George Clinton - Hey Man... Smell My Finger

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!

Prince Week, Day One: BLAME PRINCE

I don't think I've said much about my relationship with the purple one, but it's rather convoluted and has led me to the point where I love his older stuff but have no appetite for anything new he may release, at least not if it's "new" music. With Prince, just because he says it's "new" it doesn't mean he didn't write it twenty years ago. A lot of his songs, both for himself and other artists, are re-treads he wrote and recorded years earlier. Sometimes the re-treads are practically identical. A great example of this, which I'll post later this week, is The Time's Chocolate. It was written for Purple Rain/Ice Cream Castles but shelved. A tape exists of the 1983 recording with a guide vocal by Prince doing his Morris Day impersonation and the backing track is IDENTICAL to that of the released version! Hell, Morris went so far as to use most of Prince's improvisations on the released version and Prince even makes an appearance, from the scratch vocal, as the annoying waiter! It's pretty incredible but, after listening to enough Prince records, these things aren't that shocking.

If we want to talk about shocking, or at least confusing, we can talk about Prince's long list of proteges and the unavailability of their catalogs. Prince owns the rights to just about everything released on his Paisley Park label, despite the fact Warner Brothers were his source of income for it's signings, and everything the label released, apart from his own albums, is out of print, has never been reissued and most likely never will be. The only exceptions are pre-Paisley Park releases by Sheila E. and The Time, all of which use the same masters that they have been pressed from for years, same as all of Prince's Warners catalog. Apparently, within the last decade Warners/Rhino had green-lit a Time greatest hits release, but due to Prince's bullshit, even a remastered collection of their hits and some rarities could not be issued, and it looks like Warners owns those masters to boot! I guess that's what you get when you let one of your most prolific artists write, record and create bands for your label, but it honestly seems very unfair, both to the label and the artists.

Anyway, there are tons of great records Prince was involved in that are no longer unavailable for reasons only the purple one and his lawyers may know, but due to the power of the internet we can now enjoy these classics regardless! So, to kick off the week, I've prepared a small compilation of some rather rare Prince-related singles and productions which are otherwise completely unavailable. This will probably be the smallest of the Prince posts this week, at least in terms of content, so make sure you come back for much more over the next few days. I've got lots more where this came from!


BLAME PRINCE

01 The Time - Tricky
For many years, this was the last new track The Time had ever released, and it barely qualifies as a Time recording, let alone a full-fledged track. This was released as the B-Side to Jungle Love and, despite starting with Morris goofing on someone (I've heard reports the whole track is a goof on George Clinton), Prince takes over doing his best Morris impression while Morris and others laugh in the background. The backing track may be from the same sessions that produced Cloreen Bacon Skin which was recorded during the What Time Is It? sessions.

02 Apollonia 6 - Sex Shooter (Long Version)
This is the 12" version of the fabulous Sex Shooter. Unlike the album version, this goes on for near seven minutes and is much closer to the original draft of the song. A demo with Vanity singing over a less complete version of the backing track with Prince on backup vocals exists, and it's a bit funkier to boot, but this version is still great.

03 Andre Cymone - The Dance Electric (Long Version)
Andre was a member of Prince's earliest professional band before The Revolution became Prince's official group. He went solo and was openly miffed with Prince, but Prince, surprisingly enough, tried to squash whatever disagreement remained by giving Andre this excellent track recorded around the time of Around The World In A Day. There are versions of this with Prince singing, and apart from the vocals, they are identical to one another. There is a actually a VERY LONG version of this track where Prince solos all over the place and the bands rocks out. That will be hear soon enough, but for now you can enjoy the excellent released version.

04 Jill Jones - Mia Bocca (Extended)
This song was written around the time of Parade/Under The Cherry Moon and actually makes a brief appearance in the film as background music early on. It was given to Jill for her solo album in 1987, easily one of the best Prince-produced albums ever released. This version is a little different from the album version, having been remixed for single release.

05 The Family - The Screams Of Passion (Extended Version)
Another song from a Prince-produced project. The Family and Jill Jones' albums are some of the best things Prince ever did that didn't carry his name, and it's ridiculous that they're not available at least digitally. This song is a great slice of eighties dance/funk and this version was released on it's corresponding 12".

