1996 Part 1: From “For You” To “Had U”
After years of bitter stalemate, Warner Bros. Records was finally ready to blink. Prince had two albums left on his contract, and WB was willing to cut a deal with him that would release him from his contract. He would turn in two albums of original material at once: one for immediate release, and another for release in the future, at a time of WB’s choosing. Additionally, WB would get rights to release two more greatest hits albums in the future, again whenever they wanted. This was essentially the deal that Prince offered them years ago, but at this point it probably seemed impolitic to mention it, lest the deal get withdrawn.
Prince took the deal, but with some haggling. He insisted he have final say on packaging for all the albums, including the greatest hits records. In the end, he got final say on the original albums, but had to take his lumps on the compilations. It doesn’t seem like he wanted to argue too much, though. Maybe it was just force of habit.
When Spike Lee called Prince up and asked for help putting together music for an upcoming film, Prince put preparations for his album to one side and put together the Girl 6 Original Soundtrack. It says something about his respect for Spike Lee that Prince allowed himself to be sidetracked by a soundtrack project (for Warner Bros. Records, no less!) when he was so close to the finish line with his contractual obligations.
Girl 6
Prince and Spike Lee had been acquainted for several years. They had met in 1990, during shooting for “Graffiti Bridge,” and Lee had mentioned wanting to use Prince’s music as a centerpiece for one of his films. Prince was interested, provided he got to choose the music. I cannot imagine how this could have been anything but awkward timing for Prince, but he came through nevertheless.
The film has not aged well. To be honest, it’s not among Spike Lee’s best. The long and short of the plot is that an actress goes to an audition for a Quentin Tarantino film, and Tarantino asks her to strip for the role. She doesn’t, and ends up losing her agent, acting teacher and boyfriend as a result. She can’t make rent, so she becomes a phone sex operator. I don’t know, I didn't write it. Anyway, some stuff happens, she moves from New York to Los Angeles and at the end she goes to another audition, is asked to strip again, refuses again, and is less traumatized. And it’s supposed to be a comedy. It says something that a film by such an important filmmaker has never been released on Blu Ray.
Like The Track Beneath A Subway Train
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the Girl 6 OST because only two tracks are unreleased elsewhere. However, in the liner notes, Spike Lee mentions Prince mentions Prince making a “sacrifice” to make the project happen, and that does merit some space here. For one thing, the NPG track “Count the Days” makes an appearance here, and to have one of Prince’s fully independent tracks make an appearance on a WB album does come as something of a surprise.
Apart from that, what you get on the Girl 6 OST is pretty much what you’d expect. “Nasty Girl” makes an appearance, but you also get the much more welcome “Pink Cashmere,” full-length “Adore” and “The Screams of Passion.” One track that was previously unreleased when it appeared here is called “She Spoke 2 Me” but it is more relevant to talk about that in a few weeks when it appears on a later album. That leaves us with only two tracks to talk about.
Don’t Talk 2 Strangers
This song was written in 1992 while Prince was on tour promoting Diamonds and Pearls in Australia. In fact, this song was written for a completely different film. Prince had become involved in the production of a film called “I’ll Do Anything” by James L. Brooks. Brooks wanted to produce something like an Old Hollywood movie musical and wanted to have Prince write the songs for it. The whole thing was produced as a musical, in fact, with the actors (Nick Nolte, Tracy Ullman and others) singing their parts and production numbers filmed.
Then the film went to test screenings, and the audiences hated it. Absolutely detested, loathed and abominated the film. The studio panicked, and ordered Brooks to take the film and un-musical it. So the film exists, you can find it, but no Prince music is in it. Meanwhile, many songs intended for the film made it into the world as part of Prince’s exit from WB, this being the first example. It’s a lovely little ballad with a simple melody. Somewhere in the vault is a version with Tracy Ullman singing it.
Girl 6
This is one of the more forgettable tracks in Prince’s catalog. It’s intended to play over the credits of the film. Tommy Barbarella composed it, Prince wrote the lyrics, Kirk Johnson is credited for drum programming and Nona Gaye guested on background vocals. Actress Theresa Randle is sampled as well. There’s nothing particularly wrong with it, if anything it shows Tommy’s skills were never fully utilized in the NPG. Then again, nobody’s composition or arranging skills were particularly needed in Prince’s bands.
Also of note – and I cannot believe I am having to write this about this song – “Girl 6” has been the subject of an ongoing lawsuit since 2007. Apparently, the manager of a band called GOMAB claims that he gave a demo tape to Spike Lee’s uncle in 1994 that contained a track called “Phone-Sex.” Spike Lee’s uncle then (according to the lawsuit) passed this to (I guess?) Spike Lee, then maybe Prince or possibly straight to Tommy, who then proceeded to plagiarize the song to create the track “Girl 6.” For the plaintiff’s sake I hope this is all true and there is an ironclad trail of evidence including signed confessions, because otherwise there is no way this could possibly be worth the effort of sixteen years and counting in the Florida court system.
