# DJ Wally Sparks on Prince’s Best Era, Best Songs and Wildest Deep Cuts | 04.16

An episode of [The Right Time with Bomani Jones](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/982639043), 16 Apr 2026, 1 h 06 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/370fc844-36bd-4f61-8b8f-b4bb010de39a/3ff3905a-bd88-44ca-9bcb-b4bb011457b5/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=919a7cbe-003c-4146-b592-b4bb010de3a5

In the second part of this 2-part series, Bomani Jones is joined by DJ Wally Sparks for a deep dive into Prince’s catalog, from the early records to the Warner years that made him a legend. They get into Purple Rain vs. Sign o’ the Times, why When Doves Cry feels untouchable, why Little Red Corvette has a real case as Prince’s best song, and which deep cuts and B-sides still hit the hardest. Finally, they have a full-on music nerd conversation about Prince’s genius period, the records that aged best, and the songs that prove nobody else was operating on his level. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Wave.
[0:09] Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A wave original.
[0:14] Speaker 2: My name is Beaumontie Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you
[0:16] Speaker 2: get your podcasts. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like,
[0:20] Speaker 2: rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only
[0:22] Speaker 2: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
[0:25] Speaker 2: a hater. I feel like this is kind of like
[0:28] Speaker 2: Time Machine Thursday in this case. And Tuesday, we had
[0:31] Speaker 2: my brother on and we were talking about Prince. And today,
[0:34] Speaker 2: I got my man DJ Wiley Sparks on and we're
[0:37] Speaker 2: going to talk about Prince. But it's a little bit
[0:39] Speaker 2: of a different discussion this time because last time, I
[0:41] Speaker 2: really wanted to lock you in. Like, obviously, I have
[0:43] Speaker 2: my brother, so it was like it's based in relationship
[0:46] Speaker 2: as much as anything else, right? His relationship with the music,
[0:49] Speaker 2: my relationship with him, the kind of hereditary notion of
[0:52] Speaker 2: how it gets passed down, how it gets from my
[0:53] Speaker 2: dad to my brother, all of those things. Me and Wally,
[0:56] Speaker 2: a little bit more music nerdy in this. And so
[0:59] Speaker 2: the nerdiness of the music is sort of the direction
[1:03] Speaker 2: that we go with. So I'm actually curious because you
[1:06] Speaker 2: and I are not exactly the same age, but we
[1:08] Speaker 2: close enough. to the same age. Like, your entryway into
[1:11] Speaker 2: getting into Prince. Because the truth is, we are old
[1:15] Speaker 2: enough to get in there, but we're also a little
[1:17] Speaker 2: younger than the prime Prince audience.
[1:20] Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. Like, the baby Gen Xers is kind
[1:25] Speaker 1: of where we at. But, shit.
[1:29] Speaker 3: How I got into Prince, man?
[1:30] Speaker 1: Probably through the Medium of Music video. You know what
[1:34] Speaker 1: I mean?
[1:35] Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure I saw him I saw him doing
[1:37] Speaker 3: some kind of cool dance move, probably hitting a split
[1:40] Speaker 3: or something with a guitar in his hand. I was like,
[1:42] Speaker 3: that look cool as shit, man. I think I'm into this.
[1:45] Speaker 3: You know what I mean? And moreover, the music was jamming.
[1:48] Speaker 3: You know what I mean? That's always the baseline with me, man.
[1:51] Speaker 3: Do a jam or do a not jam.
[1:54] Speaker 1: And it was jamming.
[1:54] Speaker 3: So that was kind of my entry point into Prince.
[2:01] Speaker 3: So I guess this would have had to be maybe
[2:06] Speaker 3: right before Purple Rain, before.
[2:08] Speaker 1: He, like, exploded. You know what I'm saying?
[2:11] Speaker 3: So, you know, and then, but even then, like, when
[2:16] Speaker 3: he became ubiquitous around 1984, shit, I was, was I
[2:23] Speaker 3: about seven years old then? And, you know, All that
[2:30] Speaker 3: shit looked interesting to me as a young kid. I'm like, man,
[2:33] Speaker 3: what is going on here, man? All these colors flying around,
[2:36] Speaker 3: and I can't tell if it's a man or a woman.
[2:39] Speaker 3: Is it a girl with a mustache? What's happening here?
[2:43] Speaker 1: You know what I mean? But whatever it is, it's interesting.
[2:47] Speaker 3: And the music, the music was the real thing that
[2:52] Speaker 3: kept me most interested into what was going on with
[2:55] Speaker 3: Prince at that point in time in my life.
[2:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, like the video point, I think is an interesting
[3:02] Speaker 2: one because as we think about like video as an
[3:05] Speaker 2: evolving art form and obviously nobody leaned in.
[3:10] Speaker 1: Especially back then at that stage.
[3:12] Speaker 2: Right, right, right. Like nobody leaned in on video quite
[3:15] Speaker 2: like Michael Jackson, obviously, which is I think a byproduct
[3:18] Speaker 2: of what happens when your first record sells 9 million
[3:21] Speaker 2: copies and it's the biggest selling black record of all time.
[3:24] Speaker 2: You get some money to do some videos on the
[3:25] Speaker 2: next one that sells 875 million copies or however many.
[3:29] Speaker 2: you know, thriller ultimately did Prince. You got like the
[3:33] Speaker 2: American band stand. I want to be a love eclipse
[3:36] Speaker 2: that you think of. And then you get to the
[3:38] Speaker 2: 1999 videos, right? That looked like they were shot on
[3:41] Speaker 2: the same day, right? Looked like they were shot on
[3:43] Speaker 2: the same set. And it's really just him in that
[3:46] Speaker 2: incarnation of the band playing the music. But it is
[3:50] Speaker 2: your first glimpse into the fact, like something different going
[3:53] Speaker 2: on with these cats, right? It's him playing. Is Des,
[3:57] Speaker 2: is Lisa Coleman like alternating singing on 1999 and you
[4:01] Speaker 2: looking at them, right? Or even, I think that's the
[4:02] Speaker 2: video where you got Wendy and Lisa on each other
[4:05] Speaker 2: on the keyboard, right? While they doing it. And you're like,
[4:09] Speaker 2: like the thing I would have loved to have been
[4:10] Speaker 2: around for in real time to fully conceptualize is to
[4:12] Speaker 2: be like, yo, is this what they doing in Minneapolis?
[4:15] Speaker 2: Like what the hell going on up there, man? I
[4:17] Speaker 2: thought it was just cold.
[4:18] Speaker 3: I had no context about Minneapolis back then. Like I
[4:21] Speaker 3: didn't know, I didn't know where they were from or
[4:23] Speaker 3: what they were doing. I just, I was like, this
[4:26] Speaker 3: is weird and I'm not sure if I like it
[4:28] Speaker 3: or if I don't like it, but I do like
[4:30] Speaker 3: this music.
[4:31] Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like, it was, you know,
[4:35] Speaker 1: I thought Dez was cool.
[4:36] Speaker 3: I thought he was a cool looking dude because he had,
[4:38] Speaker 3: you know, I was kind of heavy into like kung
[4:40] Speaker 3: fu movies and shit and he had that Japan bandana
[4:43] Speaker 3: on his head. I'm like, oh, well, he looks cool
[4:46] Speaker 3: and he plays guitar. Guitar is all, you know, everybody
[4:48] Speaker 3: plays guitar looks cool no matter whether you're good at
[4:51] Speaker 3: it or not. You know what I'm saying? If you
[4:53] Speaker 3: got a guitar in your hand, you just look cool. But, yeah, man, like,
[4:58] Speaker 3: I would be seeing all that stuff, and I'd try. Man,
[5:01] Speaker 3: I'd try and emulate it. I used to get in
[5:03] Speaker 3: trouble with my mama, because I was really big into
[5:05] Speaker 3: hair bands back then, too.
[5:06] Speaker 1: So, like, because I was watching music videos. So, Poison
[5:11] Speaker 1: and Rat.
[5:11] Speaker 3: And, you know, all those, like, glam metal bands. I
[5:14] Speaker 3: was way into that. And Prince was, like, the black
[5:17] Speaker 3: version of that to me. You know, and I used
[5:21] Speaker 3: to get in trouble with my grandmama. when I'd be
[5:23] Speaker 3: over the house while my mom was at work, I
[5:26] Speaker 3: used to take like fingernail clippers, right? And take like,
[5:29] Speaker 3: instead of like the part you clip your nails with,
[5:31] Speaker 3: but the other end and like clip that shit to
[5:32] Speaker 3: my ear and like use them like earrings and shit
[5:35] Speaker 3: and like get into my mom's eyeliner and shit and
[5:39] Speaker 3: put it on my face and act like I'm playing
[5:41] Speaker 3: a guitar because I want to be like Prince. You
[5:44] Speaker 3: know what I'm saying? And my grandmom was like, she
[5:46] Speaker 3: was not having it at all. She was like, she's like,
[5:49] Speaker 3: You need to get your life together, son. We need
[5:51] Speaker 3: to take you to church.
[5:52] Speaker 2: Yo, I'm saying Prince seems like the ultimate bridge too
[5:56] Speaker 2: far dude that it's ever been. Like, okay, y'all doing
[5:59] Speaker 2: all this other stuff. Okay, that's fine. This right here. Yeah, man.
[6:04] Speaker 1: You're doing a little too much, man. You got too
[6:05] Speaker 1: much dip on your chip, dog. You know what I'm saying?
[6:08] Speaker 2: But like musically, it's interesting for me because I talked
[6:11] Speaker 2: a little bit about this with my brother. But like
[6:13] Speaker 2: the first album is like, oh, OK, you are 19
[6:16] Speaker 2: years old or 18 years old trying to get this going.
[6:18] Speaker 2: Nice try.
[6:19] Speaker 1: See the vision. Right.
[6:20] Speaker 2: See where you try to go. The second one he's
[6:23] Speaker 2: always described as his attempt to make songs that sounded
[6:29] Speaker 2: like what he was hearing on the radio. Right. Like
[6:32] Speaker 2: like I understand what the assignment is. I will come
[6:35] Speaker 2: in and I will replicate the assignment. Something also very interesting.
[6:38] Speaker 2: I'm curious if you knew this. I read one of
[6:40] Speaker 2: these books where the label wanted Verdean White to produce
[6:45] Speaker 2: his first record. Not even Maurice. I think it was Verdean.
[6:48] Speaker 1: The For You album? Either For You or.
[6:51] Speaker 2: The self-titled, but somewhere in there. The label wanted them
[6:54] Speaker 2: and Prince rejected it because he felt that Earth, Wind &
[6:57] Speaker 2: Fire was too much of a disco act for his
[7:00] Speaker 2: personal taste. Which I don't wholly disagree.
[7:03] Speaker 1: With, right?
[7:04] Speaker 2: Like I have a People get mad when I start talking.
[7:06] Speaker 3: About Earth, Wind & Fire. We've had Earth, Wind &
[7:08] Speaker 3: Fire discussions before. You know what I'm saying?
[7:11] Speaker 2: When I love them, I love them. When I love them,
[7:13] Speaker 2: I love them. But I fully understand why Prince is like, hey,
[7:16] Speaker 2: this isn't my sound. You know what it is with Earth,
[7:19] Speaker 2: Wind & Fire? And it's funny because me and my
[7:20] Speaker 2: man DeJuan talk about this talk about music a lot,
[7:23] Speaker 2: and he's a big Earth, Wind & Fire guy because
[7:25] Speaker 2: he is a trained musician. Trained musicians love Earth, Wind & Fire.
[7:29] Speaker 2: But DeJuan is also a minor chord guy, right? Like,
[7:33] Speaker 2: he does not like his music to sound very happy.
