Tag: eric leeds

Podcast: All the Critics Love U – A Conversation with Jack Riedy, Author of Electric Word Life

Post author By Zachary Hoskins
Post date August 13, 2021
No Comments on Podcast: All the Critics Love U – A Conversation with Jack Riedy, Author of Electric Word Life

As promised/threatened, we’re back to a monthly schedule on the D / M / S / R podcast! For this month’s episode, it was my pleasure to speak to music writer Jack Riedy (Pitchfork, GQ, VIBE) about his new book Electric Word Life: Writing on Prince 2016-2021. It was a really fun conversation, running through each of the pieces collected in his book and covering everything from Prince’s influence on Chicago house to the degree to which the Batman album goes (spoiler: it’s hard). Check it out, and if you’re so inclined, get yourself a copy of Jack’s book! It’s a great read and highly recommended.

By the way, I caught this too late to mention it “on air,” but thanks so much to cittalente for their review on Apple Podcasts! If you’re interested in reviewing D / M / S / R on your podcast service of choice, please do, and I will read it on the next episode–which, if all goes to plan, should be dropping next month.

Tags 3rdeyegirl, all the critics love u in new york, batdance, batdance 30 symposium, batman film, batman theme, batman tv series, beatles, billie eilish, bird, boyhood, cat glover, celebration 2018, chappelle's show, chicago, chris cornell, chris stapleton, chuck zwicky, cindy c, coachella music festival, computer blue, d'angelo, dance electric, dance with the devil, daniel bromfield, detroit, edgar wright, electric chair, electric word life, electrifying mojo, elvis presley, eric leeds, family, felix da housecat, fka twigs, four, frank ocean, funk, funkadelic, future, gett off, gimme some lovin, girl talk, hot summer, i wanna be your lover, international player's anthem, jack riedy, james brown, janelle monae, jeff weiss, jesse saunders, jimmy fallon, jm silk, jungle love, kiss, lady cab driver, lemon crush, linn lm-1, love and sex, madhouse, michaelangelo matos, miguel, minneapolis, morris day, music is the key, neal hefti, new york city, nick frost, nothing compares 2 u, paisley park studios, parliament, passion of the weiss, piano and a microphone tour, pitchfork festival, play your part, possessed, prince, prince and little weird black boy gods, princess, purple rain, purple rain film, questlove, revolution, rolling stones, scandalous, scott woods, sex shooter, shaun of the dead, she's always in my hair, shep pettibone, simon pegg, sinead o'connor, sly stone, sometimes it snows in april, sony legacy, stereogum, steve silk hurley, stevie nicks, super bowl, tidal, tom breihan, tonight show, united center, untitled, vibe magazine, vince, warner bros records, welcome 2 america, when doves cry

Ephemera, 1987

I Need a Man

Prince by Jeff Katz, circa 1987; © the Prince Estate.

As of this Friday, the wait is finally over: Sign “O” the Times Super Deluxe will at last be in our hot little hands (or at least our hot little streaming services; I ordered my physical copy from the official Prince store, so let’s just say I’m not getting my hopes up about getting it on release day). In the meantime, Warner Bros. has given us one last preview track to tide us over: Prince’s January 1987 recording of “I Need a Man.”

Ephemera, 1981-1982 Patreon Exclusives

Patreon Exclusive Bonus Track: You’re All I Want

Post author By Zachary Hoskins
Post date August 6, 2020
No Comments on Patreon Exclusive Bonus Track: You’re All I Want

More Del Vikings, a Parisian multiracial antifascist rocker gang from the early '80s; photo by Philippe Chancel, stolen from the London Times.

Like many of the Vault tracks that ended up on 1999 Super Deluxe, “You’re All I Want” was known to collectors by name and reputation long before it was widely circulating. Former Sunset Sound engineer Peggy McCreary likes to tell the story behind the song’s recording on January 11, 1982–her birthday, as she recalled with some consternation to Pitchfork’s Sam Sodowsky: “I was like, God, couldn’t he give me my birthday off? Shit!” When Prince arrived at the studio that morning, McCreary said, “he was dressed totally different than I had ever seen him: black leather boots, jeans—which he never wore—white t-shirt, and a black leather jacket” (Sodowsky 2019). Perhaps inspired by his wardrobe, the track he worked on that day was a rockabilly song–a genre he’d been toying with in earnest since he caught a show by retro-rock revivalists the Stray Cats in London the previous spring.

Prince kept McCreary working through the day and into the night: the session ended around “11 or 12,” she recalled to Andrea Swensson for Minnesota Public Radio’s The Story of 1999 podcast, “and we had started early. And I thought, ‘OK, well now there’s [no] birthday for me today.’ So anyway, he starts to leave, and I always made him a cassette of the mix, and I handed him the cassette and I was just cleaning up and doing some patches and stuff like that… he walks to the door and he looks over at me and he smiles, and he tosses this cassette over his shoulder, and he says, ‘Happy birthday,’ and he walked out. And I just stood there with my mouth open. He didn’t even wait for a response, a thank you or anything. It was just that was my happy birthday song, so it’s coming out, and Warner Bros. is releasing it, so I can’t say I have an unreleased Prince song anymore. Bummer.”

