Popdose: When Good Albums Happen to Bad People: Prince, “Batman”
DRXL
· 1 year ago
“Batdance” was a #1 song, and one of the strangest ones to ever occupy that slot."
An important point worth reminding. Countless pretentious artists with samplers and computers must remember...
eddie_w
· 1 year ago
Great post. I'm a long time Prince fan, and I've always enjoyed this album too (I'm also a fan of the Symbol Album as well, despite the Kirstie Alley interludes). Everything is fun, weird, and loose, and "Vicki Waiting" has always been a highlight.
JonCummings
· 1 year ago
It was actually Melinda Newman at Billboard who created the "Artist Formerly Known as Prince" title in '93. I had just started working there when Prince made his grand announcement, and his people had sent over a computer file with the symbol for us to use. The higher-ups decided they were willing to use the symbol for the album title on the charts, but they weren't comfortable using it every time we used his name in print.
So Melinda, as music editor and author of "The Beat" column, started casting about for things to call him. We would toss silly titles around. "Symbol Man" was used occasionally at first, but finally she settled on using "the Artist Formerly Known as Prince" and then "TAFKAP" and "the Artist." And because Melinda usually covered topics before everybody else, and because her phrases for him appeared in boldface type like every other name in "The Beat," TAFKAP took on an official-ish imprimatur, and everybody else picked up on it.
It was a funny time. Too bad about the music...
Drunk Country
· 1 year ago
On Augusy 6th 2008 The Waiting Room Radio Show will be airing the latest in their Drunk Covers series:
Drunk Covers VIII: The Playlist Formerly Honed By Prince - a 3hr Prince Cover Version Special
You can tune in live via www.ErrorFM.com from 9PM BST, 4pm EST, 1pm PST, 3pm CST
More details can be found by visiting our podcast page: http://crack.podbean.com(the show will be recorded & podcast the following day)
I listened to my cassette of the "Batman" soundtrack again last month and liked what I heard, more so than I did in '89 when I bought it. "The Future," "Electric Chair," "Partyman," "Trust," and "Batdance" have held up well.
Darren
· 1 year ago
I've always thought of this album as a TIme album Prince decided to keep for himself.
Mike
· 1 year ago
Maybe I need to listen to this album again, because as much as I love Prince-and I *do* love Prince: the man has three of my ten favorite albums ever recorded by anyone, "Batman" just didn't do it for me. Then again, it took me nearly 20 years to *get* "Lovesexy", so maybe my appreciation for this album will rise in time.
The whole "slave" thing...well, pretty much anything Prince has done publicly in the past fifteen years has been embarrassing. I've never seen that quote you attributed to him before, but reading it pisses me off a little because Prince spent most of the first part of his career pretending not to be black, so to see him identify only when his record company starts pissing him off (much like Michael Jackson) makes my skin crawl.
I'd hate the guy, but how can you hate the guy who made "Little Red Corvette"?
D Ragland
· 1 year ago
I've always enojyed "The Arms of Orion" . . . especially the synth-string part throughout the song.
mojo
· 1 year ago
agreed, this record....if not great it's totally underrated. The dude was on top of his game and I think bored at the time. The Batman story gave him a muse with which to funk
Scraps
· 1 year ago
Couldn't disagree more about the recent albums. Musicology isn't great all the way through, but it's got several excellent songs, including a couple that would make my 2-cd best of Prince mix. And "Batdance" is so mind-numbingly awful that I confess the Batman soundtrack is one of the few Prince albums I've never given one liste; I guess I'll have to remedy that.
rwcass
· 1 year ago
I haven't heard "Musicology," but "3121" wasn't bad, and "Chelsea Rogers," from the most recent album, "Planet Earth," is one of the best songs I've heard from Prince in a long long time.
Scraps
· 1 year ago
Um, when and how did Prince ever "pretend not to be black"?
Mike
· 1 year ago
I remember reading a couple of interviews in teen mags and stuff back in the early Eighties where Prince attemped to pass himself off as mulatto (or at the very least, create an air of mystery surrounding his true ethnic makeup)...something that's still a topic of much confusion as I troll the internets, but, to my knowledge, both his parents were black.
poisonskin
· 1 year ago
Weird and beautiful. Prince played with people's (mis)conceptions of him in the beginging ( Yes you can have a two black parents and be mulato) and his music has recently been harder to digust asd of late but you gotta hang in there people. There is some Gold in a lot of those albums you just gotta dig.
Gonzeaux
· 1 year ago
Yes - early on in his career he was purposely ambiguous about his racial background, at times even just making shit up.