[7:36] Speaker 2: And to me, Earth, Wind & Fire always sound a
[7:39] Speaker 2: little too bright.
[7:40] Speaker 1: And too happy. They make pretty music.
[7:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, and Prince... has never really made pretty music. It
[7:46] Speaker 2: wasn't until like his late thirties that the, that you
[7:49] Speaker 2: started getting into like the Bet You Can Buy Golly
[7:51] Speaker 2: Wild phase and stuff like that, where it sounds pretty.
[7:53] Speaker 2: But that self-titled album, it's got Bambi, right? It gets
[7:57] Speaker 2: into some of the places that we know Prince to
[7:59] Speaker 2: get to, but it is kind of just a, eh, okay. I, again,
[8:04] Speaker 2: I see where you're going. Back when you had time
[8:06] Speaker 2: to take a couple albums to figure out what it
[8:09] Speaker 2: was that you were doing, but it had, I Want
[8:12] Speaker 2: To Be A Lover, It had, I feel for you,
[8:14] Speaker 2: and I actually prefer his version over the Chaka Khan version.
[8:17] Speaker 2: That Chaka Khan version is just too 1980s for my
[8:19] Speaker 2: personal taste. It's got Steel waiting on it. That's my jam.
[8:23] Speaker 2: We talked about having Bambi on it.
[8:26] Speaker 3: You know, that album, I always got the most Prince-iest
[8:30] Speaker 3: Prince song on it, in my opinion, Why You Treat
[8:33] Speaker 3: Me So Bad. That's like the most Prince Prince song
[8:36] Speaker 3: of all time, in my opinion.
[8:39] Speaker 1: I love that record, bro. I play it.
[8:40] Speaker 3: That's I actually play that record out sometimes, you know,
[8:43] Speaker 3: just when, like, if I'm DJing and I'm in a
[8:47] Speaker 3: spot where I know there might be like a music,
[8:50] Speaker 3: like a real music head in there, that's a song
[8:53] Speaker 3: that I can play to kind of pop the crowd.
[8:54] Speaker 3: Because I know somebody, especially if they're a Prince person,
[8:57] Speaker 3: and if I play Why You Treat Me So Bad,
[9:00] Speaker 3: every time, anytime I do that, they'll.
[9:02] Speaker 1: Be like, you know what I'm saying? Like, yeah. Yes.
[9:05] Speaker 1: Here we go. Here we go. You know what time
[9:07] Speaker 1: it is. That record has some joints, though. It does
[9:10] Speaker 1: have some joints.
[9:12] Speaker 2: And that's a guitar show-off song for him, too. Which, again,
[9:15] Speaker 2: in that era, he did not do that many of.
[9:17] Speaker 2: He basically put the guitar down after this for like
[9:20] Speaker 2: four years. Not that he didn't play it, but it
[9:23] Speaker 2: was never the, all right, let me show you what
[9:26] Speaker 2: I can do quite like this. Like, I love still
[9:28] Speaker 2: waiting on this because I'm a big fan of Prince
[9:30] Speaker 2: show-off on piano. songs and that wasn't a show off
[9:33] Speaker 2: like solo show off but he can play he plays
[9:37] Speaker 2: piano lines that you feel and can get into that
[9:40] Speaker 2: you know but say um to find someone to call
[9:42] Speaker 2: my own because i'm sick and tired of being alone
[9:46] Speaker 2: like he he hit that he could hit that lane
[9:49] Speaker 2: so good where you think about him always like smashing
[9:52] Speaker 2: adams and coming up with something new but when he
[9:53] Speaker 2: wanted to do something that felt familiar i got you
[9:56] Speaker 2: i got you there too.
[9:58] Speaker 3: Yep I feel like, I feel like he always tried
[10:01] Speaker 3: to show definitely when he was showing off on pianos,
[10:04] Speaker 3: when he was like, I, I I'm doing, I'm kind of,
[10:08] Speaker 3: I kind of feel like he did that for him.
[10:09] Speaker 3: Like I'm doing something for me, you know, like further
[10:12] Speaker 3: on down the road. I'm sure we'll get this later,
[10:14] Speaker 3: but like, uh, like a B side, a B side, like, uh,
[10:18] Speaker 3: how come you don't call me anymore?
[10:19] Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? Where it's nothing. The piano
[10:23] Speaker 1: playing in that song, oh my God.
[10:26] Speaker 2: Yo, that's when you realize how ill he was, right?
[10:29] Speaker 2: Because we're going to get to that because I want
[10:30] Speaker 2: to stop first before we get there to like, I
[10:32] Speaker 2: feel like Dirty Mind and Controversy, you kind of have
[10:35] Speaker 2: to talk about together in part because they came out
[10:37] Speaker 2: six months apart and they came out six months apart.
[10:40] Speaker 2: In part because Prince showed up with the demo and
[10:42] Speaker 2: was like, nope, that's the album.
[10:45] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[10:45] Speaker 2: It's good enough right here. It's walked up to the label.
[10:48] Speaker 2: Like the Bruce Springsteen Nebraska comparison that I make all
[10:51] Speaker 2: the time is interesting because the Nebraska demo is just
[10:55] Speaker 2: him with an acoustic guitar and a harmonica.
[10:58] Speaker 1: Right.
[10:58] Speaker 2: And so they sound like demos. They sound very clearly
[11:02] Speaker 2: like something that the plan was to do more with it.
[11:05] Speaker 2: Prince showed up with a demo that sounded like an album.
[11:08] Speaker 2: Talking crazy, bruh. Talking crazy on just about every song.
[11:15] Speaker 1: Like crazy.
[11:18] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying? Anti-Christian and... What's the song?
[11:23] Speaker 3: What's the title? You got the dude named Ronnie in it? Oh,
[11:26] Speaker 3: you're talking.
[11:27] Speaker 2: About Ronnie Talk to Russia?
[11:28] Speaker 1: Yes. You know what I'm saying?
[11:29] Speaker 2: Well, Ronnie is Ronald Reagan.
[11:31] Speaker 1: I know. That's what I'm saying. You're talking trash about everything.
[11:35] Speaker 2: You're talking trash about everything, but even then... Let's think
[11:38] Speaker 2: about this. When you were mine, with an illusion, I
[11:41] Speaker 2: always took this as figurative, talking about the girl was
[11:44] Speaker 2: cheating on you, but I didn't care. I never was
[11:47] Speaker 2: the kind to make a fuss. When he was there,
[11:49] Speaker 2: sleeping in between the two of us, it wasn't until
[11:52] Speaker 2: I got older that I was like, oh, you meant
[11:53] Speaker 2: that actually.
[11:55] Speaker 1: Actually. Like, literally.
[11:56] Speaker 2: Yo, that's insane, dog. What are you talking about? My
[12:02] Speaker 2: sister never made love to anyone else but me. She's
[12:07] Speaker 2: the reason for my sexuality. Whoa.
[12:12] Speaker 1: Hey, hey.
[12:13] Speaker 2: She never wore any underwear, said it always gets in
[12:16] Speaker 2: her hair and has a funny way of stopping the juice.
[12:19] Speaker 1: What? What?
[12:23] Speaker 2: Incest is everything it's What? And it's jamming.
[12:29] Speaker 1: Man, he was completely out of pocket.
[12:32] Speaker 2: Yo, yo, and it's New Wave, like I said, and
[12:34] Speaker 2: that comes after the song about this girl was going
[12:37] Speaker 2: to get married, but instead I gave her some head
[12:40] Speaker 2: and everything. And she stayed with me.
[12:45] Speaker 3: You know, that's how you know the music had to
[12:47] Speaker 3: be astronomically good for anyone just to be able to
[12:52] Speaker 3: look past that and be like, You know what? That
[12:56] Speaker 3: was kind of crazy what you just said, but man,
[13:00] Speaker 3: this song is phenomenal.
[13:02] Speaker 2: Yo, but to me, it's not even that people look
[13:04] Speaker 2: past it. People kind of leaned in. They just like, oh. Okay,
[13:11] Speaker 2: that's what we're doing. On this record that sounds new
[13:14] Speaker 2: way to me, though, that's the bass album. Like, if
[13:16] Speaker 2: you listen to it, he has a very particular style
[13:18] Speaker 2: of bass play because he has guitar player, piano player hands. Like,
[13:23] Speaker 2: it's not going to sound like the Larry Graham, Bootsy Collins. Like,
[13:25] Speaker 2: you see a picture of Bootsy Collins' hands, and you're like, oh,
[13:28] Speaker 2: that's why that bass sounds like that. Big, giant, like.
[13:32] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
[13:34] Speaker 2: Like it looked like Bootsy Collins could like take the
[13:37] Speaker 2: top off an oil drum if he just unscrewed it, right?
[13:41] Speaker 2: Prince didn't have like that. So Prince has got these
[13:43] Speaker 2: like slinky style bass lines on there. And it's another
[13:47] Speaker 2: one where he could create these pictures of like, I'll
[13:50] Speaker 2: do it all night. It was like someone over there
[13:52] Speaker 2: said he wants to get to know you. I don't
[13:53] Speaker 2: care because I really want to hold you, and I'm
[13:55] Speaker 2: so scared because he might do something to you that
[13:57] Speaker 2: you like. Like, that is the ultimate portrait of, like, insecurity.
[14:03] Speaker 2: I want to holler at you, but I ain't got
[14:05] Speaker 2: it in me, but I'm afraid that dude got it.
[14:06] Speaker 2: What am I supposed to do? And then imagine this 5'5,
[14:10] Speaker 2: perm-headed motherfucker, 20 years old, sitting over there looking weird.
[14:15] Speaker 1: Yep.
[14:16] Speaker 2: Worried about all these things.
[14:18] Speaker 3: Do you think this point in time is when he
[14:20] Speaker 3: kind of started to develop the... the character of Prince
[14:25] Speaker 3: or like all the other different types of characters that
[14:28] Speaker 3: he would play throughout the music, you know, the characters
[14:31] Speaker 3: he played within the music, you know?
[14:33] Speaker 1: You think this is around his time is when that started?
[14:36] Speaker 2: I mean, it's one thing that he's on the cover
[14:39] Speaker 2: of the self-titled album with no shirt on. The next one,
[14:42] Speaker 2: he's on the cover wearing a G-string, knee highs, and heels. Yeah,
[14:49] Speaker 2: I think there is when he just fully decided we gon'
[14:52] Speaker 2: go wild with it. We gon' go wild with it.
[14:55] Speaker 2: And then come with Controversy. Controversy has a song called
[14:58] Speaker 2: Jack You Off and it's actually dialed back from where
[15:03] Speaker 2: the previous, although Controversy also gives us our first weird,
[15:07] Speaker 2: like Prince Koda, which is our doomy baby. When he
[15:09] Speaker 2: starts getting, I'm so cold. What are you doing? What
[15:13] Speaker 2: are you talking about? Could you turn that shit.
[15:15] Speaker 1: Up, please?
[15:17] Speaker 3: Man, you talk about a record. That record is like
[15:24] Speaker 3: a Quiet Storm staple.
[15:26] Speaker 1: Yes.
[15:28] Speaker 3: And for what's going on in that record, for that,
[15:33] Speaker 3: we've had discussions on here before where we talked about
[15:36] Speaker 3: how radio, especially black radio, during this time period was
[15:41] Speaker 3: like very, very conservative, especially in regards to rap music
[15:45] Speaker 3: where they wouldn't play it. that song do me baby
[15:48] Speaker 3: was all over black radio all the time you know
[15:52] Speaker 3: and you know and it wasn't like they just i
[15:54] Speaker 3: mean it was a it was a choir song record
[15:55] Speaker 3: so it got played in the 10 o'clock hour but
[15:57] Speaker 3: it was getting played in the middle of the day
[15:59] Speaker 3: too you know what i mean and for something literally
[16:05] Speaker 3: he's saying do me baby like you've never done before
[16:09] Speaker 3: yes in the middle of the day yes So that was.
