When Prince formed his backing band after the release of his first album, influenced by
Sly Stone, he created a multi-racial
musical ensemble with both male and female performers. The band initially consisted of: •
Prince on
lead vocals, backing vocals,
guitar, and
piano •
Dez Dickerson on
guitar and backing vocals •
Andre Cymone on
bass guitar •
Bobby Z. on
drums and
percussion • Gayle Chapman on
keyboards •
Matt Fink on keyboards Though officially unnamed, Prince experimented with the band acting as a
side project known as The Rebels, recording material in 1979 in
Colorado to get more music out. The recordings were a group effort with lead vocals by Cymone, Dickerson or Chapman. The project was shelved for unknown reasons, but two of the tracks were later re-recorded and given away by Prince: "You", became "U", and was released on
Paula Abdul's 1991
Spellbound album; while "
If I Love U 2 Nite" was released by both
Mica Paris and Prince's later wife,
Mayte Garcia. Paris rerecorded the song from scratch, which was released in 1991. Garcia's version, released in 1995, was rerecorded by Prince. On the next two tours following the
Prince Tour, the band underwent two line-up changes. Gayle Chapman quit the band in 1980. The end came when she told Prince she needed more musical fulfillment and growth for herself, but Prince wanted her to commit to some short-noticed rehearsals instead. After a long conversation, Chapman quit the group to be replaced by
Lisa Coleman. The following year, after the
Dirty Mind Tour, bass guitarist André Cymone would leave the band. Cymone, whose family gave Prince a home after he left his father's house, left over a number of grievances with Prince—little input in the studio, he was not getting credit for his contributions to Prince's music, and in general his desire to start his own career—and would have bitter feelings toward Prince as he later claimed that Prince stole many of his ideas that were used for
the Time and that he created the bassline for
Controversys "
Do Me, Baby". Ultimately, Cymone was replaced by Mark Brown, renamed
Brownmark by Prince. Coleman was usually only identified by her first name, while Fink started wearing
surgical scrubs on stage and became known as "Doctor" Fink. Fink originally wore a black- and white-striped prison jumpsuit. However, a member of Rick James' band was doing the same thing and not wanting to copy that, Prince asked Fink, "Do you have any other ideas?" Fink said, "What about a doctor's outfit?" Prince loved the idea, and thus was born Doctor Fink. From 1982 to 1983, when the band was almost identified as the Revolution, it consisted of: •
Prince on lead vocals, backing vocals, guitar, and piano •
Dez Dickerson on guitar •
Brown Mark on bass •
Bobby Z. on drums and percussion •
Lisa Coleman on keyboards and piano •
Matt Fink on keyboards •
JJ on vocals The words "and the Revolution" can be seen printed backwards on the cover of his fifth album
1999. The band members were curious as to if they were getting a real name, but Prince had held back from fully calling the group the Revolution partly because of
Dez Dickerson's wishes to leave the band. When the
1999 Tour ended,
Dez Dickerson finally left the band for religious reasons and was replaced by Coleman's childhood friend
Wendy Melvoin. Prince told Dickerson that he needed three years from him, and Dickerson was not willing to commit. Prince told Dickerson he'd leave him on payroll and honor his contract, which Prince did. Dickerson went on to eventually work for independent Christian record label Star Song.
Wendy and Lisa shortly thereafter formed a special bond with Prince and greatly influenced his output during the rest of their tenure in the band. Prince's former mostly R&B/funk offerings would be more diversified with rock, pop, and
classical music elements. == Prince and The Revolution ==