Page 7 - Pop History: Prince Pt. II

Episode Date: February 11, 2020

We continue our series on Prince and discuss the years from "Purple Rain" to "Batman", his audacity & vision, and how much we want to bang him.    This is the last episode before we go Spotify exclusive! Listen to Pop History free on Spotify!   Need even more Page 7?  Support us on our Patreon page and get weekly bonus Patreon-exclusive content! Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Page 7 ad-free.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, Zabrowski. You can hear her on Spotify. You can hear her on Spotify. That worked out a lot better than I thought it would. Page 7, along with all of your other favorite LPN members, are going exclusive to Spotify on Valentine's Day 2020. So that means you'll only be able to listen to the episode,

future episodes, and our entire back catalog of shows over on Spotify, starting on February 14th. Did you think that I could never stop singing, walking on, walking on broken glass, man, but the thing is that now karma chameleon stuck in my head. Now karma chameleons stuck in my hand. Spotify accounts are free and easy to create. So you can listen to all of our shows on Spotify right now, and you can download episodes for offline listening with your free account.

The last podcast network and all of your favorite music in one place, what are you waiting for? Chucky, Chucky, Chucky, Chucky, Chuky, Chukin, Super. Did I just do it to you guys too? I'm sorry, not sorry. Listen to the last podcast network. Free on Spotify. I just feel like all that's in my brain.

What was that? Do a different one. Do a different one. Bur parade. Oh, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bumitur. Kiss. This is the problem with Prince is that I will say

not a huge Acapella type of a musician. You know, it's difficult to really get Prince across. They do it in Romeo plus Juliet. Oh, God. Well, Romeo plus Juliet can do la la,

anything that they want to do. That's true. Welcome to Prince Park, too. I feel like my life is, I think I live on Paisley Park right now. I wish. Paisley Park looks like it's, I think it's a place

where work gets done. Yeah, yeah. I just want to stare at his little abs. I do. Natalie wants to have a lot of sex with Prince. Welcome to Pop History. I do. No, I'm not even going to deny it.

Do you see this like manic? I'm sorry, not see. You hear this manic energy people listening right now. This is because we have been in a whirlwind of Prince. I'm going to say movements from Purple Rain all the way through to, I'm going to say what we're covering today. hopefully we actually covered all because there's so fucking much of it but even just from purple rain to 1989's batman soundtrack what is that six years five years five it's five years

well because this is the time this is again there's so much have to get across prince was a maniac he was a work maniac that we will never get to the levels of what prince was he would never stop working. Everyone says that he would never sleep. He barely ate. I think that he, again, wish he had seen a therapist to really talk about these things because he's a prolific genius. But he just couldn't stop churning out work. But would the therapy have prevented the work from coming out of him? At that time point. That's what happened with David Lynch. She went to one therapy session and that he asked, would this, if I go get healed through all my brain worms, will it make my work suffer and the therapist said maybe and he said good day to you sir I get it I was on antidepressants

for two years and then I got off of them because I was like I don't feel enough but that's not smart if you are artistically stifled take all of your drugs off of the counter just don't take any more of them stop right taking your medications if you're cutting good albums stop do and that is jackie approves of that as well right jack yes I approve of it especially if you are openly anti-drug and say that you don't do any drugs, but in reality, Prince, you're doing a lot of drugs on the sly. Because especially in reading through all of this stuff about Prince, it is nuts. Not only how much he was working all the time, but nobody ever really knew what he was doing. Right. He's very, I keep coming across the word elusive, elusive. And in reading through all this

stuff, the man was elusive. Well, and reports that, you know, and I cannot wait to talk about the black album, which may be my favorite discovery of this episode. But, you know, that is even him pulling the black album from being released. Apparently had to do with like an MDMH trip that went bad for him. Yes. So I think, yeah, there was a lot going on. He said it was too evil. There's so much going on that I don't know.

It's like kind of almost reminds me a little bit of the Joan Rivers thing in the sense of like what she said was not like the smoke and mirrors of the reality versus the reality are so all over the place. and I don't know if I'm anything I have anything I say about Prince today is actually true a lot of it is hearsay I don't know if he actually existed at this point I know totally even the book that he started to write or co-write called the beautiful ones which was supposed to be like a memoir of sorts he didn't finish it he passed away before it was finished but um like half of the book is finished and it is it's rambling it's beautiful there's all kinds of cool pictures and stuff stuff in it, but anything he puts in there is not a linear discussion of his life.

It's like Ulysses or something. Yeah. That's right. I made a James Joyce reference. I'm proud of you. Now, we have to just jump into this. I just want to say this. I think this is a good way to jump in because we have to remember that all of this,

this is after 1999, this is after he gets his first platinum album. And the audio engineer that he worked with Peggy McCreery, she says, after 1999, he became huge. With Purple Rain, he became a mega mogul. That's when the bodyguards came. The purple limos and the purple motorcycle would come down to the studio. When I first met him, he didn't even have a car here. He totally changed. When we were working on Purple Rain, I started reading about geniuses just so I could understand it all better. So this is really, we are jumping in. Yes. Head first, and I hope y'all along for the ride because it's about to get slippery and it's about to get wet. And we're not going to hit our head to our or we're not going to be able to go to sleep tonight.

Jaggy, you're scaring me. Your eyes are so wide. I want to jump in like this. I want to say this is the balliest thing I think I've ever seen in terms of a move by a person for their career by saying in the early 80s, Prince made his management obtain a deal for him to star in a major motion picture. And according to his former manager, Bob Cavallo, and he's threatened to leave the label if they couldn't.

This is now, I know he's got one out. I don't even know if that album had hit yet. Maybe it was, yes, that album had hit 1999. But like, that is so crazy. Like, I don't know if you could imagine a day that, like, Billy Eilish being like, okay, I know I've got this album, right? Now I'm going to star in my own movie. Yes.

I'm going to take first-time producers. I'm going to take a writer who has, never, I don't even know if she had written a screenplay before. No. I think it was a female woman. It is the audacity of Prince is what this episode should be called. The audacity of Prince. It's true, but he got it made.

Yes. Oh, yes, he did. Said as well that not only did he want to make the major motion picture, that Prince had said it has to be with a studio, a big studio, not with some drug dealer or jewel financer, and his name had to be above the title. He wasn't a giant star yet. I mean, that demand was a little over the top,

and yet he got it. This is another thing that I really learned from Prince, and especially in this part that we're in right now, not only do you fake until you make it, but confidence gets you everywhere. If you just believe in yourself to a point that you're, I'm going to go and say you're considered a bastard. Out of touch with reality.

Oh, completely out of touch with reality. Sometimes it works. When you're auditioning for these pilots, You've got to go in there, and instead of what you normally would do, which is go, maybe in the back corner of the room, you need to go in there, but like, I'm not even auditioning for this. I have this role. You already got it.

I'm directing now. You're right. I'm the director now. Oh, my God, I should be directing. Which is what he does under the cherry mood. That is a whole, we'll get to that. We'll get to it. So first, all right, there's two different things happening, though, right now.

There's the album Purple Rain, and there is the film. And first, I want to talk about because the revolution is so important. The revolution is the, his band. that will be with him for the next couple of albums. And even though they are referenced in 1999, you can even see the word revolution in the cover of 1999. This is when he fully, like,

they're fully indoctrinated into his work and his world. The members were Matt, Dr. Fink on Synth. You can tell him, because he's wearing a doctor costume, brown mark on base, Bobby Z. Rifkin on drums, not Sheila E. yet. We will get into that.

Eric leads on sax guitarist Wendy Melvoin and keyboardist Lisa Coleman and he opened up the floor finally for the first album in his career to other musical ideas from like this group. But I wonder if he opened up the musical ideas other people because he is well known for the fact that he wants no one to help him with most anything. That I wonder if it's because he had the ideas. And so this entire time he's also writing ideas for the movie. So he had essentially what he wanted to happen in it. And in the movie, the kid, who is the character he plays, opens up to his bandmates to help him co-write and contribute, and that's part of the arc.

Major plot point is that he's not letting anyone in, and then he finally, you know, opens up the door for Purple Rain or whatever in the movie. Right. And I wonder if the reason why he did that was to be like, well, then the movie is more close to my acting. actual life and to almost get more information on how that that would work because Dr. Fink, the keyboard is still said, but Prince was the main lyricist and melody maker for all the songs and never took any lyrical content from people. So even though he was opening up, he was only opening up with the actual like music for it,

not for any of the lyrics. Right. And I have to also, I want to briefly shout out Wendy and Lisa, the two females who are in the revolution. they also, if you're not familiar with Purple Rain the movie, his band plays the band in the movie. And they're awesome. And they are so good in it.

But Wendy and Lisa came in a little bit later on in the group. They replaced other people in the band. And they not only are really talented, but they made this really important impact in the visualization of the band. Like when you go to see them, they are so much a part of the revolution. the way that they take up the stage with their, like, presence is so important to that band. Which is also why they can't be a part of his music for very long because they're too important.

They eventually do, over the next few years, get into a tiff with him and he does dismiss them. But they came in, they were girlfriends-ish, I guess, beforehand. They weren't really open about it, but they kept a band together after. afterwards called Wendy and Lisa, and they did a bunch of scores for TV and stuff. But actually, Natalie, you're becoming too knowledgeable on this? Dismissed! No!

I'm the new prince of the show. Dismissed, Holden, you're dismissed. I've got other things to say. No! You're being a prince right now. I'm the prince now, okay? I just wanted to say, quickly, about Wendy, who is the guitarist, she is so badass in a movie.

She's like rocking out on this fucking guitar in, like, lingerie. But she just looks so tough and awesome and made me want to be her. About Wendy and Lisa, Prince said, Wendy makes me seem all right in the eyes of people watching. She keeps a smile on her face. When I sneer, she smiles. It's not premeditated. She just does it.

It's a good contrast. Lisa is like my sister. She'll play what the average person won't. She'll press two notes with one finger so the cord is a lot larger, things like that. She's more abstract. She's into Joni Mitchell, too. Which he really loved Johnny Mitchell. He also...

He covered a Johnny Mitchell song as well. When he describes things, he often just makes a comment that doesn't lead to anything. And you're just like, you're supposed to go like, oh, okay. Cool. So Prince builds a soundstage and recording studio in a huge warehouse on Highway 7 in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. And this is really what helps the live vibe of the film scenes, because they're working. on a stage that feels like a live stage in a lot of ways when they're in rehearsals and things like that.

The engineers, by the way, were also female. You had Susan Rogers and Peggy McCreery handling recordings. Rogers said, women have a very nurturing nature and Prince thrives in that atmosphere. He likes a studio atmosphere where people are flexible. And Fink, the keyboardist, the doctor, he said, we were basically in boot camp, a disciplined regimen of dance class, acting class, and band rehearsing. throughout that whole summer for about three months straight, leading up to the start of the filming process.

Prince had an acting coach brought in, a dance instructor brought in. It was just day after day filled with all those elements. Prince just worked nonstop. He never slept. I mean, it's an amazing movie filled with people that have never acted before. A lot of their first-time things.

The director is straight out of USC. It's nuts that the movie is what it is. And then it's as good as it is. I mean, I'm not going to say that maybe I agree with all the plot points. Well, we'll get into the song. But I really dug the movie. Yeah, it was so fun. That date is so weird.

We'll talk about it. I did also, though, I was watching the Sign of the Times film, the concert film last night. And I just couldn't help but think about it. I'm like, how many bands do you know of just break out into these like elaborate dance sequences in the middle of songs? You just don't really see that. I remember like, and this is a dumb example, but like, I remember watching fish. perform and there was like one song where they would all

unite by just like doing this weird jumping movement where they would do this thing and everybody would be like whoa they're like jumping in unison parliament I'm like did that too look at Prince dude what are you going to say Natalie yeah don't bring up fish anymore

on this podcast okay I was just saying it was in a negative way at least I do I mean I still have a bit of love for fish but I promise we all do pop it yeah no we're not No, we're not doing a job. We're not. That is part of the, one of the things that makes the revolution so important to Prince

and so special is the performances, not only in Purple Rain, but in real life concerts, were like almost like musicals. Like there were like scenes that happened, costume changes. There were full, like, interactive dances with the bands, not just like backup dancers. Like they all were immersed in this like community performance. Yes. That's just so fun to watch. so manic in the energy.

Like when I had a couple drinks and I was watching some of the times, and there's like these scenes where Prince and some of the female dancers on stage are just like, gyrating, like, thrashing themselves against this fence. And I was like, I feel like this all the time. Like, this is my energy. This is my energy level

so much of the time and he's bringing it out in me to the point where I'm screaming still about it right now. Do you hear how loud I'm talking? It's so dramatic. Everything's so dramatic and so great. And you get that. in this show. It's so funny, too, to even see

anyone put up against Prince and his band in a performative sense. Like, all throughout the movie, he's, like, giving these just incredibly, like, classic historical performances. And yet they're like, the kids' bands, maybe not as good as the other kids.

And they're like, what are you talking about? The side characters of all of these movies are hilarious. And usually are played by people, like, in Purple Rain. He's played by the members of the time as well. It's like, so they're all musicians and none of them are actors. They're all just princes friends and bandmates.

And I think it's because it was a way for him to have control over everything. And he wasn't bringing in people that he wasn't very familiar with. So Wendy Melvin says he prepared for Purple Rain in a way that he never did any other album because he had to because the film slowed him down. And that created time for him to reflect. On most albums, he was done in a second. Bobby says of the speed, you know, three weeks, done. But Purple Rain had to stew for about six months.

And so he really had to think about it, which I think shows later on and why this phase for him is so manic because he gets so immediately bored. Because he's so obsessed with it and he's his entire life. But then he's done and he wants to move on. But you can't do that when you're writing both an album and a movie and starring in the movie and shooting the movie and then having to do all the press for a movie. And that takes so much more time. and he didn't want to do any of that. He just wanted to churn out his genius, and that's it. Right.

Keyboardist Lisa Coleman said, I think he chose each of us for very simple reasons, not because we were virtuosos, although we were very good. There was another quality he needed to have around him. I love this, a blend of loyalty, a spirit of young hunger, and a musical quality he didn't have.

Each one of us had something he didn't have, even though he had it all, which I love that quote. And, yeah, he just had this vision in his head, this whole idea and you feel you sense it you know what i mean like watching the whole thing top to bottom i mean it's like you don't even need the movie the album's so fucking good but the movie just launches it to this other worldly level so you've got his management team producing it robert cavallo josephalo and stephen far noli sure that's a name okay written by uh albert

mann yoli and william blin what's up with all these nolies uh blen was known for only for a made for TV movie called Brian's song which sounds like such a title of a movie. Wait a second you never saw Brian's song No it's like a foot it was one of those movies that we were forced to watch in school And honestly I would always just Check out but I'm pretty sure it's something to do

about football players and one of them dying of cancer Why did you have to watch that in school? I think it was like a health class kind of thing Don't get cancer? Yeah I guess yeah Be better at it be better I remember the bad seed About the evil girl Oh, the bad seed is great.

You didn't watch that in school, did you? Yeah, we watched that at school. What? In health class. The bad seed? The bad seed, yeah. That's not a health movie. That's about a psycho little kid.

Honestly, Holden, you should remake the movie and star in it. Oh, I would love it. I love that movie. As a little girl, I'm not evil daddy. Henry plays the dad. That is so good. I have the prettiest mother. Just because I have a little.

a beard, Daddy. Doesn't mean I'm evil, Daddy. Ew, all right. I don't like how we don't. Mangola gets the script for a revision and wows Prince in a meeting about it. Having recounted a story about a love triangle, a great musician who needs to learn how to be a team player, and a troubled youth who's interracial marriage, married parents are constantly fighting. Daddy. Prince said in this meeting, I don't get it. This is the first time I met you, but you've told me more about what I've experience than anybody in my life. Daddy. Daddy.

That was a sort of a touchy point for the African-American community at the time because Prince is not interracial. Yes. His parents were not interracial. He is black, but in the movie he has a white mother. But it is supposed to kind of be his parents. Yes. Right.

His father, what? And this is all called back from last week, which is so hard to recall for me at this point because my head is so filled with this week print, the 85 to 80 to 80. nine, four years of his funny life. But yeah, of course, we talked about the musician father and all that stuff going on and that is definitely incorporated.

Prince said, we used parts of my past and present to make this story pop more, but it was a story. My dad wouldn't have nothing to do with guns. He never swore, still doesn't, and never drinks. But also, Prince said, he never says, I love you. And whenever we try to hug or something,

we bang our heads together like in some Charlie Chaplin movie. Get a fair Right, but a while ago, but a while ago he was telling me how I always had to be careful. My father told me if anything happens to you, I'm gone. All I thought at first was that it was a real nice thing to say, but then I thought about it for a while and realized something. That was my father's way of saying, I love you. I don't know.

If anything happened, if you die, I'm going to kill myself? Let's unpack it. Was that what that meant? I mean, he also talked about how it was like his dad kicked him out of the house one time and he He called him from a payphone begging to be let back in. He just said no. And he just stood there crying for hours and how awful it was. Like he definitely had a rough, crazy relationship with his dad.

They definitely capture an element of that in the film. And I think that's why actually pretty decent dramatic performances from Prince. I mean, it is played up a little bit. Well, apparently the scene where he like hangs himself in a fever dream of sorts. Boiler alert. I mean, it's Purple Rain. I also hadn't seen Purple Rain. I'm going to throw it out there before the day too.

