The original Dream Team!
In the late 1970s, after Prince released his debut album, For You, Prince recruited Andre Cymone as bassist for his touring band. Cymone stayed with Prince until 1981 when he quit the band over tensions with Prince.
The two later resolved their issues and Cymone went on to release 3 solo albums – Livin’ in the New Wave (1982), Survivin’ in the 80s(1983), and AC (1985). All were out of print for a long period of time, but all three of his solo records have been remastered, and expanded with extra tracks. His most successful single – a song written by Prince – was “The Dance Electric” from the AC album.
In September 2012 Andre released a digital single, titled “America”, in aid of United States President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign with all proceeds from the sale of the digital single being donated to the campaign.
Dez Dickerson answered Prince’s call for a touring musician in the Twin Cities Reader, a local entertainment paper, in 1979. After a 15 minute audition in the back of Del’s Tire Mart, Dickerson was picked as guitarist. He became a fan-favorite in concert. He was soon recognized as much for his trademark “Rising Sun” headband as for his blistering guitar work. In 1980 when off the road for Christmas break, Dickerson had a profound conversion experience and became a born-again Christian. Afterwards, performing songs with sexual themes began to trouble his conscience. Even though Dickerson’s and Prince’s popularity were growing, he desired more and more to quit the band.
He contributed songs for Prince’s side projects, writing “He’s So Dull” for Vanity 6, and co-writing “Wild And Loose”, “After Hi School”, and “Cool” for The Time. Dickerson contributed vocals to “Little Red Corvette” and “1999” on the 1999 album, as well as the guitar solo for “Little Red Corvette” that ranked #64 on Guitar World’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos.
In 2005, Dickerson released a double CD retrospective collection of his work from 1982 to 1987. It marked the long-awaited official release of the complete version of the classic “Modernaire”. Taken from the film Purple Rain and featuring Prince on guitars, keyboards and backing vocals, this track was released on vinyl in 2008 by the UK label, Citinite.
Remember the scene??