Batman: Music From the Motion Picture - Prince (CD 1989)

You could watch the movie from which this soundtrack came every day for a month, and you still wouldn't recognize half the songs on this thing. "Partyman" of course, and "Trust" because they're given prominent spots, played loudly, and almost in full. But what about "The Future", "Electric Chair", "The Arms of Orion"? Where are "Vicki Waiting", and "Lemon Crush"? "Scandalous" you'd recognize if you stuck around for the end credits. And everyone knows "Batdance", right? Right?

So how come from a 9-song soundtrack to a very popular movie, you'd only recognize a couple as being from the movie?

Cuz they ain't there. Oh, "The Future" is there, and so is "Electric Chair," but only in the background. "The Future" is playing very quietly on a radio in the opening scene as the family crosses the street, minutes away from being mugged. And "Electric Chair" is instruments only at Bruce Wayne's party. But that's it.

Their loss.

"I'm not going to kill you. I want you to do me a favor. I want you to tell all your friends about me."

"What are you?!"

"I'm Batman."

One of the most famous movie lines of the 80s.

Prince was in a very good place musically in the late 80s. SIGN "O" THE TIMES ruled. LOVESEXY was amazing. And BATMAN, again, is a great set of songs.

"The Future", with lead vocal by Batman--so the credits say--is a song I can't quite classify, with some interesting lyrics (Systematic overthrow of the underclass / Hollywood conjures images of the past / New world needs Spirituality that will last / I've seen the future and it will be), and the music is great, driving and funky. It's nothing more than a programmed beat, bass, and a few sound effects. Maybe it was intentional, a trick to play up the "future" aspect of the song, but there's not a recognizable physical instrument on the song. Wish I could get my computer to do the stuff his does.

The music on the soundtrack is all over the place. "The Future" is funky. "Batdance" is a dance track, naturally. "Scandalous" is the Prince sex ballad of the year. "The Arms of Orion" was the love song duet. And "Electric Chair" is the rocker.

What I've always loved about this song is the same as what I love about most of the Prince songs I love--that guitar. Damn him and his skill. The song is Electric Chair, and that's just what he plays like, electricity. Listen to it in headphones, you'll see what I mean. Lead vocal this time is by The Joker. Again with the programmed drum beats, but who cares--that GUITAR is kickin'. And it's definitely one of the coolest lyrics on the record.

"The music rocked us / Our eyes locked--thus / Makin' us see a trippy picture shoo / If a man is considered guilty / For what goes on in his mind / Them gimme the electric chair / For all my future crimes--Oh!" Dammit, I love this song.

"The Arms of Orion", the duet with Sheena Easton--vocal by Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale, of course--is a song I want to dislike. Every time I put on the soundtrack, and I know this song is coming up, I try to cringe because I'm just not in the mood for a ballad. But the song starts and I'm lost and I don't care that it's on. Granted, Sheena ain't the best singer in the world, but she's holding her own here, and she still ain't Appolonia. Let us all bow and give thanks for that. "The Arms of Orion, that's where I wanna be / Since you've been gone, I been searchin' for a lover in the Sea of Tranquillity / I'm drowning without you here." No, nothing special in the lyrics, and the music is standard-issue Prince ballad drums and strings. So why do I love this song? I don't know. Listen to it yourself and maybe you'll see.

"Partyman" we'll ignore because you don't need the soundtrack to know it--it's played almost in full while the Joker and his men are tearing up the museum. "Young and old, gather 'round / Everybody hail the new king in town!"

And we'll move straight to "Vicki Waiting" which is one of the songs I always look forward to hearing. This song's listed in the credits, but I'll be damned if I can find it anywhere in that movie. If you can, lemme know. But that aside, this song rules. It's not got the regular lyric like you'd think. This one's a story. "The phone rings, it's Vicki calling / She wants me to come to the crib / You see, conversation's better than bein' lonely / So I try my best to ad lib / I told her the joke about the woman / Who asked her lover, 'Why is your organ so small?' / He replied, 'I didn't know I was playin' in a cathedral' / Vicki didn't laugh at all", all brought together by another programmed beat and some nice guitar pushed way in the back. He loved his computers that year, didn't he? When they help him write songs like this one, I like his computers too.

"Trust, who do ya / Trust, what makes you a real lover / Trust, I put this question to ya cuz I want you to be with me". I was waiting in my car the other night, waiting for some food to be brought to my car, and I had this song on. There've been a number of Prince songs around this time with that hard DRIVING beat, the one that just forces the song along. This is another one of them. I was waiting for the food, and this song was on, and all of the sudden I realized my foot was practically pounding a hole into the floor. The beat behind this song is constant, hard, and demands all feet to be moving. It's like a heartbeat that keeps this song going. I mean, my foot wasn't tapping, it was pounding. That's what this song does to you. You can't hear it and sit still. I dare you.

"Lemon Crush" is another funky song, strange and I'm not surprised it wasn't in the movie. I've had this soundtrack since it came out in 1989 and I still have a hard time deciphering this one. Every time you kiss me, Lemon Crush / Nay, I can't resist thee, Lemon Crush / Every time you do me, such a rush / Oo, it goes right through me, Lemon Crush. No, I get the meaning here, I'm just not sure where the Lemon Crush comes in. Doesn't matter. The music makes up for any lyrical failing. Maybe this song's dirtier than I think it is. Maybe it's just too well-hidden. Maybe. Doesn't matter, good song anyway.

"Scandalous" is the only song not written by Prince alone. Co-written with his father John .L. Nelson, "Scandalous" is a slow, sexy groove, Prince back in falsetto and crooning. The drums carry the song, like any decent slow jam sex ballad. The Claire Fischer Orchestra provides the slow-moving strings to accompany and is that Kim Basinger moaning in the background? I don't know. She's got a big part in the Scandalous Sex Suite CD, but we'll review that one later. Lead vocal is from Batman, strange because the duet was by Bruce Wayne, but Batman gets to let out his lust this time.

Anyone who hasn't heard "Batdance" at least once must be deaf. Even if you don't like the song--and the first few times I heard it on the radio, I was not impressed--you can't deny it's got that dance party feel. It's an aptly named song, with . . . nevermind because what makes this song truly shine isn't the programmed beats--it's the guitar. Good God almighty, someone let the Prince outta the bag and gave him a pick and a fuzz-tone and said Play something. The guitar isn't a big part of the song, but the solo he gets out in the middle is worth all the chaos and samples you have to go through to get to it. What I remember liking about "Batdance" when it first hit the radio was that, even though the movie wasn't out yet, there were movie samples enough to tide me over. Everyone's present, Keaton, Basinger, and Nicholson. The video for the song sucked, but most of Prince's videos do suck anyway. That's why we're reviewing his albums instead.

It's hard to give a decent review to something that is so undefinable. The only thread that holds these 9 songs together is the movie, and since most of them weren't in the movie, that thread isn't really that strong, is it? Not much chance for Prince to display his instrumental proficiency because he doesn't play a lot of instruments on this one. Guitar (and he plays the hell out of it when he does play it), but otherwise its all programming and drum loops. Atlanta Bliss and Eric Leeds come in again on horns, and The Claire Fischer Orchestra provides a good background to some of the songs, but there's nothing here that stands out as spectacular. That's not to say it's not good. The opposite is true. Nothing stands out because the entire soundtrack is great. BATMAN has always been one of my favorite Prince albums and I was annoyed that he didn't play anything for the sequel, instead giving us another Danny Elfman composition (anyone ever notice almost all of Danny Elfman's composed work sounds alike?). Even though most of them didn't make the movie, Prince still makes a job of the soundtrack, assigning characters as lead vocalists, and making a story of the songs. Not a linear story, not one I can discern anyway, but the lyrics tell stories in themselves. I think if nothing else, BATMAN shows that Prince can do it even when it's not something he came up with himself. Someone gives him the idea, and he does what Prince does. A few weeks later, out comes BATMAN and my music collection is the better for it.