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Hi! It’s a brand new day!
We are Purple Music Podcast, the one and only podcast in Spanish devoted to Prince.
“We got the beat you're looking for
The rebirth of the flesh is at your door
So let 's get in, y’all!”
#PrinceTwitterThread #SOTTDeluxe
We are Purple Music Podcast, the one and only podcast in Spanish devoted to Prince.
“We got the beat you're looking for
The rebirth of the flesh is at your door
So let 's get in, y’all!”
#PrinceTwitterThread #SOTTDeluxe
First of all, we want to thank @deejayumb and @EdgarKruize for inviting us to collaborate. We feel deeply honored to become a part of the fantastic Purple Avengers. We hope this is the beginning of a beautiful purple friendship.
Purple Music is composed by 3 Spanish Prince’s fans: Saiber, Shockadelica and StarrChild. We started our podcast in 2019 and since then we have done 2 seasons, a fanzine and interviewed some Prince’s collaborators such as Dr Fink, Mononeon, Xavier Taplin & Sly Onyejiaka.
You can listen 2 our podcast in:
iVoox
https://go.ivoox.com/sq/738601
Spotify https://spoti.fi/2YggmIv
Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/35mNZOl
We also publish a fanzine twice a year. Take a look!
Lovesexy https://bit.ly/purple-music-1-lovesexy
Love Symbol https://bit.ly/purple-music-2-love-symbol-lectura
iVoox
https://go.ivoox.com/sq/738601 Spotify
https://spoti.fi/2YggmIv Apple Podcasts
https://apple.co/35mNZOl We also publish a fanzine twice a year. Take a look!
Lovesexy
https://bit.ly/purple-music-1-lovesexy Love Symbol
https://bit.ly/purple-music-2-love-symbol-lectura
So, if Saiber, Shockadelica and StarrChild are here, where are you? Everybody jam to the new boogie cool, come on!
Let’s talk about our topic today: the refreshing and powerful “Rebirth of the Flesh (Original Outro)”.
Let’s talk about our topic today: the refreshing and powerful “Rebirth of the Flesh (Original Outro)”.
“Rebirth of the Flesh” was recorded on October, 28th, 1986, in Sunset Sound Studios (LA), a day after “Feel U Up”, the same day as “Rockhard in a Funky Place” and two days before “Good Love”. A golden week indeed!
The song was the first track of the unreleased project “Camille” and, in fact, it was the only one from this project which wasn’t published by Prince in any other subsequent projects. We had to wait until 2020 to enjoy this amazing song in a high quality studio version.
As we know, “Housequake”, “Strange Relationship” and “If I Was Your Girlfriend” became part of Sign O’ The Times album while “Rockhard In A Funky Place” appeared in the Black Album.
Both “Feel U Up” and “Shockadelica” became b-sides of “Partyman” and “IF I Was Your Girlfriend”, respectively.
“Good Love” was the first track in the BSO of the film “Bright Lights, Big City”, directed by James Bridges and starred by Michael J Fox. It was later included in the compilation Crystal Ball, in 1998.
Let’s go back to “Rebirth of the Flesh”. We didn’t have a studio version, but we could enjoy a live version of the song. An early 1988’s rehearsal of “Rebirth of the Flesh” was shared in NPGMUSICCLUB’s website, together with Ahdio Show 8 & other songs.
The title was probably inspired by Miles Davis’ “Birth of the Cool”, an album which included recordings forged between 1949 and 1950 and that wasn’t published until 1957. This album supposed the birth of a new style: the cool-jazz.
With classical music influences, this new genre moved away from the fast and aggressive figures of bebop and drove jazz into a more relaxed and elegant scenario.
This album is considered as Miles Davis’ first revolution and one of its songs has, again, some kind of connection to Prince: “Venus De Milo”.
In 2017, Susannah Melvoin revealed the design that she had created for the cover of “Dream Factory” album. As we can see, the album wasn’t going to be credited to Prince and The Revolution but to “The Flesh”.
“The Flesh” was an omnipresent concept in that period which also gave name to another of his aborted projects. As a proto-Madhouse, “The Flesh” included 4 jazz-funk instrumental tracks recorded in two recording sessions.
“The Flesh Sessions” took part on 26th December 1985 and 5th January 1986. Eric Leeds, Sheila E., Jonathan Melvoin, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman and Levi Seacer Jr. participated in the recordings, besides Prince.
On the 22nd of January, 1986, a configuration of the project included the tracks “Junk Music”, “Up From Below”, ‘Y’All Want Some More?” and “A Couple of Miles”.
But months later, on October, 7th, Prince broke up with Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman during dinner. Later on, he phoned Bobby Z. to tell him that he was disbanding The Revolution. He decided to keep Dr Fink and Miko Weaver in the band though. Brown Mark decided to leave.
When we interviewed Dr Fink last July, we asked him why he thought Prince had decided to keep him in the new band:
Days after the official rupture with The Revolution, Prince wrote “Rebirth of the Flesh” song as the certification of the ending of that band and the beginning of something new: Prince’s own rebirth, a new resurrection.
Jesus Christ resurrected 3 days after his crucifixion and he also had had a last supper with his apostles days before. Of course, we are NOT comparing Prince to Jesus Christ but reinforcing the idea of saying goodbye (during dinner) to your loved ones before reaching a new fate.
