For those valiantly attempting to live life fast enough to outrun consequence, Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll have been as big a part of youth culture as Jesus, fear and platitudes have been to American politics. While there are apparently repercussions to such indulgence, I’ve met people who have stayed clear of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll, and while most would beat me in a footrace up a hill, I wouldn’t describe them as healthy. As far as I can tell, living with envy isn’t much easier than living with a tumour.

Steinski – I’m Wild About That Thing (The Lost Sex Tapes – Position 2)
Flying Lizards – Sex Machine
Prince – The Sex of It
Bar Kays – Sexomatic
Clarence “Blowfly” Reid – Blowfly’s ABC’s
2 Live Crew – If You Believe In Having Sex
Jimmy Edgar – Hot Raw Sex
Avenue D – Do I Look Like a Slut?
Timbaland & Magoo – Sex Beat (Interlude)
Terrace Martin feat. Wow Jones – Cum Baby
Black Sheep – La Menage
De La Soul – De La Orgy
Bill Cosby – Bill Talks About Pushers and Other Things
Mr. T – No Dope No Drugs
Ice T – I’m Your Pusher
London Funk Allstars – Junkies Bad Trip
Drugs – Brain on Drugs (Chateau Flight Remix)
System 01 – Family Drugs
jj – Ecstasy
The Weeknd – High For This
Amy Winehouse – Rehab (TDYLN Remix)
Twisted Sister – I Wanna Rock
Blue Oyster Cult – Cities On Flame With Rock n’ Roll
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – I Love Rock n’ Roll
The Beatles – Rock n Roll Music
Peter, Paul and Mary – I Dig Rock and Roll Music
Joe Piscopo – I Love Rock n’ Roll Medley
The Gospel Quartet – We Need a Lot More Jesus (And a Lot Less Rock n’ Roll)
Mylo – Destroy Rock n’ Roll
Ian Dury & the Blockheads – Sex and Drugs and Rock n Roll

Electric Adolescence – Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll 60 mins/ 320 kbps/

Download audio file (electric adolescence – sexdrugsandrocknroll.mp3)

Musicians covering each others work has been as longstanding a staple in music culture as substance abuse and misogyny. While the motivation to do so is often the child of an unholy marriage between lazy opportunism and musical sacrilege, in worthy hands it can be the most respectful of endeavors. With emphasis on the latter, the following post is a mix of some of the more interesting cover versions I’ve collected on my travels.

Glass Candy – Iko (Dixie Cups)
Vampire Weekend – Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac)
Magic Arm – Daft Punk Is Playing In My House (LCD Soundsystem)
The Flaming Lips – Money (Pink Floyd)
JJ – Ecstacy (Lil’ Wayne)
3 Teens Kill 4 – Tell Me Something Good (Rufus & Chaka Khan)
Peter Bjorn & John – Summer Breeze (Seals & Croft)
The Cloud Room – Blue Monday (New Order)
Plaintains – I Feel Love (Donna Summer)
Monsters Are Waiting – I Wanna Be Adored (Stone Roses)
The Go! Team – Bull in the Heather (Sonic Youth)
California Poppy Pickers – Why Don’t We Do It In the Road (The Beatles)
My Brightest Diamond – Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey (The Beatles)
The Puppini Sisters – Walk Like an Egyptian (The Bangles)
Clare and the Reasons – That’s All (Genesis)
Thao – You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me (Smokey Robinson)
Chromatic Flights – I Am a Rock (Simon & Garfunkel)
Casiotone For the Painfully Alone – Streets of Philadelphia (Bruce Springsteen)
You Say Party! We Say Die! – Nightswimming (R.E.M.)
The Chromatics – Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush)
Hot Chip – Transmission (Joy Division)
Fischerspooner – The 15th (Wire)
Theophilus London feat. Lykke Li – Computer Love (Kraftwerk)
White Hinterland – My Love (Justin Timberlake)
Idiot Glee – Ain’t No Sunshine (Bill Withers)
Ryan Adams – Everything In It’s Right Place (Radiohead)
Phoenix – Playground Love (Air)
Annie Hart and Slow Club – Killing Moon (Echo & the Bunnymen)
The Last Town Chorus – Do You Really Wanna Hurt Me? (Culture Club)
Taken By Trees – Sweet Child of Mine (Guns & Roses)
The Old Believers – This Must Be the Place (Talking Heads)
Kevin Davis – Fuck Tha Police (NWA Cover)
Antony and the Johnsons – Crazy In Love (Beyonce)
Susanna and the Magical Orchestra – Condition of the Heart (Prince)

Electric Adolescence – The Cover Up (right click to download) 80 mins/ 256 kbps/ 146MB

Download audio file (electric adolescence – the cover up.mp3)

As a follow up to this mix of cover songs, its sequel is moodier and perhaps less fun than its predecessor, but I expect the same could be said about me personally. At any rate, I invite you to take this tour through the musical wax museum that is the cover song.

Senor Coconut – Showroom Dummies (Kraftwerk)
Nicole Atkins – Vitamin C (Can)
Banjo or Freakout – Since We Last Met (NDF)
Toro Y Moi – Human Nature (Michael Jackson)
Sly Dunbar – Don’t Stop the Music (Yarbrough & Peoples)
Arthur’s Landing feat Nomi – Love Dancing (Arthur Russell)
Clem Snide – Bab Boy For Life (Puff Daddy)
Futurebirds – Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson)
The Box Tops – White Shade of Pale (Procal Harem)
Low Sea – Sweet Jane (Velvet Underground)
Blackbird Blackbird – Float On (Modest Mouse)
Heinali and Matt – Creep (Radiohead)
Everything In Its Right Place – Vitamin Dub (Radiohead)
The Last Royals – Nothing Compares 2 (Prince/ The Family)
KYNAN – Purple Rain (Prince)
GAYNGS – By Your Side (Sade)
Sade – Please Send Me Someone To Love (Percy Sledge)
New Animal – Lord Can You Hear Me (Spiritualized)
Bright Light Bright Light – Falling (Julee Cruise/ Twin Peaks)
How I Quit Crack – Wicked Games (Chris Isaac)
Mount Pleasant – In Dreams (Roy Orbinson)
White Hinterland – Lucky Cloud (Arthur Russell)
D’Angelo – Feel Like Making Love (Roberta Flack)
How To Dress Well – I Wish (R Kelly)
Schneider TM – The Light (The Smiths)
Scala & Kolacny Brothers – Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode)

Electric Adolescence – Another Cover Up 80 mins/ 320 kbps/

Download audio file (electric adolescence – another cover up.mp3)

Introduced to the world as something of a one man funk band with a debut that had him writing, producing, and performing as well as playing all of the instruments, the bashful seventeen year old from St. Paul’s became one of few artists to live up to his label as a prodigy. Curiously prolific, Prince released a new album every year and with each came a reinvention of both sound and style. From the subway flasher sleaze of Dirty Mind, the sexual pageantry of Purple Rain, the Beatlesesque “Around the World in the Day”, up to Parade, an album and film project more suited to the French Rivera than the cold plains of Minneapolis, the clean-living recluse spent ten years searching for his identity, and by all accounts briefly discovered it.

In 1987, Prince disbanded The Revolution to embark on what he intended to be his masterpiece, a triple album with the working title of Crystal Ball. Unmoved by the ambition of the project, Warner Brothers was unwilling to release so much material and demanded it be reduced to a double album, eventually titled Sign of the Times. While embraced as classic by both fans and critics, a familiarity with the excluded material reveals an inconsistency of tone and a lack of breathing room that might have made its original conception the only purely successful triple album in music history.

Things then seemed to come undone for the sensitive genius. Spurned by his label, Prince planned his next release with a generic black jacket and without a credit or title to assure low sales. The music was an uncharacteristically angry take on the industry articulated by his devilish alter-ego, Camille. At the last minute, Prince regretted this negativity and had “The Black Album” pulled from release, and then replaced it with its polar opposite: bright and optimistic and steeped in religion, Lovesexy started the search for spiritual redemption that would eventually consume a man who went from one who once dragged music forward to one who would struggle to follow.

That said, his prolific peak provided as much quality and quantity of output as any artist in history, a fact made more incredible in light of the thousand or so unreleased songs reputedly stored in his infamous vault, which fans hope will live 2 see the dawn. As a crash course for the uninitiated, I’ve put together a chronological tour through each of his studio albums, and a selection of my favourite of the unfinished and unreleased songs I’ve collected over the years.

Written, Produced, and Performed by Prince – Album Tracks

Interview Excerpt
Soft and Wet
I Feel For You
Sexy Dancer
Let’s Work
Partyup
When You Were Mine
All The Critics Love U in New York
Computer Blue
Take Me With U
Temptation
Paisley Park
I Wonder U
Sign O’ the Times
Bob George
Alphabet Street
I Wish U Heaven
Vicki Waiting
Joy In Repetition
Money Don’t Matter 2Night
Segue
Papa
Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother, Wife
Beautiful Strange
The Work Pt. 1
Musicology
Black Sweat
Lavaux

Electric Adolescence – Prince – Album Tracks 60 mins/ 320 kbps/

Download audio file (electric adolescence – prince album tracks.mp3)

Written, Produced, and Performed by Prince – Unreleased Tracks

Interview Excerpt
Leaving For New York (Demo)
Turn It Up
Extra Loveable
Possessed
Purple Music
Lisa
G-Spot
Tick Tick Bang (1980 Version)
We Can Funk (Early Version)
Cloreen Bacon Skin feat. Morris Day
Electric Intercourse
Baby, You’re a Trip
All My Dreams
Witness 4 the Prosecution
Sexual Suicide
100MPH
Train
Last Heart
Databank
Movie Star
Nevaeh Ni Ecalp A
Crystal Ball
Old Friends 4 Sale
There’s Others Here With Us
Poem to the Lady in White
Kiss (Acoustic Demo)

Electric Adolescence – Prince – Unreleased Tracks 60 mins/ 320 kbps/

Download audio file (electric adolescence – prince unreleased tracks.mp3)

For those that like to watch, I’ve also put together an hour long mix of Prince videos. I tried to keep the quality high, so the file is huge. If the streaming isn’t smooth, press pause for a minute and let the download catch up.

Electric Adolescence – Prince Video Mix from Scott Eastlick on Vimeo.