André Cymone: "Dance Electric"

[Videoskooter]

Wasn't this a superfunkycalifragilistic floorkiller?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVaxz...elated&search=

[K-Bee]

Classic Minneapolis funk!! It should have been bigger really. Cymone is underrated imo.

[SandraDee]

A Prince clone.

[DiscoDiva]

Hahahahaha! My exact sentiment! Thought Prince was pulling off a fast one.

[Videoskooter]

André was his buddy. They grew up together, they both headed for fame and unfortunately for AC, Prince hit the stars.

This is in fact a 100% Prince adventure and was followed by an album. It's in my collection but it seldom leaves the shelfs. Other albums by him are not bad at all but certainly don't have the impact of Prince's oeuvre.

Speaking of a Prince clone: mmmh, not André. The real jealous guy was The Time's Jesse Johnson, who tried to imitate Prince's looks and music but never really charted.

[Najee]

I have no idea what the music scene was like for soul music in the 1980s in Belgium, but in the United States Jesse Johnson was a far more successful recording artist than André Cymone. Cymone's only hit song was the Prince-penned "The Dance Electric," which barely made it into the top 10 of the Billboard R&B charts in 1985. Johnson, meanwhile, racked up about half a dozen top 10 singles during his career.

Cymone's albums have long been out of print, in no small part because of their lack of sales success. Meanwhile, all of Johnson's albums are still available to be purchased -- especially his debut album, "Jesse Johnson's Revue," which went gold and generated three top five singles on the Billboard R&B charts ("Be Your Man," "Can You Help Me" and "I Want My Girl").

Virtually all of Cymone's success has been a producer, most notably for Jody Watley's first three solo albums. If you're including that aspect, then the matchup is a lot closer -- but as recording artists go, Johnson easily outstripped Cymone.

And finally, both Cymone and Johnson were commonly known as having the same look and musical style and philosophies of Prince -- but that's to be expected, because each played solid roles in the definition of The Minneapolis Sound (Cymone as a childhood friend and later bass player for Prince's band; Johnson as the guitarist for The Time). However, I don't think it's fair to slap one with a label of "Prince clone" and not the other.

[paul]

Once Prince left the disco scene and these clones showed up, I knew for sure then that disco as I loved it was done

[QUINNY]

Andre Cymone's Dance Electric was and always will be, a certified A1 floorfilling funkalicious grooveathon in my books!! Fawkin' ace record!!!!!!!!

[ol'skinflint]

Originally Posted by Najee

I have no idea what the music scene was like for soul music in the 1980s in Belgium, but in the United States Jesse Johnson was a far more successful recording artist than André Cymone. Cymone's only hit song was the Prince-penned "The Dance Electric," which barely made it into the top 10 of the Billboard R&B charts in 1985. Johnson, meanwhile, racked up about half a dozen top 10 singles during his career.

Cymone's albums have long been out of print, in no small part because of their lack of sales success. Meanwhile, all of Johnson's albums are still available to be purchased - -especially his debut album, "Jesse Johnson's Revue," which went gold and generated three top five singles on the Billboard R&B charts ("Be Your Man," "Can You Help Me" and "I Want My Girl").

Virtually all of Cymone's success has been a producer, most notably for Jody Watley's first three solo albums. If you're including that aspect, then the matchup is a lot closer -- but as recording artists go, Johnson easily outstripped Cymone.

And finally, both Cymone and Johnson were commonly known as having the same look and musical style and philosophies of Prince -- but that's to be expected, because each played solid roles in the definition of The Minneapolis Sound (Cymone as a childhood friend and later bass player for Prince's band; Johnson as the guitarist for The Time). However, I don't think it's fair to slap one with a label of "Prince clone" and not the other.

ALWAYS loved "Can You Help Me?" That song clearly showed how much Jesse Johnson contributed to the Time. And Johnson also had success as a producer...he contributed to the smash album (now pretty much forgotten) by Paula Abdul: "Forever Your Girl". He also produced a big hit for Tamara and the Scene (probably misspelled that) called "Everybody Dance." And not many artists were able to coax Sly Stone out to play, but Jesse Johnson did (can't remember the song, though), long after Sly became a recluse....

[Najee]

Yeah, Jesse Johnson discovered and produced a group called Ta Mara and The Seen in the mid-1980s. They scored a couple of top 10 R&B hits, "Everybody Dance" and "Affection." Also, Johnson wrote and produced one of After 7's best songs, "Nights Like This" for the "Five Heartbeats" soundtrack.

Per the Sly Stone song to which you're referring, it was "Crazay" which was one of Johnson's biggest hits (it reached No. 2 on the Billboard R&B charts). And don't forget "Lovestruck," my favorite song by Johnson that had a monstrous, grooving bassline coupled with a searing guitar solo at the end.

