SOUNDTRACK: 'Purple Rain' With Anthony Anzaldo

Yasi is joined by musician and producer Anthony Anzaldo (Ceremony, Anthony Family) to unpack 'Purple Rain,' the soundtrack that took Prince from rising pop star to household name. They discuss the making of the film, the role of The Revolution, the live recording that became the title track, Morris Day and The Time (and of course, Jerome), and how Prince blended rock, funk, and pop to create a wholly new sound, turning a soundtrack into a blockbuster event and the biggest album of his career. CREDITS:Host: Yasi Salek @yasisalekGuest: Anthony Anzaldo @anthonyxfamilyProducer: Rob SundermannEditor: Adrian BridgesAdditional Production Supervision: Justin SaylesTheme Song: Bethany Cosentino Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Speaker 00

  What's with this band anyway? I don't get it, can you please explain? Wait, like, Bandplain? Never heard this band in my life. Oh, you haven't? I'd love that. Really? Why? Yeah, I love the song. Oh, I don't know that one. Bandplain, Bandplain, Bandplain. I really like this band! Whatever, I'm their biggest fan. Bandplain, Bandplain, Bandplain, Bandplain.

• 0:46Yasi Salek?

  Hello and welcome to Bandplain. I am your host, Yasi Salek. This is usually a show where I invite an expert guest on to help me explain a cult band or iconic artist. But today's episode is a little different. Today's episode is about the soundtrack to the major motion picture, Purple Rain, by a little guy called Prince. You might have heard of him. If you've never heard "Purple Rain", "I never meant to cause you any sorrow." "I never meant to cause you any pain."

• 1:28Yasi Salek?

  That's pretty good, right?

• 1:29Speaker 02

  Heard worse.

• 1:30Yasi Salek?

  Thank you so much. My guest today, you guys, Anthony Unzaldo of the bands Ceremony and Anthony Family, has walked up in this bitch, fucking mugging me to hell. Like, on my own show, the disrespect, brutally frame-mugged on my own podcast by Anthony Unzaldo of Ceremony and Anthony Family. Welcome to the program.

• 1:57Speaker 02

  None of us could ever attempt to mock you. You're un-moggable.

• 2:01Yasi Salek?

  It's fine. I'm not so professional and I've moved on.

• 2:08Yasi Salek?

  Anthony, I'm so delighted to have you here.

• 2:11Speaker 02

  Thank you for having me. I was so, speaking of being delighted, your intro delighted me. Being able to see you do it in person.

• 2:19Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:19Speaker 02

  Here.

• 2:20Yasi Salek?

  Watching like a professional athlete.

• 2:22Speaker 02

  Yes, exactly.

• 2:23Yasi Salek?

  Like on the court.

• 2:24Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:24Yasi Salek?

  It was like watching Michael Jordan warm up.

• 2:27Speaker 02

  That's exactly what I was gonna say.

• 2:30Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, I think many people have said that about me reading a paragraph that I read every week on this show. Sports. Ceremonies fantastic new album, Tell Me Your Dream, comes out August 7th. We're very excited. Anthony, before we get into it, and keep it short, but can you, can you tell me about?

• 2:51Speaker 02

  You invited the wrong guest.

• 2:53Yasi Salek?

  I know, I know. Your relationship with Prince, and maybe more specifically with the soundtrack album, which is obviously also a Prince and the Revolution album, Purple Rain.

• 3:08Speaker 02

  My relationship with Prince started when I was about eight or nine years old. My father worked in radio, growing up, and so we were lucky enough to have a house full of compact discs. And whenever I would hear of an artist, I would go to my dad and say, hey, I've heard of this artist, which album should I start with? And he would tell me, and I would go to our CD collection and I would start, start with that album. So I found out about Prince, however, just through living in life and MTV. I can't remember how I first heard his name, but it was just, you know, this omnipresent sort of pop,

• 3:50Speaker 02

  you know, figure. And he said, oh, start with Purple Rain. I go to our CD collection and he didn't have Purple Rain. We had 1999 and the greatest hits records. And I said, Dad, we don't have Purple Rain. And he was like, what?

• 4:06Yasi Salek?

  What?

• 4:07Speaker 02

  And I was like, yeah, that album that you told me to check out is in here. He goes, let's, and so he drove me to Backdoor Disc and Tape at that moment to purchase Purple Rain. I could elaborate further in my introduction to Prince, but. To button it up, that was my introduction to the soundtrack album.

• 4:27Yasi Salek?

  Okay, how old are you again?

• 4:29Speaker 02

  Eight or nine.

• 4:30Yasi Salek?

  Eight or nine years old.

• 4:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:32Yasi Salek?

  And what, what were the feelings and emotions when you first heard that bitch? Slammed it on the tape player at home?

• 4:43Yasi Salek?

  Or your Walkman, I guess.

• 4:44Speaker 02

  It was, it, uh, it truly altered my life forever. Prince has been by far my favorite artist. He is somebody that I think about every day. He is somebody whose music has impacted me so much from every age. And I think about this all the time about why, like, why that is? Cause it is like, it's not lost on me that it's like, might be kind of weird to like, how to like, make somebody part of your identity.

• 5:16Yasi Salek?

  Well, I think it's quite common.

• 5:18Speaker 02

  Sure, but like, you know, for someone, for a lot of us, you know, like, I wasn't this person that, you know, found, you hear these stories, who are like, I found punk when I was 11 years old.

• 5:29Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 5:30Speaker 02

  I first heard like Green Day and like, that's, that wasn't me. But I always knew that, I'll try not to go super deep into this.

• 5:38Yasi Salek?

  Don't hold back, man.

• 5:40Speaker 02

  But as a, you know, as a young child, even then I knew that, you know, sort of, you know, um, Western values and like societal norms like didn't totally make all the sense to me. But when all you know is pop culture, you don't know where to sort of like funnel that energy, you know, and my dad, again, was in radio. So we were a big music household, but it, it never, nothing ever was below the surface or, or at all left on the dial, right? Like.

• 6:13Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 6:14Speaker 02

  Music was so present in my life, but only popular music.

• 6:19Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 6:20Speaker 02

  But all popular music, right? So when I found Prince, I was like.

• 6:31Speaker 02

  It was my first reference of subversion.

• 6:34Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 6:35Speaker 02

  Or otherness.

• 6:35Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 6:36Speaker 02

  And I think that's why it made such a profound impact on me where, you know, and I guess one could be listening to this and be like, you're doing an episode on one of the biggest albums of all time. How is that all subversive or?

• 6:50Yasi Salek?

  No, but like.

• 6:51Speaker 02

  But as a kid.

• 6:52Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 6:53Speaker 02

  Seeing someone who looked like that and hearing like that music does not sound like Madonna. That music does not sound like Michael Jackson. This music does not sound like Huey Lewis or any of the other giant pop things at that time. Not to discount any of those artists or their work because they are incredible, but Prince

• 7:15Speaker 02

  to me was subversive and was extremely different. And I'm like, and it was, it was the first time that I realized that there were things outside of sort of societal norms and, and standards.

• 7:28Yasi Salek?

  Well, I think to help contextualize for your, for you, sorry to jump in, but like when you're eight or nine, it's the mid nineties, right? Is that about right?

• 7:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:37Yasi Salek?

  So I think people do forget that as much as like the mid nineties were very like alternative culture is now the mainstream culture. It was still very heteronormative, you know, like it was very like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, you know, these are like, sure, in a way, subversive in the sense of like the emotions of the music and stuff, but these are still just like dude bros kind of that you're looking at. And you know, Kurt Cobain obviously had a slightly different thing. And like, you know, seeing him in a dress and stuff probably was like pretty, you know, hit a certain same type of emotion. But like, even like you mentioned Green Day, like by the mid nineties, it's like there might've been nerdy guys.

• 8:20Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 8:21Yasi Salek?

  But you're not really seeing anything like Prince.

• 8:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:24Yasi Salek?

  And it's much past the heyday. So like, you know, It would have been, I, I, I understand that you would have been like, what the hell am I looking at here? You know?

• 8:35Speaker 02

  Totally. And the alternative stuff didn't hit me then. Like, I got into guitar from Prince.

• 8:41Yasi Salek?

  Sure.

• 8:42Speaker 02

  You know, I, I, we were a very, you know, R and B and pop household.

• 8:46Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 8:47Speaker 02

  So, you know, the Nirvana's and, you know, the, the grunge and alternative scene like did not, did not land with me.

• 8:55Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 8:55Speaker 02

  I didn't even like, kind of give it, I didn't even really even look over there. Cause I was like, I don't even, I don't know. I don't, I don't know what that is. So, so, so that's why Prince was sort of my reference for otherness. Because of course, like you said, like the Nirvana's of the world, like, were, were sort of left to the dial in the context of mainstream culture for sure.

• 9:16Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. That's so interesting. Well, great. I love that little, little backstory.

• 9:21Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm. And then we saw them, my, my dad, uh, myself, my mom, on the Jam of the Year Tour in 1997.

• 9:29Yasi Salek?

  Oh, amazing.

• 9:29Speaker 02

  And then it was, it was on.

• 9:32Yasi Salek?

  You were just, that was it?

• 9:33Speaker 02

  It was on.

• 9:33Yasi Salek?

  That's all the, there was only one, one guy for you?

• 9:36Speaker 02

  That's right. That's right.

• 9:38Yasi Salek?

  And it was Prince Rogers Nelson?

• 9:41Speaker 02

  That man.

• 9:41Yasi Salek?

  That's right. Prince Rogers Nelson? Prince Rogers Nelson. Before we dive in, I just want to say that this is like, part of our sort of potentially ongoing eighties soundtrack series. Um, this is not a Prince episode.

• 9:57Yasi Salek?

  There might be Prince episodes, you know, like, I, I don't, I'm not, I think I've, I've probably said many times on this podcast when it's been brought up, like, oh, that'll never happen because it was so scary. Um, not because Prince is scary, but because the, just the largesse of the catalog.

• 10:11Speaker 02

  The body of work.

• 10:11Yasi Salek?

  And the body of work and the scholarship around it. But, you know, I just emerged from six weeks of Madonna month and I didn't die.

• 10:20Speaker 02

  You could do anything.

• 10:22Yasi Salek?

  Prince is obviously a whole different bag of chips.

• 10:25Speaker 02

  Sure. We have talked about this off camera many times.

• 10:28Yasi Salek?

  Different value proposition, but like, now that like, I got into the Madonna of it all, I was like, oh, it would be kind of a fun challenge.

• 10:37Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 10:37Yasi Salek?

  Um, but this is not this and it won't be anytime soon because I'm still recovering. Uh, okay. Well, why don't we take it lightly from the top? I'm going to tell a story. I'm going to weave a story and I'm going to jump around.

• 10:51Speaker 02

  Weave.

• 10:52Yasi Salek?

  We're going to actually start, um, on August 3rd, 1983.

• 10:57Yasi Salek?

  With a performance by Prince and the Revolution, our First Avenue in Minneapolis. Twenty-five-dollar tickets to benefit the Minnesota Dance Theater. Fifteen-hundred people are in attendance, including one, Albert Magnoli. He is a recent graduate of the USC Film School. He's in Minneapolis to prep the feature film that will star Prince, based loosely on his life. During the set, Prince performs a new song. It's thirteen minutes long. It is called "Purple Rain." This is Wendy Melvoyn's first-ever show as a new member of the Revolution. This is something I want to ask you about later, but... So this show was recorded. Sort of a fly...

• 11:42Yasi Salek?

  Made-on-the-fly decision, not a lot of forethought. The band thought they were just, like, recording it for posterity. And maybe they were, but they do end up using these recordings. Anyways, as the story goes, Magnoli goes backstage and he's like, "What was that thirteen-minute-long, just gorgeous, devastating piece of music?" He didn't say that. I'm editorializing. And Prince is like, "Oh, 'Purple Rain'? That's not done yet." And he goes, "Well, it's a good song for the climactic moment in our film, and can we also call the film 'Purple Rain'?" Let's back up even further. April 1983, Prince has returned home from the 1999 tour. Let's back back even more up.

• 12:24Speaker 02

  Ooh.

• 12:26Yasi Salek?

  Let's go back to June 7, 1958.

• 12:32Speaker 02

  The birth?

• 12:33Yasi Salek?

  The birth of Prince Rogers Nelson, a Gemini in Minneapolis, Minnesota, named after his father, John Lewis Nelson's most popular stage name, Prince Rogers, which was used while he would perform with his mother, Matty Della, in a jazz group. It's pretty sick. It's also really sick that two of the...

• 12:55Yasi Salek?

  I'm gonna get into this later, but someone actually did point out that like,

• 12:59Yasi Salek?

  I, I, during the Madonna episodes, I keep sort of pointing to there being three pinnacles of eighties music, being Madonna, Prince and Michael Jackson, starting at a certain time to a certain time. And they keep being like, oh, you, you're leaving out Bruce Springsteen. And I, I like, I think that's correct, except that I was, I was kind of speaking in pop music. And I think Bruce Springsteen was still making rock music. But yes, to be fair, Bruce Springsteen is Titanic in this group as well.

• 13:24Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 13:25Yasi Salek?

  But Madonna, Michael Jackson and Prince, all born in the same year.

• 13:28Speaker 02

  Within a like seven, eight, nine hour driving distance of each other?

• 13:33Yasi Salek?

  Insane. What was I saying for that? Why did I even say that?

• 13:37Speaker 02

  The three pinnacles.

• 13:38Yasi Salek?

  Oh, because Prince and Madonna, those are their real names. Which I think people, a lot is made out of like, oh, those crazy artists with those crazy stage names. It's like, no, those are their birth certificate names.

• 13:49Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 13:50Yasi Salek?

  Prince and Madonna.

• 13:51Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 13:52Yasi Salek?

  Destined for greatness, honestly.

• 13:53Speaker 02

  Michael Jackson, also his real name.

• 13:56Yasi Salek?

  Is Michael Jackson, yeah, not, maybe not as.

• 13:58Speaker 02

  I don't know if that's true. I assume that's true.

• 14:00Yasi Salek?

  I think it is, yeah. And quite, not quite as exciting, not quite as destined for greatness. We're gonna skip a fucking shit ton now, okay? I'm sorry. I'm not going through the chat. We're, this is not Prince episode. But I just wanted to mention where he's born and also that he said, this is important to the movie and also that's the soundtrack, because they're sort of inextricably woven. Prince said to Tavis Smiley in 2009, "My father was so hard on me. I was never good enough. It was almost like the army when it came to music. I wasn't allowed to play the piano when he was there because I wasn't as good as him. So when he left, I was determined to get as good as him and I taught myself how to play music. And I just stuck with it and I did it all the time. And sooner or later, people in the neighborhood heard about me and they started to talk."

• 14:44Speaker 02

  Come on.

• 14:44Yasi Salek?

  Come on.

• 14:45Speaker 02

  Come on.

• 14:46Yasi Salek?

  Origin story, babe. See, it really made me want to, see, now I like want to do that episode because I'm like, gosh, so many little strings.

• 14:55Speaker 02

  Treats.

• 14:55Yasi Salek?

  Okay, now we're, we're getting back on our time machine. Fast forward 1978. Prince puts out his very first album. What's it called?

• 15:04Speaker 02

  For you.

• 15:04Yasi Salek?

  That's right.

• 15:05Speaker 02

  Recorded in Solcito, California.

• 15:08Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, that's where it was.

• 15:09Speaker 02

  Near where I grew up. That, that's the only reason why.

• 15:12Yasi Salek?

  I believe Pearl Jam also recorded an album there. Fully unrelated, it's just because we mentioned Pearl Jam earlier and I, I love Lamped that right now.

• 15:23Yasi Salek?

  Okay, so according to the For You album notes, Prince wrote, produced, arranged, composed and played all 27 instruments on the recording of his first album, except for which song? Oh, see, I wanted to see, I wanted to soften what. The lyrics were co-written by Chris Moon.

• 15:40Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 15:41Yasi Salek?

  The producer who had helped him make the demo tape. Incidentally, as far back as the making of those first demo tapes, a guy called David Z. Cliff Siegel, who was around, he was a former bandmate of the businessman Owen Hussany, who was Prince's first manager. He recalls that Prince's goals from very first demo tape were to do films, be number one and produce other groups.

• 16:07Speaker 02

  And when did he accomplish all of that?

• 16:10Yasi Salek?

  Seems like 1984.

• 16:12Speaker 02

  That's right, babe.

• 16:13Yasi Salek?

  Well, he had probably, yeah, yeah, okay. We do okay with the first album, right? Soft and What hits number 12 on the Hot Soul Singles, number 92 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's not incredible. In 1979, Prince releases his second album. What's that one called?

• 16:29Speaker 02

  Self-titled.

• 16:30Yasi Salek?

  Self-titled. Hits number three on the Billboard Top R&B Black Albums and number 22 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum. This is important just to point out that, once again, we are still living very much in a timeline where there is black radio and there is white radio. And the twain do not mix. So obviously, his music is being serviced to black radio, urban radio. The two hits were Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad and?

• 16:58Speaker 02

  I Want to Be Your Lover.

• 16:59Yasi Salek?

  That's right. Why I Want to Be Your Lover sold more than a million copies. Hit number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, that's good.

• 17:06Speaker 02

  Really, yeah.

• 17:06Yasi Salek?

  Really good. 1980 is the third album.

• 17:10Speaker 02

  Dirty Mind.

• 17:11Yasi Salek?

  That's right. Certified gold. What was the big single?

• 17:15Speaker 02

  You're probably thinking Uptown.

• 17:17Yasi Salek?

  That's right.

• 17:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:18Yasi Salek?

  It hit number five on the Billboard Dance Chart

• 17:21Yasi Salek?

  and number five on the Hot Soul Singles Chart. Then in 1981, this man is just fucking grinding it out, which not even close to actually what his work cadence will be in the future, but. Puts out the fourth album.

• 17:32Speaker 02

  Controversy.

• 17:33Yasi Salek?

  That's right. Raches number three on the Billboard R&B Albums Chart. Certified Platinum. We're fucking cooking here, okay? We are cooking.

• 17:40Speaker 02

  Yet to have a single as big as "I Wanna Be Your Lover," but.

• 17:43Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Also.

• 17:44Speaker 02

  It's coming. It's coming together.

• 17:46Yasi Salek?

  Frankly, not that famous.

• 17:48Speaker 02

  No.

• 17:48Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 17:49Speaker 02

  No.

• 17:49Yasi Salek?

  Like, could not be picked out of a lineup, basically, at this point.

• 17:52Speaker 02

  Yeah. If you, it's, he's essentially a cold artist.

• 17:55Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 17:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:56Yasi Salek?

  In eighty-one, he forms a side project. It's called The Time. That band releases four albums between eighty-one and nineteen ninety. Mostly written by Prince?

• 18:08Speaker 02

  Mostly written by Prince.

• 18:10Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 18:11Speaker 02

  Yeah. Mostly leaning into exclusively, but, but we'll say mostly to give Jesse Johnson and, and Morris some, some, some props.

• 18:19Yasi Salek?

  Under the pseudonyms Jamie Starr and the Starr Company. Um, lead vocals at the time, of course, the one and only Morris motherfucking Day.

• 18:31Speaker 02

  Morris Day.

• 18:32Yasi Salek?

  His childhood friend, right, from high school and stuff. Okay. In October of nineteen eighty-two, Prince releases a double album, nineteen ninety-nine. Sold more than four million copies. This is something you pointed me towards, but I wanted to talk about it because you were so right, that it's so interesting, that when nineteen ninety-nine came out, the amount of black music on the Billboard Hot One Hundred was down nearly eighty percent from seventy-nine. So that's three years. Almost half of the Hot One Hundred back in seventy-nine could also be found on the Urban Contemporary Chart, and that was not the case anymore. And not one record by a black artist was in the top twenty on the Top Two Hundred Album Chart or the Hot One Hundred Singles Chart for three weeks of that October,

• 19:18Yasi Salek?

  until controversy comes out. This was, had never happened. Yeah. Sorry, nineteen ninety-nine came out. This had literally never happened since the creation of Top Forty.

• 19:28Speaker 02

  Yeah. And it just shows you, I mean, obviously, we're gonna get into the, you know, Purple Rain, but.

• 19:35Speaker 02

  Prince is very much regarded as a black artist.

• 19:37Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 19:38Speaker 02

  And within the industry and within the popular culture at large. So to have your album come out the month where there is the least amount of featured black artists on the chart, to then, only two years later, have Purple Rain, is like such an incredible mountain to climb.

• 19:57Yasi Salek?

  Insane. Also, like, just to like paint a picture of like, the biggest, the number one albums in 1982, it's AC/DC, for those about To Rock, We Salute You. It's Foreigner. It's the Jay Giles Band. It's the Go-Go's. It's Paul McCartney, Asia, Fleetwood Mac, Men at Work. Do you see a through line in the theme?

• 20:26Yasi Salek?

  1999, the title track.

• 20:30Yasi Salek?

  That, that's a song about.

• 20:34Speaker 02

  The apocalypse?

• 20:34Yasi Salek?

  The apocalypse, but like, maybe more specifically around nuclear war, right?

• 20:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:39Yasi Salek?

  Because we're sort of like, the threat of nuclear war loomed kind of large in the early 80s. Prince really likes to write about the apocalypse.

• 20:47Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 20:48Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Makes sense. Biblical. It was Prince's first top 10 hit in countries outside of the United States, so a bit of more of a global reach. Also, this is very important. Little Red Corvette. Let's fucking go.

• 21:02Speaker 02

  Come on.

• 21:03Yasi Salek?

  Come on.

• 21:04Speaker 02

  You believe it?

• 21:05Yasi Salek?

  No. I honestly can't, but that's, we're gonna have to leave that for the Prince episode. What's important, and we talked about this on the Madonna episode too, it's one of the first two videos. The first, the first video to ever be played on MTV, which had started in 81, the first video to be played on there by a black artist, and not like first ever, but to be put into actual rotation, was Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. And famously, the story. It's very funny. This year I've been thinking about all three of these artists for various reasons. Michael Jackson, because the film came out, but it's also, it's depicted in the film where Walter Yentikoff, oh my God, thank God, okay.

• 21:45Speaker 02

  He'll be.

• 21:46Yasi Salek?

  Thank you so much. The head of CBS Records, he basically, like, they came to him and they were like, "We want to be on MTV, or if you don't put us on MTV, we're leaving your fucking label." Michael Jackson and his, and his, in the movie, his lawyer, but I assume was also his manager. And Walter Yentikoff is like, played by Mike Myers, by the way, in the film, incredible, calls and is like, "If you don't play Michael Jackson's video, I will pull all the rest of our artists." And they had so many huge artists. And so MTV was like, "Fine."

• 22:15Speaker 02

  It's unbelievable.

• 22:16Yasi Salek?

  And that opened the door for Prince also, you know? It's unbelievable.

• 22:19Speaker 02

  How much strong arm needed to happen.

• 22:21Yasi Salek?

  But it shouldn't be unbelievable. As in, we're living in a fucking racist society and have since the dawn of time, but...

• 22:24Speaker 02

  Of course, but like, Michael Jackson is regarded, like, that era of Michael Jackson, those videos are regarded as the greatest music videos of all time. So they had to threaten a music video channel with the best music videos ever.

• 22:44Yasi Salek?

  I think it's like, really, that's like, I don't want, I don't want to be reductive or oversimplify, and I'm not like, you know, a race studies person, but like, the fact that racism was like, literally bare, basically stronger than capitalism at that point. They were like, "We don't care how popular it is. We don't play black artists." Or like, maybe it was, it might...

• 23:04Speaker 02

  I mean, they were interwoven. They didn't trust that.

• 23:07Yasi Salek?

  They didn't think that, they also didn't, they thought they would lose the other part of their audience. And so maybe it was still money driven, because everything is money driven, you know? But anyways, God bless Yentikoff, because he put his bald on the table and said, "Okay, I'm taking all my artists away." And they were like, "Okay, right on top of that, Roz. Let's throw Billie Jean right in here." And then thankfully, also Prince.

• 23:31Yasi Salek?

  So things are going good.

• 23:33Speaker 02

  But not good enough for our friend.

• 23:36Yasi Salek?

  He gets a Grammy nomination for International Lover. A month after 1999, which is obviously groundbreaking in its own way, Thriller comes out, which is, you know, gonna overshadow pretty much anything. Tell me about like the sort of origin of the revolution and how it dates back to 1999.

• 23:58Speaker 02

  So the revolution, Prince's band, you know, the inception was obviously in 1979, when he needed a band to start. So a few of the members are have been are already present by the time 1999 comes.

• 24:18Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 24:20Speaker 02

  Bobby Z and Dr. Fink are in Prince's first inception, right? By the time 1999 rolls around, is the first time that the term "the revolution" is used. Prince hid that within the album cover, "Prince and the Revolution."

• 24:39Yasi Salek?

  Yes, he hid it, but like.

• 24:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, wink. Like, I assume that that was not sort of his attempts to soft launch, "this is the name of the band." I think that was, because there's so many little Easter eggs within that drawing and within the album cover of 1999. I could be wrong, but he didn't use "the revolution" in the way he did with the next three albums, right, where it was very present. But all of the revolution by 1999 that we see in Purple Rain is there, except Wendy, who replaces Des Dickerson as the guitarist.

• 25:18Yasi Salek?

  So we have Lisa Coleman, we have Dr. Fink, we have Bobby Z on drums.

• 25:24Speaker 02

  Yep, we have Mark Brown.

• 25:25Yasi Salek?

  Mark Brown on bass.

• 25:26Speaker 02

  Who replaced Andre Simone.

• 25:28Yasi Salek?

  Okay, and Des Dickerson, like you said, on guitar. And then also Jill Jones was doing backing vocals in not really like an official capacity of the revolution, but she was sort of there.

• 25:39Speaker 02

  Yes, as she did throughout, you know, many, even many years later. He would use her often, yeah, for backing vocals.

• 25:45Yasi Salek?

  So there's mixed reasonings around why Des Dickerson left the band, right?

• 25:51Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 25:53Yasi Salek?

  We don't have to like get fully into it, but. But he left the band.

• 25:58Speaker 02

  He left, he, he leaves the band. He was unhappy and left the band.

