Dearly beloved
We are gathered here today
To get through this thing called life
This is the final set of our Prince-themed 6 Degrees series, timed to end today, the 8th anniversary of The Purple One leaving us. And while weāve used up all of our Prince albums from The List, each artist/album in this set has some connection to him.
Okay, carrying on from where we left off last timeā¦
6 Degrees of Separation: Selena to No Doubt
Selena ā Dreaming Of You (list number 316)
>> While Madhouse (which ended Part 7) is mostly Prince, one of the musicians who collaborated on the side project was Eric Leeds. Prince and Eric Leeds worked together on another side project, the 1995 solo album of Mayte, Child of the Sun, which was mostly written by Prince and was released on his NPG Records label. Mayte was part of the NPG, was a dancer for his tours and videos, and was Princeās partner at the time of recording this album (and then wife). Though not included on this (or any later) album, Mayte recorded some songs (potentially during the same time) with the hip hop group Full Force, who also appear on one track of this album by the late great Selena. Another guest appearance on the same album is David Byrne, and their track together was produced by sound engineer Susan Rogers, who worked on many Prince and Prince-adjacent albums starting with Purple Rain, including Madhouse andā¦
Candy Dulfer ā Saxuality (740)
ā¦this 1990 album by Candy Dulfer, who collaborated a few times with Prince from the 80s on (including joining his band for the Musicology Live 2004ever tour). Rogers also mixed the contributions of Paul Westerberg (of The Replacements, another Minneapolis act that made waves in the 80s, as mentioned in Part 4) to the soundtrack for the film Singles, which also featured a number of artists/bands from the Seattle area who admired and/or inspired Prince, such asā¦
The Jimi Hendrix Experience ā Electric Ladyland (839)
ā¦Jimi Hendrix (who was a great influence on Prince; check out this [audio-only] cover of Hendrixās āRed Houseā),ā¦.
Soundgarden ā Superunknown (849)
ā¦Soundgarden (check out Chris Cornellās beautiful cover of Princeās āNothing Compares to Uā*), andā¦
Pearl Jam ā Ten (273)
ā¦Pearl Jam. Not only have Pearl Jam been covering Princeās āPurple Rainā somewhat regularly since The Purple One left us (e.g., at the Quebec City show in 2022), but Prince (along with his band 3rdEyeGirl) also did an instrumental cover of a track off this album, āEven Flowā (audio-only here)! (I donāt know about you, but imagining Prince listening to Ten puts a smile on my face.)
Another huge Seattle band that is automatically linked with the cityās scene at the time but oddly did not appear on the Singles soundtrack is, of course, Nirvana. However, one of the bandās (touring) members, Pat Smear, was also linked with Prince, as he appeared in the music video for āRaspberry Beretā. Smear also appeared inā¦
No Doubt ā Tragic Kingdom (804)
the music video for āDonāt Speakā, off of this album by No Doubt. Prince would later collaborate with No Doubt and Gwen Stefani a couple times: Stefani appears on āSo Far, So Pleasedā from Princeās 1999 album Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, which they would perform together later on Princeās Welcome 2 American tour (here); and Prince co-wrote and -produced the song āWaiting Roomā that eventually appeared on No Doubtās 2001 album Rock Steady. <<
*I just had to mention one more link I found when looking up the No Doubt connection (which we could say is connected to āNothing Compares to Uāā¦). Prince seems to have had an impact on others in the world of ska/reggae beyond No Doubt, as thereās an entire reggae covers version of Purple Rain, entitled Purple Reggae. Put out in 2014 by a duo in the UK called Radio Riddler, the tribute album features a number of guest artists including the late great SinĆ©ad OāConnor (who was no stranger to reggae covers), covering Princeās āI Would Die 4 Uā (or, on the dub version of the album, āI Would Dub 4 Uā).
Thank you all for joining me on this whirlwind tour of just a handful of albums from The List! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, especially the little Prince tidbits. There are, of course, so many other connections that could be made, and Iād love to keep the 6 Degrees game going, perhaps as a semi-regular series. Let me know if youād like to contribute a set, either continuing from where weāve left off here or a standalone set youāve discovered!
Are we gonna let de-elevator bring us down?
Oh, no letās go!
https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/04/21/6-degrees-of-separation-part-8/
#1001OtherAlbums #3rdEyeGirl #6DegreesOfSeparation #CandyDulfer #ChrisCornell #DavidByrne #EricLeeds #FullForce #GwenStefani #JimiHendrix #Madhouse #Mayte #NoDoubt #PatSmear #PaulWesterberg #PearlJam #Prince #Selena #SineadOConnor #Soundgarden #SusanRogers