What's that underneath your hair? Is there anybody living there?

April 20, 2020 10:01 PM

1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music releases. We've already discussed Songs From The Big Chair and Dream Into Action so let's let's announce this a bit early so you can prepare: April 22, 1985, Prince And The Revolution release the second album billed under that name, Around The World In A Day. The album [YT playlist] would go double platinum and yield two top ten singles. Side A: Around The World In A Day, Paisley Park [video], Condition Of The Heart, Raspberry Beret [video], Tamborine

Side B: America [video (Ed note - wow)], Pop Life [no video], The Ladder, Temptation

Bonus:
B-sides and remixes:
She's Always In My Hair
Hello
Girl
Raspberry Beret (Extended Remix)
She's Always In My Hair (Extended Remix)
Hello (Extended Remix) [podomatic link]
Paisley Park (Remix) [not available]
Pop Life (Extended Version) [podomatic link]
Pop Life (Fresh Dance Mix) [by Shelia E]
America [21m36s 12" version not a remix, Mixcloud link]
Girl (Extended Remix) [podomatic link]

Mixcloud mix of most extended mixes from Around The World In A Day [Includes unavailable Paisley Park remix from above, 1h10m]

Around The World In A Day (Studio Version, source material for final album track)

posted by hippybear (19 comments total)

Prince was amazing.
posted by wheelieman at 10:02 PM on April 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

This is the version of Prince I really like. Such a killer record. Zero. Filler. Plus, it was a group.
posted by j_curiouser at 10:38 PM on April 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

Once, just a couple years ago, I woke up with Condition of the Heart stuck in my head, except it was a Muppets cover. Sweetums was singing.
posted by aubilenon at 11:00 PM on April 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

It seems like quarantine has inspired hippybear into kicking his posting of delightful music FPP's into high gear. Hot diggity!
posted by fairmettle at 11:41 PM on April 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

Given that Dr Fink is wearing a surgical mask on the cover, we have to ask: What did Prince know, and when did he know it?

And not just that, but this:

Long days, lonely nights
2 bad we're not allowed 2 scream (yeah, yeah, too bad)
Guess that I'll stay at home
All alone and play my tamborine (aww)

["Around the World in a Day" is a great album. I confess to hating it when it came out; we bought it on vinyl after collecting cash among some friends, loved the Peppery cover, put it on and .... bleargh. What the hell is this saccharine pop? Where's Prince? What happened to the funk? Ah, but Prince; you're the gift that keeps on giving. As with any prophet it takes years and years for some of us to see the light. One thing's for sure though: that light is purple.]
posted by chavenet at 12:59 AM on April 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Is the mailman jerking you around? Did he put your $1200 check in someone else’s box?
posted by STFUDonnie at 3:31 AM on April 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

Oh man, this album holds an incredibly special spot in my life for so many reasons.

• This was the first Prince album released on CD and was also the first CD I ever owned, ensuring that I would listen to this hundreds of times on my wildly futuristic Sony Discman. (Side note: the CD was released as a longbox, amazing packaging that record companies eventually abandoned due to expense.)
• Released at what was arguably the peak of Prince's fame, the psychedelic throwback and innate weirdness of the music rewarded multiple listens, this was Prince letting his inner freak flag fly and I loved it. Most of my 14 year old peers did not. Despite being commercially successful, "Raspberry Beret" was the only cut that most people knew and liked, the rest of the songs were too musically challenging or just plain "weird".

Lastly, the album release was in April of '85 and as fate would have it, coincided with my first real relationship, so the memories of this album are cemented in my mind like yesterday.

There I was standing in front of the mirror getting my hair "just right", the smell of Brut 33 deodorant wafting through the warm Spring air, preparing to go hang out with my girlfriend, who was also a huge Prince fan. The 3rd song "Condition of the Heart" lends itself to a duet and so that was us, two teens in love, trying to harmonize with Prince while he took us around the world and back, pretty sure he was singing to us and us alone.

aaaaand fuck, here come the waterworks again, I can't believe he's gone
posted by jeremias at 5:44 AM on April 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Ah, 1985, you were the year for me. I met my (then future) husband in 1985. We celebrated our 30th anniversary yesterday.

Perhaps today will be an All Prince Playlist day.
posted by blurker at 7:23 AM on April 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Raspberry Beret is one of the best pop songs of the past 30 years. Fight me.
posted by gottabefunky at 9:29 AM on April 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

"Raspberry Beret is one of the best pop songs of the past 30 years. Fight me."

Um, it's 2020 now. Do I win? :^)
posted by AbnerRavenwood at 9:38 AM on April 21, 2020

40 years!
posted by gottabefunky at 12:45 PM on April 21, 2020

gottabefunky: "Raspberry Beret is one of the best pop songs of the past 30 years. Fight me."

Eponysterical. Though as I mentioned, the funk was not with this one.
posted by chavenet at 1:09 PM on April 21, 2020

Damn. I remember buying the album -- the original CD release in which the longbox (whoa, throwback!) contained not a plastic tray, but a cardboard sleeve like a vinyl record's, with a cloth-like sleeve to hold the disc -- in May of '85. I'd only had my driver's license a few weeks and this was probably the first time I'd driven myself to a doctor appointment, and I stopped off to buy it. Still have the original disc, but the longbox is long gone.
posted by jburka at 5:39 PM on April 21, 2020

I remember begging my mom to buy me the cassette and loving every second of the music. I still think Condition of the Heart is a masterpiece.
posted by Catblack at 11:23 AM on April 22, 2020

If you're looking for an even less funky but more haunting version of Condition of the Heart, consider this cover by Susanna and the Magical Orchestra
posted by aubilenon at 12:19 PM on April 22, 2020

Wait a minute in Raspberry Beret there’s a line “And if it was warm she wouldn't wear much more” but berets are typically wool now I’m upset because this doesn’t make sense (though it still may be more reasonable than the line it rhymes with.)
posted by aubilenon at 9:04 AM on April 23, 2020

Never mind I figured it out. I forgot the song was written in Minnesota. "If it was warm" means like 45º which is great beret weather, and "not wearing much more" means she could finally wear just a layer or two.
posted by aubilenon at 10:52 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

Honestly, I thought it was a song about a woman who sometimes in warm weather, probably in private, wore only a beret. Some people don't want to wear clothes all the time. I'm not one of them, but I hear they exist.

But I'm glad you reached an explanation which works in your comfort zone.

I'm also pretty certain that Tambourine isn't about a drumskin rhythm instrument with shaker elements in its mounting circle of wood, but I could be wrong.
posted by hippybear at 8:29 PM on April 23, 2020

And since this is the current Prince thread and it would be silly to start another, here's the CBS broadcast of the Grammy Salute To Prince that aired earlier this week. [1h30m]
posted by hippybear at 8:44 PM on April 23, 2020