1986: Christopher Tracy’s Parade
One of the traits I most enjoy about Prince’s music is his tendency to zig when the whole world is begging him to zag. “Purple Rain” was such a hit and made so much money that there was a brief moment when Prince didn’t have to go to Hollywood with his hat in his hand to get all the money he would need to make any movie he wanted as long as he promised to put his name above the title. Unfortunately for them, they assumed Prince would seek to replicate “Purple Rain” in as many ways as possible. After all, what else would he do? Surely he knew that’s what the public at large would be most likely to lay down their hard-earned to see, right?
Prince, never one to let an opportunity pass him by, instead did his best to put himself in a recreation, not of his prior work, but of the golden age of Hollywood by making a black and white romantic comedy that cribbed its plot from “Romeo & Juliet.” The film was called “Under the Cherry Moon” and it sucks. Do not watch it. The following summary is bad enough. No need to subject yourself to the real thing.
Don't See It. Don't Hear It. Don't Feel It. Don't Live It. Photo: Warner Bros.
The fundamental difference in perspective between Prince and Warner Bros. can probably best be summed up as follows: When “Purple Rain” exploded, the thoughts of Prince and Warner quickly turned to his next film. Warner Bros. thought “What can we do to make this happen again?” and Prince thought “What else can I do?” In any case, both were keen to move forward to make another film as quickly as possible. Prince hired a completely inexperienced screenwriter to write a romantic film with a vibe reminiscent of Rudolph Valentino films. When seeking a director, they went for another filmmaker most known at the time for her music videos, Mary Lambert. Oh, and Prince wanted to shoot it in black and white. Even though all three of these choices were suspect, Warner went along with all of them after minimal fuss. They shot the film in color, probably because the stock was cheaper, with the understanding that the film would be printed and shown in black and white.
Casting For The Squares
Several actors were considered for the female lead. Prince wanted Madonna at first, and when she passed his then-fiancée Suzannah Melvoin read for the part. It is difficult to imagine how terrible her audition must have been for Prince to decide to look elsewhere. This is the man who hired Apollonia, after all. In the end a very young Kristin Scott Thomas got the part. Yes, that Kristin Scott Thomas. It was her first film. If this makes you more curious about seeing the film, for your own well-being I beg you to squash that impulse.
She has suddenly realized she's in "Under The Cherry Moon." Photo: Warner Bros.
In every Hollywood production, one must have what is called “Name Talent.” There are lots of reasons for this, but they all boil down to marketing. In the 80’s, when you had a film that might be too aligned with what was then called “the MTV Generation,” Name Talent was a nice way to make people who would normally be turned off by such frivolity take your film seriously. In cases such as these, the impulse was usually to cast Name Talent in a supporting role, usually that of a parent. A variation on this caused Warner Bros to pay far too much money to get Marlon Brando to play Jor-El, Superman’s biological father. In this same spirit, Terence Stamp was cast as Kristin Scott Thomas’ father, who would be the primary antagonist. Yes, that Terence Stamp. Don’t bother wondering how he got into the film, because a few weeks into shooting he dropped out on the film. (more on that later)
Terence "Kneel Before Zod" Stamp, in a film he was willing to be in. Also an outfit he was willing to be in. Photo: Warner Bros.
The Show Will Proceed, Unless It Should Rain
Shooting commenced in France in September of 1985, and within a few weeks, Mary Lambert was off the film. It’s hard to say for sure if she quit because Prince was too difficult to work with or if Prince fired her. Lambert insists she left the film, but the remark “Prince doesn’t need anybody to direct him,” speaks volumes. In any case, Prince decided to direct the film himself. So that’s fine.
Maybe Prince didn’t need anyone to direct him, but Terence Stamp seems to have disagreed. He dropped out at about the same time, saying that this was not the role he had signed up for. He was replaced by Steven Berkoff. Yes, that Steven Berkoff. Yup. The one from “Octopussy.” That year was apparently Berkoff’s year to play supporting roles in pop stars’ ill-conceived cinematic travesties. He was also in “Absolute Beginners” with David Bowie in 1986.
