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May 19, 1992 Ingrid Chavez album
Warner Bros. Records
albumMy Paisley door is open wide
After moving to Minneapolis in 1986 at the age of 17, Ingrid Chavez first met Prince on 1 December 1987 during a Tuesday funk night hosted at Williams Uptown Pub, and passed him a note. The encounter proved profound and resulted in Prince arriving to the decision to cancel the 8 December release of The Black Album. Intrigued by her brand of performance poetry, he encouraged her to write a spoken word album and signed her to his label Paisley Park Records.
The main recording of May 19, 1992, her debut album, was laid down at Paisley Park Studios in December that year. But in April 1991, Prince re-recorded his backing music on the project, adding improvisation on keyboards in five of its eleven tracks. The album’s name May 19, 1992 is the date one year on from the day the cover photo was shot by fashion photographer Mark Abrahams.
Prince withdrew his involvement from the project following an insistence by Warner Bros Records to replace the vocals with sung lyrics to boost its chance of commercial success. The album’s six remaining tracks are co-produced by Levi Seacer and Prince’s then sound engineer Michael Koppelman, this work being done at Larrabee Sound Studios, North Hollywood. Prince’s involvement in May 19, 1992 is credited simply as Paisley Park.
Following his withdrawal of The Black Album Prince was seeking to produce a record with a more positive tone. Chavez was a key influence behind the resulting Lovesexy album and gives the spoken intro in its opening track Eye No for which she is credited as The Spirit Child. A recording of Chavez reciting her poetry was played in the concert intermission throughout Lovesexy Tour. In the concert programme Prince referred to his 1 December 1987 meeting with Chevez as Blue Tuesday, seeing it as an epiphany moment to the dark direction his music was heading.
In 1990, Prince cast Chavez into the female lead role of his third feature film Graffiti Bridge, playing the part of his romantic muse and guardian angel Aura. During the shooting of this movie she met Lenny Kravitz and the pair co-wrote the song Justify My Love. Kravitz offered Madonna the song and she made it a hit that year. Uncredited for her contribution for the creation of the song, Chavez subsequently sued and settled out of court.
Performers
- Vocals
- Ingrid Chavez
- All instruments
- Prince
Data
- Producers
- Prince (as Paisley Park) and Levi Seacer
- Label
- Paisley Park Records
- Distribution
- Warner Bros. Records
- Cover/Design
- Mark Abrahams and Deborah Norcross
- Released
- 34 years ago on 24 September 1991
- Running Time
- 40:46
- US Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- UK Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- Orig. Formats
-
Tracklist
- Heaven Must Be Near (7:08) 1
- Hippy Blood (5:29)
- Candle Dance (3:43) 2
- Elephant Box (4:30) 1
- Slappy Dappy (4:06) 1
- Little Mama (4:55)
- Jadestone (0:46) 1
- Wintersong (3:51)
- Spiritual Storm (1:41)
- Sad Puppet Dance (3:55)
- Whispering Dandelions (2:00) 1
Released as a single
1 Co-written and performed by Prince and Ingrid Chavez.
2 Instruments by Prince.
Singles from May 19, 1992
Hippy Blood
Paisley Park Records
- Released
- 5 March 1992
- Distribution
- Warner Bros. Records
- US Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- UK Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- Formats
-
- Hippy Blood [Free Spirit Edit] (4:06)
- Hippy Blood [Keep Pumpin' It Mix] (6:35)
- Hippy Blood [Commune Mix] (7:37)
- Hippy Blood (4:51)
- Whispering Dandelions (1:59)
- Hippy Blood [Funky House Edit] (6:00)
- Hippy Blood [Club Mix] (6:53)
- Hippy Blood [Happy Hippy Mix] (5:21)
- Hippy Blood [Freedom's Beating Heart Mix] (3:45)
Elephant Box
Paisley Park Records
- Released
- 19 May 1992
- Distribution
- Warner Bros. Records
- US Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- UK Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- Formats
-
- Elephant Box [Album Version] (3:52)
- Elephant Box [Elephant House Mix] (6:36)
- Elephant Box [The Solo] (6:28)
- Elephant Box [Bee Bop Mix] (6:13)
- Elephant Box [Full Pass Mix] (6:15)
- Elephant Box [Dub Box] (6:04)
May 19, 1992 album review
May 19, 1992 is not the most familiar album of Prince’s associate artists. The unmemorable title does not help for starters – it’s not that the title is a poor choice, but you try remembering it – the album’s spoken word concept being its second barrier. There are six Prince penned tracks on this debut project by Ingrid Chevez. She was a major influence on Lovesexy, where her poetry provided Prince much inspiration.
This project was him paying her back in kind. Only half of May 19, 1992 got Prince involvement since there had been a clash in style during the production. Prince wanted all the lyrics spoken but the record company wanted some of the lyrics sung. Prince walked away from the project in result, but in my humble opinion it’s the non-Prince tracks that are oddly the album’s best: Hippy Blood and Little Mama and Sad Puppet Dance – in other words the radio friendly and accessible tracks. Of Prince’s contributions, the best of those are Heaven Must Be Near, the dreamy Candle Dance and the fiery Slappy Dappy. Prince’s Elephant Box was the lead single and has the best instrumentation. Jadestone however was too far avantgarde for my liking. The songs are well produced however and Chevez’s voice is calming and terrific, the record execs had got it right that she be allowed to sing.
May 19, 1992 is rated 3.5 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.
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