[16:13] Speaker 1: The other thing, too.
[16:13] Speaker 2: He talked about, don't know if this a girl with
[16:15] Speaker 2: a mustache. One thing he was making it clear, regardless
[16:18] Speaker 2: of what you thought he was, what he was about.
[16:21] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He definitely made it clear. You know
[16:24] Speaker 1: what I'm saying?
[16:24] Speaker 2: Like, he might be talking about how somebody else is
[16:28] Speaker 2: going both ways. He wasn't really talking about him.
[16:31] Speaker 1: Going both ways. This don't apply to me.
[16:35] Speaker 2: Bambi can't you understand Bambi is better with a man
[16:38] Speaker 2: and so like after he went witness and there were
[16:40] Speaker 2: songs that he wasn't playing anymore he played Bambi on
[16:43] Speaker 2: Saturday Night Live in the 21st century and I'm like
[16:45] Speaker 2: yeah of course he would that's the most conservative song
[16:47] Speaker 2: in the catalog right like he is speaking he's like
[16:53] Speaker 2: sis is the way to go that is what we
[16:55] Speaker 2: do now with Do Me Baby I think Do Me
[16:57] Speaker 2: Baby is another one that boom boom that's another bass
[17:00] Speaker 2: that is a Prince bass classic But the Prince-based classic
[17:04] Speaker 2: is all controversy, and that is Let's Work. And what
[17:07] Speaker 2: is interesting to me about that, too, is I feel
[17:10] Speaker 2: like the power of marketing and the power of singles
[17:14] Speaker 2: is very important in terms of how things are remembered.
[17:17] Speaker 2: And so what I mean when I say that, I
[17:20] Speaker 2: watched a concert, Guns N' Roses, I think it's live
[17:23] Speaker 2: at the Ritz in New York City, and it was
[17:26] Speaker 2: on the tour they did for Appetite for Destruction. And
[17:30] Speaker 2: I remember when they played Sweet Child of Mine, the
[17:33] Speaker 2: audience was kind of like, oh, it's cool, but it
[17:36] Speaker 2: didn't really jump off, which I found to be strange.
[17:39] Speaker 2: And then I looked up the date of the concert
[17:41] Speaker 2: and then I looked up the dates on the album
[17:44] Speaker 2: and Sweet Child of Mine had not yet been released
[17:46] Speaker 2: as a single.
[17:47] Speaker 1: Oh, there you go.
[17:49] Speaker 2: So it had not, you see what I'm saying? Like
[17:50] Speaker 2: it hadn't turned into that thing at that point. Now
[17:54] Speaker 2: that is for a lot of people, like the defining
[17:55] Speaker 2: Guns N' Roses single, but it happens because it comes
[17:58] Speaker 2: out as a single. Questlove makes a point about Prince
[18:02] Speaker 2: that there is not a Prince song that as a
[18:04] Speaker 2: DJ that you throw on and it just sets the
[18:07] Speaker 2: party completely off like some have done forever, right? But
[18:12] Speaker 2: Let's Work sounds like the song that should have been
[18:15] Speaker 2: the song or would have been the song because that
[18:17] Speaker 2: is the Prince baseline of all is Let's Work.
[18:22] Speaker 3: I got homies, a few homies that actually play bass
[18:26] Speaker 3: for a living. And, you know, when we get to
[18:29] Speaker 3: talking about Prince, they always, almost all of them, you know,
[18:33] Speaker 3: in a consensus say that that bass line is one
[18:37] Speaker 3: of the most difficult bass lines ever to play. And
[18:41] Speaker 3: it's because they've told me because it's the way that
[18:46] Speaker 3: the bass is moving, it's like a non-natural movement of hands.
[18:53] Speaker 3: Because you have to go up and down. You got
[18:55] Speaker 3: to go up and down the neck of the bass
[18:57] Speaker 3: in a way that's not normal to accomplish it.
[19:01] Speaker 1: Right.
[19:03] Speaker 3: But the way, and I guess the way that thing
[19:05] Speaker 3: moves up and down.
[19:06] Speaker 1: Bro, I can see why that would be the record
[19:08] Speaker 1: that one would think.
[19:18] Speaker 3: That would be the one that would set the party off.
[19:22] Speaker 1: Like, and it does to a degree, but you know,
[19:24] Speaker 1: depending on the room you in.
[19:26] Speaker 2: But that's- Yeah, it did not become ubiquitous.
[19:29] Speaker 1: No, it did not. Right, like it did become the one-
[19:32] Speaker 1: Go ahead, go ahead, my bad.
[19:34] Speaker 3: The one record that was close like that was from
[19:37] Speaker 3: the self-titled album, I Wanna Be Your Lover.
[19:39] Speaker 1: But you know, but even that, that's the same. It's
[19:42] Speaker 1: the same. It only, it works kind of depending on
[19:46] Speaker 1: where you at. You know what I mean? Yeah.
[19:48] Speaker 2: Let's work. Also got the, I think this is the
[19:50] Speaker 2: first person to say this. I want to love you
[19:53] Speaker 2: till you're soft and wet. Hard dicking bubble gum is
[19:57] Speaker 2: all you get.
[19:58] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[20:01] Speaker 2: Maybe somebody said it before, but that feels to me like.
[20:03] Speaker 1: The first documented use. Yeah. Timeline wise, it sounds like
[20:07] Speaker 1: that would be the first time. You know what I'm saying?
[20:10] Speaker 2: That sounds like, but yo, what's so wild, this controversy
[20:12] Speaker 2: was like a little bit of a disappointment compared to
[20:15] Speaker 2: Dirty Mind. And then 1999 comes after it. And Little
[20:18] Speaker 2: Red Corvette to me is the best Prince song. I'm
[20:21] Speaker 2: not saying the best Prince record. I saw him in concert,
[20:24] Speaker 2: I want to say five times. I saw him play
[20:25] Speaker 2: Little Red Corvette five different ways. It jams every single way.
[20:31] Speaker 2: And that is because there is no genre of singing
[20:36] Speaker 2: where men sing harder or with more emotion than when
[20:40] Speaker 2: a man is declaring his love for a trollop. Think
[20:44] Speaker 2: about every love song you've ever heard where a man
[20:49] Speaker 2: is talking about a woman who be out there in
[20:52] Speaker 2: them streets. Don't nobody sing harder about love than men.
[20:57] Speaker 2: You realize how much you gotta love a woman to
[21:00] Speaker 2: tell the world she out here with all these other dudes,
[21:03] Speaker 2: but oh well, you can come stay here. Yep.
[21:07] Speaker 1: Yeah, man. Symphony ain't easy, baby. You know what.
[21:12] Speaker 2: I'm saying? And every one of those songs makes the
[21:15] Speaker 2: very clear implication. That thang be snapping, dog. Like, I
[21:22] Speaker 2: don't think you so much understand what it is that
[21:25] Speaker 2: that thang provides me when she be over here. And
[21:29] Speaker 2: that's his version.
[21:31] Speaker 1: I mean, the juice is worth the squeeze, baby. You
[21:33] Speaker 1: know what I'm saying?
[21:35] Speaker 3: I need that in my life. I don't care how
[21:38] Speaker 3: I get it. I need that, and I need it
[21:41] Speaker 3: from her.
[21:42] Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
[21:42] Speaker 2: Yo, he looked at that like, yo, I don't even
[21:43] Speaker 2: think I can hang, dog. Baby, I ain't got enough gas.
[21:48] Speaker 1: That's a beautifully written song, too. You know what I mean?
[21:53] Speaker 2: It's so good. Ed, you heard like the eight-minute version?
[21:57] Speaker 1: No. No, I haven't heard the eight-minute version.
[21:59] Speaker 2: So there's a six minute version of 1999 that just
[22:02] Speaker 2: about everybody's heard. 1999, of course, is a great record.
[22:05] Speaker 2: But Lil Red Corvette, there's an eight minute version of
[22:08] Speaker 2: that one. And it's funny because on the single version,
[22:11] Speaker 2: Prince doesn't play the solo. Des Dickinson plays the solo.
[22:13] Speaker 2: And by the way, when you hear the solo, you
[22:15] Speaker 2: realize it's a Des Dickinson solo because it ain't a
[22:18] Speaker 2: Prince solo. But you listen to the longer versions. Dude,
[22:21] Speaker 2: he is cutting up on guitar so bad all the
[22:24] Speaker 2: way through. Again, your friendly reminder that I'm better at
[22:27] Speaker 2: this than your favorite is.
[22:31] Speaker 3: Man, I just can't imagine being able to have the
[22:35] Speaker 3: ability to flex like that at any.
[22:37] Speaker 1: Point in time. You know what I'm saying?
[22:42] Speaker 3: Like, I'm literally making all this music because I'm making
[22:44] Speaker 3: the music I want to hear, but every now and again,
[22:46] Speaker 3: I must decree that I am the coldest motherfucker walking.
[22:50] Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
[22:52] Speaker 2: Yes.
[22:53] Speaker 3: And I'm not going to say it. I'm just going
[22:54] Speaker 3: to do something, and you are going to acknowledge it.
[22:57] Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? Yes.
[22:59] Speaker 2: Well, and also, here's where this gets fun, and you've
[23:02] Speaker 2: mentioned this before a little bit. Do you know what
[23:05] Speaker 2: the B-side is to 1999, the single?
[23:12] Speaker 1: Is it 17 Days? No, it ain't 17 Days, is it?
[23:16] Speaker 2: It is How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore.
[23:18] Speaker 1: Oh, there we go.
[23:19] Speaker 2: Five dot mistaken. Yes, it's How Come You Don't Call
[23:23] Speaker 2: Me Anymore. Let's think about this for a second, guys.
[23:28] Speaker 2: I have so much heat that I don't really have
[23:32] Speaker 2: a place for how come you don't call me anymore.
[23:35] Speaker 2: So I'm just going to throw it on here.
[23:39] Speaker 1: This excellent, super, super sultry piano ballad. Yes. Yes.
[23:47] Speaker 3: I'm going to throw the B side of this, this,
[23:50] Speaker 3: this super duper guitar driven single.
[23:55] Speaker 2: Just complete, just a complete, old school, like just longing ballad.
[24:01] Speaker 2: It's just one lousy dime. Why don't you call me sometime?
[24:06] Speaker 2: When you hear him, you hear the foot tap to
[24:08] Speaker 2: keep the beat. Like it sounds like he is all,
[24:11] Speaker 2: it sounds exactly like what the song implies. It is
[24:14] Speaker 2: that he is just sitting there all alone, unsure of
[24:17] Speaker 2: what to do. Just, just there. Right.
[24:20] Speaker 1: I get it out. This is how I decide to
[24:21] Speaker 1: get my emotions and my feelings out. This, this is it.
[24:24] Speaker 1: I do it right here. Right.
[24:25] Speaker 2: So that's the B side on that one. By the way,
[24:31] Speaker 2: that album, I don't want to skip it. Like, wow,
[24:33] Speaker 2: there's so much that we could do and like how
[24:35] Speaker 2: long this could go. But that was a revolutionary sort
[24:39] Speaker 2: of album, especially with the use of the drum machine.
