Confluence: Prince’s Piano & A Microphone Tour And The Beautiful Ones
At the beginning of 2016 Prince was in the midst of two unprecedented projects coinciding with significant change in his touring entourage. He was about to perform to audiences around the world alone with simply a piano and a microphone and he was concurrently in the midst of writing his first highly anticipated memoir, The Beautiful Ones. The Piano & A Microphone Tour and these autobiographical notes intended for his memoir would be an expression of the introspective frame of mind the artist was in at the time, as he would reflect on the family and relationship dynamics that’d shape his upbringing and his musical journey. The tour would be an opportunity for the artist to translate this story into a live setting while performing in a context he hadn’t done previously. The memoir, which would materialise into The Beautiful Ones would be a creative venture for Prince to challenge himself with as he entered a new literary medium, bursting with ambitious ideas, enthusiasm and tenacity reminiscent of the beginning of his career.
By mid 2015 Prince’s musical entourage was at a transitional stage as the addition of new musicians began shaping the latest incarnation of the New Power Generation. The heavy rock influenced group 3RDEYEGIRL, comprised of Prince on a variety of instruments, Donna Grantis on guitar, Ida Nielsen on bass and Hannah Welton on drums had toured extensively between 2012 and 2014, playing alongside other groups of musicians including the NPG Hornz, forming an extended musical family. As 2015 was drawing to a close, Prince would re-structure his core live band in preparation for performances at Paisley Park during his iconic and spontaneous “Paisley Park After Dark” dance parties that would be open to the public. One addition to this new collective would be bassist MonoNeon who would capture Prince’s interest via the Internet. The bassist recollected in an interview with Okayplayer, “Prince became aware of me from my videos on the internet. One of his former managers contacted me via email telling me Prince wanted me to come to Paisley Park. I officially started working at Paisley Park in early 2015 with Judith Hill as her bass player for a band Prince created for her. In late 2015 until early 2016, I started working with Prince as his bass player. Prince wanted to form a band to play some live shows at Paisley in the NPG Music Club Room. The band was Prince on keys / guitar / vocals, Donna Grantis on guitar, Adrian Crutchfield on saxophone, Kirk Johnson on drums and myself on bass.” As many collaborators would attest, Prince’s supreme musicianship and attention to detail would consistently be on full display, whether it be in front of 15,000 people at Madison Square Garden, or a dozen during a pre-show sound check. MonoNeon would elaborate on how this would help nurture his own creativity and ability as an artist, “I was the new guy with Prince. The rehearsals and the Paisley Park After Dark live shows we played together were otherworldly… at least for me. To be on stage with someone like Prince made me better as a creative. The command he had with his instrument(s) and [his] creativity was mad crazy. To be around that energy is something I will carry with me till I leave this world.”
Saxophonist Adrian Crutchfield who would begin working with Prince in 2012 would similarly recall the strenuous sound checks and Prince’s uncanny ear and ability to pick up on a missed note, however minor. In an interview with Erica Thompson, Crutchfield remembered an incident in which an incorrect note would not go unnoticed, “Now there are 11 horns on stage, How did he know that one note was off? And how did he know it was me? He was in tune and he knew his stuff.” Prince will always be renowned for his autonomy as an artist, an incredible multi-instrumentalist who at the age of 19 played each and every instrument on his debut album, For You and sophomore release, Prince as well as number of other albums and releases that followed. Engineer Susan Rogers who worked with Prince during some of his most acclaimed periods in the 1980’s recounts, “Prince was so deep in his talent that he didn’t need a producer. He didn’t need other songwriters. The people that he had in his life (during the period I knew him), were ideally suited to add something to his repertoire that he did not have.”
Hans-Martin Buff who would work with Prince between 1996 and 2000 as an engineer on Emancipation similarly recollects, “I’ve been at sessions [with other artists] where it takes half a day to bring in a keyboardist or a bassist to play a part, but if something’s missing in one of his arrangements, he just does it himself and moves on.” Much of this autonomy would come from Prince’s work ethic, which would often include recording sessions that would span throughout the night and sometimes even a number of days. He would detail in a 2001 interview, “When it was three o’clock in the morning, and I’d try to get [Revolution drummer] Bobby Z to come out to the studio, sometimes he’d come, sometimes he wouldn’t. But I’ve had this Roger Linn drum machine since 1981. It’s one of the first drum machines ever created. It takes me five seconds to put together a beat on this thing.”
Despite his incredible musicianship, he also understood the importance of collaboration as his career progressed and in the last couple of years these collaborative ventures would steer into a number of different projects and mediums. During an interview with Arsenio Hall in 2014, Prince stated, “There’s a lot of fine musicians in the group right now, and I’m learning from them. So as much as I’d like to teach, I also like to learn.” In a 1999 interview with Bass Player, he’d elaborate further, “I wanted community more than anything else. These days if I have Rhonda (Smith) play on something, she’ll bring in her Jaco influence, which is something I wouldn’t add if I played it myself. I did listen to Jaco — I love his Joni Mitchell stuff — but I never wanted to play like him.”
Outside of live performance, with the release of Art Official Age in 2014 and HITnRUN Phase One in 2015, Prince would share credit as co-producer on the albums, alongside keyboardist Joshua Welton who would occasionally perform with 3RDEYEGIRL. Joshua would recollect, “I was working on some of my own stuff in this tiny studio room Prince has here when he walked in one night and just handed me a hard drive. He said he had given a copy of the same stems to these two other producers in the big studio and he wanted to see who could finish the song better.” Prince’s final two albums, HITnRUN Phase One and Two would be treated as compilations including songs previously released as singles (albeit some different mixes), unreleased tracks that had been performed live in the years earlier and others unknown to fans. Welton would only appear as producer on Phase One, with Phase Two being a return to more of an acoustically familiar sound including prominent use of the NPG Hornz. The fan community would not receive HITnRUN Phase One positively, namely due to the use of heavy EDM tropes on tracks like Ain’t About 2 Stop or Shut This Down and the lack of a warm analogue sound typically synonymous with Prince. Such tracks would demonstrate that Welton’s input was taking Prince’s music into uncharted territory. This wasn’t Prince remaining un-credited or employing one of his past pseudonyms ( Jamie Starr, Alexander Nevermind, Joey Coco), this was the artist relinquishing some of his creative control to a young producer. Prince would go into more detail about this decision in a 2015 interview with Ebony, “And just so you know, where Josh is to me, he’s like me, younger. But I’m trying to get him to cut through all the junk that I had to learn on my own. I’m trying to throw it all on his desk at once. Because he can grasp it. He’s learning quickly. Mixing is the thing that he appreciates. It’ll float. It’ll literally levitate when you find the right spot for it. When he hears it, I see his light bulb go on. If his light bulb didn’t go on, I wouldn’t waste the time. I would say maybe he’ll be a beat manufacturer or something like that. But to do the whole thing, you need to learn how to make stuff float. And it’s hard. It doesn’t work all the time.”
While this unexpected development would baffle some fans, it’s vital to note the importance that Prince would place in mentorship. In particular he’d value the wonderment that comes with creative self-discovery in youth and his own ability to facilitate this growth for younger artists. As he would once question, “Can you imagine what would happen if young people were free to create whatever they wanted?” At this time of his life Prince was in the privileged position to provide these opportunities to musicians and artists he admired to create without restrictions.
Prince’s mentorship would be evident in the fruition of a number of projects around this time, including co-producing Judith Hill’s 2015 album Back In Time, recorded at Paisley Park. Artists like Janelle Monáe and Lizzo who have taken the world by storm critically and commercially are just a number of artists who were taken under Prince’s wing throughout his last years. As Monáe would once epitomise, “He’d never let his mystery get in the way of his mentorship.” Prince would appear on Monáe’s 2013 album, The Electric Lady, performing a duet on the kinetic funk track Givin’ Em What They Love. Lizzo would guest on a Prince release, contributing vocals to the track Boytrouble, released on PlectrumElectrum. Prince would also fly Australian music act Harts to Paisley Park to jam, providing advice to the young artist on the eve of releasing his first studio album. While Prince had his fair share of protégés most notably during the 1980’s that would manifest in groups such as Vanity 6, he would still bear almost all complete creative control. This would be somewhat of a symbiosis between Prince’s creative expression and what these protégés could bring to the craft and inspire through his musicality. As a mentor however, the artist would be a passive force in the background but ever present to inspire and empower, particularly young female musicians and artists.
“Put it like this: When I’m onstage, I’m out of body. That’s what the rehearsals, the practicing, the playing is for. You work to a place where you’re all out of body. And that’s when something happens.”
As 2015 was coming to a close, an impromptu solo performance at Paisley Park one night would birth a new concept for Prince; A concert featuring the artist alone with just a piano and a microphone, stripped away of all other instruments, musicians and theatrics. While logistically “bare” is a word that would come to mind with such a concept, the shows would be anything but; a rich and emotionally charged reflection of Prince’s supreme musicality, unrivalled vocal range and story-telling ability that would be unprecedented for both the audience witnessed and the artist himself. Prince would go into detail regarding the various occasions in which he would play the piano alone at his Paisley Park residency, “Many nights EYE have played 4 myself as the sole audience member and stopped mid-song overcome by emotion.” He would further elaborate, “I just couldn’t stop. That’s what you want. Transcendance. When that happens, oh Boy.” This inspiration would lead to the announcement of the Spotlight: Piano & A Microphone Tour to begin on November 21st 2015 and commence in Vienna, Austria travelling to various countries throughout Europe.
