Revolution: Prince, the Band, the Era
by James Campion
Major thanks to Bloomsbury Academic and NetGalley for the
advanced copy of James Campion’s incredible new book detailing Prince’s most
creative period Revolution: Prince, the Band, the Era. I’ve had the
opportunity to read a few great books about music this year including Carlin’s
Tonight in Jungleland, Beinstock and Beaujour’s Lollapalooza, and
Ratliff’s Run the Song, and Campion’s Revolution is among those
top music books from this year. I am a Prince fan, but not to the extent of
Campion, and reading this book allows those of us who appreciate and loved Prince’s
music to go to another level in their fandom, learning more about Prince’s background
and formative years, and how he assembled, managed, and eventually cut loose The
Revolution, his band of incredible musicians who helped him realize the music
from his most creative period in the 1980s. Campion’s book is incredibly
detailed and researched, pulling from other books, podcasts, and articles that
were published after Prince’s death and the few articles in which Prince participated
in during his lifetime. Furthermore, he relies on band members and friends for
firsthand accounts of the music’s development and production. This account
allows readers to witness Prince’s majesty and creativity in helping to reshape
and reconsider popular music as he continually reinvented and explored
different genres, sounds, and styles in the 1980s. However, what really shines
like diamonds and pearls in this book is Campion’s descriptions of the music,
whether it is in the studio or more often on tour for Purple Rain. He
has a great way of analyzing the sounds from the different instruments, using onomatopoeia
in a stylistic manner that emphasizes the funky and rhythmic sounds of Prince’s
best songs. His writing lends itself to the grove, allowing readers to imagine
the aural soundscapes Prince was envisioning. I loved reading these descriptions.
Although the book primarily focuses on The Revolution’s time
with Prince, Campion makes it clear that this story can only be told by going
back to the beginning, letting readers know about Prince’s formative years and
how his relationship with his parents helped to shape not only his musical
skills, but also some of his most personal and memorable songs (“When Doves Cry”).
In fact, Campion reminds readers throughout the book that for Prince, the band
is family/family is the band, and this approach to making music collectively
with those who are closest to you brings about a new kind of intimacy and bold
experimentation and risk taking with the music. However, as Campion details,
the tumult of Prince’s relationship with both his parents and his fear of
abandonment also repeatedly manifest in some problematic behaviors and
interactions with his band members, and it eventually brings about the end of
the Revolution. Nevertheless, I loved reading about Prince’s early musical
experiences, and how he overcame challenges, whether it was from his record
company’s attempts to install a producer for him to work with, his own shyness
and fear of rejection, or even hostility and backlash to his music. The first
half of this book details the work Prince did to establish himself as an artist
who challenged classification and genres to eventually dominate MTV with catchy
hits like “1999”, “Controversy”, and “Little Red Corvette” which drew not only
from rhythm and blues, but also emerging popular genres like new wave. I didn’t
realize how experimental Prince was since some of my first musical awareness of
popular music was during Purple Rain’s popularity. I always remembered
Prince being a presence on MTV and the radio, but I hadn’t realized how he was
frequently trying out drum machines, pairing them with live drums, and
incorporating different, new synthesizers to add to his sound. What was also
fascinating to learn more about is how he was also constantly working on
different groups and other musical projects beyond his own music for The
Revolution. I didn’t realize how much he was involved in writing the music and planning
out the direction of other acts like Vanity 6, The Family, Mazarati, and The
Time. I always knew that he was involved in some ways, but it was fascinating
to learn how he was constantly shifting from one band to the other, sometimes
performing with them or writing new songs for them.
One of the more fascinating details from the book was how
the beloved song “Kiss” came about—and was initially promised to another act
Prince was working with. From the interviews in Campion’s book, it sounded like
“Kiss” was more of an acoustic, country type song, but after passing the foundations
for the song onto a funk act, it was reshaped with a drum machine rhythm and a
funky bassline. As the band continued to work on it, Prince ended up taking the
song back, and reclaiming it as his own, bringing in his closest collaborators
Wendy and Lisa to reshape the song into what most people know as one of his
most famous songs. The story highlights part of Prince’s music genius, his
ability to simply stop in the middle of another musical project, shift gears to
generate a clever song idea. However, it also shows his ability to collaborate,
and also his unwillingness to credit others in the process, which also seemed to
both lead to his increased success and dominance of the music industry in the
80s and 90s, but also his downfall, as The Revolution seemed to grow tired of
continued slights and oversights of recognizing their contributions to the
music. Campion’s writing doesn’t force judgement, but like a great journalist, presents
the facts and stories from participants to let readers draw their own
conclusions about Prince’s creativity and treatment of those around him.
The second half of the book details Prince’s ideas about
creating a movie to capture the music of Purple Rain, and how he got
Warner Brothers to come along for this wild ride. It’s a fascinating story that
shows how, as Campion reminders readers, Prince was always six steps ahead of
everyone else, thinking about future projects and planning a way to convey not
just the songs, but an entire vision and message. I was amazed at how much
involvement he had in all of these projects and the level of detail that he
worked on with not just the music, but the stage shows, the scriptwriting, and the
shots and direction of these films. Campion also details the tours that
followed. I also found the second half beyond Purple Rain to be
incredibly interesting. While Prince could have probably replicated the
popularity of Purple Rain, he chose to go in another direction, releasing
albums that incorporated different sounds, constantly seeking out new sounds,
instruments, and ideas. It was really amazing to read about his creative
process and how he sought out new collaborators, but also how he really didn’t
want to look back and try to recapture past formulas for success. He was constantly
pushing forward, exploring and innovating. One of the other aspects of Campion’s
close analysis and documentation of this critical time in Prince’s life was
exploring all of the unreleased projects that went into the vault and were
gradually released after his death. It was amazing to read about how much
Prince documented and planned out other albums that were never released in the
80s. It’s pushed my “to listen to” list even further to seek out a lot of these
recordings from Prince.
Reaching the end of the book was kind of bittersweet. For
one, it was really sad to see the way that Prince pushed The Revolution to
record and continually develop new and exciting music and then cut them loose
right when he was about to release the seminal Sign o’ the Times. In
fact, I was surprised to learn that he cut out recorded contributions from members
of The Revolution (although it was fascinating to learn that he removed the
bass line from “When Doves Cry”). The last chapter details April 21st,
2016, a day that shocked many music lovers, and how Prince’s untimely death
affected members of The Revolution. Although many of them were shocked and
dejected, Prince’s death brought The Revolution together to play music again
for the first time in like 30 years. I absolutely loved this book. Campion’s
writing and researched deepened my love for Prince and made me want to listen
to the stuff from the vault that I never knew existed. This book also further reinforced
my belief in Prince’s musical and entertainment genius. He was visionary and
always looking to challenge people’s notions about music, art, creativity, and
popular media. Highly recommended, especially if you are a music fan!
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