Friday Five

Ickmusic’s Friday Five: June 6, 2008

Shuffle - Australian for Beer.

I’m Late, I’m Late for a very important date, No time to say hello, goodbye, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!!

They say the best laid plans, right? I took the afternoon off of work, had a small project and was going to roll out a very special Five before heading out to dinner with friends. Well you know they said about the best laid plans…

At any rate, though he chooses not to celebrate it anymore, I thought it appropriate to dedicate this week’s Friday Five to his royal badness on the eve of his 50th birthday. That said it’s late so let’s lower the lights, light some candles and let the funk flow. I apologize to the friends of the Five for last week’s rush job. There are some exciting things brewing in Friday Five land so stay tuned! If you’ve missed the ‘Friday Five’ to date its quite easy, I hit the shuffle button and share the first five tracks along with thoughts, quips and memories.

The rest is up to you; feel free to add your random five in the comments.

Here are this week’s tracks:

1. Prince – Sleep Around (from Emancipation)

I don’t think that this song gets it’s due. Buried on disc three of Emancipation, this slice of horn laden funk delivers a one two punch of a witty lyric and great driving beat. I remember the anticipation of hearing this one live during the Jam of the Year tour.

2. Prince – When You Were Mine (from The Hits/The B-Sides)

This is in my all time top 5 favorite Prince tracks to jam along with.

3. Prince & The New Power Generation – Jughead (from Diamonds and Pearls)

I can’t even defend this one. You know how sometimes things are so bad they are good. This is not one of those cases. I’d sooner listen to a David Archuletta record than listen to this track.

4. Prince – Mustang Instrumental (from The Beautiful Experience)

I miss the days of single and EP’s jam packed with mixes, remixes, B-Sides and 5 different tracks. Dang this five is starting to get depressing.

5. New Power Generation – Mashed Potato Girl Intro (from Exodus)

Have you ever seen Under the Cherry Moon? Remember the comical Tricky/Christopher moments? Times that by about a million and you’ve got the Mashed Potato Girl intro.

So Happy 50th Birthday Mr. Nelson and to the Fivers, what doin’ you like you wanna be done this Friday (or maybe Saturday…)

15 Comments

  • Michael

    And while you may be asking yourself “where are the MP3’s?” … Well, being that our favorite diminutive genius tends to have his goons send nasty legal notices to those who do anything more than mention his name so…

  • Gonzo

    1. Satisfied – not a bad song, but also not any ground he hadn’t covered before.

    2. Xenophobia – Wish this would have been released in studio form, but the versions from the One Night Alone tour are tight.

    3. 3121 – love the live versions of this. I’m sure it will be on the 21 Nights disc.

    4. Anotherloverholenyohead – A classic.

    5. Let’s Go Crazy – perfect.

  • Pete

    Happy 5-0 purple man. Here’s my shuffle o’ Prince…

    1. “Ballad of Dorothy Parker” – from Sign ‘O’ The Times (1987) – Prince was breaking ground left and right in thid era, and this tune REALLY broke the mold. Jazzy, laid, back a la Joni Mitchell.
    2. “The Screams of Passion” – from Heaven Must Be Near (Studio Outtake) – This is an 8 minute Family rehearsal from the summer of ’84 with Prince instructing and taking over lead vocals. “Say man, Paul, this is how it’s done, brotha”…
    3. “Christopher Tracy’s Parade” – from Parade (1985) – Great kick off to the Parade album. Sounds GREAT right now after a few cups o’ coffee.
    4. “Housequake” – from 4 Those of U On Valium (1987) – This is an incredible warm up show for the Sign o the Times Tour, live at First Avenue in Minneapolis, March 21st, 1987. Don’t get any better.
    5. “Irresistible Bitch” – from Mutiny at the Prom (1985) – How appropriate is this? This comes from Prince’s 27th birthday show in St. Paul, 23 freakin’ years ago (huh?). Time flies when you’re having fun…

    It’s also appropriate that my shuffle focused on my favorite Prince era – the mid-80’s. Thank you iTunes for starting the weekend right.

  • Skittles

    Here’s mine:

    1. ‘Bambi” from Prince – Killer guitar on this one. Leave it to Prince to write a song about trying to turn a lesbian straight with his lovin’.

    2. “Billy Jack Bitch” from The Gold Experience – I’m not a huge fan of most of the stuff from “the symbol” years, but this album is fantastic. One of my favorite tracks, too.

    3. “Little Girl Wendy’s Parade” from Charade – An early version of what became “Christopher Tracy’s Parade.”

    4. “Let’s Work (Dance Remix)” from the Let’s Work 12″ single – I love this song, and this is one of my favorite remixes of any Prince songs.

    5. “Lisa” from The Work Vol. 1 – A Dirty Mind era outtake written about Lisa Coleman. One of my favorite outtakes.

  • Chuck

    HAPPPY 50th BIRTHDAY to the one and only Prince!!! Five decades of funkiness WOO!! HOOO!!!

    Here’s my Purple shuffle:

    1. Erotic City – What more can you say when guest vocalist Sheila E. (Escovedo) says to you with all that aural passion & desire “We can f*ck until the dawn, making love till cherry’s gone!!!

    2. Rebirth Of The Flesh: Prince’s alter-ego Camille at his very finest and funkiest.

    3. Strange Relationship – On any One Nite Alone Live concert. All I have to say WOW!!
    Ray Charles must be smiling up in heaven every time Prince plays the piano and sings this song. This one always burns a hole on my MP3 player!!!

