1986 - A year in the life

 

Late last year the beautifully curated 1986 box set appeared online and it has had pride of place at my house ever since. The 20 disc set covers 1986 in all forms, including live recordings, studio recordings, outtakes, and released songs. Some people collect live bootlegs, other unreleased studio tracks, and most people have a happy mixture of both. Personally, I love live recordings (hence the blog) but this set has proved irresistible to me, the discs are never far from the stereo, and I am compelled to write about it. As passionate as I am, even for me, 20 discs of material are too much for me to discuss in detail, so this week I will be presenting an overview of 1986 in general and how well this set covers this extraordinary year.

  

 

  

The 1986 Box Set ‘A Year in the Life’

In 1987 I was 15 years old. Everywhere I went I carried Sign O The Times under my arm, not the cassette tape or the CD, but the full vinyl album. It was a statement about who I was and what I was about. Obviously, I couldn’t play it when I had it with me but I used to love the feeling of it in my hands and I would spend hours poring over the artwork and lyrics. I had never seen such a beautiful piece of complete art in my life. It’s only 30 years on that I fully realize that although Sign O The Times was released in 1987, it is actually a product of 1986’s extraordinary body of work. I may have listened to Sign O The Times all through 1987 but it sprung from the fertile ground of 1986.

It was not alone- a great many other creative ghost albums from 1986 have slowly revealed themselves over the years- The Flesh, Dream Factory, Camille, Crystal Ball as well as the genesis of The Black Album. The breadth and scope of 1986 are phenomenal, Prince touches on many different genres and seems to be at the peak of his powers in all fields- performance, songwriting, command of the studio, creativity, as well as productivity. The 1986 Box Set brings together all these different strands and presents them in a way that I get a better feel for what was happening. I can see clearly how it all ties together, the moves and motivations in what I am listening to. When I see it all laid out I can see that at the heart of it all is a lot of humanity and for me, this is the key thing to remember as I listen to all this music.

Several things immediately spring to mind when I think of 1986. Firstly is the feeling of joyful camaraderie and humor. It’s well that Prince filmed Under The Cherry Moon in France, for its two French words that are at the front of my mind as I first begin to listen to this set, joie de vivre and esprit de corps. There is joy and playfulness in the music and the band’s performances. It won’t last all year, but certainly, early on they look like they are having a great time together. Have a look at Wendy’s face as she plays at the Shelia E show, she is strutting and having a great time, definitely one funky lady, as Prince was fond of telling people at the time. You can see that smile fixed upon her face, and the rest of the band is following suit. Again in the Cobo set you can see it, I too feel uplifted as I watch them all play together as a tight unit, especially when standing in line playing “Mutiny”- the music is flowing easily, and they seem to be close to family. It’s the same all through the first half of 1986, the band is smiling and laughing, and you can hear that in the live recordings in this set. In Prince’s singing it’s there, and you can see it in the live clips. They are a close-knit unit, and it seems that Prince has reached the point where he trusts the band, and they have a lot of freedom under his direction. He certainly calls all the shots during the tour, but the band has the freedom to jam and play their own thing, Eric Leeds in particular seems to propel the music in new  directions, and who doesn’t love that moment in the shows where he gets to play solo before being cut off by Prince “Eric, shut the fuck up!” My mother used to hate it as I stomped around saying this- I sure was a strange kid when I was younger. Even scripted ‘impromptu’ moments like this as he talks with the band, or the audience, reveal his feelings towards the band and raise the curtain on a performer that previously seemed a little cold and clinical.