• 26:00Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, not, maybe necessarily didn't like want to, but wasn't fired. It was more like, it wasn't working for him the way, as, as it was going.

• 26:08Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 26:09Yasi Salek?

  And so Wendy Melvoin was Lisa Coleman's girlfriend at the time. Also, who is Wendy Melvoin's father?

• 26:17Speaker 02

  Mike Melvoin.

• 26:18Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 26:18Speaker 02

  Famous, uh, studio musician, Wrecking Crew, former president of the Recording Academy, I also think.

• 26:25Yasi Salek?

  I'll believe you, because I didn't, I didn't know that.

• 26:28Speaker 02

  Um, a very, a regarded.

• 26:31Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 26:32Speaker 02

  Uh, extreme talent and, and, and studio, uh, in, in studio musicianship.

• 26:38Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, I mean, the Wrecking Crew, just like iconic on so many, on so many.

• 26:41Speaker 02

  Jesus.

• 26:42Yasi Salek?

  Like, we don't have time to listen to them all here, but look it up. Wendy Melvoin's addition is important for like a myriad of reasons, but she was a stronger, this is what I read. That she was a stronger rhythm player than a lead guitarist, which sort of cleared the lane for Prince.

• 26:57Speaker 02

  For Prince.

• 26:58Yasi Salek?

  To kind of be the solo guitar hero of the band.

• 27:02Speaker 02

  Correct. At least, you know, in the public facing. I mean, and Prince, you know, it's, he let Dez play the solo on Little Red Corvette.

• 27:10Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 27:10Speaker 02

  And that's regarded as one of the greatest solos of all time. Dez was a lead guitar player.

• 27:15Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 27:16Speaker 02

  Um, but as you said, you know, so Prince was kind of letting him sort of exist in that lane.

• 27:24Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 27:26Speaker 02

  But with, but with now Lisa, he.

• 27:28Yasi Salek?

  Wendy.

• 27:29Speaker 02

  Oh yeah, I apologize. Without, but now with Wendy, he's able to show that I'm, I'm actually the greatest guitar player.

• 27:36Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, I mean, I read a lot.

• 27:37Speaker 02

  Which is so a part of the Purple Rain.

• 27:39Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 27:40Speaker 02

  Thing. Him being a guitar god is, is just really baked into the success and the aesthetic of the entire Purple Rain album, movie and tour.

• 27:51Yasi Salek?

  I feel like I read also some stuff that was like Wendy also brought like a totally different vibe.

• 27:58Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 27:59Yasi Salek?

  Like he like something about her presence made him different. Or like I I I don't have the quote in front of me. Someone was like, oh, because there was this woman that had no sexual availability to him because she was lesbian. I mean, he had that with Lisa, too, right? But like, but but still, they had this kind of charming like interplay. And maybe someone was saying that he like kind of saw her as like a counterpart to himself.

• 28:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:29Yasi Salek?

  And was able to like, kind of, you know, obviously, one of Prince's greatest things is that like, he sees, he thinks 360, like, he sees everything from every angle and is like, I want to present this band in this way.

• 28:40Speaker 02

  And her music, she was into music that he didn't really, she was really into classical music.

• 28:46Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 28:46Speaker 02

  And she was kind of one of the first people within the revolution and who could show him things. And because and because his guard was down, he wasn't trying to impress her.

• 28:57Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 28:58Speaker 02

  Sexually.

• 28:59Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 29:00Speaker 02

  You know, it sort of allowed this sort of dynamic and relationship to develop that was peer to peer.

• 29:07Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 29:07Speaker 02

  And so then he then in turn could hear these classical records and hear, you know, I mean, he was a he was a huge Joni Mitchell fan, but she was also a huge Joni Mitchell fan. So he now had someone to bond. I mean, that's probably his greatest lyrical influence is Joni. So to have someone to share that love and bond with only, you know, kind of glued them even more together.

• 29:33Yasi Salek?

  OK, I have a I found the quote.

• 29:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 29:34Yasi Salek?

  I want to read it. I think it's from Jill Jones. You can see that it just worked. His behavior, Prince's behavior onstage, lightened up a lot more. The nuances, the eye contact, the interaction between those two specifically. There was something a little more human and charming and cute because Wendy used to dote on him all the time and tell him how cute he was. Maybe it was because there was finally a girl around who didn't want to like shag him. Somebody's saying wonderful, feminine, nurturing things, but there's no payoff. Like, what can I get from this sexually? I think it was a nice little bit of a break for him. It was like a sanctuary to be onstage.

• 30:03Speaker 02

  It makes sense.

• 30:04Yasi Salek?

  Love it.

• 30:04Speaker 02

  As someone, especially for someone who is so. Sexually charged.

• 30:08Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, and who positions himself like that towards the world all the time.

• 30:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:12Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. I did also read something that there was a quote from Morris Day in 2012 where he said that he would have been a better drummer than Bobby Z and that maybe that was like a potential. I did you ever read that? I don't know.

• 30:24Speaker 02

  Uh, more, everyone says that Morris Day is one of the greatest drummers of all time.

• 30:29Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 30:30Speaker 02

  Prince loved him behind the kit. Um, but Bobby, no one has said that Bobby's the greatest drummer of the world.

• 30:37Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 30:38Speaker 02

  Like, that's not, that's just simply not part of.

• 30:42Yasi Salek?

  The lore here.

• 30:42Speaker 02

  Of, of the lore of the revolution and much love to, to Bobby Z, but I, he was a, he was a utility player. He was perfect for the role and you needed someone like Bobby because Prince programmed most of those drums on drum machine.

• 30:57Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 30:58Speaker 02

  So to have, I don't know if the revolution would have worked with.

• 31:02Yasi Salek?

  Someone that had flair.

• 31:03Speaker 02

  With a powerhouse drummer because they would have felt slighted by the fact that they had to, Bobby had to learn how to, how to play the Lind one drum machine.

• 31:12Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 31:13Speaker 02

  You know what I mean? And like, there aren't very many drummers who would say, okay, yeah, like, cool, like that's part of my job, you know, most drummers would be like, are you fucking kidding me? You're, you're allowing me to be equal to this machine where Bobby sort of embraced that, you know, part of his role. So I don't know if you get, I, I think Bobby, and, and that's why Bobby was essential to the revolution. Was Morris a better drummer?

• 31:38Yasi Salek?

  I just, I thought it was funny because like, it was brought up in the sense that maybe he was a bit resentful about it. But then it seems to me that honestly, just from standing back, like Prince had bigger plans for you, you know? Like he, he knew that you were like a front man, you know, and he put you in front.

• 31:51Speaker 02

  Morris always saw himself as a drummer until, you know, when Alexander O'Neal leaves the potential scene of the vocalist of, of the time and Prince says, why don't you do it? Morris was, was like, what are you talking about? He goes, dude, you're the coolest.

• 32:05Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 32:05Speaker 02

  The coolest dude I know. Like, how can, you can do that?

• 32:08Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. See?

• 32:10Speaker 02

  So I don't, I don't know. Yeah. I, I don't, maybe in the, maybe in, in, in the beginning because, you know, Morris was the drummer of Prince's band before the revolution. So I'm sure there was some part of just a natural thing of like, well, I'm already your drummer.

• 32:25Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 32:26Speaker 02

  Why am I not your, why am I not playing drums anymore?

• 32:28Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 32:29Speaker 02

  You know?

• 32:30Yasi Salek?

  Well, just sowing the seeds of.

• 32:33Speaker 02

  We're sowing seeds, babe.

• 32:34Yasi Salek?

  Baby resentment starting up. Lisa Coleman said of the Revolution that his dream was that we would be Fleetwood Mac mixed with Sly and the Family Stone. She said, "From the very early days, we were controversial. We were black and white. We were girls and boys and we were traveling together. We'd go to truck stops in Bible Belt Country and people would look at us like they wanted to kill us." Crazy.

• 32:56Speaker 02

  I deal with that.

• 32:57Yasi Salek?

  Right, right.

• 32:58Speaker 02

  No, you know what? It's not crazy at all.

• 33:01Yasi Salek?

  No, but just like thinking, like, just the fact that it was like a mixed gender band

• 33:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:06Yasi Salek?

  that was like, you know? So the tour for 1999, we're still laying the groundwork.

• 33:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, Triple Threat.

• 33:13Yasi Salek?

  The Time opened, as well as...

• 33:16Speaker 02

  Van 86.

• 33:16Yasi Salek?

  Van 86. There's a little drama, right? On this tour with The Time. Do you want to tell us about it?

• 33:22Speaker 02

  Well, there was this sort of, and people's accounts of this is different.

• 33:29Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 33:29Speaker 02

  There is this sort of lore of the competitiveness between Prince and The Time.

• 33:35Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 33:36Speaker 02

  And...

• 33:37Yasi Salek?

  Well, The Time is really fun, right?

• 33:38Speaker 02

  The Time's really fun.

• 33:39Yasi Salek?

  What a fucking good time band.

• 33:41Speaker 02

  And like, they truly are, as players and performers, one of the greatest R&B bands of all time. They smoke. So, they're so good and they're so fun, where Prince is so weighted. So, but this is all to say that, you know, The Time went out every night trying to kick Prince and the Revolution's ass.

• 34:07Yasi Salek?

  So, yeah, it was like, there was like a healthy competitive spirit.

• 34:10Speaker 02

  Yes, but everyone has a different account. Some people say that that was like, was more friend, was friendlier than certain people give it credit for. And once they were offstage, that competitiveness was absent from their relationship. And also, of course it was. Ultimately, The Time was Prince's, Prince created his own competition. So, with that being the dynamic and the structure, it's like, how competitive could they really be with each other?

• 34:42Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 34:42Speaker 02

  If they win, Prince still wins.

• 34:44Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 34:45Speaker 02

  Having said that, because there were nights where the press and sort of like public at large did feel that The Time did do better than Prince on multiple nights on that tour, and certain shows, Prince would take off The Time.

• 35:01Yasi Salek?

  Oh.

• 35:04Speaker 02

  I believe it was LA. I believe it was the forum.

• 35:06Yasi Salek?

  He like benched them. You're not playing tonight.

• 35:08Speaker 02

  But check this out. The time sans Morris Day were Vanity's backing band behind a curtain every night.

• 35:16Yasi Salek?

  So they already had to be there.

• 35:18Speaker 02

  So if the time were removed from the show, they still had to play behind a curtain. So I under.

• 35:25Yasi Salek?

  That's rough.

• 35:25Speaker 02

  I understand their feelings of resentment.

• 35:27Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 35:28Speaker 02

  Um, also Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

• 35:32Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 35:32Speaker 02

  Missing the flight.

• 35:33Yasi Salek?

  Tell me about that. So they were, they had taken a production job on the side, which they were doing. They were getting, they were starting to have a career take off as producers.

• 35:42Speaker 02

  And this was.

• 35:42Yasi Salek?

  We don't have to get into the Janet Jackson of them. Thank God. Thank God they got fucking fired. Thank you, Prince. Thank fucking God. Miss you much?

• 35:51Speaker 02

  Love will never do without you.

• 35:52Yasi Salek?

  Escapade?

• 35:53Speaker 02

  Mm hmm. I saw Prince.

• 35:55Yasi Salek?

  Together again?

• 35:56Speaker 02

  In 2011 and he, he had this moment where I believe, I can't remember which Janet song he, he did like a little.

• 36:05Yasi Salek?

  Like a medley?

• 36:06Speaker 02

  He did a medley and threw in, um, um, a Janet song in there and he says to the crowd, you know, who really wrote this one? Implying that.

• 36:15Yasi Salek?

  It was him?

• 36:15Speaker 02

  No, I, I, I don't think.

• 36:17Yasi Salek?

  Or that it was Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis?

• 36:19Speaker 02

  That it was Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, but you know, who taught them everything that they know? Was, was sort of the tone that I sort of.

• 36:25Yasi Salek?

  I'm their father. Yeah.

• 36:26Speaker 02

  Yes. And I'm like.

• 36:28Yasi Salek?

  Well.

• 36:28Speaker 02

  God, obsessed with this man.

• 36:30Yasi Salek?

  Well, um, regardless.

• 36:32Speaker 02

  Regardless.

• 36:33Yasi Salek?

  They, they got snowed in. They couldn't make their flight and Prince was like, okay, amazing. You're fired. You're out of my fucking band. Um, he didn't say it that way. I don't know how, I don't know what he was saying. He probably went like this.

• 36:50Speaker 02

  There was a meeting with, with them and, and Morris and this, that was really, that was the beginning of the end for the time.

• 36:58Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Because.

• 37:01Yasi Salek?

  Other members of the time, probably namely Morris Day, but not just, were like, "You don't have the authority." Presumably, I mean, he obviously did have the authority.

• 37:11Speaker 02

  It was the exemplification that he did in fact have that authority. And it was a stark reminder to everybody that, hey, "This is actually my band."

• 37:21Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 37:22Speaker 02

  Regardless of who's singing in it, regardless of who's who, who the front person. And that, maybe, you know, there were some subtexts of that all along, but that was.

• 37:32Yasi Salek?

  Made it really crystal clear.

• 37:34Speaker 02

  That's what made it crystal clear.

• 37:36Yasi Salek?

  They were replaced. Also, a third member left in protest.

• 37:39Speaker 02

  Monty Moyer, the other keyboard player, left at the time.

• 37:42Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 37:43Speaker 02

  At a protest.

• 37:44Yasi Salek?

  And they are, they finish out the tour with the new replacements?

• 37:48Speaker 02

  They finish out, no, no, no. So the replacements came at the after the tour.

• 37:53Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 37:53Speaker 02

  Ahead of Purple Rain and Ice Cream Castle.

• 37:56Yasi Salek?

  Got it. Great. Fucking got to your album.

• 38:03Yasi Salek?

  Okay, so around this time of the 1999 album, Prince had basically completely stopped speaking to the press. He did one interview for 1999 with Robert Hilburn of the LA Times.

• 38:18Speaker 02

  Did he walk out?

• 38:20Yasi Salek?

  Okay, yes, but I tried to like, I mean, he walked out in the sense that you always walk out at the end of an interview. But I couldn't, I like, I can't, I read the piece and it has no real indication that he was like, "Fuck you, I'm leaving." Because there's plenty of material in it. So.

• 38:37Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 38:37Yasi Salek?

  And maybe I didn't look hard enough and so I'm not really sure what, I don't know if he just like, again, you know a lot more about Prince than I do, but just from like, my readings of Prince, like, it could have gone totally normal as far as Robert Hilburn was concerned, but in Prince's mind, he was absolutely disrespected, straight to hell. And he's like, "I'm done with this forever." I have no idea.

• 38:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:54Yasi Salek?

  But I do want to read a couple quotes from the piece because there's.

• 38:57Speaker 02

  Please.

• 38:59Yasi Salek?

  Just gorgeous. Number one, my goal is to excite and provoke on every level. Number two, let me clear up a few rumors while I have the chance. One, my real name is Prince. It's not something I made up. Two, I'm not gay. And three, I'm not Jamie Star. He is Jamie Star, but the other two are true.

• 39:25Speaker 02

  I love it.

• 39:27Yasi Salek?

  There's really two truths and a lie there. The third one, the most important thing is to be true to yourself, but I also like danger. That's what's missing from pop music today. There's no excitement and mystery. I'm not honest, so show me the lie. Then, I'm not saying I'm better than everybody else. I just don't feel there are a lot of people out there telling the truth in their music. Next one, this is maybe my favorite. I always compare songwriting to a girl walking in a door. You don't know what she's gonna look like, but all of a sudden, she's there. And then this last one is more just to inform back to our story. When I first got started in music, I was attracted by the same things that attract most people to this business. I wanted to impress my friends and I wanted to make money.

• 40:12Yasi Salek?

  For a while, I just did it as a hobby. Then it turned into a job and a way to eat. Now I look on it as art. I realized after Dirty Mind, I can get away with anything I want to get away with. All I have to do is be true to myself. I can make the records I want to make and still be okay. I feel free.

• 40:27Speaker 02

  And that's the thing about Prince that he's just, you just can't fuck with him. He made, after Dirty Mind, he said, I could do whatever I want.

• 40:36Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 40:37Speaker 02

  Where Dirty Mind was not as successful as self-titled.

• 40:41Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 40:43Speaker 02

  He's not saying, fuck, I went too far. I need to reel it in.

• 40:47Yasi Salek?

  No.

• 40:47Speaker 02

  He said, oh, I could do whatever I want. Which another artist could have easily been like, shit, there was no, you know, Uptown was a great song.

• 40:57Yasi Salek?

  I went this far, but it was not well, commercially well received. I better like.

• 41:02Speaker 02

  I better, no.

• 41:03Yasi Salek?

  Do it.

• 41:04Speaker 02

  He said, oh. I could be, I could totally be myself.

• 41:08Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 41:09Speaker 02

  And I feel like the Prince career, I, I always Dirty Mind, I love self titled, but Dirty Mind is really when Prince, like the, the Prince that the public sort of envisions really starts at Dirty Mind.

• 41:27Yasi Salek?

  Hmm, hmm, like, like his real self.

• 41:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:29Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Around this time,

• 41:33Yasi Salek?

  he's still, according to the book, Let's Go Crazy, which I read for this. Thank you, Let's Go Crazy. He was shrouded in mystery, surrounded by rumors about his ethnic background and sexual preference. Except he just said, I'm not gay to the LA Times. For the record, both his parents are black.

• 41:54Yasi Salek?

  Though, he definitely misled the press at various points about this. He has been quoted as saying his mother was white, that she was a mixture of a bunch of things. He told Rolling Stone, he was the son of a half-black father and an Italian mother, which Jill Jones was like, that's really interesting. I told him I'm half Italian and half-black and then suddenly, anyways.

• 42:21Speaker 02

  He just hears Jill Jones.

• 42:23Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, and he was like, that's me now.

• 42:24Speaker 02

  And goes, oh, that sounds nice.

• 42:26Yasi Salek?

  I, well, two things, I love when people lie to the press.

• 42:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, totally.

• 42:30Yasi Salek?

  We need to bring that back.

• 42:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:31Yasi Salek?

  I think the greatest liar of the press now is Robert Pattinson. No one's doing it like him. Never, never have read one interview with him where I'm like, I don't know what this man is on about. And it's wonderful.

• 42:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:45Yasi Salek?

  He's a true, he's a true legend, but we need to bring back more lying to the press. But also, again, I'm sorry, I keep tying it back to Madonna, but I think, I think it's a, it's a good comp because it's around the same time period and they were like both massive figures. Madonna's early career, they sort of didn't show her picture because her songs were being serviced to black radio and they were like, we kind of want maybe people to think. So it's like, there was a lot going on then.

• 43:13Speaker 02

  Kenny G. Kenny G, they were, they were obscuring his, his images because they thought that that would service better on black radio.

• 43:21Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, and like, and you know, and I think Prince also just liked to fuck with people, you know?

• 43:25Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 43:26Yasi Salek?

  Okay, so here's where things really fucking pick up.

• 43:31Yasi Salek?

  According to former manager Bob Cavalo, father of Robert Cavalo, producer of many Green Day albums, famously a jawbreaker album, My Chemical Romance. What a family.

• 43:44Speaker 02

  What a fam.

• 43:45Yasi Salek?

  His management contract was up for no. So Bob Cavalo had come in and they had him and I think it's the three managers had signed him away. They bought out his contract with his first manager for like 50K or something. And Prince was like, yeah, I'll resign.

• 44:03Yasi Salek?

  But I need to be a star in a major motion picture and you need to make it happen and you need to make it happen fast.

• 44:08Speaker 02

  Oh my God, I love it so much.

• 44:10Yasi Salek?

  So great. Meanwhile, they're like, you are not that famous.

• 44:15Speaker 02

  You have two hits.

• 44:16Yasi Salek?

  You have two hits. You've been on TV like three times. Bob Cavalo said, I thought we did an incredible job. We had a creative relationship. I'm sure he's gonna sign another contract. And he says he won't sign with us until we get a movie.

• 44:31Speaker 02

  A major, a major studio movie.

• 44:33Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, not just like some little art house film.

• 44:35Speaker 02

  No, he said, I don't want, I don't want any jewelers.

• 44:38Yasi Salek?

  No.

• 44:38Speaker 02

  Or.

• 44:39Yasi Salek?

  Mafia.

• 44:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 44:40Yasi Salek?

  He can't be like, I don't need mafia. And Bob Cavalo's like, I'm not in the mafia. I'm just like a big Italian dude. Like I don't have.

• 44:46Speaker 02

  I went to Yale.

• 44:47Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. He said that. He's like, I'm not, okay. I love that Prince just like not knowing the background of his own manager, just being like, I don't know about your mob shit. And he's like, I'm literally not in the mob. Jill Jones said about Prince that they used to watch tons of old films together. He loved the original Swept Away, back to the Madonna of it all. Much better than the remake. I don't know if you've seen the remake of Swept Away.

• 45:08Speaker 02

  I haven't, but.

• 45:09Yasi Salek?

  Should be buried under a bridge.

• 45:10Speaker 02

  That's, that's the consensus therefore.

• 45:12Yasi Salek?

  Old Cary Grant. He got into David Lynch at some point. He loved Eraserhead. Love that. Really into like Elizabeth Taylor, obviously Marilyn Monroe. That makes a lot of sense. Apparently he had attempted a film project, you know about this, during the controversy tour.

• 45:28Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 45:29Yasi Salek?

  It was called The Second Coming. Have you heard anything about this? It sounds like it was more of a like. Not honestly wildly different from Perpoin, but like it was a concert film, but was gonna have like fictional interstitial.

• 45:42Speaker 02

  Mm hmm. Like Sign of the Times.

• 45:44Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, exactly. They filmed a March 7th show at the Met Center in Minnesota in full. But then the director Chuck Staylor, I think his name was, Prince drove him insane, trying to do these interstitial narrative segments. And he was like, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing this with you.

• 46:03Speaker 02

  Never mind.

• 46:03Yasi Salek?

  Never mind. And so it was abandoned before I was even edited. And then also there's this lore of Prince throughout the entire 1999 tour, scribbling furiously away in his purple notebook.

• 46:15Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 46:16Yasi Salek?

  What was maybe not a script per se, but scenes and ideas and narrative thoughts for a film.

• 46:25Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 46:26Yasi Salek?

  No one's ever seen this notebook.

• 46:28Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 46:28Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, but.

• 46:29Speaker 02

  But but the purple notebook is infamous.

• 46:32Yasi Salek?

  It's lore. Yeah. Bob Cavalli was like, it was right out of the blue, but it didn't surprise me. And it was worth so much money to me because if he didn't re-sign, it would have been a tragedy. We had such a big fucking hit with this guy and I knew how big he would be. I knew that in person he was unstoppable. He was so good. He worked so hard. He said, it's gotta be a major movie. He can't be one of your gang, one of your gangster friends or something. I don't have any of those. I went to Georgetown University.

• 46:57Speaker 02

  Georgetown.

• 47:00Yasi Salek?

  And he also said, my name above the title, like presents Prince. And he goes, think how carefully he thought this through.

• 47:08Speaker 02

  The confidence.

• 47:09Yasi Salek?

  I know.

• 47:10Speaker 02

  That you must have in yourself.

• 47:12Yasi Salek?

  If I could write music and perform music like that, I would have that confidence.

• 47:16Speaker 02

  Of course. Well, that's the thing. It's like, is it, is it even confidence at that point?

• 47:21Yasi Salek?

  It's just reality. Meanwhile, every day I'm like, they're gonna find out that I'm bad at this. They're gonna, someone's gonna come and take me away with a cane like in vaudeville and be like, she's an idiot, actually. Um, but I live to fight another day. So each of the managers are like, we'll put up 500K to get it going. That's not enough to make a major motion picture, but-

• 47:41Speaker 02

  Including Prince, right?

• 47:42Yasi Salek?

  I didn't read that he put up money. But I don't know, maybe he did.

• 47:45Speaker 02

  I believe, I believe he did, yeah.

• 47:46Yasi Salek?

  Okay. So first, they're like, we need to find someone to write the script. Purple notebook notwithstanding. I guess Bob Cavalo had some experience in the film world. So, cause he, he had worked with Love and Spoonful.

• 47:58Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 47:58Yasi Salek?

  Remember that band?

• 47:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 47:59Yasi Salek?

  They had done music for the Woody Allen's first movie, What's Up Tiger Lily? And there's a soundtrack album that's just them. So he had sort of worked with that. And also, John Sebastian from Love and Spoonful had written all the music for the Francis Ford Coppola movie, You're a Big Boy Now.

• 48:15Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 48:15Yasi Salek?

  So he had like been involved, he knew some people in Hollywood. But he's like, I don't know how I'm gonna get someone to write a Prince movie. First of all, nobody knows who this man is. So someone recommends this guy, William Blynn. He had won an Emmy for his work on The Roots mini-series. And he was like an executive producer and writer for the TV show version of Fame. This is my favorite. I'm sure you've read this many times, but this was my first. Actually, I think it comes up in the Madonna one too. He and Prince had dinner. What did Prince order?

• 48:45Speaker 02

  Oh, spaghetti?

• 48:46Yasi Salek?

  And orange juice.

• 48:47Speaker 02

  And orange juice, yeah.

• 48:48Yasi Salek?

  That was his favorite meal.

• 48:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:49Yasi Salek?

  Those two things together, spaghetti with tomato sauce and orange juice. And the guy was like, okay, already this is weird.

• 48:54Speaker 02

  Acidic.

• 48:56Yasi Salek?

  So much acid. Also, just like, I mean, it's not that weird, there's weirder meals, but it's just, it's interesting. With Madonna, apparently he rented out Yamashiro and took her there for dinner.

• 49:06Speaker 02

  That's what you were telling me.

• 49:06Yasi Salek?

  So good. I don't think they have spaghetti there, so I don't know how that worked out. So, oh, she said he didn't eat.

• 49:12Speaker 02

  Right, right, right.

• 49:13Yasi Salek?

  Um, so over this dinner of spaghetti and orange juice, Prince begins revealing the ideas that he has for this film. And Blynn is confused. He's, here's what he said. "I went to Hollywood where Prince is putting together Final Touches on a video. I met him at an Italian restaurant. What I remember more than anything is that he was the only person I've ever seen in my life who had pasta and orange drink. I didn't get it. Um, then, and I don't get it now, but what the hell? He had definite ideas of what he wanted to do, a generalized storyline." Broad strokes. It wasn't his life, but it was about his life. Not that it was a wall-to-wall docu-drama, but he knew where he'd come from and he wanted the movie to reflect that. But he also said that Prince's attempt to define the movie's theme was, quote, inarticulate. He is not verbally comfortable, certainly not with strangers.