We're going to spoil the whole movie because it's 30 years old. But I did know those things. And apparently in the scene, he was losing his mind as he's actually recording when they were filming him doing it and just crying and screaming. Because for him, I mean, this, he was, he was at least, this is what people go to theater school for years to figure out how to do, how to tap into shit like this. And at least he was trying as well as the fact that he really wanted. the story to be a lot darker originally. Okay. But he really wanted the kid character,

Prince plays, is diagnosed schizophrenic, who as a child watches his mother shoot his father and then turn the gun on herself. So that's why he's got all of these issues. So that's where all of it came from. It is still a dark movie because the mother is beaten senselessly throughout the entire thing. Women are not treated well in the lives.

Are you tired? What are you talking about the part where he just leaves a naked woman after making her take all of her clothes up. In the middle of nowhere, or the part where the other guy throws the woman into a garbage can. To a garbage can. And it's supposed to be a funny joke moment.

Right. In another ways that unfortunately I think that Purple Rain mimics Prince's life that I think that we would be remiss to not discuss at this point some of the highlights as well of his love relationship, especially what's going on while he's making purple rain. So at this time, Prince was dating a woman that he decided her name was vanity. That is not her actual name.

That who is the lead singer from the... I'm going to start naming women is what I'm going to start. I'm just like, your name's now Firebrand. That's your name. I love Firebrand, please. Oh, I know. Which one of us is firebrand? Do we have to fight over it?

Your firebrand, Natalie, and you Jackie are oxygen. Okay, so Ox. Oh, you better watch out because I'm going to make you. bigger? Yeah. Really. Just try. Why don't you

blow over here? See what happens. We're going crazy. We've been in Prince Land for so long. And Britsland is going anywhere. So Vanity is the lead singer from an all-female pop group,

Vanity Six. And she was supposed to originally play Apollonia. She was essentially, quote-unquote, made by Prince. He was the one who, only gave her a name, but only also had formed the group that he made her the lead of. I will say that he was a huge believer in female musicians, and I do enjoy that. We brought

that up last time. But she had helped to work on the script of Purple Rain with him, and Apollonia was loosely based off of her life story. Now, remember, Apollonia even joins the Apollonia 6 in the movie, which is based off of the Vanity 6, but they broke up before filming started. And she had said about it, I needed one person to love me and he needed more. And so they broke up and he brings in Apollonia Cotero who plays Apollonia in the movie. And guess

what? They had started dating as they were filming and they had lots of sex. And she was an actress and a model and she took over also gorgeous. Gorgeous. Oh my gosh. Breast like a fucking angel. He straight rubs her vagina. Oh my God. He is rubbing her vagina.

He rubs his vagina. I have a graphic sex scene in this movie. I couldn't believe they allowed it. I can't believe the sensors allowed that. That was like he was straight. Stroking it. I was like, whoa. But also he changed her name officially from Patricia to Apollonia in real life.

And then in real life took Vanity off of being the lead singer of the pop group and put Apollonia in and renamed it the Apollonia sex. How do you feel about that? Actually, how do you feel about it? to back. Do you hear that? Your name's Coleslaw now. I say, throw them all in a dumpster. Oxygen is here to play. Is that my shitty take? So I just need to scream about that for a second because that's, I mean, he's just.

That's insane. That's insane. I don't, yeah, I think there's a lot going on. I think he was so special to so many people that it was hard to speak. And at least he wasn't, you know, you know, leaving, never landing it. You know what I mean? I got to say, first, this is not right. I don't agree with it, but it's how I feel that because he's so tiny, his toxic masculinity doesn't threaten me as much. And I'm kind of into it because I feel like I could just crush him if I wanted to. I'm just getting an insight into your marriage right now.

Is that what's happening right? Firebrand. Firebrand strikes again. Fire strike. Yeah. That's the sound of the fire strike. My husband is not a toxic masculine man. You kind of have a point there.

Also, he really did reach Godlike heights, I feel like with Purple Rain. And after that moment, he could kind of do whatever the fuck he wanted sort of like murdering someone. But we don't even know that because he may have murdered somebody. Who knows. He got to lose it completely. You know what I mean? I feel like he gets a big pass on being kind of. But also, I don't know.

It's a weird. He kind of talks about this too. His parents were in complete polar opposites. His mom was like a party in real life, not Purple Roots. His mom was like a party animal and she just wanted to have. and have fun and she was very sexual and his father was a really buttoned up religious conservative guy who didn't like any of that stuff and so he seems to constantly be battling those two polar opposites inside of himself because his father also beat his mother in real life

that was like he didn't like that she wanted to go out and play and have fun so he's at odds with himself all the time and so sometimes he's very strong in the feminist sense and other times he's very misogynistic. And it makes me horny. And it makes me horny. Hell yeah, Natalie. We're living our truth here on this week's pop history. Don't sex shame me.

Hell yeah. Hey guys, just so you remember, next week you'll only be able to listen to page seven on Spotify. So why do you go ahead and download the app now? We'll be waiting for you over there. Now back to the show. So now I want to scream for a little bit about like how amazing the performance that shaped the album and the movie came together and then and then this this movie hitting. So Magnoli actually Purple Rain the song, incredibly enough, as much as Prince had this big vision and everything, wasn't necessarily the song or even the name of the album or anything at the point that Magnoli hears Purple Rain performed in the First Avenue Club, which is a big, big deal. So First Avenue Club is where all those like club scenes were shot.

they just named it. In Minneapolis. Yeah. What was the name of it in the movie? It was called something else. Was it called First Avenue Club? I thought it was still called First Avenue because they all had their own names except for the kid pretty much. Right, which is so weird.

But anyway, so the First Avenue Club in downtown Minneapolis, he approaches Prince about it afterward. And it's like, that's the song, essentially, at the end of the, for the end of the film. Yeah. And Prince's response, it's really not done yet. But also, he says, if that's the song, can Purple Rain be the title of the movie? This was actually a concert on August 3rd, 1983, that was so important. They ended up using some of the recordings on the Purple Rain soundtrack. Lisa Coleman said, this is insane, by the way.

It was Wendy's first show. To have that be her anointing was a lot to live up to. But he was so supportive of her. He took her under his wing. He helped her relax and not be too nervous. We were unsure what was going to happen. But we hit the stage with such conviction that it didn't really matter. The crowd were with us.

It was hot. August. It was jam-packed in the club. It was sweaty and smoky and viby as hell. She also said at first, he wasn't sure Purple Rain was actually a Prince song. That's insane to me, by the way. That's me saying that. She also said it was kind of a country number. Yeah, I think they changed it. It was probably a different song originally. And he gave it to Stevie Nix, but she felt intimidated by it. Actually, the quote was from Stevie Nix, it was so overwhelming. That 10-minute track. I listened to it And I just got scared. I called him back and said, I can't do it.

I wish I could. It's just too much for me. Which is that Stevie Nix. Yeah. So one day, this is Lisa again, one day he decided to fool around with it at rehearsal. Wendy started hitting these big chords. And that rejigged his idea of the song.

He was excited to hear it voice differently. It took it out of that country feeling. Then we all started playing it a bit harder and taking it more seriously. We played it. it for six hours straight. And by the end of that day, we had it mostly written and arranged. So that's how it all came together. Completely insane. The film comes out. The film makes back at $7 million budget in the first weekend and went on to make around almost 70 million in the

box office. The soundtrack was number one on the Billboard charts for 24 consecutive weeks. At one point, Prince had the number one movie album and single in the country, which I don't know his The Beatles. The only people that had ever done it before was the Beatles. That's insane.

Also, it won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. So I love that the Academy Award recognized that a film where a grown woman gets thrown into a daughter. Did that scene get any awards, Kohl's law?

Yeah. It got for best shitty shudy joke made on a woman that year, which honestly was a lot of competition back in 1985. It was a lot. I can't

I mean there's so much to go into we didn't even really talk about when dubs cry and how crazy that song is and how just there's nothing like it and yet it still was this giant hit and Warner Brothers as always is like this can't be the number one single you're the first single you're gonna put out

we need like another 1999 he's like no this is it son and then I'm sure he didn't say son he probably said daddy but he threw that track out like it is so So, memorable.

Also, I love this element. A young, annoying, Tipper Gore happens upon her 11-year-old daughter, Corinna,

listening to Darling Nikki, which, of course, has the lines, you know, masturbating to a magazine. It is a lot for an 11-year-old girl a year. It's a lot.

I love, too, that I was reading some other thing, and apparently she was, like, singing along to it. She, like, knew the 11-year-old, knew the lyrics. Imagine your kid,

you walk in, your kids talking about masturbating at, like, 11. Right. What grade is that, though? Because I was listening to some pretty... It's fifth grade.

Okay. I was just starting to listen to like Nirvana. Oh, I would have been listening to this kind of stuff. I remember like listening to the song Rape Me from in utero by Nirvana in like fifth or sixth grade. So honestly, I mean, we had our own version of it, right? So actually, it is Prince in a lot of ways that led to the parental advisory explicit lyrics sticker, which came about during our youth. and I remember that was such a huge deal.