Prince would invite journalists to Paisley Park to discuss the impending tour noting, “Why do this now? For several reasons. For starters it is a challenge. I rarely get bad reviews because this is something that’s been perfected 4 over thirty years. You have to try new things. With the piano it is more naked, more pure. You can see exactly what you get.” The need for challenge would be the catalyst to pursue such a concept into the live realm; for an artist like Prince who lived and breathed music, mastered a variety of instruments and had been in the industry for over four decades, the need to push himself creatively would be a constant pursuit throughout his accomplished career. What other artist who conquered the world with a number one film, single and album in 1984 with Purple Rain would follow up a year later with an album as eclectic and musically varied as Around The World In A Day. As Prince would attest, “I think the smartest thing I ever did was record Around the World in a Day right after I finished Purple Rain. I didn’t wait to see what would happen with Purple Rain. That’s why the two albums sound completely different. People think, “Oh, the new album isn’t half as powerful as Purple Rain or 1999.” You know how easy it would have been to open Around the World in a Day with the guitar solo that’s on the end of “Let’s Go Crazy”? You know how easy it would have been to just put it in a different key? That would have shut everybody up who said an album wasn’t half as powerful. I don’t want to make an album like the earlier ones. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to put your albums back to back and not get bored, you dig? I don’t know how many people can play all their albums back to back with each one going to different cities.”
The artist would discuss the Piano & A Microphone tour further, highlighting the freedom that would come from performing in this new setting, “So I’m doing it to challenge myself, like tying one hand behind my back, not relying on the craft that I’ve known for thirty years. I won’t know what songs I’m going to do when I’m on stage, I really won’t. I won’t have to, because I won’t have a band, I really won’t. Tempo, keys, all those things can dictate what song I’m going to play next, you know, as opposed to, ‘Oh, I’ve got to do my hit single now, I’ve got to play this album all the way through,’ or whatever. There’s so much material, it’s hard to choose. It’s hard. So that’s what I’d like to do.”
Prince was simply one of the greatest live performing acts in the industry and nothing quite compares to the excitement and spontaneity that came from witnessing one of his concerts. This was in part due to his extensive and changing set-lists, in which he would incorporate a mix of deep cuts, unreleased tracks and iconic hits, sometimes re-interpreted drastically. In 1995, Prince would tour Europe with The Ultimate Live Experience, which would feature performances of predominantly at the time-unreleased songs featured on the forthcoming album, The Gold Experience. The shows would also include many songs from the 1994 release Come and The New Power Generation album Exodus. At times like this, Prince wouldn’t pander to the expectations of his audience and instead play what inspired and excited him at the time. The artist would elaborate on how the lack of deviation and spontaneity on the Purple Rain Tour in 1984/85 would drive him to the brink of insanity, “Purple Rain was 100 shows, and around the 75th, I went crazy, and here’s why. They didn’t want to see anything but the movie. If you didn’t play every song, you were in trouble. After 75 you don’t know where you are — somebody had to drag me to the stage. I’m not going! Yes you are! It was bloody back then. I won’t say why but there was blood on me. They were the longest shows because you knew what was going to happen. If there’s a challenge it’s to outdo what I’ve done in the past. I play each show as if it’s the last one.” He elaborates further, “It’s work to play the same songs the same way for 70 shows. To me, it’s not work to learn lots of different songs so that the experience is fresh to us each night.”
While The Ultimate Live Experience would feature a number of incredible renditions of Prince’s early to mid 1990’s work, the lack of audience accessibility in the set list may have potentially came down to the artist’s turbulent relationship with Warner Brothers at the time as he refused to play older material. As Prince continued to tour throughout the rest of his career, he would return to blending his set lists with a mixture of well known hits, deep cuts and occasionally covers in shows that often would run for almost three hours. The artist would discuss the process for how a set-list would be compiled for an impending performance and how these shows may differ depending on location in a 2012 interview, “The set list selection is initially chosen by the length of time that has passed since we’ve last played a particular market. Then many other factors take hold: the size and average age of an audience; bigger, younger crowds like the party songs played immediately, so we generally comply. Hosting parties offstage in a private setting 4 larger crowds has trained us well in dancefloor management, if u will.” He continues, “Roughly 200–300 songs with variations 4 each of them. 4 example: based upon crowd response any song can b lengthened or shortened with a simple cue: Raspberry Beret’s second verse and bridge can b added if the audience sings louder than r lead singer. :) Also depending upon the diversity of the crowd we can quickly seque in 2 Cool, The Time’s theme song. An urban audience knows all the words to that song whereas folks from Helsinki… well, u get the picture.”
Each aspect of a performance would be highly scrutinised by the artist to ensure that the audience would be witnessed to the best show possible. Prince knew the privilege that a performing artist held in their ability to shape what could be a defining experience for their supporters. This principle would dawn on Prince after attending a screening of the film ‘Woodstock’ featuring performances by Santana, Jimi Hendrix and Sly & The Family Stone with his father as a teenager. In his memoir he would profess:
“Calling back 2 mind the whole experience reminds me 2 do the best eye possibly can every chance eye get 2 b onstage because somebody out there is c-ing U 4 the 1st time. Artists have the ability 2 change lives with a single performance.”
The Piano & A Microphone tour would allow Prince to be in complete control of each and every song choice, not relying on having to cue a band. With an iPad placed on top of the piano, he could navigate through his vast catalogue, determining which songs would suit the feel of the show. As he would note in the press conference for the tour, “You reach a plane of creativity and inspiration. A plane where every song that has ever existed and every song that will exist in the future is right there in front of you. And you just go with it for as long as it takes.”.
While the tour was due to commence in Vienna on the 21st of November, the tragic terrorist attacks committed in Paris a few weeks earlier coupled with significant scalping would lead to the postponement and eventual cancellation of the European Piano & A Microphone shows. The tour would still eventuate, beginning in Melbourne, Australia a few months later, however the first performances to showcase this new concept would quite rightfully take place at Paisley Park on the 21st of January 2016, titled the Piano & A Microphone Paisley Park Gala.
Prince would contact long time sound engineer and fellow Minnesotan Scottie Baldwin in early November to assist in bringing the shows to life. Their collaborative relationship had spanned a number of years beginning with the Nude Tour in 1990 and would end with the Australian leg of the Piano & A Microphone Tour
Prior to these shows, Prince would perform with what would be the final configuration of the NPG at a private New Year’s Eve party in St Barts. Baldwin would recollect, “That was the last time I think the full proper NPG band played together… that was a true NPG show and then he quickly wanted to get out of that and he wanted to get on with the piano thing.”
This intimate tour would not be the only unprecedented project Prince had on his mind during this time; he was also in the midst of discussions with various publishers to write a memoir. On January 11th 2016, a few weeks before the gala was to begin, Prince would meet with a number of competing publishers at Paisley Park to discuss his concept and expectations for the developing text. He had envisaged the title, The Beautiful Ones named after the classic Purple Rain ballad, and the integral themes that would be present throughout the body of text, with a focus on family and in particular his mother. Writer and editor Dan Piepenbring who would be chosen by the artist to collaborate on the book a few weeks later would elaborate further on the meeting, “He shared an assortment of objects with the assembled editors. He’d asked his sister Tyka to send him old family photos, including many of his parents, and a family tree. He’d also tracked down the original cover art for 1999, a collage ornamented with cutouts of a phone booth, a futuristic skyline, and a nude woman with a horse’s head. And he presented the first iteration of a screenplay, Dreams, that would become Purple Rain.”
The boldness of such a concept for an artist like Prince who had harnessed the power of mystique and mystery throughout his career would not go un-noticed. This was the artist attempting to remove the veil and present the public with a glimpse into the often times guarded personal realm, beginning with stories of family and early childhood and eventually leading up to his victorious Super bowl performance in 2007. This wasn’t a particularly shocking development considering Prince had been making subtle but ever present immersions back into the mainstream public psyche in his last few years, guest starring on an episode of New Girl, doing an extensive interview on Arsenio Hall and performing on Saturday Night Live. Similarly, the particularly raw and introspective lyrics featured on tracks like the haunting confessional Way Back Home and Breakdown off the recent Art Official Age showcased a vulnerability that Prince was now revealing more vividly to his supporters. With mystique however, also comes speculation from the press and public alike and Prince was certainly not immune to this. The memoir would be an opportunity for the artist to, in Dan’s words, “Seize the narrative of his own life”, though as the text began to materialise in the coming weeks the concept would come to encompass far more than this.
After initial discussions with publishers, the memoir would be put on hold as Prince would turn his focus towards the impending Piano & A Microphone gala, collaborating with Scottie Baldwin to ensure the soundstage at Paisley Park would be fit acoustically for the stripped back performances. Baldwin would note the challenges that would come from maintaining Prince’s vision for the show, while also ensuring the highest quality acoustics and sound in the venue, “He wanted to do quad sound. He loved sound in all four corners. And unfortunately that only works for really one great place in the room, which is the centre. The physics of it is the sound is arriving at different times from different speakers if it’s loud enough, so it gets very confusing. I tried to push for us doing a single source sound around the stage and outward. I think we came up with a balance.”
