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GCS 2000 Larry Graham album
NPG Records
albumThe ‘unfunky’ will try 2 label his music as dated, or out of style
Larry Graham was the former bassist of Sly & The Family Stone between 1966 and 1972, the band was a long influence on Prince before his career as a professional musician and signing to Warner Bros Records.
Larry remains one of the greatest bass guitarists, and pioneered the thumb slap playing technique. He met prince on 22 August 1997, when they were both playing shows at different venues in Memphis. Prince was in town performing his Jam Of The Year Tour and had Graham meet him at his aftershow at Music City Mix Factory. It proved a profound meeting for Prince as Graham became his religious confidant and they remained very close friends, each often citing the other as their “spiritual brother”. It was Larry who had Prince remove profanity from his lyrics. This change can be clearly noticed by the two legs of the tour, where between the first and second half of the tour The Cross was retitled The Christ and Sexy MF was permanently dropped from the Prince’s setlists. Graham guested frequently in Prince’s band both on record and at many of his live shows.
Not having released an album with his funk band Graham Central Station since 1979, Prince hoped to relaunch Larry’s career by co-producing an album with him, which was named GCS 2000. Recorded at Paisley Park Studios during Prince’s Jam Of The Year tour, November 1997 to January 1998, GCS 2000 was first released by NPG Records on 2 February 1999. In GCS 2000 white-suited Larry is playing his trademark Moon JJ4 full white 4-string bass, complete with attached microphone. Prince performs many of the other instruments throughout. The album was reissued that July, this time on the same day along with Prince’s own album Newpower Soul (under the guise of the New Power Generation) and Come 2 My House – an album Prince also co-produced for Chaka Khan, in the hope to re-vitalise the careers of two artists Prince most admired and respected greatly. The trio of albums were released in a distribution partnership with BMG – Prince’s Newpower Soul dropping first on 30 June 1998, with the wider commercial release of GCS 2000 and Khan’s Come 2 My House following 3 weeks later.
In GCS 2000, Prince co-wrote the track Utopia. The material also continues Prince’s long-standing theme for creative freedom, most evidently with Free, on which Prince also appears on backing vocals along with Khan. Prince also writes the LP’s liner notes in which he recalls the impact of Graham when starting his own career. Graham and Khan joined Prince as support acts on the 1998 Newpower Festival tour to raise the profile of Graham’s and Khan’s individual projects. Prince plays the instruments throughout the album and provides backing vocals on three tracks. GCS 2000 was thereby criticised for being too closely to Prince’s style than an identifiable Larry Graham album. It peaked at number 49 in the R&B charts. Prince’s involvement is credited under the name Prince Love Symbol.
Larry Graham made regular appearances in Prince’s band until until 2012. Prince also performs on Graham’s follow-up album Raise Up, released under an independent German label Moosicus in 2012. Prince’s contributions on that album (the title track, Shoulda Coulda Woulda and Movin’) date from the GCS 2000 sessions at Paisley Park during 1998.
Performers
- Vocals / Bass
- Larry Graham
- All instr. / vox
- Prince Love Symbol
- Keyboards
- Ricky Peterson Just B My Lady
- Robert "Butch" Smith GCS 2000
- Drums
- Michael Bland Love 4 1another
- Kirk Johnson Eye'magettin'
- Trombone
- Michael B. Nelson Free, Love 4 1another and Groove On
- Baritone sax
- Kathy Jensen Free, Love 4 1another and Groove On
- Saxophone
- Kenni Holmen Free, Love 4 1another and Groove On
- Trumpet
- Dave Jensen Free, Love 4 1another and Groove On
- Steve Strand Free, Love 4 1another and Groove On
- Scratches
- Brother Jules GCS 2000 and Groove On
- Orchestration
- Clare Fischer Eye Just Found Somebody 2 Love
- Guitar
- Gail Muldrow GCS 2000
- Wilton Robb GCS 2000
- Trumpet
- Cynthia Robinson GCS 2000
- Saxophone
- Jerry Martini GCS 2000
- Backing vocals
- Marva King Just B My Lady, Don’t Let 'Em Change U and Eye Just Found Somebody 2 Love
- Rhonda Smith Utopia
- Kat Dyson Utopia
Data
- Producers
- Larry Graham and Prince Love Symbol
- Label
- NPG Records
- Distribution
- NPG Records
- Cover/Design
- Steve Parke
- Released
- 28 years ago on 2 February 1998
- Running Time
- 58:36
- US Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- UK Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- Orig. Formats
-
Tracklist
- GCS 2000 (3:53)
- Free [feat. Prince and Chaka Khan] (7:04)
- U Move Me [feat. Latia Graham and Tina Graham] (4:43)
- Just B My Lady [feat. Prince] (5:28)
- Love 4 1another [feat. Prince, Latia Graham and Tina Graham] (8:15)
- Segue (0:33)
- Don't Let'em Change U [feat Kirk Johnson] (5:47)
- Segue (0:48)
- Utopia (3:47) 1
- Groove On [feat. Latia Graham and Tina Graham] (7:24)
- Eye Just Found Somebody 2 Love (5:16)
- Eye'magettin' (5:35)
1 Cowritten by Prince and Larry Graham.
Supporting tour
Jam of the Year
1997/8
- Love 4 One Another Charities Tour (USA & Canada)
21 shows from 7 January to 29 June, 1997 - Jam Of The Year (USA & Canada)
65 shows from 21 July 1997 to 22 January 1998 - Newpower Soul Tour (Europe)
17 shows from 30 April to 28 August, 1998 - Newpower Festival (USA & Europe)
15 shows from 23 September to 28 December, 1998
GCS 2000 album review
Larry Graham has been vastly undervalued by Prince fans, not without reason however; Graham was the major factor behind Prince’s abandonment of his Rude Boy persona to clean living Mr Goodnight. Prince returned the favour in 1998 and co-produced Graham’s GCS 2000. The album is rich with Graham’s bass mastery, which blasts out of the blocks with the title track. Although Prince cowrote three of the album’s tracks, Graham of old still shines although Prince’s direction runs dominant.
The three tracks of most interest to Prince fans are Free, which features Prince and Chaka Khan – the Newpower Pak – on backing vocals, also the album’s funkiest song and clears a cool seven minutes. Then Love 4 1another, which is complete with Prince’s keyboards and a deliciously nasty sample of Billy Jack Bitch (personally, the early nineties marked Prince’s true peak). The third is the Gett Off channelling opening Utopia of which Graham co-wrote with Prince. The top Graham tracks are Don’t Let’em Change U and the album’s bassiest and closer Groove On.
GCS 2000 is rated 3.5 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.
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