This new humane aspect to Prince’s music for me makes it much more accessible, and long-lasting. The thing that first attracts me is the humor, it runs throughout 1986, firstly with The Revolution-both live and in the studio, and then later in the year when he goes it alone. Listening to “Data Bank” for example, we can hear the good times in the studio, and whether it is scripted or not, there is no denying that it is done in a very light mood. Who doesn’t find it funny as the band plays on ignoring Prince's instructions- something which I imagine would never happen in real life. Later in the year, after The Revolution has crumbled and the dark clouds have gathered, Prince still retains his humor and expresses it in his lyrics. Whatever is going on in his personal life, there are still moments to make you smile. A lot of these songs are on the unreleased CD from the second half of the year, as well as the Black Album, and of course Sign O The Times still has plenty to make me smile.

 

The music is infused with new humanity as well as emotion – both positive and, later in the year, negative. Knowing what we about Prince's life at the time, we can see that he is pouring a lot of his personal life into these songs. The final sessions of Parade hint at this, and it becomes much more apparent as the year progresses. Listening to the warm-up show at First Ave we can hear a mixture of all these feelings, Prince’s love songs, a big splash of humor, as well as a dig at former colleagues with Mutiny and of course his symbolic chopping down of the Oaktree and turning it into a wooden leg. He is much more human than the funk machine we know from earlier years, and the smutty imp is replaced by someone I can relate to and warm to. The music has the full gamut of emotions, and no matter what my mood, when I listen to this I can find something I relate to.

In 1986 his love songs become more meaningful, personal, and as a consequence deeper. He is obviously a happy man in love, at least before April of that year. The songs early in the year speak to this love, and later in the year after his world is transformed, he still writes plenty of great songs based on love lost. When I connect Prince's personal life to his musical life it’s hard not to look at a song like Strange Relationship and connect it to what is happening in his world. Likewise, the song “Mutiny” which I have spoken of previously is heavily connected to what is happening with his other personal and professional relationships. He taps these emotions to great effect, and some of his most powerful music is drawn from this well.

There is a darker undercurrent running beneath all this emotion, humor, and music. There is a dynamic tension in 1986, it propels everything in the year and it’s extremely fertile. The shiny pop vehicle that he rides in on in early 1986 is not the same as the one he leaves in. You only have to look at his personal appearance to see the change. Looking crisp and clean at the start of the year in his black and whites and short-cropped hair, by the beginning of 1987 he has taken on a more rough and tumble look, his hair grown out, and a more adult look. He has moved away from the timeless Peter Pan and closer to the sort of person I could expect to meet down the street. The contrast in looks is matched in the contrast of styles he produces throughout the year. Everywhere I look I see tensions between different sounds and movements. We have the conflicts in The Revolution, both personally and musically, then the tension between his Funk work and his Jazz work. There is discord between his private life and his professional life. All of it gives tightness and drive. He is moving in several different directions at once, and tension in the band and his music can be heard. Wendy and Lisa may have railed against being “Just another funk band”, yet they still played on some of the funkiest songs he has put out to date. After the band split it gets darker and funkier as Prince regroups and is free to go where ever he pleases musically. You can hear the darkness descend in songs like Big Tall Wall, it is balanced by lighter moments, but it’s definitely there. Prince is so prolific that the ideas are bouncing off each other and the connections between his personal life and musical life are blurred. He is a driven man, and everything is thrown into the music. The Black Album bookends this set with Parade, and although dark by name and sound, the lyrics create further tension, demonstrating a healthy sense of humor against the darker music. It’s a conflicted year, with the joy of The Revolution early on and a flowering of the music, before Prince brings it to a crashing end in Yokohama smashing his guitar on stage and signaling the end of the Revolution but not his creative spirit as he continues to deliver some fantastic music later in the year. When I listen to the studio recordings, and I mean really sit down and listen to them carefully, I can hear this tension, the light against the darkness, the deep against the shallow, the band against the individual, the funk against the full spectrum of music. This conflict is what makes this year so interesting, and best of all Prince had the tapes rolling the whole time.