Both Prince and Scottie would work through these challenges together, a consummation of years of collaboration and trust with Baldwin using his expertise to cater for the artist’s request as they began preparing for what would be an unprecedented show. Scottie recollected further in an interview with the Prince Podcast on the preparation for the shows, “Prince and I did it alone over the course of the few hours where he played some stuff and we balanced it out. He’d say “turn this up there, now turn my voice up over there.” Again, he was treating the whole room as his monitor.“ He elaborates, “He’d play a little bit and then he’d turn and say, “Right there, can you do this?” and “Do you have an effect for the beginning of the show, we’re gonna have the doors open.” We talked through it, we talked through the whole set, it took about three hours to talk through the whole thing and we were the only ones there…We must have had three or four formations of speakers that we brought in there and the way we set them up. And what we settled on really worked and it wasn’t ideal but it worked and I made it work. That was a huge thing to be able to have him tell me, “Scottie, I’ve never been able to sing back here”, and he backed away from the mic about two and half feet, that’s forever… and he said “I always wanted to sing back here and play piano” and I said “No problem.”
Prince’s choice of piano for the gala would also require some alteration by Baldwin as the artist would opt for keys that could also replicate string sounds, which would be particularly noticeable throughout the tour. Scottie elaborates, “Kirk (Johnson) and I arranged to get a C7XSH brought to Paisley Park and I put all these monitors around Prince in a circle and turned it on and made it sound great. Then I thought Well he wants the grand and strings, he doesn’t have a fader anymore, he has to actually go down and change patches. When he came in he played a couple of different patches and I said “Do you want it to sound like a Rhodes? Do you want it to sound like a Rohohlizer?”…. He said, “No I hate when instruments don’t sound like the instrument they look like.”
In order to replicate the string sections that would feature throughout the show, Prince would have to manually program the piano during his performance as Baldwin notes, “They had multiple patches, they can sound like any instrument. You can disengage the hammers from hitting the strings and actually making the grand piano sound which there was none on stage in front of him. That was shut off, all his piano sound was coming through the wedges I had for him, the monitors below him. But also, he could change as I said from the straight piano patch to the one with a synth bed.” One of the prime reasons for the inclusion of this synth bed was the ability it would give Prince to seamlessly transition between chords while also adding more of a dramatic effect to sustained notes, as Scottie would attest, “You cant sustain notes on a piano for very long… when he went to the piano and strings patch, what that did was that was a bed, that was a musical bed, almost an orchestration bed that he could sustain with the use of the sustain pedal on piano and it would hold underneath him. He could go to another chord and then go to the next chord so all it was was a musical bed underneath which he could make changes in the piano sound.”
“I want to thank you for braving the cold and coming out tonight. I just want to say this, for the record I have the best music loving supporters in the world.”
As the sun began to set on a cold Minneapolis night on the 21st of January 2016, supporters would begin congregating at Paisley Park for the impending Piano & A Microphone gala. The artist would be scheduled to perform two shows that night and as evidenced from the first few minutes, the audience would be witnessed to an unprecedented performance; a fusion of music and storytelling as Prince would reflect on his relationship with family, the beginnings of his career and the craft of composing in between songs akin to an unraveling stream of consciousness. This is where the concept of The Beautiful Ones and the Piano & A Microphone tour would intersect, as the shows would form an auditory companion to what Prince would begin writing soon after for his impending memoir, fused into the structure of a traditional concert.
A rendition of the theme song to the 1966 Batman series would open the first show, holding special significance as one of the first songs the artist would learn on piano. At times, Prince would recount his thoughts as a curious and awestruck child, remarking in an elementary tone, “Can’t play the piano like Dad though, how does Dad do that?”, providing a glimpse into the psyche of a young impressionable Prince discovering the wonderment of musicianship through his father. John L Nelson was an accomplished pianist who performed in a jazz group titled the Prince Rogers Trio. (Prince would be baptised with his father’s stage name –Prince Rogers.) In his memoir, he would recollect further on his father’s playing:
“That’s the 1st thing Eye remember hearing. As a younger man his playing was very busy but fluid. It was a joyful sound.”
After his father left the household when Prince was just seven, he would leave the piano behind, providing the artist with the means to learn the instrument. While the two would have somewhat of an estranged relationship as Prince was growing up, the artist’s passion for music would be facilitated heavily by his father in the later years of his adolescence, as somewhat of a kindred bond would develop between the two after they attended the screening oF ‘Woodstock’ together. The artist would point to this event as a turning point in their relationship as he declares in The Beautiful Ones,
“My Father & Eye had R lives changed that night. The bond we cemented that very night let me know that there would always b someone In my corner when it came 2 my passion. My father understood that night what music really meant 2 me.”
This musical bond between father and son would continue to become more apparent as Prince’s career progressed and he would refer to his progenitor as being the biggest influence on his playing style on keys, “On piano, I was influenced by my father, who was influenced by Duke Ellington and Thelonius Monk. I like to say I took from the best.” Technical playing skill aside, they would both share a compulsive devotion to the craft of music that would at times uncontrollably manifest. He would reminisce in a 1983 interview, “He told me one time that he has dreams where he’d see a keyboard in front of his eyes and he’d see his hands on the keyboard and he’d hear a melody. And he can get up and it can be like 4: 30 a.m. and he can walk right downstairs to his piano and play the melody. And to me that’s amazing because there’s no work involved really; he’s just given a gift in each song. He never comes out of the house unless it’s to get something to eat and he goes right back in and he plays all the time. His music. . .one day I hope you’ll get to hear it. It’s just — it sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard.”
Prince would recall a similar creative process of his own with some of the lyrics to Little Red Corvette coming to fruition while he was dreaming. Despite the influence his father would have on shaping his style of playing, there would be contrasts. He’d note in a 1985 interview, “With the music, we are a lot different. Our personalities are a lot alike, but his music is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. It’s more complex. A lot of beautiful melodies are hidden beneath the complexity. That’s why it takes me to pull all that out. That’s why we work so well together. My melodies are a little different from the way he does them. I’m a little stricter with melody.” Similarly while John Nelson was primarily a jazz musician, Prince would lean more towards funk, RNB and rock sensibilities at least during the first portion of his career. Prince’s blend of a mixture of genres and his pioneering use of the Linn LM1 Drum machine and synthesizers in 1981 would help develop a new genre coined the “Minneapolis sound” that would impact 80’s pop and RNB music significantly. In his 1982 track, All The Critics Love U In New York, the artist would place himself as somewhat of a harbinger of this new sound:
“It’s time for new direction, it’s time for jazz to die. Fourth day of November, we need a purple high.”
While Prince’s career continued, he’d begin to immerse himself further in jazz and incorporate elements of the genre into his own sound with side projects like The Flesh and Madhouse while also collaborating with his father on a number of tracks throughout his career. Songs such as Computer Blue, Father’s Song, The Ladder and Scandalous would include musical pieces credited to John Nelson. Though Prince would be inspired by his father’s musical playing style, he would deviate from the traditional jazz he would be exposed to as a child and search for his own style.
In 2016, as Prince was writing his memoir, he would recall a memory of his mother teaching him to spell his name, it would in a sense encapsulate the musical parallels and discrepancies that would emerge between father and son as the years progressed and Prince became his own musician. He notes,
“When showing me how 2 properly write the name Prince, Eye noticed my Mother’s demeanor change. She stared at the word after she wrote it, the same way she stared at my father sometimes. It was his name & also this was a reverent look that she seemed 2 take pleasure in helping me own.”
As Prince sat at the piano housed within the Paisley Park soundstage, the chronological nature of the show would be most evident during the first section, as Prince would follow the Batman theme with a cover of Smokey Robinson and The Miracles’ I Second That Emotion sly fully remarking, “I can’t sing, those guys can sing.” He would follow the performance by fondly reminiscing about local radio during his early years, proclaiming, “Back then, radio was localised” during a blissful rendition of Who’s Lovin You.
It’s clear that Prince was presenting listeners with an idea of the key ingredients that would help shape and form his musical influences. The artist would return to this sentiment as he began writing his memoir, once again referring to I Second That Emotion and elaborating further,
“Any song that caught my fancy was 1st purchased then subscribed. Lyrics only, as Eye never learned 2 read music. Re-copying a lyric helps U 2 break down a line 2 c what it’s made [of]. “If U feel like loving me, if U’ve got the notion, eye Second That Emotion.” Then while reading the copied lyric, as the record played behind me, Eye’d learn 2 play & sing along with every record of choice. It didn’t matter whether it was male or female — it was the overall arrangement eye was most interested in.”
This keen interest in the arrangement of a composition would subject Prince to explore a kaleidoscope of various styles and genres of music during adolescence, crossing racial boundaries facilitated further by the eclectic mixture of white and black artists played on Minneapolis radio. As Prince would attest in a 1985 interview, “I was brought up in a black-and-white world — black and white, night and day, rich and poor. I listened to all kinds of music when I was young, and when I was younger, I always said that one day I would play all kinds of music and not be judged for the colour of my skin but the quality of my work, and hopefully that will continue.”
Journey and progression would form the basis of the performance as Prince would remark during his stunning rendition of Who’s Lovin You, “I gotta write some songs, that’s how I’m gonna get out of here” before launching into Baby, a track off his 1978 debut album, For You, composed and written entirely by the artist.
Prince’s choice to perform this track for the first and only time at the gala would present to the audience a reflection of his evolving song-writing process as he continued to grow as an artist, extracting inspiration from real-life events rather than the fictional stories that would shape his childhood and adolescence; a sentiment Prince would recall in a 1981 interview, “As far as my song writing is concerned, it’s kind of going backwards. See it’s interesting, — another reason I think I didn’t get the “big deal” when I first came to New York, when I was younger was because I was writing things that a cat with ten albums would have out, like seven minute laments that were y’know, gone. I wrote like I was rich, like I had been everywhere and seen everything and been with every woman in the world. But I liked that. I always like fantasy and fiction — I used to write stories when I was younger. Like “Baby”, from the first album, — that was one of the songs that really blew Warner Bros, away cos it was about a cat getting a girl pregnant.”
