1985 Part 1: Around The World In A Day
As I said in the last entry, it’s hard to convey exactly how much Prince was up to in 1983 – 1985. It would take me hours and hours to compile a list of every piece of music he released during those two years. To an extent, though, I’m not sure that is what is really important. The volume of work is impressive, but the breadth of material, especially in the stylistic sense, and the pace with which the style could change, is far more interesting to me.
The songs that ended up on “ATWIAD” were recorded between January 20th and Christmas Eve 1984. Months before “Purple Rain” was released, Prince was already well into the process of creating what people would inevitably regard as “the follow-up to ‘Purple Rain’.” The stylistic left turn took some critics by surprise. Was this Prince trying to channel John Lennon (which in 1985 was synonymous with channeling The Beatles)? Was he being deliberately psychedelic? Had his hermetically-sealed existence finally gone to his head?
Colorful People Whose Hair On One Side Is Swept Back
In retrospect, all of these ideas strike me as silly. For one thing, I don’t believe the “stylistic left turn” actually took place at this time. The bubbly rhythms and sweeping string arrangements were already present in his work on “Purple Rain.” The title track itself has an emotive string section overdub. “Take Me With U” could have even come from “ATWIAD.” I think what we’re really dealing with is an early example of Prince’s musical explorations outpacing his ability to release albums with the kind of distinct stylistic borders that critics (and, to an extent, the audience) were used to seeing.
Secondly, this album also has the credit listing as “Prince and the Revolution” finally meaning something substantial. More than any album thus far, “ATWIAD” is a group effort. The band was finally cohesive enough and familiar enough for Prince to feel comfortable allowing the band to contribute. The surprises provided by his collaborators were not always properly valued by Prince, but this album is an early example of those contributions helping him achieve the goal he stated in DMSR to “try my best to never get bored.”
In Celebration Of Wendy & Lisa
Yes, I’ve already talked about Lisa as an individual, and in my entry for “Parade” I will extol Wendy’s virtues, but it is also worth considering their value as a duo – not as musicians, but as producers, composers, arrangers and mixers. In many ways, Wendy & Lisa were Prince’s first truly trusted collaborators. For a person who so desperately clung to control over his work, to be able to assemble a song in Minneapolis and then ship it to Los Angeles for Lisa & Wendy to work on it however they felt appropriate and then send it back is almost out of character. So why these two?
Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin don’t just come from well-known musical families. For those in the know, they come from absolutely legendary families.
Wendy’s father, Mike Melvoin, was one of the greatest studio pianists of all time. His list of credits is way too long to list here, but I will say he played on “Pet Sounds” and also composed music for “MacGyver” and that should give you some idea of the scope of his work. Lisa’s father Gary is similarly accomplished, with credits playing for the Etta James, Quincy Jones and Dweezil Zappa among many, many others.
Above: What people imagine W & L's life to be.
Wendy and Lisa had more classical training under their belt than Prince, and they had a musical taste that was very different from Prince’s. When I say this, I don’t mean necessarily that they had a better or broader taste, but unlike most people Prince had worked with up to that point, they could turn Prince on to music he had never heard of before. This showed Prince’s output starting in “Purple Rain” with the string arrangements, and different rhythmic approaches in “When Doves Cry” and “Take Me With U,” but their influence really came to the fore with “ATWIAD.”
Above: What their life was probably like. Which, if you think about it, is a far more fun way to live.
Their stamp on the production of their music with Prince also altered the direction of Prince’s career in ways that could be felt all the way to Prince’s passing. I can think of only one other person (Morris Hayes, who first comes on to the scene in the early 90’s) who was ever just handed some tapes and told to do whatever they felt was right with it, and then hand it back when they were ready. The level of trust was highly unusual for Prince and I sometimes wonder if that level of trust finally spooked him. Maybe that was a factor in his disbanding the Revolution. There doesn’t seem to be any direct evidence of this, so I would take it with a grain of salt, but it does make me wonder.
In any case, their partnership continued after their time with Prince, and all their work is well worth checking out. Plus, here are two people whose musical partnership survived the disintegration of their romantic partnership. That's amazing. Of all of Prince's former band members, these are the two I'd love to invite to dinner.
What’s The Use In Half A Story?
I’ve seen attempts at re-appraisals of “ATWIAD,” but for the most part it seems to retain the status of “also-ran” at best and “half-baked and rushed” at worst. Probably it's best to think of it is as “transitional” – in the best sense of the word. Prince had settled into a genuine creative groove of a sort with the Revolution, and was seeking to expand on that. Also, by the time work began on the album, Prince seemed to be aware that “Purple Rain” was going to be a major hit. Perhaps he didn’t anticipate exactly how big of a hit it would be, but he knew it would be big, even bigger than “1999.”
There is also the issue of his future work. There is a reason he released so few compilations during his lifetime, and the only remaster he ever got around to was the remaster of “Purple Rain” the year before he died. He really did not look back very often. That meant preserving his career’s ability to take strange and unexpected paths and the need to lay the groundwork for the next project, whatever the thought that would be. In that sense, “ATWIAD” fits right in with “Controversy,” “Diamonds and Pearls,” “Planet Earth” and, I would argue, “Batman” as albums that functioned as experimental works intended to bridge gaps and indicate paths to the future.
Finally, Prince was the kind of artist who could feel boredom coming like a thunderstorm in the distance. I believe (and again – without direct evidence) that the success of “Purple Rain” and the accompanying tour, on which he felt obligated to play the whole album every night, accelerated that feeling to a great extent. Nevertheless, “ATWIAD” turned out quite well. In fact, I think it is probably the very best of Prince’s “transitional” albums.
Tracklist
1. Around The World In A Day
The title track came about through an unusual process for Prince. It started as a song recorded by Lisa Coleman’s brother David. Prince’s birthday gift to David was two days of studio time at Sunset Sound. Like Prince, David played a large variety of instruments, but David had a classical background with formal training that meant David had a ton of instruments in his back pocket that Prince had never used before. Prince heard this song and loved it, leading to Prince recording his own version some months later.
Prince did make some musical and lyrical changes (including, I suspect, a very Prince-y bridge section), and on his final version, he brought in David, Lisa, Wendy and Wendy’s twin Suzannah (who was Prince’s girlfriend at the time) and their older brother Johnathan. The elder Melvoin, a keyboardist and drummer, was sadly relegated to tambourine, while David, as on his original recording played the cello, oud, darbuka and finger cymbals.
I’m 99% sure this is the first appearance of finger cymbals on a Prince recording. Prince obviously heard something he liked, because finger cymbals positively infest the whole album. It’s like Prince became a small child in a day care playroom: he sees a thing that makes a noise, runs to grab the thing up with the kind of avarice that is only cute in children, and proceeds to bang the adored object as hard as possible, making the noise over…and over…and over. He never fell out of love with finger cymbals. They appear somewhere on almost every Prince album from here on. David Coleman has a lot to answer for in this regard.
2. Paisley Park
It would not have been a surprise if this had been the title track. It is definitely one of his naïve utopia songs, and it is more successful in this than “Uptown,” even if it does have a healthy dollop of whimsy thrown into the mix. It also seems that Prince was willing to stick by the sentiment expressed here. After all, he did name his custom-built recording facility and his vanity label after it.
The song itself is one that, until the last few years, was overlooked, except among the most rabid fans (yes, yes, mea culpa). According to princevault, he did actually play the song live far more than I had thought. Apparently, he would often pop this song into his solo piano sets in shows all through the 2000’s.
There is a longer version on 12 inch singles that features a lot more of Prince’s guitar solo and far more…finger cymbals. I prefer it to the album version, but the average person probably would not. Oh well, it doesn’t seem to be available on any streaming service, so there’s nothing to worry about.
3. Condition of the Heart
This is maybe the most melodramatic song in the discography. It is an impossibly over the top song about love and loss. But boy, does he lay it on thick. Here’s some lyrical excerpts:
"There was a dame from London Who insisted that he love her Then left him 4 a real prince From Arabia..."
"There was a woman from the ghetto Who made funny faces just like Clara Bow, how was I 2 know That she would wear the same Cologne as U and giggle the same Giggle that U do?"
I mean…come on, right? Sadly, it’s also catchy in a very “Freddy Mercury gets drunk and weepy at Liberace’s house” kind of way. Clara Bow, indeed. Sheesh.
4 Raspberry Beret
This is probably the most well-known single from the album, and with good reason. Lisa & Wendy’s string arrangement not only propels the song well, but also gives the song the whimsical atmosphere that runs through the rest of the album. The song was originally recorded in 1982 during sessions for “1999” but the released version is a complete re-recording made in 1984.
Again, there is an extended version which is basically a less ruthless edit of the original recording, and it features far more finger cymbals, and on the whole I find it less satisfying than the extended version of “Paisley Park.” The end of the track sounds like Prince and / or Lisa & Wendy are just running around the studio, picking up any instrument they can find (harmonica, penny whistle, whatever) and playing it for a few seconds before making a high-pitched animal sound and moving on.
5 Tamborine
The closest thing to album filler that exists on the album. It has a synth bass that sounds more like Art of Noise or Michael Jackson’s work with Quincy Jones than a Prince song. It’s also a solo recording by Prince, which is unusual for “ATWIAD.” There’s not much more to say, except that the “sexual partner as musical instrument” nonsense is better left to bands like Van Halen.
