"The Beautiful Ones" is the third track on Prince and The Revolution's soundtrack album Purple Rain. Produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Prince, the song was recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles by Peggy Mac and David Leonard in early September 1983.
Ha ha, Prince was so "elusive" Rolling Stone had to settle for a still from the "Raspberry Beret" video on this September 1985 cover.
Ahh, this is a great, live medley of two of my fave Prince tunes, "Around the World in a Day" and "Christopher Tracy's Parade." He is dressed in his Parade gear, so I'm assuming this is during his 1986 tour for that album. Of course "Around the World in a Day" is the opening track to his first, post-Purple Rain album, Around the World in a Day. That album was a clear line drawn in the sand, separating true Prince fans from those who weren't.
I have a crystal clear memory of having a friend over at my house, excitedly ripping open the just released album's cellophane wrapper, putting the needle down on the record, and hearing those first great sounds. My friend had a disapproving sneer on his face, but I loved it. The problem was he just didn't get it. I understood at that moment what it must have been like being a Beatles fan in 1966 and hearing "Strawberry Fields Forever" for the very first time. "Christopher Tracy's Parade" is a similarly psychedelic opening track to his follow up album (the soundtrack to Under the Cherry Moon), Parade. What a logical (and awesome - there's an '80s word for you) pairing!
"Peach" is a song by Prince from his 1993 compilations, The Hits 2 and The Hits/The B-Sides.
The B-side was the live version of "Nothing Compares 2 U" in the U.S., while the UK backed the song with an edit of "My Name Is Prince." In addition, the UK issued two CD singles for "Peach", each backed by hits not on the collection. The first disc contained "Peach," "Mountains*,""Partyman," and "Money Don't Matter 2 Night." The second disc contained "Peach", along with "I Wish U Heaven," "Girls & Boys," and "My Name Is Prince". The first disc was sold in a special fold-out collector's case with a place holder for the second disc, which was sold separately.
"Peach" was a failure stateside. It peaked at #7 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, which roughly equals #107, however, it did peak at #14 in the UK, its b-side "Nothing Compares 2 U" charted at #62 on the U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop chart.
"Raspberry Beret" is the first U.S. (and second UK) single from Prince and The Revolution's 1985 album, Around the World in a Day. The sound was completely different from any previous Prince track, incorporating Middle-Eastern finger-cymbals, stringed instruments, and even a harmonica on the extended version. The song was also more in the pop vein than ever before, though the 12-inch single and video of the song feature a funky intro. Although the song was originally recorded in 1982, Prince drastically reworked it with The Revolution to give it more of an international sound. The song has several notable features including its use of finger cymbals and flange effect.
Random thoughts and memories triggered by the video:
I obsessively anticipated the world premiere of the "Raspberry Beret" video on my once beloved MTV. I was not disappointed.
I didn't like his hairstyle - I could only think "Liza Minneli."
Having purchased the album a few weeks before the release of the "Raspberry Beret" video (listening to it from sunrise to sunset), the beginning of the video was disconcerting, due to its being so different from the album version.
Being a huge Beatles fan at the time, I was hopeful Prince was about to launch the second coming of Beatlesque psychedelic music with songs such as "Raspberry Beret." I still hear "Here Comes the Sun" in the violin section.
The Middle-Eastern finger-cymbals? Awesome! I wanted some!!
"Raspberry Beret" was the last 45 I ever bought, solely for the B-side - "She's Always in My Hair,"still one of my favorite songs of all time.
Here I am with an old Galveston pal and college fraternity brother in my UT dorm room, circa 1985. I'm wearing a vintage, 1960s-era paisley shirt purchased in a little boutique located along Champs-Élysées Avenue when I went to Paris (I was actually in Nice around the same time Prince was filming Under the Cherry Moon) the previous summer with a close friend. I bought it because Prince had made paisley cool and fashionable again. I still have the shirt.
"I Wish U Heaven" is a song from Prince's 1988's spiritual album, Lovesexy. It is a joyful, spiritual song with few lyrics that runs 2:43. The 12" single is substantially extended three-part suite that runs over ten minutes.
"Glam Slam" is a single from Prince's 1988 album, Lovesexy. The song has sexual overtones with a spiritual undertone and fits the Lovesexy theme. The song is complex musically, recalling "Life Can Be So Nice" from Parade. It ends with a chorus of strings (played on the keyboard).
Prince recorded a remix in 1991 called "Glam Slam '91" that later was the basis of "Gett Off" from Diamonds and Pearls.
In late 1989 Prince opened a nightclub in Minneapolis named after the song. After eight years of frustration vis a vis its more established rival, First Avenue, he sold it to new owners
Prince with the Lovesexy band outside of Paisley Park Studios (from the 1988 Lovesexy concert souvenir program). Original Revolution member Matt Fink is there (3rd from left), as well as Sheila E. (2nd from left).
Bedazzled! has a recent fax sent by Sly Stone to the writer of a current Vanity Fair article about him. Based on the fax, it would appear that Sly Stone is as funky, intelligent, and bizarre as ever. The author of the Vanity Fair interview (David Kamp) points out that Stone is really the last of the "rock-era recluses":
Sly Stone is my favorite of the rock-era recluses, and, really, the only big one left. Syd Barrett, the architect of Pink Floyd's entrancingly loopy early sound, passed away last summer at the age of 60, having resisted all entreaties to explain himself or sing again. Brian Wilson, the fragile visionary behind the Beach Boys, has been gently coaxed out of his shell by his friends and acolytes, and now performs and schmoozes regularly. He doesn't count as a recluse anymore.
I suppose Phil Spector has also lost the title of "rock-era recluse," seeing as he is on CourtTV nearly every day now. And, the granddaddy of all recluses, J.D. Salinger, obviously doesn't fit the "rock-era" label. So there probably aren't any other rock musicians, who were as successful as Sly Stone (critically and commercially), who simply dropped out and disappeared.
Stone dropped out of sight around the mid-seventies, and his public appearances since have been rare, one being his participation in Sly and the Family Stone's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, another the 2006 Grammy Awards where he sported the blond mohawk. Prior to either of those, the only time Stone came out of his hole since the seventies was in 1986 when he participated in the recording and video of a song off of Jesse Johnson'sShockadelica album, called "Crazay."
The last new music he recorded for commercial release came out in 1986: a duet with Jesse Johnson, of the Minneapolis group the Time, on Johnson's solo single "Crazay"—an acceptable but undistinguished slice of period shoulder-pad funk. "I don't even know what that song was about, to this day," Stone says. "I just happened to go in the studio."
He looks good in the video, not yet walking in the hunched over manner he was at the 2006 Grammys (in the Vanity Fair interview, Stone claims: "I fell off a cliff," he says. "I was walking in my yard in Beverly Hills, missed my footing, and started doing flips. But you know what? I had a plate of food in my hand. And when I landed, I still had a plate of food in my hand. That's the God-lovin' truth. I did not drop a bean."). Here is that video, minus beans or hunched backs:
As most people probably already know, the artist formerly and currently known as Prince is doing the half time show at the Super Bowl. So this is as good of a time as any to remind people of the straight-up weirdness which is prevalent on his Around the World in a Day album from spring of 1985. Keep in mind that this was my favorite album for a couple of months after its release (my friends just thought it was weird; the very same friends who liked Purple Rain, "Little Red Corvette," etc.). Despite the odd nature, Around the World was considered a landmark album. But still batsh*t crazy. Having crossed over and become a huge mainstream musical act with the phenomenal success of Purple Rain a year earlier, this is the kind of stuff Prince decided he wanted his newfound, much bigger audience to hear!
EXHIBIT A: The quirkiness is announced right from the start with a meandering keyboard flute solo and a decidedly eastern beat -
EXHIBIT C: But none of this could even begin to compare with the deliberate weirdness of the last song on the album, "Temptation" (and this is just a little bit of it) -
That's Dave Chappelle material right there. I like that "shi-ka!!" so much, I made a separate mp3 just for the shi-ka!!.
The video for "Raspberry Beret":
2/8/07 UPDATE: I just noticed YouTube has yanked this video, I'm sure "by request" of someone associated with Prince Inc. Its enforcers no doubt scoured the video sharing website for days looking to find video of Prince's Super Bowl performance. If anyone had their Prince video tagged "Prince," it was no doubt flagged. This was not my video by the way.
The 1986 trailer made it look kind of exciting, possibly a worthy follow-up to Purple Rain.
And to think there was ever any "controversy" over his sexual orientation. And what's up with the flower petals, Jerome?
That scene does sort of call to mind another bathtub scene in a movie Purple Rain is often compared to, a film described as being the Citizen Kane of rock films:
Filmed in color, released in black and white, directed by Prince after original director Mary Lambert was fired, by Prince, before shooting due to "creative differences", Under the Cherry Moonisn't the greatest movie ever made. But it did produce a great soundtrack. I think Parade is the creative peak of Prince's experimental and psychedelic period (the phase I like the most). It has a real Magical Mystery Tour vibe going on, and that's good and bad--good music, bad (good lord!) movie. Oh, and for some strange reason, somebody made this quiz.
Ha ha, Prince was so "elusive" Rolling Stone had to settle for a still from the "Raspberry Beret" video on this September 1985 cover.
From the Wikipedia entry:
From the Wikipedia entry:
From the Wikipedia entry:
Prince recorded a remix in 1991 called "Glam Slam '91" that later was the basis of "Gett Off" from Diamonds and Pearls.
In late 1989 Prince opened a nightclub in Minneapolis named after the song. After eight years of frustration vis a vis its more established rival, First Avenue, he sold it to new owners
Prince with the Lovesexy band outside of Paisley Park Studios (from the 1988 Lovesexy concert souvenir program). Original Revolution member Matt Fink is there (3rd from left), as well as Sheila E. (2nd from left).
Stone dropped out of sight around the mid-seventies, and his public appearances since have been rare, one being his participation in Sly and the Family Stone's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, another the 2006 Grammy Awards where he sported the blond mohawk. Prior to either of those, the only time Stone came out of his hole since the seventies was in 1986 when he participated in the recording and video of a song off of Jesse Johnson's Shockadelica album, called "Crazay." 
As most people probably already know, the artist formerly and currently known as Prince is doing the half time show at the Super Bowl. So this is as good of a time as any to remind people of the straight-up weirdness which is prevalent on his Around the World in a Day album from spring of 1985. Keep in mind that this was my favorite album for a couple of months after its release (my friends just thought it was weird; the very same friends who liked Purple Rain, "Little Red Corvette," etc.). Despite the odd nature, Around the World was considered a landmark album. But still batsh*t crazy. Having crossed over and become a huge mainstream musical act with the phenomenal success of Purple Rain a year earlier, this is the kind of stuff Prince decided he wanted his newfound, much bigger audience to hear! 
"Anotherloverholenyohead" (1986) from Parade, the soundtrack to the film Under the Cherry Moon.
