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For You, 1978 Podcast

Podcast: 40 Years of For You

Post author By Zach
Post date April 6, 2018
No Comments on Podcast: 40 Years of For You

(Featured Image: Cover art for For You, 1978; photo by Joe Giannetti, © Warner Bros.)

dance / music / sex / romance is fast approaching its third year, so to celebrate, we’re going…backwards? That’s right, to mark the 40th anniversary of Prince’s debut album, I thought now was the perfect time to go ahead with an idea I’ve been toying with for a while: our own sub-series of review podcasts looking at each of Prince’s albums in isolation.

I’m doing this for a few reasons. First, it’s a way to bring those of you who have been listening to the podcasts but not reading the blog into the loop on my chronological Prince project–and also a way for me to work through some of these albums before I can get to it with my glacially paced writing schedule.

Second, I’ve known from the beginning of this project that if I really wanted to do Prince’s catalogue justice, I would need to incorporate more voices and perspectives than just my own. We all have our biases and blind spots, and as a Prince fan I am acutely aware that one person’s sentimental favorite can be another’s unlistenable mess (and vice versa). That’s why I asked my friends Harold and KaNisa, both of whose encyclopaedic knowledge of Prince’s career dwarfs my own, to join me. I think you’ll find that our tastes and opinions both intersect and diverge in a lot of interesting ways, which allowed us–and hopefully, will allow you–to take a different perspective on some of these songs and the context in which they were created.

I hope you enjoy this new approach to an album that remains underappreciated in Prince’s catalogue. If you do, I hope you’ll subscribe to the podcast on your streaming app of choice (iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play), and if you’re so inclined, leave a review! No matter what, thanks for listening, and see you again soon.

Tags 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1990, 2015, 94 east, adore, american bandstand, andre cymone, arp pro soloist, as, bambi, beach boys, beat it, beatles, betcha by golly wow, billy cobham, blue light, blue magic, bob dylan, bob marley, brian wilson, cameo, capri theatre, chic, chris moon, closer i get to you, commodores, controversy, crazy you, crystal ball, curtis mayfield, darling nikki, darling nisi, david cassidy, david z, deniece williams, diana ross, donny hathaway, duane tudahl, earth wind & fire, erotic city, evelyn champagne king, everybody dance chic, extraloveable, eye hate u, family minneapolis, fleetwood mac, flyte tyme, for you, funkadelic, funkytown, futurama, george duke, get it up, good vibrations, gotta broken heart again, grand central, grand funk railroad, harold pride, head, herbie hancock, housequake, i wanna be your lover, i wonder u, i'm under your spell, in love, intruders, isley brothers, jaco pastorius, jane clare jones, jelly jam, jellybean johnson, jimmy jam, johnny mathis, joni mitchell, just as long as we're together, kiss, kiss band, lady cab driver, ladysmith black mambazo, led zeppelin, let's go crazy, let's have a baby, lionel richie, lipps inc, marvin gaye, mazarati, mc hammer, michael dean, michael jackson, miles davis, millie jackson, mind & matter, minneapolis, mint condition, moonsound, morris day, most beautiful girl in the world, my love is forever, new york city, nude tour, numero group, o'jays, oberheim four voice, owen husney, patrice rushen, paul mccartney, philadelphia, philip bailey, pray, prince, prince and the purple rain era studio sessions, prince podcast, record plant sausalito, revolution, rick james, right on magazine, ripopgodazippa, roberta flack, rolling stone, russell avenue, santana, school of life, sexy dancer, shalamar, shame, she's soft and wet, sheila e, smokey robinson, so blue, soft and wet, solo, sonny t, sound 80, stanley clarke, stevie wonder, still waiting, stokley, stylistics, sunset sound, surprise, susan rogers, tamborine, terry lewis, they put me in the mix, time, todd rundgren, tommy tate, tommy vicari, too much too little too late, toto, verdine white, warner bros records, wax poetics, we are the world, weather report, wendy melvoin, with you, ying yang twins, you and i

Alternate Timelines

André Cymone, Godfather of the Minneapolis Sound: A Retrospective from an Alternate Timeline

Post author By Zach
Post date January 22, 2018
2 Comments on André Cymone, Godfather of the Minneapolis Sound: A Retrospective from an Alternate Timeline

Cover art for André Cymone's epochal 1982 album Livin' in the New Wave; © Columbia Records.

Note: Following last month’s post on “Do Me, Baby,” I knew I wanted to give André Cymone another, proper sendoff before he disappears from our pages until 1984. So, here’s the latest in my series of thought experiments, imagining an alternate reality in which André, not Prince, was the Grand Central member who went on to greater solo success. For anyone just dropping in, the idea here is to bring attention to the web of contingencies that shaped Prince’s career; to shake up our sense of inevitability and offer a glimpse at one of the many possible alternatives had things gone even slightly differently. It’s also, in this case, an opportunity to reevaluate Cymone’s legacy beyond his friend’s deceptively long shadow. As always, have fun and don’t take this too seriously. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week!

For a brief but significant period in the 1980s, the cutting edge of R&B and pop could be found in the unlikely locale of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Known as the “Minneapolis Sound,” this unique hybrid of funk, rock, and nascent electronic and New Wave styles emerged almost organically from the Twin Cities’ small but vibrant Black communities in the late 1970s. It thus wouldn’t be fair to give a single artist credit for “inventing” the genre; but the fact remains that when most music fans think of Minneapolis, one man in particular comes to mind. I’m talking, of course, about André Cymone.