6 America
This is probably my favorite song off the album. It’s a full band performance, and it’s nearly live-in-studio. Also, it’s a political song, which I admittedly have a soft spot for. It was released as a single, but especially in the middle of Reagan’s administration, it’s not surprising if it didn’t get any traction.
As with the other singles, there is an extended version available on 12 inch singles, and it is a whopper. Essentially, it is the same master as on the album, but it is almost completely unedited, apart from a few overdubs and a fade on the end. It’s twenty-three minutes long, and if you like to hear Prince and the Revolution work out forever on a song, it’s fantastic. Otherwise, you’re probably best to keep moving. Fun fact: The performance was, in fact, longer, but the recording machine ran out of tape, so the fade out had to be made at that point.
7 Pop Life
I love this song. It’s the second song on “The Hits / The B-Sides” and it is extremely well-placed. When I was first getting into Prince, I got “The Gold Experience” and then grabbed “The Hits” just to see if there was anything else I might like. Going from “When Doves Cry” straight into “Pop Life” is an inspired choice. Going from the sparse atmosphere of “When Doves Cry” into the lush, swirling confection of strings at the beginning of “Pop Life” left me quite certain I was on to something with this artist.
There are many versions of the song out there and Prince kept the song rotating through his set for much of the rest of his career. There are two extended versions. The first is a “fresh dance mix” put together by Sheila E that is also available on “Ultimate” and is well worth a listen, but the extended version that has never made it past the original 12 inch singles is nine minutes long, and like “America” is essentially the master recording with a lighter touch applied, and I consider it to be the superior of the two.
8 The Ladder
The album’s last true ballad is co-written by John L. Nelson, Prince’s father, and has strings composed and conducted by Lisa & Wendy. It is clearly intended to express the same sentiments and perform the same function as “Purple Rain” which is unfortunate, because there is no possible way it was ever going to get into any live set that also had “Purple Rain” in it. It did sneak in occasionally, in solo piano sets, but let’s be honest, he should have laid off the hands-in-the-air power ballads for at least a few years.
9 Temptation
I’m not a fan. Let’s just say that up front. In my opinion, this song is eight and a half minutes of ill-advised self-indulgence. It’s also a waste of a wonderfully sleazy hook. This is a song that seems to have developed out of a long-winded bit in “Purple Rain” tour piano sets, which my partner saw on the “Prince and the Revolution: LIVE” blu ray and spent the whole time cringing. And quite right, too.
B-Sides
Hello
“Hello” was the B-Side to “Pop Life” and is probably the best choice for a song to go to a B-Side instead of any album track. At some point, the press became inevitably invasive to Prince’s nearly reclusive existence. First there was the absence of Prince among the gaggle of famous singers (and others) singing “We Are The World.” For whatever reason, when asked, Prince declined. It was Michael Jackson’s show, which probably had some bearing on the refusal to participate, but then again, there’s also the fact that Prince was not a joiner. For whatever reason, he wasn’t going to stand between Huey Lewis and Dionne Warwick and croon a Michael Jackson (and Lionel Richie) song. Instead, he contributed a song to the album (4 The Tears In Your Eyes), which was fine with everyone, until the incident below occurred, at which point it became a major point of controversy. Does Prince approve of hungry children in Africa?
Then there was the time a paparazzo tried to follow Prince and his girlfriend into Prince’s limo. Prince’s bodyguard, an enormous man named Chick Huntsberry forcefully ejected the intruder, which was basically a signal for all the tabloids to pile on Prince.
Both of these incidents inspired “Hello.” It’s a catchy song, but it sort of has a built-in expiration date as a relevant piece of music, and that moment is long past.
Girl
This was a kind of experimental track. It has a kind of sexy yet playful hook, but it’s otherwise a pretty bog standard Prince ballad, except for how weird much of the backing track sounds. This song started out as a song called “Boy” and was intended for Vanity 6. Prince took it, revised the lyrics several years later and called it “Girl” instead. Meanwhile, though, the entire original track, with Vanity singing “Boy” is present and complete in back-masked form on the released track. So it sounds weird because Prince is singing over a backwards version of the song.
She’s Always In My Hair
This is one of those “this would be a hit for anyone else” songs. It’s a fantastic song, has some weird effects on the guitars that make it stand out, and interesting lyrics. It wasn’t regularly played live until the early 90’s but from then until the end of his life, “She’s Always in My Hair” was regularly played live, where I can say from personal experience, it brought the house down.
And that’s about it for this moment in Prince’s career. I can’t talk about the tour because there wasn’t any tour. No time for that, Prince was already thinking about knocking out some side projects in time to start work on his next film.
NEXT WEEK:
The torrent of associated artist albums begins to slow, as Prince gears up for the end of this phase of his career.
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