Prince and house

Now that that I think of it, the sort of cold synth funk in the second half of 1999 (especially "Something in the Water...", "Lady Cab Driver", and "All the Critics...") could be seen more of a predecessor of techno rather than house, because it's more cool and detached and less disco/funk based, just like techno is compared to house.

Anyway, everyone who loves house and Prince should listen to the 12" remix of "Glam Slam" (by Shep Pettibone, apparently), because A) it's great, easily one his best 12" mixes, and B) it gets totally housey in the mid-section.

u got the mp3 tough guy

prince night in chicago is awesome save for the 30-45 minutes where the DJ strays into handbag house remixes zzzzzzzzzzzzz

I think Basement Jaxx tried to make this happen on Rooty.

u got the mp3 tough guy

Here you go:

Prince - Glam Slam (Remix)

Detroit was the first market where Prince broke.

i'm gonna put that 12" when i get home (glam slam isn't one of my favorites, but that mix does sound pretty good!).

I checked the credits to Emancipation, and for "Human Body", the on tune that I think is the most housiest, it says "additional programming by Cesar Sogbe and Joe Galbo". Does anyone know who these guys are?

It seems that for many of his house-influenced tunes and mixes Prince has used the help of outside producers and remixers, despite his reputation of a self-contained musician/arranger/producer. So maybe he's never felt confident and familiar enough with house to try to do it all by himself...

http://www.discogs.com/release/698702

http://www.playderecord.com/Production/Audio/Images/13154.jpg

Whoa! Is that available anywhere as a download?

I have a house remix of "Hot Thing" (also by Shep Pettibone), but I've never heard any house mixes of those other tunes. Is "Brave New World" a remix of "New World" from Emancipation? That tune is already very housey without remixing.

omg i need 'hot thing' remix. dunno about 'new world.'

wow prince - the remixes looks great.

thanks for the glam slam dl

I can post the "Hot Thing" remix on this thread later today, it is quite good. Though if you use Soulseek, it should be quite easily available there.

I think someone should really put out a box set of Prince 12" versions and remixes, most of them are quite good. At the moment I don't feel guilty at all downloading them, because Prince singles are almost impossible to find in record stores.

tbh i haven't heard any of them! i love prince and i love house and i can't wait for the investigation

http://www.mysteries-on-the-net.com/Jack_mystery2.JPG

I mean, this was at least an attempt to put some of them available on a compilation, but the first disc is totally useless to any serious Prince fans, because it only has the album versions or shortened 7" mixes. I'd rather have a triple CD with just 12" mixes rather than yet another Greatest Hit compilation with some 12" versions as a bonus disc.

(x-post)

"Cindy C" from The Black Album (1987) includes direct Cat-rapped quotes from JM Silk's "Music Is The Key" (1985) - so, yeah, he was aware from early on.

...and there was an interview from c.1987 where he talked about Chicago house. As I recall, he credited Cat for getting him into it, the "Cindy C" JM Silk lift being her idea.

shame he didnt get more into house/techno than hip hop. although most of the house mixes of his songs sucked too. he was better at it when it was just coincidental, ditto for hip hop really (irrestible bitch etc).

The drums owe a lot more to P-Funk DISCO than to James Brown

Could be true, but I don't hear him using a lot of disco hi-hat stuff (16th notes or accenting the upbeats).

but the whole four on the floor thing is pretty much a result of disco. its not really p-funk either though - p-funk was more spacious and nowhere near as tight as JB, and princes music was never as sprawled out as parliament or funkadelic.

thx for that tuomas!

The main point I was trying to make is that with JB, if you took away everything but the drums you'd pretty syncopated, interesting beats for the most part. With Prince, the drums are holding it down and the other parts are what makes it funky.

michaelangelo matos did a nice bit on prince's relationship to house music when he wrote about "housequake" in his "sign of the times" 33 1/3 volume

if i had to summarize in a sentence, it'd go like this:

like rap, prince never really understood how to do house, which was ironic, because he inspired a lot of house music and because house music stole a big chunk of his fans

Okay, as promised, here's a few of my favourite house(y) remixes of Prince tunes:

Hot Thing (Extended Remix) - remix by Shep Pettibone.

