ARTICLE: PRINCE'S PARADE OR DO YOU THINK I'M A NASTY GIRL?

I was a huge fan of Prince in the 1980s and this led onto an interest  in his female protegees. Virtually from the start of his career, Prince developed other bands and solo artists. He wrote songs for them (I will discuss this in a minute), played on their records, took them on tour and featured them in his films. In the late 80s he even set up his own record label, Paisley Park. All the artists associated with Prince were instantly recognisable as having a similar sound and image (or at least they were in the 80s). Some of the artists were discovered by Prince and some were already musicians who went on to have solo careers. I was never that keen on the male artists associated with Prince - The Time/Morris Day, Jesse Johnson, Andre Cymone, Mazarati etc. I found them to be strangely asexual and unable to carry off the Prince style convincingly. I also didn't like their songs as much as the women's, regardless of who wrote them.

But the ladies, God bless them, were a different kettle of fish. Starting with Vanity 6, Prince surrounded himself with a veritable harem. The accepted wisdom was that they were all his girlfriends, that they had no talent other than looking good in lingerie and that Prince wrote all their songs. He was seen as the Svengali and they were dismissed as puppets and bimbos. I think this view was unfair and sexist. Also, Prince was ahead of his time in several important areas.

First of all, it's important to remember that not all of the women associated with Prince were romantically involved with him. Even if they were, I don't think that in itself is a problem. The history of music is full of creative partnerships that were also romantic - John Lennon/Yoko Ono, Debbie Harry/Chris Stein, Cher/Sonny Bono and many more. Perhaps the problem is the women associated with Prince were seen as bimbos. A couple of them such as Apollonia and Vanity were undoubtedly chosen by Prince for their looks and didn't really possess much musical talent. Some of them, such as Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman and Sheila E. were already talented musicians when Prince met them. Some of his protegees went on to have solo careers independent of Prince's influence. The question of who wrote the songs is more complicated than it seems. On the records done when the artists were still with Prince, they were often credited as writers or co-writers. But when they were registered with the publisher, they would be credited to Prince (often under a pseudonym). I'm not sure whey Prince felt the need to cover his tracks like this - perhaps he'd done some kind of deal with the artists, whereby they gave up ownership of the songs in return for his help. This isn't as far-fetched as it sounds - there is evidence he discounted the help he received from Wendy and Lisa on several occasions. Many of the female artists he worked with went on to write and co-write other songs - it's unfair and sexist to portray them as incapable of writing their own songs. Equally, I think you can't deny Prince did have a huge role in the releases they did when they were with him. Let's face it, if anyone was going to write songs for you, you could do a lot worse than 80s era Prince. He was at the height of his powers then and people forget but he was one of the great songwriters of this era.

The female artists associated with Prince were ahead of their times in many ways. A band like Vanity 6 were sexually overt when few women performers were, certainly to that degree. (Remember it was several years before Madonna would writhe around in her bustier). I think they were also a forerunner to the sexy black girl groups of the 90s like En Vogue and Destiny's Child. I can also see echoes of the distinct personas adopted by Vanity 6 in the Spice Girls and Susan was working the virginal slut angle long before Britney - they even made her carry round a giant teddy bear. Artists like Sheila E. foreshadowed the rise of Latina singers like Jennifer Lopez and Shakira and Vanity's racial ambiguity was later echoed by the likes of Mariah Carey. Prince's discovery and development of all these various artists was unprecedented in its scale. Ultimately it led to his downfall but his role of starmaker is now echoed in shows like Pop Idol. (When Vanity left 'her' band, Prince merely drafted in a lookalike, Apollonia, and renamed the band after her.) I think this has turned out to be a bad thing for Prince as he's increasingly promoted artists who lack the talent and/or charisma. I think another bad element of Prince's that's become more prevalent in the music business as a whole is his determination to promote women as overtly sexual above all. Britney and her snake, Kylie and her hotpants, Prince saw it all coming. On the other hand, I can't think of another major artist who was so willing to work with and promote women. People often complain about the lack of female musicians as opposed to singers - Wendy and Lisa were an integral part of Prince's band in the 80s (both live and on record) and they went on to a successful solo career. The same is true of Sheils E., an incredibly talented percussionist. I can't help feeling if they hadn't have been women and overshadowed by Prince, their genius would have been recognised a long time ago. I will be discussing Sheila E. and Wendy & Lisa in the next issue. Over the next few pages I'll be looking at some of the other female artists associated with Prince and reviewing their records. I aim to show that they often contributed more than they are acknowledged for and that they went on to have careers without Prince.

THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALL APPEARED IN ISSUE 4 OF MY FANZINE, PRETTY BUT SCHIZO. IT CAME OUT AROUND 2002/2003.