• 49:58Yasi Salek?

  He's a man apart in many ways, but his whole sexual attitude is positive. This is good. This represents growth and life. He was semi-communicative about his dad. You could tell his father was very key in what he's about. It was as if he was sorting out his own mystery, an honest quest to figure himself out. I know.

• 50:17Speaker 02

  And to, to jump back a little bit, when we're talking about The Revolution, that was another, you know, another reason why he so leaned on Wendy and Lisa. Because Wendy, Wendy did all the press for Purple Rain.

• 50:30Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 50:31Speaker 02

  And she was very articulate and was very comfortable.

• 50:35Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 50:35Speaker 02

  Speaking and in front of the camera, off, offstage.

• 50:38Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 50:38Speaker 02

  And he said, you're gonna, you're gonna be that person. Because I'm not.

• 50:42Yasi Salek?

  Because I'm not that person.

• 50:43Speaker 02

  I, I don't do that. I can't do that.

• 50:44Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. In the initial concept, his parents were dead.

• 50:48Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 50:48Yasi Salek?

  And according to William Blinn, that was his idea. They were victims of a murder-suicide. The father had killed the mother and then killed himself. So Blinn starts working on this script. He tries to set up a follow-up meeting with Prince in Minneapolis, but Prince cancels several times. And then finally, they go to the movies together.

• 51:07Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:07Yasi Salek?

  And Prince gets up and leaves after 20 minutes.

• 51:10Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 51:12Yasi Salek?

  And Blinn is like, you know what?

• 51:16Speaker 02

  It's just so amazing because Prince really wants this movie to happen.

• 51:19Yasi Salek?

  Sure. One would think.

• 51:21Speaker 02

  But not, but.

• 51:22Yasi Salek?

  Not enough to stand.

• 51:23Speaker 02

  It's like, is it a test? Or was he, or did he just really not feel like that this person was the guy?

• 51:28Yasi Salek?

  I'm dying to know what film it was. Like, maybe it was just so horrible. He couldn't stand the sight of it.

• 51:32Speaker 02

  You're right. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

• 51:33Yasi Salek?

  William Blinn was like, I know he's very gifted, but frankly, life's too short. And he goes back to LA. But then Prince calls him up and is like, please come back. And he's like, okay. So he writes a first draft of this script. It's called Dreams. Bob Cavala said, it's a little TV. It's a little square, but it's a good idea. And I figured the director will rewrite it anyway. But I can't get a director because nobody's interested.

• 51:58Yasi Salek?

  Awareness of Prince in Hollywood was not high. Not right now. So this is where I get excited because everything's connected. Someone is like, you should, to Bob Koval, you should go see an early cut of this new movie, Reckless, starring Aidan Quinn and Daryl Hannah, which I've actually never seen. Now I really want to see it. I don't know if you guys know this about me, but I love Aidan Quinn. I think he's one of the hottest men to ever exist. Anyways, this movie, that's not relevant to the story, but this movie was-

• 52:22Speaker 02

  It's relevant to you.

• 52:22Yasi Salek?

  It's relevant to me and my personal lore. This movie was made by a young director. It was actually his first movie called James Foley. Do you know who that is?

• 52:31Yasi Salek?

  He would later go on to be like an incredible Hollywood filmmaker. He did Glenn Gary again, Glenn Ross.

• 52:36Speaker 02

  That's okay. That's what he did. Yes.

• 52:37Yasi Salek?

  But in my interest set, the next movie he directed was called At Close Range with Sean Penn and Christopher Walken, featuring the song Live to Tell by Madonna, because at the time Madonna was with Sean Penn and James Foley was Sean Penn's best friend. He's an incredible director. Actually, it's a wonderful exercise to be like, what if James Foley had directed Purple Rain? Because we'd have something very different, I think. Maybe not better, but like-

• 53:05Speaker 02

  Sure. We'll get into that point-

• 53:07Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 53:07Speaker 02

  In a moment. Yes.

• 53:09Yasi Salek?

  So at this screening, Bob Koval said he was the only one there. But then afterwards, a young man came up to him and was like, what did you think of the movie? He was like, oh, I thought it was pretty good. I thought the editing was good. And the guy was like, oh, good. I did that part. His name was Albert Magnoli, from the beginning, when I remember him. Recent graduate of USC Film School, had won all these awards for his final film project, which was about music. It was a short about, called Jazz, yeah, about jazz musicians. And Koval was like, do you think James Foley would be interested in getting involved in this Prince project? And Magnoli said, I was excited to continue editing alongside Jamie. That's what he called him, James Foley. So I told Koval Jamie was a massive Prince fan. I ran across the parking lot and called Jamie in New York and said it was great. I had found us our next film. And he said, who's Prince?

• 53:56Yasi Salek?

  You didn't know who fucking Prince was.

• 53:57Speaker 02

  That's where we were.

• 53:58Yasi Salek?

  People did not know who Prince was.

• 53:58Speaker 02

  That's where we were, yeah.

• 54:00Yasi Salek?

  Um, again, this is, this is eighty-three, summer of eighty-three, and maybe in eighty-five, well, obviously eighty-five, like, maybe if he already knew Madonna, you know, like.

• 54:10Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 54:10Yasi Salek?

  But he was not in the music world, he didn't know.

• 54:13Speaker 02

  And again, the segregation of.

• 54:17Yasi Salek?

  Oh, of the, of radio.

• 54:19Speaker 02

  Of radio and, you know.

• 54:20Yasi Salek?

  I'm sure he was bumping ACDC or whatever and, and Foreigner. Um, I don't know, actually, James Foley, may he rest in peace, he passed away, but I don't know what he liked musically. Magnoli is like, I'll send you the script, babe. According to Magnoli. And just like a quick according to Magnoli side note, Rob, Bob Cavalo said that he, quote, completely makes up shit and sometimes he's very flattering to himself and sometimes he's just wrong. So a grain of salt, I don't know if that's true. I don't know if any of this is true.

• 54:47Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 54:47Yasi Salek?

  I'm reporting the quotes of people.

• 54:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:49Yasi Salek?

  But he said that James Foley was like, have you read this? It is terrible and I will not do it.

• 54:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:56Yasi Salek?

  And Magnoli was like, no, actually, I didn't read it. And then he read it and he was like, Jamie was actually being very nice. The script had no relevance to the audience the film was intended for. It was not musical, it was cerebral.

• 55:08Yasi Salek?

  Lynn says, in an oral history, I think we had a better first draft, more mysterious and offbeat. The character of the father was a suicide, not an attempted suicide, and he was gone. The overall thrust of the picture was the kid, play by Prince, being torn between the dark allure of death, what it does to a kid when a parent commits suicide, and music and sexuality. That's kind of interesting. I would have liked to.

• 55:30Speaker 02

  It is interesting, but, but his father being present throughout the movie and you actually see his relationship with him is kind of like the only stake of the movie.

• 55:42Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 55:43Speaker 02

  You know, so if, if we went into the movie.

• 55:45Yasi Salek?

  Well, he could have done that with flashbacks.

• 55:47Speaker 02

  Of course, but like, of, obviously.

• 55:49Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 55:50Speaker 02

  But, but I feel like, you know, like, the real time and also the, is he, is he gonna live? Is he not?

• 55:56Yasi Salek?

  The other thing is this movie is cartoonish and it's meant to be, and that's part of the charm of it.

• 56:00Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 56:01Yasi Salek?

  And it, you, you can't really make murder-suicide cartoonish.

• 56:05Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 56:05Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 56:06Speaker 02

  It, it would have made it, it would have made it just kind of, it could have made it just bad.

• 56:11Yasi Salek?

  Pretty, yeah, it would have made it kind of bad. Um, so Magnoli's like, look, let's have lunch.

• 56:19Yasi Salek?

  This, there's two different stories now of what happened. According to, to Bob Cavalo, he, he was like, I'll give you $75,000 to direct this movie. Like, he just wanted to get someone to direct it. And Cavalo goes, now he didn't have a glass to piss in. He says, I pass. I went fucking crazy. I lost my cool. I said, how the fuck do you pass? Why? And he said, oh, it's so square. I said, I know it's square. Can you do something about it? Do you have any ideas? And he said, give me a week. And then in, in Bob Cavalo's story, a week later, he came back. He had this whole new script and, or not script, but like a plot. And he like acted it out for him and he was excited and they were like, okay, we made a deal. Magnolia says he had it right there on the spot. He didn't have, need a week. It was just one meeting.

• 57:03Yasi Salek?

  Regardless, literally, who cares?

• 57:05Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 57:07Yasi Salek?

  Not important.

• 57:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:08Yasi Salek?

  I thought it was really funny because Magnolia said, in elementary school and high school, I was a drummer. So that was enough to give me some insight to the troubles and tribulations of a performer.

• 57:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:16Yasi Salek?

  This man was in jazz band in the sixth grade and he was like, I get what it's like to be Prince, actually. And I can write from that place. And maybe he did, I don't know. In fairness, and Blin has a writing credit still because he already had, all the characters were Blin's. You know, like it was all there. So he's like, okay, I'm gonna go to Minneapolis and meet Prince. But the thing that really sold Cavalo, which I thought this was interesting, was that he was like, and Magnolia was like, take the ending of The Godfather and make it the opening of our picture. And we had talked about, we watched the movie together the other night. He talked about how great the opening sequence is. It's actually not the ending that he's referring to. The ending is the, the last scene of The Godfather is when Michael Corleone is like saying, I'm not in the mob to his wife.

• 57:59Yasi Salek?

  He's talking about the penultimate scene. You know what I'm talking about?

• 58:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, the, where the, um.

• 58:04Yasi Salek?

  The baptism sequence.

• 58:05Speaker 02

  The baptism scene, yeah.

• 58:05Yasi Salek?

  It's going back and forth between the baptism of his godson.

• 58:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, the montage of the, of the killings and the baptism, yeah.

• 58:14Yasi Salek?

  And I mean, it's not exactly that, but like, yeah, you, you point out what we're watching. It's like how amazingly they're able to like show every character and like kind of situate them without really any dialogue.

• 58:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, everyone's back, like almost everyone's backstory is almost.

• 58:29Yasi Salek?

  Right, because Prince is like, he's, he's at the club, he's putting on his makeup. You see he's a performer.

• 58:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:32Yasi Salek?

  You see that like, he's on his bike. You see the time. You see Apollonia trying to pull the scam to get in.

• 58:37Speaker 02

  You see how much money she has to her name.

• 58:39Yasi Salek?

  Totally, she's arrived in town. Yeah, yeah.

• 58:42Speaker 02

  Morris.

• 58:43Yasi Salek?

  Morris, babe.

• 58:44Speaker 02

  Morris getting in the, the, the limo to know.

• 58:49Speaker 02

  To no crowds.

• 58:50Yasi Salek?

  Phenomenal.

• 58:51Speaker 02

  Phenomenal.

• 58:53Yasi Salek?

  Again, this is Magnolli. I have no cross-reference for this, but he said in multiple stories that he went and told Prince the whole new plot. And Prince said, what do you know about my life? And he was like, nothing, you know, I've heard 1989 or whatever. And he goes, then how is it that in 10 minutes, you told me my whole life story?

• 59:16Yasi Salek?

  I don't know if that happened.

• 59:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 59:17Yasi Salek?

  But maybe.

• 59:19Yasi Salek?

  He must have liked it because it got greenlit. Then the next day, this would you, what would you do to be able to be there for this? He went, Magnolli went to Prince's house and Prince played him about 100 songs that had not come out.

• 59:33Speaker 02

  I mean.

• 59:34Yasi Salek?

  And he was like, he was like, just pick 12 of them. Magnolli was like, okay, I'm going to come back about that.

• 59:40Speaker 02

  If I may.

• 59:41Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 59:41Speaker 02

  This is a part where I've always, I don't, I don't think that Albert Magnolli is, is lying. But for him to be like, I went to his house, he played me 100 songs and I picked 12 of them. And those were the 12 that we were going to sort of use for the movie.

• 59:56Yasi Salek?

  I don't think he did pick the 12.

• 59:58Speaker 02

  No, but in, um, but that was his original.

• 1:00:01Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. No, that never, I'm sorry, Prince would not let Wendy pick her own eyeshadow.

• 1:00:06Speaker 02

  That's what I'm saying.

• 1:00:07Yasi Salek?

  I'm making that up, but I don't think I'm making that up. That's probably true.

• 1:00:09Speaker 02

  You know, like. If you follow, sorry to get granular, but if you, if you follow like the, the studio sessions and the studio logs from 83 into 84, it's like.

• 1:00:18Yasi Salek?

  If you follow the studio sessions and the studio logs from 1983, 94, like we all do, then you might know a fucking thing or two, bitch. Okay?

• 1:00:27Speaker 02

  Yeah. It's like, how would that have, how would that have worked?

• 1:00:31Yasi Salek?

  It's obviously not true. Prince is the greatest control freak of our generation and every generation before that. And to, to, to, to good end.

• 1:00:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, to good end.

• 1:00:40Yasi Salek?

  He had to preserve his vision. But he's certainly not letting Albert Magnolli, recent graduate of the USC Film School, who played drums in the sixth grade, pick the 12 songs that go on proper range. But that's fine. Magnolli leaves and is like, I'll be back in August. I'm going to go like research, work on the script, we'll make the movie. Meanwhile, the manager like, we ain't got to fight money. So they go to Mel Austin, Warner Brothers Records, head of Warner Brothers Records. And they're like, Prince wants to make a movie. And if Warner Brothers. Cannot help us. We will terminate this relationship. Lot of, lot of threats going around here. And Mo Austin's like, okay. And so then they negotiate something I thought was really smart, which is a $2 million advance.

• 1:01:21Speaker 02

  Advance, right.

• 1:01:22Yasi Salek?

  Against the royalties. So it's not, I mean, as long as Mo Austin thought Prince would make that much money, which he did, he was like-

• 1:01:29Speaker 02

  They were already, you know, Mo says, yeah, we were, he, we were already, he was already in the, in the black.

• 1:01:36Yasi Salek?

  Exactly. Like, we already, like, it was such a safe-

• 1:01:39Speaker 02

  He was earning royalties.

• 1:01:39Yasi Salek?

  It was such a safe bet. So they're like, you got it, Ben. And, and Mo Austin loved Prince and was like, I think he's incredible and I know he's gonna, you know, bust his ass and make it happen. Okay.

• 1:01:49Speaker 02

  They went to David Geffen?

• 1:01:51Yasi Salek?

  Oh, that's later. But yeah.

• 1:01:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:01:54Yasi Salek?

  David Geffen made a small mistake.

• 1:01:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, yes, yes.

• 1:01:57Yasi Salek?

  We'll get to that, don't you worry.

• 1:01:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01:58Yasi Salek?

  Um, but we need to go really back to Prince right now, because to your studio logs.

• 1:02:03Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:02:04Yasi Salek?

  We're going back to June, where he sets up the band for rehearsals in a new space, which is a warehouse off Highway 7.

• 1:02:12Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:02:13Yasi Salek?

  As you already knew.

• 1:02:14Speaker 02

  Flying Cloud Drive.

• 1:02:15Yasi Salek?

  That's right. It was in the studio logs. Um, Susanna Melvoin, who is starting to be around at this time.

• 1:02:24Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:02:25Yasi Salek?

  The sister of Wendy Melvoin, who will-

• 1:02:28Speaker 02

  Twin sister.

• 1:02:29Yasi Salek?

  Twin sister, importantly, yeah. Who is straight and will soon be dating Prince, but not quite yet. She said, Prince was such a structured boss. There was no real fun in it. If you were five minutes late, he'd dock your pay. You might work on the same groove for five hours non-stop, some three-bar thing over and over. It was like the army. And she also obviously had her own experience with it after this, when she was in the family.

• 1:02:49Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:02:49Yasi Salek?

  So the first three songs they work up in this warehouse, do you know what they were?

• 1:02:54Speaker 02

  "I Would Die For You," "Baby I'm a Star," "Purple Rain."

• 1:02:56Yasi Salek?

  It's "Baby I'm a Star," which had existed since 1981.

• 1:03:01Speaker 02

  Uh-huh.

• 1:03:02Yasi Salek?

  Um, was a, there's a-

• 1:03:03Speaker 02

  In its first, yeah, right.

• 1:03:04Yasi Salek?

  Yes, solo piano version. Um, "I Would Die For You" and "Computer Blue."

• 1:03:08Speaker 02

  And "Computer Blue," oh, right, right, of course.

• 1:03:10Yasi Salek?

  Which Dr. Fink said had sprung from something he had been playing around with when they were jamming on the 1989 tour. Prince was like, oh, I like that. Like, what can we, what can we do with this? Interestingly, I wanted to get your opinion on this. Wendy said, "The songs weren't as funky to me. They were pop songs. They were definitely watered down. It was really white and it felt that way."

• 1:03:29Speaker 02

  I remember reading that when I, whenever I read that book too, and I was- I mean.

• 1:03:36Yasi Salek?

  Cause it's like to your point about Dirty Mind, while he did say like, I can do anything I want now. He did go a little more pop.

• 1:03:43Speaker 02

  I mean, I think head on Dirty Mind is like maybe the funkiest song he's so.

• 1:03:50Yasi Salek?

  That's fucking.

• 1:03:50Speaker 02

  So forced like, I mean, but there was no, you know, there was no when you were mine on the previous albums, which is just a straightforward, you know, just major pop song.

• 1:04:01Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:01Speaker 02

  So I understand where Wendy's coming from. And I, I can only go off sort of like the finished product or like any of the sort of, you know, demos that have leaked or live performances, but per, but they sound, I can't unknow how dense the finished songs are. So to say that they're watered down to me is like, I simply disagree with that. But I could definitely say that.

• 1:04:29Yasi Salek?

  Maybe as they were forming.

• 1:04:30Speaker 02

  They're less like funk, you know, like driven.

• 1:04:34Yasi Salek?

  Well, Lisa said, I think Prince felt that way too, because then he went into Darling Nikki, which was not necessarily funky, but it was full out angry energy, which is something we were missing.

• 1:04:47Yasi Salek?

  So these are the songs that are taking place in the warehouse at the time. He's also working on a song called Electric Intercourse.

• 1:04:53Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 1:04:54Yasi Salek?

  Did not make the cut, but it's on the.

• 1:04:57Speaker 02

  It's on the deluxe, the 2017 deluxe.

• 1:05:00Yasi Salek?

  You know what I like on there?

• 1:05:02Speaker 02

  Uh, Possessed.

• 1:05:03Yasi Salek?

  Wonderful.

• 1:05:03Speaker 02

  No, Possessed is on, oh, Wonderful Ass.

• 1:05:06Yasi Salek?

  I love it.

• 1:05:07Speaker 02

  Possessed is on the 85.

• 1:05:09Yasi Salek?

  Oh, Wonderful Ass.

• 1:05:10Speaker 02

  Um, Wonderful Ass, great. Uh, the, his version of Dance Electric.

• 1:05:15Yasi Salek?

  It's really good. Really good stuff on there.

• 1:05:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:05:17Yasi Salek?

  Okay. Let's talk about the.

• 1:05:18Speaker 02

  We can fuck.

• 1:05:19Yasi Salek?

  We can fuck is amazing. That was the last song I listened to before I rolled up into this parking lot. Let's talk about Purple Rain and its initial germ of inspiration.

• 1:05:28Speaker 02

  Is this a question?

• 1:05:29Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:29Speaker 02

  Is there a question mark?

• 1:05:30Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:32Speaker 02

  It's, it's, well, are we talking about Stevie Nicks? Are we talking about Journey?

• 1:05:36Yasi Salek?

  Talking about Bob Seger.

• 1:05:38Speaker 02

  We're talking about, oh, when.

• 1:05:40Yasi Salek?

  We're going all the way back.

• 1:05:41Speaker 02

  When he was asking, was it, was it Dr. Fink?

• 1:05:43Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, we're going all the way back to the 1999 tour where they're playing all the same cities.

• 1:05:48Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:05:49Yasi Salek?

  As Bob Seger, who is playing arenas.

• 1:05:51Speaker 02

  And he, and Prince is like, why is this person able to?

• 1:05:55Yasi Salek?

  And he had a great respect for it. It wasn't even that. It was like, why is this?

• 1:05:58Speaker 02

  No, it was, yeah, it was, it was, it was just a factual, objective observation. Why is this person able to do these large rooms?

• 1:06:05Yasi Salek?

  And ballads. He was like, you heard, we've got tonight, babe? It's a fucking jam. I gotta say it. Why don't you stay?

• 1:06:14Speaker 02

  Give it to me.

• 1:06:16Yasi Salek?

  Deep in my soul. No, I'm not gonna do it, but it's a great song. Um, I wonder if our young listeners are like, humst?

• 1:06:25Yasi Salek?

  In 2004, actually, they were both inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Prince and Bob Seger. And Prince said that Seger, quote, "had a lot of influence on me at the start of my career. He certainly influenced my writing."

• 1:06:34Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:06:35Yasi Salek?

  It's nice.

• 1:06:35Speaker 02

  And, yeah, true.

• 1:06:37Yasi Salek?

  So basically Prince was like, here you, loud and clear, doctor. Thank you for the prescription. Starts to write some chords for this new ballad by December of 1982. And he showed it to the band at sound check. Um, in Cincinnati. And Wendy said, I remember him coming in and he had this idea. He made it clear. I need to find this thing. It needs to be this, and it has to have this tempo. And then he picked a key and we started jamming and came up with that opening chord sequence. And it just started to happen.

• 1:07:07Speaker 02

  That song is where the revolution really shines.

• 1:07:14Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:14Speaker 02

  Like, you could hear each one. He, he, he let them. They had the space, like, the figurative and literal space to do that.

• 1:07:22Yasi Salek?

  And he let them kind of like write their own parts. Yeah.

• 1:07:25Speaker 02

  Wendy's, when her, in her inversions and, uh, her voicings of those chords, this may sound like gibberish to you.

• 1:07:37Speaker 02

  I've I've heard your dunking on music theory talk on this podcast.

• 1:07:42Yasi Salek?

  I've not dunked on it. I have said, I, a moron, smooth the brain, do not understand it. I have a great deal of respect for it. And the entire Guitar Center and its staff.

• 1:07:56Speaker 02

  To make it a bit understandable, more understandable, as you would say, Prince's chords were very, were were simple major minor chords. And the chords that Wendy brought were suspended and and were were were were different versions of the same chords that Prince brought.

• 1:08:17Yasi Salek?

  And does that suspension sort of like up the like emotional, like, like, like the drama of it?

• 1:08:24Speaker 02

  Yes, yes. Those chords sounded are more dramatic and sort of emotive.

• 1:08:31Yasi Salek?

  Got it. Okay. I can understand when you put it into like stupid dum dum, simple spelling. I have actually more facts about this, and I know you do too. We'll talk about the song in full when we get to the soundtrack. But I just wanted, I'm sort of.

• 1:08:47Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:08:49Yasi Salek?

  Okay, back to the movie. So these are the songs that are being written at the warehouse. So the script includes the characters, The Kid, The Revolution, Morstan the Time, and Vanity Six. Why? And vanity, because it's vanity. It's supposed to be vanity.

• 1:09:06Yasi Salek?

  They all take acting lessons and dancing lessons.

• 1:09:09Speaker 02

  Jazz hands.

• 1:09:12Yasi Salek?

  Don Amidula, Amidolia, that's his name, was an actor and appeared on Cheers. He's later on Twin Peaks for my Twin Peaks heads. He is teaching them acting. Lisa said, imagine Jelly Bean doing pirouettes. So it was basically very funny. Wendy said it was ridiculous, but it was loosening and it was humbling and it was funny. Dr. Fink said, "The acting coach was mandatory, whereas dancing was not." "Prince hoped that everybody would stick around and do the dance stuff." "At first, he kind of required it for about three weeks, and then people fell off." "I personally stuck through it the whole summer." "Sometimes it would just be me, the dance instructor, and a couple of gals from Vanity 6." "I got in great shape." "We were doing the Jane Fonda workout and like Broadway dance moves and routines." "I love him."

• 1:09:52Speaker 02

  How sweet is that?

• 1:09:53Yasi Salek?

  I love him.

• 1:09:54Speaker 02

  He loves a routine.

• 1:09:55Yasi Salek?

  Also, he was like, "I studied acting in summer school."

• 1:09:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:59Yasi Salek?

  And I had done voiceover work. And he also, fun fact, grew up down the street from Joel and Ethan Cohen.

• 1:10:04Speaker 02

  Right. And don't, and he kind of theorizes that Barton Fink-

• 1:10:08Yasi Salek?

  Was named after him.

• 1:10:09Speaker 02

  Was named after him.

• 1:10:09Yasi Salek?

  I hope it was.

• 1:10:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:10:11Yasi Salek?

  Morris Day was less into the classes.

• 1:10:15Speaker 02

  Bye.

• 1:10:16Yasi Salek?

  He told Wax Poetics magazine later, "One day Prince was like, 'We're making a movie.'" "I was like, 'Okay, fine.'" "So I started going to acting classes and dancing class and all these sorts of silly stuff." "I got kicked out of acting class because I kept clowning around." "And the guy said I was disrupting it for everybody." "They did realize that he was very funny."

• 1:10:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, he was in character.

• 1:10:32Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, or he is that character.

• 1:10:35Speaker 02

  That's, yeah, yeah.

• 1:10:36Yasi Salek?

  Susanna Melvin said, "In acting class, they weren't working on dialogue." "They were working on like pimp walks." "The band was like, 'Why are we doing this? Can we go to rehearsal?'" "Thought that was really funny." "Prince took the acting classes, too." "He did not need the dancing classes. He's a trained dancer." Don Emendolia said, "Prince was very, very good." "He'd flip right out of his persona and be whatever character he had to be." "He's very shy, as most actors are to a degree." "He took direction well, probably the best. He asked a lot of questions." "He was very serious about this film."

• 1:11:07Speaker 02

  About his work, very serious about his work.

• 1:11:09Yasi Salek?

  But those acting classes did reveal a lot, like how funny Morris Day was, how funny Jerome Benton was. And I think maybe that like informed that part of the script-

• 1:11:18Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 1:11:18Yasi Salek?

  -that maybe wasn't in there before. And also, the part that Wendy plays in the film was supposed to be Lisa. But they kind of realized that Wendy is just more naturally outspoken and comfortable on camera. So they swapped them.

• 1:11:33Speaker 02

  That's what we said when we watched the movie the other night, like Wendy's very good in this movie.

• 1:11:37Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, she's good. She could have, I think she could have been an actor.

• 1:11:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:11:40Yasi Salek?

  This, I thought, was so interesting, I guess, like- During this time, Dr. Fink remembers him randomly mentioning something about his family and being like, oh, we had a tough time. And then he goes, then he suddenly realized what he was doing and clammed up. That was, this was in 84. He said, that was two and a half years ago. We never heard about his personal life again. Just one time, said one thing. It was like, I've said too much.

• 1:12:04Speaker 02

  A moment of comfortability.

• 1:12:05Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:06Speaker 02

  Guard was down.

• 1:12:07Yasi Salek?

  It was probably the acting classes that really get you into that zone. Jill Jones remembers around this time, and again, informing the script, that he was visiting his father all the time. Because his father was basically a recluse, right? Didn't come out much. And she would go with him, but sit in the car and wait. And she, just by not being inside, said, I think they started mending some penses. Prince did later say about his father, he's full of ideas. It'd be wonderful to put out an album with him, but he's a little bit crazier than I am.

• 1:12:36Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, and he started, you know, giving him writing credits on songs. He had writing credits on Purple Rain and Parade and Around the World in a Day. He was clearly wanting to collaborate and help his father, starting at this point.

• 1:12:50Yasi Salek?

  You get a sense of it from the film, although it's obviously really opaque in the film, but like, from what Jill Jones said, his father was basically, like, if you can even imagine it, even more uncompromising and like, more eccentric and more like, maybe unwilling to play the game.

• 1:13:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:13:09Yasi Salek?

  And so was really never able to like, be part of the music industry in any meaningful way.

• 1:13:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:13:15Yasi Salek?

  And maybe Prince saw that and adjusted himself a little bit. I don't know. Okay. Guess what? The summer is nearly over. We have no script. We have no budget and we have no shooting schedule. Just vibes, babe.

• 1:13:29Speaker 02

  What a recipe.

• 1:13:30Yasi Salek?

  Purple Rain, just vibes. August 1st. Magnolae comes back to Minneapolis. He's like, okay, I'm gonna interview everybody so I can really get the script down. The Revolution, The Time, Vanity Six. This time, things are a little emotionally tense.

• 1:13:47Speaker 02

  It's weird.

• 1:13:47Yasi Salek?

  There's, the, Desdickerson's gone, so everyone's adjusting to the new Wendy of it all. We talked about the firing of the Time members and everyone leaving, the new people. A little weird. Also Prince is allegedly supposedly perhaps dating some combination of Jill Jones, Susan Mooney of Vanity 6, and several other unnamed women, and as well as beginning to pursue a relationship with Susanna Melville.

• 1:14:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:14:18Yasi Salek?

  And don't forget about Vanity.

• 1:14:20Speaker 02

  And how could you?

• 1:14:21Yasi Salek?

  How could you? Lisa said, "We're all in love with each other anyway." And then Prince met Wendy and was like, "Well, I can't have her because you have her and I can't compete with that." Then Susanna showed up and twins. He thought she's like her, only available. I don't know if that was exactly Prince's thought process, but I liked that.

• 1:14:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's Lisa, you know, Lisa's maybe taken a caricaturistic approach, but but there's surely a germ of truth.

• 1:14:48Yasi Salek?

  Totally. Anyway, this helps Mike Nolte find the dramatic tension, if you will. He wrote the script longhand on paper, which was crazy, and someone would type it up for him. Apparently, as the story goes, Prince, in his little purple notebook maybe, had really intended this to be an ensemble film, like there's no lead, which I don't, this is just what I read, but I'm like, once again, I'm like, "Oh, Prince told you to pick 12 songs and Prince wanted an ensemble movie where he's one of many?" I don't know.

• 1:15:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean.

• 1:15:21Yasi Salek?

  Maybe.

• 1:15:22Speaker 02

  Well, here's what I do think. I do think that he saw the value in being the front person of a band.

• 1:15:28Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 1:15:29Speaker 02

  As opposed to a solo, a solo artist lives on an island.

• 1:15:32Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:32Speaker 02

  Where, so when, it's funny, because when he became part of an ensemble, then you could then now see him as the leader.

• 1:15:42Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 1:15:43Speaker 02

  Or the one in front, where if you're just you.

• 1:15:46Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:47Speaker 02

  What are you in front of?

• 1:15:48Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 1:15:49Speaker 02

  You know, so I could see him being like, "Yeah, I want it to be an ensemble," and have me portrayed as the head of the ensemble.

• 1:15:56Yasi Salek?

  Right. Well, what happens is it becomes that this is a movie starring Prince, and maybe there was some tension around that, too. Jill Jones also said that he always knew that there was gonna be this, like, storyline of the rivalry between him and Morris Day, which did exist, but maybe that rivalry existed more in the film. Played up for the things. All right, it's time, we have, pretty much have a script, September 15.

• 1:16:25Yasi Salek?

  Time to hire a crew and do six weeks of pre-production. They do need $7 million that they don't have right now. So while they're doing pre-production, this is when we go out on the road, trying to ask for money. First stop, David Geffen. Who didn't say no. He said, I'll make it for 6 million, but you can't start now. You have to start after he does another tour. And Bob Cavall was like, I already know Prince is gonna say, fuck that, fuck you. So he was like, I'm gonna take it to him, I get it. Okay, sorry, no David Geffen.

• 1:16:58Speaker 02

  I believe David Geffen quoted saying, whatever, I work with Michael Jackson, so this isn't.

• 1:17:05Yasi Salek?

  I don't know if he said that, or that was just the.

• 1:17:07Speaker 02

  That was the tone or the vibe?

• 1:17:08Yasi Salek?

  That was what Bob Cavall, like, kinda got from, like, he didn't need anything, he had Michael Jackson. Which, fair.

• 1:17:13Speaker 02

  I mean, in 1983?

• 1:17:15Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:15Speaker 02

  Yes, you sure do.

• 1:17:17Yasi Salek?

  And then, they went to Richard Pryor's production company, Indigo Productions.

• 1:17:22Speaker 02

  Jim Brown.

• 1:17:23Yasi Salek?

  Yes, with Jim Brown. This is The Ringer, so it's a good time to talk about sports. Former football Hall of Famer. Many different.

• 1:17:31Speaker 02

  Star of Mars Attacks.

• 1:17:32Yasi Salek?

  Totally, I mean, wonder, really a legend.

• 1:17:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, absolute legend.

• 1:17:36Yasi Salek?

  On every level. For various reported reasons, this didn't work out. In the Spike Lee documentary about Jim Brown, which came out in 2002, he remembers that actually Jim Brown, or Jim Brown says, I wanted to make the film, but Richard Pryor didn't know who Prince was. And like, wasn't down. And so that didn't happen. What actually ends up happening is Bob Cavall gets Hollywood superagent Mike Ovitz to get Warner Brothers Films to help fund it, with help from Mo Austin. Which makes sense, I mean, it's like, they're not the same exact company, but they are the same company, you know?

• 1:18:14Speaker 02

  It feels like we really took the long way.

• 1:18:16Yasi Salek?

  The long way, I know, I know. Cause this also happened with Madonna, like, when Madonna was kind of at their height, she also got Warner Brothers to like, help her, you know, like, of course, they want to like, nurture and keep their artists. But they are a little bit separate, so it's like, I'm sure the film, people are like, stop bringing us, you're fucking music people and making us fun movies for them, they suck, you know, like.

• 1:18:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:18:36Yasi Salek?

  According to Magnoli, the Warner Brothers VP they met with first, Mark Canton, was like, I don't like how anti-woman this script is. And also, what if John Travolta plays the lead?

• 1:18:47Speaker 02

  Also, what was the movie?

• 1:18:48Yasi Salek?

  What if John Travolta plays the lead?

• 1:18:50Speaker 02

  I get it. He was in Saturday Night Fever.

• 1:18:52Yasi Salek?

  I know, but like the whole

• 1:18:53Speaker 02

  But.

• 1:18:54Yasi Salek?

  crux of this movie is Prince wants to be in a movie. Like, you can't just be like, we recast it.

• 1:18:58Speaker 02

  The, a non-negotiable was, my name is above the title.

• 1:19:02Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, but starring John Travolta. Presenting Prince and starring John Travolta.

• 1:19:07Speaker 02

  Also, what was the movie with, um, Paul Simon? There was a, Paul Simon did a movie. Uh.

• 1:19:16Speaker 02

  That tanked. So there was all this trepidation about, uh, musician doing movie when.

• 1:19:23Yasi Salek?

  One Trick Pony.

• 1:19:24Speaker 02

  Well, yes, One Trick Pony. He did One Trick Pony. So there was sort of a stigma of, um, you know, that flopped. And so there was just, you know, stigma. I mean, is it even a stigma? If you could?

• 1:19:38Yasi Salek?

  It was just like, we don't want to.

• 1:19:39Speaker 02

  It was the most recent attempt.

• 1:19:41Yasi Salek?

  Do that again. There was someone else too. Huey Lewis? Someone else had made a film that also didn't do well. Yeah. So there were, there was some trepidation.

• 1:19:51Speaker 02

  Yeah. And that, and that Paul Simon movie was rather close to this. So I feel like there was a recent example of it failing. Therefore, the mountain that they had to climb was quite steep.

• 1:20:00Yasi Salek?

  Quite steep. Yeah. Obviously, they were like, no, John Travolta is not, that's not happening. But that's a non-starter. And then they met with Bob Daley and Terry Semel, who ran Warner Brothers Pictures. And they were like, okay, we're down. We're gonna keep Warner Brothers name off of it for now. Until we see the finished product, and then we'll decide if we want to be publicly associated with this, but we'll give you the money. So they're greenlit. Let's go.

• 1:20:24Speaker 02

  Yay.

• 1:20:25Yasi Salek?

  But guess what? We have a problem.

• 1:20:27Speaker 02

  Don't we always?

• 1:20:28Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Vanity?

• 1:20:30Speaker 02

  Bye.

• 1:20:31Yasi Salek?

  She does not want to be in the movie anymore. Denise Matthews. Um, Megan Ollie said, when I met Vanity, I was at First Avenue in the mezzanine area. Before anyone even said a word, I felt a quickening within the air. Within seconds, people started buzzing. Vanity's here. Vanity's here. I saw her coming through, one of the most beautiful women you would ever lay your eyes on, packed into latex, looking exquisite. She really was one of the most beautiful women.

• 1:20:53Speaker 02

  She was.

• 1:20:55Yasi Salek?

  Like unbelievable.

• 1:20:56Speaker 02

  She was a magnet. I mean, and all, I mean, she had like so much fucking charisma and like untangible. I mean, tangible and untangible, you know, and it's like, I could see why she would, cause she, didn't she get the Scorsese offer?

• 1:21:14Yasi Salek?

  Okay, so here was what happened. She, obviously nasty girl comes out in 1982. It's a massive hit. So she's kind of riding high. Um, she had not been actually, the, the like, story was that she had been offered the role of Mary Magdalene in Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ, but it wasn't totally true. There had been talks. So it wasn't like nothing, but it wasn't an offer. So however, she had other offers, like Barry Gordy had come and been like, come to Motown. Some other things were going on and actually the role, by the way, went to Barbara Hershey in Last Invasion of Christ. Vanity herself said it wasn't about any of that. It was about the money. She was like, I was basically, I'm paraphrasing, but I was offended by how much they were paying for like,

• 1:21:56Yasi Salek?

  being the second lead in the film. And she also said, this is a quote from her, basically, I wanted to let the wild animal come out and I needed to write my own songs. I needed to see if I could do something without the help of others. Now, Purple Rain was really his big dream. So I had to decide, do I do his or do I do mine? Makes total sense to me.

• 1:22:14Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 1:22:15Yasi Salek?

  Given what we know about Prince and his level of control and Vanity was like, I, if I stay here, always be,

• 1:22:23Speaker 02

  And this.

• 1:22:24Yasi Salek?

  I'll always be, I'll be successful, but I will be a product of Prince, you know? But I wanted to do my own thing. And so she left. She also left Vanity Six for the same reason. So they're like, okay, we need a new leading lady. And they auditioned a ton. Did you know that Gina Gershon auditioned for it?

• 1:22:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:22:43Yasi Salek?

  Isn't that not crazy that Gina Gershon could have been the, the lead role in

• 1:22:47Speaker 02

  I think she would have killed it.

• 1:22:49Yasi Salek?

  She would have been amazing.

• 1:22:50Speaker 02

  How about that?

• 1:22:51Yasi Salek?

  She would have been amazing.

• 1:22:52Speaker 02

  I mean, all love to Apollonia.

• 1:22:54Yasi Salek?

  Sure, but not a good actress. Love, respect.

• 1:22:58Speaker 02

  Oh, my goodness.

• 1:22:58Yasi Salek?

  Everything. Not a great actress. Kind of a bad actress.

• 1:23:04Yasi Salek?

  If I'm being, keeping it 100.

• 1:23:06Speaker 02

  But if, but what was this, there was this scene.

• 1:23:09Yasi Salek?

  But also Gina Gershon, too good of an actress.

• 1:23:11Speaker 02

  Maybe.

• 1:23:12Yasi Salek?

  I think so.

• 1:23:13Speaker 02

  There's.

• 1:23:13Yasi Salek?

  So let's talk about the levels of acting of the rest of the people in the movie like, and then all of a sudden you have Gina Gershon, it would be a little uneven.

• 1:23:18Speaker 02

  I skirted by this earlier, but I, but in, when we were talking about Albert Magnoli, I think the thing that makes this movie work so well is the fact that everyone.

• 1:23:28Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 1:23:29Speaker 02

  Is brand new.

• 1:23:29Yasi Salek?

  There's a real naturalistic quality to most people. I mean, again, to varying degrees of, uh, success. As I pointed out to you, to me, Prince does this almost 80% of the movie.

• 1:23:44Speaker 02

  So well, though.

• 1:23:47Yasi Salek?

  One of the best to ever.

• 1:23:48Speaker 02

  He's got some good cry.

• 1:23:48Yasi Salek?

  One of the best to ever.

• 1:23:49Speaker 02

  Some, he has some great cry scenes.

• 1:23:51Yasi Salek?

  If you guys are only listening to this, sorry, I'm doing Prince face.

• 1:23:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:23:53Yasi Salek?

  Um, great cry scenes. Um, he smolders.

• 1:23:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's, they're smoldering.

• 1:24:01Yasi Salek?

  He's reflective.

• 1:24:02Speaker 02

  But, but, but, but to your point about double G, um, as we call her.

• 1:24:07Yasi Salek?

  Gina Gersh.

• 1:24:09Speaker 02

  I think part of what made this feel, this movie feel, what made this movie work is its natural sort of feel. And yes, that, with that comes some poor acting performances, but it also humanizes everybody. And then I think in turn, and sublimity makes you a bit more invested because it's a world that they're creating of like, like a real.

• 1:24:32Yasi Salek?

  You love it so much.

• 1:24:33Speaker 02

  I love it so much.

• 1:24:34Yasi Salek?

  That you have maybe just like a lightly skewed and that's so fine.

• 1:24:38Speaker 02

  But, but, but here's what we do have to actually ask ourselves. This movie was a giant hit.

• 1:24:44Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. I think it's successful because it's camp.

• 1:24:47Speaker 02

  Well, of course.

• 1:24:48Yasi Salek?

  Which is great. Like it's camp.

• 1:24:51Speaker 02

  But they're asking you to go on this ride.

• 1:24:53Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:53Speaker 02

  That has very little stakes, you know, and.

• 1:24:57Yasi Salek?

  Barely, barely.

• 1:24:58Speaker 02

  And so you do have to sort of relate to it in order.

• 1:25:01Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:02Speaker 02

  To. Sort of go on that ride and I feel part of that relation is the fact that like, there's probably a part of us that's like, I could do, she's not that great of an actor, I could do that.

• 1:25:14Yasi Salek?

  Right, but you couldn't play the solo.

• 1:25:17Speaker 02

  So then that-

• 1:25:17Yasi Salek?

  You could, but I could not.

• 1:25:19Speaker 02

  So then that, that, that brings us to the actual reason why it's so successful is that the music performances are unparalleled.

• 1:25:25Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Well, Gina Gershon did not do it.

• 1:25:28Speaker 02

  She did not.

• 1:25:29Yasi Salek?

  As we mentioned, a woman named Patricia Cataro shows up. Magnolia says, she walks in, she came from the gym in baggy sweats, no makeup. Everyone else came in in leather and spandex and eighteen inch heels. She was the polar opposite of vanity. Vanity was danger, overt sexuality, sin, Apollonia with sweetness and light. Men really have a mother whore complex. It's so funny and they always show their ass with it. They're just like, this woman, the devil. This woman, sweet as cupcakes. And you're like, they're just honestly probably not that, you know, like, but it is very funny when men talk that way because you're like, oh, you really do see the world that way.

• 1:26:06Yasi Salek?

  So it's just really so easily tricked by like a little, little latex, a little bit of eyeliner, smudge, they're like, bad girl.

• 1:26:12Speaker 02

  There's, uh, the, uh, the special features the other night and, and Bob Cavalo is talking about meeting Apollonia and he's like, yeah, she's really beautiful.

• 1:26:26Yasi Salek?

  Sweetness and light.

• 1:26:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:26:27Yasi Salek?

  So Patricia Cataro, soon to be known as Apollonia, was from San Pedro, just down the-

• 1:26:34Speaker 02

  Right, the street.

• 1:26:35Yasi Salek?

  I dreamt of San Pedro. Uh, she dropped out of high school at sixteen to pursue modeling and was Miss San Pedro. And she had a little bit of acting experience. Would you know it? No, but she did have a little bit in a mini series called The Mystic Warrior. She said, "I was a starving actor and singer. I saw the listing, called my agent and had an audition within seven days. Prince took me to First Avenue. I wore black spandex and a gold mesh thin top. I'd heard a little bit about Prince before I went to Minneapolis, but I'm not in awe of him, so we got along just fine." She says Apollonia was her middle name, though it's not on her birth certificate. That's fine, you can have a middle name on your birth certificate. Other people say Prince is the one that was like, your name is Apollonia now.

• 1:27:17Speaker 02

  Because of Godfather.

• 1:27:19Yasi Salek?

  The Godfather.

• 1:27:20Speaker 02

  Which was already referenced.

• 1:27:21Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:22Speaker 02

  As in, in production.

• 1:27:24Yasi Salek?

  I'm not a forensic scientist, okay? Whatever is the case, she becomes, she becomes known as Apollonia.

• 1:27:29Speaker 02

  I believe changes her name.

• 1:27:31Yasi Salek?

  I'm not sure, maybe.

• 1:27:34Yasi Salek?

  Regardless, we, one crisis solved. Now Prince is still working on music this whole time. Jill Jones recalls them listening to a lot of English music, Roxy Music, Gary Newman. We pointed out a bit of a Gary Newman moment when we were watching, and we'll get into that. It's, okay, this is one of the fun ones. It's speculated that this is around the time that he writes The Beautiful Ones. Because depending on what time you ask people who this is about, you'll get different answers. But I think we have a definitive one now from the horse's mouth. For a long time, people thought it was about Susanna Melvoin. Susanna said, "I can't say that song was exactly our story, but he wrote it during that time. He wasn't always specifically writing about what he was going through,

• 1:28:19Yasi Salek?

  because he also had to be consistent with the Purple Rain storyline. But he was drawing from things that had happened in his own life. Our relationship was definitely very intense." So she goes into their relationship, which I can get into later. But Susan Rogers.

• 1:28:32Speaker 02

  Rogers.

• 1:28:33Yasi Salek?

  Also said it was about Susanna Melvoin back in this time, 84, 85. But in 2015, Prince came out and said, "Actually, no, this song was about vanity." He said, "I was talking to someone 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 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. It's not about somebody human that I'm looking at right now. It wouldn't have worked if it was. This was literally for that character, and that's why it worked. So it was about vanity, but it was about vanity as the character in the film."

• 1:29:17Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:29:18Yasi Salek?

  Here's the thing, I'm gonna call a little bullshit on that, which I'm gonna be like, but you had to tap into something.

• 1:29:26Speaker 02

  Have you, is there a song that you've heard that's more tapped in?

• 1:29:30Yasi Salek?

  That's what I'm saying, that's more fucking tapped the fuck into the emotions.

• 1:29:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:29:34Yasi Salek?

  So it's like, and maybe it was about all of that. Maybe it was about the character, but it's also about his new feelings for Susanna Melvoin, who had a boyfriend at the time that he was trying to woo her away from, and about Vanity leaving, because this is a song that's very clearly about loss.

• 1:29:47Speaker 02

  And like Vanity and people close have gone on record being like, that was perhaps the greatest love of his life. Like, I think he was very affected by Vanity's choice to sort of leave.

• 1:30:02Yasi Salek?

  Leave Prince Incorporated.

• 1:30:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:30:04Yasi Salek?

  Including their relationship, yeah. And also, to just kind of like push that more home. So Vanity passed away in 2016. She had kidney failure after years of being kind of a gnarly crack cocaine abuser. During the first show of the Australia tour around this time, he dedicated The Beautiful Ones to her. And this was like three days after she had passed away. And onstage, he said, "Her and I used to love each other deeply. She loved me for the artist I was. I loved her for the artist she was trying to be." And then when he got to the line, "I'm begging down on my knees", he said, "I'm begging down Denise."

• 1:30:47Yasi Salek?

  My arm hair stuck straight up.

• 1:30:49Speaker 02

  I could cry.

• 1:30:50Yasi Salek?

  We'll talk more about that song later, but oh my fucking god. Even if I had one ounce of influence on that song, even if he had just seen me that day at the post office, the day that he wrote some of that song and was like, "That girl was weird", I'd be really, really proud of him.

• 1:31:10Yasi Salek?

  Also, he writes "Let's Go Crazy" around this summer at some time. Jill Jones said, "When Prince wrote 'Let's Go Crazy', he came and picked me up. It must have been 3:00 in the morning. You just knew it was a really different kind of record for him to make. He'd never composed anything with that much energy in the hooks. He found his voice with the talk singing, and he knew it." Susan Roger later said that Prince always had like a core of every album, that he was like, "These songs are like the heart, the core." And for Purple Rain, the songs that represented the core of the album to Prince were Beautiful Ones, Purple Rain, and Computer Blue.

• 1:31:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:31:42Yasi Salek?

  Okay, well, it's time to get into production.

• 1:31:43Speaker 02

  Let's.

• 1:31:44Yasi Salek?

  Let's do it.

• 1:31:45Speaker 02

  Let's go.

• 1:31:45Yasi Salek?

  We began filming Purple Rain, October 31st, Halloween, 1983. It was quite cold. It's Minneapolis.

• 1:31:52Speaker 02

  It ended up being quite cold.

• 1:31:54Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, I guess the first like week or something, it was fine. They were like, oh, beautiful fall foliage, all that stuff you see. And then everyone is like, it was fucking goddamn freezing the whole time. Like Apollonia famously has to like drink alcohol to get in that water in not Lake Minnetonka.

• 1:32:08Speaker 02

  They had someone under, they had someone underneath to make sure that she would, that she would be able to rise up out of the water after she, yeah.

• 1:32:15Yasi Salek?

  Um, and the shooting was mostly frantic because they were almost always behind. They didn't have a lot of money. Um, Alan Leeds, who was the tour manager and kind of de facto production manager, said Prince was unaccustomed to not being in complete control of things. And he was in a situation where he didn't have the knowledge or the skill set to assume control over certain aspects of it. And you could see that frustrated him to no end. He had absolutely no patience for the time it took to set up lighting, to set up shots, even though he had done music videos. I thought that was really funny. I also hate being on set and I hate how long it takes for them to set up lighting and stuff.

• 1:32:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, and a music video, and if you watch the, the, the, the music videos for the 1999 album, he's, he's, they're just on a stage.

• 1:32:54Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 1:32:54Speaker 02

  Performing, you know what I mean?

• 1:32:55Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:56Speaker 02

  He could tap into that easily. But was so, the, the, the thing I love about what, how the Purple Rain sort of, um, shooting schedule, how, how that worked out was when they got there and it was nice for the, a little bit of time before it became ungodly cold. They're like, well, we should do something. Like, we can't do dialogue yet. Like, let's, let's film all the, all the helicopter shots and all the.

• 1:33:20Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:20Speaker 02

  And if that, if they weren't able to do that and it was that cold two weeks earlier, they probably would have had to do all that in LA and it would have felt like.

• 1:33:29Yasi Salek?

  And looked so different.

• 1:33:30Speaker 02

  Feels like Minnesota.

• 1:33:32Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 1:33:32Speaker 02

  You know, and it need, that made you like, there are a few, you know, pickup shots that are in LA where like, there's, you know, there's a palm tree and like one short thing, but like for the most part, they do a great job in making it feel like it's set in the place that's actually set in. And so much has been filmed in LA, obviously, we would have been able to tell. And the fact that they were able to do all of the, you know, all the bright fall, you know, foliage stuff in Minnesota was like, what a blessing.

• 1:34:03Yasi Salek?

  No, yeah, it's so great. It's really some of the most beautiful parts of the film.

• 1:34:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:34:07Yasi Salek?

  Leeds also said. That there was drama with Magnoli and the crew because Magnoli was so brand new and the crew was like journeymen and they were just like, who the fuck is this guy?

• 1:34:21Speaker 02

  I mean, makes sense.

• 1:34:22Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Also, it was very funny to me, though, the idea that Prince was like not tolerant of waiting and all this stuff kind of caused continuity issues, which as we were watching, I pointed out, and I was like, did he not just rip that poster down? And then like in the next shot, it's back up on the wall. And I was like, it's a continuity issue. It's fine.

• 1:34:38Speaker 02

  That's why he uses so much drum machine.

• 1:34:40Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 1:34:41Speaker 02

  Because a drum machine doesn't take time to set up.

• 1:34:44Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:44Speaker 02

  And he, if he has an idea, he needs to lay it down right now.

• 1:34:48Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:48Speaker 02

  And it's like, that's, that's how you're able to record a song a day for, you know, 50 some odd years.

• 1:34:57Yasi Salek?

  Bruh. Bruh. Also, maybe adding to some complexity and craziness and chaos on the set is that Prince is constantly changing the script. Susanna said, he took everything away from Magnoli. He was writing the script himself. He would be like, no, that's not what I had in mind. There are no rules here. This is my movie, so I can do it myself. He would read something and say, it's not popping enough. It doesn't say what I'm saying. And the next thing, he's sitting on the floor rewriting it. He'd give it to Steve Farnoli, one of the other managers, to take to his office. And the next day, it's changed. It was always his way or the highway, and you just facilitated it. Great. It's his movie.

• 1:35:33Speaker 02

  Worked out.

• 1:35:33Yasi Salek?

  You talked to me about this earlier, but off mic. So all the music was shot after everything else.

• 1:35:40Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 1:35:41Yasi Salek?

  Because they were so rehearsed. It was like the one thing they were so good at, right? Like, that they caught up all their time. Like, they were a month behind, and then they finished early. Is that right?

• 1:35:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, they had, they had three, three weeks or a month to record all the music sequences. They did it in between seven and 10 days.

• 1:36:00Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, because they were just so tight. And it's funny, because Magnoli was like, I want to do as many takes of each song as possible. And Prince was like, I want to do one per song. And then they had to compromise on three.

• 1:36:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:36:11Yasi Salek?

  Prince, to his credit, he was just like, it's gonna look different, like each three. But he did it so perfect in each one that actually it doesn't look different.

• 1:36:18Speaker 02

  He, he knows that I'm, he's, he knows that he's so, that he's so proficient at that thing, that they could do it once.

• 1:36:25Yasi Salek?

  And being precise and like hitting the mark and whatever. Magnoli also said that one thing, and just a further complication, is that Prince insisted on using only clothing.

• 1:36:37Yasi Salek?

  Conceived by his personal designer Sorbonne graduate Marie France, as everyday wear for everyone in the set, and that was a great challenge of production.

• 1:36:46Speaker 02

  But, boy, did that pay off.

• 1:36:49Yasi Salek?

  It really did. They all look amazing.

• 1:36:50Speaker 02

  I mean, is that one, that's one of-

• 1:36:52Yasi Salek?

  It's a star of the, besides the musical performance, the second star is the outfits.

• 1:36:56Speaker 02

  That movie, like, the characters just look incredible. And Trent, Trent, Trent set.

• 1:37:04Yasi Salek?

  Sure.

• 1:37:05Speaker 02

  I mean, that movie feels like, we know, we know it feels like the eighties now.

• 1:37:10Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:11Speaker 02

  You know what I mean? But like, those were clothes that they were making, you know, those, those, those looks and that feel became part of culture.

• 1:37:19Yasi Salek?

  Totally. Also, all the extras look so cool. Like, they had the cast such a cool-looking, like, perfect-

• 1:37:25Speaker 02

  Speaking of the opening scene, like, those close-ups on, on those people with, and their makeup, and you, you felt like you were, you were entering into a scene.

• 1:37:33Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, it was, it's really great. Princess Standen, this guy Byron Hector was fired because he had told a newspaper that Apollonia, quote, "can't act to save her life."

• 1:37:44Speaker 02

  It's not cool.

• 1:37:45Yasi Salek?

  It's not cool. He shouldn't have said that.

• 1:37:48Speaker 02

  Not professional.

• 1:37:48Yasi Salek?

  Not professional. You're, also, you're just the stunt double, or like, the body double or whatever. But a third of her scenes did have to be reshot, and take from that what you will. She did get the Razzie that year for the worst new star.

• 1:38:05Speaker 02

  Razzies.

• 1:38:06Yasi Salek?

  Critics, you know?

• 1:38:07Speaker 02

  Critics.

• 1:38:08Yasi Salek?

  And as you pointed out, they end up having to do seven days of shooting in L.A. at the end because of the weather, which is why there's one palm tree. It's in the one dove's cry montage, if you want to look for it. There's also a bunch cut, right, from the final product? Jill Jones, you were talking about this earlier, she had an entire arc in which Prince gives her a puppy.

• 1:38:31Yasi Salek?

  And she has a song called Wednesday.

• 1:38:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:38:34Yasi Salek?

  Which actually made it right.

• 1:38:36Speaker 02

  There's a test pressing.

• 1:38:37Yasi Salek?

  Yes.

• 1:38:37Speaker 02

  That they would, the first track listing of, the first test track, track listing of Purple Rain features Wednesday, Jill Jones song.

• 1:38:46Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, but it didn't make it.

• 1:38:47Speaker 02

  And, and that has, that song is still yet to be released. We've never heard it.

• 1:38:51Yasi Salek?

  It's crazy. The only evidence of the Jill Jones arc is that random shot. That makes no sense where she's standing in the hallway, holding the puppy crying.

• 1:39:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:39:02Yasi Salek?

  And you're like, okay. Um, I didn't like totally think it was that weird because the whole movie's fucking weird. But now, now that I read this, I'm like, that is kind of weird.

• 1:39:09Speaker 02

  Yeah. When everyone is so impressed with him after that performance.

• 1:39:13Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 1:39:13Speaker 02

  And so moved.

• 1:39:14Yasi Salek?

  Crying with a puppy.

• 1:39:15Speaker 02

  That you're just like, oh, she's also really moved. Like five seconds later, Apollonia is crying. It's like, everyone can't believe what they just saw. So as a kid, I was like, oh, she's just emotional. That just got her.

• 1:39:26Yasi Salek?

  Boredlessly crying at the door. Um, there was also obviously the sex scene, the second sex scene in the barn. A lot of sex scenes in barns in the 1980s in films.

• 1:39:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, standard.

• 1:39:40Yasi Salek?

  That involved a shower of almost literal purple rain. Some of it is in the trailer and in the When Doves Cry music video. But according to someone that worked on it, they said that Apollonia was playing it a little bigger than she was supposed to. And Prince was awkward and uncomfortable and you could see it on his face. And they were like, we can't include this. It doesn't look good. But you pointed this out and Apollonia said it that they've never, they never dated.

• 1:40:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:40:10Yasi Salek?

  Which I believe because they actually don't have any chemistry in this film.

• 1:40:14Speaker 02

  Well, and.

• 1:40:14Yasi Salek?

  Respectfully.

• 1:40:15Speaker 02

  And we were just no.

• 1:40:16Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:16Speaker 02

  We were just simply no. There, I watched this interview with Apollonia and they asked if her and Prince ever dated. And she said, no. And he's like, really? Why? And, and she, her answer was, you'd have to ask him.

• 1:40:32Yasi Salek?

  Oh, he didn't want her?

• 1:40:34Speaker 02

  That was her answer.

• 1:40:34Yasi Salek?

  Oh, she apparently was dating David Lee Roth at the time.

• 1:40:37Speaker 02

  She was dating David Lee Roth.

• 1:40:39Yasi Salek?

  Married and then was dating David Lee Roth, not sure.

• 1:40:42Speaker 02

  Hmm. She, Apollonia claims that Prince's jump and split off, off the piano.

• 1:40:51Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:51Speaker 02

  Um, which is, you know, infamous.

• 1:40:55Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:56Speaker 02

  Stemmed from her, so I'm sorry, stemmed from him mocking David Lee Roth.

• 1:41:02Yasi Salek?

  Oh, that's funny.

• 1:41:04Speaker 02

  Oh, you, you know, David Lee Roth, huh?

• 1:41:06Yasi Salek?

  Very funny.

• 1:41:07Speaker 02

  Oh, what's.

• 1:41:08Yasi Salek?

  That makes a lot of sense, actually, because that's very, seems in, in line with his personality, given his competitive nature.

• 1:41:13Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:41:14Yasi Salek?

  Well, we wrap this shit up, babe, right before Christmas, a few days after shooting ends, December 30th, Prince is like, oh, sorry, I just need to make two quick songs. She's always in my hair and erotic city. As a B-side.

• 1:41:30Speaker 02

  I mean.

• 1:41:31Yasi Salek?

  What?

• 1:41:33Speaker 02

  If, if, if you, I know it's not on the album.

• 1:41:38Yasi Salek?

  We're gonna talk about it. It's a B-side.

• 1:41:39Speaker 02

  But, but, but many people point to this era and this time of Prince being less, less funky.

• 1:41:46Yasi Salek?

  We can funk until the dawn, babe.

• 1:41:48Speaker 02

  Listen to erotic city and then, and then tell me that with a straight face.

• 1:42:01Speaker 02

  The, the first two B-sides, Seventeen Days and Erotic City are two of his best songs.

• 1:42:07Yasi Salek?

  Couldn't agree more, honey, sister.

• 1:42:09Speaker 02

  If not, I mean, if, if someone said my two favorite Prince songs are Seventeen Days and Erotic City, I would fully accept that.

• 1:42:15Yasi Salek?

  Full, full respect.

• 1:42:16Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:42:17Yasi Salek?

  We're not in the clear yet, babe. Okay, because they have some studio meetings and they're like, what the fuck is this, babe? What is going on? It's not done. It's still being edited. And Mike Obits is like, okay, you don't like it? We'll take it to Paramount. They'll make it a big hit. And they're like, hold on a minute.

• 1:42:34Speaker 02

  Wait, okay.

• 1:42:35Yasi Salek?

  Wait, wait, wait. Let's not get hasty. Prince did not sit into these studio meetings. He does not, you know, the lion does not concern himself with the studio meetings. Because he also had to make more music somehow. Because they needed a song to reinforce the romance. The light, the romance between him and Apollonia, right? So he takes back a song, is this correct, that he had already written for Vanity 6?

• 1:43:05Speaker 02

  For Apollonia.

• 1:43:05Yasi Salek?

  For Apollonia.

• 1:43:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, Take Me With You.

• 1:43:08Yasi Salek?

  To be on.

• 1:43:09Speaker 02

  Her album.

• 1:43:10Yasi Salek?

  Because they literally just swapped her into the exact role of Vanity in every, like, you're playing the movie part, you're in the band, Apollonia 6, the whole thing. So that song is called Take Me With You.

• 1:43:19Speaker 02

  His first proper duet.

• 1:43:20Yasi Salek?

  Proper duet. I do feel Lisa said something along the lines of like, Apollonia was an actress.

• 1:43:27Speaker 02

  Playing a singer.

• 1:43:28Yasi Salek?

  She could not sing, and I sang on that song. And Apollonia was like, I don't remember that, but I'm sure she's on the track.

• 1:43:36Yasi Salek?

  We have a new person.

• 1:43:39Yasi Salek?

  Playing on this. Who is it?

• 1:43:41Speaker 02

  Well, we kind of brushed by her a few moments ago with her first vocal performance, but we have the one and only Miss Sheila Escavito, as you all know, is Chili.

• 1:43:51Yasi Salek?

  The daughter of Santana Band member, Pete Escavito.

• 1:43:53Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 1:43:54Yasi Salek?

  So she had come in for Erotic City. Where did Prince find Chili?

• 1:43:57Speaker 02

  They met when he was on tour in Oakland.

• 1:44:01Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 1:44:01Speaker 02

  Years, years prior.

• 1:44:02Yasi Salek?

  Got it.

• 1:44:03Speaker 02

  Um, respected her very much as a musician. Her, her father was a musician, his father was a musician, so they connected very much on that. And, um, Purple Rain, he started, you know, using her.

• 1:44:15Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:16Speaker 02

  And not to get too far off this, but. It was within the Purple Rain sessions and then making Erotic City and Take Me With You, where he said, "You should make your own record." She's like, "I don't, what are you, I don't say anything." He goes, "No, it would be great." And of all the records he did in 1984, the Apple only a six record at the time, Purple Rain and the Sheila E. album, the Sheila E. album came out first, but all that material was the most recent material. It was only January, February where he had the idea for her to do a record.

• 1:44:54Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 1:44:55Speaker 02

  And her record came out in June.

• 1:44:57Yasi Salek?

  Wow. He probably could do it that fast back then too. It's like would never happen now, but.

• 1:45:00Speaker 02

  But that shows his need to get his newest stuff.

• 1:45:03Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. He's like, "This stuff is old. I don't, I don't care about it anymore." But anyways, Sheila is right on there, drum, drum, beating on the drums.

• 1:45:12Speaker 02

  Unparalleled.

• 1:45:14Yasi Salek?

  There's still one final piece missing.

• 1:45:17Speaker 02

  Perhaps the most important piece.

• 1:45:19Yasi Salek?

  Do you think so?

• 1:45:20Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, you can't argue first number one.

• 1:45:24Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:24Speaker 02

  First number one single, biggest hit of the album. Probably the most original song.

• 1:45:31Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:32Speaker 02

  Definitely, I would even say to this day, the most original number one hit song maybe ever.

• 1:45:42Yasi Salek?

  No bassline?

• 1:45:43Speaker 02

  It's so funny because that's such a part of When Doves Cry's sort of history and its story. But like when I first heard that song.

• 1:45:52Yasi Salek?

  You wouldn't notice that.

• 1:45:54Speaker 02

  I was, you're so wrapped up in the greatness of the song. But like everybody around him, when they first heard it, said, "What are you thinking?"

• 1:46:03Yasi Salek?

  Honey.

• 1:46:04Speaker 02

  Like he had to fight for When Doves Cry.

• 1:46:08Yasi Salek?

  I know. I know. Well, because it was so unusual, you know?

• 1:46:11Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 1:46:12Yasi Salek?

  Um, yeah, the point of this was like basically Magnolia is like, I'm cutting a montage showing like.

• 1:46:20Yasi Salek?

  The kid struggling with all the forces swirling in his head is about the father, the mother, loss, redemption, salvation, all the themes. And the next morning, Prince is like, okay, I have two songs for you.

• 1:46:32Speaker 02

  Mm hmm. And at that same time, the label is saying, we love Let's Go Crazy.

• 1:46:39Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:39Speaker 02

  And it will be a single, but it's not a first single. So we need another song.

• 1:46:46Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 1:46:46Speaker 02

  To be the first single and that song has to be a smash. While Albert Magnolia is saying, hey, I need a song that's exactly like this.

• 1:46:54Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:55Speaker 02

  And Prince says, both. Here.

• 1:46:59Yasi Salek?

  I got you, babe. Um, apparently did you read that he, so he wrote this, I guess, or recorded it after going to the Grammys? And he said that it was inspired actually by his relationship with Susan Mooney. Mooney?

• 1:47:16Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 1:47:17Yasi Salek?

  Although obviously the lyrics do touch on the movie, like maybe I'm just like my father. That's all. It's very interesting. It's very interesting.

• 1:47:26Speaker 02

  Well, I think it just shows that I don't think many songs are simply about one thing.

• 1:47:32Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 1:47:32Speaker 02

  And you fall and they start with an initial feeling.

• 1:47:36Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:37Speaker 02

  And you sort of like.

• 1:47:40Yasi Salek?

  You let it.

• 1:47:40Speaker 02

  When you're able, and then when you're able to, um, branch out of maybe that or initial subject and use your imagination, the world opens up.

• 1:47:50Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 1:47:51Speaker 02

  So not everything is meant, it means not, not, not everything is obviously tied to the initial idea or inspiration because you allowed yourself the permission to deviate from that. And when you do that, then everything, everything now is, is.

• 1:48:08Yasi Salek?

  Is fair game.

• 1:48:08Speaker 02

  Is, is, is an option.

• 1:48:10Yasi Salek?

  Or as I learned from my ex boyfriend, sometimes people are just put word places that where they sound good.

• 1:48:16Yasi Salek?

  Can never unknow that. Um, because we have all these new songs. Also, we'll go back to your point about it being the single. They actually didn't want it to be the single, though.

• 1:48:28Speaker 02

  Of cour- sure.

• 1:48:29Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 1:48:29Speaker 02

  But, but they were pressuring him.

• 1:48:31Yasi Salek?

  That's what he was thinking.

• 1:48:32Speaker 02

  But they were saying, we need like, that was what he, that was his response.

• 1:48:36Yasi Salek?

  He was like, I got you.

• 1:48:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:48:37Yasi Salek?

  Um, because he had written so many new songs. The soundtrack, which was originally meant to have everyone on it, right? Like, it was supposed to have songs by the time, it was supposed to have Apple Nia 6.

• 1:48:48Speaker 02

  Depends on who you ask.

• 1:48:49Yasi Salek?

  Oh, interesting. Well, this, there, there are versions, like, aren't there versions of tracklists that do show other, other, well, I know the Wednesday one, but I don't, are there versions?

• 1:49:01Speaker 02

  I don't think Prince ever intended the soundtrack album to feature other artists.

• 1:49:07Yasi Salek?

  Not even Jill Jones? Cause there was a test pressing.

• 1:49:10Speaker 02

  Besides Wednesday.

• 1:49:11Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 1:49:11Speaker 02

  Besides Wednesday, cause that was kind of more of a, of a joint.

• 1:49:14Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 1:49:15Speaker 02

  But.

• 1:49:15Yasi Salek?

  You think he always had it in mind? Okay.

• 1:49:18Speaker 02

  For, for, for a few reasons. One being, and I think the main being is that only Prince's music follows the story of Purple Rain.

• 1:49:29Yasi Salek?

  Totally. It wouldn't, yeah, it doesn't fit in. Also, like, I would assume, this is a total assumption on my part, but like, one, Cavallo has that experience with Love and Spoonful, where they did kind of a similar thing, where there, it wasn't that similar, but it was like, in the sense that like, the soundtrack to that movie is a Love and Spoonful album. It's not, it's not like a comp, you know? And it's like, if Prince makes this a comp, it's not a Prince album. Whereas Purple Rain is both the soundtrack of a film and a Prince album.

• 1:49:59Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 1:50:00Yasi Salek?

  And it wouldn't have been so if it, yeah.

• 1:50:03Speaker 02

  And he made, he, he had records for, like, when he took away Take Me With You for Apple Nia 6, he was like, okay, well, we need, you know, a mid-tempo pop song, so here's Blue Libazine. Like, he was thinking, he was always thinking about their albums.

• 1:50:19Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, yeah. He, he had things to.

• 1:50:22Speaker 02

  If you follow the, uh.

• 1:50:23Yasi Salek?

  The, the studio notes? The studio logs?

• 1:50:27Speaker 02

  If you follow the logs and the work orders, that, that directly contradicts that sort of idea, that, that there was once supposed to be a soundtrack featuring all the artists.

• 1:50:37Yasi Salek?

  Got it. Well, that makes a lot more sense. Um, and also, regardless, thank God.

• 1:50:44Yasi Salek?

  Because it wouldn't have been as good. Then they, okay, so now we're like, we have all the songs. The final cut is there. They have to go show it to Warner Brothers. And Bob Cavalo calls Howard Bloom, who was Prince's tireless publicist, and is like, I need you to come here because we're gonna show it to Warner Brothers. And you gotta sell it for us because I don't, I don't know how to sell it to them. And Howard Bloom comes out and he's like, here's what he said. "When the screening and the exec advisors all filed into the conference room, they started getting opinions and they were funereal, timid, guarding their speech. But everything they were saying was, this film is dead.

• 1:51:28Yasi Salek?

  When I, when my turn got, came, I got up and gave the Moses parting the Red Sea speech. I said, this is one of the most important movies in the history of film. And if you fuck this movie over, you're committing a sin."

• 1:51:42Yasi Salek?

  Then he told them.

• 1:51:43Speaker 02

  Old timey Hollywood is so funny.

• 1:51:45Yasi Salek?

  He gave them the history of movies like Wizard of Oz, which had been done offset and everyone was convinced it was a failure. And see what happened. He basically really went like, and they were like, okay, okay. Like, he just sold the fu, he PR'd the fuck out of it.

• 1:52:03Yasi Salek?

  Now we're gonna get into starting to release some of the stuff starting to come out into the world. Real quick, I wanna paint a picture. We've been talking about 1984, but like, just to like, put the landscape. We talked about MTV launching, talked about the first black artist being featured on MTV just a short year prior. During the Super Bowl at the top of 84, Apple Computer ran their Ridley Scott-directed advertisement where a blonde woman in athletic wear runs into a gray dystopian setting, being chased by stormtroopers and puts a sledgehammer through the screen.

• 1:52:46Yasi Salek?

  And the voiceover says, "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984, the Jordan World."

• 1:52:57Speaker 02

  Genius.

• 1:52:57Yasi Salek?

  But also like, look where it got us. I wish they would have fucking taken it back. I wish they were gonna time machine kill Hitler. No, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna kill Apple Corporation and be like, get that phone out of my fucking life.

• 1:53:07Speaker 02

  Hundred percent.

• 1:53:08Yasi Salek?

  And, and we'll kill Hitler. We'll do both.

• 1:53:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:53:10Yasi Salek?

  Um, things are changing. Also, the first commercial compact disc players have been put on the market. That was eighty-three, but it was really in eighty-four when the first portable players were sold and that CD player started putting in the cars. So it's a real, it's a real sea change, you know?

• 1:53:29Speaker 02

  Real shift, yeah.

• 1:53:30Yasi Salek?

  Also, in fall of eighty-four is the very first MTV VMAs, which, huge.

• 1:53:36Speaker 02

  Did you cover that last month at all?

• 1:53:38Yasi Salek?

  A little bit. You might have seen my gorgeous video, my beautiful reenactment where people were like, is that Madonna? Oh, no, it's Yasi. That's, wow, I had to blink, because she looks just like her. Um, all right, it's May sixteenth, nineteen eighty-four.

• 1:53:52Speaker 02

  The doves, the doves be crying?

• 1:53:55Yasi Salek?

  Dig if you will, a picture. You and I engaged in a kiss. Can you believe it? Dig if you will, a picture. One of the best opening lyrics to a song ever put pen to paper.

• 1:54:14Speaker 02

  It's, it's, it's nothing short of remarkable.

• 1:54:19Yasi Salek?

  I can't, I just.

• 1:54:20Speaker 02

  What a turn of phrase.

• 1:54:24Speaker 02

  Dig if you will, the picture. That's how he, that's how Prince was trying to say, check this out.

• 1:54:31Yasi Salek?

  Imagine.

• 1:54:31Speaker 02

  Yes, imagine.

• 1:54:32Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:54:34Speaker 02

  Say imagine without saying imagine.

• 1:54:36Yasi Salek?

  Dig if you will, a picture. It's the picture.

• 1:54:46Yasi Salek?

  Doves cry. You hear that. You're like, cha-ching, let's go, art, Picasso, hang in the Louvre. Cabala was like, yeah. I was like, this is obvious for a single. It's fucking amazing. The urban department at Warner Brothers was like, actually, we want to put out Let's Go Crazy. It's less than experimental. And Cabala was like, what? Am I wrong?

• 1:55:08Yasi Salek?

  And so he goes to dinner with Clive Calder, who would later become insanely successful because his label Zomba slash Jive was the home of Britney Spears. And N'Sync, he did very well. He made $2.7 billion when he sold it. Anyways, he picks him up at the hotel. He's like, I'm gonna play you these two songs. Doesn't tell him the context. Which one do you think I should go with? And Clive Calder's like, is this a joke? And he's like, what? You don't like Dove's Cry? He's like, no, that's, it's fantastic. Put that one out. And so obviously, they do it. Here's what Prince said in his virtual liner notes from his first website in the 90s. Okay? Studio logs.

• 1:55:49Speaker 02

  Come on.

• 1:55:50Yasi Salek?

  Originally recorded with bass, backing two sets of keys and guitar. Frustrated with the mix. He referred to himself in the third person. Prince Rogers Nelson sat discouraged in the studio. Jill Jones came to visit and saw the long face and asked what was wrong. PRN said. PRN was said to have said. If I had my way, the song would sound like this. He then shoved down the bulk of the instrument faders and left up only the drums and the xylophone when the voices began to sing the chorus. Jill then asked PRN why he thought he couldn't have his way with the mix. There was no reply. Everyone who passed by the studio was enthralled by the strange sound coming out of Studio 3 that day. The next time Jill heard the song, it was on the radio and it was bassless and stark. PRN had his way.

• 1:56:34Yasi Salek?

  You wrote a little short story.

• 1:56:37Speaker 02

  Morstay did not have the same reaction.

• 1:56:39Yasi Salek?

  He didn't like it.

• 1:56:41Speaker 02

  Prince played it for him in his car. Morstay got out when Prince was dropping him off. And he goes, next time, play me something funky. Slams the door in his face.

• 1:56:50Yasi Salek?

  Wow. Well, isn't it funky?

• 1:56:52Speaker 02

  People could not, well, this is when I suppose that becomes a subjective phrase, but.

• 1:57:02Speaker 02

  The the lack of bassline, again, it's I cannot, I can't put myself in that in that headspace of hearing that song for the first time, you know, without it being released and already a hit, but it really it bothered a lot of people.

• 1:57:18Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:19Speaker 02

  I mean, funk, I mean, bass is the sort of like.

• 1:57:22Yasi Salek?

  I don't I don't mean funky in a sort of like cool, like the term, like it's like a non-meaning term, but like funky in the sense of like being of a funk song.

• 1:57:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, ba- bass is is sort of the primary is what drives a funk.

• 1:57:37Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:38Speaker 02

  Tune, for sure.

• 1:57:39Yasi Salek?

  I mean, I think it's so the starkness of the coldness of the song is what makes it so.

• 1:57:47Speaker 02

  That's what does it.

• 1:57:48Yasi Salek?

  Impactful.

• 1:57:49Speaker 02

  And it's one of the few songs where it wasn't a standard of his life, like after the Purple Rain tour. It was not in every show, songs, especially later. And when it was, he would, he was always reworking it and to to find like the perfect way to play it live. Because because the studio version is so unlively, as I guess a better way to to put it. And and the the way that for me, it always worked best was when he did it on the piano and a microphone tour. And he just pressed play on a backing track and sang over the song.

• 1:58:23Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 1:58:24Speaker 02

  That it's the only Prince song that I would say works best with that live and with that instrumentation, because it's not, it's just simply as a live band song.

