prince

How come at the end of Little Red Corvette, after all the extended sports car metaphors, Prince suddenly declares his love object must be a limousine? Isn't that a step down? Smooth or no, limos ain't no Vette.

The ride is so sweet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEAZaLRBb90

Beautiful. I really hope they do a box set on the Dirty Mind/Controvery era - hell, I'll take one for each album.

Hnnngngng it's so good. I'm hoping this means Controversy deluxe is coming soon, but it looks more like a one-off single for the 40th anniversary of the album's release

It's probably in the pipeline. When the guy handling the estate was promoting the Sign 'O' the Times box set, he basically said the next two or three sets were already being worked on.

How come at the end of Little Red Corvette, after all the extended sports car metaphors, Prince suddenly declares his love object must be a limousine? Isn't that a step down? Smooth or no, limos ain't no Vette.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, October 13, 2021 8:17 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

he just misspoke. was distracted for a second when he reached in his pocket by mistake and touched all those sticky used rubbers.

The limo choice at the end was always obvious to me - someone else is driving! Or, conversely, he did say he likes to ‘watch!’

guys, limos are luxury rides that you can stretch out in; this is not complex

So ... red corvette is too fast, he wants a limo, something slower and classy that he can stretch out in? Like, "You're too fast, you shouldn't be a corvette, you must be a limousine!"

sometimes, when a pop star and a metaphor love each other very much,

So... does she have a pocket of jizzy rubbers or does he mean empty condom wrappers? I've always assumed the former, but that's funky as hell and raises other questions.

I see the "you must be a limousine" lyric as a companion to

You got a smile so bright
You know you could've been a candle
The way you swept me off my feet
You know you could've been a broom
And baby you smell so sweet
You know you could've been some perfume

As pretty as you are
You know you could've been a flower
If good looks were minutes
You know you could have been an hour
The way you stole my heart
You know you could have been a crook
And baby you're so smart
You know you could have been a schoolbook

You make my life so rich
You know you could've been some money
And baby you're so sweet
You know you could have been some honey

The limo thing throws me off, because up to that point it's been all about the girl as Corvette, plus a bunch of muddled wordplay/metaphors about horses/horsepower (that could be the "used" horses line)/Trojans/Trojan horses, etc. Probably would have worked better if he said "you *should* be a limousine." Like, take it easy, slow down, enjoy the ride. But "I say the ride is so smooth, you *must* be a limousine" throws off his already sloppy metaphor.

I feel like "Trojans and some of them used" is pretty explicit but I guess it could be wrappers?

Prince was a giant weirdo though

gotta get 2-3 usages in before you throw em out, efficiency!

Yeah, it’s gotta be jizzy condoms, right? Who the hell would do that? In my experience the dude usually takes care of disposing of that. Did she ask her guys for their juicy rubber?

people collect a variety of items, and ya know

I think Diamonds and Pearls is still next, but I'm hoping Parade may be close behind - three vault goodies were aired out in a special screening of Under the Cherry Moon at Paisley Park!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwN_5LLOLZA

Parade might be my favourite Prince LP, but I really like Diamonds & Pearls too.

Ha, never heard this story before:

Singer/songwriter Jonathan Cain tells Billboard that he was notified in early 1984 that Prince wanted to speak with him. Curious, Cain went to Columbia Records’ offices in Los Angeles and took a call from Prince, who told Cain, “I want to play something for you, and I want you to check it out. The chord changes are close to ‘Faithfully'” — a top 20 single from Journey’s 1983 album Frontiers — “and I don’t want you to sue me.” After listening, Cain says, “I thought it was an amazing tune, and I told him, ‘Man, I’m just super-flattered that you even called. It shows you’re that classy of a guy. Good luck with the song. I know it’s gonna be a hit.’

“And it was ‘Purple Rain.'”

The two songs definitely share more than just similar chords, including the wordless outer vocals and the tone of the guitar solos. “Prince felt, I guess, it was obvious enough that he was worried we were going to sue him,” Journey guitarist Neal Schon recalls. “I think he called our office asking about it and we all talked about it and everybody said, ‘Nah, it’s the highest form of flattery. Let it go.'” But Cain never had a moment’s second thought about even asking for a co-writing credit on the anthem. “No, no, that’ll just bring bad juju on you, and you don’t want to do that,” Cain says. “I just thought it seriously showed the kind of caring, classy guy Prince was. He wanted to check in with Jonathan Cain and make sure I wasn’t going to say, ‘That sounds like ‘Faithfully.'” There’s so many other things that have come down the pike that were more of a rip-off, that have stolen Journey songs. There was a One Direction song I was upset about and I just let it roll. But that particular phone call (from Prince) was amazing.”

hehe very nice

There were perks for playing ball too. “He got me these amazing seats at the Purple Rain Tour show when he played the Cow Palace in San Francisco, and I thought it was ridiculous how cool it was,” Cain says.

i can't tell you the number of times i've heard "ask forgiveness, not permission" like it's some kind of badass business truism and this story just shows you how wrong that mentality is if you actually want to operate in a way that fosters and shows respect for others

Aka The "Weird" Al Corollary.

