#BookThreads #booksky 💙📚 #bookstodon Shrimps and Sink Pits - my #bookreview for #Seascraper by #BenjaminWood on my #bookblog now. I read this for #NovNov25 #NovellasinNovember #histficreadingchallenge #2025NewReleaseChallenge and #6DegreesofSeparation for December! #FridayFiction #FictionFriday

http://tcl-bookreviews.com/2025/11/21/shrimps-and-sink-pits/

The #6DegreesOfSeparation game gets interesting when I stop being boggled by the fact of it, and instead ask myself which friend I can most efficiently make next.

I make good friends quick.

Who knows Angelina Jolie? Asking for a #friend.

Dearly beloved
We are gathered here today
To get through this thing called life

This is the final set of our Prince-themed 6 Degrees series, timed to end today, the 8th anniversary of The Purple One leaving us. And while we’ve used up all of our Prince albums from The List, each artist/album in this set has some connection to him.

Okay, carrying on from where we left off last time…

6 Degrees of Separation: Selena to No Doubt

Selena – Dreaming Of You (list number 316)
>> While Madhouse (which ended Part 7) is mostly Prince, one of the musicians who collaborated on the side project was Eric Leeds. Prince and Eric Leeds worked together on another side project, the 1995 solo album of Mayte, Child of the Sun, which was mostly written by Prince and was released on his NPG Records label. Mayte was part of the NPG, was a dancer for his tours and videos, and was Prince’s partner at the time of recording this album (and then wife). Though not included on this (or any later) album, Mayte recorded some songs (potentially during the same time) with the hip hop group Full Force, who also appear on one track of this album by the late great Selena. Another guest appearance on the same album is David Byrne, and their track together was produced by sound engineer Susan Rogers, who worked on many Prince and Prince-adjacent albums starting with Purple Rain, including Madhouse and…

Candy Dulfer – Saxuality (740)
…this 1990 album by Candy Dulfer, who collaborated a few times with Prince from the 80s on (including joining his band for the Musicology Live 2004ever tour). Rogers also mixed the contributions of Paul Westerberg (of The Replacements, another Minneapolis act that made waves in the 80s, as mentioned in Part 4) to the soundtrack for the film Singles, which also featured a number of artists/bands from the Seattle area who admired and/or inspired Prince, such as…

The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland (839)
…Jimi Hendrix (who was a great influence on Prince; check out this [audio-only] cover of Hendrix’s “Red House”),….

Soundgarden – Superunknown (849)
…Soundgarden (check out Chris Cornell’s beautiful cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares to U”*), and…

Pearl Jam – Ten (273)
…Pearl Jam. Not only have Pearl Jam been covering Prince’s “Purple Rain” somewhat regularly since The Purple One left us (e.g., at the Quebec City show in 2022), but Prince (along with his band 3rdEyeGirl) also did an instrumental cover of a track off this album, “Even Flow” (audio-only here)! (I don’t know about you, but imagining Prince listening to Ten puts a smile on my face.)
Another huge Seattle band that is automatically linked with the city’s scene at the time but oddly did not appear on the Singles soundtrack is, of course, Nirvana. However, one of the band’s (touring) members, Pat Smear, was also linked with Prince, as he appeared in the music video for “Raspberry Beret”. Smear also appeared in…

No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom (804)
the music video for “Don’t Speak”, off of this album by No Doubt. Prince would later collaborate with No Doubt and Gwen Stefani a couple times: Stefani appears on “So Far, So Pleased” from Prince’s 1999 album Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, which they would perform together later on Prince’s Welcome 2 American tour (here); and Prince co-wrote and -produced the song “Waiting Room” that eventually appeared on No Doubt’s 2001 album Rock Steady. <<

*I just had to mention one more link I found when looking up the No Doubt connection (which we could say is connected to “Nothing Compares to U”…). Prince seems to have had an impact on others in the world of ska/reggae beyond No Doubt, as there’s an entire reggae covers version of Purple Rain, entitled Purple Reggae. Put out in 2014 by a duo in the UK called Radio Riddler, the tribute album features a number of guest artists including the late great Sinéad O’Connor (who was no stranger to reggae covers), covering Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” (or, on the dub version of the album, “I Would Dub 4 U”).