Batdance (The Bat Mix) - remix by Mark Moore & William Orbit.

Thieves in the Temple (House Mix) - remix by Junior Vasquez.

Beautiful - a remix of "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" from The Beautiful Experience EP. According to the credits this was produced by Prince, with programming by Statik (whoever that is).

thanks tuomas!

Isn't there a Michael Mayer song that samples "Sexy Dancer"?

moonship OTM

I agree with the rap part of that comment - something in Prince's style and persona is deeply unfitting for straight rap (though I think many of his hip-hop influenced tunes are excellent, and unfairly underrated). However, I do think he could've done some excellent house tunes, if he'd put his mind into it; all the elements of proper house are already there in his eighties tunes, even if they didn't often meet in a single tune. Like I said, I think what stopped him from doing that was his willingness to be a live musician and a pop star instead of embracing the more faceless, synthetic nature of house. So I think it's more of a question that he ultimately didn't want to do house (despite flirting with so often) rather than that he couldn't.

Perhaps a more banal explanation is that Prince was mostly alcohol and drug free, and (based on the biographies I've read) not much of a partier. So maybe he didn't actually understand house as a part of the clubbing experience, even if he understood it as a style of music.

i seem to remember loveleft loveright (its on the new power generation maxi single), being a good house-ish sort of song. at least in my head it sounds almost green velvet-y.

Yeah, the beat in that tune is very housey, though it has lot of Prince-rap too (and a guitar solo). It's one of his best B sides anyway.

Would anyone happen to have a good copy of "Sign O' the Times (DMC Mix)"? It's one of the best Prince remixes I've ever heard, but all I've been able to find online is a vinyl rip with less than perfect sound quality.

i really love sleep around from emancipation as a song but the production is really dated. same for new world.

wouldnt mind hearing what some good techno/house producers would do with them but i think prince is way too out of touch to get anyone to do that, much less anyone good to do it.

here you go

http://link-protector.com/673613/

it's got a few other remixes on there as well

You should've at least renamed that...

One thing nobody seems to have mentioned here is how early house-associated guys like Blake Baxter (in "Ride 'Em Boy") and Jamie Principle (in "Baby Wants to Ride [X-Rated])" were pretty clearly drawing on a certain foppish and androgynous soul sexpot template that Prince had established.

Also always kind of thought of "Baby I'm a Star" on Purple Rain as a sort of missing link between Sylvester and early male Chicago diva house, though that probably has more to do with the Prince song's overall feel and energy than any sonic specifics.

oh fuck, did i just download a fucking Animal Collective album?

Perhaps a more banal explanation is that Prince was mostly alcohol and drug free, and (based on the biographies I've read) not much of a partier. So maybe he didn't actually understand house as a part of the clubbing experience, even if he understood it as a style of music.

i can't remember where i read this (i don't think it was in the matos book, which is great though) but evidently prince's one drug experience was taking ecstacy at a club and consequently having some kind of life-changing religious/erotic epiphany that provoked him to do lovesexy. which is exactly the kind of perverse awesomeness one expects from mr. nelson.

So Moodymann's obviously a fan and considering he is house music...

his new one, det.riot '67 is seriously prince-influenced. and great.

i seem to remember loveleft loveright (its on the new power generation maxi single), being a good house-ish sort of song. at least in my head it sounds almost green velvet-y.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Saturday, March 15, 2008 6:54 AM (9 months ago)

heh, only came in to point out that whatever place prince might have had with house was probably covered more effectively by gv/caj.

Doesn't Romanthony own this thread? I guess most people (may) just know him for Daft Punk's tiresome "One More Time". Or many find him tiresome.

I think P. values live instruments too much to make a great house track. Like the opening of "Bat Dance", though.

those peter black bootleg mixes of 'controversy' and 'let's work' that keep resurfacing every so often (most recently on this; lol the cover) are pretty good, they definitely tease out the housey connection in both songs.