Tags 1972, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1993, 2004, 2017, andre cymone, bernadette anderson, bobby z, bottom line, boz scaggs, brooke shields, cheryl lynn, chris moon, cobo hall, columbia records, david paich, detroit, dez dickerson, dr fink, eddie anderson, evelyn champagne king, fred anderson, gayle chapman, get it girl, girls, got to be real, grand central, hollywood sound recorders, i'm yours, janet jackson, jimmy jam, jody watley, kelly's eyes, kool & the gang, linda anderson, lipps inc, loring park, los angeles memorial coliseum, minneapolis, moonsound, morris day, mtv, new york city, owen husney, record plant sausalito, rock and roll hall of fame, roger dumas, rolling stones, shalamar, soft and wet, sound 80, suddenly susan, sylvia anderson, terry lewis, time, toto, uptown, why you wanna treat me so bad, william doughty

Ephemera, 1979-1981

Rough

Post author By Zach
Post date December 5, 2017
2 Comments on Rough

Ray Sharkey and Peter Gallagher in The Idolmaker, 1980; © MGM.

Prince, as we’ve discussed, had been harboring ambitions to write and produce for other artists since virtually the moment he signed to a record label himself. But after his partnership with Sue Ann Carwell and his “ghost band” the Rebels both fell through, his focus turned by necessity to his own music. It wasn’t until after the release of Dirty Mind that Prince shifted gears back to his budding Svengali ambitions, and plans for a new protégé act began to take shape.

At first glance, it seems strange that Prince would be so intent on fostering other artists at this early stage in his career. There was, of course, the issue of his prolificacy; as the non-LP single release of “Gotta Stop (Messin’ About)” demonstrated, he was already beginning to write and record more quality music than could be contained by his own albums. It’s also a matter of record that Prince was a fan of Taylor Hackford’s 1980 film The Idolmaker: a dramatization of the life of rock and roll promoter and manager Bob Marcucci, who had discovered, groomed, and promoted teen idols Frankie Avalon and Fabian in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

In retrospect, however, the most compelling rationale for Prince’s Svengali streak comes from one of his earliest collaborators, David “Z” Rivkin. The way Rivkin tells it, Prince wanted to be at the center of a “scene” in Minneapolis, so he made one in his own image: “he said, ‘It’s better if there’s a lot of people doing the same style, because that way it looks like a movement,’” Rivkin recalled to author and researcher Duane Tudahl. “He said, ‘I want to have an army going forward[,] that way no one can deny it’” (Tudahl 2017 344). Just as he’d done with the “Uptown” mythology, Prince was inventing the conditions for his own success.

Alternate Timelines For You, 1978

My Life with You I Share: An Alternate Timeline Review of For You

Post author By Zach
Post date September 24, 2016
8 Comments on My Life with You I Share: An Alternate Timeline Review of For You

Warner Bros. press photo, 1978; stolen from Lansure's Music Paraphernalia.

Note: In the last several weeks of writing about the songs on Prince’s debut album, I’ve been struck by the many contingencies that exist around For You, and Prince’s early career in general. If things had gone even slightly differently; if his label–or, for that matter, Prince himself–had shown even a little less confidence in his artistic development; then we would be looking at a very different musical landscape in 2016. There’s also the fact that, as I’ve noted several times in my track-by-track posts, it’s difficult to look at For You in retrospect without seeing it as just the first, not-entirely-successful glimpse at a talent and vision that would find its full expression in years to come. But what if that perspective wasn’t the default? What if For You wasn’t the first step in a long career by Prince, but in fact his first and last album? This post is my attempt to think my way through this situation: think of it as a look back at For You from a possible alternate timeline. I don’t know if I will do this for other albums in the future–or, like, ever again–but I thought it was an interesting exercise to examine Prince’s earliest days as a recording artist through a completely different lens. I hope you find it interesting, too.

For You, 1978

My Love is Forever

Prince in his first press kit, 1977; photo stolen from Nate D. Sanders Auctions.

Sessions for Prince’s second demo at Sound 80 commenced on December 29, 1976 and lasted through the remainder of the winter. This time, a total of six songs were completed: new versions of “Soft and Wet,” “Baby,” “Jelly Jam,” “Make It Through the Storm,” and “Love is Forever”–now renamed “My Love is Forever”–plus a brand new song, “Just as Long as We’re Together.” Just like with the earlier sessions at Moonsound, however, the final demo was limited to only a few tracks. Per Nilsen’s The Vault reported the tape as consisting of “Baby” and “Soft and Wet,” with “Make It Through the Storm” “as a ‘back-up’ if record company executives wanted to hear more” (Nilsen 2004 16-17). According to a recent auction listing, however, at least one configuration seems to have featured “Just as Long as We’re Together,” “Jelly Jam,” and “My Love is Forever.”

princedemo — Photo stolen from Nate D. Sanders Auctions

In addition to the demo tape, Prince’s management also prepared a luxe press kit to distribute to labels in Los Angeles. “We attacked it all first class, ’cause if we went in as just the average Joes, it wasn’t gonna look like a first-class effort,” Owen Husney recalled to biographer Dave Hill. “We spent 1,500 dollars on fifteen press kits… The usual press kit has clippings, and stories about your mom, and all the other bands you played in. All I did was have a picture of Prince on the cover. It said, ‘American Artists Presents Prince’, and inside there was just five sheets. And on those sheets there was just one picture, and one quote from Prince above each one” (Hill 40). The minimalist presentation had the additional effect of playing up Prince’s enigmatic air, which remained a cornerstone of his public persona for the duration of his career. “[T]here was a mystery about him even then,” Husney told NPR’s Audie Cornish shortly after Prince’s death in April. “And so as a manager I noticed that, and I was able to just make that a part of who he was in all of our publicity and everything going forward. We did a first press kit with him that said very little, because Prince said very little. Because his music does the talking” (Cornish 2016).