Thank you all for joining me on this whirlwind tour of just a handful of albums from The List! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, especially the little Prince tidbits. There are, of course, so many other connections that could be made, and I’d love to keep the 6 Degrees game going, perhaps as a semi-regular series. Let me know if you’d like to contribute a set, either continuing from where we’ve left off here or a standalone set you’ve discovered!

Are we gonna let de-elevator bring us down?
Oh, no let’s go!

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/04/21/6-degrees-of-separation-part-8/

#1001OtherAlbums #3rdEyeGirl #6DegreesOfSeparation #CandyDulfer #ChrisCornell #DavidByrne #EricLeeds #FullForce #GwenStefani #JimiHendrix #Madhouse #Mayte #NoDoubt #PatSmear #PaulWesterberg #PearlJam #Prince #Selena #SineadOConnor #Soundgarden #SusanRogers

This is the penultimate set of our Prince-themed 6 Degrees series, where we connect albums from The List and point out some connections with The Purple One. Carrying on from where we left off last time…

6 Degrees of Separation: Tom Waits to Madhouse

Tom Waits – Nighthawks At The Diner (list number 525)
>> While Madhouse (which ended Part 6) may not be a familiar connection to Prince for some, the name “New Power Generation” (or NPG, or NPG Orchestra), likely rings a bell for those who are even just casual Prince fans. The group played both as Prince’s backing band and as a standalone recording group, with an ever-changing list of members. One of the members of the NPG Orchestra at some point was Jim Hughart, who was the bass player on this Tom Waits album. Tom Waits would later go on to collaborate with…

Los Lobos Del Este De Los Angeles – Just Another Band From East L.A. (511)
…Los Lobos (on their 2004 album The Ride), who appear on the final track of…

Paul Simon – Graceland (78)
…this album by Paul Simon. Previously, as part of Simon & Garfunkel, Simon played with the drummer Bobby Gregg, who was also the drummer on…

Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited (843)
…this album by Bob Dylan. Dylan has noted that a big influence on him was…

The Staple Singers – Uncloudy Day (204)
…The Staple Singers (who have also covered Dylan). Mavis Staples of the Staple Singers is tightly connected to Prince – he essentially brought her out of (semi-)retirement in the 80s and wrote two albums for her (the 1989 Time Waits For No One and 1993 The Voice), both of which were put out on his Paisley Park label, as was…

Madhouse – 16 (New Directions In Garage Music) (470)
all albums by Madhouse. <<

Prince 6

In addition to those listed above, here’s a few more fun connections between this group of artists and The Purple One. Let me know in the comments if you know of any others!

• Tom Waits and Paul Simon both dug Prince, because of course they did.
• Prince has covered Bob Dylan at least a couple times, including “All Along the Watchtower” at that spectacular 2008 Super Bowl performance (Youtube).
• In Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour radio show, Dylan played Prince a few times: in the “Cars” episode, he included Prince’s song “Little Red Corvette” (go to 48:40 in this video; the song had to be removed due to copyright, but Dylan’s banter before and after the song appeared is a lot of fun); “Kiss” in the “Kiss” episode; and “When Doves Cry” in the “More Birds” episode.
• Mavis Staples also appeared with Prince in the Graffiti Bridge film (her song on the soundtrack, “Melody Cool”, also appeared on The Voice album).
• (Not a direct Prince connection, but Mavis Staples is also on Los Lobos’ album The Ride mentioned above.)
• Mavis Staples and Prince remained very close even after this period of collaboration, and she essentially treated Prince as her son. (And, since Dylan had once proposed to Mavis Staples, if she hadn’t turned him down, in another timeline Dylan might’ve been Prince’s surrogate step-dad, lol…)

Tune in tomorrow for the final part of this series, to see where we go from Madhouse! While the set is heavily laced with The Purple One, there will also be a surprising amount of the 90s Seattle scene in there (!).

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/04/20/6-degrees-of-separation-part-7/

#1001OtherAlbums #6DegreesOfSeparation #BobDylan #BobbyGregg #JimHughart #LosLobos #Madhouse #MavisStaples #NPGOrchestra #PaulSimon #Prince #StapleSingers #TheStapleSingers #TomWaits

Continuing our 6 Degrees series where we connect albums from The List, getting into the more Prince-heavy sets (an interesting feat, seeing as we only have three Prince albums on The List, and have already used up one of them in an early set). Special thanks again to avi_miller, who starts us off with the first two albums in this set!

