Piano & A Microphone 1983
| Piano & A Microphone 1983 | ||||
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| Prince's studio album | ||||
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Publication |
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admission |
October 1983 |
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| Label (s) | NPG Records / Warner Bros. Records | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
9 |
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running time |
34:19 |
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| occupation |
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Michael Howe |
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Studio (s) |
Kiowa Trail Home Studio ( Chanhassen ) |
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Piano & A Microphone 1983 ( English for piano and a microphone 1983 ) is the first of Prince posthumously released studio album , which at the label on Sept. 21, 2018 Warner Bros. Records / NPG Records was released. Prince had already recorded a total of 9 songs in 1983, but were previously unreleased in this version. Piano & A Microphone 1983 is his second acoustic album after One Nite Alone… (2002) , on which Prince plays all songs exclusively on the piano.
The music belongs to the genres funk , pop and R&B . Elements from the genres of blues and jazz can also be heard. The lyrics are about loneliness, ecstasy , redemption , love, romance, longing, sensuality and sin . Music critics rated Piano & A Microphone 1983 in some cases very positive. From a commercial point of view, the album was able to achieve top ten placements in some countries, but did not achieve gold or platinum status internationally.
Emergence
When Prince died unexpectedly in April 2016, he left no will that could have regulated the copyrights of his written songs. In this respect, the music label Warner Bros. Records owns all copyrights to songs that Prince wrote or published before 1995 until 2021. Prince was under contract with Warner from 1978 to 1999, but from 1993 got into a dispute with the music label. From 2021, all rights to Prince songs will then belong to Sony Music Entertainment .
Troy Carter, adviser to The Prince Estate (dt .: Princeton discount ), explained about the making of Piano & A Microphone 1983 : "was this raw and at the same time intimate recording that on the eve of [Prince] international career just before it to became an international star, resembles the format of the 'Piano & A Microphone Tour' with which he ended his career in 2016. "At that time, Prince called his last tour during his lifetime " Piano & A Microphone "because he played all the songs exclusively on the piano played and sang to it. He didn't have a backing band . Carter had announced the album on June 7, 2018 - Prince's 60th birthday - which was Prince's second posthumous release.
Prince already recorded all nine of Piano & A Microphone's 1983 songs at the end of October 1983 in his then private recording studio called Kiowa Trail Home Studio in Chanhassen , Minnesota, which he had recorded on a TDK-C60 compact cassette . He hadn't released these versions at the time, however, and the four tracks Cold Coffee & Cocaine , Mary Don't You Weep , Wednesday and Why the Butterflies were not to be found on any of his albums before. But Prince had recorded the other five songs with musical instruments and, with the exception of A Case of You , placed them on his albums in significantly different versions than can be heard on Piano & A Microphone 1983 .
On January 14, 1982 he recorded the song International Lover in Los Angeles , California in the Sunset Sound Studio. He released this version in October 1982 on his 1999 album . A year later, on March 14, 1983, he recorded Strange Relationship at the Kiowa Trail Home Studio. Over the years he revised the song again and again and finally placed it in March 1987 on his album Sign "☮" the Times . In August 1983 Prince recorded the song Purple Rain in Sunset Sound and released it in June 1984 on his album of the same name , his most commercially successful in his music career. He recorded Wednesday on October 23, 1983 at the Kiowa Trail Home Studio and originally placed the piece on the Purple Rain album, but later deleted it from the tracklist. There is also a version in which Jill Jones did the lead vocals, but he did not release this version of Wednesday either.
On January 8, 1984, Prince recorded 17 Days on Sunset Sound; the piece serves as the B-side of the single When Doves Cry , released in May 1984 from the Purple Rain album. In 2001 he recorded A Case of You and placed the song written by Joni Mitchell on his album One Nite Alone… in 2002; this version is similar to that of Piano & A Microphone 1983 .
Design of the cover
The compact disc is in a hinged cardboard case and the front cover shows a black and white photo of Prince from 1983. Allen Beaulieu (* 1952), a photographer from Minneapolis , Minnesota, took this picture when he accompanied the musician on his 1999 tour from 1982 to 1983. The photo shows Prince sitting in front of a mirror in the backstage area of a concert on his previous tour. Beaulieu was also the photographer responsible for the album covers of Dirty Mind (1980) and Controversy (1981). On the inside of the cardboard cover you can read the lyrics of 17 Days, handwritten by Prince . The track list is printed on the back.