Key takeaways from that are (a) cool that Prince behaved in a classy manner about that abut also (b) why is "Purple Rain" such a mind-blowingly better song than "Faithfully" if they allegedly share so many ingredients?

never noticed at all

“faithfully” sounds kinda like “winner takes it all” by ABBA to me

is "purple rain" that much better than "faithfully"?

it's definitely the prince classic i would be 100% okay with never hearing again

The chord changes in the intro of the Journey song are the same as the intro/verse chords of "Purple Rain", and the lead guitar melodies are similar.

the substance of "purple rain" and "faithfully" aren't that similar, just vaguely similar chords & a similar overall feeling. closest thing is one guitar line in "faithfully" that "purple rain" has something close to but it's not enough to call "purple rain" a rip of it or anything.

I wouldn't say either song is stunningly original, they are both basically AOR ballads with soaring guitar solos

I prefer Prince as a singer>>>>>Steve Perry, and Prince as a guitarist>>>>Neal Schon, and for good measure fuck Jonathan Cain and his born-again Trump suck-up bullshit, so ... advantage Prince.

also Prince as a lyricist >>>>>> Steve Perry as a lyricist (did he write the lyrics for Journey? i would imagine he did)

do you want to hear a song about purple rain or one about how loving a music man ain't all of what it's supposed to be AGAIN

i don't really love either song

he's a music man
he's a WHAT? he's a WHAT?

I love both, but like with Prince, it kind of shares the same space Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" does. at one point, I was in love with the song, but have heard it to death, and find that there are far better Prince songs out there, and wonder why everybody gravitates towards this one first.

also it's one people who shouldn't be karaoking sing at karaoke.

(I'm talking about "Purple Rain" there, if that wasn't clear)

This is getting pretty adjacent, but here's an album recorded by Mic Murphy of the System, Andre Cymone and Paul Petersen in '93 that only came out recently, it's a real time capsule: https://open.spotify.com/album/69nvIGg3SLwBqXANqLgPmF?si=wtU5ovGxTvOBMlEh-4_1xw

There are some cuts, I like the ones that sound like '90s piano house with Linn drums.

Susan Rogers has offered so many great stories, but if I'd seen this one (about the recording of "Dorothy Parker") I missed it:

https://daddyrockstar.tumblr.com/post/44079621006/susan-rogers-on-princes-sign-o-the-times-part-2

Prince commissioned engineer Frank De Medio to custom-build a recording console for his home studio–the same type of console that De Medio built for Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, where Prince normally recorded when he wasn’t recording at home. Long story short, De Medio was taking much longer than anticipated to complete the console and Prince, being extremely eager to record, finally issued an ultimatum that De Medio deliver the console that week. The console was delivered and installed but Rogers hadn’t gotten the opportunity to test it properly. Tested or not, Prince was ready to record and did so, even though, as it turns out, the console wasn’t working properly. However, technical issues aside, Prince recorded the Sign O’ The Times fan favorite, “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker”.

Daddy Rock Star: So you’ve got this recording console that’s not working right. You eventually got it fixed but not before Prince recorded “The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker?”

Susan Rogers: Right. I hadn’t finished testing the audio wiring or anything; in other words I had just soldered the last connection and Prince said, “Let’s record.” He had been asleep and had this dream about a woman and a bathtub and a waitress and all that, he scribbled down all those lyrics very quickly and called it “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker.” I don’t know how aware he was of who Dorothy Parker actually was, but he knew the name, so it wasn’t the real historical Dorothy Parker; and it was inspired by Joni Mitchell, I remember him saying that. Anyway, he came running downstairs, we put in fresh tape and started recording. As always, he’s playing every instrument and I’m just panicking on the inside because something doesn’t sound right–it’s really dull, there’s no high end and I can’t wait for this song to be finished because I’ve got to check it out and see what’s going on. Of course the song is coming out really well and the whole time I’m thinking, ‘I wish he would just stop,’ (laughs) but that’s not going to happen. The whole time he hasn’t even said anything, hadn’t even commented on it and I know he hears it but he’s really happy because he likes this song. At the very end, he gave me my final instructions and he said, “There’s something about this console that doesn’t sound like the one at Sunset Sound, it’s really dull,” and then he goes upstairs and goes to bed. I’m thinking, ‘Hell yeah it’s dull, there’s no high end at all!’ (laughs) So he goes upstairs and goes to bed and then I finally had a chance to test the board and it turns out that it was working on only half the power, and one side of the bipolar supply had gone out, so it was just drawing half the current. But he conceived of the song in a dream so he didn’t mind that at all because it gave it this dreamy-like quality.

I love that story so much.
Also the first song I ever sang karaoke - aged 43 - was Purple Rain. I sang it with a guy who went on to be one of my best friends, we didn’t know each other and we sang it to a room of people we didn’t know in a small bar in Okinawa. We’d fucked up the song selector and as we finished … it cued up again. After a flash of dread I leaned over to him and whispered “falsetto” and the rest is a a hideous blur.

haha, great story

♥ all around for this revive.

Third Man Records to Issue Prince’s Previously Unreleased 1986 Album Camille

too late, I made my own Camille years ago ...

Makes sense, since Jack White's singing sounds like he's trying to do the Camille voice without speeding up the tape.

WCCO in Minneapolis uncovers archival footage of an 11-year-old Prince, the earliest known moving film (and sound!) footage of him.

awwwwww

I was born that month!