Berkoff in "Octopussy." Photo: Eon Productions
The ”Plot” Such As It Is
Prince is a guy named Christopher Tracy, a gigolo on the French Riviera who scams middle aged rich ladies until he gets caught by their husbands. Then, at a party he meets fabulously wealthy heiress Mary Sharon (I don’t know, this is a strange world where everyone has feminine surnames. Whatever.) and falls in actual love with her as opposed to the fake love he falls in with the older women.
ACTING! Photo: Warner Bros.
Her father discovers this and (not without cause) forbids the banns. There is some sneaking around, a couple of ham-fisted comic moments (Christopher accidentally climbs in Mary’s mom’s window instead of Mary’s. Attempted hilarity ensues), and things escalate to the point where the lovers are going to run away on a speed boat in the middle of the night, but they are caught and Christopher is shot and killed in the process. Credits roll.
Again, the management of this blog cannot be held responsible if you should foolishly decide to actually watch this absolute steaming pile of a film. It very much looks like a movie made by someone who has never made a movie before but is absolutely confident they know what they’re doing. It won five (5) Golden Raspberries. Worst Actor (Prince), Worst Supporting Actor (Jerome Benton), Worst Original Song (Love or Money – this is the one I might dispute), Worst Director (Prince) and the film had to share Worst Picture with “Howard The Duck.”
The budget was around $12 million. It made just over $10 million. There have been attempts to re-asses “Under The Cherry Moon” in recent years, with a few even saying it’s merely a misunderstood film as opposed to a bad film.
They are wrong.
And Now, the Good Stuff
I can think of no film with a greater gulf between the quality of a movie and its soundtrack. I think Prince had some inkling of this, which is why the soundtrack does not share the title of the movie. “Parade” is almost as good as the movie is bad.
Prince was in the process of incorporating jazz and more symphonic sounds into his work. This meant horns and strings, which would become cornerstones of his style from now on. This altered the chemistry of the band, which would have ramifications on tour. Clare Fisher was recruited to provide strings for this album, and he would continue to be Prince’s collaborator for these instruments for the rest of Prince’s career. With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that Prince was becoming restless.
Tracklist
1. Christopher Tracy’s Parade
This is an early example of Prince’s shifting focus. Originally this song was called “Wendy’s Parade.” It was recorded in April 1985 (before the release of “Around the World in a Day”) at Sunset Sound. Sometime later when it was re-jigged for the film, it became named after Prince’s character rather than his friend and band member. The arrangement is perfect for an album opener. It’s loud and spacious with Clare Fisher’s strings giving an appropriately cinematic feel to it.
It's still a perfectly serviceable song, but there is a snag. The original lyrics read:
Everyone should come and dig Little Girl Wendy’s guitar The chord strikes The devil no like So he runs to his evil car
After revision, the lyrics were changed to:
Everyone should come and dig Christopher Tracy's piano The chord strikes The devil no like So he runs to his evil car
The lyrics were not the absolute best Prince ever produced to begin with, but at least they rhymed.
2. New Position
“Chistopher Tracy’s Parade” segues into this song which had been hanging around since 1982 or so. Apparently, Clare Fisher did a string arrangement for this track as well, but Prince decided not to use it, which was probably a wise choice. There is a lot going on in this song, a bouncing, up-tempo dance tune with a nearly intrusive steel drum thrown in just for fun. Wendy and Lisa are on backing vox, but otherwise the whole thing is done by Prince.
3. I Wonder U
I can completely understand why this was never released as a single, but it is a great piece of music nonetheless. Wendy sings lead on this, which is highly unusual, but more than welcome. Fisher’s strings and flutes fly in and out throughout the track, giving an appropriate amount of French Riviera flavor. Wendy’s sultry “speakeasy chanteuse“ delivery gives the track a very cool atmosphere.
4. Under The Cherry Moon
Don’t worry, the song’s better than the movie. Like so much of the album, there is an attempt to capture the melodrama of pre-War Paris as depicted by Old Hollywood. So yes, the piano is hammered with all the feeling Prince can muster, the romantic sentiment is tinged with the spectre of doom. It’s also quite a good ballad, and there is the wink of self-awareness that you sometimes don’t get in Prince’s ballads.
Here's a fun fact I learned while researching this album. The basic tracking for the first four songs on this album were all done on the same day. The drum tracks were played by Prince, all in one continuous take. In other words he played the drums as you hear them, segues, tempo and meter changes and all, in a single take. After that, the single long recording was divided up and the individual pieces built into their final forms.