The booklet from the CD can also be opened and thus consists of a total of six pages. There is another black and white photo of Prince from 1983 that comes from the archives of The Prince Estate. In addition, the song text of Strange Relationship, handwritten by Prince, can be read on the inner cover , although he only titled the song "Strange Relations". The lyrics of the other songs by Piano & A Microphone 1983 are not printed.
Also, Piano & A Microphone 1983 as 180g vinyl record appeared, the first seven songs are listed individually on page A, but when Medley are given with a time of 22:38 minutes. Side B contains the two pieces Cold Coffee & Cocaine and Why the Butterflies . Moreover, it is Piano & A Microphone in 1983 as a "Limited Edition Deluxe Set" available, where the album can be heard on LP and CD. The booklet has the format of a record cover and consists of twelve pages. The booklet includes liner notes by Jill Jones , Don Batts and Lisa Coleman ; Jones worked with Prince from 1980 to 1989, Batts was a sound engineer for Prince from 1980 to 1982 , and Coleman was a member of The Revolution from 1982 to 1986 . Aside from Prince's handwritten lyrics for 17 Days and Strange Relationship , International Lover's is also included in the booklet. There are also two black and white Prince photos from 1983 that cannot be found in the booklet of the CD edition. The set also includes a black and white poster of Prince's photo, which is also shown in the CD booklet.
Music and lyrics
Piano & A Microphone 1983 is an acoustic album on which Prince plays all the songs on the piano . The music belongs to the genres of funk , pop and R&B as well as elements of blues and jazz . The first 7 songs can be heard in the same order in which Prince recorded them.
Prince plays two covers ; Joni Mitchell wrote A Case of You in 1971 and released it on her album Blue . The Negro Spiritual Mary Don't You Weep dates from 1915 and has been reinterpreted several times by various musicians, such as Aretha Franklin (1972) and Bruce Springsteen (2006). The lyrics belong to the genre Christian Music . Prince also integrated a passage from Strange Relationship into the lyrics .
Prince sings the track Cold Coffee & Cocaine with a rough voice that he called "Jamie Starr" - a pseudonym of his that he used from 1981 to 1983 for himself. The protagonist in the lyrics is tired of his lover because she only offers him “cold coffee and cocaine ”. Prince lisps over the sometimes humorous lyrics and the content is neither about drug use nor about drug addiction ; the musician died in April 2016 from an accidental overdose of the pain reliever fentanyl .
List of titles and publications
| No. | song | author | length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 days | Prince | 6:22 |
| 2 | Purple Rain | Prince | 1:26 |
| 3 | A case of you | Joni Mitchell | 1:40 |
| 4th | Mary Don't You Weep | unknown | 4:42 |
| 5 | Strange relationship | Prince | 2:38 |
| 6th | International lover | Prince | 3:48 |
| 7th | Wednesday | Prince | 1:59 |
| 8th | Cold Coffee & Cocaine | Prince | 5:13 |
| 9 | Why the Butterflies | Prince | 6:26 |
Piano & A Microphone 1983 was released worldwide on September 21, 2018. The album is available for purchase in four different editions: on compact disc , as a limited edition deluxe set including CD and record , as a single record and as a download .
Singles, music videos and covers
On June 7, 2018, the song Mary Don't You Weep was released as a download from various music streaming providers . The accompanying music video only shows the front cover of Piano & A Microphone 1983 as a still image , while Mary Don't You Weep can be heard. In August 2018, director Spike Lee produced an alternative music video consisting of scenes from his film BlacKkKlansman (2018). Moreover, it is Mary Do not You Weep in the credits to hear the film. In 1996 Prince contributed the soundtrack Girl 6 to the Spike Lee film of the same name.
17 Days (Piano Version) was released as a single on September 27, 2018, which was only available as a vinyl single through the German October 2018 edition of the music magazine Rolling Stone . The song fades out after 3:14 minutes and is therefore a good three minutes shorter than the album version. The B-side is the single version from 1999 , which was originally released from the 1999 album in September 1982 .
