Going into the making of Parade , Prince was coming off a stellar year in 1984 with Purple Rain , and another successful album in 1985 with Around the World in a Day . This album became the last one he released with the Revolution. Can you describe his new focus, direction, and sound with this album? David Z: Well, the Parade record was the soundtrack for his second movie, Under the Cherry Moon . Honestly, I didn’t have a lot to do with many songs on the album, although I mixed them for the movie. The only real song I did anything on was [the smash hit] “Kiss.” On all the other songs, Prince was doing everything himself. We were at Sunset Sound Studio in Los Angeles. He was working in Studio 3 like he usually did, and I was working in Studio 2. I was producing a group for him called Mazarati. He was giving us songs every once in a while. We did a few of his songs that were meant for the Time. He wasn’t with them anymore. He gave me a demo of him playing an acoustic guitar with just the first verse and chorus of “Kiss.” We didn’t know what to do with it because it sounded like a funk song. We programmed the drums, and I did the guitar part, which I [triggered the sample of it on] a hi-hat on the drum set. It’s kind of technical. I put it through a delay unit and altered the delay from the original signal to the delayed signal to halfway. It created a rhythm which was really funky. No one could really play that rhythm because it was very difficult, but then I played the acoustic guitar and gated it to that, so it made that funky rhythm that everyone hears today. We did the song for Mazarati, and they sang it an octave lower. We had a lot of stuff on there. There was some bass and a full piano part. After we did the song, I went back to the hotel and came back the next morning and the tape was gone. I asked my assistant, “Where is the tape?” [ laughs ] He replied, “Prince took it.” I went into his studio and he had already sung the song and played that James Brown lead guitar on it. “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” had the same beginning, but he said, “It was too good for you guys, so I took it back.” [ laughs ] What was I going to say? I was promised a co-producer credit on the album, but you know how that goes. But I created this rhythm track that he made into his own song. It was great. No one else could’ve sung it like he did. This is how this song came together. I think it was an afterthought, because the album was already done. He added “Kiss” at the last minute because he liked it so much. We already listened to the rest of the album, so I knew it was done and mixed, but that’s what happened with this song. This was really the only thing I had to do with the Parade record, except when Under the Cherry Moon was made, I mixed the whole record for the film. Susan Rogers: There was the artistic pressure to change and grow. He hit a homerun with Dirty Mind because it was the right aesthetic. He hit a home run with 1999 , and he really nailed it with Purple Rain . The pressure on an artist to do that again is very great, because you have to make the right work of art at the right time. He liked the whole black-and-white aesthetic at the time we were recording this album. He was trying to do a new movie, and he was thinking more globally. He was thinking about the South of France and Europe. He was thinking about increasing his profile, but it was such a gamble. He was such a smart and intuitive guy. He got it nearly perfect with his Parade record. The movie Under the Cherry Moon wasn’t a hit, but the album was a very, very strong album. What people were hearing was an attempt by a man who was very successful but wasn’t willing to cloak himself in the mantle of success and just rest on his laurels. He was still trying to come up with something new artistically. He was trying to get new sounds and looking for new lyrical statements. He was still reaching for something.
which became his recording studio, where, surprisingly, he did a lot of the tracks for the 1999 and Purple Rain albums. So I was in that bedroom studio taking out an old console and rewiring a new console and repairing the tape machine for about a week. I could hear him upstairs. Directly above me were the kitchen, dining room, and living room, and his piano was on that floor. I could hear him working on parts for “Computer Blue” and “The Beautiful Ones.” He was working out parts on the piano right above me. He was waiting for me to finish the installation so he could begin recording. I finally finished it, and I still hadn’t met him face-to-face yet. The only person I’d dealt with was Sandy Scipioni. So I called Sandy, and I said, “Sandy, I’m finished. Let him know that he can use the studio now.” She called him, and he came downstairs to see me. It was kind of late in the evening. It was after a long workday. He gave me some instructions, and I told him the room was ready to go. This was the first time I talked to him, and as he was about to walk back upstairs, a little voice inside of me said, “Don’t let it start like this.” As he was going back upstairs, I said, “Prince.” He stopped and turned around. I stuck my hand out for a handshake. I said, “My name is Susan Rogers.” It was just instinctive for me to do that. I just moved 2,300 miles away from home and left everything to come there. I didn’t want this guy to start telling me what to do without me telling him my name. We shook hands, and he thought it was kind of funny. He was trying not to laugh, and he said, “I’m Prince.” [ laughs ] I think he kind of liked that, but that’s how I met him and started working for him, but things got off to a slow start though. I remember shortly after that he had Jesse Johnson and Morris Day come over to the house to start working on some of the Time’s stuff. The three of them were talking about music, and I was being quiet, very respectful, and doing what I was told and trying to fit in. I was a White girl from Southern California, but they didn’t know that I knew all their references. I knew every obscure record they were talking about. I listened to the same music. At one point, Morris mentioned Frankie Beverly and Maze and One Way featuring Al Hudson. They mentioned a particular song that I knew, and I was like, “Oh!” because I loved that song. I remember all three of them looked up, and I looked at them, and it was a form of silent communication. It was like, “Yeah. I know what you know.” We had the same frame of reference. After that, things changed. I felt like I hadn’t gained full entrance into the club, but I, at least, came closer to the inner circle. Not all his employees listened to the same music they did. I knew many of the same cultural references and that helped me a great deal in that position. By knowing the same cultural and musical references, how did that experience assist you in the recording process and capturing the overall sound for Prince? Susan Rogers: I think Prince was grateful that, not only did he have a woman engineer, but a woman that knew what he had listened to growing up and had a similar value system. I joined him as an audio technician, but he knew that he could mold me into becoming the engineer he wanted because we liked the same things. At the very least, it helped that I knew the music of James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, and Parliament-Funkadelic. I knew what he was going for. I think he felt a little bit more comfortable with me, knowing that I enjoyed the music that we were making, and that I wasn’t just sitting there secretly wishing we were making acoustic folk or rock music. What we were making was what I wanted to hear.
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