5. Girls & Boys
“Girls & Boys” was a successful single, but it’s been strangely overlooked on most compilations. For example, on “The Hits,” a track from “Sign O The Times” called “Adore” was included, even though it was never released as a single, yet “Girls & Boys” was absent.
Here we are, five tracks in on an album credited to “Prince and the Revolution,” and this is the first track where the band plays. Again, we see a song that points to the future more than the present, in terms of instrumentation and arrangement. The Revolution certainly does their bit, but I have to admit I was surprised when I looked up personnel information for this track and found the whole band playing. Sheila E. and Suzannah Melvoin are both here on backing vox and Eric Leeds is on sax. Even when the band is all here, Prince still feels the need to tack on a few extra bits to keep his interest up.
The song itself has the lovely eccentricity that is Prince’s trademark, with an excellent counterpoint between the keyboards and lead guitar. It was one of the songs Prince played live regularly, especially at aftershows, when he could let the song go on for a while, experiment a bit and get the crowd chanting along with the song.
6. Life Can Be So Nice
And here we are back in the land of Prince as a one man band. Lisa and Wendy sing in the background, and Sheila E. is shamefully relegated to adding More Cowbell.
I happen to like this song. So much so that once on a college road trip I put it in my friend’s CD player. (hey, Jenn!) Yes, she had a CD player. We ALL had them back in the Bronze Age. Anyway. The song sounds like it has been put in a washing machine and is having a wonderful ride. Your milage (like Jenn’s) may vary. As the song wound itself up and up and up and finally became a swirling cacophony of nonsense, she ejected the CD and said, “Now that’s just noise.”
I was disheartened, but it was hard to argue with her point.
7. Venus De Milo
This is the first instrumental ever released by Prince under his own name. This composition had apparently been around for some time, but this version is a complete re-recording. Sheila E is on drums, and her light touch serves the music very well. Essentially, what we have here is a music cue from the film. Clare Fisher’s orchestral arrangement give it a real cinematic feel. To be honest, it sounds like nothing so much as a piece of music that would play under the scenic montage following the love scene in one of Roger Moore’s Bond films.
8. Mountains
This song rules.
Like the other single already talked about, “Mountains” is a full band performance. The Revolution definitely delivers the goods on this one. Lisa and Wendy apparently created an early version of this song, but on the album Prince has the sole writing credit. Bad form, Prince.
If you’ve never heard this song, please give it a try. It’s one of those songs that seems like it’s obscure, or some kind of deep cut, but it really shouldn’t be. To me it sounds like a #1 Summer Jam. There is a nine minute extended version, and it is in regular rotation on any playlist that needs to give me some energy.
This is the only song that features an extended version of The Revolution, which included Eric Leeds on various horns, Atlanta Bliss on trumpet and Miko Weaver on rhythm guitar. This would be Prince’s band for the Parade Tour.
9. Do U Lie?
If there was ever a song that was meant to be played over a scene of young lovers strolling past an outdoor Parisian café in springtime, it is this song. I’m not sure how many of Prince’s hundreds of songs have an accordion, but this is the first.
10. Kiss
This is, obviously the big hit of the album. It sounds unlike any other song on the album, and there is a very good reason for that. Prince originally recorded it as an acoustic-blues number for a band called Mazarati, who were connected with his bassist and signed to Paisley Park Records. Prince came back the next day and the band had somehow transformed the song into an up-tempo funk number. Prince immediately took the song back. And the backing tracks, thank you very much. He then re-recorded the track (including the signature back masked drums), while retaining Mazarati’s backing vox.
Prince played it live for the rest of his career, but never with anything approaching this arrangement. All of Prince’s songs were subject to new arrangements over the years, but more than any other, “Kiss” was always played with very different instrumentation. Like “Mountains” there is an extended version, and it is well worth your time to track down even if it is a bit meandering.
11. Anotherloverholenyohead
Another forgotten single, this one is probably less essential than the others from this album. It has a slick off-beat bass line and any song where the whole band plays is welcome, but ultimately, it’s a little too much like other songs in the discography to stand out as much as it should. There is an extended version, but it is mostly a showcase for Atlanta Bliss and the arrangement of the song used on the Parade tour.
