Did you have a favorite song on this album?
he worked with, but as soon as he started to fully understand it, it was time for him to do it himself. I’ve never seen that with anybody I’ve worked with. People know their way around now because it’s digital, but back then it was a pretty interesting process. You were still editing tape by cutting it. He understood everything from A to Z, and it was very awesome to watch.
Husney: Yes, I did. There was a song on the first album called “In Love.” No, “So Blue.” I mean, “So Blue.” “In Love” I liked, because when he hit it, that was a synthesizer arrangement. It was very hard to get out of my mind. There was a song called “So Blue” on that first album, which really showed the tender side of Prince. It showed how multifaceted he was. There were probably several personalities swimming around in there. There was that “So Blue” side, which was the spirited, vulnerable person. One of the songs that really stood out to me, because it was on the demo, was a song called “Baby.” “Baby, what are we gonna do?” It was about young teenagers getting pregnant. They were dating and his girlfriend got pregnant. “Baby, what are we gonna do? There’s [barely] enough money for two.” Where are you going to go with that? At the very end of the song, he says, “I hope our baby has eyes just like yours.” He wasn’t talking about abortion or anything. It was very, very sensitive for an eighteen-year-old to be writing that shit. He could see all sides of everything. He was so bright. It was just like I said before—people like him don’t come along very often. .
What was some of the equipment and the instruments that were used during the creative process?
Husney: He was very enamored with synthesizers. Actually, we talked about it at one point, the usage of synthesizers. In the very beginning, it was just another creative tool, so I was able to get him one—it was an Oberheim Four Voice synthesizer. He grasped how it worked, immediately. He used it on some of the horn parts, especially on the demos at Sound 80 [Studios]. The only person I know that actually did some stuff with him that came out during the first album was Patrice Rushen. She showed him a bunch of stuff, and he did some stuff with her. Otherwise, he did it by himself. He was very enamored with the early Oberheim Four Voice synthesizer. He continued to use it quite a bit. That became part of the Minneapolis sound. Other people overused it to the point where it was totally overdone. He knew how to layer it. He was laying down the drum tracks, guitar, and bass. He was laying it all down and putting it together. His use of the synthesizer was the biggest standout that I remember at the time. It really was influencing his sound.
How much was Prince involved with engineering For You ?
Husney: I think that’s where some of the dispute came in, because Prince had a very specific way that he wanted his music to sound early on. He had two things going for him: he had the talent to pull it off, and he had the balls to pull it off. He would go for it, and if you got in his way, it wasn’t going to work out too well for you, even at an early age. In fact, one of the things I noticed about Prince that I liked early on was he knew what he wanted and he had the balls to go for it. I never saw him back down. [ laughs ] That kind of talent doesn’t come along very often. A lot of people do have it, but very few [overall]. Were there any interesting, behind-the-scenes stories in terms of the making of the couple of songs that were released from the record, like “Soft and Wet,” “Just as Long as We’re Together,” “For You”? Husney: On “For You,” I don’t know where he dreamt that up. Somewhere on the plane going out there or sometime in the studio. He just kind of came up with that. The only thing that I can tell you is that we were all thrown into this situation in Sausalito, and we had to make the best of it. One of the things that kept us going was, we were constantly doing practical jokes on people. At one point, Prince wanted David [flown] out during the vocals, because he really trusted David. So I flew David out to Sausalito, and he stayed with us and did a lot of the vocals. Prince always trusted David on vocals. But, I think, David was even shocked by the amount of practical jokes we were pulling on each other. We would go to a restaurant, and Prince would have a squirt gun. From under the table, he fired it up in the air; it would be landing on different peoples’ heads. [ laughs ] They were like, “What the hell is going on?” People would be brushing their shoulders off all over the restaurant. We pulled all kinds of practical jokes. It helped to break the ice. He was definitely a leader in the practical-joke department.
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Photo by Jurgen Reisch, courtesy of Warner Bros. As seen on the inner sleeve of the follow-up album, 1979’s Prince .
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