Edit (14/2/17) Prince is now streaming again!
So today of my Classic Albums posts is finally the first soundtrack and it’s just got to be Prince‘s Batman. It’s about time for both these two, you know Prince and movie soundtracks should have been included really. I don’t know why soundtracks are not normally included on these greatest/classic albums list, I’ve been looking at a lot of these type of lists and almost all don’t have any of them. Maybe only one album that’s included because maybe people have some what forgotten or never seen it as a film or because it has labelled it a bad movie and the songs are so great is Prince’s Purple Rain. It’s a great album not doubt about it but if I was to pick one album from his huge back catalogue it would be this Batman soundtrack album. It’s pretty much been my fave of his 80’s album since well the late 80’s. It’s release date was late June 1989 so it’s his final 80’s album too.
Batman was a number one album on the charts but it’s sandwiched in-between two kind-of flop albums, Lovesexy the year before did have Prince totally naked on the cover so that would haven’t have helped and then his first 90’s album Graffiti Bridge wasn’t his most successful too but anyway Batman seems to be a bit of a now under rated album maybe because it’s a soundtrack to a movie that’s a little dated to say the least, I’m not talking about the movie here but will include Tim Burton‘s idea about what Joker the should be was pretty much Prince or was it he was just listening to a lot of Prince while coming up with the idea for Joker, anyway Tim asked Prince for a Joker song and Prince came up with the whole album. Only a couple of the songs was used in the movie, Danny Elfman was also scoring the film too.
Did you know? That when Prince was a very young kid starting to learning to play music, the very first thing he learn was the theme for the 60’s TV show called Batman. Pretty funny, hey?
Right before we get to much more into this, the reason why I’ve NOT got the whole album linked here and you can easily just hit play and listen to it and I’ve got one live clip from a TV show of Electric Chair, two bits from the movie with Partyman and Trust, an edit clip of movie to the Batdance song is before his passing away in 2010’s somewhere Prince told everyone that “the internet was over” or something like that but the point was just pretty much away for people who didn’t have to pay for his music so send his lawyers to remove his stuff from it. If you wanted to listen to it just buy it was his call which you got to say is pretty right on but don’t help to promote him like I guess I’m doing here with this blog post. So guess just buy it yourself if you haven’t yet because it’s great album.
Unlike the movie the album is not dated at all, which is the total opposite to the film but I’ve not watched for a longtime so don’t quote me on that. It’s 45 mins. and a bit with the nine tracks. It’s pretty much Pop music but it’s labeled as Electronic, Rock, Funk & Soul and Synth-music which does cover a lot of bases. The opening song is The Future which you really can’t find anything more futuristic on any of Prince’s albums with some great crazy lyrics too, here’s just one part is:
Yellow Smiley offers me X
Like he’s drinking seven up
I would rather drink 6 razor blades
Razor blades from a paper cup
He can’t understand, I say to tough
It’s just that I’ve seen the future
And boy it’s rough
Electric Chair song is next and I’ve got to say both these two track at the start of the album are just amazing, can I really do justice to them here? I don’t think I say before here that my Mother was a dance teacher when I was a kid and I was thrown out of her own dance class for being bad or misbehaving. Oh, speaking of Bad I don’t know if it’s true if Prince did say “Michael Jackson called his album Bad because he couldn’t fit Pathetic on the album cover” but it’s a great quote if it is true and it seems they didn’t like each other at the time. I really don’t think I can put MJ into this CA list because it would still go against everything but I think Madonna will pop up sometime if you want to know now. Anyway what was I saying before? Mum was a dance teacher and had all these pop singers in the house/home when I was growing up and I do remember dancing around the living room to this album and then I jumped on top of chairs and tables, going totally crazy to these songs and then I think Mum had to turn it off because I was going a little nuts, I was always a little crazy.
Partyman, Trust, Lemon Crush and Batdance are all great leaping on top of your furniture songs too, if you wanna know? The Arms Of Orion and Scandalous are the epic big ballads which amazing too, Orion is a duet with Sheena Easton which she co-wrote with Prince. Then maybe Vicki Waiting is my least liked track on the album but I’m not saying it’s a bad song or anything really, there is not a wasted moment on the whole album. So I did find my cassette tape copy the other week too, remember them? So have two versions of the same album, oh well it is that great.
As a bit a of an extra or bonus tracks or something because you can’t listen to the whole album here I’ve found the two remixes to end with, the Vicki Vale and club 12″ both from SoundCloud below.
Edit (17/2/19) I’ve update adding the promo video clips now because at time of writing this post they were unavailable as explain above.
Batman track listing and times
1. The Future – 4:08
2. Electric Chair – 4:13
3. The Arms Of Orion – 5:03
4. Partyman – 3:11
5. Vicki Waiting – 4:47
6. Trust – 4:24
7. Lemon Crush – 4:15
8. Scandalous – 6:15
9. Batdance – 6:13
My Classic Albums are, so far:
Tales From The Australian Underground – Volume 1 & 2 by Various Artists
Station To Station by David Bowie
Unplugged In New York by Nirvana
Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs by Marty Robbins
Henry’s Dream by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Whatever You Love, You Are by Dirty Three
In The Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn by Pink Floyd
Songs Of Love And Hate by Leonard Cohen
Warm Leatherette by Grace Jones
Silence Is Sexy by Einstürzende Neubauten
Kings Of The Wild Frontier by Adam And The Ants
Drowning In The Fountain Of Youth by Dan Kelly And The Alpha Males
Batman by Prince
So, this was the reason I started this blog. The idea is simply to write post about one of my fave album each that I consider a classic album. Please leave your own comments below about each album because I would love to hear what you think/say about them too? cheers!
a1000mistakes 
It is a great album and deserves a top spot. Great funky songs and think Prince must have enjoyed doing this album.
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you’re right, no pieces is to throw in the trash. the remixes that came out Batman, Partyman are likewise some jewelry
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“Ooh we gotta live one here! Ahahaha”
I rewatched this again recently. I remember reading somewhere that Prince & Vicki Vale aka Kim Bassinger spent a night together which resulted in honey all over the mixing desk & her, ahem guest vocal on the outtake ‘Orgasm’ which surfaced on his ’94 LP ‘Come’. Now whatever was that about?
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Being a ginormous to the max 😁, Prince fan in the 80s, I remember driving past the K-mart in Boronia (Vic) in 89 (I think?), and seeing a poster selling the album. I had been waiting for it with an itch you couldn’t scratch (no it wasn’t an STD 😂)
I agree with you about the 2 opening songs, very underrated in his catalogue of great songs. Not my all time fave Prince album, but certainly not the worst.
I actually liked Vicki Waiting, Lemon Crush…but not so much The Arms of Orion. I’m not a fan of some of his love ballads.
And of course the bizarreness that is Batdance, which for a huge song at the time, is never played or mentioned. I could talk about his albums all day. I had my room covered with his posters. Lol
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Oh cool, your looking at more of these older posts/albums which sometimes can’t even remember what i ever wrote so it’s wicked great your reminding me by commenting on them!
I might have re-do or a bit of editing it and get rid of those dead videos and add the video clips which are now on youtube since his passing away. I think another reason I picked this one was it’s never included in anyone’s else top albums list, which seems to be one thing I’ve notices since doing this list! i do go for less well-known album and not just Prince but a lot of artists, well sometimes! but i do still think it works wicked great as a whole album but as you do point out the bizarreness that’s Batdance, never get any love these days!
Anyway also you might really enjoy my post coming later on today?
Cheers 🙂
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