The following are excerpts from the book Prince (Inside the Music and the Masks) (Ronin Ro).
This book was written in 2011, just five years before Prince’s death. It outlines his life and career. Prince’s musical influences were from a wide range of styles, including James Brown, George Clinton, Joni Mitchel, Duke Ellington, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, David Bowie, Earth Wind & Fire, Mick Jagger, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carlos Santana, Sly Stone, and Stevie Wonder. His willingness as an artist to bridge from his early beginnings of Funk and R&B over to Rock won him the respect of both the black audience as well as the white audience. His career dovetailed that of Michael Jackson. Both knew each other and had a certain distant respect for each other. Prince was more eclectic in his work, however, reaching a wider range of audiences and styles, ultimately being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Born in Minneapolis on June 7, 1958, Prince Rogers Nelson was born to his father John, who was an industrial supplier for Honeywell and an accomplished avant-garde jazz pianist, and his mother a jazz singer, in the style of Billie Holiday. John met his wife Mattie “while playing parties with his group, The Prince Rogers Trio.” Prince was given his name by his father. “I named my son Prince because I wanted him to do everything I wanted to do.” His father struggled to provide for a family of seven children, and lamented not being able to make his own musical career successful. “Sundays, his mother took him to a wooden, two-story Seventh-day Adventist church where he was enrolled in a Bible study class.” Prince was born epileptic. As a child, he had seizures. After thirteen years of marriage, John and Mattie decided to separate and filed for divorce. His father left when Prince was seven. Mattie remarried Heyward Baker, with whom Prince had strained relations, although he brought the family’s income level higher. Baker bought Prince his first guitar. Eventually, Prince moved in with his biological father, but this didn’t’ last long. “John’s patience with the boy had run out. He kicked thirteen-year-old Prince out of the house- and onto the street.”
At the age of fourteen, he was in his first band, named Phoenix. During his Sophomore year in high school, “Prince threw himself into an extracurricular course, ‘The Business of Music,’ taught by a pianist that once played with Ray Charles. He also mapped out a trajectory toward rock stardom. ‘Not a musician, but a rock star,’ Princes future employee Alan Leeds stressed. In Prince’s mind, mass appeal would bring acceptance, power, and security, Leeds suggested.”
“At sixteen, Prince kept writing songs. ‘I wrote like I was rich, and been everywhere, and been with every woman in the world,’ he said. ‘I always liked fantasy and fiction.’ Instead of tentative two-minute funk ditties, he brought his band seven-minute epics.”
“During their local shows, the band played the same old songs. ‘I hated top forty,’ Prince said. Everyone did. But the white club owners and audiences expected it so they played ‘anything that was a hit; didn’t matter who it was.’”
“Prince used cassette tape recorders to overdub separate performances onto dual tapes. He kept playing tapes back and taping more sounds on the other deck, teaching himself to arrange and produce. He also mixed incongruent influences- Santana solos with James Brown yells, Sly Stone’s elocution with his father John’s unconventional piano playing (inspired, John claimed, by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk).”
Prince met Chris Moon, who ran Moon-Sound studio, who gave Prince an opportunity to help Moon produce some of his own music. Moon was impressed with Prince’s ability to play and record bass, drums, electric guitar and backup vocals all himself, and ultimately decided to become Prince’s manager. Moon called Atlantic Records, telling the receptionist that he represented Stevie Wonder and when he finally got through, said, “This is Chris Moon, and I’m representing Prince. If you like Stevie Wonder, you’re gonna love my artist. He’s only eighteen, he plays all the instruments, and he’s not blind!’” The executive laughed, and agreed to hear him in the morning. Upon hearing Prince, the executive dismissed him as ‘too Midwestern’ and his songwriting as noncommercial.
Chris Moon also knew Owen Husney, who at the age of twenty-seven was already a promoter, manager, studio owner, and ran a marketing company. When Moon played him a recording of Prince, “Husney said, ‘not bad, who are they?’ Moon replied, ‘It’s one seventeen-year-old kid.’…Husney wasn’t’ as impressed by the songs as much as the fact that one guy had done everything.
Prince signed to Husney’s American Artists, inc., and the young musician saw life change for the better. Husney put a package together for Prince and promoted him to Warner.
In June of 1977, Prince signed with Warner. His contract reportedly called for three albums in twenty-seven months, the first to be recorded within six months. “Husney called it perhaps the most lucrative contract ever offered to an unknown…the biggest record deal of 1977.”
