If fans of his last album were worried that Prince had been straying from his funk roots with his last release, The Parade album showed how little he would be swayed by criticism. Suited more to the French Riviera that the cold plains of Minneapolis, rich string arrangements and delicate melodies framed this soundtrack to the Prince penned art-house feature film, Under the Cherry Moon.
The first version of the album was assembled in May of 1985, and was more delicate and introspective than its eventual incarnation, which traded some of the more intimate songs for pop chart attempts like “Girls and Boys”, “Mountains”, and most notably Kiss, a song he wrote for the band Mazarati a year earlier and then reclaimed as his own.
I chose to restore the album closer to its original configuration as I feel the emotionally downbeat and contemplative tone is better suited to the arc of the story emerging within Prince’s discography. Reflecting something of a spiritual quest, it speaks to loneliness of stardom with songs that seem equal parts skeptical and optimistic, equal parts black and white. Among the excluded material I brought back is a starry-eyed bootleg “There’s Other’s Here With Us”, the aptly titled “All My Dreams”, and perhaps most remarkably, “Old Friends 4 Sale”, an uncharacteristically personal jazz ballad confessing feelings of isolation and an increasing mistrust of the people around him. However heart-wrenching, the strife Prince enduring during the breakup of The Revolution would soon be fuel for what would be the most prolific year of the evolving artist’s life.
Wendy’s Parade
New Postition
I Wonder U
Under the the Cherry Moon
Life Can Be So Nice
Anotherloverholenyohead (Extended Version)
All My Dreams
There’s Others Here With Us
Old Friends 4 Sale
Sometimes It Snows In April

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