I wasn't discounting Johnson as a producer outside of his songs, it's just that I feel André Cymone had more success in this category, per his work on Jody Watley's albums. However, even with that you would have to say Johnson had the more successful post-Prince entourage career. It says something when Cymone's best work came when someone else either gave it to him (Prince with "The Dance Electric") or interpreted better than he likely would have done it (Watley).

[Najee]

Originally Posted by Videoskooter

"Speaking of a Prince clone: mmmh, not André. The real jealous guy was The Time's Jesse Johnson, who tried to imitate Prince's looks and music but never really charted."

Now that the "Jesse Johnson never charted" comment has been challenged, how do you figure that André Cymone is NOT trying to be a Prince clone here? That photo shot for the 12" of "The Dance Electric" is proof enough, not to mention his one hit was a song Prince gave to him (it sounds totally like Prince and so little of Cymone's identity was in it that Prince may have well performed it). Even in the video for "The Dance Electric" Cymone looks like some visual cross between Prince and Morris Day (the outfits he wore in the video definitely reminded you of early Prince gear).

[dvdjamm]

I always heard that The Dance Electric was all Prince except for the vocals...Prince even sang it in concert....

[Najee]

Originally Posted by dvdjamm

"I always heard that The Dance Electric was all Prince except for the vocals...Prince even sang it in concert...."

Even the vocal arrangement in "The Dance Electric" is to the point that you halfway wonder if Prince is actually singing the song, instead of André Cymone. It's not like someone took a Prince song and totally remade it (see Chaka Khan's "I Feel for You"), interpreted it in another fashion (see Meli'sa Morgan's "Do Me" and Stephanie Mills' "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?") or even added some twist to the pre-established sound (see Sheena Easton's "Sugar Walls") -- if you were hearing that song for the first time and you had to guess who performed it you would have thought Prince was singing it.

[Videoskooter]

There's some confusion entering this old thread. I never said that Cymone wasn't a Prince-look-a-like. I only stated that it was a "Fawkin'Ace Record" (wow my English gets a boost here).

Indeed, I was speaking for our region. Cymone was a floorkiller and a charter. Jesse Johnson never had an impact here although I do know that he was much more successful in the US. So that's cleared up.

I have the Ta Mara And The Seen album, in fact I have all the albums that came out of the Twin Cities BITD (94 East, Tyka Nelson, Mazarati, Good Question, Tony Lemans etc) Only The Time, Vanity and Appolonia 6 really charted here. I played "Crazay" many times during gigs and on radio and it flopped (although I like the record very much).

What I was really trying to say was that, and listen, I have worldwide contacts with the Prince-posse (entourage and artists) since the mid-eighties and I know, I KNOW that Jesse was very jealous on Prince's success and litterally said: "I can do that too! In a few years they'll speak about me and not him".

Now it didn't happen, didn't it? Jesse is a talented guy, a sweet guy (I spoke with him in 1988) but he made one mistake and that was blatantly copying Prince's looks and ideas . Prince changed his haircut, Jesse did the same. Prince shaved of his moustache, Jesse did the same. Prince put on glasses, Jesse did the same. Prince used this or that new sound, Jesse did the same.

He should have followed his own taste and then he would have been a bigger star than he is now.

And on the technical side: JJ is a superb guitarist but he doesn't reach the 0+> level!

And for "The Dance Electric", it's Prince singing with André. Don't forget that all the records during the purple wave, be it The Time, Vanity, Appolonia: it's all Prince you know, he almost plays every note on those albums. When in Concert, during the first act, Prince was playing bass and guitar backstage, as a sort of warming up for his own show.

Hope I cleared something up here!

BTW, please check the links in my signature, there you have all the new protegées.

Andre Cymone




Good morning children
Take a look out your window
Our world is falling
It's almost time 2 go

Dance the Dance Electric
The rhythm is love and love is blind
Love your enemies
There isn't much time, there isn't much time

[Najee]

Originally Posted by Videoskooter

"There's some confusion entering this old thread. I never said that Cymone wasn't a Prince-look-a-like. I only stated that it was a 'Fawkin'Ace Record' (wow my English gets a boost here)."

No, you called Jesse Johnson a Prince clone and said André Cymone wasn't. I find that baffling to say the least, considering that Cymone not only performed a Prince song sounding exactly like His Royal Badness he literally looked like he could pass for Prince's brother during the so-called peak of his forgettable solo career.

Cymone actually favored Prince more than any other Minneapolis-era act (IMO, during his "The Dance Electric" days he looked like some visual cross between Prince and Morris Day). That YouTube link of Cymone performing "Lipstick Lover" on "Solid Gold" not only shows him looking like some Prince/Morris Day composite but moving on stage and dancing like some combination of them.

