Camille (album)
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Camille is an unreleased studio album by Prince, recorded in 1986. The album was planned to consist of 8 tracks in a processed vocal, sped up to sound like a female voice. The album was to be released under the name of 'Camille' (who would not be pictured on the cover) and not as a 'Prince' album.
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[edit] Evolution of the album
After the cancellation of the Dream Factory project, Prince went right back into the studio to record new material. He wrote a track called "Housequake" with a sped up vocal similar to the Dream Factory title track (and his earlier "Erotic City", the b-side to "Let's Go Crazy"). He was so pleased with the new song that he composed an entire album's worth of material in the same altered vocals. The voice itself began to take on the persona of "Camille" (named after the French hermaphrodite) and an album was configured. The album had gotten to the stage of being given a catalogue number when Prince changed his plans (having written more material) and compiled the 3-LP opus Crystal Ball. Seven of the Camille tracks were incorporated into Crystal Ball but when Warner Bros. forced Prince to trim the album down to the 2-LP Sign “☮” the Times, only three made the cut. One of the tracks, "Shockadelica," was actually written as a tongue-in-cheek message to long-time friend of Prince and former guitarist for The Time, Jesse Johnson, who had released a highly-successful solo album entitled Shockadelica the year prior to Prince releasing Sign 'O' the Times. It was Prince's way of communicating to Johnson of Prince's own belief that an album with an incredible title like "Shockadelica" should have an equally incredible title track. (Johnson's album "Shockadelica" did not have a song with the same name on it; conversely, the only albums that Prince had recorded to date which had not had a track bearing the album's name were his self-titled second album, and the infamous Black Album, which was pulled from release at the last minute by Prince and only saw the light of day years later as a result of contract disputes with Warner Bros. Records).
[edit] Track listing
- "Rebirth of the Flesh"
- "Housequake"
- "Shockadelica"
- "Feel U Up"
- "Strange Relationship"
- "Good Love"
- "If I Was Your Girlfriend"
- "Rockhard in a Funky Place"
[edit] Releases over time
Despite the project never seeing the light of day in its original form, Prince was reportedly very pleased with the Camille material, and most of the tracks have since been released on other Prince projects:
- 1987's Sign “☮” the Times included "Housequake", "If I Was Your Girlfriend" and "Strange Relationship".
- "Shockadelica" was released in full version as the 12" B-Side to "If I Was Your Girlfriend" in 1987.
- "Good Love" was released on the Bright Lights, Big City soundtrack in 1988 and on Prince's boxset, Crystal Ball ten years later.
- "Feel U Up" was released in full version as the 12" B-side to "Partyman" in 1989.
- "Rockhard in a Funky Place" was released on The Black Album in 1994.
Still unreleased is the studio version of "Rebirth of the Flesh", although a live rehearsal of the song was released on Prince's website in 2001. Prince still occationally records in Camille-like vocals, most recently on the title track for his 2006 album, 3121.