The artist would reveal however in the same interview how his writing process would continue to shift while working on Dirty Mind, “It used to be that I’d have to be totally isolated to write things, because a lotta things I wrote concerned different visions and dreams and fantasies I had. But lately I have to be around people, I have to see different places and stuff like that, just walk through life I guess… You know, it’s interesting — if I try to get myself away from being a musician and just, you know live life. I can write much better. Different things happen, you run into different relationships.” He’d so eloquently profess a similar sentiment in his memoir over thirty years later declaring:
“Once a writer has experienced something 4 oneself, then they can better tell others about it.”
Utilising imagination as a means of storytelling would also play a crucial part in Prince’s artistic output with tracks ranging from popular hits (Raspberry Beret), acclaimed album cuts (Joy In Repetition, Condition Of The Heart) and unreleased songs (Coco Boys) relying heavily on fictional storytelling to conjure vivid imagery to compliment the sonic landscape. Forays into feature films including Under The Cherry Moon and Graffiti Bridge as well as Prince’s love for films like Blade Runner and Eraser head demonstrated his deep interest in the art of fictional storytelling.
Prince would reveal in The Beautiful Ones that his sense of imagination would emerge from his mother’s wink. He would describe the wink as surreptitious, shrouded in both mystery and intrigue. To determine the meaning of this wink, Prince would escape into his mind, a prismatic land without bounds to reality:
“An entire world of secrets & intrigue, puzzles 2 solve & good ol’ fashioned make-believe. A place where everything 4 a change goes ur way. One could get used 2 this.”
From creativity, fantasy eventually emerges as we identify the desire for certain aspects of our imagination to become tangent in reality. As an attempt to bridge the gap between imagination and fantasy, Prince would recall employing visualisation techniques and creating vision lists as a child.
“Things Eye wanted 2 happen. Eye would write or type. Looking back at those lists now, most everything came true. B4 an actual stab at a real, fully 4med song, lists, stats were the 1st original writings.”
All of these elements would form the songwriting process as Prince began to write lyrics in conjunction with learning instruments, writing his first song at the age of six.
Both father and mother would be instrumental in melding the prodigy that would become Prince Rogers Nelson, as he would reveal through these anecdotes in his memoir and on stage during the Piano & A Microphone tour. His mother’s wink would be the first visual image he would recall seeing and his father’s piano would be the first sound he recalled hearing. Devotion and passion for music and the art of musicianship would be a spark ignited by his father, and the thrill that comes from unadulterated imagination would be an ethos passed down by his mother. Such contrasting elements would be vital to the process of songwriting and creating music, as Prince would recall in The Beautiful Ones:
“The eyes & ears of a songwriter can never get enough praise. The way things look & the way things sound, when conversed lyrically, can give a song space and gravity.”
As reflected in his gradual but unstoppable rise to fame and critical adulation, Prince would continue to develop his craft and image after the release of For You as he began expressing further facets of his enigma that would stray from the safe image of a benevolent musical prodigy. While sexual innuendo would be expressed in earlier tracks like Soft And Wet, and I Want To Be Your Lover, the 1980 release of Dirty Mind would unveil the funk/punk persona of the Rude Boy to an unsuspecting world. As Prince began to play the instantly recognisable synth line through his purple piano at the gala 36 years later, he would continue to share his introspective thoughts with the audience plucked from the mind of his younger self, “Well on my way of trying to figure things out, one thing though, other than love. Earlier the story about the radio, I was on my own, trying everything I could to find out who I was.” If Dirty Mind was an auditory representation of who Prince was as a 22 year old man, it was defined by carnal desires of love and lust, (Dirty Mind, Head, Sister) tender, emotive heartbreak (When U Were Mine, Gotta Broken Heart Again) and complete freedom of expression and defiance against norms. (Uptown, Partyup.) Coupled with his somewhat hermaphroditic visual image, the harnessing of sexual attraction within the writing process would be explored further in The Beautiful Ones as the artist contemplates:
“This feeling will make one combine words that don’t go 2gether but just sound so good U not only read them, U can smell them”
Dirty Mind would be his most authentic expression of these desires up until this time. This sentiment would be expressed by Prince soon after the album was released in a 1981 interview as he proclaims, “It was a revelation recording this last album,” he explains more excitedly, “I realised that I could write just what was on my mind and things that I’d encountered and I didn’t have to hide anything. The lyric on the new album is straight from the heart whereas the other albums were more feelings, more dreams and fantasies and they stuck to the more basic formulas that I’d learned through playing top 40 material in old bands. That’s probably why they were so big but that’s really upsetting for me because you say to yourself, “Well, do I just wanna be real big or do I wanna do something I’ll be proud of and really enjoy playing?”
This raw collection of sparse funk, rock and sex would startle the record label as Prince elaborates, “See, this album, it was all supposed to be demo tapes, that’s what they started out to be. The previous albums were done in California, where they have better studios — I’d never wanted to do an album in Minneapolis. So, they were demos, and I brought them out to the Coast and played them for the management and the record company. They said, “The sound of it is fine. The songs we ain’t so sure about. We can’t get this on the radio. It’s not like your last album at all.” And I’m going, “But it’s like me, more so than the last album. Much more so than the first one.” We went back and forth and they finally released it…” This sentiment is further reinforced as Prince would continue to utter during the performance of Dirty Mind at the gala, “Completely free, completely free, trying to figure out who is Me.”
The artist’s unapologetic quest for artistic freedom would at times come to odds with not just the record label but also his father’s approval, “I think he’s confused about a lot of what is happening,” he explained. “When I first played the ’Dirty Mind’ album for him he said, ’You’re swearing on the record. Why do you have to do that?’ And I said, ’because I swear.’ “We got into this whole big thing about what you can and can’t do on record. The point for me is that you can do anything you want. My goal is to excite and to provoke on every level.” By looking through an introspective lens and expressing himself without compromise, Prince would dare to defy the boundaries evoked by both society itself and familial expectations in his quest for freedom.
At the gala, Prince would once again address the importance of sticking to your convictions in order to reach this goal before launching into his 1982 track, Free: “You’ll hear a lot of talk about freedom because you have the right to make up your own mind and you can choose to say “No” sometimes. It’s a powerful word when it’s used properly.”
With the release of Controversy in 1981, Prince would continue to incorporate new wave and electronic elements into his purple portfolio of musical ventures, however with the recording of the classic ballad Do Me, Baby, the artist would break new ground creatively. While previous albums would feature blissfully breezing ballads such as When We’re Dancing Close and Slow and With You, demonstrating Prince’s innate vocal ability and supreme musical sensibilities, he would take sensuality and sexuality to a new level with the recording of Do Me, Baby in 1981. 35 years later, Prince would revisit the genesis of the track as he began writing his memoir, speaking of it’s distinction among his repertoire:
“Everybody can point 2 at least one song that is “their jam” & nobody else’s. The 1st time Eye knew Eye had written [one] of those jams was “Do Me Baby,” a song whose intro made me feel the same way Eye felt the 1st time Eye heard “Sweet Thing’ by Rufus featuring Chaka Khan.”
As the track begins with an array of pulsating synths and keys, complimented by a subtle but seductive bass slap and percussion, sensuality pours out of each and every note, conjuring images of a dimly lit bedroom. Prince’s unparalleled falsetto delivering each line with a fragile conviction, not only irresistible but also undeniable. Overdubs would add further warmth to his vocals while his shift in range from soft falsetto during the verses to passionate screeches during the climax would bring further intensity to the track. To add to the authenticity of his vocal performance, Prince would have the studio transformed while recording his vocals, as he would recollect in the liner notes featured on The Hits, “The 1st time Prince turned the control room into a bedroom. Candles were lit, chiffon veils were hung and all the doors were locked.” The track is also an example of Prince’s continued subversion of traditional notions of masculinity and how they relate to notions of sexuality. While he begs to lay his female spouse down in Dirty Mind, this role is reversed in Do Me, Baby as Prince plays the role of the submissive partner. (“Here we are looking for a reason, for you to lay me down.”) During the outro, he whispers with a vulnerable fragility, “I’m cold, just hold me”.
As Prince began serenading the audience during the gala, adulation and roars from the crowd would demonstrate the endurance of such a timeless track. He’d profess, “When you’re totally free a song like that is gonna go on and on and on. And if you’re totally honest, you’re gonna turn the lights off, and…. You’re gonna light a candle and… you’re gonna put on your favourite song and… you’re gonna pray that a loved one is nearby and….you’re going to, and… you’re gonna hope they agree, but that doesn’t’ always happen.”
This mental image that Prince would conjure exemplifies the sensual nature of the track and also much of his work, which at times would often be over shadowed in the press by the explicit nature of the lyrics or visual image. The artist would reflect on this precarious position in a 1981 interview as he states, “More than my songs have to do with sex,” he says, “they have to do with one human’s love for another which goes deeper than anything political that anybody could possibly write about. The need for love, the need for sexuality, basic freedom, equality… I’m afraid of these things don’t necessarily come out. I think my problem is that my attitude’s so sexual that it overshadows anything else that I might not mature enough as a writer to bring it all out yet.”
Do Me, Baby would be a turning point however, less stooped in physical lust and rather a quiet explosion of passionate affection and desire. In The Beautiful Ones, Prince describes a kiss from a crush as being somewhat of a revelatory experience and a defining moment in his adolescence. As he played Pack’d My Bags by Rufus featuring Chaka Khan later that day, he would recount the feelings conjured by the music, “The piano intro 2 “Pack’d My Bags” left me with butterflies. Eye remember trying 2 tell my friends how Eye felt about this music but nobody seemed 2 understand.” Prince would look to conjure a similar response on ballads such as Do Me, Baby as the artist would not only attempt to capture the essence of his favourite slow jams but also the feeling evoked by a lover’s kiss. The song would also act as a sonic blueprint that would lead to a plethora of incredible ballads recorded throughout Prince’s career including Scandalous, Insatiable, Damn U and Satisfied, among many others.
As the gala would progress, he would continue to take a somewhat chronological approach to the set list, merging into the Something In The Water (Does Not Compute) from his 1982 album, 1999. To contrast with the inviting sensuality of the previous ballads played during the show, Something In The Water tells the story of rejection, as Prince questions why the subject of his affection does not reciprocate. He sings:
Must be something in the water they drink
It’s been the same with every girl I’ve had
Must be something in the water they drink
’Cause why else would a woman want to treat a man so bad?
While Prince would explore the effects of fractured relationships on earlier tracks like It’s Gonna Be Lonely and Gotta Broken Heart Again, the escalating intensity of songs with similar concepts both lyrically and sonically would become more apparent as his career continued to progress. As demonstrated on Something In The Water and a host of other songs written in the following years including Wednesday, 17 Days, Katrina’s Paper Dolls and Old Friends 4 Sale, turbulent relationship dynamics would become a more common lyrical theme as the artist grew older. Prince would elaborate on what this pessimism was a reflection of in a 1983 interview with Musician Magazine, “I think I change constantly, because I can hear the music changing. The other day I put my first three albums on and listened to the difference. And I know why I don’t sound like that anymore. Because things that made sense to me and things that I liked then I don’t like anymore. The way I played music, just the way I was in love a lot back then when I used to make those records. And love meant more to me then-but now I realise that people don ’t always tell you the truth, you know? I was really gullible back then. I believed in everybody around me. I believed in Owen, I believed in Warner Bros., I believed in everybody. If someone said something good to me, I believed it… And I felt good when I was singing back then. The things I do now, I feel anger sometimes when I sing, and I can hear the difference. I’m screaming more now than I used to. And things like that. I think it’s just me. It also has to do with the instrumentation. It has nothing to do with trying to change styles or anything. Plus, I’m in a different environment; I see New York a little bit more. In my subconscious I’m influenced by the sinisterness of it, you know, the power.”
All of these external factors would influence Prince’s songwriting and also provide a window into his emotional state of mind. In much the same way he would use music to express feelings of love and intimacy, emotions on the other side of the spectrum including anger and despair would also be captured. The fan favourite Empty Room would be inspired by a fight between Susannah Melvoin and the artist and a host of tracks recorded soon after the dissolution of their relationship in 1986 including 101, Wally and Adore are further evidence of Prince using songwriting as an outlet to process these emotions.
As autonomous as Prince would be throughout the 1980’s as he continued to create accomplished bodies of work and definitive masterpieces, collaboration would become increasingly evident with those around him as musicians like Wendy & Lisa would begin to add their own colours to the purple music emanating from recording studios in Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Their contributions can be found on many songs recorded during this time. The string arrangements evident on the Paisley Park would be arranged largely by Lisa, much of the music and lyrics featured on Mountains would be contributed by the pair and unreleased tracks like the quirky Eggplant or Life Is Like Looking For A Penny In A Large Room With No Light would also feature their input.
Other outside forces like Susannah Melvoin would organise a meeting between Prince and musician Clare Fischer who would play an integral part in arranging string sections evident on albums like the soundtrack to Under The Cherry Moon and The Family’s eponymous debut album. Lisa Coleman’s brother David Coleman would inspire the Middle Eastern instrumentation evident on Around The World In A Day as the artist began to become more experimental sonically. During the Piano And & Microphone gala, as Prince played the opening notes of one of his most iconic hits, Raspberry Beret, he would once again begin to reminisce, this time on the genesis of the iconic hook and how it would emerge through the collaborative ventures between the trio.
“I’d like to take a moment and show love and appreciation for Lisa and Wendy. I met Lisa first, she was in the band for a while, and then she introduced me to Wendy. When I first met Lisa, she didn’t look me in the eye, I think — you’ll have to ask her why. I called my manager and I said, “I don’t think this is gonna work out. Can you make a plan reservation for her, she’s going to have to go home.” And then I said, “Hold on.” And I could hear the piano coming from the basement. And she was playing something free-from — just making up these crazy chords that I never heard until I met Miles Davis, who came to my house and played similar chords. And she told me that her favourite piano player was Bill Evans. Right? I’m trying to imitate her now. And I would write music and let them go to the studio and just mess around and see what they come up with. And Lisa wrote this harpsichord part that went: [plays opening bars of “Raspberry Beret”]. And that’s the whole song, right?”
Lisa would recollect on her side of the story two years later, “I heard Prince told a story that I wrote the harpsichord part to Raspberry Beret… I was remembering actually like my side of the story and it’s not that I just came up with that all of a sudden. He forgot that I wrote the string arrangement first off of his chords that reminded me, his chords reminded me of a song I was writing at the time or this little thing that I used to play. Somehow it morphed into that by writing the string part…. So then he at rehearsal came up and said like” What are you gonna play” or “What’s your part on the harpsichord”, I just played that.” By sharing this anecdote with the crowd during the gala, Prince would acknowledge some of the key collaborators that would help shape the varied directions he would take in his music.
Prince would also utilise the intimate settings of the Piano & A Microphone gala to interact with the audience throughout the show, not only sharing the stories that he would begin capturing on paper soon after, but also as a means to share teachings with the crowd as he touched on subjects he held dear including music and race. Piepenbring would recollect on a conversation he had with Prince in Australia a few weeks after the gala in which the artist would reveal his ambitious intentions with the memoir as a means of connecting with the reader profoundly, “As we spoke, Prince, in higher spirits than I’d ever seen him before, began to improvise about all the shapes the book could take, all it could contain, the message it could deliver. The artist would reveal to Dan further, “The book should be the handbook for the brilliant community, wrapped in biography… It should teach that what you create is yours. Say, “We’ve got this if we’re left alone.”
This symbiosis between biography and directory would allow Prince to not only recall memories of his own personal life, but also bestow his knowledge on a number of subjects, notably music as a means to guide and inspire the reader.
Prince would continue to draw influences and inspiration from other artists while forming his own musical styles and funk would become arguably his most consistent musical motif to fuse with other genres in his quest to create something truly his. Inspiration from funk legends like Parliament Funkadelic, Sly And The Family Stone and Rufus would incite inspiration and drive rather than imitation for the musician. As he notes in The Beautiful Ones:
“If U’re funky, even on a ballad U’ll hear it. It’s just what U R. Trying 2 outdo the funky ballads that preceded R work in the ‘80’s never seemed insurmountable. Eye just figured that was then, this is now. Eye had grown in2 a different kind of fan. One more of mutual respect rather than awe.”
Prince would describe creating funk music as akin to a homogenous process, ensuring each and every instrument played it’s own role in creating the kick and slap that comes from a truly funky piece of work. As he would say to Dan during their first meeting for the memoir, “The music I make isn’t breaking the law, to me. I’ve always lived in harmony…” He’d further reiterate, “Funk is the opposite of magic, Funk is about rules.” One of these said vital rules was the use of space. Prince would go into more detail in an interview, “Space!” he bellows. “Space is what it’s all about. I’m always telling people in rehearsal you’ve got to shut up once in a while. Solo spotlights are fun and everything, but if you make music people want to hear, they’ll keep that tape. You can listen to one groove all night, but if everyone’s playing all over the place all night and not hearing each other — not respecting the music — ain’t nobody gonna want to listen.”
While these principles of funk would apply within a live band setting, Prince would also utilise space to enhance the funk elements on his studio recordings throughout his career as evidenced on a number of his most iconic hits and tracks. One need only listen to the slight break in Kiss, the pauses in 777–9311 and Sticky Like Glue or the breath before the Linn drum slap in When Doves Cry to appreciate the integral aspect of space in re-enforcing the groove. Ballads like Forever In My Life and Time are further examples of this use of space to reinforce these musical elements.
At the gala, Prince would once again acknowledge this convention in relation to funk music as he began a rendition of the African American spiritual Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child. The Library Of Congress Website delves into the genesis of spirituals stating, “The form has its roots in the informal gatherings of African slaves in “praise houses” and outdoor meetings called “brush arbor meetings,” “bush meetings,” or “camp meetings” in the eighteenth century. At the meetings, participants would sing, chant, dance and sometimes enter ecstatic trances. Spirituals also stem from the “ring shout,” a shuffling circular dance to chanting and handclapping that was common among early plantation slaves.”
The particular spiritual would date back to the 19th century during the end of the slavery era and would become popularised during the Civil Rights Movement. Prince would similarly perform another spiritual entitled Mary Don’t You Weep during a piano rehearsal in 1983, captured on the posthumous Piano & A Microphone 1983 release. He professes to the audience at the gala, “The space in-between the notes, that’s the good part. That’s how funky it is, or how funky it ain’t.”
Prince’s delivering of this sermon during the performance acknowledges the intrinsic connection between spirituals, funk music and the pioneering of the genre by the African American community. As the artist would declare in his memoirs, “Rhythm came from Africa. We need to stop frontin’ about that. Rhythm and heartbeats.”