In contrast to 17 Days (piano version), there is a music video for the song Why the Butterflies , which has been available online since September 13, 2018. The music video is almost identical to that of Mary Don't You Weep . Furthermore, a video for Purple Rain was produced in 1984 , which was taken from the film of the same name . The music video version differs significantly from the album version on Piano & A Microphone 1983 . There are no other music videos for the album songs.
Apart from the two songs A Case of You and Mary Don't You Weep , which Prince covered himself, other musicians interpreted two pieces by Piano & A Microphone in 1983 with 17 Days and Purple Rain ; the song 17 Days was re-recorded by Living Color (1993) , among others , and Purple Rain , for example, re-recorded Randy Crawford (1995), Etta James (2006) and David Garrett (2017). Otherwise no cover versions of the songs by Piano & A Microphone 1983 are known.
reception
Music critics rated Piano & A Microphone 1983 as excellent in some cases. Above all, the musically intimate atmosphere of the album was praised.
Andreas Borcholte from the news magazine Der Spiegel was enthusiastic and distributed the highest number with 10.0 points. The album was "a revelation", would "sparkle and touch" and was selected "with care and attention". "Sometimes the session gets so intimate that it is almost embarrassing to become a listener so unintentionally," wrote Borcholte. He named the songs 17 Days and International Lover as examples . The highlight of the album is Cold Coffee & Cocaine , because this song exposes Prince not only as an "accomplished musician and songwriter", but also as "the versatile (and humorous) performer". In conclusion, Borcholte concluded that Prince would be missing.
Dave Simpson from the British daily The Guardian was also enthusiastic and gave the highest number with five stars. In contrast to Prince's “phenomenal talent as a guitarist”, his skills as a pianist are undervalued. On Piano & A Microphone 1983 he played as a pianist in top form and " Gospel , classical , funk and jazz gush out of his fingertips at will"; one could assume that Prince “could have played Chopin on a watering can”. He presented the song Strange Relationship as an “irresistible skeletal embryo” and International Lover advanced to “a vocal masterclass”. These “wonderful shots” provided “even more evidence of his colossal talent”.
Graeme Thomson from the British tabloid Daily Mail also gave the highest number with five stars. The album offers "remarkable insights into Prince's creative process" and he described the version of Purple Rain as a "classic on hold", of which "we get 90 glorious seconds". A Case of You is a “tenderly exploratory cover version” and Strange Relationship is “a fun hocus-pocus party”. The song Cold Coffee & Cocaine is "funky and very funny" because Prince plays the role of a lisping jive talker in it , which is why Thomson drew the comparison " Tom Waits meets James Brown ". The jazz- inspired Why the Butterflies leads "nowhere", but this "elegant". Prince was a genius and Piano & A Microphone 1983 did “the admirable service of deepening our understanding of the why,” wrote Thomson in conclusion.
Jan Kedves from the national daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung rated the album very positively and stated that there was "nothing to be heard except the piano, his voice and the noise of the studio". Prince “puffs, croons, pisses , rattles and rushes with his super changeable voice up into the most tender falsetto and, past the croaking middle, down again into the warmest soul baritone ”. The piano stool on which Prince was sitting squeaked into the microphone from time to time, noted Kedves and said: "If this squeak had been rhythmically synchronized", "Prince would no longer have been a person, but God, and not just a genius". In conclusion, Kedves stated that Piano & A Microphone 1983 was an “insanely good” album, “from which all other posthumous pop legend albums should take an example”.
Kory Grow from the US music magazine Rolling Stone awarded the album four out of five stars; Piano & A Microphone 1983 is "a fascinating look at one side of his [Prince] brilliance that we didn't know existed then [1983]". Prince plays "relaxed, free running and impressionistic". From Purple Rain you can hear “90 seconds as a feather” and from Mary Don't You Weep he plays “a soulful interpretation”. Cold Coffee & Cocaine described Grow as a “irascible blues number in the Ray Charles style ” and in “reserved moments” Prince appeared “vulnerable”, for example on A Case of You . Overall, however, the album is "not perfect"; hear Prince sway in rhythm and adjust the tone of his voice. But this is "also part of" what makes the album "so moving", said Grow.
