The Family - The Family (1985)

Minneapolis R&B band The Family was one of the first acts signed to Prince's nascent Paisley Park Records label. Here's how lead singer Paul Peterson tells the story of the formation of The Family: "When Morris Day decided to leave the group The Time, Prince held a meeting with the remaining band members. We were all sitting in a circle, Jesse Johnson, Jerry Hubbard, Mark Cardinas, Jerome Benton, Jellybean Johnson. He looked at us all, and said that he wanted to start a new band. He knew that Jesse was anxious to do his own solo career, so he asked those not into a new band to leave. Then off went Jesse (then later Mark, and Jerry). Prince then said "I have a concept, and I want to base it around you" (then he spun around in his chair and landed at me) I was totally off guard. I guess he heard me sing when we were filming Purple Rain - while Morris and I were in the dressing room at First Avenue, which was adjacent to his -- by a bed sheet!"

Singer Paul Peterson was renamed St. Paul. Along with drummer Jellybean Johnson and hype man Jerome Benton, The Family was complete with the addition of background singer/keyboard player Susannah Melvoin and saxophonist Eric Leeds. Their first and only single, "The Screams of Passion," managed to crack the R&B Top 15 in America. A video was produced, check it out:



I've always found this album to be immensely listenable and it is definitely a Prince fan favorite. I just never seem to get tired of it. As usual, Prince wrote and produced all of the music, but in this case gave the official writing credits to the band members, except for "Nothing Compares 2 U," which later became a famous hit for Sinéad O'Connor. Musically, The Family predicts the direction that Prince was to take on Parade and Sign 'o' the Times. It is here that you can hear the first distinct usage of funk, jazz and orchestral strings in the Prince oeuvre. Heck, even the video looks like Prince and the Revolution's "Mountains"!

The group didn't last. During recording, St. Paul was subjected to take after take until his vocals exactly matched the guide vocals Prince provided. There was no room for St. Paul's own vocal phrasing. Without the ability to pursue his own creativity, St. Paul felt stifled. They only played one show before he left to pursue a solo career. Some of the members were drafted into Prince's expanded Revolution. Eighteen years later, on December 13, 2003, The Family reunited for the Sheila E. organized charity concert Family Jamm. In January of 2007, the band announced on MySpace that they had newly reformed and have begun work on new material! They've since played ?uestlove's pre-Grammy Roots Jam party, where Susannah's twin sister Wendy Melvoin sat in on guitar. All very exciting and, hopefully, we'll see new material soon. Prince isn't involved this time around, so it'll be interesting to hear what they produce. In the meantime, check out their MySpace page for live audio and video clips and breaking news.

This album was only released on CD in Japan. This rip is taken from a lossless version I downloaded years ago on Usenet. It was labeled at the time as T's Remaster, which seems to suggest it was ripped from vinyl. The sound quality is excellent, though, and doesn't sound like a vinyl rip to me. I've never been able to locate the rare Japanese disc, so I haven't been able to compare it. It could simply be a tweaked version of the Japanese release. I've also included the Extended Version of "The Screams of Passion" from the 12" single. This was also from a lossless version on Usenet. Between the two, I put "Miss Understood," an honestly mediocre unreleased outtake in which Susannah takes lead vocals. This track is taken from the Fantasia 4CD Prince bootleg, a 256kbps version of which I located on Soulseek.

The Family - The Family (1985)
1. High Fashion (5:05)
2. Mutiny (3:54)
3. The Screams of Passion (5:23)
4. Yes (4:25)
5. River Run Dry (3:28)
6. Nothing Compares 2 U (4:30)
7. Susannah's Pajamas (3:55)
8. Desire (5:01)
Unreleased Outtake:
9. Miss Understood (5:20)
From The Screams of Passion 12":
10. The Screams of Passion (Extended Version) (6:46)

82.8MB RAR archive
MP3: 1x Constant bitrate (256kbps)
9x Variable bitrate (239.5kbps average)
Audiograbber 1.83.1 w/LAME 3.96.1 (--preset extreme)

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