The conventional wisdom regarding Prince’s 1989 Batman soundtrack: It’s a mess. A bore. A crass commercial tie-in that found one of the most ingenious pop minds reduced to sampling Kim Basinger dialogue and screaming “Get the funk up!”
And, to be fair, the conventional wisdom on this one is pretty much spot-on. But there are at least a few good songs to pick from here: “Vicki Waiting” bumps along nicely (until you get to the “All is well in Gotham City” line), and “Trust” has the feel of a Sign O’ The Times B-side. Again, this isn’t exactly wow-the-world stuff, but it might make you reconsider tossing out your old “Batdance” cassingle.
Prince – Vicki Waiting [MP3, link expired]
Prince – Trust [MP3, link expired]
Dude i love this Album – its one of the top of all prince albums. Get it straight.
Batman‘s a very glass-half-full record. It’s either one of the most thematically unified movie soundtracks of the ’80s, or (unofficially) the first Prince album of the ’90s – the Prince-unfriendly decade. Batman basically augured the unfortunate, I-can’t-compete-with-hip-hop sound he’d adopt in that misbegotten decade, and as such it’s a depressing listen now, even if – you’re right – the album has a few minor gems on it.
I like “The Future,” and say what you want but “Batdance” is actually a pretty innovative sound-collage posing as a massive hit single. But “The Arms of Orion”? “Scandalous”? Ecch. They’re like first drafts for “Diamonds and Pearls” – Prince’s lamest hit single of the next 10 years.
Thanks for reminding me I need to get ‘Parade’ on CD.
What are you talking about? Batman soundtrack is way great except for the shitty ballads. Oops, that’s the shit you like.
Batdance, Mr. Partyman, Electric Chair, the Future — even Prince’s loopy “Gemini” character that was inexplicably inserted was great – blew away the concept of a movie soundtrack that still echoes on today. I bet DC Comics and the WB shit a cow on first hearing, though.
I actually don’t mind “Scandalous,” but that might be the Sheena Easton nostalgia.
…..I’m not a big rap, hip-hop, or R&B guy, but I pretty much like everything Prince does. He’s king of the hill at what he does!
I can’t believe there are people aside from Prince defending Batdance!
i was hoping you’d post the mp3 of the Scandalous remixes with nothing but Kim Bassinger moaning for 6 minutes
More Batdance = more good times for all.
You woulda coulda should have focused on the single which was incredible. The rest of the album was lukewarm in comparison although “Scandalous” is funny. But “Batdance” was an incredible collage as someone previously mentioned.