His song was number one on the Filthy 15, which was a list of songs that they pulled, for examples of very crude lyrics. But I love it to Prince's credit, he didn't oppose the label system and became one of the first artists to release a quote-unquote clean version of explicit albums.

So what I liked about is that even though he was being, I mean, he's not even being censored. I mean, whatever with it, but at least he did. did lean into it. He's like, all right, well, I'm not going to start writing it like this, but I will make clean versions of my songs. It adds to have a foil in that way, adds to the allure of the music. So you get a label that says like, it's dangerous. It's just going to make kids want it more. I know, which is the thing. Because, you know what? It's cool, though. I think

that it serves the music. I think it helps a lot of ways. It helps the musicians and, yeah. I would be disappointed if I picked out an album and it didn't have a parental advisory sticker. on it. You know what I mean? I'd be like, oh, it's not got that dirty, dirty on it. You know what I mean? It's good to have the opposition for the art. I do think that's true. Well, it's something that I think that we need to bring up that we'll come into play later on with the other two movies. Sure. To remember at this time that he released the album of Purple Rain a month before the movie came out. So he wanted people to hear the music, but people were hearing the music and not understanding what this was going to, even though it was very loosely based into the plot of it.

But at this time as well, to increase his elusiveness, I will keep saying, Prince didn't do one interview during the entire Purple Rain cycle. Yeah. From the time that 1999 came out until after around the world in the day, the next album came out, he didn't do one, any kind of interview, any kind of press anywhere, because he wanted to keep up. I think either he wanted to keep up the mystique or he was just so busy working. He wasn't even fucking thinking about it. I mean, I think it was, and we're about to get into this stuff. Actually, he does address some of that. I think there's a really good, by the way, interview in Rolling Stone that literally is titled, Prince breaks the silence. I mean,

that's like how big of a deal it was that he was not talking to anybody. So in that interview, though, he talks about how, and I loved this, that because around the world in a day, which we're about to get into is very different from Purple Rain. And he even says that he purposely, and he's happy that he made this album as soon as he was finished with Purple Rain so that he would have no concept of what the feedback was going to be on Purple Rain. He also even said, which is so true because the 1999 release, they released a deluxe edition this year that I got from my brother for Christmas on final, which is really cool.

Yeah, we heard about it, Cool Slum. It's pretty cool. But it has like triple the amount of tracks on it that 1999 had. And even said in the, I think that interview, he was like, I had another 1999. Like I had it all recorded. I could have just released that album. And everybody would have been like, hell yeah, give me some more of that 1999. But I refuse to do that.

I can't do that. That's not me. He doesn't like looking back and he just wants to keep going because that's what Bobby Zee says about him. He said, before we even hit that. the first show of the Purple Rain tour, he was already bored with Purple Rain. He really thought that people would be done with Purple Rain by then, but as we know now,

they're not done with Purple Rain. He was just moving so fast. It was like next, next, next, next. But Purple Rain is something that people want to examine for centuries now. I look back at everything, but he did it. He wasn't very good at looking back and it's something that keeps coming again again,

but it also shows when someone doesn't look back, they also don't learn from their mistakes in the long run. Therapy. Why would you? You just let other people deal. You leave people in the wake of the disaster that you've created and you just let them fix it. And you just keep going.

I think it's a great way to live. I love this quote from Prince about standing out. He said what they fail to realize is that is that is exactly what we want to do. It's not silliness. It's sickness. Sickness is just slang for doing things somebody else wouldn't do. If we are down on the floor doing a step, that's something somebody else wouldn't do. That's what I'm looking for.

all the time. We don't look for whether something's cool or not. That's not what time it is. It's not just wanting to be out. It's just if I do something that I think belongs to someone else or sounds like someone else, I do something else. Prince, you're so good. Which is why we enter into the world of around the world in a day, which he releases while they are still on tour with Purple Rain, even though no one wants him to do that. a 98-date Purple Rain Tour and he is exhausted he announces in 1985 that he will no longer do live performances or music videos after the release of his next album

which obviously is not true so he gets really experimental and he gets very psychedelic and he as we said breaks his silence to Rolling Stone he says I've heard some people say that I'm not talking about anything on this record and what a lot of other people get wrong

about the record is that I'm not trying to be this great visionary wizard Paisley Park is in everybody's heart. It's not just something that I have the keys to. I was trying to say something about looking inside oneself to find perfection. Perfection is in everyone. Nobody's perfect, but they can be. We may never reach that, but it's better to strive than not.

And I think that that is very nonsensical. Yes. As Natalie said, it doesn't make it all over the place in nowhere. Because at the same time, Prince is also openly saying that this album was not going to appeal to as many people. And I think that this was him because he was so hung up on what critics said because even though he was like, I don't want to even hear it. I don't even want to know what they're saying. He still knew what they were saying because, quote, I sort of had an FU attitude, meaning that I was making something for myself and for my fans and the people that supported me throughout the years. I wanted to give them something and it was like my mental letter.

But then Susan Rogers, who was Prince's sound engineer from Purple Rain and around the world in a day, said, I think the fuck you attitude. sounds a little harsh. He was at the happiest time in his life, and I think that was important. He was in power. He was determined he wasn't going to make Purple Rain, too. He was in a position to test his creative strength. He was smart enough to know what he had to do.

Around the world in a day was the record he absolutely had to make. I like it, too. I like that album. It's very different for Purple Rain. I mean, it does have what, raspberry berets on it, right? Yeah. I'm mistaken. I've been listening to so much that it's all like a child.

right. Reggie Bray is a great pop song. And it was a huge hit. Yeah. It was big. And, but the album itself is, yeah, it's all over the place. It's very experimental. It's just, I can tell he's just letting it all fucking hang out.

And I appreciate that creatively. I love that he's the opposite of so many pop stars I see today that every album is this big statement and very precise and very like surgically laid out because it's like, this is my new. Whereas around the world feels just like, I felt this. in this moment, in the studio. I laid this track down and I, this is me right now in a moment.

Well, as much as I could be happy for him that he's doing this. And then I do enjoy this album. It's not what anybody wanted. He didn't want to make Purple Rain 2, but I think people wanted Purple Rain 2 because this is the beginning of another slump for Prince. Because even though all of this stuff happens, this is, he went from the highest that he immediately goes to a very quick low.

Speaking of what another thing nobody wanted, under the cherry moon is Prince's second film. Oh, wait, no, this is also at the same time, in between this, Prince is offered and is the lone major artist to refuse recording We Are the World. So that's in between these, between, um, I did not catch that.

Between around the world in a day and parade, which we will get to, this is the time that Quincy Jones comes to him and was like, will you please do this? All these artists are doing it. and it was read as arrogance and selfishness, but as his protege, Wendy Melvoin, later explained for Prince, it was all about quality control.

He felt like the song was horrible, she told author Alan Light for his book, Let's Go Crazy. And he didn't want to be around all those, quote, motherfuckers. And Lionel Richie said about it, I would love to tell you that that's different from anything else he's ever done.

That's just Prince. Of course, he's not going to be with a group. of singers at a time when we all want him to show up. But what he did do is he called up Quincy Jones and was like, okay, I'm not going to sing on the song, right? But I will contribute a song to the USA for Africa album. Or I'll send Sheila E as the Paisley Park representative. Or I'm down to play guitar on the track.

But when his manager Bob Cavallo called up Quincy Jones to tell him this, Quincy Jones' response was, I don't need him to play fucking guitar. Whoa. Man, that's a lot of egos going on in that song. I can't imagine trying to organize all this fucking people. What's so weird too is that this is after he'd won, I believe he'd won for like best album, he'd won all these AMAs,

and they recorded it the night after the AMAs. So they all knew he was there, and they all knew he was around, and then he just didn't show up, and he also banned all of the revolution from going to go play on the song as well. Was this from that clip we use in our live show of him? On stage sucks a lollipop

Describe that clip Natalie He's on stage with everyone So he's there And everybody's doing a big group song We Are the World performance And he's in the front But he's just sucking on a lollipop

And then somebody Is it Quincy Jones hands him Yes Tries to get him to sing And he just like a child Pulls the lollipop out of his mouth And starts to stick it in the face Of Quincy Jones

instead of just singing the fucking song. But why did he say it? Why did he stand there? So he donated the song for the tears in your eyes and no one knows if he actually wrote it for the album or if he had just plucked it from one of his many songs that he had. Yeah, because he has so much extra material. Absolutely.

So, okay, so now we get into Parade. Now we get into Under the Cherry Moon. Under the Cherry Moon originally directed by Mary Lambert who was notable up to that point for directing a bunch of classic music videos. But she had never done a feature film before. But she did Janet Jackson's nasty, Madonna videos such as like a virgin,

material girl, and like a prayer. I mean, these are iconic. Also, I mean, we've seen a lot of music video people transition very well into, you know, Spike. Sure. Spike Jones. Yeah. That other, the French man who did the memory movie.

But even Mary Lambert was not ready to do this feature. She didn't really want to do it and Prince kind of convinced her. Because in Prince's mind, this is going to be again another Purple Rain. He's like, I'm going to make parade. It's going to be the soundtrack. And then this is going to be Purple Rain all over again. And this is really where his genius starts to destroy.

Did you guys have any thought of what you imagined under the Cherry Moon would be? It wasn't what I watched. Right. Especially with, I listened to. So because the same with Purple Rain. Parade was released months before the. movie came out. So I did the same thing. I was like, all right, I'm going to listen to the soundtrack.

I listened to all the parade. Great album. I dug it. And then I watch him to the Cherry Moon and I was like, what the fuck is happening? He had such a vision. It's really what it is. It's a vision. So much of a vision that first of all, and yeah, this is exactly, this is totally like,

Purple Rain worked out. So now I get to make these demands. And then these demands don't work out so hot. He's like, it has to be black and white. And Warner Brothers is like, please don't do that. That's not going to help us. And then he's arguing with Mary Lambert so much that he ends up firing her and just taking over fully as director of the film. I love this statement that she issued after she left.

She left as director and she said, I'm leaving under totally amicable circumstances. It's just become quite apparent that Prince has such a strong vision of what this movie should be. A vision that extends to so many areas of the film that it makes no sense for me to stand between him. and the film anymore. So I'm going to go off and work on my own feature and letting him finish this alone. And she is in the opening credits.

She's listed as something like visual, creator or some weird title. Yes. Because she did work on it. Yeah, she did. How would you describe what you saw on the screen the other, like what was the movie?

Honestly, it was a very weird sense about it that it was a little bit of dirty rock. scoundrels, but very serious and very campy that I feel like if it had gotten more campy, I would have definitely been into it. But instead it was this very serious movie about Prince is playing the main dude, which is one of his alter, is one of his like alter egos. And also he is, his brother is played by the Times Jerome Benton. And they are both two scam artists in Nice and they're looking for like a hot piece of tail to make a bunch of money off

because that's how they would make their money is that Prince would go and bang some old wealthy woman and make a bunch of money from that. So he sets his sights on Kristen Scott Thomas and it's her first movie. She's great in it and she's 21 and at her 21st birthday she's going to get $50 million. And he's like, I'm going to marry this girl.

So he and his buddy go after it. So it's all done black and white. It seems like it's said in like the 1940s. Well, it's modern. If you see they have... But it is modern. Yeah. They have modern technology, well, 80s modern technology in the movie, but it is obviously

something he was trying to make look like a 50, like a 50, like a 50s, like French noir movies. Yes. And it has that, that, it's beautiful. Honestly, it was beautifully filmed. I liked watching it. The French Riviera also. His directing was really not that bad.

It wasn't. And I will say I also really enjoyed, he did sort of subvert the male. the character he plays has some sort of feminine traits to it that I found kind of like charming. Well and that's what I like is Jerome Benton who played his counterpart said that Prince's portrayal of Christopher Tracy

and under the Cherry Moon came closest to capturing his real life personality. He said I think there were some elements of that character that came from who he was as a person. You come real close to the prince that you were allowed to see. I know another prince as well.

I know an emotional prince. I know a caring Prince. People don't talk about his caring side. So yes, that would be as close to getting to know him as you could. He's also like he does generally with movie releases. He changes up his look for this one. He's now sporting slick back hair and dress shirts. The album itself, very European influence. Obviously, he's making it in France and all that stuff. The real showstopper is, of course, the song Kiss. It's like one of his greatest, I think, when people remember Prince and his music kiss is largely the number one for a ton of people outside of Purple Rain. It's just weird because in the movie she didn't really want the kiss when this, like that's such a great, like, sexy song.

But in the movie, part of it, I was just like, well, that's so weird. It's the same thing in Purple Rain with Darling Nikki. It's like a song that's upsetting Apollonia. It's like having a meltdown on stage. Totally. And Purple Rain and Under the Cherry Moon, a very similar plot. in a lot of ways where it's like two men who are like frenemies are like their foils for each other and they're both fighting for the like manic pixie dream girl character.

Esk of Prince World. And there's a weird sexual energy between the two lead men as well as the woman. And also similar to Purple Rain that Apollonia was actually supposed to play this part but they broke up so he had to get somebody else. But then that was, what's her name? Kristen Scott Thomas, that was her first feature, but she ended up having a very long film career. Yeah, nice.

Did he have sex with her in real life as well? I don't really know. I'm going to assume with how they did have fun chemistry in the movie. She's very charming in it, yeah. And then this entire time, it really becomes apparent that, and this, again, blows my mind, that Warner Brothers again gave Prince creative autonomy, that they financed the new film without even seeing a script

beforehand. I mean Purple Rain was a giant fucking success. Why would you ever do that? It's like wow. You know what? Warner Brothers fucked up on this. This sort of was their fuck up. It's a curse that happens with a lot of features that go you know, multi, multi-million profit.

A lot of times the second script, they just green light and then it's some fucking nightmare scenario that the person's brain was like, this is what I really want to make. Blah, and then they just make a terrible movie. But you know what? That's great. They got it made.

And I'm happy for them. So before we move on to some dark end of the end of the revolution is what I titled this next section of my notes. But before we get there, I just want to talk a little bit more about the song Kiss since it is so important. It started out as an acoustic demo all done by Prince. Then he gave it to the funk band Maserati, which is a great name for a funk band, by the way. It is. For their debut album, which was produced by David Z who helped Prince with his early demos and got him in deal with Warner. Brothers, all that stuff we talked about in episode one.

Prince decides to finish the song, though, using the work David Z did with Maserati and using Maserati's background vocals. What I like about this is that he told the Revolution members that were a part of Maserati, Mark Brown and Bobby Rivkin. When he takes the song back, he said, it's just too good for you guys. And that's why he took the fucking song back. And again, and this might say a little something about what you were just talking about, Natalie. Kiss was another tough sell for Warner Brothers

since it was so minimalist and so unlike his previous singles When Doves Cry and Let's Go Crazy But also they had a weird issue with When Doves Cry because it was so different from 1999 And I think that he's just on this weird streak Where he besides around the world But around the world had Raspberry Beret He keeps proving them wrong

So that's the track record Every one of those songs is phenomenal Yes But it's just the movie I mean if the movie was this big hit hit. We would have been telling a different story. Also, Prince probably would have directed a lot more movies. I'm glad that maybe it didn't work so well because I'd rather focus on the music. Oh, he wrote a lot more scripts. Don't you worry. So, okay, Prince starts to give the revolution at this, around this time,

a cold shoulder while they're on this tour for parade and everything. According to an interview from Wendy Melvoin, he would literally not look at them during rehearsals as the band shifted from a rock band to more of an R&B funk band. And essentially what happened was, He was working with this funk group called The Family. He was kind of helping them out, just like he was helping the time out. The time, which was the rival band in Purple Rain that we didn't really even talk about that much. No, I have so many band things I haven't even said yet. I know.

We've already talking for an hour. Oh, yeah. We've got so much. We have to get to 1989. We're getting there today, guys. Jaggy's Fores. Don't worry. If we go over, we go over.

Like, I'm here. I'm here with y'all. So, yeah, the time. I mean, do you want to talk a little bit about the time? Who is the front man for it? too. What was his name? Do you guys have that? I didn't get into the time. I've got more. I got other things. We talked about

no, we talked about the time last episode. I know we did. That band dissolves not too long after Purple Rain. Then he's working with the family, this funk band. And they even talk about it in the Rolling Stone interview. Like, they go and play ping pong while the band is rehearsing, I think, at Paisley Park. And they're just all hanging out there. It was really just a band he was

facilitating. He put so much stuff out himself that it's hard to even get to all the shit he facilitated on the side. But that was another big one. Was this group the family? And he starts bringing members of them in as they were dissolving and stuff. And also he's bringing in dancers that weren't even playing instruments. And I think that was really hard for the band themselves. It was.

And also the dancers who you can see them in a bunch of the stuff like, from, what's the, oh my God, what's it called? Sign of the Times? They're in, sign of the times. They're in it, and they're also in the background of Proporraine and stuff. It was like his security team. These were these, like, macho dudes who came in as security, and then he started incorporating them into, like, the art side of it,

and it kind of changed the vibe. And then the female members kind of didn't like the vibe that was giving off at that point because it was much more of a feminine vibe earlier. Kind of was shifting it. Wendy and Lisa, by the way, are a smoke show in science. of the times. Oh my God. So awesome.

And another weird thing. So Wendy's twin sister, Susanna, is also a vocalist. And he started, he was engaged to her. So. Yes. Yes. Wendy is a lesbian. Her twin is straight.

And she started dating Prince and then also was doing vocals with him. And he wrote the song, Nothing Compares to You about her. Yes. But then eventually Shade O'Connor made it a big hit. Yes. But that song was about his guitarist's twin sister who he was fucking. And she didn't like that her twin sister was coming in. I think she even had a quote.

I don't know if you have this quote. She was like, I shared a womb with her. I have to share a stage with her too. No. It's weird. It's weird because Wendy was there first and like had a relationship with Prince and then Prince is basically going like,

I'm going to take a carbon copy of you and start fucking. Yeah. Yes. Well, because obviously he wanted, I'm going to assume, wanted to have sex with Wendy the entire time. Also, just quickly, their brother, Jonathan Melvin, Melvian,

I don't know how to say their last name. I was saying, Melvoid. I think we're decided on Melvoin. Melvoin? He was, the keyboard is for the smashing pumpkins. No shit. Yeah, you can see him in some of their music videos, but he,

talented family. I know. He unfortunately passed away from a heroin overdose at 34. But they have this huge musical legacy in their family. Their father was all. also musician. So that's cool.

Wow. So there's this weird vibe for the tour. In the U.S., it's called the Hit and Run tour. It's called the Parade Tour for the Worldwide Lague. And they're just barely getting through it. There's even a moment where Bobby Z has to go catch Wendy and Lisa at the airport as they're about to get on a flight to get the fuck off the tour and beg them to just stick it out through the rest of it.

The last night of the tour in Yokohama, Japan, Prince smashes all of his guitars after a final encore of Purple Rain and Wendy just looks at her other bandmates and whispers it's over and they all agree and shortly after Wendy and Lisa he invites them over to dinner and they get fired Susanna ends up leaving after

they have a messy breakout do you have breakup rather do you have more on I mean it seems like they had a tumultuous relationship I think he had a tumultuous relationship with a lot of people with a lot I think that's pretty much how every relationship ended with him I think he just really didn't want to let anybody

And it's true, he had a purple dumpster in his backyard. Put the woman in the dumpster. And then he threw them in. And he would throw them in. Taking out the purple trash. Yep. But you know what? At the bottom of the dumpster,

it was actually a slide. So afterwards, they had a fun slide ride and then it dumped him out on the street. See, then it makes it more fun. Dumped him out into a pile of bones. And that's where the idea for nothing was. Oh my God.

Did Prince also write and direct nothing but trouble? Yes. We're going to. We're going to. make that reality now. We're changing it. So, yeah, they're fired. Bobby Z is replaced with Sheila E here as well. The bassist Mark Brown leaves out of respect for the others,

or Brown Mark rather. That's funny. I said Mark Brown. I'm dyslexic, I guess. Also, he also wanted to be like a solo artist. And Matt Fink was the only one who would end up staying on until at least 1991. I want to talk a little bit about Sheila E Spotlight. I'm not going to spend too much time for the love of. God, we got to keep moving. But Sheila E. You can't, I mean, when you talk about Prince, you have to talk about her.

Born in Oakland, California, her father is a percussionist of, is a percussionist of Mexican-American origin. Her mother is of Creole French slash African descent. So she's just got the perfect jeez. She's so attractive. And she's so talented.

And just, I was watching her perform and I was just like, I'm, I no wonder they had to hook up. You know, And they had to and work together and fuck each other. I want to watch that. Yes, I watch that. Her uncle is musician Alejandro Escobado.

Escovetto. Her godfather is actually Tito Puente. She is from this major jazz music family. And she's starting out with jazz bassist Alfonso Johnson. In 1976, she records on her first album of his called Yesterday's Dream. And that was her first recording experience by her early. early 20s, she'd already played with Lionel Richie, Marvin Gay, Herbie Hancock, and Diana Ross, just to name a few. She is fucking on fire. Prince meets her at a concert in 1978

where she was performing with her father, which is super sweet. She would do that a lot. And after the show, he told her that he and bassist Andre Simone, quote, were just fighting about which one of us would be the first to be your husband and vowed that she would one day join his band. She first ends up actually working with him on some Purple Rain sessions, providing vocals on Let's Go Crazy and Erotic City. And now she's under Prince's wing. She releases her debut album, The Glamorous Life, which did pretty well on the charts, and ends up opening for Prince on his Purple Rain tour. And they would also, of course, have a relationship, as we just said, and even got engaged for a little while. Well, that's what

Chilae said that she confirmed the rumor that Prince proposed to her on stage. She says, Yes, during the Sign of the Times tour, I was playing drums, sexy, and it was during Purple Rain. That song always made me cry. We were so into it, the way he played, my God. My eyes were closed a lot during that song. It was just so emotional. Musically, you know when you get to that place when you're just one? We hit that place.

And when I opened my eyes, I could see his eyes were opening as well. He turned and looked at me during his solo, and that's when he asked me to marry him. and I said yes, we were still playing the song. And then the interviewer also asked if the audience was aware of the fact that that had happened and she said no. So in my brain, what I'm assuming happened was just like what Prince thinks love is

in every other instance, as you can see, both purple rain and under the cherry moon, is that all you've got to do is stare at a girl and just kind of like bite your lip and kind of suck on a finger from across the room and she just melts. It worked. Also, she gives her life to you.

I mean, you also have to think about how much of a dream it is for every woman that a man comes up to you and says, I and another man were fighting over who will be your husband. And I won the fight, so I will now be your marriage partner. And of course, that doesn't last long. They don't even get married. Of course not. But they still continue to work together,

which I will say that is not true for most of the people that he leaves in his purple wake. So I guess something got to happen. She sort of elevated above his like dumb relationship. It's like, look, I'm too good at this and you're too good at this. And so they kept doing the music stuff together. Now at this time, this is also when Prince, so he thinks he now has carte blanche still.

And before Sign of the Times gets released, he's working on a triple album called Crystal Ball throughout 1986. And I know Oxygen, you are super excited to talk about Camille, because I feel like that was your big. For me, Sign of the Times has become like my favorite. I think it's his greatest. I love this album. And I don't, this album, I slept on this album, y'all. It's so good.

I fucking love this album so much. It is. And I'm like, I was thinking about this a lot this week. I'm like an album guy. I don't really love where music has gone in terms of how it's really more about, you know, the single, about whatever. I love sitting down and hearing a full work like Purple Rain. And sign of the times, man, it's got it all.

It just feel like it is a time capsule of just amazing fucking music coming from Prince during this time. But yeah, the way and then finding out how it all came together is crazy. Well, and that's why I think it would be so interesting. You even just saying that you were an album person, I'm so curious at what the full triple album would have been of Crystal Ball. essentially sign of the times was taken from Crystal Ball because for the first time, Warner Brothers finally said no.

Susan Rogers says they told him no, which was something that hadn't really happened up till that point. After all, they'd agreed to let him write and produce his own music from the beginning and to go off and make a movie when he was 23 and not really big yet. They pretty much let him do as he pleased, but said no to the triple album idea. So instead he released an abbreviated double album, and that was what sign of the times was. And Prince said about this, because people at Warner were tired, they came up with reasons

why I should be tired too. That's so good. Oh, dude. Maybe they just, it's a double album. It's okay. But we're skipping ahead a little bit because before crystal ball, which by the way, there is a crystal ball that gets released later on. And is that not the intended crystal ball?

It's different. It's different. Oh, God. Because we haven't gotten to it yet. We haven't gotten to it yet. It's a different. one. Yeah. Okay. So the revolution, when they disbanded, Prince was working with them on, was working at the time on two albums. With them, he was working on Dream Factory, which had a more

creative input from the revolution. And even leading vocals from Wendy and Lisa, it included the songs, the ballad of Dorothy Parker and Starfish and coffee. I actually think that this is interesting, though, because Revolution member Lisa Coleman did say who was one of the most crucial collaborators that we've talked about, said that she didn't know anything about the Dream Factory album. Only the song, Dream Factory, despite it being a part of common Prince lore that there was absolutely a time when he intended to release an album with that title. So they were probably working together, but they, the revolution didn't realize that they

were working on songs for that specific album. Gotcha. Then you have the other thing he was working on, which is Camille, and this is where things get really fucking crazy. It is a solo album, and it is an alter ego effort with Prince artificially using pitched up vocals using a pitch shifter, but also, and I love this, he would also record his vocal super slow and then speed up the track, so it sounded high pitch. And it started out with the song Housequake, which ends up on Sign of the Times. And it was going to be released. I love this under,

I wish he had done this. I really wish they had let him do this. He was going to release this under the name Camille and not say anything about it. And it was going to be a self-titled debut for this other person. It's his female alter ego. That's what Camille is. Of course. Horace Warner Brothers does not like this. And the whole project ends up being scrapped while it was in the mastering stage. So you can actually really go. And I think, do they have a full bootleg of it, Jackie?

Did you catch? And he created all eight tracks of Camille in 10 days. Wow. I'm going to say it does not sound like a female. It doesn't. It definitely does it. But I liked what he was doing with. I actually really did dig it.

And I think it's kind of fun, especially when it comes down to how he viewed himself and how he carried himself that he felt the Camille lived inside of him that this is something... I like that a lot. I very much dig it. It reminded me a lot. I don't know if you guys know

much of Madlib's work, but it reminds me of his quasi-modo. I know the books. No, guys, please. Mad-Lib the musician, please. He had an alter ego quasi-modo which was also a pitched-up version of his voice and he would even like

talk to this character and stuff. And I feel like it was heavily influenced by Camille because they sound very similar. It's like a country guy with the goth goth guy. Oh, yes. Bruce. No. Bruce. No.

No, come on. The country musician who had the goth. We've made fun of him many times. Bruce. No. Wayne. Batman. Are we already at Batman?

All right. I'm going to find it. Find it. Now I'm infinitely curious. So all of that stuff, he pulls together for Crystal Ball. And then we cut to Warner Brothers, forcing him to not put it out. He ends up throwing, yeah, pairing it all down, calling it Sign of the Times. And they take the album on tour in Europe with what fans would dub his love sexy band now.

It's this whole different. They also called it the counter revolution was essentially the weird mix of revolution members and these new band members from the family. Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who?

Oh, guys. Who? Chris Garth Brooks's of the alter ego. Oh, God. I can't believe. I forgot about that. I completely forgot. The name doesn't even ring a bell.

I just remember that he had some other side to him. I forgot about that. It was Garth Brooks's goth, like, new metal character. I need to, I don't even know if I've heard it, but I know what you're talking about. So anyways, so they end up not performing in the U.S. a little bit of a slight because his albums were his last few albums were doing actually a lot better in Europe than they were in the U.S. Also, though, he doesn't do a U.S. tour because he really wants to get back at the studio. But to compromise with Warner Brothers, who are endlessly frustrated with them at all times,

he says, fine, I'll do, I'll put out a concert film, but the footage they got was not great. The audio wasn't very good. So he ends up shooting about 80% of this concert film in his prints and his Paisley Park Studios. So that is and Sign of Times is really cool I really enjoy that I think it's also It is free I believe on Amazon Prime So if you have that you can actually just go catch If you're curious I think it's a it's like totally a must watch

I find it interesting that they call it a concert film When it did have a I was surprised That a narrative I was very surprised that there was a narrative Because I was like oh I keep calling a concert film So I thought it was just them performing I do feel like a lot of his concerts had narratives though and it makes sense.

Yes. And they do little inserts that are obviously like choreographed and shot somewhere else. So I get what you're saying. Yeah. And this is also the time when Sign of the Times is really the first time that Prince starts using social commentary, serious social commentary in his lyrics

because I think he was sick of critics saying that his songs were about nothing, that they were just about sex. But in the meantime, you know what? He didn't even release the song Scarlet Pussy, which was on Camille. you're saying it's just about sex. Meanwhile, even though maybe it was Prince's most explicit song,

and maybe he says things like with Shakespeare invoking lines like pussycat, pussycat, where for art thou puppy? But you know what? There's a real meat to that, you know? Oh, there's some meat there. Oh, pun intended. Yeah, there's definitely a meat in it. Guys.

Some roast beef. I will. Yeah, so I really am excited to get into this. next part. This is my favorite discovery on this episode's research. Let's talk about the Black album, and love sexy. The slightly actually less interesting to me,

love sexy. There's so much. There's so much. No crying. And I will say too, before we even get into this, there is, like, you've got the cross on Sign of the Times. You've got some religious nods happening as well as all this sex stuff. And there was a bit of social commentary like 1999 was an anti-nuclear warfare song controversy had political stuff on it i have to i have

to just insert here um in the beautiful ones the book he wrote uh he does say let's go crazy is about god so interesting that's go crazy the crazy is supposed to be god and the elevator don't let the elevator bring us down is supposed to be satan so if you enjoy that song now you can just think about how it's actually about going to hell. But it's such a dancey fuck song. What are you talking about? No, it's about church. Oh, let's go.

Come on. Go to hell. Well, this one definitely, he had a lot of issues with his religion at this point. He's still working within this Camille alter ego. And this is going to come into play later because things get a little nuts. I think this Camille alter ego is bigger than, let's say, like, a Sasha Fierce thing. like making an artistic statement. Camille lives inside of him. Camille's like a real becoming a real entity.

He does a song on the black album. By the way, this is supposed to be just like no title, black cover, just going to put it out. Well, it's because that's how everyone got, received the album. They released, they received all the press releases and it was a double album that was just in a black cover. And apparently it was supposed to be called the Funk Bible, but it didn't have anything on the outside of it. So everyone just called it. It was a black sleeve with no title. name or photography on it, which is why it's called the Black Album. So he does a song on this album called Bob George, which is about a guy who suspects his girlfriend of having an affair with a man named Bob, which is said to have come from a combo name of his ex-manager Bob Cavallo and a music critic named Nelson George that would

give him a lot of shit and features a slowed down monologue by Prince in this other almost opposite of Camille voice. And it's super profanity-laden, which is fascinating. We get lots of instances of Prince speeding up or slowing down vocal tracks, by the way, in this whole album. There's also the first time where he's putting like hip hop influence on his stuff, but also, he's like shitting on the advent of hip hop. There's a hip hop parody on there called Dead on it, which mocks him sees for not being able to sing and all this kind of stuff, which again, this song is fascinating. And yes, I'm talking about this like I've heard it because I have, because you can actually find it. I found it on YouTube.

And man, I think this album fucking rips. I really does. I love this album. But it's also, it is fucking dark. It is, and it is edge, and it is mean, and it is, like, coming from a crazy place. And that's why, not long before the release, Prince

nixes the album, as he says, he had a spiritual epiphany and became convinced that this album is, quote, evil, which was allegedly due to a bad experience he had with MDMA. That's alleged. We don't know. He blames this evil on an entity named Spooky Electric, a low-voiced alter ego derived from Camille?

Yes, it was created by Camille, Spooky Electric. But that, I do feel like that comes into, like, his father's kind of fear of women. Sure. And kind of making out that women are the evil ones, kind of like all religion does. What? Interesting. Whoa. And now, but this is, still, to this day, like, at this point, Prince is anti-drug,

and he would find his musicians if they showed up high. Oh, wow. And yet blames this epiphany on an MDMA experience, or at least that's what people say. That's what singer Ingrid Chavez says, who hung out with him on Blue Tuesday. Now, Ingrid Chavez will come back into play later on because she is in Graffiti Bridge, which we will talk about next episode. So he recalls the project.

There's only 100 European promotional copies in circulation, which becomes very quickly, heavily bootlegged. Is this legendary bootleg? And also these European promotional copies, these are selling for tens of thousands of dollars. They are auctioning at like insane rates. But he was begging people not to. He was begging people to destroy all the copies. He openly said multiple times, don't buy the black album. I'm sorry.

He's so apologetic about how dark he got on the album, even though it's great. Listen, check this out, Mount is so cool. But again, him doing that is just pushing more people to want to hear it. A hundred percent. I wonder if he's genuinely not wanting people to listen to it or not, because it sounds like a really good marketing idea. It does, but I think that it really, I think he had hit,

like, I think he was scared of himself at this point, which is that's a whole other. That's terrifying. Instead, he goes, he goes, back into the studio and does the album Love Sexy. And the themes for this one are all positivity, self improvement, spirituality, and God. It's all

a reaction to the black album. The album is made, by the way, to be one continuous sequence. If you go on Prince's discography on Spotify, you can check out. It is one track. It is 45 minutes and three seconds long. It has all the names of the songs in the

title of the album, whatever you want to call it, in the title of the one track. I have to insert there but Spotify's platform makes it so easy to sort through the songs. Well, not this one, though, because it is just the one song. But yes, usually it does. Honestly, I've been rocking his discography on there this entire time. It is like, it is all there for you.

And it does have, by the way, the song, when two are in love, which is from the Black album, but it is a damn good song. I'm glad that he kept it. I'm glad that he put one little piece of this. other album in there too to say like kind of this is where this came from a little bit he had performed by the way like bob george and some other ones live during his tour he would have this like part one of the tour he was on would be this like evil part and then part two was supposed to be like the lighter part lighter part yeah it was kind of fascinating he goes on an 84 date tour and uh i love this he doesn't

make a net profit because of how expensive it is to put on with big sets and whatnot he doesn't make a profit on an 84 date tour, which is fucking crazy. It's again and again and again that all of the things that we've talked about today outside of the albums, a lot of it was self-financed. And so this is the point

in time that even though he is still cranking out all this stuff, that he just had too many flops in a row that at this point, Prince is essentially broke. And even though he never really wanted to give the people what they want and he was going to make whatever he's going to do, this

I feel like for him creatively and spiritually is a rock bottom for him because this is where we finally we've been getting here this whole time is when he does Tim Burton's Batman

guys we made it he doesn't really want to do it except he does want to do it because he's in love with Batman and I think that he sees himself in Batman he later becomes inspired by going he goes on to the set of the movie and he's so inspired.

