Let’s delve into the making of some of the songs from Sign “O” the Times .
he wrote lyrics about it. On this track, we used the backwards drums, which entailed recording the arrangement backwards, so we recorded the drums and flipped the tape upside down and overdubbed it from there on out. So that was kind of fun as well. Did Prince ever mention any artists from this era being his direct competition, or was he completely focused on making his music the best it could possibly be? I think he was aware of and promoted a healthy rivalry between himself and Michael Jackson. He didn’t talk about any other artists that were his direct competition other than Michael Jackson. He was aware of what Jackson was doing. I don’t think he saw himself having to pass a test of who was better or who was worst because they were two different kinds of musicians. But he was aware that Michael Jackson had things that he would never have. The public adored Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson was considered the kid next door that you would love to have as your neighbor or dating your daughter. He had this squeaky, wholesome image. Prince was kind of the scary guy. The guy you didn’t want your daughter dating. He might be trouble. One time, one of the guys at Sunset Sound told me, “The reason why I like Bruce Springsteen better than Prince is because I think Bruce Springsteen would sit down and have a beer with me, and I’m afraid that Prince would steal my girlfriend.” I didn’t know Bruce Springsteen, but I knew Prince. Prince would never steal anybody’s girlfriend. If you knew him, you would want your daughter to date him. He was respectful and squeaky clean. We used to make jokes about how he would get high off of Coca-Cola, because he didn’t use profanity or drugs. He was as sober as a judge. He was such a respectable fellow. He saw himself in musical competition with Michael [Jackson]. Madonna was kind of sniffing around. Madonna wanted to be like him, but he didn’t want to be like her. He didn’t want to be like any of them. That was one of the great things about Prince. He had a lot of people imitating him, but he wasn’t imitating anybody.
“Sign ‘O’ the Times” was new for him in terms of tone. It was a little bit new in terms of sound too. He just received the Fairlight CMI, and he was really getting into it. He did the song at Sunset Sound in the control room. The Fairlight was set up right in there behind the console. He did one instrument at a time, like he normally did. I was blown away by the lyrics. It was something slightly new for him. It was a soulful, beautiful performance. It was an exceptional record. Many musicians cite this song as one of their favorites. It was a really impressive track. On “Adore,” Prince was really hurt that R&B and soul radio stations weren’t playing him as much as they used to. When I was driving around Los Angeles in 1979 and 1980, I was listening to the R&B and soul stations KACE-FM and KJLH-FM, and they were playing a lot of Prince. This is where I first heard Prince after his first record came out. After Purple Rain , R&B radio had kind of given him up. They liked “Kiss” and some of his other stuff, but it wasn’t the normal R&B and soul thing you would hear. He wanted that core audience back. He talked about that. “Adore” was an attempt to get more R&B radio play. It was an old-fashioned R&B and soul ballad. Lyrically, as well as the horn arrangements, the tempo, and everything about it, was R&B. I loved the high voice he put on the track. It was straight-up soul. “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker” is an homage to the music he loved. He loved Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell. Prince had a strong feminine sensibility and those writers are sophisticated in a different way. He valued jazz chords and very poetic lyrics. Wendy and Lisa were fans of Joni Mitchell, but Prince was a huge fan. When he learned about the poet Dorothy Parker, he had a dream one night that was conflating Joni Mitchell and Dorothy Parker. It was a pretty vivid dream. He came running down to the studio, and he wanted to record it right away before it slipped out of his head. We just finished taking the delivery of this DeMedio console at his home on Galpin Boulevard, and we weren’t done troubleshooting it yet. He said, “I don’t care what condition it’s in. If we can record with it, I just want to record now .” I replied, “Okay.” And against my better judgement, we put on fresh tape, and we did that song from top to bottom. I spent the next twenty-four hours thinking, “What on earth did I do to this?” Because the song sounded like it was underwater. There was no high end. Prince just wouldn’t stop. He kept on recording and recording and doing more overdubs. He didn’t mind it because the song came to him in a dream. Maybe that’s why he liked that underwater, muffled- sound quality to it. I remember when we were finally finished, I made him a cassette. He was getting ready to go upstairs to bed. He gave me some final instructions. Then he said, “I like the console, but it’s kind of dull, isn’t it?” [ laughs ] After he went to bed, I was able to pull out the voltmeter, and I saw that one of the two power supplies were down. It would be like a car running on half of its power. Once I fixed that problem, the console was great. It was another one of those happy accidents that he didn’t mind at all.
What was the first song recorded for this particular album?
Chronologically, it would have to be “Slow Love” and “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man,” because they were done years before the album was conceived. As I said before, the record wasn’t done in any chronological order. As I recall, “Play in the Sunshine” was one of the last songs we did. When we sequenced the record, we needed a song to go between two of the really important songs. It was kind of like a palate cleanser. He would write a song just to put in the sequence, so that the sequence would make sense. That’s why “Play in the Sunshine” was one of the last ones done. “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” and “Slow Love” were pulled out of the vault to be those segue songs, just to help finish this record and get it out there, so he didn’t have to write another ballad. He said, “I don’t feel like writing another ballad. I have an old song. Let’s put “Slow Love” on there. Let’s put it on there.” “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” was a good, long jam that would get us to “The Cross.” It was absolutely perfect for that. Technically speaking, those songs came first. But I know the gist of your question: of the more important songs, which one came first? One of the first songs was “Sign ‘O’ the Times.” It set the tone and mood for this record.
82
Prince. Promotional photo for the concert film Sign “O” the Times .
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting