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Controversy, 1981 Podcast

Coming Soon: 41 Years of Controversy

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Last October, I had every intention to mark the 40th anniversary of Controversy with another installment of our in-depth album retrospective podcast series, but life (i.e., my increasingly-predictable end-of-year burnout) intervened. Now, having finally gotten my shit together, I’m putting the finishing touches on the episode, and it will be dropping next Friday (tomorrow for patrons)! I’m joined as always by Harold Pride and, for the first time, by longtime friend of the show De Angela Duff, who was actually the one to get my butt in gear because she’s just that passionate about the album! Very excited for you to hear it and (knock on wood) to be back with more in less than a year.

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Apollonia 6, 1984

Ooo She She Wa Wa

Susan and friend on the inner sleeve of Apollonia 6, 1984; photo by Larry Williams, © Warner Bros.

Just two weeks after beginning “Take Me with U”–and a little less than three months after finishing “Sex Shooter”–Prince had nearly enough material for a full album by Apollonia 6; the only thing missing was a feature for the group’s third member, Susan Moonsie. According to Brenda Bennett, the oversight may have been deliberate: “Susan and Prince were fighting,” she told sessionographer Duane Tudahl (Tudahl 2018 255). So, never one to shy away from a passive-aggressive slight, on February 5, 1984, His Royal Badness dashed off “Ooo She She Wa Wa” with zero input from his protégée and on-and-off paramour.

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Ephemera, 1984

Manic Monday

Yvonne Marquis in Puce Moment (Kenneth Anger, 1949); © Fantoma Films, photo stolen from Filmgrab.

Sometimes, the uncanny ease of Prince’s creative process can make it tempting to presume that his songs simply sprang forth from him, like Athena from the forehead of Zeus. This is doubly true when one considers that, in at least a few cases, that’s pretty much exactly what happened. Engineer Peggy McCreary likes to tell the story of when Prince called her back into Sunset Sound on the morning of February 4, 1984, after a typical marathon session the previous night: “I remember going to bed at six in the morning and he called and said, ‘Can you be at the studio at noon?’ because he had dreamed a song,” she told sessionographer Duane Tudahl. “He said if he dreamed a chorus he’d call me, and he did, and it was ‘Manic Monday’” (Tudahl 2018 253).

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Apollonia 6, 1984

In a Spanish Villa

"To the Water," Joaquín Sorolla, 1902.

Prince’s Sunset Sound session on February 3, 1984 was highly productive, even by his lofty standards: After taking “A Million Miles (I Love You)” from jam session to finished track, he still had time to complete a second number for Apollonia 6. To date, his efforts to write for the group’s namesake had been dogged by her limited range as a singer. “In a Spanish Villa” was his most ingenious solution to the problem yet: Rather than spending another long night building Apollonia’s confidence in the vocal booth, he’d craft a song around one of the bilingual actress’ existing strengths–sounding sexy in Spanish.

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Uncategorized

Headbangers Book Club: Morris Day’s On Time (Part 2)

After a slight delay due to various personal crises, my sister and I finally got back together to record the second part of our podcast on Morris Day’s On Time: A Princely Life in Funk. If you liked the first episode and are okay with the occasional, affectionate laugh at Prince’s expense, I think you’ll enjoy this one. Otherwise, I plan to be back next week with another installment of my ongoing Apollonia 6 reappraisal!