Alrighty, carrying on from where we left off last time…

6 Degrees of Separation: Wishbone Ash to Madhouse

Wishbone Ash – Argus (list number 103)
>> Rainbow’s Rainbow Rising (which ended Part 5) was produced by Martin Birch, who was also the sound engineer on this album by Wishbone Ash, which features John Tout on organ. Tout later joined…

Renaissance – Live At Carnegie Hall (307)
…Renaissance and was on this live album, which was recorded at the famous Carnegie Hall, where…

Billie Holiday – The Essential Billie Holiday (Carnegie Hall Concert Recorded Live) (529)
…this album by Billie Holiday was also recorded. One of the songs Holiday covers on this album, “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” (a 1920s blues standard) has also been covered by…

Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh (261)
…Erykah Badu (here), who collaborated with…

Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer (151)
…Janelle Monáe on the Monáe’s 2013 album The Electric Lady, specifically on the song “Q.U.E.E.N.“, which Prince later remixed (but did not officially release). Prince also collaborated with Monáe on the same album, for the song “Givin Em What They Love”. Prince and Monáe were continuing to work together, on Monáe’s next album, Dirty Computer, before he died, and was somewhat of a mentor for Monáe. It’s not clear what specific contributions of Prince’s were kept, if any, for the final version of the album (released in 2018), but Monáe wrote a lovely message to the late Prince in the liner notes. And, even if he doesn’t officially appear in the credits, it’s not the first time that he played or wrote anonymously, as he did for…

Madhouse – 8 (469)
the Madhouse jazz-funk project where, for the first album, Prince played nearly everything, with a bit of help from Eric Leeds. <<

Prince 6

In addition to those listed above, here’s a few more fun connections between this group of artists and The Purple One. Let me know in the comments if you know of any others!

• Prince did not shy away from a good organ solo.
• Prince recorded a song called “Billie Holiday”, named after the singer/songwriter and intended for the Graffiti Bridge film/album. It however was not included and wasn’t released elsewhere.
• Prince and Erykah Badu were collaborators, as well as friends. Prince once played rhythm guitar for a Erykah Badu show in Dallas, and then sent Badu a picture of them playing on stage together.
• As far as I can find, Prince himself didn’t play Carnegie Hall, but he allowed others to play his music at a tribute/benefit concert at the venue in 2013 called “The Music of Prince”. Artists included Eric Leeds (who plays on the Madhouse albums), D’Angelo (who is on The List), Nina Persson (singer of The Cardigans, also on The List), among many others, but Prince did not attend the event.

Tune in tomorrow for Part 7, to see how we get from Madhouse to, well, Madhouse!

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/04/19/6-degrees-of-separation-part-6/

#1001OtherAlbums #6DegreesOfSeparation #BillieHoliday #CarnegieHall #ErykahBadu #JanelleMonae #JohnTout #Madhouse #MartinBirch #Prince #Rainbow #Renaissance #WishboneAsh

All right, y’all know the drill by now. Continuing our (kinda sorta) Prince-themed 6 Degrees series, connecting albums from The List and carrying on from where we left off last time. This is essentially a guest post as avi_miller provided the connections for the last four albums in this set, so a big thank you to them!

6 Degrees of Separation: Daniel Lanois to Rainbow

Harold Budd / Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois – The Pearl (list number 268)
>> Explosions In The Sky (who ended Part 4) were on the soundtrack to the 2004 film Friday Night Lights, as was Daniel Lanois. On this album (plus others), Lanois collaborated with Brian Eno, who is on…

Robert Fripp – Exposure (971)
…this album by Robert Fripp, who was in…

King Crimson – Red (568)
…King Crimson. The line-up at the time of this album included Bill Bruford on drums/percussion, who had previously been the drummer for…

Yes – Fragile (527)
…Yes. This album was recorded at Advision Studios, where part of…

Kate Bush – The Dreaming (576)
…this album by Kate Bush was also recorded. This album features Jimmy Bain on bass guitar, who also played bass on…

Rainbow – Rainbow Rising (57)
this album by Rainbow. <<

Prince 6

Some fun connections between this group of artists and The Purple One. Let me know in the comments if you know of any others!