 

If humanity and feeling is the most important thing I take from 1986, the second would be productivity, work ethic and the sheer quantity of music Prince recorded and performed in the year. This box set is 20 CDs, plus extras. Full credit to get it down to that, it could easily have been much more. If it was me it would have stretched out to 40, it all feels essential. But these 20 CDs capture the key moments perfectly, if anyone was looking for the essential must listens, this is it. I would love to take any non-believing music fan and sit them down to listen to this, it’s all here. The glorious highs of The Revolution live shows, the unreleased songs that any other artist would kill to release, the released albums, the unreleased albums, an amazing after-show full of rarities, and a couple of CDs of Princes Jazz leanings, all of it essential and all of it of the highest standard. I have been listening to this music for 30 years, and I am still shaking my head that all of this could have been produced in one year. Prince may have sung “You don’t have to watch Dynasty” but he obviously didn’t spend much time watching TV himself, and I am surprised he even found time to sleep. If I could have heard all of this in 1986, it would have blown my tiny teenage mind, it’s probably just as well that a lot of this music has leaked out slowly over the years.

Live bootlegs are the thing for me, and the ones presented here are among the very best from Prince's career. Sure, there are better-recorded bootlegs from other interesting periods of his career, but most people would agree that the ones in this set are among the most essential. The show from the 3rd March I have written about before, may not be the best, but it most certainly is my favorite. The old Prince is fused with the new, and he delivers a show that touches on everything I love about him, his showmanship, his ability to play a mixture of instruments well, his great vocals, and most of all his songwriting skills, it all starts and ends in the songs themselves. Then there is the beloved Cobo show, I don’t think I have ever met a Prince fan who didn’t own a copy of this and cherished it. It is indeed ‘untouchable’. The next live shows each capture a moment of the evolution of the band and Prince, the Stockholm show shows them at their peak, the Le New Morning show captures what we would consider the start of Prince’s after shows (despite its dubious recording quality) and then a beautiful soundboard of the Paris concert where It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night was recorded live for “Sign O The Times.” Each one of these shows is worthy of its inclusion, and I rate them all very highly. Don’t be put off by the sound of the Le New Morning after show, the amazing setlist more than makes up for it – what I wouldn’t give for a setlist like that nowadays. Finally, to top it all off we have the final show of The Revolution. An interesting historical document, the fact it is their final show makes its inclusion a must. Prince smashing his guitar brings the end to an era and the live shows in this set.

The unreleased music and albums in this set throw up a great mix of style and flavors. Prince is experimenting here and pushing himself. The things I first gravitate to are the jazzy flavored CDs, The Flesh shows Prince dipping his toe in the water before immersing himself more fully with Madhouse later in the year. I rate both highly and for me “Junk Music” is the must-listen track, if you haven’t heard it I suggest you skip straight to it now. The two CDs of unreleased tracks throw up all sorts of interesting tracks and are a real grab bag of sounds and styles. It’s a lolly scramble with many flavors and colors to try, and again I have to remind myself that this is all coming from one guy in one year. These are trumped for me by the unreleased albums presented here- The Dream Factory, Crystal Ball, Camille, and The Black album (later released). Each of them has a distinct flavor and sound. The Dream Factory to my ears is the most cohesive as well as sounding the most like a band effort. It’s the album I listen to most of the four and in some ways, it’s a disappointment that it didn’t get released at the time. I can understand why the record company was reluctant to release it in this flood of material, just as I can understand Prince's frustration in producing all this great material and being unable to release it. Crystal Ball has an unsettled sound to it, and I feel it reflects well the state of play in late 1986. It has an unease about it and a darkness. Camille is a somewhat artificial creation, more a fan-made creation than an actual album, it nevertheless is a lot of fun, and I give it a lot of play in my car. The Black Album is the dark funk album of the four, but as I mentioned earlier, Prince’s tongue is firmly planted in his cheek with his lyrical content. Who knows what the world would have made of it in 1986, by the time it was released times had moved on, but it’s still a great party album.