06 Sheila E. - Holly Rock (Extended Version)
Holly Rock was released on the Krush Groove soundtrack and as a single, but has never appeared elsewhere. Despite being listed as an Extended Version, this is probably the complete track with the album and single versions being radio friendly edits. It's pretty obvious Prince is all over this one, you can hear him counting off the band at the beginning heaven's sake! More reasons that his proteges should be given greatest hits collections at the very least. Great songs like these shouldn't be stored away to gather dust. Simply put, this track is THE SHIT!!!

07 Taja Sevelle - Wouldn't You Love To Love Me?
Trying to explain Taja is really difficult, so you should simply visit her wikipedia reference and official site where you can learn much more about this incredible woman. As for the song, Prince had been kicking this one around since before signing with Warners. He had recorded a very sweet version around the Dirty Mind era, but it simply wasn't right for that album. He re-recorded it in 1987 with his then-current personnel, and then gave the track to Taja for her debut album which was released on his own Paisley Park Records. The backing track is identical to Prince's 1987 version, although it fades out a little earlier.

08 The Time - Grace
This is the B-Side to 777-9311 and features Vanity, as Bridgette Harrington, trying to interview Morris as he keeps calling her Grace. The backing track is actually an edit of 777-9311, so it's really not a new track, more like a goofy skit, but memorable nonetheless.

09 Vanity 6 - Drive Me Wild (Extended Mix)
Susan Moonsey handles vocals on this minimal Vanity 6 classic. Oh god, how hot Susan, Brenda and Vanity were! No, I am not dissing Apollonia, lord knows she is hot as hell too! This version has a kickin' guitar solo towards the end.

10 Sheila E. - The Glamorous Life (Club Edit)
This was actually intended for the second Vanity 6 album, but with Vanity leaving the production of Purple Rain, Prince found a new use for it with Sheila. This version is from the 12" single, and is, as the title infers, a re-edit for clubs. This has appeared on some versions of the album released on CD, and may actually still be available for purchase, but how many people actually have it? I don't think I'm doing any harm by posting it here for all to enjoy, so let's enjoy it then!

George Clinton - Smell My Finger Demos

Back in the early nineties my family got a Prodigy account. If you don't remember Prodigy, it was the direct competitor of America Online and was marketed as an online community of sorts prior to the world wide web changing everything and the internet becoming a popular topic. The big draw were the forums for just about every topic under the sun. With these forums I started looking into tape trading with fans of Depeche Mode and Prince. The DM trading circle dried up pretty quick since there wasn't much available in the way of live or unreleased recordings, but the Prince circles were huge! I wasn't very interested in live recordings since most of them were crap, but there were so many studio recordings to get and I got just about everything that was available at the time. Most of Prince's studio works that get traded today were leaked and shared via cassettes from the very late eighties to late nineties. It was a fun group to participate in, although I was apparently one of the few that didn't try to fit into skin-tight outfits or sing in a falsetto. Seriously, I'm not knocking anyone here, just being honest. You guys should have seen the Prince conventions!

I had so many great tapes but most of them are worthless now, replaced by better quality MP3s than any generation tape I have or could have gotten. I know enough to get by when it comes to sonic spectrals, and those tapes generally look gawd-awful, but there are a few things out there which never seemed to make their way to the digital age at large, or at least large enough that I see them widely. I used to have demos and rough mixes of songs from Beauty and The Beast and The Lion King, which were intensely fascinating although they seem to have sadly disappeared. I still have a complete tape of Danny Elfman's Nightmare Before Christmas demos, of which several tracks are still unreleased and deserve an eventual posting, as well as a 90 minute cassette of truly rare Lucky Pierre recordings, many of which also remain unreleased, but some of the weirder stuff rests on a cassette I received, I believe, in 1991.

The 1991 cassette is a collection of tracks intended for George Clinton's Hey Man... Smell My Finger, his second album for Prince's Paisley Park label and then heralded by many as a major return to form for the soulful funkateer. I had received a different cassette of tracks from these sessions a month or two earlier that I had neglected to examine in depth because the tape speed was seriously flawed making the recording difficult to focus on, but this one was spot on. Despite being referred to as demos, these recordings sounded rather complete in parts, making me wonder what else could be added to these songs. Well, a lot actually as several of the tracks were removed and others were dramatically reinvented, making the album sound a lot less like a Prince-related production and more like a genuine P-Funk document.