Originally Posted by Videoskooter

"Indeed, I was speaking for our region. Cymone was a floorkiller and a charter. Jesse Johnson never had an impact here although I do know that he was much more successful in the US. So that's cleared up."

I'm curious to find out what kind of chart success Cymone had in Belgium, since outside of "The Dance Electric" he never came remotely close to having a hit song in the United States. Personally, an artist having a more solid foothold in his home country's music scene (Johnson's primary market) is more important than one who is practically forgotten in his home market (Cymone) who may have had one song played in another country.

Originally Posted by Videoskooter

"I have the Ta Mara And The Seen album, in fact I have all the albums that came out of the Twin Cities BITD (94 East, Tyka Nelson, Mazarati, Good Question, Tony Lemans etc) Only The Time, Vanity and Appolonia 6 really charted here. I played "Crazay" many times during gigs and on radio and it flopped (although I like the record very much)."

Well, since you now that Johnson was a more significant recording artist than Cymone in the United States it still begs the question about Cymone's musical track record in Belgium. I would be interested in how some of his rather marginal songs such as "Make Me Wanna Dance," "Surviving in the '80s" and "Lipstick Lover" did in another market, where the musical tastes apparently are different.

Originally Posted by Videoskooter

"What I was really trying to say was that, and listen, I have worldwide contacts with the Prince-posse (entourage and artists) since the mid-eighties and I know, I KNOW that Jesse was very jealous on Prince's success and litterally said: "I can do that too! In a few years they'll speak about me and not him".

Since that can't be substantiated by any other source -- such as media clips -- I can't take that to be more than some rumor, particularly from someone in Belgium so far removed from the principals' base of operations.

Originally Posted by Videoskooter

"Now it didn't happen, didn't it? Jesse is a talented guy, a sweet guy (I spoke with him in 1988) but he made one mistake and that was blatantly copying Prince's looks and ideas. Prince changed his haircut, Jesse did the same. Prince shaved of his moustache, Jesse did the same. Prince put on glasses, Jesse did the same. Prince used this or that new sound, Jesse did the same."

I don't know what pictures you're referring to, but Johnson always had a lot of hair on his head during the prominent days of his recording career (even when he reunited with The Time in 1990). I even saw a later picture of Johnson in the mid-1990s and he still had a lot of hair, so when did this haircut come into play?

Quite frankly, I'm trying to remember when Johnson tried blatently to make himself resemble Prince, musically or physically. When Prince cut his hair short in the mid-1980s, Johnson still wore his hair long (and in some stages even longer). Like most Minneapolis-era acts, Johnson had a very basic similarity along with Prince but if anyone was the blatant Prince look-alike and sound-alike it was Cymone (especially during "The Dance Electric" period).

Originally Posted by Videoskooter

"He should have followed his own taste and then he would have been a bigger star than he is now."

Let's see, Prince gives Cymone a song in which Cymone supplies practically no creative input in order to save a sinking recording career. In fact, the Prince imprint is so prevalent that you wonder if it is even Cymone singing the song.

On the other hand, Johnson's music had some of the typical Minneapolis influences (namely, the strong accent on synthesizers on "Jesse Johnson's Revue") but other than that it wasn't like you were confused on whether it was a Prince song or a Jesse Johnson song. "Be Your Man," "Can You Help Me," "Crazay" and "Lovestruck" certainly weren't songs aping Prince on every level. So tell me what songs are you describing?

Originally Posted by Videoskooter

"And for 'The Dance Electric,' it's Prince singing with André."

I hear one male voice in the initial verse and chorus, and then later that male voice is joined by a female voice (if I'm not mistaken, it's Lisa Griffin of The Revolution). Even if it is Cymone, it's Cymone singing a song like Prince in every fashion -- from certain vocal phrasings and inflections to the shout before the start of the guitar solo (which evidently was done by Prince).

That's the reason why when a lot of people in 1985 heard "The Dance Electric" for the first time, the typical response was along the lines of "That's Prince, isn't it?" Has it not occurred to you that maybe "The Dance Electric" was as successful as it was because not only did it obviously sound like a Prince song but people may have thought Prince was performing the song (at the very least, people acknowledged that Cymone was channeling Prince in every manner possible)? People didn't like the song for Cymone's contributions (because he practically contributed nothing), but because they basically were envisioning Prince singing it.

It's more than just a song that Prince wrote for an artist -- it's a song that sounds like a Prince song with no type of clue that Cymone had anything to do with it. We can presume Cymone was the lead vocal, but it sounds like it was only after Prince erased his vocal on it and gave Cymone his peace offering for their split a few years earlier.