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Madhouse 8

Warner Bros. Records

He just felt like doing something different.

Prince had gotten inspiration to create a jazz themed album from his father, John Lewis Nelson. Having introduced saxophonist Eric Leeds into The Revolution’s line-up for their Purple Rain Tour, which launched in November 1984, Leeds’ arrival in the band ignited Prince’s appreciation for jazz. Leeds was consequently incorporated into the band of Prince’s next side venture The Family, and during the studio sessions laying down material for that project’s debut LP in 1985, Prince and Leeds recorded also four jazz inspired instrumental jams intended for an EP named The Flesh.

The recording was done at Sunset Sound over two sessions on 26 December 1985 and 5 January 1986, although plans for The Flesh was subsequently shelved, Prince and Leeds’ collaboration was revived and developed in the autumn of 1986 into a band named Madhouse. The ‘group’ at this juncture only comprised Prince and Eric Leeds: Prince on the drums, bass and keyboards, and Leeds the melody parts on Baritone sax.

The tracks Prince and Leeds created for Madhouse were laid down at Prince’s Galpin Blvd home studio between 28 September to 1 October 1986, right after the Parade Tour, in the approach to the official disbanding of The Revolution on 17 October. The eight tracks Prince and Leeds recorded were issued on the project’s debut LP, titled simply 8. Each of its tracks were likewise named numerically, One through to Eight. Its follow up LP 16 continued the naming convention to correspond to the number of tracks the releases accumulate; the name of every track so-numbered. Prince’s contribution was credited under the name Madhouse to shield him in case jazz critics disliked the material and thus affect his solo career, which at the time Prince was working on his first solo LP since disbanding The Revolution, named Camille. Madhouse 8 credited Prince’s instrumentation to fake musicians named John Lewis (drums), Bill Lewis (bass) and Austra Chanel (keyboards). Indeed, when released in January 1987 under Prince’s Paisley Park Records, Madhouse quickly developed quite a cult following, that two further LPs were produced.

The practical challenge to support the album as opening act for Prince on his Sign O’ The Times Tour staged across Europe on May and June 1987, necessitated the expansion of the line-up to include members of Prince’s touring band. Joining Eric Leeds for Madhouse’s live show line-up was Levi Seacer Jr. (bass), Matt Fink (keyboards) and Dale Alexander – who in the 1970s auditioned for Bobby Z’s place in Prince’s band – as guest drummer. They performed disguised as hooded monks as Leeds, Seacer and Fink were also performing in Prince’s band in the main show. After the tour, Prince, Leeds, Seacer and Fink were joined by Sheila E to record the project’s second studio LP Madhouse 16.

Cover story

The female on the album’s sleeve is Maneca Lightner, a model who met Prince at a record signing when she was aged 16. Some years later they met by chance again and was asked to model for the covers commissioned for both Madhouse 8 and its follow up LPs 16 and the project’s final but unreleased third album 24. In later life, Lightner founded a talent agency. The terrier featured on the cover is neither hers nor Prince’s dog but hired from a talent agency specially for the shoot with photographer Richard Litt. Two photo sessions took place for it, the first was on Malibu beach. Laura LiPuma of Warner’s art department had the idea to recreate the beach in the studio where Litt could control the lighting better and make the colours more vivid. The second version was chosen for the cover. LiPuma then added the canary yellow border to bring out the image colours even further. The final embellishment was the Madhouse logo hand drawn by Glenn Parsons.

Madhouse

Sax/Flute: Eric Leeds
All instr.: Prince

Data

Production

Prince (as Madhouse)

Label

Paisley Park Records

Distribution

Warner Bros. Records

Cover/Design

Richard Litt and Glenn Parsons

Released

37 years ago on 21 January 1987

Running Time

38:30

US Chart Peak

107

UK Chart Peak

Did not chart

Orig. Formats

Tracklist

One (7:16)
Two (5:31)
Three (3:16)
Four (2:24)
Five (1:15)
Six (4:28)
Seven (4:09)
Eight (10:05)

Released as a single

Singles from Madhouse 8

6

Paisley Park Records

Released

14 January 1987

Distribution

Warner Bros. Records

US Chart Peak

UK Chart Peak

Format

6 [End Of The World Mix] (5:45)
Six [Edit] (3:37)
Six And ½ (2:36)

Supporting tour

Sign O’ The Times Tour

1987

34 shows from 8 May to 29 June, 1987

Madhouse 8 – review

For years (thirty, being completely honest) I have been giving the Madhouse project a wide birth. Not liking that the tracks were just sequentially named, dispassionately numbered like convicts and bank notes – it felt like a product formed of cold, just simple, output. Another reason was, whilst I was prepared to follow Prince to every corner of his output, I never bought into the concept of Madhouse. Was I an uncultured heathen, I questioned. It was too great a departure for me from the Prince I heard in the charts. That said, in any partnership it should open to compromise, and on that basis that I should trust Prince. To hear him out and await the time when the Madhouse project would be listened to by receptive, if not completely unbiased ears. The tracks (tunes) rise (One) and fall (Three) with Eric Leeds’ masterful leading, but the real enjoyment is to hear Prince’s percussion and exposing his underrated greatness at the drums (Seven). Eight is not only the album’s best track but also totally enchanting. Whist this is clearly not your average lounge music, with the bias shed, the listening is unexpectedly pleasurable and will be more often than has been.

Madhouse 8 is rated 3.5 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.