As a phoenix -an ancient animal from the Greek folklore- Prince regenerated himself from his own ashes. He was born again after the fire of the previous years. The past was over, and a brand new day was arising brightly for him.
That wouldn’t be the last time Prince regenerated himself. The whole Lovesexy album is another rebirth of the flesh itself, or maybe we should say that, with this album, he experienced a true rebirth of the soul. On the cover, he appeared naked as if he was born again.
While in Lovesexy Prince was proclaiming a spiritual renewal, in “Rebirth of the Flesh” he seems to announce the beginning of a new musical journey or even a new style: “We are the fathers of a new boogie cool”. Does the title “birth of the cool” sound familiar now?
As we said before, Miles gave birth to the cool-jazz style in his album “Birth of the Cool”. At the beginning of the 80s a new sound, the boogie, arose (as the phoenix) from the ashes of the “Disco Demolition Night”.
The term "boogie" was used to describe a hybrid between a more soulful disco and a lighter funk where keyboards had the leading role. Some of the most important boogie artists were Leroy Burgess, Kashif, Mtume, Slave or Leon Sylvers III.
But then Prince - behind the mask of Jamie Starr- appeared and transformed that original boogie sound into a brand new musical style (and later, a scene): the Minneapolis sound. As Miles did with cool-jazz, Prince created his own sound (and was cool too).
As said before, “Rebirth of the Flesh” was intended to form part of the project Camille. Camille was one of Prince’s alter-egos and all the songs he created behind that mask were sexy, fun and a little bit cheeky sometimes.
“Rebirth of the Flesh” is all that - and much more. The song is, as we say in Spanish, “pura fiesta”: pure joy, pure fun and, above all, pure funk. As “God” Marvin Gaye would say, this rebirth was a total funky space reincarnation.
The party starts when Prince/Camille shouts for joy. Then he asks the drum pounds to kick on the 2 and 4 and invites us to join him on the dance floor and discover his new music.
It’s pretty funny to know that the “kick drum” doesn't sound precisely on the 2 and 4. If he did it on purpose or not, we will never know, but he later corrected the drums in “Escape”, where he says “Snare drums on the 2 and 4” and it DOES sound on the 2 and 4.
“It’s a brand new day” serves as a declaration of independence for Prince but he never forgot his roots:
“Guaranteed to rock you 'cause we're from the old school”. He was always proud of belonging to the old school and he often talked about that in his songs.
“Guaranteed to rock you 'cause we're from the old school”. He was always proud of belonging to the old school and he often talked about that in his songs.
in “All The Critics Love U In New York” that condition made them cool. In “Musicology”, the old school music sounded for the true funk soldiers whereas in “Ol’ Skool Company” both the melody and the company were from the old school too.
Also, once you attended a Prince show you automatically belonged to that “ol’ skool”. He usually said: “old school, make some noise!”. As a true funk soldier, Prince enjoyed playing and creating music: “It ain’t about the money, we just wanna play”.
He shouts “We are here, where are you?” and vindicates: ‘I am here because I work hard. My music is mine. Do your own music and don’t try to appropriate mine’. Was that a hint towards previous collaborators? We definitely think so.
Prince used a variation of that previous shout (“I am here, where are you?”) at the beginning of the 2nd show at Montreux Jazz Festival 2009. He added that extract in the song “Cause and Effect”, which was published on http://lotusflow3r.com in 2010.
“Walk Don’t Walk” from Diamond and Pearls (1991) also borrowed a part from “Rebirth of the Flesh”. The chorus (la la la la) from “Rebirth of the Flesh” seems a little bit transformed but it sounds very similar to us.
Recorded only 4 days after “Rebirth of the Flesh”, the spoken ending of “IF I was your girlfriend” would borrow the background and martian theremin-like keyboard of the song we are analyzing today.
Prince used to create terms of his own: housequake, hundalasiliah or soulpsychodelicide are some of them. In “Rebirth of the Flesh'' he introduces “soulacolia”, an odd mix between soul, melancholia and cool. Maybe the mixture of them all is how he intended to sound from now on.
In terms of music, the song is a mixture between fun, nerve and power. The horns and the backing vocals represent the fun mood; the nerve is defined by the distorted guitars while the power and the strength are played by the drums.
The beginning of the song goes straight to the jugular: after some violent synthesised drums, a courageous guitar introduces itself. Camille appears and the party starts: the horns amuse us with magic touches. Guitar solos, merry vocals and violent drums make the rest. 
“Rebirth of the Flesh” is, no doubt, a unique song with a unique sound which was composed at a unique time: the rebirth of his cool.
We hope you have enjoyed our first thread! It’s been a pleasure to become a part of this magnificent team. Once again, thank you very much to @deejayumb and @edgarkruize for inviting us to participate.
Big hug from Spain to you all! ¡Gracias y hasta pronto!
Big hug from Spain to you all! ¡Gracias y hasta pronto!
Ah! Don’t forget to join next Thursday for the next #SOTTDELUXE #PrinceTwitterThread which is coming from our MASTER @deejayumb. It’s going to be COSMIC!!! 