• 1:58:36Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, yeah, that that's okay. Yeah, this is.

• 1:58:40Speaker 02

  But it's again, it's perfect. It's, you know, not not to repeat myself, but I do think it is one of the most original and strangest hit, a number one hit singles ever. Subject matter, the instrumentation, the vocal approach.

• 1:59:03Yasi Salek?

  Can you say more about that?

• 1:59:04Speaker 02

  The first time you hear vo- voice in that song is so abrasive and aggressive that that sort of, and he's he hasn't really did that, he he never did that again, really. But that opening right after the guitar and the beat.

• 1:59:25Speaker 02

  Starts to kick in, you know, it's, I, I don't wanna imitate it because it's,

• 1:59:31Yasi Salek?

  Do it.

• 1:59:31Speaker 02

  It's the.

• 1:59:34Yasi Salek?

  Do it.

• 1:59:36Speaker 02

  But, you know, it's, it's not the, it's, it's non lyrical and it's like,

• 1:59:44Speaker 02

  right? Like, what?

• 1:59:46Yasi Salek?

  So cool.

• 1:59:47Speaker 02

  It's so cool.

• 1:59:48Yasi Salek?

  So fucking.

• 1:59:49Speaker 02

  But it is, again, it is quite odd and subversive for pop radio.

• 1:59:55Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. And like ahead of any of.

• 1:59:57Speaker 02

  And that's the first thing you hear.

• 1:59:59Yasi Salek?

  So, it's so sick.

• 2:00:09Yasi Salek?

  And guess what? People loved it. Not just us. It hit number one, like you said, in six weeks. First single to hit the top spot, stayed there for five weeks, kept Bruce Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark, also a god tier song, from reaching the top spot. Became the best selling single of 1984.

• 2:00:26Speaker 02

  Sorry, Bruce. Number one.

• 2:00:28Yasi Salek?

  The song is in the key of A minor.

• 2:00:32Yasi Salek?

  Okay, but even I, with my limited knowledge, know that A minor is like god tier for making you feel some type of way.

• 2:00:40Speaker 02

  Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

• 2:00:41Yasi Salek?

  So.

• 2:00:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:00:43Yasi Salek?

  I was interested to learn that.

• 2:00:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:00:44Yasi Salek?

  Even amongst the cold metallic production of it or whatever, there is an emotional component to the key.

• 2:00:53Speaker 02

  There's a, and it's a common key. So there.

• 2:00:55Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:55Speaker 02

  Within all that, there is a familiarity.

• 2:00:57Yasi Salek?

  Right. He didn't make everything.

• 2:00:58Speaker 02

  Right.

• 2:00:59Yasi Salek?

  Weird and different.

• 2:01:00Speaker 02

  Whether you know anything about music theory.

• 2:01:03Yasi Salek?

  I don't.

• 2:01:04Speaker 02

  Or notation or chords at all, like, like you say, but you do, you hear that key enough. And whether you could point to it and say, that's that, it is subliminally familiar to you.

• 2:01:16Yasi Salek?

  Totally. Totally.

• 2:01:17Speaker 02

  The royal you.

• 2:01:18Yasi Salek?

  The royal me and us. Um, the B side to this song is called 17 Days. Actually, it's called 17 Days, parentheses, the rain will come down, comma, then you will have, you will have to choose if you believe, comma, look to the dawn and you shall never lose, parentheses, end parentheses. It is the longest.

• 2:01:42Yasi Salek?

  Titled Flip Side of a Hot 100, number one. Just so you know. What a, what a tune.

• 2:01:52Speaker 02

  It's, it's one of, it's one of my favorites. It originally intended for Apollonia Six.

• 2:01:58Yasi Salek?

  Okay, this is how I was confused. Was it for Apollonia Six or for Vanity Six? Or for the Brenda Bennett solo project that never transpired? Because I also read that it was for that. And that's why Brenda Bennett still has a harmony vocal on it.

• 2:02:11Speaker 02

  The first recording of it has Brenda on lead.

• 2:02:18Yasi Salek?

  Yes.

• 2:02:19Speaker 02

  She's has sung lead on, like, she's the lead. She's the lead on, on Blue Limousine.

• 2:02:25Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 2:02:25Speaker 02

  So I don't think it was for her solo project.

• 2:02:29Yasi Salek?

  Got it.

• 2:02:29Speaker 02

  But the Vanity and Apollonia Six, like, I'm using those kind of.

• 2:02:33Yasi Salek?

  Interchangeably.

• 2:02:34Speaker 02

  Because like.

• 2:02:35Yasi Salek?

  Because they basically became.

• 2:02:36Speaker 02

  Right.

• 2:02:37Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:02:37Speaker 02

  Because the second, because the Apollonia Six album very well could have been the second.

• 2:02:42Yasi Salek?

  Had she not left, yeah.

• 2:02:44Speaker 02

  Right.

• 2:02:44Yasi Salek?

  Apparently the, her, so her vocal is still there. It's just buried in the track, right? That's what I read.

• 2:02:50Speaker 02

  She's, she's present on the track, yes.

• 2:02:52Yasi Salek?

  But you can't really hear it.

• 2:02:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:02:53Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. What do you love about this song?

• 2:02:57Speaker 02

  It has a sparseness, but different in the way that When Doves Cry does. It, it, it's a perfect representation of letting the melody be the star of the show. And the vocal, the vocal hooks, especially in the verse. I feel like when you can make the vocal melody and have that, um, the verse vocal melody be the star of the show is really hard because the chorus.

• 2:03:27Yasi Salek?

  The chorus.

• 2:03:27Speaker 02

  The chorus is meant to then elevate the song.

• 2:03:29Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:03:30Speaker 02

  This, in this song, it still does. But Prince has this, Prince does this very Prince thing where he will allow the chorus to do everything the chorus is supposed to do. While yet.

• 2:03:44Speaker 02

  Making the verse the best part of the song. Little Red Corvette.

• 2:03:48Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:03:48Speaker 02

  I think he does that there where the chorus in Little Red Corvette is a perfect chorus. It does everything a chorus is supposed to do. It does lift up. It does have a line in it that you could, that you hear once and you could sing back to you. Much like Seventeen Days.

• 2:04:02Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:04:02Speaker 02

  But the soul and the pain and the tone and the performance is all within the verse melody for Seventeen Days.

• 2:04:22Yasi Salek?

  It's so funny because if you just read the lyrics, it really comes off so similar to like a country song, which is kind of important, right? To talk about like what Prince's maybe interests were in some ways around this time. Because we'll talk about it a bit with Purple Rain too, right?

• 2:04:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:04:40Yasi Salek?

  Also, lol to me that he has so many songs about being like left and lonely and down and the fuck out for the man that diktatized the entire town. He is like, but nobody's calling. And I'm like, yes, they are.

• 2:04:56Yasi Salek?

  Maybe spiritually they don't feel it, but I promise they're probably beating down your door. So that's where you can still be alone when you're surrounded by people who want to fuck

• 2:05:06Speaker 02

  He's a character. He's a character man.

• 2:05:08Yasi Salek?

  This was the first piece of commercially released music credited to Prince and the Revolution. Not When Doves Cry.

• 2:05:18Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 2:05:19Yasi Salek?

  But this.

• 2:05:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:05:20Yasi Salek?

  Interesting.

• 2:05:22Yasi Salek?

  Living Color covered this song in 1993 and it's quite cool if you haven't heard it.

• 2:05:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, I have. It's great.

• 2:05:27Yasi Salek?

  If you guys haven't heard it.

• 2:05:28Speaker 02

  Also used in queer.

• 2:05:30Yasi Salek?

  I didn't know that.

• 2:05:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:05:31Yasi Salek?

  Okay, great. Well, pretty strong start to the Purple Rain promotional cycle leading up to the film. Because we have a number one single. The soundtrack is released shortly thereafter, a month later, about June 25th, 1984. The whole thing is credited to Prince and the Revolution. Until the last minute, you read this too, that the members of the Revolution were not aware that this was going to be, this was going to happen. Bobby C said only when he saw the test pressing that he was like, oh.

• 2:06:06Yasi Salek?

  That's cool.

• 2:06:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:06:07Yasi Salek?

  I got the chills.

• 2:06:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:06:08Yasi Salek?

  We're, we're a part of this.

• 2:06:09Speaker 02

  Yeah. Again, he, he, he saw the benefit and the, the value and the pros in being an ensemble.

• 2:06:18Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Well, it worked. The sequencing of this album changed up until the very last minute. Most notably that Purple Rain, the titular track was moved to the very end.

• 2:06:29Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 2:06:30Yasi Salek?

  Which makes a lot of sense because otherwise are the, am I wrong that the songs are pretty much in the order that they come in the film?

• 2:06:37Speaker 02

  Yes, it's just that Purple Rain is before I Would Die For You and Baby I'm A Star.

• 2:06:40Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, but he obviously wanted the whole thing to build up to the big one.

• 2:06:46Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 2:06:47Yasi Salek?

  Um.

• 2:06:47Speaker 02

  And genius, I mean, like, those two songs had to come after Purple Rain in the movie, but the album has to close with Purple Rain.

• 2:06:56Yasi Salek?

  Do you think that if he was not dealing with the limitations of length?

• 2:07:04Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:07:05Yasi Salek?

  Of recording material, how it had to fit onto CD or LP or whatever at this time, that he would have made this like 17 songs?

• 2:07:14Speaker 02

  I, I think that 1999, though his greatest success, um, I think there are people in the camp who thought that it could have been.

• 2:07:25Yasi Salek?

  One album.

• 2:07:26Speaker 02

  Uh, more effective as, as one album. So I think there was a lot of discourse about Purple Rain not, um, being a double album. And that's why we get a, you know, um, a, a very much abbreviated version of Computer Blue, which the original is 12 minutes. So at the very least, if there was no concern over LP length, we would.

• 2:07:51Yasi Salek?

  We would have had longer versions of the songs.

• 2:07:53Speaker 02

  Especially Computer Blue. Because he looked at that song as an anchor, which is kind of.

• 2:07:58Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:07:58Speaker 02

  Funny to think about that now because that song is. And I say this as a compliment, is barely a song.

• 2:08:05Yasi Salek?

  You mean in its final form?

• 2:08:07Speaker 02

  It's one verse, one chorus and an instrumental section.

• 2:08:10Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:08:11Speaker 02

  Like, that's not the basis for an anchor of an album, right? So that song took, and so there, it's, it's, it's interesting to see that that was the song that kept, you know, suffering loss when it was sort of initially sort of envisioned and viewed as an album anchor.

• 2:08:29Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Well, I mean, it's just the parts that were cut don't like, would, they were all basically spoken word, right?

• 2:08:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was, yeah. And, and there was a, the, um, the initial like sort of, um, sections doubled. There was a, you know, um, but, but yeah, I mean, it was a long, it was a jammed, it was a very jam adjacent tune.

• 2:08:53Yasi Salek?

  Tune, yeah.

• 2:08:54Speaker 02

  But no, I think we could have seen Possessed on the album. I think we could have seen Electric Intercourse on the record.

• 2:09:02Yasi Salek?

  But wouldn't it have been strange to have songs that weren't in the film?

• 2:09:06Speaker 02

  Yes, for sure. So.

• 2:09:07Yasi Salek?

  I guess Father's Song.

• 2:09:09Speaker 02

  I, we, Father's Song, which was, um, originally closed the album.

• 2:09:13Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:09:14Speaker 02

  With, with the Wednesday version. Um, God.

• 2:09:17Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:09:17Speaker 02

  We probably would have had God.

• 2:09:18Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:09:19Speaker 02

  So at least I, I could definitely see a world where without the sort of time restrictions, we could have had the, the hallway speech version of Computer Blue, God, um, maybe, uh, Possessed and Father's Song. Yeah.

• 2:09:36Yasi Salek?

  It's crazy because when I listen to this, one of the things that I'm always left with is how tight and perfect it is and how short it is. Because you're just kind of not used to a 44 minute, it's 44 minutes, right? And it's like, just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Like.

• 2:09:49Speaker 02

  It is the most like.

• 2:09:50Yasi Salek?

  No moments of like sagging or weakness, you know, like, I think it was, was it Chris Rock who was like, everyone says through there's the best album of all time, but Thriller has skips and Purple Rain doesn't.

• 2:10:01Speaker 02

  It's simply true.

• 2:10:03Yasi Salek?

  No lies, distraction. Um, okay. Let's talk about the promo before we get into things. As we said, Prince did not speak to the press for. Two and a half years that just happened to coincide with the entire promo segment on this film and soundtrack.

• 2:10:17Speaker 02

  Think about that.

• 2:10:18Yasi Salek?

  I know.

• 2:10:19Speaker 02

  Think about that in context of like now, with someone having their biggest moment.

• 2:10:24Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:10:24Speaker 02

  They would, they're on, they're on every show, they're doing everything, you're hearing their voice.

• 2:10:30Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:10:31Speaker 02

  In a humanizing way all the time.

• 2:10:33Yasi Salek?

  I like wonder, yeah, I wonder, the only thing comp I can think of maybe now is like Beyonce.

• 2:10:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:10:40Yasi Salek?

  Cause she doesn't, for a long time, hasn't, has barely done promo, you know, and doesn't need to.

• 2:10:46Speaker 02

  She earned that.

• 2:10:47Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, yeah, totally.

• 2:10:47Speaker 02

  We all now like are so familiar with her.

• 2:10:51Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:10:51Speaker 02

  Like, like you said, a few months before this, Richard Pryor did not know who Prince was.

• 2:10:57Yasi Salek?

  I know.

• 2:10:58Speaker 02

  You know?

• 2:10:58Yasi Salek?

  But it was a different time, right? Where like you really could, people were invested in intrigue and mystery, you know?

• 2:11:07Speaker 02

  They, you, you beat me to it. They stumbled upon, or maybe not stumbled, but they realized that everyone in the camp realized that the sort of, that the mystery was part.

• 2:11:20Yasi Salek?

  Oh, right.

• 2:11:20Speaker 02

  Of the, of the story.

• 2:11:22Yasi Salek?

  Let's lead with this because it's one of the most compelling parts of Prince.

• 2:11:26Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 2:11:27Yasi Salek?

  And I think Howard Bloom said that, he said, we didn't need to have Prince to interviews anymore. This is like, this also, I was like, Jesus Christ, we humans have very little memory. It's not until you repeat something 15 times that it rises to the level of consciousness. So I worked on a Pavlovian philosophy almost, getting Prince's name repeated as frequently as possible. Doing publicity of this kind, you're like Sisyphus, rolling that big round stone at the mountain. Except when you're building a prince, if you're moving that stone by repeating his name over and over again in every context possible, when you get to the peak, gravity takes over and the thing keeps moving with a momentum of its own. We had passed that peak. Prince had his own momentum by the time that movie came out. He said he had this like relationship with Liz Smith, who was like a big gossip columnist.

• 2:12:09Yasi Salek?

  And he, he was like, with a gossip column, you can get somebody's name out every single week. So by the time you went to see the movie, his name had been trickling around you for a long time. This couldn't happen anymore. We don't have that kind of press.

• 2:12:23Speaker 02

  But it's just simply not how it.

• 2:12:24Yasi Salek?

  It's not simply how it works. You have to do front-facing camera content and humiliate yourself like a fucking goddamn clown. Um, myself included.

• 2:12:32Yasi Salek?

  Interestingly, when the album came out, because the album predates the film, right?

• 2:12:36Speaker 02

  A month.

• 2:12:37Yasi Salek?

  About a little.

• 2:12:38Speaker 02

  Single, album, movie, all about a month.

• 2:12:43Yasi Salek?

  Roughly, yeah, because the movie comes out in August, right?

• 2:12:46Speaker 02

  It's not July 25th. For whatever reason, that that date seems.

• 2:12:52Yasi Salek?

  July 17th.

• 2:12:53Speaker 02

  Like it means something.

• 2:12:53Yasi Salek?

  Genius. Yeah, so about a month. You're right. Three weeks. Um, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA came out just a few weeks before this and it was like a huge deal. So kind of a little at the beginning overshadowed Purple Rain. Like Rolling Stone gave him the cover of that reviews section instead of,

• 2:13:16Yasi Salek?

  whatever the featured lead spot or whatever, not the cover. And they gave Born in the USA five stars and gave Purple Rain four stars. Kurt Loder.

• 2:13:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, but if I'm, I may be mistaken, at the end of the year, didn't they reverse that?

• 2:13:31Yasi Salek?

  Well, at the end of the year, they were like, the album of the year is Purple Rain.

• 2:13:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:13:34Yasi Salek?

  They gave the top honor.

• 2:13:36Speaker 02

  And they gave, right, they gave Born in the USA number two.

• 2:13:39Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:13:40Speaker 02

  Kurt Loder said that he didn't see a song on Purple Rain being as big as Little Red Corvette.

• 2:13:46Yasi Salek?

  I know.

• 2:13:47Speaker 02

  In, in, in his review.

• 2:13:48Yasi Salek?

  Meanwhile, Purple Rain would like to have a word with you.

• 2:13:53Yasi Salek?

  Purple Rain has like, I don't even know however many billion, not, actually, I don't know if it has a billion, but it definitely has like, 800 million streams or something.

• 2:14:02Speaker 02

  And let's not forget, it didn't join streaming until after he passed.

• 2:14:06Yasi Salek?

  Exactly. So imagine if it had been on since the beginning. Also, there's many versions, so it's like people are spreading it around. Here's what Kurt Loder said. The spirit of Jimi Hendrix must surely have smiled down on Prince Rogers Nelson. Like Hendrix, Prince seems to have tapped into some extraterrestrial musical dimension where black and white styles are merely different aspects of the same funky thing. Prince's rock and roll is as authentic and compelling as his soul and his extremism is endearing in an era of play it safe record production and formally hip mongering. That was good.

• 2:14:35Speaker 02

  For so long, Prince, especially as a guitarist, has been compared to Jimi Hendrix.

• 2:14:41Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:14:41Speaker 02

  I saw a video recently of Paul McCartney.

• 2:14:46Speaker 02

  Speaking about Prince as a fan and with admiration.

• 2:14:49Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:14:50Speaker 02

  Comparing him to Jimi Hendrix. And I simply don't.

• 2:14:54Yasi Salek?

  You don't see it?

• 2:14:54Speaker 02

  I don't, I don't agree. I don't hear it. And he is, his guitar playing is Carlos Santana.

• 2:15:01Yasi Salek?

  Interesting. What's?

• 2:15:04Speaker 02

  The color of his skin.

• 2:15:04Yasi Salek?

  Me is stupid. No, no, no. I, I know why people think, but me, what, like, what is the meaningful difference? That you see that's like, okay, it's more like Carlos Santana because it's like this.

• 2:15:16Speaker 02

  Tonally and like the scales and the, and the sort of, I, I know, I, it's, it's hard for me to.

• 2:15:21Yasi Salek?

  I'm just really sorry because unfortunately what immediately came to my mind is, you know, it came to my mind. Give me your love, make it real, and then forget about it. I'm sorry that Smooth by Santana and Rob Thomas came into my mind.

• 2:15:35Speaker 02

  There's um, um, there's a, there's a more, um, Hendrix's lead playing was like really nasty and in your face. And Santana's was a bit more sort of like, um, I don't want to call it hook driven, um, but more melody, more, more melody forward. And although Prince was, um, his sort of tone, like, his sort of lead tone is very like loud and gainy and like, and like harsh. But the actual, but after that, the, the, the actual music he is playing from his guitar, those, those are, is, that's far more informed

• 2:16:17Speaker 02

  by Carlos Santana. And I don't think really very much by Jimi Hendrix.

• 2:16:22Yasi Salek?

  That's.

• 2:16:22Speaker 02

  Kind of at all.

• 2:16:23Yasi Salek?

  That's very thoughtful. I think, I think obviously you pointed out, it's like Jimi Hendrix having been one of the early, kind of the like held up example of like, this is a black guy shredding on guitar.

• 2:16:37Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 2:16:38Yasi Salek?

  This other black guy must be just like the other black guy shredding on guitar.

• 2:16:40Speaker 02

  And they like, you know, have similar, like, there's a similar look, you know?

• 2:16:44Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. And like, you know, you, I don't think you could maybe discount that that purple haze probably had a touch to do with Prince's preoccupation with purple, you know?

• 2:16:54Speaker 02

  Sure. And again.

• 2:16:55Yasi Salek?

  I don't know about all of it.

• 2:16:56Speaker 02

  This is pre the era of Carlos Santana that you just referenced.

• 2:17:01Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:17:01Speaker 02

  Carlos Santana, not a household name.

• 2:17:03Yasi Salek?

  No, you mean before Smooth featuring Rob Thomas? Yeah, that really broke him right through the mainstream.

• 2:17:10Speaker 02

  Or you could say Jimi Hendrix and everyone on earth knows knows what you're talking about.

• 2:17:14Yasi Salek?

  Totally. Here's what Greg Tate, may he rest in peace, one of the greatest rock critics or music critics, said in The Village Voice, "No album since Funkadelics Let's Take It To The Stage has so amorously bedded down black and white pop. The record Prince has been wanting to make all along, since the music sounds like the kind of mulatto variation he probably was piecing together and performing in Minnesota before he got his deal."

• 2:17:34Speaker 02

  That word has been used a lot to describe Prince in that era, and it's just like every time.

• 2:17:40Yasi Salek?

  Well, we don't say that anymore, but I was just reading.

• 2:17:41Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no, no. Oh, my God, of course. But that's just like an aside. High praise. None, nonetheless.

• 2:17:48Yasi Salek?

  I know. Okay, so even though Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen had held the number one spot on the album chart for four weeks, just a few days after the film came out, Purple Rain took its lot and became the biggest seller in the nation. It was an enormous success. Twenty-four weeks on top of the Billboard 200, was on the chart for 167 weeks. When Doves Cry, like we said, hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Let's Go Crazy hit number one. Purple Rain and I Would Die For You were top 10 hits. By 1996, this album was 13 times platinum.

• 2:18:21Speaker 02

  First, only by the Beatles and Elvis Presley to have, only artists to have the number one single, movie, and album.

• 2:18:31Yasi Salek?

  Oh, sick. So sick.

• 2:18:36Speaker 02

  What are we talking about here, folks?

• 2:18:38Yasi Salek?

  One day, he came to Bob Cavalo and he said, "If you don't get me a movie, I'm leaving." And they were like, "Okay." And then look what happened.

• 2:18:46Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 2:18:51Yasi Salek?

  Okay, let's go, song by song. We're coming to it now. Let's Go Crazy. Let's Go Crazy. I'm sorry, this song fills me with a joy and a splendor that I cannot explain. It is divine.

• 2:19:06Speaker 02

  It's divine. It's divine. It's literally divine.

• 2:19:10Yasi Salek?

  Dearly beloved.

• 2:19:11Speaker 02

  I-

• 2:19:12Yasi Salek?

  We are gathered here today.

• 2:19:14Speaker 02

  If you are a DJ, if you're a club DJ and you play this song- Play the entire intro.

• 2:19:21Yasi Salek?

  Oh, you have to.

• 2:19:23Speaker 02

  Because oftentimes I've heard it with the abbreviated version. And the anticipation for when the beat kicks in, when you're on the dance floor, it

• 2:19:34Yasi Salek?

  Why would you ever skip that?

• 2:19:35Speaker 02

  Because DJs, you know, they have short, they have, they have edit brain. Let's Go Crazy is just an unbelievable song and immediately establishes him as this sort of like, as what we were saying earlier, like, I'm the leader of a rock and roll band. Look at my guitar. While, while being, while being a 10 out of 10 pop song.

• 2:20:11Yasi Salek?

  As you know, I think every song is about God, but this is actually fully explicitly about God. He told Chris Rock in 1998, the song is about God and the devil. He said, I had to change the words, but de-elevator. By the way, I was like today, years old when I learned that it was not the elevator, but de-elevator. Okay, but de-elevator was Satan. I had to change those words up because you couldn't say God on the radio. Let's Go Crazy was God to me. Stay happy, stay focused, and you can beat de-elevator.

• 2:20:39Speaker 02

  The beautiful thing about Prince is he says, all of that is true. And yet evangelicals during this time think this is the work of Satan.

• 2:20:51Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Well, I was thinking about it with you because I was like, oh, I wonder like as a fan, how you negotiate with that, like.

• 2:20:59Speaker 02

  It's a thing that I think, it's a thing I do think about.

• 2:21:01Yasi Salek?

  Prince is a very godly person and always has, since the beginning, right? Like even, even before he obviously later on in his life became kind of more extreme and became a Jehovah's Witness and renounced cursing and that's kind of stuff. He was always like kind of a practicing Christian. And you see it in his songs. But you're not a religious person.

• 2:21:22Speaker 02

  No, by no means.

• 2:21:23Yasi Salek?

  But you can, you can connect with this music.

• 2:21:25Speaker 02

  I think the fact that you could hear, given that you could sort of hear his struggle and his being pulled in every direction within his music.

• 2:21:39Speaker 02

  Is what makes it relatable and is actually the thing because as like the purple banana and de elevator, how like, you know, surreal, like those, like when you get into the weeds, how surreal the actual words are.

• 2:21:52Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:21:52Speaker 02

  But the sentiment of I feel many things and I believe many things that he contradicts himself so much within his, his lyrics. And I think to me, that's what makes him so. I don't say, I don't want to say relatable because he's Prince. Like, how can you, how can one, but like, you could hear, when you could hear like the conflict with, with, with someone, to me, it allows for intrigue and it allows you to be like, it allows you to go deep into, into what they're actually trying to say and how they actually feel where if every song was saying, Jesus is God and he loves you.

• 2:22:32Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:22:33Speaker 02

  Because that's not what he's saying.

• 2:22:34Yasi Salek?

  No, no.

• 2:22:35Speaker 02

  He's saying like, the, the song that scores the sex scene in Purple Rain is God.

• 2:22:41Yasi Salek?

  I know.

• 2:22:42Speaker 02

  You know what I mean? So like.

• 2:22:43Yasi Salek?

  Well, many people have, many people have done a great job of showing religious ecstasy or like the, the like sort of intersection of spirituality and sex. Madonna did it with like a prayer. Like it's, it's a thing, you know?

• 2:22:59Speaker 02

  Totally. And for many people, that's blasphemy.

• 2:23:02Yasi Salek?