[24:42] Speaker 2: Nobody had used that drum machine, that L1 Roger Land
[24:46] Speaker 2: drum machine. Nobody had used it at that point. like
[24:50] Speaker 2: he had, right? And where he also leans in super
[24:53] Speaker 2: heavy on the keys, where his thing about the keys
[24:55] Speaker 2: was he didn't play horns, so the keys were horns. Like,
[24:59] Speaker 2: he made, it was, it's a, like, weirdo, futuristic, James
[25:04] Speaker 2: Brown sort of record, and it's nasty. It is wall-to-wall nasty. Like,
[25:10] Speaker 2: we were talking about Let's Pretend We're Married.
[25:12] Speaker 1: Like, dude, what are you talking about? You can't do this.
[25:14] Speaker 3: Do you think this point in time, like, I know
[25:17] Speaker 3: we about to, we about to creep up on Purple Rain.
[25:19] Speaker 1: Here in a second.
[25:20] Speaker 3: But do you think, you know, people often talk about
[25:24] Speaker 3: Stevie Wonder's Genius Period, right? Do you think this is
[25:27] Speaker 3: Prince's Genius Period right here? This part in the 80s?
[25:32] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[25:33] Speaker 2: I mean, to me, I think his Genius Period runs
[25:36] Speaker 2: eight years.
[25:38] Speaker 1: So from when to when?
[25:40] Speaker 2: From Dirty Mind through the Black Album.
[25:45] Speaker 1: Okay.
[25:47] Speaker 2: Love Sexy. I mean, it may have been Genius, but
[25:49] Speaker 2: it wasn't... Love Sexy has jams. Like, it has songs
[25:53] Speaker 2: that I really like. But I want to.
[25:55] Speaker 1: All right.
[25:56] Speaker 2: Let's put a pin in this. We're going to come
[25:57] Speaker 2: back and talk about Purple Rain because I have a
[25:59] Speaker 2: frustration with print stands as it relates to Purple Rain
[26:02] Speaker 2: that we will talk about next.
[26:05] Speaker 1: All right.
[26:06] Speaker 2: We are back with DJ Wiley Sparks talking about Prince.
[26:09] Speaker 2: We are now here for Purple Rain. And there is
[26:13] Speaker 2: a huge segment. You and I talked about this a
[26:15] Speaker 2: little bit before the show started, where I'm like, I
[26:17] Speaker 2: am clearly not a Prince Stan because I meet Prince
[26:20] Speaker 2: Stans and I see what Prince Stans talk about on
[26:22] Speaker 2: the Internet. And I am not them. I realize this.
[26:26] Speaker 2: This discussion we have is going to focus on the
[26:28] Speaker 2: Warner years because we could talk about the after Warner years,
[26:31] Speaker 2: but that's not why we're here. The reason this is
[26:34] Speaker 2: all here is because of the Warner Brothers years, number one.
[26:38] Speaker 2: Number two, I find that often the more you get
[26:43] Speaker 2: into something, the more you get into music. We try
[26:46] Speaker 2: to often get a little bit too cute when we
[26:48] Speaker 2: talk about what's best or in some cases what's our
[26:51] Speaker 2: favorite because you don't want to sound like everybody else.
[26:55] Speaker 1: Right.
[26:56] Speaker 2: An example of this to me is like with U2,
[26:58] Speaker 2: where people would say that Octoon Babe was the best
[27:00] Speaker 2: U2 record. And no, it's the Joshua Tree. Like, like,
[27:02] Speaker 2: I get why you don't want to say the thing
[27:04] Speaker 2: that everybody said forever. But then you go back and
[27:06] Speaker 2: you're like, OK, we're tripping here. I love Side of
[27:09] Speaker 2: the Times and we'll get there. But it's a reason
[27:12] Speaker 2: that Purple Rain sold a gajillion albums. Purple Rain is
[27:15] Speaker 2: a mind blowing act of creativity that I am amazed
[27:19] Speaker 2: how many people will try to say that if Purple
[27:21] Speaker 2: Rain is your jam. that somehow it is an indicator
[27:25] Speaker 2: of a lack of nuance in your musical taste. The
[27:28] Speaker 2: duo put together a gospel funk hard rock album, a
[27:33] Speaker 2: significant portion of which was recorded live, including Purple Rain itself.
[27:39] Speaker 2: incredible songwriting, his signature song, and to me, the most
[27:45] Speaker 2: incredible single anybody ever put out, which is When Doves Cry.
[27:48] Speaker 2: Literally a song that no one has ever made a
[27:50] Speaker 2: song that sounded like it before or after. I don't
[27:53] Speaker 2: even think anybody's been able to try.
[27:55] Speaker 1: Yeah, man.
[27:57] Speaker 3: I've heard guitar players from many walks of life, from
[28:03] Speaker 3: every type of genre you could think of. And this
[28:07] Speaker 3: is this is going into, you know, Prince as a guitarist.
[28:11] Speaker 1: Right.
[28:12] Speaker 3: And they they speak of the intro solo for when
[28:17] Speaker 3: does cry like it's the Holy Grail because they're.
[28:21] Speaker 1: Like, how is this possible?
[28:25] Speaker 3: You know what I mean? That no one can figure
[28:27] Speaker 3: out how to do it. And I believe I believe
[28:29] Speaker 3: Prince probably did that on mistake. I mean, by mistake, rather.
[28:32] Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
[28:33] Speaker 2: I've told you. I don't think he could do it again.
[28:37] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[28:38] Speaker 2: My evidence is this. In the times that I saw
[28:42] Speaker 2: him live, he always ran When Doves Cry off a deck. Like,
[28:46] Speaker 2: he always ran the solo off of a tape. If
[28:50] Speaker 2: you watch the tours in the 1980s and when Doves
[28:54] Speaker 2: Cry came up, That is not a Prince guitar number
[28:58] Speaker 2: in concert. It's a Prince song and dance number, right?
[29:01] Speaker 2: He's doing the split and everything else for it. Wendy
[29:04] Speaker 2: is doing all the guitar stuff during those times. And even,
[29:07] Speaker 2: I think, what's his name? Levi Searcy, Next Cat. Those
[29:10] Speaker 2: are the ones that are doing the guitar in the
[29:12] Speaker 2: next run. I don't think he ever could do... I
[29:15] Speaker 2: think he caught lightning in a bottle that one time.
[29:18] Speaker 1: Billy Gibbons tells that story.
[29:20] Speaker 2: Yeah, Billy Gibbons tells that story about after the Rock
[29:23] Speaker 2: and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, I think it
[29:25] Speaker 2: was in 04, when Prince did the Why My Guitar
[29:28] Speaker 2: Gently Weeps solo. And Gibbons says, somebody's like, hey, somebody
[29:31] Speaker 2: wants to see you over there. And it's Prince in
[29:33] Speaker 2: the back. And Billy Gibbons, who's the guitar player from
[29:35] Speaker 2: ZZ Top, who is a stone cold beast in his
[29:37] Speaker 2: own right. And he asked Prince about it. that solo,
[29:41] Speaker 2: I mean, about that intro. And he's like, yeah, I
[29:43] Speaker 2: don't even know what I did on that one. I
[29:45] Speaker 2: don't think he could do it again. He just caught
[29:47] Speaker 2: it one time.
[29:49] Speaker 1: And just happened to catch it on tape.
[29:52] Speaker 3: And it happened to be on one of his greatest
[29:56] Speaker 3: songs of all time.
[29:58] Speaker 1: Yes. You know?
[30:00] Speaker 2: Pure lightning in the bottom moment. To me, it's the
[30:03] Speaker 2: best record he made. I think as a song, Little
[30:06] Speaker 2: Red Corvette has a versatility and all this other stuff,
[30:09] Speaker 2: but as a production, as something that somebody put together
[30:13] Speaker 2: in a studio, that's the one. It is lyrically cold, too.
[30:19] Speaker 3: That's such a crazy genre-bending song because it's everything and
[30:24] Speaker 3: nothing all at once.
[30:26] Speaker 1: Yes. How about this?
[30:28] Speaker 2: He does that intro solo and then doesn't pick the
[30:31] Speaker 2: guitar up again until the end. Until he gets back
[30:35] Speaker 2: to that solo at the end. But otherwise, it's not there.
[30:39] Speaker 2: It's just basically the drum scene and synths up until
[30:42] Speaker 2: that part.
[30:43] Speaker 3: You know another thing that's underrated about that song that
[30:46] Speaker 3: people don't often.
[30:48] Speaker 1: Talk about is the vocal performance. Yes.
[30:52] Speaker 3: Bro, the screaming at the end. And he ain't screaming
[30:57] Speaker 3: for the sake of screaming. He's screaming because it suits
[31:02] Speaker 3: the song.
[31:03] Speaker 1: Yes. You know what I mean?
[31:06] Speaker 3: It's not just somebody just like randomly, you know what
[31:10] Speaker 3: I'm saying? It's not just there because he felt like screaming.
[31:13] Speaker 3: It's there because it's in service of the song.
[31:17] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not like the Doobie Baby screaming, which kind
[31:20] Speaker 2: of feels like, okay, we're just doing this right now. Yeah,
[31:23] Speaker 2: we're just wilding. You're right. This was different, but you're right. Also,
[31:30] Speaker 2: that dig, if you will, a picture. Oh, okay, you
[31:34] Speaker 2: have my attention.
[31:36] Speaker 1: Yep. Right?
[31:38] Speaker 2: Nails it. And look, that's just one of the songs.
[31:42] Speaker 2: The beautiful ones. That scene in the movie with the
[31:44] Speaker 2: beautiful ones. Me and my homeboy once, we were like, yo,
[31:47] Speaker 2: I don't have Purple Rain on CD. This is like 99.
[31:50] Speaker 2: He didn't have one. I'm like, cool. We're going to
[31:51] Speaker 2: drive down to the Best Buy at South Lake Mall
[31:55] Speaker 2: and we're going to go pick them up. And so
[31:57] Speaker 2: we stopped and we're eating at Wendy's and we're just
[31:59] Speaker 2: kind of finishing up our food. And we were talking
[32:01] Speaker 2: about the movie and we talk about in the movie
[32:03] Speaker 2: where he gets on stage and he does the do
[32:05] Speaker 2: you want him does the pointing. Do you want me?
[32:09] Speaker 2: And then we looked at each other and then we
[32:11] Speaker 2: just threw our stuff away and we jumped up and
[32:14] Speaker 2: got in the car and went to get the stuff
[32:16] Speaker 2: because it was just like, OK, we can't we can't
[32:18] Speaker 2: talk about this and not have this playing in the
[32:20] Speaker 2: car shortly. Like perfect ballad, perfect ballad. Then behind it.
[32:26] Speaker 2: And look, I'll fight to the death about this one.
[32:31] Speaker 2: Anybody wondering, I will fight to the death about this.
[32:33] Speaker 2: Y'all been doing computer blue a disservice for 42 years.
[32:37] Speaker 1: It's a great song. It's probably my least favorite song
[32:40] Speaker 1: on that album.
[32:41] Speaker 2: I know. That's because you were a take-me-with-you guy.
[32:43] Speaker 1: Yes, sir. Because I play drums. That's why. I know.
[32:46] Speaker 1: I know.
[32:46] Speaker 2: You have explained that to me. To me, it is
[32:49] Speaker 2: no question that take-me-with-you is... Look, something had to finish
[32:52] Speaker 2: in last, right? It's not a... It's whack, right?
[32:56] Speaker 1: It is a.
[32:57] Speaker 2: Very clearly, they told him, we need a song to
[33:00] Speaker 2: put on this part of the movie. Can you, like,
[33:02] Speaker 2: just give us the song? It's cool. Computer Blue, also,
[33:06] Speaker 2: the 12-minute Computer Blue.
[33:09] Speaker 1: Yeah, that's some crazy guitar work, too. Woo!