Each note on the piano represents a heartbeat, pulsing with rhythm and time while generating connection as Prince encourages the audience to snap their fingers along to the notes in much the same way spirituals were engaged with centuries before. The intimate setting of the Piano & A Microphone tour would also allow Prince to incorporate elements of the spiritual form within his own work as evidenced on performances of songs like How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore, when he would instruct the audience to chant or snap their fingers as both artist and performer alike become one with the music.
While ambiguity would often plague rumours about Prince’s ethnicity throughout his career, his identification as an African American man could not be more apparent, specifically in the later years when social turmoil would drive the artist to take a more pronounced stand. Prince’s philanthropic work would often go unnoticed, as he preferred charitable acts to remain secret. His work in inspiring non-for profit groups Like #YesWeCode and his recording of the 2015 track entitled Baltimore as a response to the death of Freddie Gray, demonstrated his tenacity and passion at bettering the lives of those facing systematic prejudice. Van Jones who would start the YesWeCode organisation recalled a conversation with Prince, “Prince said … ‘A black kid wearing a hoodie might be seen as a thug. A white kid wearing a hoodie might be seen as a Silicon Valley genius…Let’s teach the black kids how to be like Mark Zuckerberg.” Donatella Versace would similarly recollect on a time in which Prince professed to her that he desired to become the face of Black Lives Matter, a social movement he would reference during his speech at the 2015 Grammys, “Like books and black lives, albums still matter.” Prince’s endorsing of organisations like YesWeCode wasn’t just about giving young people of colour in marginalised communities the tools to live up to their potential, but also an outlet to create successful role models for future generations. As he wrote his memoir, Prince would reflect on his own personal experiences as a child searching for an exemplar he could identify with:
“I used to watch Super-man on TV. It was the first show I had to see. I used to rush home from school to watch it. Seeing George Reeves, seeing that cape flying, him on top of buildings — I wanted that. It’s funny to turn on the TV and in America you just see white people playing the heroes. People who look like the creators of the show. That affects your self-image when you’re black and watching white heroes.”
While on the surface this memory from fifty years ago may seem relatively contained, it represents the lack of representation for certain groups within the mainstream. It’s not just about breaking the cycle of visibility, but also creating men and women of such undeniable excellence that they can’t be ignored, much in the same way artists like Prince and Michael Jackson would do so in order to break racial barriers in the music industry.
During his initial conversations with Piepenbring, Prince would recollect on his earliest experiences encountering racism and how his initial response of aggression and the use of physical violence would lead to somewhat of an epiphany. Dan recounts, “I went to school with the rich kids,” he told me, “who didn’t like having me there.” When one of them called him the N-word, Prince threw a punch. “I felt I had to. Luckily the guy ran away crying. But if there was a fight — — where would it end? Where should it end? How do you know when to fight?” It was clear from these early discussions between Prince and Dan that the subject of race would play an integral part in the memoir. Not just in relation to Prince’s first hand experience within a personal and professional sphere, but as a means to address the larger issue. Dan recounts, “He settled his eyes on mine with a blazing intensity that arose, I noticed, whenever he started to talk about the recording industry’s treatment of black artists. “Can we write a book that solves racism?” he asked. Before I could say yes, or at least “we could try”, he broke in with another question: “What do you think racism means?”
While Prince’s entire career could be seen as an ongoing statement of protest against the restrictions placed on different shades of colour and expressions of sexuality, race relations would inspire the lyrical content on a number of tracks. Race from 1994’s Come, We March from 1995’s The Gold Experience, Family Name from 2001’s The Rainbow Children and Dreamer from 2009’s Lotusflow3r are just a number of songs that deal with similar subject matter.
The soulful funk track Black Muse, recorded in 2010 and released on the 2015 album, HITnRUN Phase Two tells a story of endurance while facing adversity as Prince celebrates the resilience and vitality of African history, assuring better days ahead:
Black muse we gonna make it thru
Surely people that created rhythm and blues
Rock and roll and jazz
So you know we’re built to last
In his conversations with Piepenbring, Prince would elaborate further on the meaning of Black Muse and it’s relation to “eminent domain” (Authority for the Government to take private property and convert it to public domain), “Keep what you make,” Prince said more than once. “I stayed in Minneapolis because Minneapolis made me. You have to give back. My dad came to Minneapolis from Cotton Valley, Louisiana. He learned in the harshest conditions what it means to control wealth. ‘Black Muse’ is about that, creating wealth in the inner city.” Some scholars argue that African American communities were especially disaffected by eminent domain during the 20th century, and Black Muse is Prince’s testimony of triumph through the eyes of his father, while also a beacon of hope for a new generation of black entrepreneurship.
The recording of Baltimore and Black Muse would not be the only result of Prince converging his art with social commentary in recent years. An unreleased project entitled Black Is The New Black recorded less than a year before Prince’s passing would also bear the hallmarks of protest as described by Adrian Crutchfield in the Thompson interview:”[Prince] was very excited and very motivated,” Crutchfield said of the unreleased project, which he labeled jazz fusion. “I don’t know what lit the fire, but he was on a path to be basically an activist.” “When we were listening back to the record, it was undeniable that this was going to be a very conscious thing, but also a very big shake to the industry because it wasn’t pop,” he said. “The first [person] that I thought would have eventually jumped on it was Kendrick [Lamar]. … And I’m sure Kendrick probably heard some of it.”
Prince would preface a performance of Black Muse with a message during one of his Australian Piano & A Microphone shows indicating the tracks greater significance as a tool against social unrest but also a tribute to his father. He would profess:
“Back in America, we’re finding it hard 2 get along. It seems like one people have a history and another people don’t. But what I find is if you know where you came from, you’ll know what time it is and where you’re going. This past year I have been studying my father, I have been studying my Lord, trying to get closer 2 me. I find that if I give thanks to the man who taught me this thing.”
While reflecting on his community as he wrote his memoirs, Prince would also recollect on the role of African American women in facilitating both a nurtured and resilient community bound by an unwritten maternal rule of support. He writes:
“You’d ask about the feminine principle, I’d say it’s that African women have an unspoken language. It’s almost primordial. No one can run a village like African women. On the one hand, they’re always in each other’s hair — you can’t keep a secret because they’re talking to everyone. On the other hand, they know you need someone to survive. There’s a kind of agreement: If I die you take care of my children, If I die you I take care of yours… It’s about religion and family. It’s unwavering.”
As Prince began recollecting on his upbringing, he would not only shed light on the family dynamics that defined his adolescent relationships and his perceptions of familial culture, but he’d also associate it with the greater narrative of both his own and his father’s triumph coming from a marginalised community. While Prince is often said to have “transcended race”, this in a sense diminishes the importance and value he would place on understanding and acknowledging the experiences of your ancestors. It’s not necessarily about transcending race, but rather acknowledging and understanding the past and utilising this education to build a better way forward in order to reach true equality. Prince’s performing of spirituals during the show reaffirms his sense of heritage and the tour and memoir would be tools utilised by Prince to bring this message forward while celebrating his culture and identity.
The Piano & A Microphone tour will always be encompassed by a melancholic haze considering the circumstances that would surround the shows, with Prince passing only a week after his final Atlanta performance. Moments before the artist would begin to play the opening notes of his 1986 masterpiece Sometimes It Snows In April during the January gala, he would question the audience, “How many of you have lucid dreams? I like dreaming now more than I used to. Some of my friends have passed away and I see them in my dreams, so, it’s like they’re here and the dreams are just like waking.” Such a statement would bear even more resonance as the tour continued into Australia the following month.
As Prince was preparing to begin his first international performance of the tour at the State Theatre in Melbourne Australia, ex partner and protégé, Denise Matthews, otherwise known as Vanity would pass away after an extended illness on February 15th 2016, a day before the first shows were to take place. Matthews would meet Prince in 1982 with a professional and personal relationship quickly blossoming, leading to Denise being bestowed the stage name Vanity and becoming the lead of the new wave/RNB trio, Vanity 6, alongside Brenda Bennett and Susan Moonsie. Prince had intended to create a “1980’s version of The Supremes” as Bennett would describe, originally formalising a group entitled The Hookers in 1981. However Matthews’ strong will and vivacious spirit would lead to her fronting Vanity 6, and the group’s first and only album (largely produced and performed by Prince) would be released in 1982. Many would consider Matthews a female version of Prince as Alan Leeds describes, “It’s been said that when they met, they both stopped in their tracks; looking at each other, it was like seeing themselves, but of the opposite sex.” Susan Rogers would similarly recollect, “Prince and Vanity had a very successful artistic collaboration because each of them recognised a kindred spirit in the other. Vanity was in many ways a female version of Prince, I think. She was in many ways kind of an ideal woman. Not a perfect overlap for sure, but they had a lot in common.”
Denise would boast a confidence and self-assuredness that would appeal greatly to Prince and her unapologetic views on sexuality would couple with the artist’s principles. Vanity would reminisce trying on her mother’s lingerie when she was a teenager and professed in a 1983 interview, “It’s a shame that people make a big deal out of it when women deal with sexual themes in songs,” Vanity stated. “It doesn’t mean we’re loose or perverts. We can deal with these themes in songs just like men.” How much of this was Matthew’s true personality or Prince facilitating the image of sexually vivacious women to add to his musical movement during an age of extreme conservatism is hard to determine. Denise would turn to religion years later and denounce the image conjured during this period of her career.
