‘Camille’ Album Review
I recently sat down with Chris Johnson of the Purple Knights podcast to discuss the currently unreleased but upcoming Prince X Third Man release ‘Camille’. Prior to recording our review, I heard a configuration of the album and made a series of notes on it and decided to write them up to accompany our review so you can read along as you listen — or access my own thoughts a little more in depth. I do want to say a massive thank you to Chris for being so kind and letting me guest on his podcast, and to Jack White III for securing a potential release of this incredible unreleased album. Listen below:
History & Context
When you hear a Prince fan speak of Camille, they’re referring to the “alter ego with a sped up vocal” that can be found on favourites like ‘U Got The Look’, ‘Strange Relationship’ and ‘Housequake’ from his 1987 album ‘Sign O The Times’. Critics and hardcore fans alike consider the double album to be his magnum opus, which doesn’t go without good reason, but the truth of the matter holds ‘Sign’ as just the surface of such a prolific era. Fans got a look into that with the ‘Sign O The Times Super Deluxe’ boxset in released in 2020, which included three discs of unreleased material; with access to such songs, fans could now construct the triple album ‘Crystal Ball’ which proceeded ‘Sign’, and the lost fourth Revolution album ‘Dream Factory’ too. What this release also granted was access to the original version of a song called ‘Rebirth Of The Flesh’, the opening track of an album recorded in 1986 and set to be released without inclusion of Prince’s name or likeness, credited only to Camille. A mysterious figure blurring the lines between masculinity and femininity we’re going to investigate today.
‘Camille’ was recorded in 1986 and due for release in January 1987, only two months before the (paired down) ‘Sign O The Times’ album was released. It would have featured eight songs and ran for around 46 minutes, with lead vocals by Prince and said vocals were all sped up to create a more feminine sounding voice. This vocal effect was first heard in 1986 on the ‘Kiss’ single b-side ‘Love Or Money’, but was just a sole example of Prince’s experimentation within the studio. It seemed by now he had a name for this creation, and even though Prince was and remained fearlessly androgynous in the way he dressed, the utilisation of such a vocal effect pushed him further into femme territory. The eight track ‘Camille’ album then developed into a triple album called ‘Crystal Ball’, and though one song from the original tracklist was cut, two more songs using the vocal effect were added: ‘Dream Factory’ and the title track itself. Despite both albums never coming to light, all of the single disc album tracks made it into the Prince canon aside from ‘Rebirth Of The Flesh’ — until the original cut was finally released in 2020. Alongside his magnum opus, fans can now construct three lost Prince albums that surround such a prolific period.
Crediting this album and persona to “just a vocal effect” would be wrong, in my opinion, as there are so many interesting thoughts and ideas to merit from this album. Studying English and being so fascinated by psychology really came into good practice here because, as you’ll see from deconstructions of notes I took alongside hearing the album, one thing I did was approach this album from a psychological standpoint. I really began to ask “who is Camille?” and began to dig deeply between the lines of Prince and this feminine alter ego.
Track By Track discussion
Rebirth Of The Flesh: opens the album, and was able to play into my habit of taking any album and developing it into one with a concept. One could argue ‘Camille’ is a concept album though, not in your traditional ‘Ziggy Stardust’ sense but based on the character itself being a constructed concept. Camille isn’t real, just a playful idea, but grounded in so much realism. This song, to me, opens the floodgates of hardcore funk that will blare through speakers over the course of the next 46 minutes. It calls an audience to the dancefloor to create a partylike atmosphere, demanding all attention to be drawn to Camille and their lackies as they all wreck the joint — or by George Clinton’s standards, tear the roof off the sucker. Even though the song holds itself as a simple funk number, something Prince could easily do alone in his sleep, the title of the song was something which really baffled me.
As despised by psychologists as he may be, I love reading “in a Freudian way” and could easily apply such a reading to this song. My first thought on the song title related it to masturbation, leading to my first note on this album being incredibly vulgar as I simply wrote “a metaphor for ejaculation?” in reference to the title. Camille sings “rebirth of the flesh is all over you”, which could be engaging in the act of masturbation and getting your ejaculate all over you in the process. As vulgar as this may be, there are other references to the act later in the album, with other songs veering onto a very sexual path. The other half of ‘Camille’ seems to concern all things romantic though, with a little of that being heard in the song’s original version released in 2020 as an entire verse is dedicated to such feelings toward Prince’s girlfriend of the time Susannah Melvoin. Hearing this version allowed fans to hear a brand new snippet concerning his thoughts and feelings of the relationship — I would say from his point of view, but there’s still an element of uncertainty as to whether Camille is Prince or an entirely new entity by itself.