[33:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the movie set Computer Blue up for
[33:17] Speaker 2: a bad one, because that's, it's interesting, because people don't
[33:20] Speaker 2: feel that way about Nicki, but Computer Blue set up
[33:22] Speaker 2: the idea that this was a whack, what are you
[33:24] Speaker 2: doing song, but everybody loves Nicki because he talking that
[33:27] Speaker 2: nasty shit, and so then they just, like, jump on it.
[33:30] Speaker 2: But to me, Computer Blue, again, is a princess flexing
[33:34] Speaker 2: on the guitar as he decided to spend the majority
[33:36] Speaker 2: of this record doing.
[33:38] Speaker 3: Again, that's one of them instances where it's like, yeah,
[33:41] Speaker 3: you know, I've been quiet for a few years, but
[33:43] Speaker 3: it's time for me, once again, to let everybody know
[33:47] Speaker 3: that I'm the coldest motherfucker walking.
[33:49] Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
[33:50] Speaker 2: Yes. I mean, look, we got this. You get Nicki.
[33:53] Speaker 2: When Dove's Cry comes after that, I Would Die For You, which, again,
[33:56] Speaker 2: is another one of these weirdo gospel songs.
[33:59] Speaker 1: Yep.
[34:01] Speaker 2: When you really pay attention to those lyrics, that's a.
[34:03] Speaker 1: Song about Jesus. It's a song about Jesus.
[34:07] Speaker 2: Like, and not even about Jesus, like, in the way
[34:09] Speaker 2: that there are all these songs where you can substitute
[34:11] Speaker 2: baby and substitute Jesus and the whole song flips, right? No,
[34:15] Speaker 2: this is just about Jesus.
[34:16] Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
[34:18] Speaker 2: Killed it. Killed it. Then, I don't know where you
[34:20] Speaker 2: are on Baby I'm a Star, but Baby I'm a
[34:23] Speaker 2: Star used to be the intro song for one of
[34:24] Speaker 2: my radio shows because I got tired of them people
[34:27] Speaker 2: acting like I had no business being there. So it
[34:29] Speaker 2: was Might Not Know It Now, Baby Yes I Are.
[34:32] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[34:33] Speaker 3: That's a good one. I always like that song, man.
[34:37] Speaker 3: I enjoy the... Because, you know, it's a real good
[34:43] Speaker 3: ending crescendo of the movie. It makes the movie feel good.
[34:48] Speaker 3: So I've always enjoyed that song. But the movie made
[34:52] Speaker 3: me like that song more. Whereas the movie might have
[34:55] Speaker 3: made Computer Blue go one way for other people. But
[35:00] Speaker 3: it did a positive thing with Baby I'ma Start With Me.
[35:03] Speaker 1: I thought that was a perfect way to end that movie.
[35:06] Speaker 2: Yo, it's such a church song too. With that organ.
[35:17] Speaker 2: It is such a church song. And then into purple.
[35:19] Speaker 1: Say it again. It's shout music. It is.
[35:24] Speaker 2: It is. And have you heard the story? And there's
[35:26] Speaker 2: a zillion stories that bounce. You never know which one
[35:27] Speaker 2: it is. But the thing about Purple Rain was somehow
[35:30] Speaker 2: Prince wound up at a Bob Seger concert. And was like,
[35:34] Speaker 2: I need one of these songs that make everybody sing along.
[35:37] Speaker 2: And they're like, yo, man, sometimes you just got to
[35:39] Speaker 2: take it down to the essence for them, right? They
[35:41] Speaker 2: need the power ballad. And that's kind of the genesis
[35:45] Speaker 2: of Purple Rain, which started as a country record. And
[35:48] Speaker 2: then when Wendy Melvoin got her hands on the intro,
[35:50] Speaker 2: the voicing of it changed. And it didn't wind up
[35:53] Speaker 2: in that place.
[35:54] Speaker 1: It is.
[35:56] Speaker 2: It's tricky because I feel like there are lots of
[35:59] Speaker 2: songs that are better and lots of things that are
[36:01] Speaker 2: more creative maybe and everything else. But there is nothing
[36:05] Speaker 2: that hits like a super dope live version of Purple Rain.
[36:08] Speaker 2: Like nothing hits quite like it does. The one on
[36:12] Speaker 2: the Syracuse concert, which forget about the Rock and Roll
[36:16] Speaker 2: Hall of Fame performance. That's the best solo in the
[36:17] Speaker 2: catalog to live solo if you go find it. But
[36:20] Speaker 2: it's just like, hey, man, I'm going to make everybody
[36:23] Speaker 2: in here cry. It could be done. Watch this.
[36:26] Speaker 3: I remember when you made me watch that. You were like, bro,
[36:32] Speaker 3: you need to see this specific show.
[36:35] Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? And I was like, man,
[36:37] Speaker 1: this might be the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
[36:40] Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
[36:45] Speaker 1: Let's not forget about the Super Bowl performance, too. You
[36:47] Speaker 1: know what I mean? Right.
[36:49] Speaker 2: And this is a whole nother like that was that
[36:51] Speaker 2: was him at the peak of his powers. Like me
[36:54] Speaker 2: and my brother talked about this because we sat up
[36:55] Speaker 2: here and we watched something off. I think it was
[36:57] Speaker 2: the new tour right around when Love Sexy came out.
[37:00] Speaker 2: And we're like the difference between those late 80s concerts
[37:03] Speaker 2: in 85 is even if you think the music was better,
[37:07] Speaker 2: his light never shone brighter. than it did in 1985, right?
[37:13] Speaker 2: Like it is a recognition. This, I am the illest
[37:16] Speaker 2: and everybody else knows that I'm the illest too. Like
[37:19] Speaker 2: right now, it's never going to be like this again.
[37:22] Speaker 2: I got a band with an energy that you're never
[37:24] Speaker 2: going to be able to replicate again. Everybody's having a
[37:27] Speaker 2: great time for the money and the fame and everything
[37:30] Speaker 2: get out of control. Like, he is there and like
[37:34] Speaker 2: everything that happens after is still dope.
[37:36] Speaker 1: Right.
[37:36] Speaker 2: But I, that is a, I wish I was there
[37:40] Speaker 2: for a moment to understand what the apex of something
[37:43] Speaker 2: truly was. Like, it's like when I compared to like
[37:47] Speaker 2: Jordan in 92 or like LeBron in 2012, where you
[37:50] Speaker 2: watch LeBron and you're just like, Hey man, it ain't
[37:53] Speaker 2: never going to be like, nothing's going to be like
[37:55] Speaker 2: this again ever. And he was there. And while he's there,
[38:01] Speaker 2: he's like, oh, by the way, I'm going to put
[38:02] Speaker 2: out another album because I've gotten bored with this shit already.
[38:05] Speaker 1: Already?
[38:06] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[38:07] Speaker 1: I'm moving on. Right.
[38:09] Speaker 2: But it winds up being after that, and I'm curious
[38:11] Speaker 2: if you see something similar to me. After that, it
[38:15] Speaker 2: feels like he put out a series of albums that
[38:21] Speaker 2: were certainly excellent, but because he was moving faster than
[38:25] Speaker 2: people could digest, the ability to fully appreciate it wasn't
[38:29] Speaker 2: necessarily there. I went back and got really into Around
[38:32] Speaker 2: the World in a day. In the last six months
[38:35] Speaker 2: or so, that record is incredible. Like it is just
[38:39] Speaker 2: so completely different than Purple Rain. And by the time
[38:42] Speaker 2: they're done with videos for that, he's already moved on
[38:45] Speaker 2: to Christopher Tracy.
[38:48] Speaker 1: Already on parade.
[38:50] Speaker 2: Yeah, but right then he was in his Beatles bag
[38:53] Speaker 2: on that one. He tries to claim that wasn't what
[38:56] Speaker 2: he was doing. But to me, what was very clear
[38:58] Speaker 2: is that not only was he in his Beatles bag,
[39:00] Speaker 2: he had a desire that I find a little unseemly,
[39:03] Speaker 2: but he wanted to be white folks to give him
[39:05] Speaker 2: his credit.
[39:05] Speaker 1: Right.
[39:06] Speaker 2: Like he felt like he deserved to be viewed as
[39:08] Speaker 2: a very much an ego play with the visionaries on
[39:11] Speaker 2: a certain level. And then he as as often he
[39:14] Speaker 2: decides to show people he could do whatever their favorites
[39:16] Speaker 2: did better. It felt very, very much like he was
[39:20] Speaker 2: in a Beatles bag on that one, as much a
[39:22] Speaker 2: demonstration of a point as anything else. But I ain't
[39:25] Speaker 2: mad because it was going.
[39:28] Speaker 1: Do you think.
[39:28] Speaker 3: um do you think parade uh and under the cherry
[39:32] Speaker 3: moon uh subsequently like uh would you consider them predecessors
[39:36] Speaker 3: to something like uh 808 some heartbreak by kanye because
[39:40] Speaker 3: when i heard you said like i heard you say
[39:42] Speaker 3: like this was a time where Prince wanted the white
[39:46] Speaker 3: people to take him seriously as a visionary because he
[39:48] Speaker 3: saw himself as a visionary. I think Kanye West was
[39:52] Speaker 3: doing the same sort of thing with 808's heartbreak.
[39:55] Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
[39:56] Speaker 2: I feel like with 808's, Kanye was so depressed and
[40:01] Speaker 2: put out an incredible, we recorded this in two weeks, like,
[40:05] Speaker 2: depressed record. Which I love. Yeah, which I love when
[40:09] Speaker 2: it came out. I think, so... I think with Around
[40:13] Speaker 2: the World in a Day, he was very particular, although
[40:16] Speaker 2: Around the World in a Day has America on it,
[40:17] Speaker 2: and America is funky as anything that he put out.
[40:21] Speaker 2: He's got Raspberry Beret, which every concert I went to, man,
[40:23] Speaker 2: people love that shit.
[40:24] Speaker 3: That's a great song, bro. That's another expertly written record.
[40:29] Speaker 1: It is. It is.
[40:30] Speaker 2: I merely like it a lot.
[40:34] Speaker 3: I'm big on Pop Life. That's on Around the World
[40:36] Speaker 3: in a Day, too.
[40:36] Speaker 2: Yeah, I love Pop Life. Around the World in a Day,
[40:39] Speaker 2: I mean, so the title track, Paisley Park, Condition of
[40:42] Speaker 2: the Heart, Raspberry Beret, and Tambourine is side A.
[40:48] Speaker 1: Right?
[40:49] Speaker 2: On the back sides, you got what? America, Pop Life,
[40:53] Speaker 2: The Ladder, and Temptation. And I think there's one more
[40:58] Speaker 2: that I'm missing on the second half. But America, they
[41:00] Speaker 2: put out a 25-minute version of America with the Around
[41:03] Speaker 2: the World Today release. And man, they are jamming. Like
[41:07] Speaker 2: that's as hard funk record as he did. Parade has
[41:11] Speaker 2: taken on this new life because you remember that time
[41:14] Speaker 2: that Lupe Fiasco said It Was Written was his favorite
[41:16] Speaker 2: Nas record and then all y'all then decided to pretend
[41:19] Speaker 2: like It Was Written is better than it ever was
[41:21] Speaker 2: in the first place because somebody said it was good.
[41:23] Speaker 1: I was on that before Lupe. Yeah, good for you.
[41:28] Speaker 2: And you felt like you was kind of lonely back then, though.
[41:32] Speaker 1: Didn't you? I did.
[41:33] Speaker 3: That's all I'm saying. I've never been on the, it
[41:35] Speaker 3: was better than Illmatic. I just said it was much
[41:38] Speaker 3: better than people remember it being.
[41:40] Speaker 1: You know what I mean? And I liked it.
