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Minneapolis Genius - album by 94 East, Castle Communications PLC (1986)

Minneapolis Genius 94 East • Castle Communications PLC • 1986

1985

1986
Minneapolis Genius

1987

Review (3.5 / 5) Prince Biography Associated Artists Greatest Hits

Minneapolis Genius

Castle Communications PLC

album

I was born here, unfortunately.

Linster ‘Pepé’ Willie was mentor to Prince in the two years prior to signing his record deal with Warner Bros Records on 25 June 1977. Telephone engineer by trade, by 1970 he was an aspiring musician and running errands for the likes Marvin Gaye and Ray Charles, he became mentor for Prince’s high school band Grand Central. As husband of Prince’s first cousin, Shauntel Manderville, Willie was introduced to Prince by Morris Day‘s mother Lavonne Daugherty, Grand Central’s then appointed manager, who was at the time brokering the band connections within the industry. Impressed at what he heard, he gave Prince and Andre Cymone their first jobs as session musicians laying down five instrumentals for his new band 94 East (so named after the nearby Interstate 94) which had just signed to Polydor. It was a crucial encounter, Bobby Rivkin, drummer for 94 East was a friend of Owen Husney who was subsequently Prince’s first manager.

Prince’s studio sessions with Willie began in 1975 and continued sporadically through to 1979, Prince playing guitar, keyboards and drums on every track. Prince recorded part at his home and first rented property, 5215 France Avenue South, in Edina, Minneapolis, using a basic 8-track recording unit. The remaining sessions took place at professional facilities, initially Cookhouse Studio – where they recorded Games – the first track Prince laid down at a professional studio, on 4 December 1975. In 1986, after Prince had become a household name, Willie had the recordings published by British independent distributor Castle Communications as an LP named Minneapolis Genius. Although the release is sub-headed ‘The Historic 1977 Recordings’ the remaining tracks were actually laid down in 1978 between Sound Palace Studios at New York and Sound 80 Minneapolis. The Sound Palace sessions was intended to produce a demo for Tony Silvester who was planning to create an LP with The Imperials, although this fell through. In 1982, Prince recorded his own version of If You See Me, which he retitled as Do Yourself A Favor, this outtake from his 1999 LP studio sessions was released by the Prince Estate in 2019.

The recordings have been repeatedly re-released in several packages and configurations. First released in February 1986 at the height of Prince’s fame, packaged as Minneapolis Genius, the session recordings were reissued in 1992. Whilst Grand Central was a covers band, taking Willie’s advice to start writing their own tracks, Prince penned Just Another Sucker, which of course appears in the compilation.

Subsequent reissues of the 1992 version have been repackaged and renamed in multiple releases Symbolic Beginning (1995), The Legends Collection (1999), 94 East Featuring Prince (2000), One Man Jam (2000), and If You Feel Like Dancin’ (2004). A revised compilation 94 East Featuring Prince was issued in 2016 in the year of Prince’s death, and was further reissued in 2024 as a remastered edition titled Dance To The Music Of The World in the 40th anniversary year of Purple Rain. Pepé Willie died in 2025 aged 77.

Performers

Synth/Percussn.
Pepé Willie
Guitar/Synth
Prince
Bass Guitar
André Cymone
Alvin Moody Games
Keyboards
Mark Sullivan Games
Drums
Jerome Brailey Games
Vocals
Kristie Lazenberry Lovin' Cup and Just Another Sucker
Marcy Ingvoldstad Lovin' Cup and Just Another Sucker

Data

Producers
Pepé Willie and Tony Silvester
Label
Hot Pink Records Inc.
Distribution
Castle Communications PLC
Cover/Design
Judith Salavetz and Spencer Drate
Released
40 years ago on 12 February 1986
Running Time
33:20
US Chart Peak
Did not chart
UK Chart Peak
Did not chart
Orig. Formats

Tracklist

  1. If You Feel Like Dancin' (7:11) 4
  2. Lovin' Cup (4:21) 5
  3. Games (5:01) 2
  4. Just Another Sucker (5:21) 1 & 5
  5. Dance To The Music Of The World (5:09) 5
  6. One Man Jam (6:17) 3
Running Time
33 min, 20 sec

1992 Reissue (Disc 1)

  1. Just Another Sucker [Vocal] (5:17) 1
  2. Games [Vocal] (3:34)
  3. If You Feel Like Dancin’ [Instrumental] (7:09)
  4. Love, Love, Love [Vocal] (3:52)
  5. If You See Me [Instrumental] (5:41)
  6. One Man Jam [Instrumental] (6:16)
  7. You Can Be My Teacher [Vocal] (4:05)
Running Time
35 min, 54 sec

1992 Reissue (Disc 2)

  1. Games [Instrumental] (3:35)
  2. Lovin’ Cup (4:18)
  3. If You See Me [Vocal] (5:41)
  4. I’ll Always Love You [Vocal] (3:52)
  5. Better Than You Think [Vocal] (4:29)
  6. Dance To The Music Of The World [Vocal] (6:03)
  7. Games [Original Version] (4:58)
  8. Better Than You Think [Instrumental] (4:31)
Running Time
42 min, 30 sec

94 East Featuring Prince (2016)

  1. Just Another Sucker (5:17) 1
  2. If You Feel Like Dancin' (7:08)
  3. Lovin' Cup (4:20)
  4. Games [Original Version] (3:40)
  5. Dance To The Music Of The World (5:07)
  6. One Man Jam (6:09)
  7. If You See Me (5:40)
  8. I'll Always Love You (3:53)
  9. Better Than You Think (4:30)
  10. If We Don't (4:08)
  11. You Can Be My Teacher (4:06)
  12. Love, Love, Love (3:52)
  13. Dance To The Music Of The World [Rehearsal] (6:04)
Running Time
49 min, 46 sec

Released as a single

1 Co-written by Prince and Pepé Willie.
2 Prince on guitar
3 Prince on keyboards
4 Prince on guitar and synths
5 Prince on guitar, drums and synths

Minneapolis Genius album review

Considering Prince was 16 or 17 at the time of recording this, it is seriously impressive stuff. The album captures Prince at his roots. Pre-discovery, pre-Warner, and recorded over the year when he was renting his first home in a nondescript corner of Minneapolis when a jobbing session musician. The album largely comprises of funk laden dance grooves – certainly nothing wrong there – kicking off with a seven-minute jam If You Feel Like Dancin’, a true old school down and nasty tight-ass track, complete Prince’s trademark dirty keys. We slow down for the wonderfully smooth second track, Lovin’ Cup, the first of two tracks with vocal accompaniment (neither with Prince).

What is impressive throughout is the mark of Prince’s professionalism – picking out his instruments he is solidly on point always. Prince’s track is Just Another Sucker, on which he also sings backing, the track rises and falls with a melody reminiscent of In Love. Now, we are the first to acknowledge this site’s bias in this next comment – this is the album’s best track. Cymone’s bass is delicious throughout and just makes you wonder what the school hall at Grand Central High would have been like on prom night. Dance To The Music Of The World has great electronic flourishes.

This release is the documentation of a highly accomplished Minneapolis genius – brimming with the confidence and flair we got to know all too well. Closing with One Man Jam a deep groove with touches of Sexy Dancer, you are swept away to a 70s paradise and wishing you could turn back time and straight on to that disco ball spotted dancefloor, to start the next 40 year ride with Prince all over again.

Minneapolis Genius is rated 3.5 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.

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