I’d Dig U Better Dead
Chaos and Disorder is not an album about a happy person expressing their deepest Buddha consciousness. I’ve never heard it talked about this way, but it sounds like nothing so much as Prince making an album of demos for some other, much heavier artist. Here’s an unpopular opinion: with the exceptions of “The Same December” and possibly “I Will,” this album would be far better if it had been handed over to Iggy Pop to record.
Saying that makes the album sound like garbage, and a lot of Prince fans do consider it to be bottom-tier material. It’s certainly not the purest expression of Prince’s genius, but at this point in his life, there is no way he can create forty minutes of music without high points. Besides, if you’ve ever wondered what Prince would sound like if he made a garage rock album, wonder no longer. Plus Chaos and Disorder has an interesting place in the overall context of Prince’s catalog in terms of the prevailing criticisms of his albums that is worth taking note of before moving on. Finally, even if this album were as bad as its harshest critics claim, we simply have to stop and examine Prince’s final double deuce to Warner Bros. before moving on to the uncharted waters of the independent recording artist.
There Ain’t No Winners In This Game
“Someone told me that Van Halen did their first record in a week. That’s what we were going for—spontaneity, seeing how fast and hard we could thrash it out. It was done very quickly, and we achieved what we wanted to achieve in that period of time."
-Prince in the LA Times July 14, 1996
I first read the above quote some time right around 1999-2000 or so, and it has always amused me, because even then I knew Prince could not have had a straight face when he told such a complete lie. For one thing, the title track has a killer guitar riff that originated as a tacked-on coda Prince and the NPG would use at the end of “Peach” to jam on as early as 1993.
The most true thing he said there was the repeated use of first person plural pronouns. Chaos and Disorder, unlike many Prince albums, is very much a collective effort, and features the full NPG plus guests on almost all of its tracks. The music on the album, however, was recorded over a period of three years, as opposed to the music on Van Halen’s first album which was recorded over three weeks.
He probably thought he could get away with that lie because the songs, arrangements and production to have a slapdash, punk rock, intentionally crappy quality that does feel like the album was recorded either hastily or without much regard for the final product. Or at least it sounds that way on the first listen. The problem is, Prince was a very skilled producer, especially of his own compositions, and when he wanted a song to sound hastily produced, his production tricks would be audible to people who know what to look for. So, yes, he can sloppily synch the backing vocals to the leads, but I can still hear the perfect synchs in the cuts and punch ins that he covered with cymbal crashes. It’s not as sloppy as he wants us to think.
Maybe this is all in service to giving the finger to WB or maybe Prince thought these sorts of songs genuinely sounded better if they were roughed up a bit. It’s impossible to say because even if Prince were still with us he wouldn’t give us a straight answer . The one thing you can say for the production values is that it does not possess the sterile production Prince’s albums would get burned for during the rest of the decade. Starting with Emancipation, there will be a lot of critical noise that Prince’s albums are so over-produced their sound verges on antiseptic. That’s one thing Chaos and Disorder does not suffer from. If anything, critics seemed fearful contact with the record might give them lockjaw.
U Only Love When Your Soul Remembers
When a celebrity dies, the public, and especially the media, tend to suffer a sudden and total case of amnesia when it comes to that one solid decade where they used that celebrity as a receptacle for every cheap shot they might have wanted to deliver to sound edgy. That decade is now lauded as a moment of supreme bravery or visionary defiance, but some of us remember. I was there, for example, and remember the reviews for Chaos and Disorder. They often had little to do with the content of the album. For example, here’s a chunk of Ernest Hardy’s review from “Rolling Stone”:
“His ongoing war of protest and whining against his record label is also reflected in the photos adorning the pages of the 'Chaos and Disorder' booklet: a syringe with a dollar bill rolled up inside, a toilet with a heart floating in the water, and the master-tape vault inside Paisley Park Studios, framed by gold records. Before you hear a single note, you’re prepped for a halfhearted transaction from a self-pitying celebrity.
The whole album — its vibe, purpose and effect — is summarized in the self-aggrandizing 'I Rock, Therefore I Am.' Elements from the proverbial kitchen sink — blaring horns, funky, stuttering drums, police sirens, rap-cum-reggae-style toasting — bracket defiant lyrics that flash hints of social commentary to mask what is essentially (The Symbol)’s taunting of his record company. The lyrics gracelessly confuse the personal with the political.”
