What the hell was wrong in Prince's camp? If you read my earlier post with the outtakes and roughs from this album, you know it was being recorded over the course of several years, primarily during the early nineties. I heard the roughs a long time before the album was released and commented openly at that time that they sounded mostly finished, what else could they do with them? Well, the finished album was worth the wait with the wonderful Hollywood, Maximumisness and Martial Law added and most of the previously leaked tracks reworked effectively. I had to get my father to drive me to a Camelot Music and pay an obscene fee for the CD but I was definitely satisfied. I never imagined George could improve upon those roughs so much with them being rather exceptional already.
Smell My Finger received good reviews and George went on tour with the family shortly thereafter, but upon Paisley Park shutting down the album disappeared and, apart from a brief appearance of Hollywood on the 1-800-NEW-FUNK CD, a comp that is also long out-of-print, the album was never reissued and is sitting in Prince's vault. Why Prince's vault? Despite Paisley Park being a primarily Warner Bros. funded operation, Prince retains ALL rights to any albums released upon that label barring his own works, which explains why some releases by The Time and Sheila E. are still available for purchase while others are not. Still doesn't explain why the Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6 albums aren't available but that should explain why artists like GC can't even get a digital release for Smell My Finger or The Cinderella Theory. Add to that Prince's assertion that "the internet is over" and you've almost got an open invitation to plunder the Paisley Park catalog.
Regarding Smell My Finger, George definitely had the whole P-Funk family on board as well as many others including Ice Cube, Yo-Yo, MC Breed, Kam, Digital Underground, Public Enemy and Dr. Dre. Dre only contributed a funny skit-like phone call that appears twice during Paint The White House Black and while Chuck D. and Flavor Flav are both audible during the track, interestingly enough their appearance is sampled from Tweakin' on The Cinderella Theory, a sample that is actually credited in the liner notes. Prince also receives a credit on the album, but not in the way you might have assumed. Initially there were rumors abounding that Prince would be a major contributor to the album. When the roughs leaked a lot of people thought they could hear the Princely influence and assumed it was fact, but when the finished album appeared Prince's name only appeared on one song, The Big Pump, an assumed leftover of sorts from Graffiti Bridge and easily the weakest song on the album. It sounds like Prince's idea of a cheap house track and is entirely rapped by George and another rapper whose voice, I'm embarrassed to say, I can't recognize. Hell, trying to figure out who does what on the album is near impossible as the liner notes aren't organized by tracks, they merely list everyone in an enormous pile. You can check the wikipedia reference for the full list but it doesn't help much. The only thing clear is who is credited for writing the songs and producing them. Flea and Anthony Kedis are listed as vocal contributors but picking them out of the mix is impossible, as is telling where Amp Fiddler's contributions are or much of anything else. Prince fans will recognize Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss on horns and Bootsy's bass pops up throughout but have fun guessing with the rest of it. Prince's name doesn't appear as an instrumental or vocal contributor to the album either, although George has openly stated that Prince is "all over that album", whatever that means.
It's rather surprising in retrospect that Warners didn't try to pick up George's contract with Paisley Park after that label folded, what with the positive press and a legitimately good album by an artist who was receiving a popular rebirth through modern production techniques, but they didn't and George would reappear in 96 on Sony with The Awesome Power Of A Fully Operational Mothership, a sleepy affair credited to himself and the P-Funk All-Stars. All in all the situation was a disappointment, but now just about anything with the Paisley Park logo on it is a collectors item and this is legitimately one of the best things released on the label alongside The Family and Jill Jones' self-titled debuts.
For your listening pleasure, I am proud to share links for you to download Hey Man... Smell My Finger as both V0 MP3s and FLAC files. You'll also find the videos for Martial Law and Paint The White House Black embedded below though I don't think I'll ever need to see them again. The video for Martial Law is particularly bizarre, what with George in the middle of an all-ages house party that isn't in sync with the music, followed by Sir Nose and some riot police (LA cops?) storming the house looking for the funk. Despite the cops stomping like nazis they can't stay with the beat either, although I suppose you could say that might make sense. The most peculiar part of the video is a parody of the Rodney King beatings with the cops beating a boom box to bits, all caught on film by a robotic looking Flea. And you wonder why you didn't see it on MTV?
George Clinton - Hey Man... Smell My Finger
NOTE: Make sure you download all three FLAC parts and extract each individually before deleting them. They are NOT connected so extracting the first part will not cause the second and third to also extract, you must do each part on it's own.
FLAC, Part 1
FLAC, Part 2
FLAC, Part 3
V0 MP3
01 Martial Law
produced by George Clinton, Kerry Gordy & William Bryant III
02 Paint The White House Black
produced by George Clinton, Kerry Gordy & William Bryant III
03 Way Up
produced by George Clinton & Foley
04 Dis Beat Disrupts
produced by George Clinton & DeWayne "Blackbird" McKnight
05 Get Satisfied
produced by George Clinton & Foley
06 Hollywood
produced by George Clinton & Dallas Austin
07 Rhythm and Rhyme
produced by George Clinton
08 The Big Pump
produced by Prince & George Clinton
09 If True Love
produced by George Clinton
10 High In My Hello
produced by George Clinton
11 Maximumisness
produced by George Clinton & Bill Laswell
12 Kickback
produced by George Clinton, Garry Shider & Foley
13 The Flag Was Still There
produced by George Clinton & Garry Shider
14 Martial Law (Hey Man... Smell My Finger) (Single Version)
produced by George Clinton, Kerry Gordy & William Bryant III
BONUS TRACK: Booty (this link contains both the FLAC and V0 MP3 versions)
produced by George Clinton, Dewayne "Blackbird" McKnight & Gary Shider
By the way, if you need a fix of Prince's side-projects in a visual medium, a fellow named The Paisley Parker has got your prescription! Just don't tell Prince!
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