Prince & the Revolution

Prince Rogers Nelson was born June 7, 1958, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to John L. Nelson and Mattie Shaw. Prince's father was a pianist and songwriter and his mother was a jazz singer. Prince was named after his father, whose stage name was Prince Rogers, and who performed with a jazz group called the Prince Rogers Trio.

Prince's sister Tika Evene (usually called Tyka) was born in 1960. Both siblings developed a keen interest in music, and this was encouraged by their father. Prince wrote his first tune, "Funk Machine" on his father's piano when he was seven. Prince's parents then separated when Prince was ten years old. Following their separation, Prince constantly switched home: sometimes he lived with his father, and sometimes with his stepfather. Finally he moved into the home of a neighbor, the Andersons, and befriended their son, Andre Anderson who later became known as André Cymone.

Prince and Anderson joined Prince's cousin, Charles Smith, in a band called Grand Central while they were attending Minneapolis's Central High School. Smith was later replaced by Morris Day on the drums. Prince played piano and guitar for the band which performed at clubs and parties in the Minneapolis area. Grand Central later changed its name to Champagne and started playing original music influenced by Sly & the Family Stone, James Brown, Earth, Wind & Fire, Miles Davis, Parliament-Funkadelic, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, and Todd Rundgren.[citation needed] Prince also played basketball in high school.

The Revolution and Purple Rain:

During this period Prince referred to his band as The Revolution. The band's name was also printed, in reverse, on the cover of 1999 inside the letter "I" of the word "Prince". The band consisted of Lisa Coleman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, Bobby Z. on drums, Brown Mark on bass, and Dez Dickerson on guitar. Jill Jones, a backing singer, was also part of The Revolution line up for the 1999 album and tour. Following the 1999 Tour, Dickerson left the group for religious reasons. In the 2003 book Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince, author Alex Hahn says that Dickerson was reluctant to sign a three year contract and wanted to pursue other musical ventures. Dickerson was replaced by Wendy Melvoin, a childhood friend of Coleman. At first the band was used sparsely in the studio but this gradually changed during the mid-1980s.

Prince's 1984 album Purple Rain sold more than thirteen million copies in the U.S. and spent twenty-four consecutive weeks at No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The film of the same name won an Academy Award and grossed more than $80 million in the U.S.
Prince performing in Brussels during the Hit N Run Tour in 1986

Songs from the film were hits on pop charts around the world, while "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" reached No.1 and the title track reached No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100. At one point in 1984, Prince simultaneously had the number one album, single, and film in the U.S.; it was the first time a singer had achieved this feat. Prince won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for Purple Rain, and the album is ranked 72nd Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The album is included on the list of Time magazine's All-Time 100 Albums.

After Tipper Gore heard her 12-year-old daughter Karenna listening to Prince's song "Darling Nikki", she founded the Parents Music Resource Center. The center advocates the mandatory use of a warning label ("Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics") on the covers of records that have been judged to contain language or lyrical content unsuitable for minors. The recording industry later voluntarily complied with this request.

In 1985 Prince announced that he would discontinue live performances and music videos after the release of his next album. His subsequent recording Around the World in a Day, held the No.1 spot on the Billboard 200 for three weeks.

In 1986 his album Parade reached No.3 on the Billboard 200 and No.2 on the R&B charts. The first single, "Kiss", reached No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was originally written for a side project called Mazarati. That same year the song "Manic Monday", which was written by Prince and recorded by The Bangles, reached No.2 on the Hot 100 chart.

The album Parade served as the soundtrack for Prince's second film, Under the Cherry Moon. Prince directed and starred in the movie, which also featured Kristen Scott Thomas. He received the Golden Raspberry Award for his efforts in acting and directing. In 1986, Prince began a series of sporadic live performances called the Hit n Run - Parade Tour. The European tour went to Europe in the summer and ended that September in Japan.

After the tour Prince abolished The Revolution, fired Wendy & Lisa and replaced Bobby Z. with Sheila E. Brown Mark quit the band while keyboardist Doctor Fink remained. Prince then recruited new band members Miko Weaver on guitar, Atlanta Bliss on trumpet, Eric Leeds on saxophone, Boni Boyer on keyboards, Levi Seacer, Jr. on bass and dancer Cat Glover.

