Latest / DISGRACELAND / Prince (Pt. 1): Dark Funk and Fentanyl

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Prince (Pt. 1): Dark Funk and Fentanyl · DISGRACELAND

0:01
Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of double Elvis. The stories about
0:17
Speaker 1: Prince are insane. Those who knew him intimately claimed that
0:21
Speaker 1: he never slept, he never ate, He never had sex. Yes,
0:25
Speaker 1: Prince that Prince never had sex, at least not in
0:27
Speaker 1: his later years. He swore it off like eating. He
0:31
Speaker 1: claimed sex slowed him down, and the image of Prince
0:34
Speaker 1: as a sex charged, funked out and info maniac was
0:37
Speaker 1: just that, an image one crafted as a vessel for
0:40
Speaker 1: his pop star ascent and dominance. But Prince was not
0:43
Speaker 1: just another pop star. Prince was a virtuoso. Calling him
0:47
Speaker 1: the greatest musician of all time remarkably sounds like an understatement,
0:51
Speaker 1: for Prince was much more. He was an excessively talented musician, yes,
0:55
Speaker 1: a great songwriter, performer, producer, but above all, an artist
1:00
Speaker 1: in the truest sense of the word. He lived it.
1:02
Speaker 1: He controlled it through a small squad of alter egos,
1:06
Speaker 1: multiple personalities, who he would utilize to bring his art
1:09
Speaker 1: to life and to consult with creatively, to deploy to
1:12
Speaker 1: help control what a time seemed uncontrollable. His mammoth sprawling talent.
1:18
Speaker 1: Prince worked hard. He never stopped, and that work took
1:22
Speaker 1: its toll on the slightly built but larger than life
1:25
Speaker 1: artist and the result, ironically would be a complete and
1:29
Speaker 1: fatal lack of control. But not before building a vast
1:32
Speaker 1: amount of great music, unlike that music I played for
1:35
Speaker 1: you at the top of the show. That wasn't great music.
1:39
Speaker 1: That was a preset loop for my melotron called Colombo's
1:42
Speaker 1: Good I MK one. I played you that loop because
1:47
Speaker 1: I can't afford the rights to the reflex by Duran
1:50
Speaker 1: Duran And why would I play you that specific slice
1:54
Speaker 1: of Ragged Tiger Cheese? Could I have afford it? Because
1:58
Speaker 1: that was the number one one song in America on
2:01
Speaker 1: June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty four, And that was the
2:05
Speaker 1: day that Prince Rogers Nelson would release Purple Rain, his
2:09
Speaker 1: landmark artistic statement, and demonstrate his complete control of pop
2:13
Speaker 1: culture with the soon to be number one album, single
2:16
Speaker 1: and movie of the same name. On this episode, a
2:20
Speaker 1: virtuoso talent Ragged Tiger Cheese, complete control in the lack
2:26
Speaker 1: bear of and the almighty Purple One himself. Prince, I'm
2:31
Speaker 1: Jake Brennan, and this his disgrace. Land Marris Day walked
2:55
Speaker 1: swiftly past the line of shivering clubgoers. Using his cane
2:59
Speaker 1: for a he palmed the doorman a twenty and quickly
3:03
Speaker 1: escaped the cold Minneapolis nighttime air. He ascended the stairs
3:07
Speaker 1: to the dark was compelled by the smell of dank
3:10
Speaker 1: weed and the sound of heavy funk pounding out of
3:12
Speaker 1: the club. His heart rate kicked up a notch as
3:15
Speaker 1: he made his way closer to the end of the
3:17
Speaker 1: entryway and toward the Greater dance hall. That anticipation, the unknown,
3:22
Speaker 1: the moment just before you've arrived. What might the knight
3:25
Speaker 1: have in store for you? Even though you're a seasoned professional,
3:29
Speaker 1: The unknown possibilities are still exciting. Sex drugs, of course,
3:34
Speaker 1: career opportunities all possible, especially for a fly motherfucker like
3:38
Speaker 1: Mars Day and most definitely when the man came around
3:43
Speaker 1: and word was tonight that his Majesty was going to
3:45
Speaker 1: make the scene, Mars tipped his fedora to the beefy
3:50
Speaker 1: bouncer at the end of the hall, and the no
3:52
Speaker 1: neck acknowledged him with a knowing nod and a sly wink.