Purple Rain, 1984

Baby I’m a Star

1999 tour, circa 1983; photo stolen from Prince Off the Record.

“The MUSIC segues into a fierce BEAT.
The CROWD lets out a ROAR! Prince
strips off his guitar, streaks center-
stage. The Band launches into ‘Baby,
I’m A Star.’
“…And the CROWD laughing, dancing,
shouting and loving. The CLUB is ALIVE!
“And the MUSIC continues…forever…”
Draft screenplay for Purple Rain by Albert Magnoli, 1983

In the spring of 1983, Prince’s contract with managers Cavallo, Ruffalo, and Fargnoli was up for renewal. They had, on the face of it, little reason to worry: the 1999 tour was selling out arenas, “Little Red Corvette” was in the Top 10 of the pop charts, and 1999 was well on its way to Platinum certification by the RIAA. By the end of April, Prince would make the cover of Rolling Stone: a coveted opportunity for which his managers had netted a Richard Avedon photo shoot without granting an interview. “I thought we did an incredible job, we had a creative relationship, I’m sure he’s gonna sign another contract,” Bob Cavallo later told music journalist Alan Light. But Prince sent his main handler, Steve Fargnoli, back to Cavallo with a surprising ultimatum: “he won’t sign with us again unless we get him a movie” (Light 51).

Tags 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1999 tour, 2004, 2016, 2020, alan leeds, albert magnoli, apollonia 6, baby i'm a star, beautiful ones book, beyonce, bird, bloomington, bob cavallo, bobby z, bodyheat, brown mark, bruce springsteen, can't stop this feeling i got, capital centre, cary grant, cbs, chanhassen, chocolate, chuck statler, clarence williams iii, controversy, dan piepenbring, dance electric, david coleman, david lynch, david z, dez dickerson, dirty mind tour, don batts, dr fink, duane tudahl, elvis presley, eraserhead, eric leeds, fame tv series, first avenue, forum, francis ford coppola, free, gary l coleman, grammy awards, greg brooks, highway 7, i just wanna be rich, i wanna be your lover, i would die 4 u, inglewood, james brown, jerome benton, jill jones, joe ruffalo, john l nelson, jonathan melvoin, jungle love, keith murphy, kiowa trail, kurt loder, lake minnetonka, landover, let's go crazy, linn lm-1, lisa coleman, little red corvette, los angeles, louis b mayer, love me tender film, lovin spoonful, madonna, mattie shaw, met center, mia bocca, miami, mike melvoin, minneapolis, minnesota dance theatre, modernaire, moonbeam levels, morris day, motown records, new power generation, piano & a microphone tour, prince, promise to be true, purple rain, purple rain film, purple rain tour, radio city music hall, revolution, richard avedon, rolling stone, roots tv series, second coming film, sexuality, sheila e, simmons sds-v, soft and wet, st louis park, starr company, starwood, steve fargnoli, stevie wonder, sunset sound, susan rogers, susannah melvoin, swept away, teena marie, texas chainsaw massacre, time, too tough, under the cherry moon film, uptown, vanity, waldorf salad, wally safford, warehouse, warner bros records, we can work it out, wendy melvoin, west hollywood, william blinn, woody allen, wouldn't you love to love me, wrecking crew

Ephemera, 1986

Witness 4 the Prosecution (Version 1)

Post author By Zachary Hoskins
Post date July 14, 2020
No Comments on Witness 4 the Prosecution (Version 1)

As has become tradition for Warner’s posthumous Prince collections, last month’s Sign “O” the Times Super Deluxe announcement was accompanied by the release of a “new” song from the Vault. “Witness 4 the Prosecution (Version 1)” was recorded on March 14, 1986–one of the first recordings at Prince’s new home studio at Galpin Blvd. in Chanhassen, where he had moved in November of 1985. The stripped-down blues-rock number featured Prince on all instruments, including live drums and some decidedly Hendrixian guitar.

Lyrically, “Witness” finds Prince in a metaphorical courtroom, testifying against a “heinous love affair” in which he claims to be “guilty of nothin’ but always wantin’ you to be there.” “Whatever it is you think that I did,” he argues passionately, “You’re wrong, I wouldn’t even dare.” Susan Rogers, Prince’s home studio engineer from 1983–1987, told Per Nilsen’s Uptown fanzine that the song was written “as a direct result” of his tumultuous relationship with Susannah Melvoin, his live-in partner at the time and the twin sister of Revolution guitarist Wendy (Nilsen 1999 214). “He had gone further with her than anybody else,” Rogers recalled. “She was wearing his ring, he loved her and didn’t want to lose her, but he didn’t think that he could carry out his commitment. They were fighting a lot, and it was sort of over nothing” (195).