  A hundred percent.

• 2:23:02Speaker 02

  And because of that, because honestly, because everyone makes up their own rules regarding God and religion, it allows me to not take their beliefs very seriously, if I could be honest.

• 2:23:13Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. I mean, I think that's fair and fine. And I think like, I think I, I agree with your, what you're saying, just from like a, a different angle where like, I feel like ideas of God and the devil are archetypical, right? So there's a reason that everyone can relate to them. That sentiment, because that sentiment is an archetype created by humans about humanity.

• 2:23:34Speaker 02

  Right.

• 2:23:35Yasi Salek?

  It doesn't mean I'm saying it's not real because obviously I'm a believer in a different way, but like. I think it makes complete sense that whatever your religious beliefs, these are like such human experience ideas. While they might play into your life in different ways and you might call them different words, it's the same structure, if that makes sense.

• 2:23:59Speaker 02

  Also, when a Prince or Madonna, these people that reach a peak that you could count on, you know, two hands, the amount of humans that have like,

• 2:24:10Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:24:11Speaker 02

  like received that much real time sort of admiration. I understand how you then have to be like, well, there has to be something greater than this.

• 2:24:24Yasi Salek?

  Right. Well, I think, and I think Prince always, always thought that, you know, like he was always.

• 2:24:29Speaker 02

  Sure. But also in, in that interview that you referenced earlier with,

• 2:24:33Yasi Salek?

  With Chris Rock.

• 2:24:34Speaker 02

  With Chris Rock, he says, the only thing he ever got from going to church is how to sing in the choir.

• 2:24:40Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:24:40Speaker 02

  And that he, and that what they were teaching in church did not align with his, with his beliefs and his values.

• 2:24:47Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:24:48Speaker 02

  Four years later, he became a Jehovah's Witness. So I think that coming into Prince land

• 2:24:55Speaker 02

  later in around that time, you know, when he did that interview with Chris Rock was right when I got into him.

• 2:25:01Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:25:01Speaker 02

  And I was like, oh, this person is, is a bit confused.

• 2:25:06Yasi Salek?

  Well, yeah. And I think that's what all the songs are about, right?

• 2:25:08Speaker 02

  And how can you not?

• 2:25:09Yasi Salek?

  They're about seeking. They're about trying to, trying to find answers.

• 2:25:14Speaker 02

  Exactly. And though the, the specific thing that you're trying to find answers to is not necessarily what I'm trying to find answers to, I very much can relate to seeking.

• 2:25:23Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 2:25:24Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 2:25:24Yasi Salek?

  Totally. Yeah. I think that makes so much sense. Um, all right. Next song is Take Me With You. It was actually the sixth and final single. I forgot to say this on Let's Go Crazy, but it applies to, uh, Take Me With You too. I just love this backstory of the Lindrum and I'll make it short because we did it on the mid on episode. But this is the second, the LM1, like you were talking about, made by Roger Lynn.

• 2:25:52Yasi Salek?

  Do you know that it was the suggestion of Steve Procaro, the keyboardist of Toto, that Lin recorded samples of real drums? And you know, the samples were mostly played by a guy named Art Wood. So almost all of the songs that you hear with a Lin drum are drums paid by Art Wood. And the handclaps are by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

• 2:26:15Speaker 02

  So cool.

• 2:26:16Yasi Salek?

  So in every Lin drum machine, you're hearing a little Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

• 2:26:19Speaker 02

  You think they got a little cauliflower?

• 2:26:21Yasi Salek?

  I don't know, actually. Probably not.

• 2:26:24Speaker 02

  Probably not.

• 2:26:25Yasi Salek?

  Okay, take me with you. Goddamn gorgeous, beautiful song. We talked about it already a little bit earlier, so we don't have to get into it. But what a jam. First duet, you said.

• 2:26:34Speaker 02

  And this song is so, um, like, effective in the album within, within the sequence. Cause it's kind of, it's, it's, it's the album's sweetest moment.

• 2:26:45Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:26:45Speaker 02

  You know, it's just-

• 2:26:46Yasi Salek?

  And it has that like, kind of same upbeat feel of Let's Go Crazy, like they kind of flow into each other nicely.

• 2:26:53Speaker 02

  Yeah. And Let's Go Crazy is like, is so loud. And this is the, kind of the only, this, this song allows you to kind of feel within the record, like, it's not all so bad.

• 2:27:06Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:27:06Speaker 02

  It's not all so heavy.

• 2:27:07Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:27:08Speaker 02

  You know, because the record is so weighted.

• 2:27:10Yasi Salek?

  Totally. There's, there's like a sweetness to that first love and that like romance. Yeah.

• 2:27:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:27:15Yasi Salek?

  And just like the start of something.

• 2:27:25Yasi Salek?

  The Beautiful Ones, which we, we've talked about a bit. What a god, just a god tier.

• 2:27:30Speaker 02

  It's my favorite song.

• 2:27:31Yasi Salek?

  Of all time.

• 2:27:32Speaker 02

  Um, it's my favorite song of all time, probably, um, maybe on certain days, it's If I Was Your Girlfriend by Prince.

• 2:27:39Yasi Salek?

  Really good.

• 2:27:39Speaker 02

  But, um-

• 2:27:40Yasi Salek?

  The TLC version?

• 2:27:41Speaker 02

  Really good. Um, I love that they don't-

• 2:27:44Yasi Salek?

  Change the-

• 2:27:45Speaker 02

  Change, change the gender. Um, but The Beautiful Ones, I don't know what genre of music that is. There is a type of Prince song, and it kind of mostly happens with Prince for me, where I'll be listening to a song and every once in a while, I'm like, I don't, the Ballad of Dorothy Parker, The Beautiful Ones. I don't know what kind, what genre of music this is. And there's not really a chorus.

• 2:28:12Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 2:28:13Speaker 02

  There's, but the, the climax and the vocal performance.

• 2:28:19Speaker 02

  Is, is, you want to talk about hair standing up and chills?

• 2:28:23Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:28:24Speaker 02

  I, I don't think there's any example in popular music that does that better than The Beautiful Ones.

• 2:28:30Yasi Salek?

  It's insane.

• 2:28:31Speaker 02

  It's insane.

• 2:28:32Yasi Salek?

  It's like a psychedelic trip to listen to the song.

• 2:28:34Speaker 02

  It's psychedelic.

• 2:28:35Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:28:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:28:48Yasi Salek?

  Fun fact, which you already know, I'm sure, but that Mariah Carey covered this on.

• 2:28:52Speaker 02

  With Drew Hill?

• 2:28:53Yasi Salek?

  With Drew Hill. And it's a great version also.

• 2:28:56Speaker 02

  It's a great version, but you gotta have that, like, without that scream.

• 2:29:01Yasi Salek?

  I know.

• 2:29:01Speaker 02

  And without that anguish, without that, like.

• 2:29:04Yasi Salek?

  There's a real fucking.

• 2:29:05Speaker 02

  That aggression.

• 2:29:06Yasi Salek?

  Oh, yeah. It's all over this album. That's probably why it's, it's like a pinnacle album for him because it's so naked and raw and in its emotion. Um, okay. So we talked a bit about Computer Blue, but let's talk like more about it in detail because it is anchor, even though the truncated version is on here. So that was something that we talked about. Dr. Fink had been jamming and he was like, oh, I like that. It becomes a full-blown collaboration between Dr. Fink, Lisa and Wendy, Prince, and then, like you said, Prince's father, who wrote the main melody in the, to, for the bridge section of the song. And it had gotten up to 14 minutes when there was all that extra stuff. Obsessed with the intro.

• 2:29:51Speaker 02

  As was the, the nation.

• 2:29:52Yasi Salek?

  Wendy? Yes, Lisa. See, you also didn't see here how like good of a voice actor Wendy is.

• 2:29:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:29:59Yasi Salek?

  Cause she puts so much pizzazz on her.

• 2:30:02Speaker 02

  With every.

• 2:30:03Yasi Salek?

  With, because she does the same thing over it. Yes, Lisa, yes, Lisa, yes, Lisa.

• 2:30:06Speaker 02

  Yes, Lisa.

• 2:30:07Yasi Salek?

  I, is the water warm enough? Yes, Lisa. Shall we begin? Yes, Lisa.

• 2:30:13Speaker 02

  That, that final, yes, Lisa.

• 2:30:17Yasi Salek?

  Wendy said in 2012, "I wish there was something more interesting behind it, but Prince just gave us a piece of paper and said, 'Say this.'" We didn't even think it was a weird psychosexual lesbian thing. I had no idea. Lisa later said, "I have a Facebook page and I can't tell you how many people post, 'Is the water warm enough' on there. I don't know what it means." Is it tea? Is it a bathtub? Whatever you want to think.

• 2:30:40Speaker 02

  It has to be a bathtub.

• 2:30:41Yasi Salek?

  I love how they had-

• 2:30:42Speaker 02

  He was obsessed with bathtubs in this era.

• 2:30:43Yasi Salek?

  No idea. They just said what he told them to say.

• 2:30:57Yasi Salek?

  Flashing back, though, it's 1984. You know, like, we talked about this a lot in the Madonna episode, but like, people were not, they did not feel the way about gay people that, I mean, I think there's still struggles, obviously, with how people feel about gay people, but like, in 1984, it was a whole different ballgame. And so to kind of lead with that front and center, and even though, like, it's not that, like, Lisa and Wendy were super, like, were girlfriends, like, they didn't hide it, but they weren't, like, closeted. They just weren't trying to be, like, bring down the fucking, you know?

• 2:31:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:31:28Yasi Salek?

  But they were together for 20 years, you know?

• 2:31:30Speaker 02

  They were together for 20 years, and though they never said on camera, "We are a gay couple,"

• 2:31:36Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:31:37Speaker 02

  I don't think you had to sort of use your imagination very much-

• 2:31:41Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 2:31:41Speaker 02

  -to see what was happening, and he knew that.

• 2:31:44Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. This song is about AI.

• 2:31:49Yasi Salek?

  "Where is my love life? Where can it be? There must be something wrong with the machinery." It's about someone falling in love with AI, but the AI doesn't love them back.

• 2:31:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:31:58Yasi Salek?

  It was a for, it was-

• 2:32:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, this sure came out in 1984.

• 2:32:02Yasi Salek?

  It's foreshadowing, babe.

• 2:32:03Speaker 02

  Foreshadowing, big time. Yeah. Tragically, foreshadowing.

• 2:32:07Yasi Salek?

  I'm just kidding, but also, still hits.

• 2:32:10Speaker 02

  Oh, my goodness.

• 2:32:11Yasi Salek?

  What is wrong with the machinery? Share voice, what's going on with my career?

• 2:32:17Yasi Salek?

  The, just because I think it's interesting. The two more spoken word parts of Wendy and Lisa are, "Poor lonely computer, it's time someone programmed you. It's time you learned love and lust." They both have four letters, but they're entirely different words. "Poor lonely computer, poor, poor lonely computer. Do you really know what love is?"

• 2:32:39Speaker 02

  To me, this song, obviously you have the composition by John L. Nelson, but it's so Gary Newman to me.

• 2:32:47Yasi Salek?

  Totally. That's what we were saying when we watched the, and you, and-

• 2:32:49Speaker 02

  Musically and-

• 2:32:51Yasi Salek?

  And thematically.

• 2:32:52Speaker 02

  And thematically.

• 2:32:53Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:32:53Speaker 02

  And he was a huge Gary Newman fan.

• 2:32:56Yasi Salek?

  We talked about it, right? And we were, Jill Jones saying they would fall asleep listening to Gary Newman. I'd take the bet that that was a direct influence.

• 2:33:03Speaker 02

  100%.

• 2:33:03Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. It's a great song. The, you can, you can still listen to the extended hallway speech version. It's on the-

• 2:33:10Speaker 02

  2017, deluxe.

• 2:33:12Yasi Salek?

  Darling Nikki.

• 2:33:15Speaker 02

  Beautiful ones into Computer Blue into, into Darling Nikki is the, what kind of music is this?

• 2:33:21Yasi Salek?

  Totally.

• 2:33:22Speaker 02

  But Darling Ni-, it's like, he was able to make some, because when you really hone in, I don't want to get too in the weeds with like, production or like, sounds, but the way Prince mixes his music, like, a normal mix to like, a pop song would be like, you sort of have your lead instruments on top. It's sort of mixed, like, almost like a, like, like a pyramid, right? Like, that makes sense. Where he sort of mixed everything like, a globe, or like, a kaleidoscope, where-

• 2:33:54Yasi Salek?

  It's changing throughout?

• 2:33:56Speaker 02

  It's kind of up to the listener-

• 2:33:58Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 2:33:58Speaker 02

  -to what they're paying attention to, to get the treat that they're looking for.

• 2:34:02Yasi Salek?

  Interesting.

• 2:34:03Speaker 02

  And Darling Nikki, it's like, you don't even realize how spar- how, how minimal the instrumentation is. It feels so big and, and grandiose, but if you, if, if, but if you hone, if you are someone that listens to drums, you're gonna realize there's nothing happening on that song, for much of that song, especially in the verses. And the way that he was able to sort of like, make these really like, human sounding mixes and, and recordings, like, that, that approach allowed for Darling Nikki to be so effective.

• 2:34:42Yasi Salek?

  Totally. I, you know, I, what I think about when I hear it is like- His vocal performance is obviously so singular on this. And so like, I was like, okay, Axl Rose in like, the best way possible. But like, but then what sets the song apart from like a Guns N' Roses song, exactly what you're saying. It's like, if it's so Spartan and sparse in the instrumentation, and it wouldn't, I don't think it would have worked if it had all of that extra.

• 2:35:09Speaker 02

  Right.

• 2:35:09Yasi Salek?

  Because it wouldn't have been.

• 2:35:10Speaker 02

  It would have sounded small.

• 2:35:12Yasi Salek?

  It wouldn't have been a print song.

• 2:35:13Speaker 02

  It wouldn't have been a print song.

• 2:35:14Yasi Salek?

  It's like, it hits you so hard because of that juxtaposition. The lyrics are insane. "I knew a girl named Nikki, I guess you could say she was a sex fiend. Met her in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine."

• 2:35:28Speaker 02

  I mean, the song quite literally changed music.

• 2:35:31Yasi Salek?

  They never were really clear about what that meant, though.

• 2:35:35Speaker 02

  The lyric?

• 2:35:35Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:35:36Speaker 02

  Well.

• 2:35:39Yasi Salek?

  It's like, it's open for interpretation.

• 2:35:41Speaker 02

  Is it?

• 2:35:42Yasi Salek?

  Well, was she just looking at it?

• 2:35:45Yasi Salek?

  Or was she using it?

• 2:35:47Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 2:35:48Yasi Salek?

  Do you know what I mean?

• 2:35:49Speaker 02

  I suppose, I suppose.

• 2:35:51Yasi Salek?

  She's a sex fiend, babe.

• 2:35:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:35:53Yasi Salek?

  Okay? Paper cuts notwithstanding, you don't know what she was doing.

• 2:35:55Speaker 02

  Sure, sure.

• 2:36:08Yasi Salek?

  All that being said, this song was partially responsible for the parental advisory stickers that went on to be on albums throughout the rest of time. Which we don't have albums anymore, really, so they don't exist. I'm sure they do, maybe out there still, but I guess Tipper Gore had, here's, I'll read it straight from the horse's mouth. "I purchased Prince's best-selling Purple Rain for my 11-year-old daughter. When we brought the album home, put it on our stereo and listened to it together, we heard the words to another song, Darling Nikki." She reads the first lyrics. "The song went on in a similar manner. I couldn't believe my ears. The vulgar lyrics embarrassed both of us. At first I was stunned, then I got mad.

• 2:36:52Yasi Salek?

  Millions of Americans were buying Purple Rain and had no idea what to expect." It is a bit much for an 11-year-old, but that's kind of like, you know, you're bad.

• 2:36:59Speaker 02

  So don't buy it. What a moron.

• 2:37:02Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:37:02Speaker 02

  Can we just say it? The lead single is "When Doves Cry, The Sweat Of Your Body Covers Me." Like, is that what you want?

• 2:37:09Yasi Salek?

  So you've seen him.

• 2:37:12Yasi Salek?

  Also, who cares? What's gonna happen to your daughter if she hears about masturbation?

• 2:37:17Speaker 02

  Yeah. Heaven forbid.

• 2:37:20Yasi Salek?

  It holds the number one spot in the, what is it? Parents Music Resource Centers, Filthy Fifteen.

• 2:37:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:37:31Yasi Salek?

  These songs are insane when you think about what's out now. When you think about how Trent Reznor wrote a song called "I Wanna Fuck You Like An Animal", or whatever with lyrics, I wanna, like, the kind of lyrics that we hear regularly on the radio, unbleeped, now. And then they have "Dress You Up In My Love" by Madonna on here. I'm like...

• 2:37:53Speaker 02

  Fucking Reagan, dude.

• 2:37:54Yasi Salek?

  Judas Priest, Sheena Easton, Black Sabbath. It's a sick ass, you could get this.

• 2:38:00Speaker 02

  And Sheena Easton, that Prince wrote that song.

• 2:38:02Yasi Salek?

  Sugar Walls?

• 2:38:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:38:04Yasi Salek?

  Well, there's also a Vanity song in here, so Prince technically, I think technically Prince is, has three of the top four slots.

• 2:38:12Speaker 02

  Our fucking man.

• 2:38:13Yasi Salek?

  That's my guy. So that's what, Bobby Z had the best quote, though. He was like, "I thought she was kinda late. Where was she during Head?"

• 2:38:22Speaker 02

  For real.

• 2:38:22Yasi Salek?

  Honestly, such a good question.

• 2:38:23Speaker 02

  For real.

• 2:38:24Yasi Salek?

  Like, the fact that that song didn't spark the parental, you know, advisory music board or whatever it was called.

• 2:38:30Speaker 02

  And it's like, it kinda goes, this is a man who has three of the fifteen dirtiest songs and is this god guy. Like, so as, to answer, to kind of further elaborate on your question earlier, it's like, how aren't like, the intrigue?

• 2:38:51Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:38:51Speaker 02

  You know, that, that sort of like invites.

• 2:38:55Yasi Salek?

  Although he doesn't, he stopped performing Darling Nikki, right?

• 2:38:58Speaker 02

  He stopped performing a lot of songs, yeah.

• 2:39:03Yasi Salek?

  It was very interesting, which I don't know if I ever really noticed this before, the, and which you obviously know, but like, that backward recitation that's at the end of Darling Nikki, because on an LP, that was the end of side one. And what a fun thing. We don't have this anymore because we're not a proper country anymore, but that people used to bury, in CDs, it became something different, but like, with LPs, it was like, you had to play it backwards to hear it. And the Beatles did it, a bunch of people did it, but... His was, when you played it backwards at the end, it said, hello, how are you? I'm fine, because I know that the Lord is coming soon, coming, coming soon. At the end of Darling, they keep masturbating with a magazine.

• 2:39:44Speaker 02

  The dirtiest song in America.

• 2:39:45Yasi Salek?

  Sex beast. Okay, we already talked about When Doves Cry. Animals, they be striking curious poses. It's one of my favorite lyrics.

• 2:39:52Speaker 02

  It's, it's.

• 2:39:54Yasi Salek?

  Like, animals are striking curious poses?

• 2:39:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, they are. Yeah, we're the animals.

• 2:40:10Yasi Salek?

  I Would Die For You? The fourth single. Can you imagine this is the fourth fucking single?

• 2:40:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, this is most, most band's best song.

• 2:40:21Yasi Salek?

  If they're lucky.

• 2:40:22Speaker 02

  If they're lucky, most artists' best song. It's kind of your first, um, you know, breath, breath of fresh air, if you want to call it that, since Take Me With You. It kind of rounds back to like the, there is, um, an optimism.

• 2:40:41Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 2:40:41Speaker 02

  A little bit.

• 2:40:42Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 2:40:43Speaker 02

  And, and it's, um, and it's like tonally.

• 2:40:45Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, tonally, totally. Maybe not thematically.

• 2:40:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.

• 2:40:49Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:40:50Speaker 02

  But not, but like, he's.

• 2:40:52Yasi Salek?

  It's upbeat.

• 2:40:52Speaker 02

  It's upbeat, it's, it's, it's major, it's kind of, it's fun.

• 2:40:58Yasi Salek?

  I think if, it's one of those songs that if you don't think too much about it, it's, it's a fun song. It's a fun romance song, but if you look at the lyrics, it's an absolute god song.

• 2:41:08Speaker 02

  Oh, no, for, I mean, that, that's objective, um, but.

• 2:41:13Yasi Salek?

  But I get what you mean, like it lightens, it lightens.

• 2:41:15Speaker 02

  It lightens the tone of like the, like the sonic.

• 2:41:18Yasi Salek?

  It's kind of perfect and also makes sense in the film. Like, we got to a place where Des Dickerson said to Prince biographer Toure in 2013, "I think Prince experienced something with respect to the idea of who Jesus is or was, and he wanted to express it in a song. It's not a very cloaked lyric. It says what it says. He's saying he's Jesus." The lyric, obviously, being, "I'm not your lover, I'm not your friend. I am something that you'll never comprehend. No need to worry, no need to cry. I'm your Messiah, and you're the reason why."

• 2:41:53Speaker 02

  I guess there's no more televangel, uh, you know, like, uh, that doesn't, the teller.

• 2:41:59Yasi Salek?

  Bob Baker and, or.

• 2:42:01Speaker 02

  But there was a, and what, what would you call the sort of like YouTube internet version of that?

• 2:42:06Yasi Salek?

  Oh, yeah, I guess they're kind of the same thing. Mega, mega, mega church pastors or whatever.

• 2:42:10Speaker 02

  They were talking about, uh, that song.

• 2:42:13Yasi Salek?

  Really?

• 2:42:13Speaker 02

  Saying that, and he's, they are theorizing that he's admitting that he's the devil. With, with, with, and that.

• 2:42:20Yasi Salek?

  That's true.

• 2:42:21Speaker 02

  Yeah. Hence, hence me just simply, if you're like a super god person, I just, I, it's hard for me to like, put that much sort of, um.

• 2:42:30Yasi Salek?

  I think if anything, I'm super presuming here. I think if anything, he's doing the thing that a lot of great artists do, which is they're, they're, they're writing as if.

• 2:42:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, of course.

• 2:42:40Yasi Salek?

  Like Nick Cave, PJ Harvey style, where like, he's like, I'm writing from the perspective.

• 2:42:45Speaker 02

  Yes, of course.

• 2:42:46Yasi Salek?

  Of what I think Jesus is, you know?

• 2:42:48Speaker 02

  100%.

• 2:42:49Yasi Salek?

  And in that sense, it's kind of cool.

• 2:42:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure. But just in thinking about like, you know, perception and what, what something would mean to you. You know, some people, that means that he's admitting he's the devil.

• 2:43:02Yasi Salek?

  It's so clever what he did. Cause like, again, if you're not reading into that, so much of it can be read into, in a different way, like, especially as it pertains to him, like, I'm not a woman, I'm not a man.

• 2:43:12Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:43:13Yasi Salek?

  Like, for Prince in particular, it's such a canny.

• 2:43:17Speaker 02

  It's so, yeah.

• 2:43:18Yasi Salek?

  Wise.

• 2:43:19Speaker 02

  100%.

• 2:43:20Yasi Salek?

  Playing with people's perceptions lyric. Um, I'm something that you never understand, which is true of him and Jesus. Um, yeah, it's a fucking, it's a god tier song. I did read that, um, years later, he would still perform this song post Jehovah's Witness, and he just changes the lyric from, I'm your Messiah to he's your Messiah.

• 2:43:38Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm. Yeah, he did that with, uh, I Feel For You. It's mainly a spiritual thing.

• 2:43:43Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:43:43Speaker 02

  As opposed to.

• 2:43:44Yasi Salek?

  I think all songs are about God. So, I think you could have played all of them if you wanted to. Um, Baby I'm A Star. Okay, if I was gonna say there was one slightly weaker point on the album, I would say it was Baby I'm A Star. I think it's a great song, but compared to all the rest, it feels like it. Sags a tiny bit. That's just my, that's just my.

• 2:44:08Speaker 02

  I mean, if, if, if we have to say that they're.

• 2:44:12Yasi Salek?

  Gun to your head, you have to pick one.

• 2:44:15Speaker 02

  To leave, you know?

• 2:44:17Yasi Salek?

  I wouldn't even want it to leave because I think it's such a great.

• 2:44:20Speaker 02

  But it's so essential to the story.

• 2:44:23Yasi Salek?

  I love it.

• 2:44:23Speaker 02

  And like the, the title.

• 2:44:26Yasi Salek?

  It serves a, it's purpose perfectly. It's just as a standalone song. I'm not like, oh, this is the fucking banger, you know?

• 2:44:33Speaker 02

  I, I would be.

• 2:44:35Yasi Salek?

  But it's a good song.

• 2:44:36Speaker 02

  I think why I can't fully just like, you know, dive into that water with you is, is where it's.

• 2:44:43Yasi Salek?

  And not like Minnetonka.

• 2:44:45Speaker 02

  Yes, is where it's sequenced. It's like.

• 2:44:47Yasi Salek?

  No, exactly.

• 2:44:47Speaker 02

  He's showing it like the fact he's like, I, I fucking did it. Watch this. Like I have to give it up.

• 2:44:53Yasi Salek?

  No, it's great. And also like those two songs in tandem, so great together, like what played together. And then also like hitting that high and then going to Purple Rain and it's great.

• 2:45:05Speaker 02

  And, and I kind of look at it more like all the songs that could have been taken out were taken out.

• 2:45:11Yasi Salek?

  Totally. This song is old. He had started working on it in eighty one.

• 2:45:15Speaker 02

  Oldest one, yeah.

• 2:45:15Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Um, like we talked about earlier, but it is also in the original cut of Tim Burton's nineteen eighty nine Batman.

• 2:45:22Speaker 02

  Right.

• 2:45:23Yasi Salek?

  And the Joker's parade scene.

• 2:45:25Speaker 02

  And then he wrote, I believe it was two hundred balloons.

• 2:45:27Yasi Salek?

  That's right.

• 2:45:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, for it. And then later that was replaced with.

• 2:45:32Yasi Salek?