• In 1990, Prince invited Kate Bush to meet him after a show, and they decided to collaborate. The two couldn’t again get in the same room, so “Why Should I Love You?” (released on Bush’s 1993 album The Red Shoes) took 2 years to create (or, rather, construct, then deconstruct, then reconstruct…) by sending tapes back and forth.
• Kate Bush does backing vocals on Prince’s “My Computer“, from his 1996 album, Emancipation.
• The soundtrack to the 1995 film Showgirls features two Prince songs (The Gold Experience‘s “319” and Crystal Ball‘s “Ripopgodezippa”) as well as David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans”, which was co-written by Brian Eno.
• Both Prince’s Purple Rain and Brian Eno’s Another Green World have inspired custom perfumes made by dublab that are supposedly meant to, umm, smell like them (like the albums, not the musicians).
• Both Prince and Ritchie Blackmore, guitarist and leader of the band Rainbow, are known as two of the greatest guitarists of all time, and both loved to break out lengthy but spectacular solos. On Rolling Stone‘s 2023 list of the top 250 guitarists, Prince ranked at number 14, and Blackmore at 75. (There are actually a ton of artists from The List on Rolling Stone‘s list, because we have great taste.)
• Prince and Ronnie James Dio (the singer for Rainbow at the time of the Rainbow Rising album) both packed an enormous amount of talent in a smaller frame – the two were nearly the same height (with or without their fabulous high heels). (And speaking of fashion, some of Dio’s stage outfits wouldn’t look too out of place on Prince, and vice versa.)

Tune in on Friday for Part 6, to see how we get from Rainbow to Madhouse!

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/04/17/6-degrees-of-separation-part-5/

#1001OtherAlbums #6DegreesOfSeparation #BillBruford #BrianEno #DanielLanois #DavidBowie #ExplosionsInTheSky #HaroldBudd #JimmyBain #KateBush #KingCrimson #Prince #Rainbow #RitchieBlackmore #RobertFripp #RonnieJamesDio #Yes

Today is the halfway point of our current 6 Degrees series, connecting albums from The List. And, again, because we’re doing a bit of a Prince-theme, we’ll be picking out some fun Prince-connections in/below the set.

Okay, carrying on from where we left off last time…

6 Degrees of Separation: Bruce Dickinson to Explosions In The Sky

Bruce Dickinson – The Chemical Wedding (list number 509)
>> As noted in our feature on Tagaq’s album (which ended Part 3), she’s keen to someday cover Iron Maiden, whose frontman is Bruce Dickinson. Dickinson’s solo album contains both lyrics and artwork by the 18th/19th century English poet and painter William Blake…

Prince – For You (623)
…who the writer John Higgs delightfully compares at length to Prince in his piece in The Quietus called “Visionaries Across Time: The Shared Magic of Prince & William Blake“. …

Iggy And The Stooges – Raw Power (814)
…William Blake also pops up in Jim Jarmusch’s 1995 film Dead Man, as the main character, also named William Blake, may or may not be the reincarnation of the English poet. Dead Man features a cameo by Iggy Pop, who is regarded as the “godfather of punk”. …

Minor Threat – Minor Threat (609)
…And, if anyone could similarly be called the “godfather of hardcore” (or could command as much devotion from Henry Rollins), that would be Ian MacKaye, of Minor Threat and…

Fugazi – Repeater (422)
…Fugazi, whose tour for The Argument album featured the post-rock greats…

Explosions In The Sky – Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever (73)
Explosions In The Sky. <<

Prince 6(ish)

This group of artists are a bit far removed from The Purple One, so the connections are tough for this set. Let me know in the comments if you know of any other connections!

