PRINCE The Lewis Connection LP New SEALED 1979 Album featuring Prince on guitar

£ 20

$ 26

£ 20 Sold For

Aug 19, 2015 Sold Date

Aug 16, 2015 Start Date

1 Number Of Bids

Great Britain Country Of Seller

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Description

THE LEWIS CONNECTION

The Lewis Connection

NEW !

For years, collectors have lusted after the album, and in its rare appearances it sells for top dollar. The main reason for the interest has been the contribution of young Prince Rogers Nelson, then a 21-year-old sideman recruited by the Lewis Brothers for a single track recorded at Sound 80. His future sideman, Sonny Thompson, wrote the song and sang lead.

According to Pierre Lewis (keyboards and one half of the Lewis brothers in the band, Andre being the other ) "Me and Sonny and Prince, we'd play at Sonny's house. We'd be switching instruments around; Prince could play all the instruments well," recalls Lewis from his St. Paul home. The three grew up together.

The track was originally recorded by an earlier Lewis brothers project, the Family — not to be confused with Prince's own mid-'80s Family — but never issued. Lewis explains: "When we recorded that song at Sound 80 it was expensive, $120 an hour. And we agreed that whoever hustled the money up first would have the right to the master."

"Got to Be Something Here" is primordial Prince, his first track on wax and a seminal moment in Minneapolis music history, but it's Sonny T's show. "He's incredible," Lewis says of the future NPG bassist. "I don't think he's even from this world. He was born with perfect pitch, and he sees music in colors. I don't even understand what he was doing." Lewis knew enough to raise some cash and stash the master tape away.

A couple of years later, the Lewis brothers had finished cobbling together an album. Working at several studios around the city with engineer David Rivkin, they found they needed an additional track to fill out the second side. The other five tracks featured Andre's funky bass, Pierre's keyboards infused with soul-jazz fusion, and a changing cast of sidemen, notably drummer Richard Lowe.

The band pressed a thousand copies of the album. "We used it to open doors we couldn't get into before," Lewis explains. Soon the Lewis Connection was playing better nightclub gigs, and opening for national acts. The band played in Florida for a while, where Lewis remembers "Got to Be Something Here" drew a little airplay.

When he was given the opportunity to play with James Brown's band, backing Precious Wilson overseas, Andre Lewis left. Pierre Lewis and singer Barbara Bolar starting playing with a Filipino guitar player, but when he left for Japan, taking Bolar with him, Pierre was stranded. "I was a single father, I couldn't leave the city." Only a year and a half after they released their album, the Lewis Connection was no more.

Item on screen is the actual item (NOT a stock photo).

Tracks -

GET UP

HIGHER

FEEL YA GOOD

GOT TO BE SOMETHING

DYNAMIC DUO

MR. G

Condition - MINT / UNPLAYED (SEALED)

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Any Extra LP or 12" is £1 ( UK), £3 to Europe and £4 anywhere else.