  Of trust. Yeah. Cause they rejected it. It was on the B side of Bat Dance.

• 2:45:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:45:36Yasi Salek?

  Apparently you didn't, uh, we can't get into the whole other soundtrack, but did not, did he not write the soundtrack in like two weeks or something crazy like that?

• 2:45:42Speaker 02

  He was, our man was fast.

• 2:45:44Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:45:45Speaker 02

  I mean, all these songs, like Prince did not write music in the way that most artists do where it's like, like even him revisiting a song from nineteen eighty one was pretty rare.

• 2:45:55Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:45:55Speaker 02

  Like that was very out of.

• 2:45:57Yasi Salek?

  Character. Yeah.

• 2:45:58Speaker 02

  Like idea.

• 2:46:01Speaker 02

  Performance, recording, mix master, done was his, was his standard.

• 2:46:08Yasi Salek?

  Where he wanted to go. Well, here's the last song, the third single, released after the film, September 26th. Purple Rain. B-side was God, the song God that you mentioned that is instrumentally hard during the sex. We talked about the genesis of this song. Um, how everyone was kind of like left to do their own things. And Dr. Fink was like, oh, like, I recall the first time jamming on that song. I played that line on the piano that he sings at the end when he goes up to his falsetto for that big peaking line. That came from me just by sheer accident and he latched on to it and sang it. Dr. Fink.

• 2:46:49Speaker 02

  Hell, yes. Essential.

• 2:46:51Yasi Salek?

  This is something interesting that I wanted you to maybe explain to me a little bit. But he said that coda piece on Purple Rain where I play that little piano riff. I have to give Lisa a lot of credit for that because she showed me this trick she had where the left hand is doing one part and the right hand is doing this other thing against it in counterpoint. It's kind of a weird rhythmic thing that she knew. And I said, that's really cool. Show me how you do that.

• 2:47:12Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 2:47:12Yasi Salek?

  And you, that's something you can hear in the piano riff of like a counter.

• 2:47:16Speaker 02

  Sure, yeah. It kind of sounds like there's two.

• 2:47:18Yasi Salek?

  Got it.

• 2:47:19Speaker 02

  Two, two separate parts.

• 2:47:21Yasi Salek?

  But he's just playing, it's just him playing that. He's just doing it like counterintuitively on each hand or whatever.

• 2:47:26Speaker 02

  Yes, yes. And like, sort of, kind of like the, the more common, um, purpose of each hand on the piano is like, you know, bass, bass in one, like melody and right and sort of like playing with those. You know, like, like, break, like, uh, sort of breaking the foundation, you know?

• 2:47:46Yasi Salek?

  To like, okay, to, to go somewhere new.

• 2:47:59Yasi Salek?

  I never really heard this until I read this and then I was like, oh, I guess I could hear that. While it was being written, Prince recognized that it was similar to Faithfully by Journey.

• 2:48:08Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:48:09Yasi Salek?

  Which should come out in 83. And he called Johnny, Jonathan Kane, who was Journey's keyboard player, who had written the song, and played it to him over the phone and was like, is this a, like, were you guys gonna be mad about this? And I guess he was like, I don't really hear it, it's fine. I don't know what he said, but whatever it was, it was fine. But I thought it was cool that he, he didn't want anyone to come and be like, that's my song.

• 2:48:31Speaker 02

  Totally. Totally. Class.

• 2:48:33Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. I mean, it's such, like, if I had never read it, I would never have heard it.

• 2:48:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, like, the, sort of like, the framework of, like, the main melodies and, like, the performance and the tone, like, it's so different. But, you know, it's one of those things where it's like, if you looked at, like, the sheet music, you'd probably see, you'd see similarities.

• 2:48:52Yasi Salek?

  I wonder if Jonathan Kane kind of wishes he had said something different on that phone call.

• 2:48:56Speaker 02

  I think he's fine.

• 2:48:58Yasi Salek?

  That's right, it's Journey. They're doing, okay. Now, this, I loved. The Stevie Nicks of it. Or the, or the lack of Stevie Nicks of it.

• 2:49:07Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 2:49:08Yasi Salek?

  So, as the story goes, the music is in place for Purple Rain, and Prince turns to his new friend for a little help. His new friend, Stevie Nicks, who had recently, before this, called him up and said, hey, I wrote a new song while I was, like, humming along to your song, Little Red Corvette. I'm gonna give you a songwriting credit, and I'm gonna invite you to play on the session. And that's Stand Back. And so Prince sent Stevie Nicks this cassette of The Work in Progress, Purple Rain, and was like, can you write some lyrics? And Stevie Nicks later said, it was so overwhelming, that 10-minute track, that I listened to it and I just got scared. I called him back and I said, I can't do it. I wish I could, it's too much for me. And I'm so glad I didn't, because then he wrote it and it became Purple Rain.

• 2:49:53Yasi Salek?

  What do you think it would have been like if Stevie Nicks had contributed lyrics to Purple Rain?

• 2:49:57Speaker 02

  Purple Rain, I think, is the best example of popular music. So it only could have been not as good.

• 2:50:06Yasi Salek?

  Right, I see. It is so perfect that any alteration would have made it more imperfect. With love and respect to Stevie Nicks.

• 2:50:12Speaker 02

  And you can't, there's so much space in that song that I cannot see how the composer of the music and the lyricist could not have been the same person.

• 2:50:24Yasi Salek?

  Right. Well, I mean, again, to echo Stevie Nicks, thank God, because I think something that is so important to the success of Purple Rain, if you will, as a song, is like how much of Prince is all over it. I mean, it's like those, it's the film, it's the idea, it's like so, it gets so meta, right? It's like the film, but the film is the story of me trying to understand myself and this is the titular song of the film of me trying to understand myself and the fictional character, am I a real character? It's, and it just comes into this like-

• 2:50:59Speaker 02

  And you kind of can't have that without Purple Rain, the song, obviously. And honestly, no matter what you do with it, I believe he would have took it back.

• 2:51:07Yasi Salek?

  Right, because he would have been like-

• 2:51:08Speaker 02

  Oh, I'm actually gonna, I have this part and this, I have this thing that I needed for, like I did with Kiss.

• 2:51:14Yasi Salek?

  And it worked out perfect.

• 2:51:15Speaker 02

  It worked out perfect.

• 2:51:16Yasi Salek?

  Lisa and Wendy, I love this story. They remembered that the band was rehearsing Purple Rain, the finished version in the warehouse. A bunch, obviously, as they were rehearsing a bunch, and a homeless woman wandered in to the warehouse and just sat and listened to them play it for hours. And when they took a break, they found her outside weeping. I get it, sis.

• 2:51:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, with her bike.

• 2:51:39Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, I get it.

• 2:51:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, they called her the Purple Rain lady.

• 2:51:43Yasi Salek?

  George Clinton said about Purple Rain that it always reminded him of Jimi Hendrix singing country music. And there were some other quotes from other members that were saying like, "Oh, we felt that this was like, had a country feel to it." Do you hear that in Purple Rain?

• 2:52:01Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 2:52:02Yasi Salek?

  Can you point to like what, where that is or how that is?

• 2:52:06Speaker 02

  Chord structure is inherently common to, to country music.

• 2:52:11Yasi Salek?

  Right, to like-

• 2:52:12Speaker 02

  Just first and foremost.

• 2:52:13Yasi Salek?

  Love, lorn, sad-

• 2:52:14Speaker 02

  Just like-

• 2:52:14Yasi Salek?

  Country tunes, three chords in the truth.

• 2:52:17Speaker 02

  Exactly. Much how you like reference A minor, like I don't totally know what that means, but I do know that it does this.

• 2:52:23Yasi Salek?

  It's like pornography.

• 2:52:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:52:24Yasi Salek?

  You know when you hear it.

• 2:52:26Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:52:28Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:52:30Speaker 02

  But also, um, country mu- like, the way he's sort of- His lyrical approach to this song. It's such a shame our friendship had to end. Like, the fact that he's clearly talking about, or it, it feels like he's talking about someone.

• 2:52:48Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:52:48Speaker 02

  You know, and it's not this sort of like ethereal thing until the chorus, you know, Purple Rain, like what does that mean, you know, of course? But it has, it has this sort of personal, um, this sort of like direct, personal sort of, theme to it that is often present in country music.

• 2:53:09Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. It's funny because like, given what we under- what we learned about Beautiful Ones and the story of Vanity, when I hear this now, I, I can only hear like that it must have been at least partially inspired by Vanity.

• 2:53:25Speaker 02

  I think so too.

• 2:53:26Yasi Salek?

  Right, like-

• 2:53:27Speaker 02

  But I never meant to cause you any sorrow, I never meant to cause you any pain, like,

• 2:53:32Speaker 02

  though, like, that's a country music song.

• 2:53:34Yasi Salek?

  That's a country, totally.

• 2:53:35Speaker 02

  You know what I mean? Like, honey, I know, times are changing.

• 2:53:38Yasi Salek?

  Honey, I know, times are changing. But then the way he does it is-

• 2:53:43Speaker 02

  It's his, he, you know, I saw, um, an interview with Matt Fink one time where he, where he's like, that song is just, is pure arena, white arena rock. And I, I don't-

• 2:53:55Yasi Salek?

  I don't, I don't totally agree.

• 2:53:56Speaker 02

  His vocal approach is so soulful and steep and rooted in R and B. And R and B and country music are-

• 2:54:05Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, cousins.

• 2:54:06Speaker 02

  Very similar.

• 2:54:06Yasi Salek?

  Totally, totally cousins.

• 2:54:08Speaker 02

  So I don't totally agree with that, but if you if you simplified the song and like kind of omitted a lot of like the runs and and didn't use the suspended chords and someone played it for you for the first time, like I I think that it would it could definitely resonate as a as a country song.

• 2:54:29Yasi Salek?

  It's it's God, Tara. I think of I think of all the children of Purple Rain, like Jeff Buckley, like there's just so much stuff that I hear in the world that I'm like, oh, this is like patient zero, like this yielded.

• 2:54:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, it created a genre, a subgenre.

• 2:54:44Yasi Salek?

  A subgenre, really. The purple of it all also is just so, I mean, obviously, this is not Prince's first, uh, you know, lionizing of purple. Yeah, like, he had a song called Purple Music that he had written in eighty two, right? That never came.

• 2:55:01Speaker 02

  Amazing song.

• 2:55:02Yasi Salek?

  It did. It has sent. It came out much later, but it had.

• 2:55:05Speaker 02

  One of his best songs.

• 2:55:07Yasi Salek?

  I listened to it. It was great.

• 2:55:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:55:08Yasi Salek?

  And then a song I read about but could not find tail or tell of called Purple Shades.

• 2:55:14Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 2:55:14Yasi Salek?

  Do you know of this song?

• 2:55:15Speaker 02

  It's it has it's only there's only tail.

• 2:55:18Yasi Salek?

  Okay, so maybe it exists, maybe it doesn't, but you can't hear it.

• 2:55:21Speaker 02

  Also, nineteen ninety nine is a is a purple album, and that's when he started wearing the purple.

• 2:55:26Yasi Salek?

  Totally. His father said purple had always been his favorite color. In nineteen ninety nine, there's the lyric, the sky was all purple, which I love because then I think about how Courtney Love would later write, the sky was all violet.

• 2:55:39Speaker 02

  I know.

• 2:55:40Yasi Salek?

  Which is a shade of purple. I think for those that are not possessing a color wheel in their home.

• 2:55:47Speaker 02

  I like the theory, like nineteen ninety nine was about the world ending.

• 2:55:50Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:55:51Speaker 02

  And Purple Rain is about it beginning again.

• 2:55:54Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:55:55Speaker 02

  And purple, purple is the color of dawn.

• 2:56:00Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. And there was there was something else about like, there's a lyric about a bed of violets. Is that when doves cry? I'm gonna lay you down in a bed of violets or something, which that there's some biblical allusion to that about rebirth or something. I might be completely. Butchering that, but but also, speaking of the Bible, that in the King James translation, immediately prior to the crucifixion, Jesus is prepared in the following ways, and they clothed him with purple and plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head and began to salute him. So a lot of meaning in the purple of it all.

• 2:56:34Speaker 02

  And if it ever gets a little hard to remember, just if there's blood to the sky, it rains purple.

• 2:56:41Yasi Salek?

  Rains purple. Purple is also the color of royalty. So rough for me because I don't like purple. I know.

• 2:56:49Speaker 02

  Sis.

• 2:56:50Yasi Salek?

  It's not. It's not a color that I do well with.

• 2:56:53Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 2:56:54Yasi Salek?

  I'm really sorry.

• 2:56:54Speaker 02

  We're gonna have, we'll talk off camera.

• 2:56:56Yasi Salek?

  We'll fix that. Okay, let's wrap it up because it's been 50 hours, but I just want to talk briefly about the film. Obviously, the film does amazing. This is not a film podcast, so we're not going to rehash the thing, but like, there's great parts of this film. There's the Abbott and Costello ass humor of Morris Day and Jerome making, making Jerome about the password.

• 2:57:19Yasi Salek?

  He told Prince old Oprah in 1986 that the most autobiographical scene in the movie was probably the scene with me looking at my mother crying. It was very.

• 2:57:29Speaker 02

  Albert Magnoli claims that Prince told him that his father told him to never get married.

• 2:57:36Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 2:57:37Speaker 02

  Much in the way in the movie.

• 2:57:38Yasi Salek?

  Written into the movie. Jelly Bean Johnson said that Prince and Morris Day actually got into a physical fight on set, although Albert Magnoli said he never knew about that. So there was that tension there.

• 2:57:50Speaker 02

  I mean, this was around the time that they were breaking, like, they broke up very short after filming.

• 2:57:55Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:57:56Speaker 02

  When Ice Cream Castle came out, the time was broken up.

• 2:57:58Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, that's why the Purple Rain tour doesn't feature the time.

• 2:58:01Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:58:02Yasi Salek?

  But I think by and large, we can all agree that the masterpiece of this film is the live performance.

• 2:58:08Speaker 02

  Without a doubt.

• 2:58:09Yasi Salek?

  It's so artfully done, even, I mean, all respect to Magnoli for being such a new filmmaker and really being able to capture the feeling of being in a club and seeing a band, like, which many people could not do that, you know? You saw the faces, you felt like there's like a real intimacy to the way that those performances are shot.

• 2:58:31Speaker 02

  And they shot them in a way that allowed the A story to move.

• 2:58:35Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, it's, and for that reason alone.

• 2:58:40Yasi Salek?

  And it's not like Minnetonka.

• 2:58:43Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 2:58:44Yasi Salek?

  And several other outfits. It's worth watching.

• 2:58:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, without a doubt.

• 2:58:48Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Um, it does. It did.

• 2:58:50Speaker 02

  Many, you know, uh, what was the Mariah Carey movie? That and Eminem's Eight Mile are simply Purple Rain.

• 2:59:00Yasi Salek?

  Glitter.

• 2:59:01Speaker 02

  Glitter and Eight Mile.

• 2:59:02Yasi Salek?

  Camp.

• 2:59:03Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:59:04Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, and Eight Mile, yes. Okay, are kind of structured around. Yeah. Um, I also did like just a fun tid for the performance of Purple Rain in the film. He made Apollonia come to be in the audience, even though they don't film that part. She was wrapped for the set because she, he wanted to method basically sing to her. Um, and then also that he consciously or unconsciously wandered over during the solo and gave Wendy a peck on the cheek, which is exactly what he had done at their first show.

• 2:59:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:59:33Yasi Salek?

  At First Avenue, which I started this podcast with.

• 2:59:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:59:36Yasi Salek?

  That was cool.

• 2:59:36Speaker 02

  Real sweet.

• 2:59:37Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, that was.

• 2:59:38Speaker 02

  Real sweet. Her reaction to the kiss is so, so, I mean, it's out of place. Like she's seemed really bothered by it.

• 2:59:48Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 2:59:49Speaker 02

  Which I mean, I, I understand why.

• 2:59:51Yasi Salek?

  She wasn't expecting it.

• 2:59:52Speaker 02

  Why that character would be bothered with, with that character. But I'm like, that's not what you're trying to showcase here.

• 3:00:00Yasi Salek?

  She was acting.

• 3:00:01Speaker 02

  That's sure.

• 3:00:02Yasi Salek?

  So July 17, 1984, Purple Rain opens in 900 theaters across the United States, makes back the $7 million in the first weekend, goes on to clear over 70 million at the box office, which in today's numbers would probably be like upwards of.

• 3:00:15Speaker 02

  Take 300 million.

• 3:00:16Yasi Salek?

  Maybe even more, four or 500. Movies were 250 then, they're 20 now, you know?

• 3:00:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:00:21Yasi Salek?

  So I think that's probably a factor of 10 times, it's like a $700 million.

• 3:00:25Speaker 02

  Right.

• 3:00:25Yasi Salek?

  Um, it replaced Ghostbusters, the top grossing film in the country. Just a few notes on its influence, just because they relate to me. Tori Amos, she recalls the first time she saw Purple Rain on a date in Rockville, Maryland. She said, I was with somebody who did not get it. And that was that. If you don't get this, I have nothing to say to you. Next. It completely changed how I saw live performances, energy, how he was able to put his hands on this force field. It was almost like a new language. I had never seen anything except possibly Led Zeppelin and maybe Mick Jagger, where the front person had such power and they were completely present with it, almost staring you down. Tori Amos.

• 3:01:03Yasi Salek?

  Another very compelling performer.

• 3:01:06Speaker 02

  Totally. I believe she covered Purple Rain.

• 3:01:08Yasi Salek?

  That would make sense. She really did a lot of covers. And then, pertinent to my interests, Darius Rucker, the late singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, remembers the first time he saw Purple Rain on a date in Charleston, South Carolina. He said, "For us living in the black community, here was this kid from Minneapolis and they were letting him make a movie. For us, it was like, wow, this is really happening. Up until I saw Purple Rain, I wanted to be a solo artist, but after I saw it, all I wanted to do was be in a band. It really changed what I wanted in my career, to be part of something rather than going at it all by myself." And then we got Hootie and the motherfucking Blowfish. Thank God.

• 3:01:41Speaker 02

  The Blowfish.

• 3:01:41Yasi Salek?

  Let her cry on God Tear Song. I believe it's like the 16th or 17th highest selling album of all time. That cracked review.

• 3:01:50Speaker 02

  People liked it a lot.

• 3:01:51Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Cracked review. Sold more copies than Purple Rain.

• 3:01:54Speaker 02

  So check this out.

• 3:01:56Yasi Salek?

  Just by a little bit, I think.

• 3:01:57Speaker 02

  Purple Rain tour wrapped April.

• 3:02:01Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 3:02:01Speaker 02

  Around the world in a day, came out April, hair was cut, we're done with purple.

• 3:02:08Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 3:02:08Speaker 02

  No more Purple Rain.

• 3:02:09Yasi Salek?

  Didn't let it kind of continue to build the momentum.

• 3:02:13Speaker 02

  Did not tour Europe, did not do a victory lap tour in the States. You know, Michael Jackson, like Thriller, a bad came out five years after.

• 3:02:24Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, he gave Thriller its real time to shine.

• 3:02:27Speaker 02

  Prince turned down the Coca-Cola deal that he wanted. So it's like.

• 3:02:31Yasi Salek?

  This is very, I'm glad you brought this up because I wanted to mention one other person who saw a Purple Rain and had maybe a different reaction. And his name was Michael Jackson. According to the journalist Ronan Rowe, Michael Jackson attended one of the Warner Brothers screenings of Purple Rain and he left 10 minutes before the end. He said, reportedly said this to someone he was with, "The music's okay, I guess, but I don't like Prince. He looks mean and I don't like the way he treats women. He reminds me of some of my relatives and not only that, the guy can't act at all. He's really not very good." I know Prince was very competitive with Michael Jackson, as reported by the people around him. He obviously never said anything. And according to Michael Jackson's lawyer, John Bronco, when they first met, Prince freaked Michael Jackson out by giving him a voodoo amulet.

• 3:03:17Speaker 02

  The word is that, I forget who it was, but who had worked with both. But he said, like, I never heard Prince talk about Michael.

• 3:03:29Yasi Salek?

  Michael talked about Prince. It's even in the new, it's even in the new film. It's actually the funniest line of the whole film where he says that quote that he actually did say, which is that like, if he doesn't follow through on ideas that he dreams of, God might give them to Prince.

• 3:03:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I think he was way more threatened of.

• 3:03:45Yasi Salek?

  I don't think Prince was threatened, but I think he was competitive. He wanted to make sure he beat him.

• 3:03:49Speaker 02

  But I do think, but I do think that the, the thing that gets twisted a bit is that Prince was like that with everybody.

• 3:03:55Yasi Salek?

  With everybody, totally.

• 3:03:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:03:56Yasi Salek?

  Totally. Not just Michael Jackson, yeah. And you're right, he turned down that Coca-Cola deal, which was in response to the Pepsi deal, and he could have made, I mean, Michael Jackson made $91 million, but he didn't want to. And his tour got like 17 million that year, but he became a movie star and Michael Jackson never did. And he really wanted to, I think.

• 3:04:15Speaker 02

  Totally. So if you had Prince on every Coca-Cola commercial and the Purple Rain tour going two years longer, that, you know, which his managers wanted, and to not release, and to wait on releasing new music, like,

• 3:04:28Speaker 02

  it ain't, it ain't selling less than Hoot and Blowfish.

• 3:04:30Yasi Salek?

  It's very interesting to me because I think like, in so many ways, I do see the parallels with him and Madonna. At the very least, like, in the sense of their ambition and, and the ambition being sort of divorced from money.

• 3:04:45Speaker 02

  Totally, and.

• 3:04:46Yasi Salek?

  Which is, which is quite interesting, right? It's like, obviously, there are very different kinds of artists and like, I wouldn't purport to like, place Madonna as an artist, maybe in the same category as Prince. But, I mean, in some ways, yes, in some ways.

• 3:04:59Speaker 02

  There's for sure similarities.

• 3:05:00Yasi Salek?

  There's definitely similarities, and I think obviously, you know, she didn't, she's not like as being musically gifted as Prince, but I do think she all, she had a singular vision and saw it out. But anyways, we don't have to get into that, but more that like, The decisions they made were not rooted in, I need to maximize the money I'm making. They were rooted in their artistic vision. And Prince was like, I don't want to fucking go around song and dance Purple Rain for two more years because I'm not about that life anymore.

• 3:05:26Speaker 02

  I'm done.

• 3:05:27Yasi Salek?

  And so he moved on and left money on the table and he doesn't care and he's fine. The movie got mixed reviews, but largely good. Siskel and Ebert loved it. The New York Times didn't. They, the guy compared Prince to a poster of Liza Minnelli, of one which someone has smudged a mustache.

• 3:05:49Speaker 02

  Oh my god.

• 3:05:50Yasi Salek?

  It's mean, it's honest. Also points out that the women characters are supposed to be strong and independent, but they're suckers for the men that knock them around with brutal regularity. It's true that the women characters are not very fully formed.

• 3:06:02Speaker 02

  I will not defend the depiction of women in this film.

• 3:06:08Yasi Salek?

  But honestly, no character is fully formed in this film and so, equal rights on that, on that part. And then, yeah, that's the Purple Rain story. Like you said, there was a Purple Rain tour in a sense, but not the impactful one it could have been because there's no, the time had broken up.

• 3:06:25Speaker 02

  I mean, it was a huge.

• 3:06:27Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 3:06:27Speaker 02

  It was a huge tour.

• 3:06:28Yasi Salek?

  But it could have gone on longer.

• 3:06:30Speaker 02

  Could have gone on, they could have done more.

• 3:06:31Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 3:06:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:06:33Yasi Salek?

  And he cut it short, like mid, right? Like, it was like, he was like, oh, I'm not doing anymore.

• 3:06:39Speaker 02

  Well, that's why they did the live in Syracuse thing. That was his compromise in touring Europe. Like, let's satellite this to Europe so I don't have to go there. Which, ahead of his time.

• 3:06:52Yasi Salek?

  It's really amazing. And that, my friends, dearly beloved, we will ungather here today.

• 3:07:01Yasi Salek?

  Anthony, thank you so much for coming.

• 3:07:03Speaker 02

  Thanks for having me.

• 3:07:03Yasi Salek?

  To talk about.

• 3:07:06Speaker 02

  Well, I feel-

• 3:07:07Yasi Salek?

  Essentially, one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. Probably the greatest soundtrack of all time, as it's also one of the greatest albums of all time.

• 3:07:12Speaker 02

  If I may-

• 3:07:13Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 3:07:14Speaker 02

  Of all the subjective stances that one could take, I think the most objective of those is claiming this is the best album of all time. It represents-

• 3:07:25Yasi Salek?

  The best album full self.

• 3:07:26Speaker 02

  Yes, yeah. It represents rockabilly. There's funk, there's R&B, there's rock and roll, there's country, there is subversion, there is synth pop, there is all, all things left to the dial, all things represented in American and popular music, and yet still sounds incredibly original and unto its own.

• 3:07:48Yasi Salek?

  Okay. Well, I'm not gonna argue with you, babe. That's why you're here.

• 3:07:52Speaker 02

  That's what I have to say about Purple Rain.

• 3:07:55Yasi Salek?

  Thank you again for coming on.

• 3:07:57Speaker 02

  Thanks for having me.

• 3:07:59Yasi Salek?

  Come back next week for a new episode of Bandplain.

• 3:08:11Yasi Salek?

  If you liked what you heard today, subscribe for more episodes of Bandplain. Our guest today was Anthony Unzaldo. This episode was produced by Rob Sunderman and edited by Adrian Bridges with help from Justin Sales. Video production by Jacob Cornet. Executive producers for Bandplain are Gina Dalvec and me, Yasi Salek. Our gorgeous and catchy theme song was composed and performed by Bethany Cosentino and Jennifer Clavon and graciously recorded by Carlos de la Garza in Los Angeles, California. Special thanks to our producer emeritus, producer Dylan, AKA Dylan Tepper Rupper, and also Sean Fantasy and Costco. Come back every Thursday for a new episode of Bandplain on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

• 3:08:52Speaker 02

  How well you're able to sit there without moving is actually impressive.

• 3:08:57Yasi Salek?

  It's my job. You can shred on guitar and I can sit in the same place, look at a laptop and talk.