RIP Prince

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MusicConsulting

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Okay, one more :yeshrug:

Susan Rogers talks about meeting Prince the first time & other interactions:

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Interview with Susan Rogers from the latest Uncut Magazine. Includes anecdote about baking Prince a Pie!...

“I’d been working for CSN in LA when I heard Prince was looking for a new audio technician. I thought i’d be perfect for him. He liked working with women. I knew all his material and had been a fan since the start.

“The first time I ever saw Prince in the flesh, he was wearing a towel and a shower cap. He was taking delivery of some new studio equipment at his house in Chanhassen, Minnesota. I’d flown out from LA to help with the installation of this console and I asked to use the facilities. ‘go into the house then go down the stairs – it’s on the right.’ Just as I opened the front door, this small figure came flying past me in a towel and a shower cap. He was coming from the shower upstairs. I though, ‘oh, great. I hope he didn’t see me.’ I didn’t want him to think, ‘This is the person i’ve just hired! You’re fired!’

“I had a list of things that needed doing to install this new console; about a week’s worth of work. The studio was downstairs across the hallway from his master bedroom. He kept a turntable in there and would play records a lot. He loved ‘Karma Chameleon’ by Culture Club. Right above me was the living room where his piano was. when he wasn’t playing records, I could hear him playing songs he ended up recording for Purple Rain. ‘Computer Blue’ and ‘The Beautiful Ones’. Lots of iterations. I could hear him rehearsing with Vanity Six. He was eager for me to hurry up and finish so he could come down and resume recording.

“When I finished, he came downstairs, didn’t introduce himself, and said, ‘Come back tomorrow morning and we’ll begin.’ It was a little set of instructions and he turned around to walk away. Something inside of me, a little voice just said ‘don’t let it start like this…’ As he turned to walk away, I said ‘excuse me, Prince. I’m Susan rogers.’ I stuck my hand out to shake his hand. He got this amused look on his face. He’s standing there on the stairs and he stuck his hand out. we shook hands, he did a little bow and said, ‘I’m Prince.’

“In the studio, some of the arrangements were done in rehearsal with the band. ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ started with an idea and then he would direct the band to the parts that he wanted. We recorded that basic track with the whole band at rehearsal, then they went home and he and I stayed to finish the song. We’d add overdubs, guitar solo and lead vocal.

“Other songs were worked out just on piano and then brought to the studio like ‘The Beautiful Ones’ and ‘Computer Blue’. I think ‘Darling Nikki’ he did on his own in the studio, one instrument after another. He had an incredible aptitude for auditory imagery, for imagining what worked with what. That’s why he could work so fast.

“Was he easy to work with? Yes and no. He was easy in that he had a sense of direction and a lot of work got done. There was money, so anything we needed we could get. We had the best equipment. That’s a luxury. The difficult part was we had to stay up long, long, long hours. A typical day might be 20, 24 hours. A 12-hour day would be like a day off. There were no real days off – even Christmas, New Year and birthdays. I was happy to do that as I had my dream job. but it was physically challenging, and there were many days when I was up for 48 hours. There was one – only one! – but one where I was up for 96 hours. Yeah, that was a long day.

“He would frequently throw parties. He called them birthday parties, but it wasn’t anyone’s birthday. He’d bring in food to rehearsal. There’d be a pool table set up or a ping-pong table and there’d be a turntable so we’d feed it into the loudspeakers and we’d dance. Sometimes the band would play and he would invite friends and people who lived locally, people he knew from the clubs. He’d sometimes rent a movie theatre and we could all go to the movies or roller-skating or ice-skating. Sometimes he just liked having the band over to his house. we’d have the TV on and watch MTV and just talk. Most of the socialising he did, as you might imagine, was dating. He’d go to First Avenue to dance and then he’d meet someone, be with her for a few hours and then often, when his dates ended, he’d came back to the studio and we’d resume. That was quite common.

“I’ll share a story. In November ’83, I’d been in his employ maybe three months. He was doing the Purple Rain movie. There was going be the night shoot in South Minneapolis. For some ridiculous reason, I decided he needed pie. He had a real sweet tooth. So I baked this pie and took it to the movie set. I knock on the door of his trailer, he opens it and I said, ‘Prince, I’ve made you a pie.’ I hand over this pie. He said, ‘A pie?’ I said, ‘Yeah. A pie.’ He had that same look on his face as he’d had when we shook hands when I met him, slightly amused. He said, ‘Thank you. Hang on a second.’ He set the pie on the table and came back with some Tic Tacs. I put my hand out and he tapped a few Tic Tacs into my palm. A reciprocal exchange. our relationship changed after that. I think he realised I wanted to be of service. There were times when he’d ask ‘what would be good right now? Chocolate chip cookies, hot chocolate or cake?’ So if we were working at his home I’d take that as my cue and run to the store to get some ingredients and make him some cookies. He was an expert at reading people and understanding how to bring out the best in them. I think that pie incident went a long way. it helped our relationship.”
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Alright here we go SOTT Deluxe Edition:

SO you start with SOTT lp to start with.



Now this is where things get goddamn crazy :whoo:

Disc 1 - Sign O' The Times:
This is a fresh rip from an original US vinyl pressing of the album. I haven't shared this version with anyone prior to this. It has been manually declicked where necessary and sounds like a dream. It also fits entirely on one CD so you can now play it all the way through without swapping discs.

Disc 2 - B-Sides and Non-Album Tracks:
A collection of B-Sides, Remixes and Non-Album Tracks from Sign O' The Times and it's surrounding era. The majority of these tracks have been sourced from T's 12" Collection V2.0 and sound beautiful.



SignOTheTimes Ridiculously Deluxe Edition [IFM Records] Discs 3 - 5

:blessed::blessed::blessed:
Crazier

Disc 3 - Dream Factory:
The final version of the Dream Factory album from 86/87 that eventually became Crystal Ball/Sign O' The Times.

Disc 4 - Camille:
The unreleased Camille album. This is technically a fan assembly of the album by myself but it sounds great in my opinion. I've used the best sources for all the tracks and everything was from a lossless source, or in the case of Rebirth Of The Flesh, the best source I could find.

Disc 5 - The Black Album:
This is a fresh vinyl rip of The Black Album from a 1994 German pressing of the album.



SignOTheTimes Ridiculously Deluxe Edition [IFM Records] Discs 6 and 7

Disc 6 - Outtakes:
A collection of outtakes with a focus on the Dream Factory era. Many of the tracks are taken from the Work It collection although they've been tweaked and edited for maximum quality.

Disc 7 - Additional Outtakes:
More outtakes with a focus on the Crystal Ball/Sign O' The Times era.

Likely the next best way to listen to SOTT experience without breaking into the vault & stealing the tapes. Props to this uploader. :whew:
 
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Last one for the day, be back later...

3 Nights at Montreaux 2013:







Setlists for 3 nights:

13 July 2013 - Prince Vault

14 July 2013 - Prince Vault

15 July 2013 - Prince Vault
______________________________
I dont know what to say other than the fact that we got the best fans in the world that tape or circulate shyt. I don't understand how you couldn't be happy over any of this. So much to choose from, good god.

:dead::banderas:
 
Piff Perkins

Piff Perkins

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Been revisiting Prince ever since he passed. Just reminds me of when I was around 15-16 and thought about taking guitar lessons but never did. I really wanted to play Raspberry Beret on an acoustic guitar back then. I think I might take some classes still.
 
Piff Perkins

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Not sure I can think of any album with a better first seven track run than 1999...

1999
Little Red Corvette
Delirious
Lets Pretend We're Married
DMSR
Automatic
Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)

:merchant:
 
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