• Funk,  Jazz

    Mo’ Madhouse w/ Prince, Eric Leeds and Vanity

    This tune starts with a young lady’s moans of erotic pleasure. Did I get your attention? Good.

    It’s an outtake of a song called “Vibrator” featuring the desire of my teen years (and beyond) – Vanity. The vocals were, uh – laid down in the summer of 1983 at Prince’s Kiowa Trail Home Studio – his purple house in the early 80’s. Prince would take those vocals and insert them into “Orgasm” on the Come album in 1994.

    So after Vanity suitably consecrates the beginning of “Seven,” the drums kick in and we’re off on a Princely funky jazz adventure. The song showcases Eric Leeds on sax, and Prince on pretty much everything else. I posted from this album before, and if you want to purchase the CD, it’ll cost you a few tanks of gas (for a used one).

    Madhouse: Seven

  • Funk,  Jazz

    It’s a Madhouse In Here

    It was fun being a Prince fanatic in the 80’s. You’d get a great new album every year, and interspersed in there would be his 12″ maxi-single releases. Most would have an extended version of the album track, as well a previously unreleased B-Side (they’ve all since been compiled on to the 3rd CD of his Greatest Hits release from the late 90’s). It was all so original and fresh: “Irresistible Bitch”, “She’s Always in My Hair”, “17 Days”, “Another Lonely Christmas”, to name a few

    On top of his own releases, Prince was busy working on his side projects: The Family, Apollonia 6, Sheila E., and Madhouse. Madhouse was made up primarily of Prince and Eric Leeds (Prince’s sax player at the time), with some contribution from Levi Seacer (bass) and Sheila E. (drums). It was basically an outlet for Prince to lay down some of his more jazz and jazz-funk oriented stuff. The first Madhouse album was entitled ‘8’, and the songs were entitled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. He released ‘6’ as a maxi-single, which included ‘6 (End of the World Mix)’, which I have for you now… 

    1986, Paisley Park – {The album is out of print, but you can buy it on Amazon for, uhh, $110)