This is a particularly disappointing line of attack, because Hardy is an excellent critic, especially of Prince in general. His layered, thoughtful criticism is well worth checking out. He has an interesting and nuanced take on Prince’s value to outsiders and his use of Queer Blackness to define his Utopian visions. Hardy both loves these ideas and finds them deeply problematic. I mention this because the above sample is so far outside the norm, and to set up the following: He should really know better. The personal is the political.
Which isn’t to say that I think the album should have gotten great reviews. It shouldn’t have. When the Estate re-issued the album in 2019 it touched off wave of re-appraisal of the album that I think is way too forgiving in many cases. I just think “a halfhearted transaction from a self-pitying celebrity” sounds like Hardy is taking the whole thing way too personally.
You Got A Strong Act To Follow
I do see how Ernest Hardy got distracted by the album art for Chaos and Disorder. There is a lot going on there, including the message at the top of this blog. Like the quote about the album being recorded in a week, the bit about the record originally being “for private use only” is nonsense. I’m not sure Prince (or anyone) ever really recorded anything and intended to keep it private forever.
In any case, this is the end of the road with Prince and Warner Bros. Records. I don’t like to say this but his time at WB is bookended by two albums that both rank near the bottom of the ladder in terms of quality rankings, although this one does come in above For You, no doubt about it. In terms of where exactly I would rank it…well, it was kind of doomed to begin with, first of all, it was obviously a low-effort album, and second of all, it came right after The Gold Experience. And let’s not forget, I was buying Prince music left, right and center at the time. I bought Chaos and Disorder, The Hits 1 and the only bootleg I ever bought (accidentally, I thought he put out live albums like that legitmately. I was 16.) on the same day (July 9, 1996, the release date of this album) in Lincoln, Nebraska. I was there for the International Thespian Festival. It might surprise you to know that I was a theatre kid in high school.
Some people have tried to make something of the fact that the first track Prince released for WB was called “For You” and the last was called “Had U.” Maybe there’s something to that? I’m inclined to think that if Prince noticed it, he may have chuckled and not stopped it from happening, but I have a hard time believing he was willing to work hard enough to make something like that happen and that is the best he could come up with.
Tracklist
Chaos and Disorder
As stated before, the guitar hook for this song came from a coda the NPG used at the end of “Peach” in 1993 and it was expanded into a full song. There were two versions recorded, one in October of 1993 during sessions for The Gold Experience at Paisley Park and another one in Miami in late March or early April 1996 for sessions specifically for Chaos and Disorder. The original version actually ended up on the album, complete with extra background vocals by Rosie Gaines from 1995. It was always Prince’s policy that every successful album should have a single with the same name as the album. This album had a song with the same name, but no single. Again with the subtle messaging from Prince.
I Like It There
This song is another overdriven guitar garage rock banger, and as such it’s kind of an oddity. Because Prince didn’t tour for this album at all and the next album (Emancipation) moved in a direction opposite to anything like this song, it didn’t really get played out at all until the 2000’s when Prince fronted a power trio again. I have to say, though, when that day came along, it really redeemed the song for me.
This track was from late 1994 and is just Prince with Michael B. on drums and Sonny T. on bass.
Dinner With Delores
This was the only single from the album, and it is still a baffling choice to me. It’s not a bad song, it’s just that there are far better songs on the album. It says something that when the Estate released the Anthology 1995-2010 compilation they included this song and “Chaos and Disorder” from this album. Because you cannot just include the song that has the lyric “Like a brontosaurus / she was packin’ it in.”
Again, a mid-’95 production with Michael B. and Sonny T., and this is believed to have been recorded at their last session as regular members of the NPG.
The Same December
This is one of the more upbeat, or at least more hopeful, songs on the album. In researching for this article, I found out that it was originally recorded in late 1994 for an album called New World which was an early form of what became Emancipation, which may be the most upbeat album Prince ever made. Mystery solved.
This was recorded in late 1994 with the full 1995 tourinng NPG: Michael B., Sonny T. Tommy Barbarella and finally Morris Hayes on second keys. Hayes would be the only band member to remain in the band for the next album, and he would be a key collaborator for the rest of Prince’s life. On this track he is already lending some serious Gospel flavor to the choruses and breakdowns.
Right The Wrong
I have always felt like this is one of those deep cuts that has gone overlooked. It’s kind of Prince’s “Rocky Raccoon.” It does suck that Prince chose “Indian” instead of some other word for a Native American, but apart from that, the only think keeping it from being discovered is being stuck on Chaos and Disorder.
This recording comes from late 1993 during sessions that led to The Gold Experience. Apparently, this is another track that was re-made in Miami Beach in 1996 with just Michael and Sonny, but that version is unreleased.
Zannalee
This song was mentioned briefly during the entry for The Undertaker because its intro was played just before moving on to another song. Here it is in its complete studio form. It does not seem like Prince rated the song much, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a pretty standard 12 bar blues-rock swinger about having sex with a pair of sisters.