• Iron Maiden and Prince both had a rigorous release schedule in the 80s and early 90s, with both releasing an album (and a hit album, at that) nearly every year. E.g., Iron Maiden’s 1st self-titled album came out the same year as Prince’s Dirty Mind (1980), as did Killers and Controversy (1981), The Number of the Beast and 1999 (1982), Powerslave and Purple Rain (1984), etc. (Prince didn’t have an 1983 album to match Maiden’s Piece of Mind, likely due to working on the Purple Rain film/album.) ((I feel like there should be an accompanying string of surveys on Mastodon asking people to pick their favorites from the above pairs…))
• The Swedish author and professor Per Nilsen has written music biographies on Prince as well as Iggy Pop and the Stooges (and David Bowie).
• While there’s no direct connection between Minor Threat and Prince, I found this Flavorwire article interesting that links the American hardcore scene with Prince by way of fellow-Minneapolis band Hüsker Dü (who is on The List, and who was signed to SST Records, the label of Greg Ginn of Black Flag, who Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye’s bff, was the vocalist of from 1981 to 1985). Essentially, the author argues that location tied Prince and Hüsker Dü (as well as The Replacements) together just like Seattle, Detroit, and Memphis did for the bands that came from those cities:
  • “Trying to separate the success of Prince and The Revolution from the impact the music of The Replacements and Hüsker Dü would go on to have smacks of punk rock elitism, and is almost like somebody saying that Nirvana shouldn’t count as part of the now-legendary Seattle scene simply because they got too big… Prince…and his lasting impact on his hometown’s music scene are just as vital as the influence attributed to a couple of punk bands he has probably never even listened to.”
• Fugazi’s Repeater came out the same year as Prince’s Graffiti Bridge (1990).
• Explosions In The Sky’s Those Who Tell the Truth… came out just a couple months before Prince’s Rainbow Children (2001), just a week prior to 9/11. Explosions In The Sky had some hub-bub around their album since the artwork had an airplane with the caption “This plane will crash tomorrow”, including one of the band members being detained by airport security. I wonder if the reception of Prince’s album would’ve been different if it wasn’t released during this time, as it seems that Rainbow Children is one of those that gets missed. ((Indeed, it should be on The List – I would add it myself, but I’ve cut myself off – somebody else want to submit it???))
• Prince died on Iggy Pop’s 69th birthday.

Tune in on Wednesday for Part 5, to see how we get from Explosions in the Sky to Rainbow! And in the meantime, tomorrow we will have a regular spotlight that provides a bit of a spoiler to Part 5…

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/04/15/6-degrees-of-separation-part-4/

#1001OtherAlbums #6DegreesOfSeparation #BruceDickinson #ExplosionsInTheSky #Fugazi #HuskerDu #IanMacKaye #IggyPop #IronMaiden #MinorThreat #PerNilsen #Prince #Tagaq #TheStooges #WilliamBlake

Today is Part 3 (of 8) of our 6 Degrees game with The List. And, again, because we’re doing a bit of a Prince-theme, we’ll be picking out some fun Prince-connections below the set.

Okay, carrying on from where we left off last time…

6 Degrees of Separation: Led Zeppelin to Tagaq

Led Zeppelin – Untitled (or “Led Zeppelin IV“) (list number 780)
>> R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People was arranged by John Paul Jones, the bass player of Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin’s fourth album features guest vocals from Sandy Denny (on the track “The Battle of Evermore”), who was in…

Fairport Convention – Liege & Lief (485)
…Fairport Convention, whose Liege & Lief album was produced by Joe Boyd, who also produced a number of albums by Nico, who was in/on…

The Velvet Underground & Nico – The Velvet Underground & Nico (834)
…this album with The Velvet Underground. Lou Reed of The Velvet Underground would later become a close friend of Anohni of…

Anohni and The Johnsons – My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross (969)
…Anohni and the Johnsons, and the song “Sliver of Ice” on this album was based on a conversation Anohni had with Reed during the final months before he left us. Anohni is also friends (and has collaborated with, e.g., here)…

Björk – Debut (760)
…Björk (see their amazing chat about My Back…, “Sliver of Ice”, and other topics here). Björk has also collaborated with (and produced the first album by)…

Tagaq – Auk / Blood (2)
Tanya Tagaq. <<

Prince 6

Here are some fun connections the above artists have to The Purple One:

• Prince was apparently a huge Led Zeppelin fan. Watch him absolutely shredding it while covering Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” here.
• Like The Velvet Underground and their song “Jesus“, Prince had a straight-up gospel song (“The Cross“, among various other songs with religious lyrics) that stood out as being quite, umm, different from the content of his other songs.
• Lou Reed’s final Spotify playlist had Prince’s song “Kiss” on it (on Part 1; see also Part 2).
• Producer/engineer/musician Mark Plati worked with both Prince (Graffiti Bridge) and Lou Reed (as well as David Bowie – who was in Part 1 of our 6 Degrees series – on Earthling).
• In a 1997 Mojo interview, Prince mentioned that he dug some of Björk’s work: “I crave great musicianship, and I don’t care who provides it. I’ve got no problems saying I dig D’Angelo. Or some of the things that Bjork does, the Cocteau Twins. Musicians, we’re family.”
• The 2007 compilation A Tribute to Joni Mitchell features both Prince (covering “A Case of You”) and (covering “The Boho Dance”) (as well as Sufjan Stevens and k.d. lang, who are both also on The List, as is Joni).

Tune in on Monday for Part 4, to see how we get from Tagaq to Explosions in the Sky!

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/04/13/6-degrees-of-separation-part-3/

#1001OtherAlbums #6DegreesOfSeparation #Anohni #AnohniAndTheJohnsons #Björk #DavidBowie #FairportConvention #JoeBoyd #JohnPaulJones #JoniMitchell #LedZeppelin #LouReed #MarkPlati #Nico #Prince #REM #SandyDenny #Tagaq #TheVelvetUnderground #VelvetUnderground

Today, we’re continuing our 6 Degrees game with The List (see Part 1 here). And, again, because we’re doing a bit of a Prince-theme and will be timing the end of this series (Part 8) to land on the (8th) anniversary of him leaving us (April 21), we’ll be picking out some fun Prince-connections in/below each set.

Okay, here we go, carrying on from where we left off last time, i.e., the Medicine Singers’ self-titled album…

6 Degrees of Separation: Maja Ratkje to R.E.M.

Maja Ratkje – Voice (list number 221)
>> One of the collaborators on the Medicine Singers album from Part 1 is Ikue Mori, who has also collaborated with Maja Ratkje. Ratkje also appears on a 5+ hour-long Norwegian tribute to Prince compilation with…

Ulver – Shadows Of The Sun (188)
…Ulver. Christian Fennesz (or, “Fennesz”), who appears on this Ulver album, also collaborated a number of times (e.g., here) with…

Jim O’Rourke – I’m Happy, And I’m Singing, And A 1, 2, 3, 4 (226)
…Jim O’Rourke, who, from 1999 to 2005, was in…

Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation (835)
…Sonic Youth, whose Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo were at some point in the Glenn Branca Ensemble, as was Tim Sommer who then formed…

Hugo Largo – Mettle (116)
…Hugo Largo, whose first album was produced by…

R.E.M. – Automatic For The People (290)
…Michael Stipe of R.E.M. <<

Prince 6

Though we don’t have a Prince album in today’s list, here are some fun connections the above artists have to The Purple One:

• As mentioned above, there’s a 5.5 hour long compilation featuring Norwegian artists (including Maja Ratkje and Ulver) from a wide variety of genres covering Prince! Put out in 2008, this 5-CD box set, called Shockadelica: 50th Anniversary Tribute To The Artist Known As Prince, was released in honour of Prince’s 50th birthday, and was limited to 5000 copies. Available digitally: Songwhip.
  • Maja Ratkje’s contribution, which is the 1st song on the compilation, is a cover of “Solo” from Prince’s Come album.
  • Ulver’s contribution is a cover of “Thieves in the Temple” from Prince’s Graffiti Bridge album.
• R.E.M. recorded their Out of Time album at Prince’s Paisley Park (Youtube).
• R.E.M. and Prince were both on Warner Brothers around the same time. In a 2016 interview on Alec Baldwin’s “Here’s The Thing” podcast, Michael Stipe mentioned that, because R.E.M. owned their own masters when at WB but Prince didn’t, Prince “always hated me for that”.
• From an interview between supermodel Helena Christensen and Michael Stipe:
  • HC: “If you could save one song in the world from being turned into a ringtone, which would song would you choose?”
  • MS: “Probably ‘Purple Rain’ by Prince, because that would sound absolutely horrible as a ring tone.”
• Prince’s Lovesexy album came out the same year as Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation: 1988.

Tune in on Saturday for Part 3, to see how we get from R.E.M. to Tagaq!