What about Chelonis?

the a-side of this was banging, anyone heard the other side?

I was gonna mention Romanthony too although should note that his most Prince tracks are often not house anymore anyways (e.g. the awesome "Bring U Up").

Obv. "Countdown 2000" is both house and an amazing "1999" homage.

First Captain Comatose album too - esp. "$100" and "Price Gun Baby".

After extensive research I've compiled a CD-R length mix of what I think are the best housey Prince remixes, B-sides, and 12" versions. I thought I might share it with you too:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/41hlac

Here's the tracklist:

1. Beautiful
2. The New Power Generation - Super Hero (featuring The Steeles)
3. Prince & The New Power Generation - Do Your Dance (KC's Remix)
4. Glam Slam (Remix)
5. Housequake (Razormaid Mix)
6. Electric Chair (Remix)
7. Prince & The New Power Generation - Gett Off (Houstyle)
8. The New Power Generation - Get Wild (Get Wild in the House)
9. Prince & The New Power Generation - Gangster Glam (Gangsta Hurley's House Mix)
10. Thieves in the Temple (Thieves in the House Mix)
11. Sign O' the Times (DMC Mix)
12. Loveleft, Loveright

I included a couple of tunes that are nominally credited to The New Power Generation only, but I think Prince is mostly behind them too, they just have a different lead vocalist.

thanks man.

funnily enough i found a an old issue of sky magazine that i had from around 1990 where they went to paisley park and theres one pic of a load of prince odds and ends and one of the things in the shot is a sheet of smileys lol.

Btw, the volumes on the different tracks vary quite a bit, so if someone actually wants to burn the mixtape on CD, it should be run through a normalizer.

Would anyone happen to have a good copy of "Sign O' the Times (DMC Mix)"? It's one of the best Prince remixes I've ever heard, but all I've been able to find online is a vinyl rip with less than perfect sound quality.

― Tuomas, 6. tammikuuta 2009 20:37 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Anyone?

Tuomas could you re-up that Prince house thing? Looks great!

seconded

Tuomas you should try to get ahold of ALTZ - tight

it's got a nice remix/edit of "sexy dancer" that blends perfectly in a house set

Thanks for the tip, I'll check that one out. And I'll re-up the house mixtape once I get home from work.

So this mixtape then Tuomas? Still looking forward to having a listen.

if i had to summarize in a sentence, it'd go like this:

like rap, prince never really understood how to do house, which was ironic, because he inspired a lot of house music and because house music stole a big chunk of his fans

dude, I just saw this now. thank you! it made my night, srsly.

great thread.

there's a stretch (1:20 on) from Moodymann's "Live at the Arches Mix" that compliments this discussion together rather neatly. KDJ drops/loops "Forever in My Life" from the "Small Club" boot.

http://www.fullbozman.com/moodymann-live-at-the-arches-glasgow-2002

pardon me. together

http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2013/10/we-all-wanna-be-prince-the-purple-ones-impact-on-dance-music

the l vis 1990 remix of batdance which i recently rediscovered is pretty cool. he makes it something that jam city might have put on his first albm almost. more of a dj tool than a proper track (unless theres a longer version around) but it becomes this sort of brutal 80s industrial drum attack.

Sounds interesting, is it available to buy/dl anywhere?

you can DL it from soundcloud -
https://soundcloud.com/lvis1990/batdance-l-vis-1990-edit

Thanks!

not sure if this has been posted already but...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPlumX5hoqc

Would anyone happen to have a good copy of "Sign O' the Times (DMC Mix)"? It's one of the best Prince remixes I've ever heard, but all I've been able to find online is a vinyl rip with less than perfect sound quality.

Between changing computers I seem to have lost even the vinyl rip file of this, would anyone happen to have it? Like many DMC mixes this one appears to be unauthorised, so I'm not sure if it's ever had a official release of any sort.

what's your email?

tuomast dot alho at Google's mail dot com

(The t after tuomas is not a typo.)

Thanks!

cool, I've sent you something - hope it's what you were looking for