It’s another holdover from the sessions that produced Come and The Gold Experience in mid 1993 and has the full NPG plus Morris Hayes playing on it. Additional recording took place in Miami Beach in April 1996. Sometimes the Princevault articles can be so obtuse about things I assume they’re doing it on purpose. The lyrics to the second verse were changed during the additional recording in 1996, and Princevault describes it like this:
“For unknown reason, a line from the original version ("2 get them in the mood, I give them some cherry wine / Then we watch a movie, one of them dirty kind") was omited with the second the part "2 get them in the mood, I give them some cherry wine" repeated twice at the beginning of the second verse.”
It’s pretty obvious why this was done. It’s a 12-bar blues song. It’s a simplified version of the AAB form a lot of blues songs take, and it also conforms to the other two verses. Why is this difficult? Here’s verse one:
Well her name is Zannalee I like what she do to me Her name is Zannalee I like what she do to me She got a sister named Fendi And they like to do me double team
Anyway
I Rock, Therefore I Am
As much as I take issue with Mr. Hardy’s assessment of Chaos and Disorder as a whole, I cannot disagree with his take on this song. Prince could have almost gotten away with this one if he had left the rappers out. Neither of these guys belong on this track, although Scrap D does appear on Emancipation in a very worthwhile capacity, this is just…naw.
Signs you may have hired the wrong rapper: You cue him to start rapping and the dude says:
“Make some noise if you're ready NPG rocks the city Rugged and raw lift up your bra Show me your titties”
That’s when you cut the tape and admit you’ve made a terrible mistake. Maybe you are trying to mess with your record label on your way out the door, but they don’t deserve that. Nobody deserves that.
And I can’t even talk about Steppa Ranks. I kind of mean that literally. I don’t know who this dude is. I googled him, and got nothing. As near as I can tell, this is the only thing he has ever done. Not just musically – ever. Anywhere. Somehow, by means unknown, Steppa Ranks seems to have simply come into existence at Paisley Park in March 1996, hung around just long enough to stink up this track and then just…vanished, like a reggae-rap Kaiser Soze. Apart from one verse on this track he is vapor. Dust in the wind. I’d be willing to bet his royalty checks go to a P.O. Box somewhere that’s just stuffed full of yellowing checks and old International Male catalogs.
Into The Light
Recorded in February 1996 in the same session (possibly in sequence, in a single take) with the next track, “Into the Light” is a new kind of “spiritual” song for Prince that explores religious experience in more concrete and less sexual terms. Rumor has it this song was inspired directly by a book called “Embraced By The Light” by Betty Eadie in which she describes her near death experience.
This is a song that I always think I’m going to skip but it always ends up grabbing me anyway. It has a lovely melody and the tempo changes catch at just the right moments to keep me listening. Plus, the NPG horns have really come into their own here. I don’t know if it’s the group themselves or Prince’s growing ability to write for them, but 1996 seems to be the year where he finally seems to get the hang of a horn section, although he doesn’t really hit his stride until 2000.
I Will
One interesting aspect of having an album that he knew was going to be more of a throwaway than usual was that he could afford to have tracks like “I Will” which do not begin or resolve the way a normal three or four minute pop song would. Instead, this one just bubbles, like a tea on a slow boil. Again, the whole band plus the horn section kind of floats over the beat.
It is probably worth mentioning at this point that even while some of these songs work next to each other, none of this actually works as a whole – as an album. It does retain the hodge-podge quality you would expect from something called Chaos and Disorder.
Dig U Better Dead
In some ways, this is the album closer, and the following track almost functions as the “hidden track” that so many CDs had in the 90’s. Nobody seems to know exactly when this was recorded, although it seems likely it was early 1996. At any rate, that’s when Rosie Gaines recorded her vocals onto the otherwise completed track. Everything else was recorded solo by Prince, so it’s hard to say exactly when that happened. Personally, I think it definitely was recorded in 1996, just because of the sounds of the synthesizers and drum machines. Sounds like the same kit used on Emancipation, so the safe money is that it was recorded around the same time as the music on that album.
It’s a stomping, danceable middle finger to WB. That’s about it. There’s nothing wrong with it, except that I don’t believe his heart is in it anymore. These sentiments definitely come out in Emancipation as well, but with another angle to them at that point. This album is definitely supposed to come from the point of view of a person who still has the boot on his neck so to speak, and I’m not sure I believe that from this performance.
Had U
It’s a minute and a half long, it’s sad, and it sounds tired. Prince is done, and wants out of here. He honestly sounds too tired to even be angry anymore. It’s pretty clear it’s time to move on.
NEXT WEEK: Let’s sing with a bit more harmony. Prince is free to do anything he wants! What should he do? Well, when in doubt, release a triple album! It’s EMANCIPATION!
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