Jon Pareles of the national daily newspaper The New York Times praised and wrote that Prince was “front man, rhythm section and instrumental soloist at the same time” and that his “one-take real-time vocals were exquisite”. Thematically, the songs dealt with romance, loneliness, sensuality, redemption, sin, longing and ecstasy. In addition, he shifts "musical styles and singers according to your mood - melancholy, playful, pious, flirtatious". Pareles particularly praised the song Wednesday because “its clear piano accompaniment” refers to jazz albums, “while Prince sings in an extremely innocent falsetto about being alone and almost suicidal: 'If you're not back by Wednesday [Wednesday] / me don't know what to do '”. Piano & A Microphone 1983 had the "sound of a search guided by rhythm and instinct, patiently and diligently seeking inspiration," wrote Pareles in conclusion.
Kerstin Kratochwill from the Internet magazine Tonspion gave five out of six stars; one is "deeply touched when one listens to the young Prince [then 25 years old] raw and furious at the same time on the piano". In addition, “the jazzy and bluesy improvised songs are full of soul and soul”. Piano & A Microphone 1983 is "not a nerd -Sammlerstück" but would be "right in the mighty" Princeton complete works , because the album come "pretty close" a live experience.
Chris Randle of the music website Pitchfork Media gave it a grade of 8.5, with 10 being the top grade. "This blessed collection of unpublished demos " is "fascinating". When some musicians die, the record company will pick up material that is left over. With Prince this case is different; he said he had "thousands of unreleased tracks with no suggestions" on how a record company could deal with it. Prince sounds "unusually relaxed" on Piano & A Microphone 1983 . The “most surprising moment” of the album is the “gospel standard Mary Don't You Weep ”. Overall, the 1983 album Piano & A Microphone is “both an omen and an artefact, a sample for a different life”.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic gave three and a half stars out of five and wrote that the album was "disarmingly relaxed". There is “a certain amount of intimacy”, but there is no music production “that one can speak of”. Nevertheless, "features of a studio recording" are present because the music is "too clear" to be "something else". Despite published on other Prince albums Songs 17 Days , Purple Rain and Strange Relationship could Piano & A Microphone 1983 but also not called a demo session. The entire album sounds like "as if the listener is listening to Prince doing something", which is "valuable".
Hal Horowitz from American Songwriter , a US magazine specializing in songwriting , also awarded three and a half stars out of five and particularly praised the three last songs on the album Wednesday , Cold Coffee & Cocaine and Why the Butterflies . Although Prince was not generally known as a piano player, "it is a revelation to hear how quick he is on the keys, switching from jazz to blues to pop, often just hopping mischievously over the melody and having fun." Horowitz concluded that the album is "of course not for everyone", but for people who are looking for a glimpse of Prince's fame.
André Bosse from the music magazine Musikexpress gave four out of six stars and said that Prince's falsetto on A Case of You was “sensational” and that he performed Mary Don't You Weep “with great enthusiasm”. The song Cold Coffee & Cocaine sounds like a blues parody that could also have come from Helge Schneider .
Tony Clayton-Lea of the national Irish daily The Irish Times gave it three out of five stars and doubted that Prince would have allowed the album to be released. The best song is Mary Don't You Weep , which he presents as an "exciting" and "grandiose version". For this reason alone, Piano & A Microphone 1983 is an "indispensable, if occasionally annoying bugging experience".
Charts
| Charts | Top ranking | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Chart placements | ||
 Germany (GfK)
|
12 (3 weeks) | 3 |
 Austria (Ö3)
|
10 (3 weeks) | 3 |
 Switzerland (IFPI)
|
6th (5 weeks) | 5 |
 United Kingdom (OCC)
|
12 (1 week) | 1 |
 United States (Billboard)
|
11 (2 weeks) | 2 |
- The vinyl single 17 Days (Piano Version) from the German October issue of the music magazine Rolling Stone from 2018 was not included in international charts.
literature
- Allen Beaulieu: Prince - Before the Rain. Minnesota Historical Society Press, Canada 2018, ISBN 978-1-68134-121-7 , OCLC 1043787985 .
- Duane Tudahl: Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions 1983 and 1984 (Expanded Edition). Rowman & Littlefield, London 2018, ISBN 978-1538114629 .