12. Sometimes It Snows In April
One of Prince’s finest ballads, bar none. There is a version during the credits of the film that features an orchestral arrangement, but this far superior version is just Prince with Lisa & Wendy. I can’t help feeling like this song should have been better known before it’s author happened to die in April.
B-Sides
Alexa De Paris
“Alexa De Paris” is an instrumental jazz track with a guitar solo that has more of a rock tone than one might expect. It serves as a kind of companion to “Venus De Milo” and is superior to it.
Love Or Money
It has, like so many of Prince’s B-Sides, an experimental sounding arrangement with an eccentric keyboard hook. The extended version improves on the 7 inch edit, if only because it allows the band (such as they were on that day) a chance to spread out and jam a bit.
It’s unknown how much of the Revolution played on this track. Lisa & Wendy definitely played on this. The rest of them are credited, but it’s hard to know if they actually played. In any case, while this song may not have much to say and the lyrics, like the title, may be mostly cliches, I still doubt that it deserved the Golden Raspberry for Worst Original Song.
Honestly, is it worse than “Loving On Borrowed Time (Theme From “Cobra”)?
And if you have the audacity to claim it’s worse than “Man Size Love” by (shudder) Klymaxx, then I shall have to demand satisfaction. Pistols at dawn, thou blackguard!
The Last Revolution
The Parade Tour was preceded by a run of shows in a few U.S. cities. The shows were announced as close to the date of the show as possible, usually a few days, sometimes less. Prince called it the “Hit N Run” tour, but it wasn’t a proper tour as much as public dress rehearsals for the Parade tour.
Since the “Purple Rain” tour did not tour Europe, Prince took the (much shorter) Parade tour to Europe and Asia exclusively. As I hinted at before, the classic Prince and the Revolution lineup was expanded for the tour. First, Jerome Benton, Wally Stafford and Greg Brooks danced and sang backup, which might not have caused problems. Having Eric Leeds on sax and flute and Atlanta Bliss on trumpet would be basically understandable but when Miko Weaver came in to play rhythm guitar – the spot usually occupied by Wendy – the Revolution knew something was up.
Notice how the Revolution is mostly behind or off to the side?
The tension between Prince and the Revolution increased as the tour went on. The band came to refer to the expanded lineup as the “Counter-Revolution,” which is not a bad description. The Revolution had a particular sound, and the expanded lineup altered the chemistry of the band considerably. When confronted with this, Prince became more and more standoffish.
Eventually, the Revolution began to feel undervalued, both literally and figuratively. The feeling among the band was more collegial and familial than anything else. Some of them had been playing in Prince’s band since his career began. Almost all of them had been playing together for their entire professional careers, and they had always worked with Prince as if they were equals in a band. Prince increasingly treated them as employees, and this extended to their salary. For being in a top-tier band, they were not making top-tier money. Add to this Prince’s treatment of them and the absolutely all-consuming hours required of them, they made the very sensible decision to ask for a modest raise.
This did not go over well.
The Parade Tour ended on September 9, 1986, and so, effectively, did the Revolution. Prince disbanded them soon after. Usually fans (and even members of the Revolution) make excuses for Prince’s behavior here. Perhaps, they say, he “just needed to go be Prince.” Maybe, as he told Lisa & Wendy, they “couldn’t go where he was going.” Maybe he was just pissed off that they tried to bring money into the equation?
I am inclined to doubt these flimsy motivations. I think what it boils down to is this. “Prince and the Revolution” was becoming a band in the way the Rolling Stones are a band. In other words, there is some element of democracy at work when artistic choices are made. Everyone gets a voice, everyone contributes as they see fit. “Prince and the Revolution” was increasingly becoming this kind of band.
Prince did not want to be in a band. He wanted to lead a band. In fact, he wanted the band to be employees first, friends and collaborators second. Let’s be honest: he was never going to get that from The Revolution. They were a great band, which is a beautiful thing. But it was not the beautiful thing he wanted, so he fired them. Simple as that.
In spite of the crappy way he went about it, the decision was best for Prince’s work. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and 1987 is an extravagant feast. There is so much material released in 1987 (and in one case, recorded and withdrawn) that the next four weeks (!) will all deal with 1987. All the most satisfying and innovative years of Prince’s career come after 1986. Of course, most of the worst also come during that time, but still.
NEXT WEEK: It’s a Madhouse!
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