3:55
Speaker 1: As he leaned into the door with one sculpted arm
3:57
Speaker 1: and the weight of his very large body, open it
4:00
Speaker 1: for what he could only have judged as the slickest
4:03
Speaker 1: of VIPs. As soon as Mars entered the club, the
4:08
Speaker 1: music shifted, as if his entry had been soundtracked by
4:12
Speaker 1: some unknown force. As he moved, he was greeted with
4:16
Speaker 1: low fives, pats on the back, fist bumps, more knowing nods,
4:19
Speaker 1: and more sly winks from the men, flirting back to
4:22
Speaker 1: the eye, and long head to toe glances from the women.
4:25
Speaker 1: A small crowd filled in behind him as he made
4:27
Speaker 1: his way through the clubs outer circle, passed one of
4:30
Speaker 1: its bars, and toward the dance floor. Marris walked in
4:33
Speaker 1: his own Marris Day kind of way, his head up,
4:36
Speaker 1: chin extended out slightly ahead of the rest of him,
4:39
Speaker 1: his mouth pinched, his shoulders back, one arm working with
4:42
Speaker 1: cane and one arm trailing behind the rest of them,
4:44
Speaker 1: as if in an effort to pick up whatever it
4:46
Speaker 1: was he might be missing out on this dancing for everybody,
4:50
Speaker 1: just the sexy people. It was a determined strut, a
4:53
Speaker 1: strut that suggested that the world didn't understand how valuable
4:56
Speaker 1: his time was. He was going places, and if his
4:59
Speaker 1: gait didn't make it clear that his clothes most certainly did.
5:03
Speaker 1: Cab Callawei Fedora bespoke blazer with tiger print lapels, skinny tie,
5:07
Speaker 1: hard pressed slacks, and polished wingtips that you would swear
5:10
Speaker 1: left behind a trail of neon with every step. His
5:14
Speaker 1: man Jerome quickly found his way to his side. He
5:16
Speaker 1: kept striding updated Mars on the goings on, Who was who,
5:20
Speaker 1: who was where, which one was getting with which one,
5:22
Speaker 1: who had the good stuff, who was holding out, when
5:24
Speaker 1: their table would be ready, and most important, whether or
5:27
Speaker 1: not he had actually shown up. Quickly, another one of
5:31
Speaker 1: Mars's meetings slipped a drink into his hand, Boka water Rocks,
5:35
Speaker 1: the Bobby Womack. Marris was now on the pack dance floor,
5:39
Speaker 1: and he sipped his drink, stood still, looked around him.
5:42
Speaker 1: The strobing lights, the pounding base, the packed house seemed
5:46
Speaker 1: to circle around him as if he were the center
5:48
Speaker 1: of the universe. But Mars, as good as it all
5:51
Speaker 1: felt in the moment, knew that that wasn't true. This
5:54
Speaker 1: was Minneapolis. There was only one center of the universe,
5:58
Speaker 1: and that was wherever he decided to be. Mars, from
6:01
Speaker 1: the middle of the dance floor, looked up to the
6:03
Speaker 1: club's second floor balcony, and there aside the DJ booth,
6:07
Speaker 1: he stood stone still, arms crossed, big black wraparound sunglasses
6:13
Speaker 1: on no expression, shocking white trench coat, six inch collar
6:17
Speaker 1: open at the neck, skin tight half shirt, in that
6:20
Speaker 1: perfect pencil thin mustache that, among the many other things
6:24
Speaker 1: he possessed, made Mars Day excessively jealous. There he was
6:32
Speaker 1: high above everyone else, surveying the entire scene, taking it
6:36
Speaker 1: all in off on his own trip, at least one,
6:40
Speaker 1: possibly ten steps ahead of everyone else, per usual, and
6:44
Speaker 1: somehow doing justice to every one of his nicknames at
6:47
Speaker 1: the same time, his Royal Badness, the High Priest, the
6:50
Speaker 1: pop the Purple One, the future artist formerly known as Prince.
6:57
Speaker 1: Nineteen eighty seven Rupert's Nightclub, Golden Valley, Minnesota, a touch
7:02
Speaker 1: west of Minneapolis. What lay before Prince was what Prince
7:06
Speaker 1: had sown from wayback. Prince was now one of the
7:09
Speaker 1: biggest entertainers in the world. He put the scene on
7:12
Speaker 1: the map, and tonight he was looking for something in return, validation.