Prince’s relationship with Denise would be well documented with various anecdotes by band members detailing a turbulent but passionate partnership. Their personal and professional relationship would come to an end in 1983 when Matthews would leave Minneapolis and the imminent filming of Purple Rain to pursue a career in LA, a decision that would reportedly cause Prince distress. In a 1985 interview Matthews would elaborate further, “I needed to do something on my own. All in all, I needed to make the wild animal. I had this dream inside of me which needed to be fulfilled. It was a big dream and its something that you know tears you and it tore me this way… I needed to do it on my own.”
Concert Promoter Ted Dainty who facilitated the Australian and New Zealand leg of the Piano And & Microphone Tour would recollect on the unfolding events before the concert as Prince became aware of Vanity’s passing, “We were all a little bit concerned — his bodyguard and his assistant. That was a very unfortunate day. You wouldn’t have been surprised if you’d got the call saying he needs to postpone the show for 24 hours, he’s too much in grief. But he went on.”
As Prince’s entered the stage at the Melbourne State Theatre to begin his first show, welcomed by rapturous applause and screams, he would sit at his piano, and playfully utter, “Nothing interesting happens before midnight, so I think we gotta warm it up” before launching into Big City and one of his last recorded songs, RUFF ENUFF. Throughout the performance he would once again pay tribute to his family, “Love your parents, I loved my father, he gave me rhythm, he gave me soul”, potentially signalling another introspective look at his childhood in the same way the gala shows were a few weeks earlier. But the shadow of Vanity’s passing would loom over the Melbourne performance and would bare itself minutes into the show.
“Um, I just found out a little while ago that someone dear to us has passed away so I want to dedicate this song to her…”
Prince would follow with a mash up of his 1982 smash hit Little Red Corvette and Dirty Mind with the transition between both tracks occurring throughout the performance. Little Red Corvette would be reduced in tempo, and the computerised string arrangements would add to the melancholic nature of the performance. The lyrical contrast between the two songs would in a sense perfectly encapsulate the turbulent but passionate relationship between Prince and Vanity. In Little Red Corvette, he pleads for the object of his affection to contemplate the emotional consequences of casual sex and “slow down.” While in Dirty Mind, his desire and sexual lust runs rampant as he professes to his lover, “You just got to let me lay you down.”
Vanity’s passing would continue to greatly influence the pathos of the shows in Melbourne that night and seemingly prompt Prince to reflect on their time together, in much the same way that the previous gala shows hinged on the memories of his father. This would manifest in some interesting additions to the set list that night, one such example being a track that Duane Tudahl would identify in his brilliant book: Prince And The Purple Rain Studio Sessions years later. After the mash-up of Little Red Corvette/Dirty Mind, Prince would play a portion of an instrumental piece titled The Dawn, originally recorded in 1984. The dawn would be a concept Prince would often return to throughout his career, with albums titled The Dawn configured in both 1993 and 1997, but ultimately unreleased. The 1984 B-Side, Erotic City and an unreleased extended version of Computer Blue would make reference to the dawn and the final track on The Gold Experience would end with a spoken word outro declaring “Welcome to the Dawn.” Rather than a physical location, the dawn seems to represent a state of mind in which one has amassed clarity and a profound knowledge of their place in the world. Prince would elaborate, “In my humble opinion, the dawn occurs when spiritual enlightenment takes place. When one learns of his or her relationship to everything on Earth and in the universe.” In another interview he’d note, “The Dawn is an awakening of the mind, when I can see best how to accomplish the tasks I’m supposed to do. I feel completely clear.”
It’s possible that Vanity’s death may have triggered a reminder of the particular instrumental as Prince harnessed this emotion and expressed it through music and anecdotes in the means of searching for a resolution, The Dawn. So much of the Piano & A Microphone Tour and The Beautiful Ones would rely on the calling of distant memories of those that have passed, extending not only from Prince’s parents but also to ex-lovers and confidants and through sharing anecdotes with the audience, this may have provided some form of clarity to the artist.
While the beginning of the show would be notably somber, Prince was also aware that he had a crowd watching intently, with their own expectations and at times the show would be in flux, a constant battle between the artist grappling with and channeling grief through his music but also the excitement of performing to an audience. This dichotomy would present itself throughout the show.
At times Prince would leave the piano and engage with the audience, absorbing the screams and adulation from the ecstatic crowd, while other times he would sit at the piano, seemingly in his own universe, overcome with emotion reminiscent of his lone performances at Paisley Park. During How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore, Prince would interact with the audience, playing notes in repetition to throw off the crowd and at one point scold the audience with just a playful look for their flat harmonising. He’d once again talk about the importance of space and perform irresistibly playful ad-libs, “How come U don’t call me baby, you forgot my phone number? It’s three little words, Baby come home.”
Prince’s charismatic energy and sense of humour would be on full display, however a somber ending to the track would soon emerge, as he laments, “Dear Lord, Dear Dear Lord, Bring her back, Bring her back home.” While performing The Ladder, he would replace the name Elektra with Vanity and before launching into The Beautiful Ones, he would make a vulnerable admission:
“I’m new to playing this alone. I thank you all for being patient. I’m trying to stay focused — — It’s a little heavy for me tonight, but we’ll just keep jamming. She knows about this one…”
While such a statement would imply an explicit connection between the writing of the 1984 ballad and his relationship with Vanity, Prince would clarify in a 2015 interview with Ebony the lyrical inspiration for the song, “I was talking to somebody about “The Beautiful Ones.” They were speculating as to who I was singing about. But they were completely wrong. If they look at it, it’s very obvious. “Do you want him or do you want me,” that was written for that scene in Purple Rain specifically. Where Morris [Day] would be sitting with [Apollonia], and there’d be this back and forth. And also, “The beautiful ones you always seem to lose,” Vanity had just quit the movie. To then speculate, “Well, he wrote that song about me”? Afterwards you go, “Who are you? Why do you think that you’re part of the script that way? And why would you go around saying stuff like that?”
The Beautiful Ones is a fitting tribute to the poignant end of Prince and Vanity’s relationship and as captured in the performance of the track at both shows that night, there was a sense of cathartic energy pulsating through the artist’s vocal delivery and his purple piano. The first show of the night would be heavily centred on ballads, potentially as a reflection of Prince’s mood during the show. He’d perform a cover of Bob Marley’s Waiting In Vain before transitioning into If I Was Your Girlfriend, he’d croon a goose bump-inducing rendition of I Love U In Me and seduce the audience as he sang Satisfied. At the second show that night, he’d perform an incredible cover of Rufus’ Sweet Thing before launching into Do Me, Baby, in a sense acknowledging the connection between both tracks that he would delve into further in his memoir.
It’s vital to note that the Piano And A Microphone tour was in it’s infancy during this time, as the Melbourne shows would be the first after the Paisley Park gala a few weeks earlier. This would give Prince the opportunity to finesse his craft and experiment with his technique as he continued the tour. Much like the gala shows, the structure was akin to an ever flowing stream of consciousness as Prince would transition between songs, abort some entirely and incorporate elements of various songs into one performance. As he began playing the opening notes of Money Don’t Matter 2night, he would segue into an irresistible piano groove that would last minutes before returning to the track. Similarly during Sometimes It Snows In April, he would transition into the opening notes of Purple Rain before returning back to the Parade ballad. Baldwin would recollect on Prince’s playing during the Australian shows, “He improved his interstitial movement from one song to the next. I think He kept refining that until the end where he would go, ‘Okay I’m gonna actually do this one here because it works better.” And he never had trouble going from “Woah I’m in F sharp minor right now and I have to get to E major, that’s a problem.” Modulating downward… He didn’t have trouble with that because he knew how much time he needed to play chords around getting down into a certain key. He was really good at that. He didn’t see those kinds of problems, they didn’t exist for him.”
As Prince would get the crowd on their feet for a rousing medley incorporating stellar performances of Raspberry Beret, Starfish And Coffee and Paisley Park, he would conclude his set with one of his greatest masterpieces, the euphoric ballad Adore from his 1987 magnum opus, Sign O’ The Times.
Prince’s vocal performance during the entire show would be nothing short of extraordinary and especially emotive as captured throughout the one and a half our set, particularly his falsetto during Adore which sounded just as heavenly crisp as the studio vocal take recorded 30 years earlier. The ever-present memory of Vanity would once again rear it’s head during this final song, as Prince would share a story with the audience:
“Can I tell you a story about Vanity? Or should I tell you a story about Denise?
Her and I used to love one another deeply, she loved me for the artist I was and I loved her for the artist she was trying to be. And as much as we loved, we used to fight. She was very headstrong because she knew she was the finest woman in the world. She never missed an opportunity to tell you that as well.
Back then I used to have a best friend, security guard. His name was Chick and Chick was six foot six and all muscle… except for his stomach where he kept an assortment of fried foods and…
One day Vanity and I got in a fight and I told her that if she didn’t stop I was gonna throw her in the pool. And she said, “You can’t throw me in the pool, you’re too little.”
So I said, “Chick, throw her in the pool.”
I probably shouldn’t be telling you that story but I’m sure she’d want us to celebrate her life and not mourn her passing.”
Prince would be welcomed by laughter and rapturous applause as he reminisced. His tone would shift as he recalled the humorous anecdote with the audience, peacefully recalling precious memories of the early days, contrasting with the clear distress in his voice from the remarks made earlier in the show. Prince would continue to play his piano while telling the story, playing chords and notes to embellish certain aspects of the story.
As he was beginning to write his memoirs and hone the craft of storytelling during this time, the corresponding Piano And & Microphone shows would not only be an outlet for the artist to share memories of semblance but also test them out with the audience. Laughter would erupt in the crowd as Prince recalled notoriously long services at black churches and this anecdote would also appear in the memoir. While stories of his father would be scattered throughout the gala shows a few weeks earlier, Vanity’s memory would be the defining lynchpin of the first two shows in Melbourne and certainly still bear a presence in the performances that would come after.