[41:42] Speaker 3: I personally enjoyed listening to that album more than I
[41:45] Speaker 3: enjoyed listening to Illmatic at that point in my life.
[41:48] Speaker 1: You know what I mean? I can see the point, right?
[41:50] Speaker 2: My point in bringing that up, aside from needling you
[41:54] Speaker 2: about it was written, but my thing was, is that
[41:59] Speaker 2: I think the way records are perceived can be changed
[42:01] Speaker 2: when someone that people respect offers a positive opinion of it. Um,
[42:05] Speaker 2: for example, I find that white listeners are really into
[42:08] Speaker 2: black artists that their white favorites said that they loved
[42:10] Speaker 2: like the Beatles talking about Chuck Berry helped bring Chuck
[42:13] Speaker 2: Berry back because the Beatles talked about it in that way.
[42:15] Speaker 1: Right.
[42:16] Speaker 2: Um, That clip of Nelson George and D'Angelo talking and
[42:20] Speaker 2: D'Angelo saying that Parade is the best funk album ever,
[42:23] Speaker 2: which is clearly D'Angelo trying to get an answer off
[42:25] Speaker 2: the top of his head. He throws it out there.
[42:27] Speaker 2: I've seen Jill Scott say the same thing. Parade got
[42:30] Speaker 2: some jams, but get the fuck out of here. People
[42:33] Speaker 2: are not convincing me. of this one I love the
[42:37] Speaker 2: like extended another love a hole in your head a
[42:39] Speaker 2: love do you lie um new position like it's a
[42:43] Speaker 2: we it's an interestingly weird record because he's going on
[42:46] Speaker 2: this kind of French lounge theme or whatever it's got
[42:50] Speaker 2: kiss on it which is one of those that I
[42:51] Speaker 2: don't love as much as everybody else but it's kind
[42:53] Speaker 2: of a defining single I do not like sometimes it
[42:57] Speaker 2: snows in April I flat out don't like.
[42:59] Speaker 3: It okay I mean it's just yeah yeah boring You
[43:06] Speaker 3: know what the dude got on it, though?
[43:07] Speaker 1: Mountain.
[43:07] Speaker 2: Mountain.
[43:08] Speaker 1: It does have mountains.
[43:09] Speaker 2: It does have mountains. Mountain goes.
[43:13] Speaker 1: Mountain's jamming like a fool, man. I'm telling you. Yeah, yeah.
[43:16] Speaker 2: Like, I think everything he did, even if you didn't
[43:19] Speaker 2: love the record, everything he did was go have some
[43:21] Speaker 2: jams on it. That one, of course, has the issue of,
[43:24] Speaker 2: as my brother said, the only two movies worse than
[43:27] Speaker 2: Purple Rain are Under the Cherry Booth and Graffiti Bridge.
[43:30] Speaker 2: And Graffiti Bridge. They're the only two records ever made
[43:37] Speaker 2: that are worse than those. Oh, Girls and Boys. Forgot
[43:40] Speaker 2: about that one.
[43:43] Speaker 1: Man, so much, so much heat, bro.
[43:46] Speaker 2: By the way, Purple Rain, Around the World, and The Day,
[43:49] Speaker 2: these all come out within, like, two years.
[43:53] Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, yeah.
[43:54] Speaker 3: I mean, that's what I was saying. That's why I
[43:55] Speaker 3: was asking you, like, was this his genius period? Because
[43:57] Speaker 3: the level of output that would, you know, and the...
[44:03] Speaker 3: The frequency and the level at the same time.
[44:07] Speaker 2: And we're not even talking about all the stuff he
[44:09] Speaker 2: did for the time, right? We're not talking about Glamorous
[44:12] Speaker 2: Life and the Sheila E.
[44:13] Speaker 1: Records, right?
[44:14] Speaker 2: We haven't gotten to Manic Monday and all this, and
[44:16] Speaker 2: we just now getting to Sign of the Times.
[44:18] Speaker 1: Oh, man, I forgot the family came out in between.
[44:21] Speaker 2: Nothing compares to you. I got so much heat, I
[44:23] Speaker 2: will give nothing compares to you to people you will
[44:26] Speaker 2: never think about ever again.
[44:27] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[44:29] Speaker 3: I'm going to give this record to the bald-headed Irish lady.
[44:32] Speaker 3: It's going to become a number one hit. You know
[44:34] Speaker 3: what I'm saying?
[44:35] Speaker 2: But that's after I give it to the family.
[44:37] Speaker 1: Right, right.
[44:39] Speaker 2: After I give it to them. And now I'm going
[44:42] Speaker 2: to do Sign of the Times.
[44:43] Speaker 1: And, man.
[44:45] Speaker 2: Sign of the Times is the one where I had
[44:47] Speaker 2: always said for the longest that it was the best
[44:50] Speaker 2: Prince record. And technically speaking, it might be the best
[44:52] Speaker 2: Prince record. I think you put it all together, it's still...
[44:55] Speaker 2: Purple Rain did not sell a zillion of those copies
[44:57] Speaker 2: because he sold out. It sold a zillion of those
[44:59] Speaker 2: copies because it was a truly visionary piece of work.
[45:02] Speaker 2: But Sign of the Times, I think he was in
[45:04] Speaker 2: his songwriting bag. If I Was Your Girlfriend is peak
[45:08] Speaker 2: songwriting bag.
[45:09] Speaker 1: Yep.
[45:09] Speaker 3: So is I Can Never Take the Place of Your Man.
[45:13] Speaker 1: Yes. I love that song so much. much, bro. I
[45:16] Speaker 1: do too. Love it.
[45:18] Speaker 2: The breakdown of the extended version?
[45:23] Speaker 1: Man.
[45:23] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[45:25] Speaker 3: Dorothy Parker. Yeah, Dorothy Parker, Starfish and Coffee. It's so
[45:30] Speaker 3: much heat on.
[45:31] Speaker 1: That album, dog.
[45:33] Speaker 2: Forever in my life, which I think has an argument
[45:37] Speaker 2: for it's up there on the most underrated songs of
[45:39] Speaker 2: all of these. And oh, and then there's a door.
[45:44] Speaker 1: Man.
[45:45] Speaker 3: Dawg, you know how, this is the coldest game I
[45:49] Speaker 3: ever heard in my life, bro. That bro said, the
[45:52] Speaker 3: man said, until the end of time. You know what
[45:57] Speaker 3: I'm saying?
[46:00] Speaker 1: Yes. Man.
[46:02] Speaker 2: Dude, Adore is up there with Az as like perfect
[46:06] Speaker 2: hyperbole of love. as in a door for me up
[46:12] Speaker 2: there with the two except friends keep it real you
[46:14] Speaker 2: can say that i'm a terminal case you can burn
[46:17] Speaker 2: up my clothes you can smash up my ride hey
[46:21] Speaker 2: maybe not the ride.
[46:24] Speaker 1: Yep yeah he had to kind of bring himself back
[46:26] Speaker 1: to reality real quick.
[46:28] Speaker 2: Yeah and that's the end of the album like you
[46:30] Speaker 2: get to the end of that and he's like all
[46:31] Speaker 2: right no more for you Like me and the homie
[46:35] Speaker 2: master were in here one day and we watched the Prince,
[46:38] Speaker 2: the 85 concert. And then it was over. And then
[46:40] Speaker 2: master looked at me and was like, so what's next?
[46:43] Speaker 2: And I was like, stop being greedy. But then I
[46:44] Speaker 2: was like, damn, what else are we supposed to do though?
[46:47] Speaker 1: You're right.
[46:47] Speaker 2: Like, like where that's how, when a door inside of
[46:50] Speaker 2: the times, it's like, wait a minute. So this is
[46:53] Speaker 2: just over.
[46:53] Speaker 1: Like we're not. That was it. There's no more. No.
[46:57] Speaker 1: I feel like I gave you all that. I feel
[46:59] Speaker 1: like I gave you all that heat. You know what
[47:00] Speaker 1: I'm saying? Yes.
[47:02] Speaker 2: And the deep album cuts on there to me are like,
[47:06] Speaker 2: it is underrated. I think about it, baby, all the time.
[47:10] Speaker 2: It goes hard. Slow Love goes hard. Strange Relationship goes hard.
[47:16] Speaker 2: All of these joints just go hard. And then after
[47:20] Speaker 2: this album though, the Black Album came out and then
[47:23] Speaker 2: there are the stories about why the Black Album didn't
[47:25] Speaker 2: come out. The Black Album I love in part because
[47:28] Speaker 2: at this time Prince clearly did not have much time
[47:30] Speaker 2: or respect for rap. So he decided to show everybody
[47:33] Speaker 2: that actually he could program drums better than all these
[47:35] Speaker 2: rappity rap guys can. And there is some incredible drum
[47:38] Speaker 2: program on the Black Album. Lights out.
[47:41] Speaker 1: I need to go revisit that album. I hadn't listened
[47:43] Speaker 1: to it in a very long time.
[47:45] Speaker 2: Yeah, I got it on vinyl.
[47:47] Speaker 1: Like, it is a.
[47:49] Speaker 2: It also, it has When Two Are In Love for
[47:51] Speaker 2: the first run. I think When Two Are In Love
[47:53] Speaker 2: is the only song that survived on the Love Sexy album.
[47:56] Speaker 2: which tells you how cold when two are in love
[47:58] Speaker 2: is because he felt he had to completely separate himself
[48:00] Speaker 2: from the black album because it was too dark. And
[48:02] Speaker 2: they were like, nah, but we keeping this one.
[48:04] Speaker 1: Yeah. That's the only song I remember from it. Really?
[48:06] Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
[48:09] Speaker 3: I need to go back and listen to that album
[48:12] Speaker 3: to kind of recalibrate my ears because it's been a really,
[48:15] Speaker 3: really long time since I listened to it.
[48:17] Speaker 2: Yeah. Like this, this is the stretch where it gets
[48:20] Speaker 2: a little weird, right? Love Sexy, look, Love Sexy got
[48:23] Speaker 2: Alphabet Street. It's got I Wish You Heaven. It's got
[48:26] Speaker 2: When Two Are In Love. It's got Anesthesia. It's got
[48:28] Speaker 2: some joints. But people were kind of like, hey, I
[48:31] Speaker 2: don't know.
[48:33] Speaker 1: Not sure.
[48:34] Speaker 2: Not fully sure. Then the Batman record came out. I
[48:37] Speaker 2: fuck with Batman. I don't know how you feel.
[48:38] Speaker 1: About the Batman record. No, I'm a big Batman person.
[48:42] Speaker 1: I really like that album. I feel like he took
[48:44] Speaker 1: that on as a challenge.
[48:44] Speaker 2: Yes.
[48:45] Speaker 1: Yes. You know what I'm saying?
[48:48] Speaker 2: He watched the movie and was like, oh, okay, cool.
[48:50] Speaker 2: I got you.
[48:51] Speaker 1: I got you. You know what I'm saying?
[48:53] Speaker 2: I got you. But I love the future. The future,
[48:57] Speaker 2: Party Man, I'm a, if you say so, about scandalous.
[49:03] Speaker 2: And even Bad Dance. Bad Dance is too long, but
[49:05] Speaker 2: it's like, okay, I see what's going on here. But
[49:07] Speaker 2: I appreciated that he's like, this is going to be,
[49:10] Speaker 2: it was a corporate synergy situation because Warner Brothers, okay,
[49:14] Speaker 2: so I have to remember for people who are too young,
[49:16] Speaker 2: In the summer of 1989, everything was about Batman everything
[49:22] Speaker 2: everything was about Batman Batman t-shirts everything.
[49:27] Speaker 1: It was dominating culture like you would not believe Right.
