The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
"The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" is a song written and performed by Prince. It is the fourth track on his 1987 double album '' Sign o' the Times'', and features a reference to one of Prince's favorite artists, Joni Mitchell. The track was planned to be the album's fifth and final single, but this never came to fruition and remains unreleased in that format. Background Prior to the release of his album ''Parade'', Prince had already begun recording music for his next project. One of the first things he worked on was this track, which was being recorded on newly installed equipment, according to Prince's engineer Susan Rogers: Eventually, Rogers realized a fatal error which meant that the whole recording sounded like it was underwater: The issue was resolved after the discovery that only half of the bipolar power supplies on the console was on, but it wasn't fixed for the track, retaining its "underwater" quality. Lyrically, the track mentions a waitress who offers him a bath, wh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958April 21, 2016), more commonly known mononymously as Prince, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. The recipient of numerous awards and nominations, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation. He was known for his flamboyant, androgynous persona; his wide vocal range, which included a far-reaching falsetto and high-pitched screams; and his skill as a multi-instrumentalist, often preferring to play all or most of the instruments on his recordings. Prince produced his albums himself, pioneering the Minneapolis sound. His music incorporated a wide variety of styles, including funk, R&B, rock, new wave, soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ..., synth-pop, pop music, pop, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paisley Park
Paisley Park Records was an American record label founded by musician Prince in 1985, which was distributed by and funded in part by Warner Bros. Records. It was started in 1985, following the success of the film and album '' Purple Rain''. The label shares its name with Prince's recording complex Paisley Park Studios and the song "Paisley Park" on his 1985 ''Around the World in a Day'' album. Paisley Park was opened to the public as a museum and memorial to Prince following his death. October 28, 2016, is officially known as Paisley Park Day in the city of Chanhassen to recognize the opening of the museum. History While Prince had great chart success in the 1980s, the success generally did not transfer to other acts. With the exception of Sheila E.'s 1985 album ''Romance 1600'' (the label's debut non-Prince release), Tevin Campbell's single "Round and Round" and the Time's 1990 release '' Pandemonium'', the label had very few commercial successes by artists other than Princ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1987 Songs
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing everyone except a little girl; The King's Cross fire kills 31 people after a fire under an escalator flashes-over; The MV Doña Paz sinks after colliding with an oil tanker, drowning almost 4,400 passengers and crew; Typhoon Nina strikes the Philippines; LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055 crashes outside of Warsaw, taking the lives of all aboard; The USS Stark is struck by Iraqi Exocet missiles in the Persian Gulf; U.S. President Ronald Reagan gives a famous speech, demanding that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev tears down the Berlin Wall., 300x300px, thumb rect 0 0 200 200 Zeebrugge disaster rect 200 0 400 200 Northwest Airlines Flight 255 rect 400 0 600 200 King's Cross fire rect 0 200 300 400 Tear down this wall! rect 300 200 60 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Susannah Melvoin
Susannah Melvoin (born January 26, 1964) is an American vocalist and songwriter. Melvoin is best known for her association with Prince in the mid-1980s. Melvoin comes from a musical family and is the twin sister of musician Wendy Melvoin, sister of Jonathan Melvoin (former touring keyboardist with the Smashing Pumpkins), and daughter of jazz pianist (and former NARAS president) Michael Melvoin. Work with Prince Melvoin got her start working with Prince in the mid-1980s during sister Wendy's stint with The Revolution. During this period, Melvoin was tapped to be a joint lead vocalist of one of Prince's side projects: The Family. Prince wrote The Family's 1985 song "Nothing Compares 2 U" about Melvoin. It charted when Sinéad O'Connor covered it in 1990. Melvoin later joined the expanded line-up of The Revolution – adding backing vocals to ''Parade'' including the 1986 single "Anotherloverholenyohead." She designed the '' Dream Factory'' jacket and received a credit on ''Sign ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Linn LM-1
The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics and released in 1980. It was the first drum machine to use samples of acoustic drums, and one of the first programmable drum machines. Its designer, the American engineer Roger Linn, wanted a machine that would produce more realistic drum sounds and offer more than preset patterns. The LM-1 became a staple of 1980s pop music and helped establish drum machines as credible tools. It appeared on records by artists including the Human League, Gary Numan, Mecano, Icehouse, Michael Jackson and particularly Prince. The LM-1 was succeeded in 1982 by the LinnDrum. Development The LM-1 was designed by the American engineer and guitarist Roger Linn in the late 1970s. Linn was dissatisfied with drum machines available at the time, such as the Roland CR-78, and wanted a machine that did not simply play preset patterns and "sound like crickets". At the suggestion of the Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro, Lin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hammond Organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated sound by creating an electric current from rotating a metal tonewheel near an electromagnetic pickup, and then strengthening the signal with an amplifier to drive a speaker cabinet. The organ is commonly used with the Leslie speaker. Around two million Hammond organs have been manufactured. The organ was originally marketed by the Hammond Organ Company to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, or instead of a piano. It quickly became popular with professional jazz musicians in organ trios—small groups centered on the Hammond organ. Jazz club owners found that organ trios were cheaper than hiring a big band. Jimmy Smith's use of the Hammond B-3, with its additional harmonic percussion feature, inspired a g ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fairlight CMI
