Production
The album was recorded in six weeks,from mid-February to late March 1989,and Prince used three tracks recorded earlier:"Electric Chair","Scandalous!",and "Vicki Waiting" (originally known as "Anna Waiting",named for his then-girlfriend Anna Fantastic). Originally,the songs "1999" and "Baby I'm a Star" from earlier albums were slated to be used in the film,but Prince instead recorded an entire album's worth of material with Batman samples and lyrics. In a 2010 Rolling Stone interview,Prince revealed that the project was initially supposed to be a collaboration between himself and Michael Jackson:"Did you know that the album was supposed to be a duet between Michael Jackson and me? He as Batman,me as the Joker?" Prince would have sung funk songs for the villains,while Michael Jackson would have sung ballads for the heroes. This never came to fruition as Jackson was busy with his Bad World Tour and already signed with Epic Records (the label he had been with since 1975),while the film was a Warner Bros. production. The album was performed entirely by Prince,with a few exceptions:Sheena Easton duets with Prince on "The Arms of Orion","Trust" features a sampled horn part by Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss,and "The Future" features strings by Clare Fischer sampled from the then-unreleased 1986 track "Crystal Ball" and samples of the Sounds of Blackness choir. "Batdance" includes a sample of Prince's technician Matthew Larson,and "Partyman" features a vocal performance from Anna Fantastic. [1] All dialogue sampled on Prince's Batman album is taken directly from a workprint of Batman and therefore lacks ADR and foley. This is especially noticeable in the beginning of the first track,"The Future",with dialogue of Michael Keaton speaking as Batman.
The producers originally wanted composer Danny Elfman,who was responsible for the film’s score,to collaborate with Prince but Elfman declined as he already had the score’s vision and did not want to be a music arranger. [2]
In the album's liner notes,the lyrics of each song are associated with one of the characters in the film:"The Future" and "Scandalous" are credited to Batman;while "Electric Chair" and "Trust" are credited to the Joker. "Vicki Waiting" is sung from the perspective of Bruce Wayne,while "Lemon Crush" comes from Vicki Vale;the two characters share the duet,"The Arms of Orion". "Partyman" was inspired by Prince's first meeting with Jack Nicholson (out-of-character) on-set. [3]
"Batdance",whose lyrics consist mostly of samples from the film,is credited to all aforementioned parties,as well as Gemini,Prince's Batman-centric alter ego that resembles Batman villain Two-Face—Prince on the right half of the body and the Joker on the left. Prince himself is credited with singing two lines of the album as himself:"Who do you trust if you can't trust God? Who can you trust—who can ya? Nobody." in "Trust";and the word "Stop!" that ends "Batdance" and the album proper (though the "Stop!" is actually a sound bite of Michael Keaton,directly from the film where he tells the Batmobile to stop).
The Batman era also marked a change in Prince's appearance;he switched out the elaborate costumes,polka dots and lace from Lovesexy for much simpler attire,usually donning dark blue/black clothing and "Batman" boots. The artist's hair was fully straightened from his signature wavy curls,as shown in the "Batdance" video. A picture of the cassette soundtrack is used in the opening theme of the popular TV series "Mr D" (2012).
Reception
In 2016,film critic Matt Zoller Seitz praised Prince's songs and music videos for Batman,more so than the film itself,stating that his songs "suggest a goofy,perverse,sensuous,somewhat introverted Batman film that so far we've never gotten from anyone",and arguing that Prince's music videos "are more psychologically perceptive than any of the Batman films". [14] [15] [16]
In 2019,a Symposium took place to discuss the album. [17]
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