My final point of the song, involving a less vulgar reading, relates to a project Prince and his bandmates worked on between December 26 1985 and January 12 1986 called The Flesh. Prince gathered his bandmates to have a jam session which yielded eighteen songs in just five days together. Prince intended for some of them to be released as a side project on ‘The Flesh’ album, but that too never happened, though you could argue The Flesh was a precursor to his Jazz enthused Eric Leeds collaboration called Madhouse. Why I’m mentioning these sessions is because the song title — ‘Rebirth Of The Flesh’ — could denote the ‘Camille’ album as a “rebirth” of this project. Eric Leeds, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman are all common denominators involved in both projects, both of which come across as side projects existing away from the regular Prince cannon, meaning his involvement would have been hidden behind another pseudonym like Jamie Starr of The Time and ‘Dirty Mind’ fame.
Housequake: helped continue my reading of the album as one holding concept because now the dancefloor is full of partygoers, Camille is about to incite a new dance craze and get them dancing the housequake. It’s another funked up song, perfect for purple parties, with the lyrics themselves instructing you on how to dance the housequake with Camille acting as your instructor. This wouldn’t be the only time Prince would try to incite a new dance craze, as the ‘Diamonds And Pearls’ era b-side ‘Horny Pony’ attempted the same thing. When discussing this point, Purple Knights podcast host Chris Jonson also highlighted how it could be a call back to 50’s era songs like ‘The Twist’ intended to do the same thing.
When ‘Sign O The Times’ was released in late March 1987, Housequake song was included on there as the third track. This song really struck me as the entrance of Camille when hearing ‘Sign’ again while celebrating the albums 35th anniversary, and within context of that album, it personally feels like Camille highjacks Prince’s album to incite madness before disappearing again. Camille would of course resurface multiple times later in the ‘Sign’ tracklist, but the theme of this character hijacking Prince’s material ended up being a common occurrence as the next song details.
Strange Relationship: after being initially tracked by Prince in 1983, it was worked on further by Revolution members Wendy and Lisa to become a near seven minute long epic placed on ‘Dream Factory’ and ‘Crystal Ball’ album configurations. To me the song seemed like a pure Revolution track at its middle stage before Camille entered the scene to again hijack another song. When discussing it with Chris on the Purple Knights podcast, we both assumed the song to have been written about Susannah Melvoin; after discovering the song to have been first tracked in March 1983, I am doubtful as to whether Susannah was the original muse for the song upon first recording it.
Let’s conduct a thought experiment for the moment and say this was written about Susannah. What implications could that bring? Perhaps the most prominent thought which came to my mind when listening to this song was thus: — does Camille hold the ability to love, or are they just a mouthpiece for Prince’s own feelings? You could take this either way and say ‘Strange Relationship’ is written from the point of the female/femme character of Camille and say they are in love with the muse Camille is singing about. Or you can read the song as Prince using this alter ego as a vessel to voice his own thoughts and feelings concerning this strange relationship he find himself wrapped up in. This is the same man who recorded ‘Forever In My Life’ as an ode to Susannah and how he felt toward her, which is an incredibly sweet and romantic song where he surrenders his reputation to settle down with her. But in this context, is Prince or Camille the one feeling and voicing all these opinions toward their love?
Finally, the third verse really stands out to me because Camille sings “I’ll take all the blame, yo baby, I’m sorry” and proclaims “I didn’t like the way you were / So I had to make you mine”. I’m highlighting these lines specifically because of the implications they have. The beginning notifies their lover how they’re destined to make mistakes and probably upset her but will take the blame for all of it. The ending then suggests the singer has seen this woman — possibly Susannah — being mistreated by past lovers which has led them to make her their own lover. It implies she’s going to be treated better but continues to show the singer may also treat her bad. But at least it’s built on a foundation of love, something previous relationships may have been lacking. But are these promises and implications being truly made by Camille or Prince?
Feel U Up: is another song pulled from the vault, dating back to 1981. It can be heard on the ‘1999 Super Deluxe’ as a ten minute suite with ‘Irresistible Bitch’ which was released in 1982 as a b-side track. This is another funky and playful song, now beginning to incorporate hardcore lust, and is presented in its ‘Long Stroke’ Xtended format. While the previous song concerns all things monogamy and relationship, the album sequencing places a song full of cliched male shallowness directly after it. The character of Camille goes from contemplating a relationship, voicing woes and concerns about it, to being in a club-like setting and lusting over an attractive woman who has caught her eye. Camille urges “I’m not looking for a one nite stand / Eye only wanna feel U up”, before saying “Eye don’t really wanna B ur man.”