[49:31] Speaker 2: I can't think of anything that has ever dominated. Like
[49:36] Speaker 2: a movie that hadn't even come out yet. Jack Nicholson
[49:38] Speaker 2: is the Joker.
[49:39] Speaker 1: All of this.
[49:40] Speaker 2: It was everywhere. And then Warner Brothers was like, we
[49:42] Speaker 2: have Batman and we have Prince.
[49:44] Speaker 1: Why don't we.
[49:47] Speaker 2: Have Prince do the soundtrack? And Prince watched the movie.
[49:50] Speaker 2: They gave Prince a clip of the movie and he
[49:51] Speaker 2: was like, okay. And then just threw together a soundtrack
[49:54] Speaker 2: right fast for him.
[49:56] Speaker 1: You seen that clip of him playing the bass? I
[49:58] Speaker 1: think he playing Party Man. Yes. Oh, you know what
[50:01] Speaker 1: I mean? Yes. Oh, man. That's wonderful. It's so cool.
[50:05] Speaker 1: It's so cool, bro. Yes. That's another one of them moments.
[50:10] Speaker 3: This is a through line that's been going on through
[50:13] Speaker 3: this entire conversation where he's just like, hey, you know,
[50:17] Speaker 3: I'm not really trying to flex for real, but since
[50:20] Speaker 3: y'all here, it's time for me to show y'all that
[50:24] Speaker 3: I'm the coldest motherfucker here.
[50:27] Speaker 1: Yes. You know what I'm saying? I'll be calling the
[50:29] Speaker 1: motherfucker walking for sure.
[50:31] Speaker 2: I feel like Graffiti Bridge, again, terrible record, but also
[50:37] Speaker 2: I like Thieves in the Temple. He got some jams
[50:40] Speaker 2: on the album. It's a terrible movie, my fault, but
[50:42] Speaker 2: the record is not terrible. Alright, I'll go farther than
[50:45] Speaker 2: Thieves in the Temple. Can't stop this.
[50:47] Speaker 1: Feeling I got.
[50:49] Speaker 2: That one goes. The Question of You. That one goes.
[50:55] Speaker 2: Thieves in the Temple and my personal favorite Joy and Repetition.
[51:01] Speaker 1: That's a good one. That's a real good one, bro.
[51:03] Speaker 3: Woo-hoo-hoo!
[51:05] Speaker 1: That's a real good one.
[51:06] Speaker 2: It's so good! Like, I don't think anybody... Like, Joy
[51:12] Speaker 2: and Repetition is up there in the competition for, like,
[51:15] Speaker 2: best of the best for him.
[51:19] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. I would be inclined to agree that that
[51:25] Speaker 1: is a....
[51:27] Speaker 3: Should be a consensus top 10, maybe even top five
[51:30] Speaker 3: Prince song.
[51:31] Speaker 1: It's up there.
[51:31] Speaker 2: Like, it's that ill.
[51:32] Speaker 1: It's up there for sure. Right.
[51:34] Speaker 2: But we are also squarely in the era of talking
[51:36] Speaker 2: about Prince albums with, well, it's got some jams on it, right? Like,
[51:40] Speaker 2: but what's weird is Diamonds and Pearls is a record
[51:43] Speaker 2: I think of is, eh, it's got some jams on it,
[51:45] Speaker 2: except here are the first five singles on there. And again,
[51:48] Speaker 2: this is past prime Prince. Get Off Cream, Insatiable, Diamonds
[51:52] Speaker 2: and Pearls, and Money Don't Matter Tonight.
[51:56] Speaker 1: Jam after jam after jam after jam.
[51:59] Speaker 2: Dare I say five classics.
[52:02] Speaker 1: Yep.
[52:04] Speaker 2: And this is after it started to fall off just
[52:08] Speaker 2: a little bit. Jam after jam after jam.
[52:11] Speaker 1: So Diamonds and Pearls. This is the Earth, Wind and Fire.
[52:15] Speaker 2: I don't love this single. I mean, I don't love
[52:17] Speaker 2: the that that jam.
[52:18] Speaker 1: I do not love. Oh, Diamonds and Pearls. Well, I'm
[52:21] Speaker 1: just talking about the album in general.
[52:23] Speaker 2: Yes.
[52:24] Speaker 3: But that's the Earth, Wind & Fire album for Prince,
[52:28] Speaker 3: where the music on Diamonds & Pearls sounds really pretty.
[52:33] Speaker 1: You're right. You know what I mean?
[52:35] Speaker 2: You're right.
[52:36] Speaker 1: You're right.
[52:36] Speaker 2: This is around the era where he and Mike were like,
[52:39] Speaker 2: I want the brothers and sisters to love me again.
[52:42] Speaker 1: Yeah. Right?
[52:44] Speaker 2: They both came back home. The Love Symbol album, which
[52:48] Speaker 2: is right before it gets really weird. Um, that's got
[52:51] Speaker 2: sexy motherfucker to morning papers, love to the nines. Damn
[52:54] Speaker 2: you and seven.
[52:57] Speaker 1: Damn you is a very, very underrated Prince. Yes, it is. Yes,
[53:03] Speaker 1: it is. Yes, it is.
[53:06] Speaker 2: Like the thing for me, though, after this, when you
[53:08] Speaker 2: get to the post Warner, there's a lot of really
[53:10] Speaker 2: good stuff post Warner, right? It's not always the easiest
[53:14] Speaker 2: to talk about because you got the records that he
[53:16] Speaker 2: put out just to spite Warner, right? Like you've got
[53:19] Speaker 2: like the Chaos and Disorder and Cumbria's clearly just trying
[53:21] Speaker 2: to get out of the deal. But you wind up
[53:24] Speaker 2: with like the Gold Experience. The Gold Experience has got,
[53:27] Speaker 2: it's got Billy Jack Bitch. It's got I Hate You. Yeah, like, oh,
[53:33] Speaker 2: this has some jams. Emancipation is way too long, but
[53:37] Speaker 2: I contend the second disc of Emancipation is the last
[53:40] Speaker 2: true classic that Prince did. If all he put out
[53:43] Speaker 2: was disc two.
[53:45] Speaker 1: He'd have another classic on his hands.
[53:47] Speaker 2: We got another classic just by itself. And then, as I...
[53:52] Speaker 2: Perhaps one of my boldest takes, I told you... You
[53:55] Speaker 2: and I talked about this briefly. The B-side... Prince in
[54:01] Speaker 2: his B-side bag... because that's not something that people really
[54:05] Speaker 2: do anymore, I can make an argument that between like
[54:08] Speaker 2: 82 and 85, he put out a classic album if
[54:13] Speaker 2: you just collected B-sides, right? So how come you don't
[54:18] Speaker 2: call me anymore? Irresistible Bitch. I tell my mama I'm
[54:24] Speaker 2: doing all this cussing because he's the name of the songs.
[54:27] Speaker 2: 17 Days. Erotic City.
[54:32] Speaker 1: Man, that's two for two right there, bro.
[54:34] Speaker 2: God, which is not bad. Another Lonely Christmas. Girl is
[54:41] Speaker 2: in here somewhere. Oh yeah, girl. Oh, she's always in
[54:43] Speaker 2: my hair.
[54:45] Speaker 1: My fault.
[54:46] Speaker 2: Almost forgot that one. Girl, I think is the second.
[54:51] Speaker 1: Yeah, girl.
[54:52] Speaker 2: Girl is the B-side to Pop Life and Hello is
[54:56] Speaker 2: also on there. Those B-sides, put those together. That's a
[55:01] Speaker 2: classic LP.
[55:02] Speaker 1: You got a classic album.
[55:05] Speaker 3: Oh, man, you reminded me about something we were speaking
[55:08] Speaker 3: about earlier about Prince Records that DJs play, that we
[55:13] Speaker 3: can play. Erotic City is another one that I feel
[55:17] Speaker 3: the mission. But that's 100% a record that DJs play.
[55:22] Speaker 3: like on a regular, even still to this day, you know, that's,
[55:25] Speaker 3: that's definitely a, that's definitely one you got to keep in, uh,
[55:28] Speaker 3: keep in Serato or keep in your, in your crates.
[55:31] Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
[55:31] Speaker 2: You want to, you know what DJ I have heard play, um,
[55:36] Speaker 2: play erotic city.
[55:38] Speaker 1: Who was that?
[55:39] Speaker 2: DJ Mike hit man. I heard him play it once
[55:43] Speaker 2: as the first song at a wedding.
[55:45] Speaker 1: Oh man. That's that, that, that tracks. That's wild. Yeah.
[55:52] Speaker 3: That track that track shout out to dj mike hitman bro.
[55:55] Speaker 2: Dj mike hitman anytime i mention mike like this is
[55:58] Speaker 2: my reminder that it's been too long since i talked
[56:00] Speaker 2: to mike it's always been too long since i talked
[56:03] Speaker 2: to mike but no this is like the music is
[56:07] Speaker 2: such an incredible thing right just this just rattling and
[56:11] Speaker 2: running through songs like my brother makes the point he
[56:13] Speaker 2: said before that he doesn't know any act where the
[56:16] Speaker 2: fans can talk about the songs in depth like they can.
[56:19] Speaker 2: And that's, I think, in part because his familiarity with
[56:21] Speaker 2: this world. There are other places and other worlds in
[56:24] Speaker 2: which you could talk about it, like Beatles fans could
[56:26] Speaker 2: talk about the records in the same way with Prince.
[56:28] Speaker 2: But for me, it does feel like it's more fun
[56:30] Speaker 2: just because the range goes so far and what is
[56:34] Speaker 2: possible on those records is so far. And again, we
[56:37] Speaker 2: didn't even get to talk about all the stuff that
[56:39] Speaker 2: isn't actually, well, it's his, but it ain't his because
[56:42] Speaker 2: he ain't do the song. Like, we went with 777-9311.
[56:46] Speaker 2: We didn't get around to talking about that beast of
[56:49] Speaker 2: a piece of work.
[56:51] Speaker 1: Man.
[56:53] Speaker 3: We talked about a song that bass players are mystified
[56:58] Speaker 3: by because of the bass line. We talked about a
[57:01] Speaker 3: song that guitar players are mystified by by the solo.
[57:04] Speaker 3: 777 is the song that drummers are mystified by.
[57:07] Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
[57:10] Speaker 2: How did you do that?
[57:11] Speaker 1: Like, How is this happening, bro? You know what I mean?
[57:15] Speaker 2: But hold up. There's another weird thing about that, which
[57:17] Speaker 2: is I've watched him play 7-7, 93-11. And okay, look.
[57:22] Speaker 2: I am not a musician. I don't have a lot
[57:26] Speaker 2: of musical gear that I know that much about. But
[57:28] Speaker 2: the one thing my ear can always pick up is
[57:31] Speaker 2: when somebody is playing the Fender Jazz. Fender Jazz bass.
[57:34] Speaker 2: If you play bass on the Fender Jazz... Like, all
[57:37] Speaker 2: my favorite bass players, that's what they're about. If you
[57:39] Speaker 2: listen to somebody play bass on a reggae record, like
[57:42] Speaker 2: Aston Barrett or those guys, it's a very lush, in-front
[57:46] Speaker 2: bass sound.
[57:46] Speaker 1: You can pick the tone out. Yep.
[57:50] Speaker 2: Like, if I hear it and I point it out
[57:51] Speaker 2: to you, you will be able to hear it everywhere else.
[57:54] Speaker 2: But it is not a slap bass, right?
[57:57] Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
[57:58] Speaker 2: 7-7-7-93-11, I watched Prince do that, and he's slapping on
[58:02] Speaker 2: a Fender Jazz. And I'm like, I don't think I've
[58:04] Speaker 2: ever seen anybody try to slap on a Fender Jazz.