Gonzeaux
· 1 year ago
Great post. A few comments:
1. "In 1998, toward the tail end of the symbol-name part of his career, Prince said in an interview that “when people made fun of my name change … it was mostly white people, because black people empathize with wanting to change a situation. My last name, Nelson, is really a slave name … and it was white slave owners who gave it to their slaves, so why should I go by that name now?” - Can you please give me the source of this quote? I'm not calling you out, but asking because it's a) fascinating and b) very pertinent to a piece I'm working on right now about Prince's racial performance. Would love to get a hold of this source.
2. I think there were actually a few other songs in the movie, but they were buried as background. For example, I think "The Future" (or maybe "Electric Chair") plays as the family exits the movie theater in the beginning of the film.
3. In addition to "200 Balloons," the Hits/B-Sides package also included "Feel U Up" (b-side to "Partyman") and "I Love U In Me" (b-side to the Arms of Orion"). The absence of "Batdance" remains curious indeed.
4. I'm on the fence with this album. Part of me says yes, it's a bit embarrassing. Another part says yes, it's underrated. I think that perhaps what mars the album is the production, which sounds horribly 1989, and that perhaps that 19 years on, this is what detracts from otherwise pretty good tracks. I still can't get into "Arms of Orion," though. But "Electric Chair" is definitely the standout for me on this one.
BobCashill
· 1 year ago
In SHAUN OF THE DEAD, the characters aim jagged chunks of broken vinyl records at the craniums of the invading zombies. The most prominent weapon of choice, once a better Prince album is spared, is BATMAN, which is dismissed as "shite."
It's not bad, really. But it's clearly bits and pieces he had lying about, unified with that loose Batman theme.
Danny Elfman's score, on the other hand, is awesome, one of his best for Burton.
All Comments
An important point worth reminding. Countless pretentious artists with samplers and computers must remember...
So Melinda, as music editor and author of "The Beat" column, started casting about for things to call him. We would toss silly titles around. "Symbol Man" was used occasionally at first, but finally she settled on using "the Artist Formerly Known as Prince" and then "TAFKAP" and "the Artist." And because Melinda usually covered topics before everybody else, and because her phrases for him appeared in boldface type like every other name in "The Beat," TAFKAP took on an official-ish imprimatur, and everybody else picked up on it.
It was a funny time. Too bad about the music...
Drunk Covers VIII: The Playlist Formerly Honed By Prince - a 3hr Prince Cover Version Special
You can tune in live via www.ErrorFM.com from 9PM BST, 4pm EST, 1pm PST, 3pm CST
More details can be found by visiting our podcast page: http://crack.podbean.com(the show will be recorded & podcast the following day)
Cheers & apologies for the spam.
½DC
p.s. Batman the OST was utter shite.
I listened to my cassette of the "Batman" soundtrack again last month and liked what I heard, more so than I did in '89 when I bought it. "The Future," "Electric Chair," "Partyman," "Trust," and "Batdance" have held up well.
The whole "slave" thing...well, pretty much anything Prince has done publicly in the past fifteen years has been embarrassing. I've never seen that quote you attributed to him before, but reading it pisses me off a little because Prince spent most of the first part of his career pretending not to be black, so to see him identify only when his record company starts pissing him off (much like Michael Jackson) makes my skin crawl.
I'd hate the guy, but how can you hate the guy who made "Little Red Corvette"?
Prince played with people's (mis)conceptions of him in the beginging ( Yes you can have a two black parents and be mulato) and his music has recently been harder to digust asd of late but you gotta hang in there people. There is some Gold in a lot of those albums you just gotta dig.
1. "In 1998, toward the tail end of the symbol-name part of his career, Prince said in an interview that “when people made fun of my name change … it was mostly white people, because black people empathize with wanting to change a situation. My last name, Nelson, is really a slave name … and it was white slave owners who gave it to their slaves, so why should I go by that name now?”
- Can you please give me the source of this quote? I'm not calling you out, but asking because it's a) fascinating and b) very pertinent to a piece I'm working on right now about Prince's racial performance. Would love to get a hold of this source.
2. I think there were actually a few other songs in the movie, but they were buried as background. For example, I think "The Future" (or maybe "Electric Chair") plays as the family exits the movie theater in the beginning of the film.
3. In addition to "200 Balloons," the Hits/B-Sides package also included "Feel U Up" (b-side to "Partyman") and "I Love U In Me" (b-side to the Arms of Orion"). The absence of "Batdance" remains curious indeed.
4. I'm on the fence with this album. Part of me says yes, it's a bit embarrassing. Another part says yes, it's underrated. I think that perhaps what mars the album is the production, which sounds horribly 1989, and that perhaps that 19 years on, this is what detracts from otherwise pretty good tracks. I still can't get into "Arms of Orion," though. But "Electric Chair" is definitely the standout for me on this one.
It's not bad, really. But it's clearly bits and pieces he had lying about, unified with that loose Batman theme.
Danny Elfman's score, on the other hand, is awesome, one of his best for Burton.