer: "Act of Contrition," the closing track of Like a Prayer, has
backwards masking and other mysterious elements. Did he have anything to do
with that one as well? The credits only say, "Produced by the powers that be."

Madonna: Yeah, he did. He played guitar on it. He also played guitar on "Keep
it Together."

Interviewer: I noticed on "Act of Contrition" that you have the choir from
"Like a Prayer" reversed on that.

Madonna: Yeah, we turned the tape and played everything backwards.

In 1993 Madonna attended Prince's Act 1 Tour at Radio City Music Hall in New York. She is seen here leaving the show with two of her Blond Ambition dancers (Jose and Luiz). Madonna is holding one of the fake newspapers Prince threw into the audience during the show:



In 1994, Madonna told an interviewer that she and Prince went on a dinner date and that he wouldn't eat. Madonna said: "He was just sipping tea, very daintily. I have this theory about people who don't eat. They annoy me." Its not clear if it came from this interview, but around this time Madonna also called Prince "a little troll" in an interview.

In January 1999 Prince wrote Madonna an open letter, posted on his website, asking for her help in getting Warner to give him the rights to his master recordings:

Madonna: artist 2 artist, eye am sure u understand the connection eye feel 
2 my music. U more than any1 at Time Warner knows the patience and care 
with which we give birth 2 creation... and u maybe moreso than any1 knows 
how much a new artist longs 2 find a place amongst "the chosen few" 2 
flaunt those creations (and at the same time put food on one's table). 
Music lawyers, managers and execs make deals best suited 4 their futures 
as well as urs in most cases... OWNERSHIP OF MASTER RECORDINGS IS ALMOST 
NEVER AN ISSUE! (let's remember, it was 1978!) 

Eye dreamt of u and eye at the Grammy Awards and felt a need 2 write this 
letter 2 u. In my dream, eye approached u and asked u if u remembered me, 
and u said "sure"... u were on ur way up 2 receive 1 of numerous awards u 
will no doubt receive that night, and eye asked u 2 help me with my fight 
2 retain ownership of my legacy and u said, "eye don't own ur masters, 
Time Warner does... if it was my company, u could have them." 

"But eye say 2 u, dear sister, it IS ur company as long as u remain in 
their graces... 4 all Artists, Madonna, make a stand 4 what is RIGHT... 
surely they will listen 2 u!" In the dream u seemed 2 feel me and yet u 
were a bit non-committal... so as u approached the podium, eye followed u, 
and as we stood side by side, eye said, "b glad this a commercial break!" 
and eye walked offstage and looked 4 Wyclef. Interpretations aside, artist 
2 artist, "U Can Help Us... and eye know u will becuz u REMEMBER ME."

In the summer of 1999, Madonna and Prince both attended (along with Elton John and Boy George) a party thrown by Donatella Versace in Paris. Here Versace is photographed with Prince to her left, and Madonna to her right:



In September 1999, at the MTV VMAs, Prince notably sat down during Madonna's standing ovation, seen here at the 0:17 mark: (Prince was later asked if he had anything against Madonna, and he said that he didn't, but he wished she would stop taking his song titles. She named one of her songs "Beautiful Stranger" while he had an earlier song called "Beautiful Strange" )



In 2007, a photographer snapped these photos of Madonna and Prince meeting at the Vanity Fair Oscar party:





In January 2011, Madonna attended one of Prince's Madison Square Garden concerts. No photos of her at the concert have come out, but Rolling Stone reported that with Madonna in the audience, Prince said "I know I'm expensive!" then called out to Madonna by name.

Most recently, last January when Billboard asked Prince about why things went bad between him and Warner Bros, he said:

"It was always about Madonna. She was getting paid, but at the same time we were selling more records and selling out concerts on multiple nights."

[LeonardShelby]

Good stuff. I'm a fan of both but didn't know they had this much history together.