[58:07] Speaker 2: And that's another one where he feels like, yeah, nobody
[58:09] Speaker 2: else can do this. And he gave that song to
[58:13] Speaker 2: somebody else in part because where it gets weird, a
[58:16] Speaker 2: little bit too black, and his ambitions were to show
[58:19] Speaker 2: them that he could do their stuff and so the
[58:21] Speaker 2: time could come out here and put this jam out here.
[58:27] Speaker 1: Yeah, man. Prince, for all his genes, bro, he was
[58:32] Speaker 1: a first-rate asshole, G. You know what I'm saying?
[58:35] Speaker 2: Go ahead and say what you've been saying.
[58:37] Speaker 3: Bro, it's the thing that's always puzzled me about everyone
[58:45] Speaker 3: who's worked with Prince. They all say this with love
[58:51] Speaker 3: because they all love him. But they all also say,
[58:56] Speaker 3: That he was a terrible person to work with. But
[58:59] Speaker 3: the genius was so much genius that, you know, I
[59:02] Speaker 3: guess that would be the reason to stay around. And
[59:05] Speaker 3: i just be like man like bro look and i'm
[59:08] Speaker 3: i'm saying this is somebody that's five foot four okay right.
[59:13] Speaker 1: How come y'all just didn't slap that little nigga in
[59:15] Speaker 1: the head bro.
[59:19] Speaker 3: If he was being such an asshole especially like i
[59:22] Speaker 3: mean i mean i guess you know like you know,
[59:24] Speaker 3: I guess why Alexander O'Neill left, you know, that big
[59:27] Speaker 3: old dude from Mississippi, you know what I'm saying? He
[59:28] Speaker 3: probably would have like, like knocked about coal, but I
[59:32] Speaker 3: just didn't, I just never, I never got why no one,
[59:35] Speaker 3: I never hear stories about people, uh, uh, fighting back
[59:41] Speaker 3: against his, uh, his dictatorship. So, so to speak, you
[59:45] Speaker 3: know what I mean? But I guess that's because, you know, uh,
[59:49] Speaker 3: you made, you made the point to me when I,
[59:51] Speaker 3: when we talked about this, like, Usually what he was
[59:54] Speaker 3: saying was right.
[59:56] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the thing about those cats. You just don't
[59:59] Speaker 2: like this Paul Simon line, I know you see through me,
[1:00:02] Speaker 2: but there's no tenderness beneath your honesty. Being right is
[1:00:07] Speaker 2: not sufficient. You know what the word is for brutal honesty? Brutality.
[1:00:17] Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go. Right?
[1:00:18] Speaker 2: And I say this as somebody who used to call
[1:00:20] Speaker 2: himself brutally honest. I'm like, okay, but it's brutal. Like,
[1:00:23] Speaker 2: that doesn't change the fact. And it sounds like it
[1:00:26] Speaker 2: wasn't always like that. Like, it really got there around, like, 83,
[1:00:30] Speaker 2: 84 is when it starts getting out of hand. And then, like,
[1:00:34] Speaker 2: especially post-Purple Rain, where nobody could tell him a single thing. Like,
[1:00:39] Speaker 2: I think Warner Brothers gets a bad rap. They're like, brother,
[1:00:42] Speaker 2: you just can't put out a record every year, man.
[1:00:45] Speaker 2: Let it breathe.
[1:00:47] Speaker 1: I feel like a slave.
[1:00:48] Speaker 2: We try to make you work less. You the one
[1:00:50] Speaker 2: that be in the field all day long. We ain't
[1:00:54] Speaker 2: sold the last crop yet.
[1:00:58] Speaker 1: Chill out. We ain't even got the harvest yet. And
[1:01:01] Speaker 1: you're out here playing most of these.
[1:01:04] Speaker 2: Right. Like, come on, bro. Just relax. But they all are, right? Like, hey, man,
[1:01:10] Speaker 2: you saw the things about them cats trying to fight
[1:01:12] Speaker 2: Stevie Wonder, getting their ass whooped, but trying to fight
[1:01:14] Speaker 2: Stevie Wonder.
[1:01:16] Speaker 1: No, I hadn't seen this at all.
[1:01:18] Speaker 2: Oh man, Ray Parker Jr. tell a story about they
[1:01:21] Speaker 2: had some drummer He got sick of Stevie. Stevie was
[1:01:25] Speaker 2: the guy calling people in at 3 o'clock in the morning,
[1:01:27] Speaker 2: calling them back after they'd already left. All of this
[1:01:30] Speaker 2: because these geniuses just have so much going on in
[1:01:31] Speaker 2: their heads. If they need other people to be there
[1:01:34] Speaker 2: for it, they try to bring them back. Anyway, the
[1:01:37] Speaker 2: drummer said he had enough of Stevie's shit. He said
[1:01:39] Speaker 2: he was going to fight Stevie. They decided that in
[1:01:42] Speaker 2: order to make it fair, that they would blindfold him.
[1:01:46] Speaker 2: Him and Stevie had a fight.
[1:01:48] Speaker 1: Oh, man. This sounds amazing. Said Stevie. Stevie.
[1:01:52] Speaker 2: Yeah, that boy the beats. Oh, my God. I mean,
[1:01:59] Speaker 2: depending on what you believe, Stevie be like that all
[1:02:02] Speaker 2: the time. This brand new to him. So he out
[1:02:05] Speaker 2: here dizzy, don't know up from down.
[1:02:08] Speaker 1: Yeah, man. You know, Stevie got them. You like Daredevil, man.
[1:02:14] Speaker 1: Got them heightened senses.
[1:02:16] Speaker 2: Yeah, Stevie like Stevie knocked him off his feet.
[1:02:19] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:02:23] Speaker 2: Stevie looked at him and was like, I ain't going
[1:02:28] Speaker 2: to stand for this.
[1:02:30] Speaker 1: Way to land a plane. That was fantastic.
[1:02:34] Speaker 2: Stevie hit him with that master blaster.
[1:02:36] Speaker 1: That's right. Amen.
[1:02:37] Speaker 2: Sometimes that's just what somebody need. in that moment, you
[1:02:51] Speaker 2: know what I'm saying? Stevie had to, Stevie had to
[1:02:53] Speaker 2: let them know.
[1:02:55] Speaker 3: Oh man, I guess, I guess, I guess, I guess
[1:02:56] Speaker 3: my tip of me is I can't be around genius.
[1:02:58] Speaker 3: Cause I'd be like, man, I just, I got, I
[1:03:03] Speaker 3: think you got some kind of issue with authority just
[1:03:05] Speaker 3: in general. You know what I'm saying? And that, that
[1:03:08] Speaker 3: might be a Napoleon complex on my fault. It might
[1:03:11] Speaker 3: be because, you know, I'm an only child who knows,
[1:03:12] Speaker 3: you know, it could, it could be something deep rooted.
[1:03:14] Speaker 3: I got to work out therapy, but, but I just
[1:03:17] Speaker 3: be like, you know, like, uh, You've seen that Mason
[1:03:24] Speaker 3: Cameron podcast when they talk.
[1:03:26] Speaker 1: And Mason's like.
[1:03:29] Speaker 2: Talk about Jake Prince.
[1:03:30] Speaker 1: Who is, who are you? That's who I would have been.
[1:03:36] Speaker 3: I'd be like, Prince would be like, you know, the
[1:03:40] Speaker 3: one story that comes to my head right now is
[1:03:42] Speaker 3: Jimmy Jam talking about, you know, them doing 7-7, performing 7-7-7.
[1:03:47] Speaker 1: And Prince is like, Jimmy Jam, why aren't you doing
[1:03:49] Speaker 1: the steps?
[1:03:50] Speaker 3: He's like, you know, he playing the song and Prince
[1:03:53] Speaker 3: is like, why aren't you doing the steps while you're playing,
[1:03:55] Speaker 3: Jimmy Jam? And, you know, Jimmy Jam just playing with
[1:03:57] Speaker 3: his left hand and Prince is like, Jimmy Jam, why
[1:04:00] Speaker 3: aren't you playing with both hands and doing the steps,
[1:04:02] Speaker 3: Jimmy Jam? And I'm looking like, man, Jimmy Jam got
[1:04:04] Speaker 3: to be, what, a good 6'2, 6'3? You know what
[1:04:07] Speaker 3: I'm saying?
[1:04:08] Speaker 1: You know.
[1:04:09] Speaker 3: And, you know, this man down here, you know, he
[1:04:12] Speaker 3: down here where I'm at, right? And he little. You
[1:04:16] Speaker 3: know what I'm saying?
[1:04:17] Speaker 1: And I'm like, bro, man, I've been like, I'd be like, boy,
[1:04:21] Speaker 1: if you don't get up my face and do bullshit, bro.
[1:04:24] Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
[1:04:25] Speaker 2: Prince sounds like that story that Leonard did on Kawhi Leonard.
[1:04:28] Speaker 2: And they said, well, Kawhi Leonard was in college and
[1:04:30] Speaker 2: they were watching film and they were struggling on defense.
[1:04:33] Speaker 2: And Kawhi Leonard had the suggestion, why don't you guys
[1:04:36] Speaker 2: just do what I do and stay in front of
[1:04:37] Speaker 2: your man?
[1:04:40] Speaker 1: It's simple to the genius.
[1:04:42] Speaker 3: It's definitely simple to the genius. They don't understand why
[1:04:46] Speaker 3: it ain't simple to everybody else.
[1:04:48] Speaker 2: Yeah why can you just not do the thing like.
[1:04:53] Speaker 3: Yeah i i taught i uh i taught some some
[1:04:55] Speaker 3: dj classes before and i i had to uh i
[1:04:57] Speaker 3: had to reign in my patience one time with a
[1:04:59] Speaker 3: with a uh what a client i had because they
[1:05:02] Speaker 3: were doing something that that is in my in my
[1:05:05] Speaker 3: mind is this one of the simplest acts any kind
[1:05:08] Speaker 3: of dj could do and they just couldn't get it
[1:05:09] Speaker 3: at all you know and i was like what do
[1:05:12] Speaker 3: you mean you can't get it bro i'm like i'm
[1:05:15] Speaker 3: This is too easy.
[1:05:16] Speaker 1: Here you go.
[1:05:20] Speaker 2: Here you go. Somebody said, I don't understand why somebody
[1:05:24] Speaker 2: don't just slap that little motherfucker in the head.
[1:05:26] Speaker 1: I know. I know. Somebody out here. Hey, I'm carrying
[1:05:30] Speaker 1: this one, baby. You know, nothing like being contradictory. You
[1:05:33] Speaker 1: know what I'm saying? Hey, man.
[1:05:34] Speaker 2: That is DJ Wally Sparks. Check him out on Twitch,
[1:05:38] Speaker 2: twitch.tv slash DJ Wally Sparks. Check him out on Twitter
[1:05:42] Speaker 2: at DJ Wally Sparks. My brother, I appreciate you.
[1:05:45] Speaker 1: Thank you, man. I enjoy having these conversations, man, all
[1:05:48] Speaker 1: the time.
[1:05:49] Speaker 2: Hey, man.
[1:05:49] Speaker 1: Thank you.
[1:05:50] Speaker 2: And ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us
[1:05:51] Speaker 2: here on The Right Time. We do this four times
[1:05:54] Speaker 2: a week. Ryan Brumley handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir.
[1:05:58] Speaker 2: Hit the voicemail line 323-596-7767. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like,
[1:06:04] Speaker 2: rate us, review us. Give us five stars. You only
[1:06:07] Speaker 2: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
[1:06:09] Speaker 2: a hater. And we'll talk to you guys in a
[1:06:10] Speaker 2: couple of days. Take it easy.

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