While in the studio, Prince wanted to produce his own album and had mistrust of Warner Brother’s Maurice White. He spoke to the executives about it, “‘Don’t make me black,’ he insisted…’My idols are all over the place.’ He named a few from different genres.”
“Prince started recording his first album, For You, on October 1, 1977…Prince’s repertoire was mostly rhythm and blues but he included a few ballads and –despite his reported misgivings about the genre- more than a few disco-worthy moments.”
“On October 19, 1979, Warner released Prince’s second album called simply Prince …within weeks…one single had become a runaway hit. The poignant disco number, ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover,’ topped Billboard’s soul Chart, Prince’s first Soul No. 1, and it reached No. 11 on the Pop Chart. Radio stations nationwide kept playing every note of it. Sales passed 500,000 (his first Gold-certified single.)
On his next album Dirty Mind, “He recorded most songs quickly, during all-night sessions. As usual, he used his falsetto on a few numbers. He hoped lyrics would shock people and draw attention. He wrote about oral sex (‘Head”), incest (“Sister”), orgies (“Uptown”), bedding a woman in her ‘daddy’s car’ (the title track); satisfying another (“Jack U Off”), and an ill-fated threesome (“When You Were Mine”). Musically, he abandoned horns, cluttered keyboards, and excessive overdubs and turned to electronic instruments he hoped would differentiate him from other acts on the market. His drum machine created pounding dance beats, synthesizers delivered icy melodies, and he strummed a few minimal riffs on guitar. ‘He really found himself with that album,’ drummer Bobby Z felt. He wrote better songs, and ‘the roughness of it gave it an edge. It was more garage sounding.
“On October 8, 1980, Warner released Dirty Mind. Critics called it a winning fusion of rock, pop, and world, with risqué themes, flamboyance, and falsettos. Rolling Stone gave it four and a half stars. The Village Voice placed it in that year’s Top Ten. The Los Angeles Times and Newsweek sang its praise. Critically, it was his most successful album to date (and perhaps ever).”
“Talented musicians surrounded him, but he found it easier to work alone…Then there was the fact that some sessions lasted so long he wore two or three engineers out.” Sometimes he would work three days straight without sleeping. “The band sometimes felt Prince was too hard on them. But he respected their talent.”
Prince’s career ran parallel to Michael Jackson. “Jackson’s Thriller continued to sell…but the neck and neck race continued…In May 1983, Prince’s double set 1999 finally passed the 1 million sales mark and was certified Platinum. It should have been a major moment. But all anyone wanted to talk about was Michael Jackson, again.”
Prince began working on the album Purple Rain, and “When Warner released ‘Delirious’ on August 18, he saw this nonthreatening, upbeat dance tune enter the Top 10 (at N. 8), and become his third Top 20 pop hit that year. Then he learned Thriller star Michael Jackson was, to his amazement, actually aware of him.”
He began working on When Doves Cry, describing a deteriorating relationship and abandonment, but instead of composing appropriately sad music, he reached for the Linn LM-1 drum machine. By now, many producers were using the Roland line of machines. But he like this Linn’s synthetic drum sound ‘and hung on to it for a long time, even after it was obsolete,’ said drummer Bobby Z. And when Bobby heard the beat he created, he felt Prince was not only ‘one of the very best drum programmers’ out there, but that he could also ‘ get very warm sounds out of machines…Once the beat was down, Prince quickly moved on the vocals, and a bass line.” [This reveals Prince’s process of song-writing: 1) lyrics, 2) beat, 3) melody/vocals, 4) bass-line.]
Prince was a pioneer in the use of film with his music, and Purple Rain was one of his earliest experiments in this approach. He wasn’t sure what kind of outcome it would have. “In July 1984, Warner Bros. invited critics and studio employees to an advance afternoon screening of the long-awaited film Purple Rain. The soundtrack had already sold almost 2.5 million copies. ‘This is serious business,’ Time noted. And Hollywood gossip said Purple Rain would make him a star…It was a big moment- the premiere of the film Purple Rain, and everyone knew this would make him a major star ‘or be one of the most embarrassing flops of all time,’ said Leeds.”
“By Monday morning, the numbers were in, Purple Rain had earned $7.7 million in its opening weekend, replacing the effects-laden blockbuster Ghostbusters as American’s top-grossing film. At twenty-six, Prince simultaneously had a single (‘Let’s Go Crazy’), an album, and a movie at No. 1 on various Billboard and box-office charts. Prince had reached heights previously scaled only by Elvis and the Beatles.”
“Purple Rain’s twenty-four-week stay at No. 1 was the fourth longest reign in pop album history. Further, it yielded five hit singles, including his first two chart-toppers (‘When Doves Cry’ and ‘Let’s Go Crazy’). His ballad ‘Purple Rain; meanwhile reached No. 2. The New York Times called him ‘vulgar.’ The San Francisco Chronicle said, ‘rude and raunchy…yet no one denied his amazing success. In fact Rolling Stone name him Rock Artist of the Year.
Another instance revealing his song-writing method, as he was working on “Under the Cherry Moon” reads as follows: “In the studio, Susan Rogers had everything ready. ‘I’m gonna start playing drums and when I stop, don’t stop the tape,’ Prince told her. ‘Just keep going, just let it roll.’ He sat at the drum kit, taping lyrics to a nearby music stand. Rogers hit Record and he created one drum pattern after another. After four beats, he rose and approached Rogers in the booth. ‘All right, here we go. Where is by bass?’ He played melodies on the four tracks and moved on to adding sounds from the Fairlight (a sampling keyboard with flute and wind sounds, voices, and have claps that Wendy and Lisa claimed to have shown him.) He had Wendy and Lisa add backup vocals to some works…” [This process reveals the following: 1) lyrics, 2) beat, 3) bass, 4) melodies, 5) sound samples, 6) hand-claps, 7) vocals.]
On the album Dream Factory, he wrote a lyric called “The Cross.” On the same album, “July 15, another Sunday, Prince taped another social statement…he sang about AIDS, drugs, street gangs, gun homicide, and the government focusing on space travel. He called these situations signs that the Bible predicted would preface Christ’s return. He called the song ‘Sign O’ the Times’ (a title it shared with a Grandmaster Flash rap song). ‘He had begun to see the effect of crack and drugs on young people,’ said Alan Leeds. ‘He’s not really a preacher, but it’s certainly an antidrug song.’”
He continued to have disagreements with Warner. He had artistic ideas that Warner wouldn’t go along with. “Warner executive Marylou Badeaux recalled. “It’s not unusual for an artist to make demands of his management, but some of Prince’s demands were getting more and more out in left field’… ‘You’ll overwhelm the market,’ Prince remembered them saying. ‘I was told, ‘you can’t do that.’ He felt Warner executives were overstepping their bounds. ‘I don’t think it’s their place to talk me into or out of things,’ he said:
“I believe the following segment reveals how Ingrid Chavez, a Baptist-raised brunette he met at Rupert’s in Minneapolis, led Prince to salvation. He had religious influences from childhood and knew the Bible somewhat, and he seemed to have a heart in search of God, but it seems probable that his conversations at this point with Ingrid caused him to be born-again, evidenced by the change in his demeanor and apologies to his co-workers. This next passage seems to illustrate the early and awkward beginnings of a Christian life, starting with repentance.”
After he produced his album The Funk Bible, he began to wrestle with its dark material. “At Paisley Park, employees felt he was more demanding, always cranky. Some co-workers felt burned out. Susan Roger had left.” Regarding The Funk Bible, “He considered how, if he died after releasing this, it would be what people remembered. ‘I could feel this wind and I knew I was doing the wrong thing…’ After a long conversation with Ingrid (Chavez) [who grew up Baptist], they drove back to his studio complex where they kept talking religion, love, and life fulfillment. Then Prince said he had a stomachache and left the room.”
“He grabbed a phone. At about 1:30 AM, he called Karen Krattinger, the tour manager he had asked to work on Thanksgiving weekend. During their emotional talk (according to Alan Leeds) Prince apologized for his stormy mood, and recent uncharacteristic behavior in the office…”
“Next, he called Susan Rogers, asking her to come to Paisley Park. After four years as his engineer, Rogers had a hard time leaving Prince behind. When she complied and arrived at the rehearsal room a few hours later, it was dark, save for red candles casting ominous shadows on walls. From the gloom, she saw Ingrid Chavez, who asked, ‘Are you looking for Prince?’…He materialized from the dark. Rogers was spooked. ‘I’m certain he was high,’ she said. ‘His pupils were really dilated. He looked like he was tripping.’”
“He struggled to connect. ‘I just want to know one thing. Do you still love me?’ Startled, she said yes, and she knew he loved her, too.”