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/04/11/6-degrees-of-separation-part-2/

#1001OtherAlbums #6DegreesOfSeparation #ChristianFennesz #HugoLargo #IkueMori #JimORourke #LeeRanaldo #MajaRatkje #MedicineSingers #MichaelStipe #Prince #REM #SonicYouth #ThurstonMoore #TimSommer #Ulver

KEXP, a Seattle-based radio station I listen to every work day, will periodically do an entire day (or more) of “6 Degrees of Separation” programming, where every DJ comes up with their playlist on the fly, connecting each song by some thread – a shared band member/writer/producer/studio, one artist covering the other’s song, a previous/future collaboration, etc. Each DJ will often try to reach a particular artist by the end of their show, and the next DJ has to continue from where the previous DJ left off.

If you follow me on Mastodon, you may have seen that I was curious if we could play the 6 Degrees game with The List. My initial aim was to simply connect 6 albums from The List, starting with the last album we had a spotlight on (with no particular album as an end goal), but that was easy enough so I kept going. One of The List contributors also came up with a set, so I incorporated those into what I came up with and kept going some more. So far, we’ve connected 50ish albums from The List in a row.

I think each set provides a nice multi-day playlist (and, for a mega nerd like myself, following these trails is quite a bit of fun), so I wanted to share them here, one set at a time. And because (spoilers!) Prince features heavily in the last few sets, we’re going to time it so the last set is on the anniversary of him leaving us (April 21), and pick out some other fun Prince-connections along the way.

Okay, here we go…

6 Degrees of Separation: Yellow Magic Orchestra to Medicine Singers

Yellow Magic Orchestra – Solid State Survivor (list number 85)
>> One of the band members of YMO was…

Ryuichi Sakamoto – Async (901)
…Ryuichi Sakamoto, who acted in the film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence alongside…

David Bowie – Low (537)
…David Bowie, who recruited Adrian Belew for the Isolar II (i.e., Low/Heroes) tour (and the live album Stage, then Lodger, and, later, the Sound+Vision tour). Following Lodger, Belew recorded guitar solos and played in the live band for…

Talking Heads – Remain In Light (946)
…this album by Talking Heads, whose David Byrne later collaborated with St. Vincent, who is on…

Swans – To Be Kind (646)
…this album by Swans, whose Thor Harris and Christopher Pravdica are on…

Medicine Singers – Medicine Singers (972)
…this album by Medicine Singers. <<

Prince 6

Though we don’t have a Prince album in today’s list, here are some fun connections the above artists have to The Purple One:

• Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “You Do Me” (Youtube), from the international release of his 1989 album Beauty, features Jill Jones, who performed/collaborated with Prince in many of his projects (including the 1999 album, Purple Rain and Graffiti Bridge films, and the Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6 side-projects) and was on his Paisley Park Records label.
• Ingrid Chavez, who was on Prince’s Lovesexy album, was originally on the Paisley Park label, and acted alongside Prince in Graffiti Bridge, also performed on Ryuichi Sakamoto’s 1991 album Heartbeat.
• According to the forums on prince.org, there’s a bootleg recording of a Prince rehearsal session called 1999 Revisited where Prince throws in some tweaked Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” lyrics into his “D.M.S.R.” song.
• In 2018, David Byrne showed up at a tiki-karaoke bar in Portland and sang “When Doves Cry” (Youtube).
• In Tom Hagler’s 2021 book We Could Be…Bowie and His Heroes, there’s a brief story about the only time Prince and David Bowie met. In 1987, after Bowie played a show in Minneapolis, Prince invited him back to Paisley Park for a party. Prince put on an album he had just recently written but not yet released, The Black Album, and everyone including Bowie and his band danced to and enjoyed the record. (Prince later said that one of the reasons why he decided to pull the album was because he didn’t like a comment that someone else who was also there that night said about the album, even though it was a compliment.)
• After Bowie died, while on his Piano & A Microphone Tour, Prince incorporated a cover of “Heroes” into a few of his shows.

Tune in on Thursday for Part 2, to see how we get from Medicine Singers to R.E.M.!

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/04/09/6-degrees-of-separation-part-1/

#1001OtherAlbums #6DegreesOfSeparation #AdrianBelew #ChristopherPravdica #DavidBowie #DavidByrne #MedicineSingers #Prince #RyuichiSakamoto #StVincent #Swans #TalkingHeads #ThorHarris