    4. Shhh!! MAN!! I’m getting goosebumps just typing the word Shhh!!! The guitar solo is one of my top 5 ever!!!

    5. It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night – From Sign O’ The Times Album & Live… with the legend himself “Miles Davis” It doesn’t matter what speed you play this song. It’s the ultimate Prince & The Revolution jam song. It just makes you want to run on stage and dance until you start hallucinating and seeing stars from overdosing on so much FUNK!!! : )

  • Michael

    I should note that my shuffle only included the official releases… Did anyone else get lost in the Purple Goodness on VH1 Soul this afternoon?

  • whiteray

    Oops! No Prince in my vast files. I recognize his artistry and influence, but coming from Minnesota, got tired of his act long ago. Off the top of my head, my list would start with “Little Red Corvette.”

  • ljhord

    I’m sorry, I don’t have a thing. I could shuffle up tunes from The King of Rock & Roll, The King of The Blues or even Queen but my iPod is a Prince-less zone.

  • Michael

    Aw man, I didn’t intend to discourage any participation, even if you aren’t bumping the Purple One’s catalog we always want to play musical voyeur and see what everyone listens to.

  • ljhord

    All righty then:

    1. “Isn’t It A Pity” by George Harrison from “All Things Must Pass”, 2001.
    2. “Jesus On The Mainline” by Ry Cooder from “Paradise and Lunch”, 1974.
    3. “Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)” by Simply Red from “Greatest Hits”, 1996.
    4. “Early In The Morning” by Eric Clapton from “Just One Night”, Disc1, 1980.
    5. “Something About You” by Level 42 from “Level Best”, 1989.

  • whiteray

    Okay, it’s Monday evening here in the heartland, and we get:

    1. “Along Comes Mary” by the Folk Swingers from “Raga Rock,” 1966. An album of session cats using a sitar-like lead instrument to cover pop hits of the time. Like, it’s real groovy!

    2. “Mon Amour” by Pearls Before Swine from “These Things Too,” 1969. I’ve got rips of several albums by this group; sometimes I love the albums and sometimes I find them too precious and “serious” to be tolerated.

    3. “Turkey Chase” by Bob Dylan from the soundtrack to “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid,” 1973. I caught a good portion of this movie on cable the other night; it was better than I recalled.

    4. “Will You Visit Me On Sundays” by the Louvin Brothers from “Will You Visit Me On Sundays,” 1968. Great grim country: “At morning I’ll meet darkness” on the hanging tree.

    5. “My Old Pal” by Jimmie Rogers, Victor 23191, 1928. One of the lodestones of country and thus an ancestor of damn near everything we listen to today.

  • Jim Russell

    1. Chicago / Listen (1969, from “The Chicago Transit Authority”) — The original Chicago really kicked ass. This track starts off with Terry holding one sustained guitar note over the entire freaking intro, and his solo later on is pure fire.

    2. Velvet Underground / I heard her call my name (1968, from “White Light/White Heat”) — This Lou Reed song is typical of where rock music was headed in 1968 — far away from the lightness of the previous year’s Summer of Love. Although the background vocals here still sound almost conventional.

    3. Jan and Dean / Yellow balloon (1966, from “Save for a Rainy Day) — Sometimes, the shuffle segues can make your head explode. Coming straight off VU into this was a jarring experience.

    4. The Kinks / Scattered (1993, from “Phobia”) — At first, this late-period Kinks song sounds way too much like a Pretenders ripoff, but I should have known Ray Davies would add enough twists and turns to make things interesting.

    5. Bob Dylan / Don’t think twice, it’s alright (1963, from “The Freewheeling Bob Dylan”) — After hearing a million different versions of this song, from Bob and from others, it’s refreshing to hear the original, which still sounds better than any subsequent version.

  • gulu76

    Better late than never…

    1. I wish u heaven – a damn near perfect song from Lovesexy made even better, unbelievably, on the 12″ remix treatment.

    2. Old friends 4 sale – “some things are better left unsaid, some people are better left untrusted….” now, now, Mr P, cheer up! One of my favorite unreleased songs – from the Work Vol 2

    3. Train from unreleased album Dream Factory – what was he playing at not releasing this great pop song, made all the better with those wonderful steam engine sounds?

    4. The Cross – from Sign O the Times. One I’ve grown to love over time and which fits the mood of this album perfectly.

    5. 3121 – enjoyable enough funky album track, although it is blown away into outer space by his live versions in the London aftershows

  • Rabbit2U

    1. Ballad of Dorothy Parker – I love the falset voice and everything that seems to sound just like it don’t intent to be, but with all that just perfect to me.

    2. 5 Women – Because if I were a man I would like to have 5 🙂 … uhm, no, just a great one to listen to with the amp on a very high level.

    3. Pop Life – Sounds always like I hear it for the first time, this song cheer me up.

    4. Erotic City – the title says it al, I wanna live overthere and hear this great song every day, specially in my car.

    5. She’s always in my hair – she just always is … and he is too 🙂 But to stay serious, that damn good guitar part just gives me goosebumps.

  • J

    Here’s my shuffle:

    Sinead O’Connor: The Singing Bird
    This is from her great double album, She Who Dwells…

    Prince: Sophisticated Lady (live)
    Oops, not sure of the source! Guest vocals by Shelby J?

    Prince: Crazy (live)
    “Put your hands together, come on!” Shelby J again?

    Prince: Guitar (live)
    Um…not doing so well on the sourcing.

    Emmylou Harris: Hot Burrito #2
    Snagged from the vinyl. Cool gadget! Now if I can only figure out how to do this with my cassette player.

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