The box set opens with the final Parade sessions, and at the other end, we have Sign O The Times which is a nice exclamation mark at the end of it all. It’s self a hotchpotch of everything that has come before, it encapsulates everything that has happened in 1986 and neatly sums up the year in its four sides. Love songs, live tracks, sex songs, spiritual songs, psychedelic songs, funk songs as well as some good old-fashioned rock, Prince picks something of everything he has done through the year and throws it in. No need to tell you I have heard it thousands of times, yet it’s still an essential addition to this boxset.

 

The final thing that marks 1986 as an outstanding year, is not just the quantity of the music, but the quality. Sure there are a lot of songs there, and honestly, every one of them is worthy of its place. Prince was untouchable, and everything he tried in 1986 came off for him. He experimented with a range of styles and mixed them into his own sound, producing something unique. In 1986 he did this over and over, I could pick any song from this year and hold it up as an example. His jazz moments get a lot of praise, and then again we can’t forget he also produced the funky Black album to boot. Listening to all these albums and songs now, any one of them would hold its place on a released album. Prince did a lot in these 52 weeks, and he did it oh so well. The band's influence can be heard early on, and later in the year, he is still taking on other influences as he works alone. In 1986 I knew Prince was good, I just didn’t realize how good until a few years later as these songs came to light.

Prince plays many different styles throughout the box set, and for me, the two that are of the highest standard and both worth mentioning are the Jazz stylings and the hard funk. Again, they feed back into the dynamic tension that drives 1986, and the unsettling nature of hearing one man produce both at such high quality in a small period of time. Parade may have had hints of Jazz, but it’s The Flesh where Prince first begins to flesh it out (excuse the pun). The Parade sessions end in January and then in the same month Prince records this collection of Jazz flavored songs. You could argue that it’s not a jazz album, but the intent is there, as is the sound, helped notably by Eric Leeds. I have to constantly remind myself that these are essentially the same group of people that recorded “Anotherloverholeinyohead” just a few weeks previous. Prince gets a chance to do it all again later, with his Madhouse configuration later in the year. Here he strips it back to just him and Eric Leeds, and this time it’s no studio experiment, he is recording for release. Looking at it now it seems a mad idea, but when you look at the body of work from 1986 it makes perfect sense. Of course, he wants to record a jazz album and put it out, this is Prince we’re talking about. I am not a fan of everything on the album, but I am full of admiration for the fact it is done, and it does stand on its own as an album.

This being 1986 there is an opposite to this, and that would be The Black Album. It’s easy to point at similarities too, the Black Album is conceived as an album that focuses on one style and aspect of Prince’s music, and of course, it does feature 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton which works as a jazz fusion funk jam. Elsewhere though, the colors are drained out and this is a lean mean funk album. The lyrics as noted earlier are fun and light, even if the music is hard-edged. Again, I am not a fan of everything on the album, but it does hold true to his vision, and like everything else in the year it’s done to a high standard.

There is no doubt in my mind that 1986 is the peak of Prince's productivity and creativity, and as such the 1986 boxset is essential. If I was to introduce a newbie to Prince, this would be the place to start. It reveals him not as a pop star or performer, but as a true artist. True, he is playing the game in his live shows, but it’s in the studio where he is pushing boundaries and himself. When I listen to this set, I don’t hear pop songs, I hear art, art that will last long after Prince’s star has faded. There will be those in the future who won’t have grown with his music as I have, nor seen him live, and its box sets like this that will remain as a testament to his genius and vision. There is more to it than this however, for me the music here is not just about Prince, it is deeply personal to me, and I carry a variety of associations with it. It represents not just a milestone in Prince’s life, but also a series of milestones from my own as it has soundtracked my life for the last 30 years. 1986- A Year In The Life has lasted me a lifetime. Good times and bad, I have had this music with me through my journey, providing comfort and uplifting moments when I needed it. I may have carried Sign O The Times with me all through 1987, but this collection of music from 1986 I have carried with me all my life.

-Hamish

For more on this extraordinary collection visit: 1986boxset.blogspot.com