“‘Will you stay?’ ‘No, I won’t,’ she said, and left. (‘It was really scary,’ she recalled.)”
“That night ‘a lot of things happened, all in a few hours,’ Prince later said. He told people he saw God. ‘And when I talk about God, I don’t mean some dude in a cape and a beard coming down to Earth. To me, he’s in everything if you look at it that way.’ He also supposedly told Chavez this Funk Bible was an evil force. Alan Leeds heard, ‘Some voice told him, ‘Don’t release that record.’”
“Whatever the case, in that moment, Prince changed his approach to songwriting, and life itself. ‘I was an expert at cutting off people in my life and disappearing without a glance back, never to return,’ he said. ‘Half the things people were writing about me were true.’ He’d stop acting like such an angry soul.”
Prince suddenly decided The Funk Bible represented rage and debauchery. ‘He couldn’t sleep at night thinking about ten-year-old kids believing ‘this is what Prince was about- guns and violence.’ Sheila recalled…The incident inspired gossip in his studio complex corridors. Instead of ‘God,’ Fink said, Prince told Gilbert Davison he though he saw Satan. Davison then, Fink claimed, told various band members. And the hallucination scared Prince. Even after ditching the album, Prince asked them to return cassettes he had hoped would teach them the songs. Prince meanwhile simply said, ‘I didn’t want that angry, bitter thing to be the last thing. I learned from that album, but I don’t want to go back.”
“‘As usual, Prince’s answer to an unpleasant reality was to construct a reality of his own,’ said Alan Leeds.” Prince had an idea for a video concept for his new album, Lovesexy. “Now that he started Lovesexy, Leeds recalled, ‘the cloud over the studio lifted.’ He was nicer, happier, feeling good most times, and ‘writing from joy.’”
Leeds wasn’t excited about the video concept, however. “‘I can’t believe you already have a video in mind.’”
“He misunderstood again. ‘Alan, don’t you get it? These kids today don’t hear music like we do! They have to see music. That’s what MTV has done. I have to think that way.’”
“Lovesexy was self-aware and life affirming. It was also overproduced in spots. Part of Prince’s spiritual reawakening meant abandoning some rock material and sanitizing a few themes…it remains one of his most experimental- and consistently entertaining- works.”
“Early ‘Eighty-eight was the first time we felt financial pressure,’ said Alan Leeds…Prince kept planning a show that brought fans a god-fearing message and newsworthy spectacle.”
“Prince was trying to bring his fans a show with the vitality and excitement they had come to expect from him. But everywhere he went, it seemed, Michael Jackson, coincidentally or not, was on his heels.”
“But Prince didn’t’ worry. Their shows were similar in that both presented choreographed dance routines, programmed lights, extravagant costumes, special effects, flags adorned with peace symbols, even simulated gunplay- but as performers, they were completely different. Jackson was clean-cut and humble, asking his audiences for permission to step to another part of the stage. Prince took control from the moment he stepped into view and didn’t let up. Jackson and his professional dancers did the same routine every night. Prince changed things up, adlibbing, changing his set list, rearranging his hits. Jackson played traditional G-rated pop and ballads while Prince ran through rock, jazz, swing music, soul, bygone Blues, even raw hip-hop. Jackson kept two spotlights on him, and stopped songs so he could freeze during a dance move- stooping over like a robot, getting on his tiptoes- and hear fans applaud. Prince started call and response routines, chiding fans if they did not sing loud enough. Jackson’s lyrics emphasized terror, loneliness, and love; Prince interchanged medleys of ballads with funk numbers.”
Prince was having great frustration with his Warner managers. “In early January 1989, he shocked people by firing his Los Angeles-based mangers. When Prince also fired his accountant and business manager, the media, including the Minneapolis Star Tribune, started calling it a housecleaning.”
New manager Albert Magnoli remembered his ‘instantaneous affinity’ for Batman…A month after seeing Batman footage, Prince played Burton eight songs, most synched to footage. Burton was overwhelmed. ‘He was way ahead of me,’ he said. ‘Vicki Waiting’ was first. Once called ‘Anna Waiting,’ after a pal, it was moody and intense. He played ‘Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic’ and his instrumental ‘The Batman Theme.’ He also played ‘200 Balloons,’ another flat beat and guitar work in the ‘Shockadelica’ mold; and the dense and indecipherable ‘Electric Chair.’ Burton rejected the theme, ‘Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic,’ and ‘200 Balloons,’ but accepted the others.”