When the album came out, GC got some good press but, like most Paisley Park releases, it was under-promoted as hell, sold miserably and went out of print quick. It was actually a pretty damn nice album, which makes it's non-availability a real shame, but it did get a lot of hype within the Prince community and made me want to hear anything else I could that was P-Funk related. It's also worth noting that it sparked tons of questions about Prince's involvement in the album, as there is definitely a Princely vibe stirring beneath the surface and there were strong rumors that Prince was heavily involved in the album's production. GC publicly stated at one point that Prince was "all over that album", but his name only appeared directly on the album's weakest track, The Big Pump.

These "demos", which I'm not sure is an appropriate label (listen to the horn sections! don't sound like demos to me!), are pretty damn awesome, yet despite the Prince involvement, I haven't seen them traded in the Prince community for a long time nor have I seen many mentions of them online otherwise. Alternate versions of some of the tracks do appear in some Prince collections, but this tape seems pretty much ignored.

All of these tracks were transferred by me earlier today and, apart from removing excessive silence at the end of certain cuts, you're getting the unedited Smell My Finger portion of the cassette. So please take a listen and enjoy this fine funky find!


George Clinton - Smell My Finger Demos

01 The Flag Was Still There
This isn't all that terribly different from the released version of this track, although I do prefer the sparser production over the bombastic tones of the finished version. Oooh, I sounded kinda poetic there!
02 Rhythm & Rhyme
This is completely different from the finished version. Bootsy and Shock-G/Humpty Hump are nowhere in sight. George is rapping off the beat all over this track, and it sounds pretty lame. The finished one is far superior, but this is still interesting to hear.
03 Dis Beat Disrupts
The Prince-involvement argument really heats up here. Housequake is both sampled and mentioned here over a simple drum machine and backwards beep loop with a little sitar thrown in for good measure. TC Ellis, whom I'm sure almost no one has ever heard of, does a little rapping here. The finished version is a little more energetic but this version is funky!
04 Kickback
A less convoluted version of the track that made the final album. Simpler and better for it.
05 Oil Spill
Damn glad this track did not make the album. Rather dated commentary on the first Iraq war. Never really cared for this track anyway.
06 Way Up
This is a slightly different version of the instrumental of the same name featured on the finished album, although George shows up here to recite part of his rap from Martial Law in a more relaxed voice.
07 We Can Funk
This track puts things in perspective, dating some of these recordings to 1989 or 1990. The backing track on this version is identical to the version on Graffiti Bridge, although Prince is almost invisible here, at least vocally, as he only shows up towards the end. All other vocals are handled by GC and friends.
08 Your Mother
I guess GC's son, Trey Lewd, has done part of this rap somewhere or other, but this track otherwise remains unreleased. Pretty funky stuff, although George's vocals appear nowhere on the track.
09 High In My Hello
This is another track that never grew on me here or when it was finished, although this somewhat simpler version, not featuring George's ranting, is far more acceptable. This track cuts off at the end as the tape ran out, but from hearing another copy I can safely attest that you're not missing anything. The ending loops and voices merely continue to repeat over and over and over and over.....
10 Pony
Once again, it's clear Prince is here, all the way from the percussion track to his background vocals on the chorus. Catchy track which, while it wouldn't have fit on the finished album as is, could have been really great with some additional polish. To be honest, this could have been released as is because it's just a fun dance track. As simple as it is, don't tell me you couldn't hear some DJ playing it and people dancing like crazy to it. A keeper!
11 Booty
This was retooled and issued as the B-Side to Paint The White House Black. I prefer this version. More nasty sex-funk from GC.
12 Get Satisfied
This is an easy winner, and it wasn't changed too drastically upon release. I think there might have been some more synths on the finished version and the pitch may have been adjusted, but clearly they knew not to mess with something that worked. Great track!
13 This Groove (Is Gonna Make You Move)
Funky track that should have seen release in one form or another. I wonder if Prince being involved may have kept this from being resurrected in one form or another, although I do know Prince owns the rights to EVERYTHING that was released on Paisley Park. The guy who complained about majors hoarding his masters is doing just the same as an indie-guy. grumble grumble grumble