Source Info: Wikipedia

How it all started...

When Prince formed his backing band after the release of his first album, he followed in the footsteps of one of his idols, Sly Stone by creating a multi-racial, multi-gendered musical ensemble.

The band initially consisted of:
- Prince on lead vocals, guitar, and piano
-Dez Dickerson on guitar
-André Cymone on bass guitar
- Bobby Z. on drums & percussion
- Gayle Chapman on keyboards
-Matt Fink on keyboards

Though officially unnamed, Prince experimented with the band acting as a side project known as "The Rebels", recording material in 1979 in Colorado, just as a side project to get more music out. The recordings were a group effort with lead vocals by Cymone, Dickerson or Chapman. The project was shelved for unknown reasons, however two of the tracks would later be re-recorded and given away by Prince. "You", became "U", and was released on Paula Abdul's Spellbound album while "If I Love U 2nite" was released by both Mica Paris and Prince's later wife, Mayte Garcia. Paris rerecorded the song from scratch. Garcia's version was rerecorded by Prince.

Source Info- Wikipedia

On the next two tours following the Prince Tour, the band underwent two line-up changes. Gayle Chapman, who had strong religious beliefs as a member of The Way, quit the band in 1980 due to performing the sexually explicit lyrics of Prince's music, furthermore she disliked having to kiss her bandleader rather suggestively during the song "Head". The end came when she told Prince she planned to go on a trip with her Way group, but Prince wanted her to commit to some short-noticed rehearsals instead. After a long argument, Chapman quit the group to be replaced by Lisa Coleman. Coleman was usually only identified by her first name, while Fink started wearing surgical scrubs on stage and became known as "Doctor" Fink. Fink originally wore a black and white striped prison jumpsuit. However, a member of Rick James' band was doing the same thing and not wanting to copy that, Prince asked Fink, "Do you have any other ideas?" Fink said, "What about a doctor's outfit?" Prince loved the idea, and thus was born Doctor Fink.

The following year, after the Dirty Mind Tour, bass guitarist André Cymone would leave the band. Cymone, whose family gave Prince a home after he left his father's house, left over a number of grievances with Prince - little input in the studio, he wasn't getting credit for his contributions to Prince's music, and in general his desire to start his own career- and would have bitter feelings toward Prince as he later claimed that Prince stole many of his ideas that were used for The Time and that he created the bassline for Controversy's "Do Me, Baby". Ultimately, Cymone was replaced by Mark Brown, renamed Brownmark by Prince.

From 1982-1983, when the band was almost identified as The Revolution, it consisted of:

-Prince on lead vocals, guitar, and piano
-Dez Dickerson on guitar
-Brown Mark on bass
-Bobby Z. on drums & percussion
-Lisa Coleman on keyboards and piano
-Matt Fink on keyboards

The words "and the Revolution" can be seen printed backwards on the cover of his fourth album 1999. The band members were curious as to if they were getting a real name, but Prince had held back from fully calling the group The Revolution partly because of Dez Dickerson's wishes to leave the band. When the 1999 Tour ended, Dez Dickerson finally left the band for religious reasons and was replaced by Lisa's childhood friend Wendy Melvoin. Prince told Dickerson that he needed three years from him, and Dickerson wasn't willing to commit. Prince told Dickerson he'd leave him on payroll and honor his contract, which Prince did. Dickerson went on to eventually work for independent Christian record label Star Song. The Melvoin-Coleman tandem shortly thereafter formed a special bond with Prince and greatly influenced his output during the rest of their tenure in the band. Prince's former mostly R&B/funk offerings would be more diversified with rock, pop and classical music elements.

Source info- Wikipedia

Finally, before their biggest success, the most well known band members came together through chance & personal turmoil. The members listed here became the best known incarnation of the "Prince & The Revolution" band through the years.

-Prince on lead vocals, guitar, and piano
-Wendy Melvoin on guitar and vocals
-Brown Mark on bass guitar and vocals
-Lisa Coleman on keyboards, piano and vocals
-Matt "Doctor" Fink on keyboards and vocals
-Bobby Z. on drums

Prince and The Revolution's best-selling album, Purple Rain produced by Prince and The Revolution themselves, peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 knocking the Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. from the number one spot. The album was released in the end of June 1984 and featured the singles "When Doves Cry", "Let's Go Crazy", "Purple Rain", "I Would Die 4 U", and "Take Me with U". All the singles had accompanying music videos and all charted on the Billboard Hot 100 but only the first four peaked within the top 10 while "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" topped the chart. "When Doves Cry" would become the most successful single from Purple Rain at the time of its release on the pop charts, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as the Dance and R&B chart.