The day after these emotionally taxing and cathartic shows, Prince would summon Dan to his Melbourne hotel room to assess what he had written so far for his memoir. The approximately 40 pages worth of material would contain stories ranging from Prince’s relationship with his father, the origin of his penchant for musicality and the various relationships with would define his childhood and adolescence. Much of what Prince was reminiscing with the audience at the Paisley Park gala weeks earlier had now been put to paper. Dan recounted being impressed with the work he had seen, “I wondered when he’d written so much, and how long it took. He’d only decided on an editor, a cowriter, and a concept in the past month. He hadn’t even signed a contract yet. But his work, already so published, seemed to have emerged overnight.” While Prince was clearly enthusiastic with what he had produced so far, he was also adjusting to the different writing style that comes within this medium. This is where Piepenbring would use his own expertise to help guide Prince in delivering a memoir as immersive as introspective. Dan would recount, “We touched on a few spots where I was confused or thought he could give the reader a better sense of place. He said he’d want me to draw him out on the bigger-picture stuff, too, and the exact timeline for the events he’d described. “Coming at this as a songwriter, certain details don’t feel relevant.” He explained.”
“Many artists fall down the rabbit holes of their own imaginations & never return. There have been many who decry this as self-destruction, but Eye prefer the term FREE WILL. Life is better lived. What path one takes is what sets us apart from the rest.”
In conjunction with the Piano And Microphone tour, which would take Prince to a number of cities in Australia, The United States and Canada, the artist would also continue having discussions with Dan regarding the various concepts and forms the memoir could take, seemingly filled with ambition and excitement. Weeks earlier during their first meeting, Prince’s direction for the memoir still seemed somewhat unfocused, but it was clear that this project was of the highest priority. There was simply so much ground that could be covered and the artist wanted to make sure the result would be of the highest quality. Dan would elaborate, “What he really wanted to do was write. “I want to write lots of books. It’s all up here,” he said, pointing to his temple. That’s why he wanted to talk to writers and to work with a publisher. “I want my first book to be better than my first album. I like my first album but…” he trailed off. “I’m a lot smarter than I was then.” In fact, he was so bursting with ideas for his first book that he didn’t know where to begin.”
With the endless possibilities that this opportunity would present, it’s not surprising that Prince would be invigorated with this new creative journey. For an artist that had accomplished everything in his respective field, this new venture would in a sense be a start over; A new arena for Prince to immerse himself in, utilising some aspects of the literary form and subverting others. This time, as opposed to recording his first album at the age of 18 with very little life experience, he would write his first book at 57, with a wealth of knowledge and inspiration to draw from.
As Dan met with the artist soon after his Melbourne shows, Prince seemed to have more of a concise idea as to what the memoir would comprise of. He would note that the fundamental crux of the text would be based on the notion of music as a form of healing and maintaining order. In much the same way the artist would defy the rules and standards propelled by society regarding race and gender throughout his career, he would now turn his eye to literary conventions. Piepenbring would elaborate, “He wanted to find some formal devices that would make the book unique, a symbiosis of his words and mine, its authorship in a state of flux. “It would be dope if toward the end, our voices started to blend,” he said. “In the beginning they’re both distinct, but by the end we’re both writing.”
Dan’s voice would be based on the scientific and objectionable, exploring and questioning theories such as cellular memory, while Prince’s contrasting viewpoint would be based on his own personal experiences with music and family. Somewhere in the middle, these two thought processes would collide. Prince would also suggest using the frequent epileptic seizures he would have as a child as a literary device to blend their two distinct voices together throughout the memoir; A book containing the distinct voices of two men from different upbringings, ethnicity and religious views blending into one through the power of story telling and music.
If there is one word to encapsulate the journey of Prince Rogers Nelson towards success, adoration and legendary status in the music industry, it’s freedom. This unapologetic quest to attain freedom of expression would allow the artist to write his own rules. This principle would once again bear itself in the literary field as Prince began deconstructing the standard traditional elements of a biographical memoir to instead look to replace with his own conventions. Prince’s apprehension towards contracts, most notably consummating in his infamous legal battle with Warner Brothers in the 1990’s would manifest in a clause with publisher Random House, which stipulated that he could have the memoir pulled from shelves if he felt it no longer represented him. Such a term would call to mind Prince’s abrupt cancellation of The Black Album release in December, 1987. At 57 years old however, Prince was still on a journey to self-discovery and this would ensure that he would have the freedom to control his perception to the outside world. As Prince sat at his purple piano at Paisley Park on January 21st, he would leave the audience with a rendition of his 2015 track, FREE URSELF as the final performance of the night, a perfectly appropriate conclusion and expression of the central ethos of both the tour and his memoir. Freedom is the defining trait to allow maximisation of potential and creativity of any artistic being, and Prince was very much the pinnacle of this.
FREE URSELF:
Free urself
And save a place for me
Life is what you make it
Be the best that you can be
Now’s the time
Take your place in history
Yours and mine
The happy and the free
Prince would officially announce The Beautiful Ones to the media at an event in New York City on March 18th and he would continue with the Piano & A Microphone tour, with dates taking place in Montreal, Toronto and eventually Atlanta. Prince’s final shows would take place at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta on the 14th of April, 2016.
A week later on the 21st of April, Prince would pass away at his Paisley Park residence in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Though Prince’s ambitious vision for his memoir would not materialise to it’s full extent, what he did allow himself to share in his last two creative ventures is nothing short of extraordinary for his music loving supporters. Whether it was through the lens of an audience member gazing at Prince’s petite silhouette as he delivered intimate renditions of their favourite songs simply with just a piano and microphone, or the aspiring musician with a copy of The Beautiful Ones in hand reading as Prince dissected his creative process. As he shared stories ranging from his relationship with his parents, his turbulent childhood and his desires, Prince would take his supporters directly with him on his journey to self-reflection, not only as a means for finding direction within himself, but also to inspire a new generation of creatives that would excel in their passion, question and provoke in order to shift the status quo. As Prince would note when writing his memoirs:
“If I want this book to be about one overarching thing, it’s freedom. And the freedom to create autonomously. Without anyone telling you what to do or how or why. Our consciousness is programmed. We see things a certain way from a young age- we’re rogrammed to keep doing them that way. Then you have to spend adult-hood learning how to overcome it, to read out the programs. Try to create. I want to tell people to create. Just start by creating your day. Then create your life.”
While the Piano & A Microphone gala and tour would be an auditory guide into how the curious young musical prodigy would become Prince Rogers Nelson, The Beautiful Ones would be intended to couple this personal journey with an expansive scope. By looking outward at society and everything it encapsulates from scientific theories of cellular memory to race relations Prince would attempt to create a community of tenacious and passionate creatives. Within this confluence Prince would hope that the reader would find personal semblance in his words and teachings in order to find and reach their own transcendence, because when that happens, oh Boy….
“I love growing older. You can figure things out quicker because you’ve seen how things happen in the past and so you know what the results a certain action will have. Also, the older I get the closer I am to where I’m going, which is a better place.” — Prince.
Special Thanks: John Cameron & Stephen Fantinel.
Works Cited:
Prince: The Beautiful Ones — NPG Music Publishing 2019 | Okayplayer — Guitarist MonoNeon On Missing Prince, Being Inspired By Cardi B & More. April 17 2018 | “Black is the New Black” — Interview with Adrian Crutchfield — Erica Thompson. February 22, 2019 | RNZ — Susan Rogers on her four intense years working for Prince — Tony Stamp. 11.08.2018 | Twin Cities Tycoon — Greg Kot — November 1988 | The Artist Is Back — But Dont Call It a Comeback — Anthony De Curtis. -September 12, 1999 | Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music By Greg Kot 2009 |Remembering Prince: His Highness Gets Down -Karl Coryat -November 1999 | All Day, All Night, All Prince. A Rare Interview: Smokey D Fontaine — September 2, 2015 | Prince Hits N Runs N Talks! — Ebony interview — Miles Marshall Lewis. Dec 22, 2015 | Prince on his concert tour in Australia: ‘This show is 4 me, the fans and history’ — Kathy McCabe — February 6, 2016 | Prince announces the Piano and a Microphone Tour — Ariana Bacle — November 10 2015 | Prince Talks: The Silence Is Broken — Neal Karlen. September 12 1985 | Prince: ‘Transcendence. That’s what you want. When that happens — Oh, boy’ — Alexis Petridis — November 13, 2015 | Prince: ‘I’m A Musician. And I Am Music. — Dorian Lynskey 24 Jun 2011 | New Interview With Prince From The Melbourne Sunday Herald! — 6th May 2012 | Welcome 2 The Dawn Prince Interview: 2012 | The Prince Podcast — Scottie Baldwin Interview — June 4, 2017 | Peach & Black Podcast — Scottie Baldwin Interview — August 15th 2019 | Prince: Strange Tales from Andre’s Basement… and other fantasies come true. - Barbara Graustark. –Musician September 1983 | Prince’s First Ever Interview For Television — Steve Fargnoli — November 15, 1985 | A Dirty Mind Comes Clean — Andy Schwartz (New York Rocker) –June 1981 | Some day your Prince will come — Steve Sutherland — June 1981 | The Renegade Prince — Robert Hilburn — November 21 1982 | Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One — By Rickey Vincent — 1996 | African American Spirituals — Library Of Congress | The Prince Podcast — Susan Rogers Interview –January 2017
