7 Days of Prince Songs, Day 7 When You Were Mine, Cyndi Lauper

I really love the cover version of this Prince song. Mainly because Cyndi decided to keep the lyrics as is rather than change genders. So it appears that her boyfriend has a penchant for other men.

Down the track I am going to do a post dedicated to Cyndi Lauper because I think that she is a talent that is often overlooked due to her "kookiness". She really is quite an amazing singer as illustrated in this track from her first album "She's so Unusual".

7 Days of Prince Songs - Day 6, Glamorous Life, Sheila E

7 Days of Prince Songs - Day 5, Love Thy Will Be Done, Martika

7 Days of Prince Songs - Day 4, Nasty Girl - Vanity 6

Vanity 6 is another group formed by Prince. He specifically wanted the girls in the band to perform in lingerie and sing sexually charged songs. Of course Prince was boning the lead singer at the time. Vanity was supposed to appear in the movie Purple Rain but dropped out of the project and was replaced by Apollonia.

This song is known for being in the movie Beverly Hills Cop where Axel Foley gets tailed to a strip club.

7 Days of Prince Songs - Day 3 I Feel for You, Chaka Khan

Here is a track that is probably more known for the cover version than the original (which appeared on Prince's self titled first album). Stevie Wonder also makes an appearance on harmonica. This song is so well known for the repetition of "Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan.." but it was in fact a mistake the producer decided to keep.

7 Days of Prince Songs - Day 2 Manic Monday, The Bangles

7 days of Prince songs - Day 1 Jungle Love the Time

After I did my piece on Prince I thought it would be good to feature 7 day's worth of songs written by Prince and performed by other artists.

Day One:
The Time - Jungle Love featured in Purple Rain.
Morris Day the lead singer from the Time is a childhood friend of Prince and the best thing in Purple Rain. Two other members of The Time - Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis really made their name in producing music most notably for Janet Jackson's "Control" and "Rythmn Nation" albums, amongst other high profiled artists.


The Time - Jungle Love (morris Day)


Prince gave Kevin Smith permission to use Jungle Love in the film "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." I had to link the clip where they mention the Time because it is hilarious.

Prince - Darling Nikki

I have been trying to get this video online for some time now.

The problem is that Prince is very controlling with his music and who he allows to use it. Mostly Prince videos are uploaded to You Tube only to be removed shortly after. An interesting story relating to this is that Prince performed Radiohead's "Creep" live and the clip was posted on You Tube. Prince quickly got wind of it and had it removed. Radiohead stepped in and said "it's our song, let people hear it".

So while I can, I am putting up my favourite Prince song from "Purple Rain" called "Darling Nikki".Something that I didn't know about this song is that near the end of the song, the music stops. There is singing, but played in reverse. The vocals, unreversed, are Prince singing:

"Hello, how are you?
I'm fine 'cause I know that the Lord is coming soon
Coming, coming soon."

Prince is obviously an amazing talent with an astonishing catalogue of music (with vaults full of unreleased material). A lot of interviewers tend to focus on the fact that he is "eccentric" and often overlook his contribution to music. There is no denying that Prince is eccentric but I think I like him even more knowing that he isn't just like Joe Bloggs down the road.

I admire Prince's chutzpah in sticking it to the record companies. Once again people thought he was a nutter because he changed his name to a Love Symbol (or the artist formally known as Prince). The reason he did this was because Warner Bros records trademarked the name Prince, even though it is his actual name (born Prince Rogers Nelson). Prince now owns the trademark to his name along with the Love Symbol.

If you ever want to get a bit of an insight into Prince and his world I suggest you go to You Tube and listen to cult director Kevin Smith talk about his experiences working for Prince. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy_cLJ19HMg  it is in 4 parts but damn it is funny.

Here are some random bits of trivia you may not have known about Prince:

• He dated Madonna early on in her career. He asked her to be his "girl" but she wasn't interested.
• He was asked to participate in "We are the World" and never showed up. He later provided a song for the album release.
• He is now a devout Jehovah's Witness and does not swear.
• His entire Paisley Park estate is "wired for sound" meaning that there are recording devices everywhere so Prince can record music anywhere he wants.
• He was in talks with Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson to appear on the album "Bad" in a duet with Michael Jackson. He declined. During this time he sent Michael Jackson a wooden box with feathers inside. Michael Jackson thought he was putting a voodoo spell on him.
• Prince has been married twice. His son Boy Gregory died a week after birth from Pfeiffer Syndrome.
• He is a vegan
• He has been quoted as saying "All computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and they are not good for you"

Update 30/3/12- Prince has been up to his old tricks and had most videos removed. Bummer.

The Four Tops and the Mighty Temptations

I have just been watching this clip from the Motown 25 Celebration - Yesterday, Today & Forever.

It is a awesome piece of showmanship which battles the Four Tops and the Temptations on the same stage with a medley/mash up of their greatest hits. If anyone watches this clip and doesn't know a track I will be mightily disappointed and sentence them to hard time with both of their back catalogues.

This is pure brilliance. They killed it.