If Camille were to truly be a femme persona, this song is where it really starts to slip as — by today’s standards — male pronouns are thrown into the mix of a female presenting character. This is where one could argue Camille is simply a vessel for Prince voicing his thoughts and feelings, especially when it comes to sexual or monogamous ones. But on the other hand, not unlike the subject matter heard in the upcoming track ‘If I Was Your Girlfriend’, this song could be Prince experimenting with those shallow and lusty male traditions and place them onto a woman instead. Rather than having a man lust over a woman, what would it be like if a woman were to lust after another woman and just want to touch her up? [Before anyone complains about political correctness, this song was written in the early to mid-1980’s]
Shockadelica: is one of two standout tracks on the album for me, and in my top three songs on the project. The song was born out of playful banter between Prince and Jesse Johnson, who was going to release an album called ‘Shockadelica’ himself, but the lack of a title track was a gripe to Prince. So he took matters into his own hands and recorded this song as a result. I would consider it, by all intents and purposes, as the title track of the ‘Camille’ album. This is because, not only was it written as a playful spite toward somebody lacking a title track, its also the song which has the most explicit references to the character of Camille.
Not only that, but the lyrics within the song are also incredibly dark and foreboding as Camille sings “the lights go out, smell of doom; the beds on fire, your fate is sealed”. These are images that play with your senses and allude to darker forces being at play; “the smell of doom” and fire could easily be attributed to darkness and the devil. Later in the song is the entrance of a witchlike figure with the line “girl must be a witch, bitch!” — but who exactly acts as the witch is unclear. Is it Camille, Susannah maybe, or maybe even shockadelica itself, described as “the lonely cold, a feeling nobody should know”.
Goodlove: was first released in 1988 on the ‘Bright Lights, Big City’ soundtrack before an edited version surfaced on the ‘Crystal Ball’ album (not that one) a decade later. It returns the album back to a more playful and romantic manner, yet another juxtaposition of two conflicting themes and atmospheres contained within a project full of such things. The sounds and instruments used on the song were equated to something circuslike by Chris Johnson in our Purple Knights podcast episode, and when I hear the song it makes me thing of bright flashing lights — which is on theme considering the movie name this song was originally tied to. My favourite line in the song is “Eye’ll have another glass of you / This time on the rocks”; you can almost hear a smirk on Camille’s face when this line is sang, and the overall vibe of the lyrics feel like they’re praising the sexual ability of a partner, evidenced in the “ baby, in the heat of the night / U know what 2 do” line.
If I Was Your Girlfriend: plays around with gender stereotypes by taking the traditional roles and expectations of a man in a heterosexual relationship and substituting them with a lesbian relationship — the singer asks if they could still do the same things to their lover were this relationship between two women. Much like the musical atmosphere of ‘Strange Relationship’, this song takes us back to a melancholic feeling but somehow still manages to utilise a funky bassline and expansive percussion within the track. As you progress through the song it grows and grows, almost like ejaculation, until it reaches a climax ending. It features double tracked vocals where a deeper take of Prince’s voice is singing backup behind the higher lead vocals from Camille. This is a true Prince song able to mix playful lyrics with the more thought provoking. You can hear him play every instrument and sing every vocal line while mixing the melancholic with the funky. It’s perhaps the most masterful song on the album and is certainly my number one standout track, thanks to how the instrumentation and subject matter are both crafted together so amazingly.
Rockhard In A Funky Place: eventually released on ‘The Black Album’ in 1994, slated for original release in December 1987 before being pulled at the final hour. This song is a final hoorah for the party people, straying away from such deep and meaningful subject matters and instead aligning with a sound more akin to ‘Rebirth Of The Flesh’. You could argue the opening and closing tracks were companion pieces in a way, the perfect bookends to such an intriguing project. This song also has another title which makes me wonder if it’s an allusion to something more vulgar, a boner perhaps? This point can be backed up and supported by frequent references to such in the lyrics. Nonetheless, it is an interesting point as the femme character Camille would be lacking the ability to experience one, unless Camille was a trans or non-conforming persona situated in the middle of all things masculine and feminine.
Toward the end of the song is a verse suddenly bringing God into the mix, furthering Prince’s reputation for notoriously mixing the profane with the sexual and continues to do so here. The verse where this is mentioned could allude to wanting love, spirituality and an escape from a “life so tough”, a quote pulled directly from the song itself. Perhaps this can be deduced down to the origins of the ‘Camille’ project itself as, like previously suggested, it could have been used as a more fun and experimental way to create music away from the traditional Prince canon — such as Madhouse or The Flesh.