The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. — with links to some Fairlight history and photos It was based on a commercial licence of the Qasar M8 developed by Tony Furse of Creative Strategies in Sydney, Australia. It was one of the earliest music workstations with an embedded sampler and is credited for coining the term sampling in music. It rose to prominence in the early 1980s and competed with the Synclavier from New England Digital. History Origins: 1971–1979 In the 1970s, Kim Ryrie, then a teenager, had an idea to develop a build-it-yourself analogue synthesizer, the ETI 4600, for the magazine he founded, ''Electronics Today International'' (ETI). Ryrie was frustrated by the limited number of sounds that the synthesizer could make. After his classmate, Peter Vogel, graduated from high school and had a brief stint at university in 1975, Ryrie asked ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yamaha DX7
The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. In the early 1980s, the synthesizer market was dominated by analog synthesizers. Frequency modulation synthesis, FM synthesis, a means of generating sounds via frequency modulation, was developed by John Chowning at Stanford University, California. FM synthesis created brighter, "glassier" sounds, and could better imitate acoustic sounds such as brass. Yamaha licensed the technology to create the DX7, combining it with very-large-scale integration chips to lower manufacturing costs. With its complex menus and lack of conventional controls, few learned to program the DX7 in depth. However, its preset sounds became staples of 1980s pop music, used by artists including A-ha, Kenny Loggins, Kool & the Gang, Whitney Houston, Chicago (band), Chicago, Phil Collin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Help Me (Joni Mitchell Song)
"Help Me" is a love song written, produced, and performed by Joni Mitchell and released on her 1974 album ''Court and Spark''. The song was recorded with jazz band Tom Scott's L.A. Express as the backing band. "Help Me" was Mitchell's biggest hit single, her only Top 10 hit. It peaked at #7 in June 1974 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and it hit #1 on the easy listening chart. Lyrics and music ''Billboard'' described the lyrics as Mitchell singing of "needing help to feel good." In the lyrics, the singer makes a plea for help that, in later lines, seems a bit of a dichotomy. She knows she's falling in love with "a rambler and a gambler and a sweet-talking ladies' man." But apparently, she has no intention to break things off, even though the last line of each chorus cynically says "We love our loving, but not like we love our freedom." This can be applied to both the singer and her object of affection, a reflection on 1970s outlooks on the challenges of a relationship without ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kate Bush
Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female artist to achieve a UK number one with a self-written song. Bush has since released 25 UK Top 40 singles, including the Top 10 hits "The Man with the Child in His Eyes", "Babooshka (song), Babooshka", "Running Up That Hill", "Don't Give Up (Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush song), Don't Give Up" (a duet with Peter Gabriel) and "King of the Mountain (Kate Bush song), King of the Mountain". All ten of her studio albums reached the UK Top 10, with all bar one reaching the top five, including the UK number one albums ''Never for Ever'' (1980), ''Hounds of Love'' (1985) and the greatest hits compilation ''The Whole Story'' (1986). She was the first British solo female artist to top the UK album charts and the first female art ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Susan Rogers
Susan Rogers is an American professor, sound engineer and record producer best known for being Prince’s staff engineer during his commercial peak (1983-1987), including albums like '' Purple Rain'', ''Around the World in a Day'', ''Parade'', ''Sign o' the Times'', and '' The Black Album''." During this time she laid the foundations for Prince's now famous vault by beginning the process of collecting and cataloguing studio and live recordings. She has also worked as a sound engineer and record producer for several musical artists such as Barenaked Ladies (producing the 1998 album ''Stunt''), David Byrne, Robben Ford, Jeff Black, Rusted Root, Tricky, Michael Penn, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Tevin Campbell. She is an associate professor in the Music Production and Engineering and Liberal Arts departments at Berklee College of Music. Career Rogers was born on August 3, 1956, and grew up in Southern California and had an early interest in recorded music and in the 1970s moved to Holl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sign O' The Times
''Sign o' the Times'' (often stylized as ''Sign "☮︎" the Times'') is the ninth studio album by American singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Prince. It was first released on March 30, 1987 as a double album by Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records. The album is the follow-up to ''Parade'' and is Prince's first solo album following his disbanding of the Revolution. The album's songs were largely recorded during 1986 to 1987 in sessions for releases Prince ultimately aborted: '' Dream Factory'', the pseudonymous '' Camille'', and finally the triple album ''Crystal Ball''. Prince eventually compromised with label executives and shortened the length of the release to a double album. Many of the drum sounds on ''Sign o' the Times'' came from the Linn LM-1 drum machine, and Prince used the Fairlight CMI synthesizer to replace other instruments. Minimal instrumentation is heard on the stripped-down " Sign o’ the Times", the lead single. Four songs conta ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |