Alongside GFM’S Love Man and Jehan from The Music Snobs, I had the honor and privilege of recording, editing, and engineering my 8th Grown Folks Music Inside The Album podcast for 30 years of Sheila E, Sheila E’s eponymous 3rd release! Released on Feb 19, 1987 in mad Prince traffic. Sheila E. was preceded by the magnificent Madhouse 8 project, and St. Paul’s debut, Jill Jones’ debut, Taja Sevelle’s debut, Madhouse 16, and the monster that would become SOTT, Prince’s own Sign O’ The Times, ALL followed in 1987. To top that off, Sheila E would tour in Prince’s SOTT band as his drummer and as a result essentially compromise the promotion and, ultimately, the success of her own album.
To my surprise (due to our meandering but, at the same time, everything is connected (through Prince)), this particular episode has turned out to be my favorite podcast that I’ve done by far because Jehan, Ivan, and I have a very lively and oftentime hilarious debate and analysis throughout the entire episode once the conversation gets heated among the three of us.
Even though we did NOT agree most of the time, our dialogue was riotous at times because I was often the odd (wo)man out because Jehan and Ivan were often in agreement. Some of the questions we debate are:
- Has Sheila E, the album, held up over the years?
- Should Prince, Sheila, and D’Angelo have adopted James Brown’s “Good God†in their live performances?
- Do we need Cat (& Sheila & TC Ellis & Tony M) to rap?
- Should we do a TC Ellis True Confessions episode?
- Are Prince & Sheila E dissing Jerome & Mazarati on Love is a Blue Train?
- Sheila E or Sheila Escovedo?
- Does “Wednesday Like A River” sound like a country song or a Wendy & Lisa song?