Around The World In A Day
"Around The World In A Day" is Prince's seventh album. Sessions for this album overlapped with Purple Rain and the album features similar instrumentation. Prince incorporated acoustic and world instruments, giving the album its psychedelic sound.
The album is credited to Prince and the Revolution, who appear on three songs - America, Pop Life and The Ladder. Alongside the Revolution, the album features string, horn and percussion players. David Coleman played cello, oud, fingercymbals and darbuka.
There was no Around The World In A Day tour. Please see the Purple Rain page for details of the equipment used by Prince and the Revolution around this time.
In the studio
Around the World In A Day was recorded between February and December 1984, mostly at Sunset Sound and Prince's Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse, Eden Prairie, MN.
Prince played a Hohner Madcat and a Dave Rusan Cloud guitar on this album. He also used his Boss Pedals, Mesa Boogie Mark II amplifier and Bag End D12-M cabinets. A custom Taylor 12 string guitar appears in videos from this period and Prince may play one on the album.
Bass parts were either recorded with a Fender Jazz bass or an Alembic Spoiler.
Prince used the Yamaha DX7 even more extensively on this album. It appears prominently on most songs on the album, with album beginning with the "Recorders" patch on Around The World In A Day. Prince also used Oberheim OB-8/OB-Xa/OB-Sx keyboards and Arp Omni for traditional synth sounds. He also used two early sampler keyboards - an Ensoniq Mirage and a Kurzweil K250 - for choir and string sounds.[1]
The Linn LM-1 is the main drum machine on the album, processed through a Boss pedalboard. Other electronic percussion includes the Simmonds SDS-V/SDS-V Module and Pearl SY-1 Syncussion. The album also saw Prince return to live drumming on Tambourine, using a Yamaha kit.[2]
For a list of equipment used by the Revolution, please see the Purple Rain page.
