This is such an unusual piece of music, and a great introduction to Prince (it was my first ever record)!
The story goes that apparently Tim Burton wasn't happy with the music Prince was making for the film and kept sending the tapes back to him saying "change this and this and that" or just straight up rejecting the songs altogether. The resulting official theme to the film, is a hastily assembled mash-up of all several different parts of songs that were to form a kind of trilogy. Prince was so annoyed by Burton's demands that instead of trying to re-record everything yet again, he just tacked all the bits together from the various attempts to make the official theme song and removed nearly all of the vocal parts. Initially it wasn't supposed to contain so many samples from the film, but there was no vocal until over half way through the song, so as a compromise Prince allowed Burton to flesh it out with the samples. "200 Balloons" was a pre-"Batdance" completed track, originally intended as the official lead track to the score, but Burton again changed his mind at the 11th hour and asked Prince to change it, saying it wasn't 'epic' enough. Most of that track ended up in "Batdance" and the 'epic' bit Prince took to mean just play a wild funky guitar solo all over it! The result is amazing I think, the guitar is super-fresh and makes me wanna leap on furniture, the samples are spot-on and the sort of crazy medley approach keeps it interesting all the way through.
It's a real one-off, this track. If Burton and Prince had've had a friendly working partnership, "Batdance" would have been so different. I love that it came about because of ongoing disagreements and Prince's clear annoyance at Burton for being so stubborn.
This is interesting! Thanks for this! I always thought this was a weird song, even by Prince's standards (though I like it), and I knew there must be some kind of story behind it. It amazes me to think this was played on the radio constantly in 1989. It's so unusual:)
This is interesting! Thanks for this! I always thought this was a weird song, even by Prince's standards (though I like it), and I knew there must be some kind of story behind it. It amazes me to think this was played on the radio constantly in 1989. It's so unusual:)
This is such an unusual piece of music, and a great introduction to Prince (it was my first ever record)!
The story goes that apparently Tim Burton wasn't happy with the music Prince was making for the film and kept sending the tapes back to him saying "change this and this and that" or just straight up rejecting the songs altogether. The resulting official theme to the film, is a hastily assembled mash-up of all several different parts of songs that were to form a kind of trilogy. Prince was so annoyed by Burton's demands that instead of trying to re-record everything yet again, he just tacked all the bits together from the various attempts to make the official theme song and removed nearly all of the vocal parts. Initially it wasn't supposed to contain so many samples from the film, but there was no vocal until over half way through the song, so as a compromise Prince allowed Burton to flesh it out with the samples. "200 Balloons" was a pre-"Batdance" completed track, originally intended as the official lead track to the score, but Burton again changed his mind at the 11th hour and asked Prince to change it, saying it wasn't 'epic' enough. Most of that track ended up in "Batdance" and the 'epic' bit Prince took to mean just play a wild funky guitar solo all over it! The result is amazing I think, the guitar is super-fresh and makes me wanna leap on furniture, the samples are spot-on and the sort of crazy medley approach keeps it interesting all the way through.
It's a real one-off, this track. If Burton and Prince had've had a friendly working partnership, "Batdance" would have been so different. I love that it came about because of ongoing disagreements and Prince's clear annoyance at Burton for being so stubborn.
This is interesting! Thanks for this! I always thought this was a weird song, even by Prince's standards (though I like it), and I knew there must be some kind of story behind it. It amazes me to think this was played on the radio constantly in 1989. It's so unusual:)
This is interesting! Thanks for this! I always thought this was a weird song, even by Prince's standards (though I like it), and I knew there must be some kind of story behind it. It amazes me to think this was played on the radio constantly in 1989. It's so unusual:)