“‘Batdance’ returned him to the U.S. charts. ‘Batdance’ reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100…the album sold a million copies in seven days, making it one of the fastest sellers in history.”
After this, Prince started working on the sound track for Graffiti Bridge, which bombed at the box office. The film left theaters after grossing only $4.2 million and effectively ended Princes film career.”
His relationship with Mayte Garcia, a young dancer kept inspiring love songs, which ultimately ended in marriage. Mayte became pregnant with their first-born child. The child died due to complications, which crushed Prince. Prince and Mayte began to drift apart after this and finally ended in divorce.
With Prince self-managing his career now, he felt it was necessary to distance himself from his name. “His name had lost its personal resonance…people now used it to describe- or denounce- what he called a media-made persona. Millions of people all thought they knew who he was. But their perceptions were false. He was tired of defending himself. Constantly hearing ‘Prince is crazy.’
“Changing his name could accomplish a few things. He’d leave the negative image behind. Be free of it. Start over. Save himself. He’d also ‘get out of the contract.’ Take the first step toward emancipation from ‘the chains’ binding him to Warner.” He came up with an unpronounceable symbol, ‘the love symbol’ for his name.
“By July 1993, he wanted to release a song as on another label. Warner chairman Mo Ostin said no. They could find a way ‘but they’re afraid of the ripple effect, that everybody would want to do it,’ Prince felt. But Warner wasn’t the only problem. It was the entire industry. ‘There’s just a few people with all the power.’
Warner eventually, against Prince’s wishes, released the Black Album (otherwise known as The Funk Bible). “But in print, Prince’s spokeswoman Karen Lee fueled anti-Warner sentiment among his hard-core following by claiming Prince still didn’t want The Black Album out there. ‘He’s thoroughly pissed off about it. He had to sign an agreement- I can’t go into why- but contractually, he didn’t have a choice.’”
“As CEO of NPG Records, Prince oversaw a staff of twenty-five. But he didn’t view himself as a businessman. He hated the word. ‘It’s not a business, what I do.’ Still, he was good at it.”
After several years of success, he eventually went back to using his name. “‘I will now go back to using my name instead of the symbol I adopted as a means to free myself from undesirable relationships.’ Someone interrupted to ask what he’d do with the . Well, it’s an internationally known logo now, so…I haven’t really given it much thought.’ Then he got back on track. He’d never change his name again ‘because I won’t be under a restrictive long-term contract again.”
His next album The Rainbow Children, “He wanted warmer acoustic sounds and an epic story involving warring clans, mind control, liars, bigotry, and a biased media…And now that he was reading the Bible more often, a few overt, unapologetic spiritual messages.”
Prince married Manuela Testolini in 2001.
In September 2003, Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “the only honoree inducted during his first year of eligibility.”
“For two minutes, he thanked artists that inspired him for ‘a journey more fascinating than I could ever have imagined; Then he said, ‘A word to the wise: Without real spiritual mentoring, too much freedom can lead to the soul’s decay.’ He told young artists: ‘a real friend and mentor is not on your payroll.’ The crowd applauded. A real friend and mentor would care for their soul, he added. ‘I wish all of you the best on this fascinating journey.’”
“Prince shared the stage with some of rock’s most distinguished guitar players, but his solo stunned every guitarist in the room and stole ‘the entire evening.’ Alan Leeds recalled.”
His half-time performance at the 2007 Superbowl would be one of the most memorable in its history. “The show more than doubled Prince’s album sales, Billboard reported.”
“As far as his music is concerned…traces of his earlier styles are heard on works by artists as diverse as Terence Trent Darby, Seal, Lenny Kravitz, D’Angelo, Pharrell Williams of the The Neptunes, Andre 3000 of Outkast, Justin Timberlake, Ushr, Britney Spears, Madonna, Ciara, and Beck.”
“Prince reportedly counseled Michael Jackson on how best to stage a comeback.”
At the time of this book’s writing, the author states, “Back in his California estate, Prince has finally found peace. He is a fastidious middle-aged bachelor that has seen two marriages fail. He has also seen negative reviews of his most recent work. But he remains more open with reporters and fans than perhaps ever. He continues to be a God-fearing, clean-living man. He is happy to be alive and grateful for his friends; and thrilled to be able to choose when he wants to record an album or play a show. He’s looking forward to signing deals for his bandmates and protégés.”