Two inspired, Tim Burton would probably say. He runs in the studio and instead of doing like a couple of tracks which is what he was supposed to do, he ends up doing nine tracks and putting out a full soundtrack to the album. Have you listened to the album? Yes. Yeah.

Totally. I lose to it right before I came here. It's such a good album and Tim Burton obviously, well, not obviously, Tim Burton didn't really want, he only wanted a couple songs. We did the whole album. What I love is it pretty,

Prince created his own version of Batman and story of the movie that if you listen to the entire album, because I've never really paid attention to it before, that there's this quote, and I love it. There's no mention of Batman being Bruce Wayne or his parents dying in Crime Alley, thus leading to Batman's avow to fight crime. Instead, Batman has psychic powers. He can see the future, and it will be. It gets even more wacky when you bring the songs music videos into the equation. Just take a look at the amazingly whack-a-do video for Bat Dance

With Prince Wang the Joker and his soul And which utilizes Neil Hefty's 60s Batman theme The whole thing essentially turns Batman into a super fun dance party Yes, it is fucking nuts The songs the songs the songs the future and scandalous are Batman songs Electric Chair Partyman and Trust are all the Joker's songs Bruce Wayne's song is Vicky Waiting Lemon Crush is Vail's song

And the Arms of Orion is a song that is for the two characters To share as a duet Bat Dance was Which was the first single released off of the album Was Kind of for everybody And it's full of samples from the film It's very all over the place

Which makes sense because it's for It's trying to represent all of the characters Oh by the way really quick before Batman Prince goes into the studio with Madonna Works on Like a Prayer co-writes and sings love song with her. He also does electric guitar on like a prayer, keep it together, an act of contrition.

You know why he was doing that? Guess what? He was fucking her at the time. I would hope so. I would hope so. What the fuck, man? What are they not going to have sex with each other? I'd be very disappointed.

Can you again another tape? I would definitely want. I wish that he was in her sex book. That would have been awesome. Oh, my God, it would be great. I would sell more copies than the black album. So for Tim Burton's film By the way, in context,

Tim Burton is flying high off of like, what, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissor Hands, but this is his first huge movie working with a huge studio budget and dealing with all this shit which he was having a very hard time with. It's the studios that want to bring in both Prince and Michael Jackson

to do the album, which would have been the most insane fucking co-lab in pop music. They wouldn't. That had happened. Prince was supposed to just be the Joker stuff. Michael Jackson was supposed to do just the Batman, like these ballads and stuff for Batman.

Hell, no would Prince ever allow that to happen. Well, it was actually more that Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, I just have MJ written here. Yeah, Michael Jackson ended up being too busy, I think, with the bad tour that he was on. He was being too successful while Prince had to go do a movie that he not at first didn't really want to do. So can you imagine how Prince felt,

during this time. He felt like he wanted to have sex with Kim Bassenger. Yeah, Tim Burton didn't love that Prince actually was involved in this way. This is the quote from Burton. Now here is a guy, Prince, who was one of my favorites. I had just gone to see two of his concerts in London, and I felt they were like the best concerts I'd ever been to. Okay, so they're saying to me, these record guys,

it needs this and that, and they give you this whole thing about it's inexpensive movies, so you need it. And what happens is you get engaged in this world and then there's no way out. There's too much money. There's this guy you respect and is good and has got this thing going. It got to a point where there was no turning back and I

don't want to get into that situation again. And actually Burton said, I liked his album. I wish I could listen to it without the feel of what had happened. In other words, he's like, I love your music prints, but I don't want your music in my movie. No, because he just wanted Danny Elfman

to compose the music for Batman and And also Burton said, the music completely lost me, and it tainted something that I don't want to taint. I got to tell you, though, using trust in that scene with the Joker and the Money thing, it left such an imprint on me as a child. That scene just stuck in there, and it was partly because of that song. And I just, we watched it for this, and I still love that scene so much. It's a great scene.

I think Party Man is the one that feels a little bit more out of place when you rewatch it now. for sure. Like the whole thing just feels a little weird for what they were trying to do. Trust works. By the way, though, it was originally going to be a song

called 200 balloons, but Burton put his foot down. I was like, I don't like 200 balloons. Maybe something else. And he went and trust. I think trust works better for sure. But I do love that he themed the whole album for each different character.

It's a good album. I just re-listened to it. It's great. And guys, it's, it's 1989. We made it. We got through half of the 80s, which is, but it is such a big part of Prince's career. Can we wrap it all up?

We have to. I'm so tired to find out. No, we will because, you know what, he has so many more other albums, but this was the huge, this is the prolific part. This is the real beginning. And the rest of it is definitely, I don't want to say it's his downfall,

but I think that it is his genius and his brain starting to, destroy itself. And the tension, I think this is largely going to be about the tension between him and Warner Brothers. Yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Because as you can see, they're going back and forth, you know, Warner Brothers finally starting to fight back in these ways that are going to piss him off, you know, and he is just still going for,

you know, swinging for the fences. I mean, I remember how confused I was as a kid with the whole becoming a symbol. I'm so excited to get to it. I can't wait to get into it. And then the, like, the Jehovah thing and then him taking back all of his songs and everything. It is confusing and it really, you do kind of watch the duality of him kind of implode.

And it's also his, it's the life that he didn't want anyone to know that he was living, that he hid from everything, that he hid from even his closest friends that would eventually catch up to him because it's sad, man. It gets really sad and it just makes me think of, you know, it is, it's people that have mental illness issues that they're not dealing with. It's people that have addiction problems that they're not dealing with because no one knows about them. And isn't there, there's nothing scarier than addiction problems that, that aren't even apparent

to other people. Just talking about him and going through his catalog, it makes me feel like I ripped lines of Adderall and just like go through this manic phase. And then I'm so exhausted at the end of it. And I feel like I'm going to throw up. So imagine how hard it was to be prints. Yeah, I can't even imagine. Unbelievable. Also, one last little tidbit.

If you watch the video for Bad Dance, which everybody is listening to this, immediately go watch this music video. It's bat shit, insane, pun intended. He also, you'll see him. It marks a change in his look. He is wearing very simple, dark clothing, and he straightens his hair down. And this is like the way he's going into the 1990s. And that is what we're going to get into.

Also, him dresses half the joke. Oh, yes. I love it. I look on it. Oh, yeah. I love it. Even though you wouldn't treat me very nicely.

And I'm not really his type. You. That's right. Jackie, you guys would have made beautiful love. Oh, God. You know, you go in knowing it's Prince and you take the sex and you say, thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. At least give me a song. That's the dumpster over there? Okay, I'll just get it myself. I'll show myself to the dumpster. Thank you. We love you guys.

Thank you so much for joining us on this ride today. Oh my God. I feel invigorated. This is really making me want to work on. I'm like, I could write a book. You know what? I'm going to write a book now, guys.

Totally. You better get it done quick before you hit the crash. Thank you, Oxygen and Firebrand. And thank you, Kohlslah. You're welcome, and we will be back. Next week for Part 3 of Prince. Thank you so much for joining us. Check us out on Patreon.

Patreon.com, forward slash page 7 podcast. And I hope you are just as excited about Prince Part 3 as we are about our move to Spotify. This show, pop history, is going Spotify exclusive on Valentine's Day, February 14th, 2020. New releases and the entire back catalog of this show will be Spotify exclusive. So if you haven't tried Spotify, it's free to download and use on any device. No credit card needed. And all of our episodes are already over there.

If you need to go back and listen to the first part of Prince again, or you know what, if you want to start at the beginning and hit the nanny and come meet up with us, we will be here on Spotify. Simply search for our show in Spotify to start listening for free. You can download all episodes for offline listening with a free account. Now at Spotify, you can listen to all of your favorite podcasts and music, all in one place. Are you nutting on my sauce? Certainly not.

Listen to pop history free on Spotify. Thank you for that lovely. promotional ad, Jack. Thank you. I only made one. One semen reference through it. Only one. I said, don't bring it up.

So said I leaned on the trash can callback over and over again. Hopefully they'll be upset about that one as well. You didn't talk about your sperms at all. That's right. Good job. You. So if you want to check us out,

Twitch.tv.4. So Jackie joins me to get drunk on stream every Friday night, pretty much. and you can follow Jackie at Oxygen Lover Well, to add check that worm With a fork. I do love oxygen though And I love fire.

Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love to look into it. I am Firebrand and you can follow me at the Natty Jean on all the things. Thank you so much for joining us, guys. We love you. We'll talk to you next week. Bye-bye. listeners like you. Thanks to our ad sponsors. You can support our shows by supporting them. For more shows like the one you just listened to, go to lastpodcastnetwork.com.