At the end of the song is a fakeout ending, where it fades out before coming back in for listeners to hear Camille remark “what kind of fuck ending was that?” To me this sounds like a meta acknowledgement of the experience a listener would have just subjected themselves to, from start to end, as a whole different kind of purple trip. You could argue that, considering the lyrics from ‘U Got The Look’ and this era’s colour scheme, it could have been a peach and black coloured trip instead. But this theoretical acknowledgement could serve as a “wake up” at the end of the album to return to the normal Prince canon after experiencing something from a whole different timeline. It wouldn’t have been credited to him, the colour scheme is different, and the whole ‘Camille’ album is cohesively harder hitting with funk than any other Prince album aside from ‘The Black Album’ — both of those releases bookend the ‘Sign O The Times’ era, Prince’s first musical projects as a solo artist after losing The Revolution.
Camille’s Legacy:
I personally see Camille as more than just an album or a snapshot of Prince’s prolific artistry. The whole idea of using an alter ego to play around with gender expectations and as a mouthpiece for your own feelings is really intriguing to me. It also gave birth to some of the most iconic and moving Prince songs in his catalogue, like ‘If I Was Ur Girlfriend’ and ‘Strange Relationship’. But I don’t believe for a second that Camille is cemented in time as this one unreleased eight track album from 1986. As previously mentioned, the vocal effect was first heard in ‘Love Or Money’ but stretched all the way up to 2009 — just listen to ‘$’ and ‘Ol Skool Company’ from Prince’s ‘LotusFlow3r/MPLSoUND’ double album to hear the resurgence of the character meaning Camille reigned for twenty three years.
One thing I want to highlight which I didn’t mention in the Purple Knights podcast is how certain lyrics on ‘Camille’ would go against Prince’s view that sex is “better with a man”, a point he would explicitly highlight in ‘Bambi’ (1979) and infer in ‘Da Bourgeoise’ (2013). If this was something Prince truly believed, why would he all of a sudden be creating a femme alter ego and place them within the confines of lesbian intimacy? Perhaps a flaw in the Camille masterplan Prince didn’t consider, or just proof the aforementioned songs were him “finding the edge” he spoke of during his 2011 George Lopez interview. You could argue the two songs mentioned are anti-lesbian, but Prince performed one on The Ellen Show and had a lesbian couple play with him in The Revolution, comfortably performing and creating masterpieces together for three years. I would argue ‘Camille’ is Prince arguing for lesbian relationships, in the mid 80s, whether he knew it or not.
The ‘Crystal Ball’ situation is another interesting point worth taking into consideration. One thing I noticed when running numbers and researching the album was how the lyrics in the song ‘Crystal Ball’ predates the themes explored in the song ‘Sign O The Times’. Both songs hold lyrical similarities with the sense of impending doom and current world events, with the former being recorded on 17th April 1986 and the latter on July 15th 1986, three months later. When being interviewed for the official Prince podcast, Wendy Melvoin said how Prince would title tapes given to bandmates after the most recent/first song on the cassette. While this doesn’t confirm whether ‘Crystal Ball’ was ever going to be released as a Prince or Camille project, I have seen it attributed to both personas, and there is no denying Camille is singing on the title track of that project and ‘Dream Factory’ too.
Despite there not being an official Camille album release however, not yet at least, a Camille single was released and does exist. When Prince released ‘I Wish U Heaven’ as a single in 1988, it included a song called ‘Scarlet Pussy’ as the b-side. An observation of the label will show you the song is credited to Camille, written in peach, on an all black background. This legacy stems further still, as Camille was included in early drafts of Prince’s 1990 film ‘Graffiti Bridge’ with a poem about them being set to be read out by one character. Another poem about Camille can be found in the Lovesexy Tourbook, where the character is paired with the idea of lightness and darkness again in relation to cancellation of ‘The Black Album’ and whatever happened on Blue Tuesday.
Outside of Prince’s own Paisley universe, an impact of Camille — or at least the vocal effect to create their presence — can still be heard. Seven months to the day after ‘Sign O The Times’ was released, George Michael released his debut solo album ‘Faith’. If you listen to the album tracks ‘I Want Your Sex’ and ‘Hard Day’, you can hear Michael using the same pitch shifted vocal effect on both songs. Michael himself said in interviews how he “absolutely wanted to be in the same stratosphere as Michael Jackson and Prince.” You could argue that he achieved this as ‘Faith’ was the first album by a white solo artist to hit number one on the Billboard Top Black Albums chart.
And finally, without claiming Prince created the Hyperpop genre totally, you could equate the ‘Camille’ album to have influenced it. As a trans woman who has dabbled in music creation myself, I once heard in passing how trans women essentially created Hyperpop and are often associated with it. This is because they use digital effects to enhance their vocals to make them sound more feminine. I googled how to create a Hyperpop song when researching the ‘Camille’ album and one article read: “Many of the genre’s key players are trans; vocal modulation has allowed artists to explore the fluidity of gender with their voices.” If that doesn’t sound like Camille, I don’t know what does.
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