Web links
- Princevault , information on the 1983 album Piano & A Microphone
Individual evidence
- ↑ Booklet of the CD Piano & A Microphone 1983 by Prince, Warner Bros. Records / NPG Records, 2018
- ^ Colin Stutz: Prince Estate Signs Deal With Sony Music to Re-Release 35 Catalog Albums. In: Billboard.com. June 27, 2018, accessed on September 21, 2018 .
- ↑ a b on 09/21 the album “Piano & A Microphone 1983” appears with nine previously unreleased recordings. In: Warnermusic.de. June 7, 2018, accessed September 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Tudahl (2018), p. 220.
- ↑ Jon Bream: Prince insiders dish on first album released from storied Paisley Park vault. In: Startribune.com. September 20, 2018, accessed September 25, 2018 .
- ↑ Tudahl (2018), p. 40.
- ↑ Tudahl (2018), p. 187.
- ↑ Tudahl (2018), p. 193.
- ↑ Tudahl (2018), p. 220.
- ↑ Beaulieu (2018), p. 140.
- ↑ Beaulieu (2018), p. 22.
- ↑ Beaulieu (2018), p. 70.
- ↑ Booklet from the Limited Edition Deluxe Set Piano & A Microphone 1983 by Prince, Warner Bros. Records / NPG Records, 2018
- ↑ Mary Don't You Weep. In: Princevault.com. December 25, 2018, accessed December 26, 2018 .
- ^ Cold Coffee & Cocaine. In: Princevault.com. June 7, 2018, accessed September 21, 2018 .
- ↑ A King at the Piano - New Album by Prince. In: ejz.de. September 20, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Spike Lee directed this video for "Mary Don't You Weep". In: Warnermusic.de. August 23, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Order now: Rolling Stone issue 10/2018 with exclusive Prince 7-inch single. In: Rollingstone.de. August 30, 2018, accessed September 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Prince on WhoSampled
- ↑ Discover the original. In: Coverinfo.de. Retrieved on September 21, 2018 ( Enter Prince in "Search" ).
- ↑ SecondHandSongs - a cover songs database. In: Secondhandsongs.com. 2018, accessed on September 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Andreas Borcholte: Oh, he's missing. In: Spiegel.de. September 25, 2018. Retrieved September 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Dave Simpson: Prince: Piano & a Microphone 1983 review - revelatory listen from a colossal talent. In: Theguardian.com. September 21, 2018, accessed September 24, 2018 .
- ^ Graeme Thomson: Prince - Piano And A Microphone 1983. (PDF) In: Dailymail.co.uk. September 8, 2018, accessed September 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Jan Kedves: Prince posthumously - In the tenderest falsetto. In: Sueddeutsche.de. September 23, 2018, accessed September 24, 2018 .
- ↑ Kory Grow: Review: Prince's 'Piano & A Microphone 1983' is a Revealing Snapshot of the Pop Genius in His Prime. In: Rollingstone.com. September 21, 2018, accessed September 24, 2018 .
- ↑ Jon Pareles: Album Review - Alone in the Studio in 1983, Prince Is Revealed. In: Rollingstone.com. September 19, 2018, accessed September 24, 2018 .
- ↑ Kerstin Kratochwill: Prince - Piano & A Microphone 1983. In: Tonspion.de. September 21, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Chris Randle: Prince - Piano & A Microphone 1983. In: Pitchfork.com. September 25, 2018, accessed September 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Stephen Thomas Erlewine: Prince - Piano & a Microphone 1983. In: Allmusiccom. 2018, accessed on September 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Hal Horowitz: Prince: Piano & A Microphone 1983. In: Americansongwriter.com. September 20, 2018, accessed September 21, 2018 .
- ^ André Bosse: Prince - Piano & A Microphone 1983. In: Musikexpress.de. September 21, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Tony Clayton-Lea: Prince: Piano & A Microphone 1983 review - demo gems from the Paisley Park vaults. In: Irishtimes.com. September 20, 2018, accessed September 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Prince. officialcharts.de, accessed on February 16, 2019 .
- ↑ Prince. austriancharts.at, accessed on February 16, 2019 .
- ↑ Prince. hitparade.ch, accessed on February 16, 2019 .
- ↑ Prince. officialcharts.com, accessed February 16, 2019 .
- ^ Prince - Chart History. billboard.com, accessed February 16, 2019 .