The song "Purple Rain" won two Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Instrumental Composition Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television. The album spent 24 weeks at number one and would eventually be certified thirteen times platinum in the United States, six times platinum in Canada and two times platinum in the United Kingdom. Purple Rain would become the first official appearance of "The Revolution".

Source info- Wikipedia

They lasted as such through 1986's Hit n Run - Parade Tour. In 1985, members of the then soon-to-be-defunct R&B/pop group The Family (which, in turn, included former members of another disbanded Prince-associated group, The Time) joined The Revolution, along with people from Sheila E.'s band.

The "Counter-Revolution":
Prince on lead vocals, guitar, and piano
Wendy Melvoin on guitar and vocals
Miko Weaver on guitar
Brown Mark on bass guitar and vocals
Bobby Z. on drums
Lisa Coleman on keyboards, piano and vocals
Matt Fink on keyboards and vocals
Susannah Melvoin on backing vocals
Eric Leeds on saxophone
Matt "Atlanta Bliss" Blistan on trumpet
Jerome Benton, Wally Safford and Greg Brooks as dancers/vocalists/comic foils (known as The Bodyguards)

A bit of background on the blend and acquisition of new members during this time...
For the Hit n Run - Parade Tour, the augmented Revolution with its several new members began to perform the complex and jazzy arrangements from the album, including the horn section.

-Mico Weaver joined via association with Sheila E. and as session guitarist for The Family.
-Susannah Melvoin former member of The Family; Prince's then-lover and twin sister of Wendy Melvoin.
-Eric Leeds former member of The Family; brother Alan served as Prince's then-tour manager. Joined via association with friend and former bandmate Leeds.
-Atlanta Bliss was never a "Former member of The Family".
Also, sole member of The Time to join The Revolution through The Family due to the departures of St. Paul and Jellybean Johnson.

Source Info- Wikipedia

Although these members also appeared with "The Revolution", no current info is available on them online.

Gayle Chapman
Active: 1979-1980
Instruments: keyboards

Wally Safford
Active: 1985-1987 [continued thru the SOTT era]
Instruments: dancer, vocals

Greg Brooks
Active: 1985-1987 [continued thru the SOTT era]
Instruments: dancer, vocals

Shortly after the Parade tour in October 1986, after all the tension between Prince, Wendy Melvoin, and Coleman due to his relationship with Susannah, Prince invited Wendy Melvoin and Coleman to dinner at his rented Beverly Hills home and fired them both. Unhappy with their lack of credit and creativity, Wendy & Lisa went on to perform as a duo. Ironically, Susannah ended up leaving the Revolution too, following a hurtful breakup with Prince, and performed for a time with Wendy & Lisa as a backup singer in their band.

He then called Bobby Z. to tell him that he was being replaced by the more versatile Sheila E, although he was kept on payroll for quite a few years after the fact, honoring Z's contract. Bobby Z would release a solo album in 1989.

Brownmark was asked to stay but quit. Although he said it was "partly out of loyalty to the others" and also because he was "unhappy at Prince's decision to return to making funk-based music", it was probably so he could concentrate on his burgeoning career as a solo artist and as a record producer for himself and other artists.

Matt Fink remained with Prince until 1991, when similar to the exit of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis from The Time, Matt Fink told Prince he wasn't available for two dates at the Rock in Rio festival as he was busy producing for another band at the time and found himself replaced by Tommy Barbarella. However, Fink also stated in a 2001 interview that he was tired of being in the band. When Prince filmed Graffiti Bridge, Prince wanted Fink to "rehearse the band" and was told that "there wasn't really anywhere in the movie for him." After the ensuing Nude Tour, essentially a greatest hits-type tour, Fink left for a career writing music for video games, and working at K-Tel Records, based out of Minneapolis. Unlike his fellow bandmates Fink did not immediately release any solo material, an album not being released until 2001.