7:18
Speaker 1: Prince saw Mars down below on the dance floor looking
7:21
Speaker 1: up at him, looking for his own validation, and Prince
7:23
Speaker 1: ignored him. It was time. The song was about to
7:27
Speaker 1: come to an end. Prince pulled an advance copy of
7:31
Speaker 1: a soon to be released tenth album, The Black Album,
7:34
Speaker 1: out from under his arm and handed it to the
7:36
Speaker 1: DJ at the same time, delivering a deeply serious look
7:39
Speaker 1: and curt instruction spin it. The DJ did as he
7:46
Speaker 1: was told. The vinyls spun the needle drop. The speakers
7:51
Speaker 1: swelled with a swooping synth, and they quickly gave way
7:54
Speaker 1: to the fattest funk. The dance floor was immediately filled
7:58
Speaker 1: beyond capacity. The horns then kicked in. The low synth wormed,
8:03
Speaker 1: burrowed deep into the backbones of all in the tendons,
8:06
Speaker 1: and the bass slapped. Prince's vocal commanded them all to
8:09
Speaker 1: do La grind, and so his Royal Court obliged, grinding
8:14
Speaker 1: on the dance floor, bodies bumping, writhing, sweating. Seven heavenly
8:19
Speaker 1: minutes later, the track came to an end and was
8:21
Speaker 1: quickly succeeded by a more upbeat dance track with Princess
8:25
Speaker 1: Falsetto soaring over the slinky now Roger's influenced rhythm. Prince
8:32
Speaker 1: proclaimed that the song was about quote a high class
8:35
Speaker 1: model over in Paris, France. The crowd felt it immediately
8:40
Speaker 1: Prince stuck his groove deep in the paint a hard
8:44
Speaker 1: come on, and the crowd loved it. Eyes locked, bodies
8:47
Speaker 1: rocked tighter as the record continued to crush from Cindy
8:50
Speaker 1: c All the way to the filthy rock hard in
8:52
Speaker 1: a funky Place. Prince's voice pitched up to no doubt
8:56
Speaker 1: hide behind one of his many creative alter egos, but
8:59
Speaker 1: there was no way to hide from what he was
9:00
Speaker 1: seeing take shape in front of him, no way to
9:03
Speaker 1: hide from what his music had inspired, pure deprevity, newly
9:10
Speaker 1: formed dance floor couples making out, bumping and grinding out
9:13
Speaker 1: in the open under strobes and sneaking off into dark corners,
9:16
Speaker 1: the neon signage on the brick club walls revealing their
9:19
Speaker 1: passionate plays and short intermittent flashes. Prince saw them all,
9:23
Speaker 1: as well as those not coupled up, packing themselves closer
9:26
Speaker 1: together at the bar, three to one, women and men
9:29
Speaker 1: four deep off the stick, bartenders and vests and bow ties,
9:32
Speaker 1: hustling vodka sodas for the norms, Bobby Womax for those
9:35
Speaker 1: who knew better, and knowing themselves that they were missing
9:39
Speaker 1: out on one hell of a party, but happy to
9:41
Speaker 1: be in the room. Nonetheless, Prince could smell the skunk.
9:45
Speaker 1: The smoke blatted up the sides of the walls from
9:47
Speaker 1: the hidden nooks where one could steal away for a
9:49
Speaker 1: quick hitoff of a bat and be gone before security
9:52
Speaker 1: could read out the culprit. Prince could see the pin
9:55
Speaker 1: prick eyes of the speed freaks out on the floor
9:58
Speaker 1: a step ahead of the beat, hair drenched their collars,
10:01
Speaker 1: once popped, now flopped along with the rest of their clothes,
10:04
Speaker 1: seeming to slide off their backs with their sweat. Prince
10:07
Speaker 1: caught the shifting jaws on the coke fiends and their
10:09
Speaker 1: darting eyes, observant of the incredible party unfolding around them,
10:13
Speaker 1: but far from the moment, intent on finding their way
10:16
Speaker 1: to the next available bathroom, stalled a key their burning
10:18
Speaker 1: bindles and blast off into the never ending noon, and
10:22
Speaker 1: Prince envied the perma smiles on the faces of the
10:25
Speaker 1: ecstasy heads tripping over their cuban heels for his latest
10:28
Speaker 1: masterpiece blasting from the speakers. He heard about the drugs
10:32
Speaker 1: euphoric effects and wanted in on that action, especially in
10:35
Speaker 1: this moment, right now, when his new music had set
10:38
Speaker 1: off a low key sex drenched Gomorrah in his backyard.
10:42
Speaker 1: The Spirit Child slipped Prince the ecstasy earlier in the night.
10:46
Speaker 1: She'd smuggled it all the way back from La supposedly
10:49
Speaker 1: scoring it from a hyperactive, bare chested punk rocker specifically
10:53
Speaker 1: for Prince waiting for her back in Minneapolis, and now
10:57
Speaker 1: the drug was kicking in. Suddenly it all made no sense.
11:02
Speaker 1: This Gomorrah, this dance club depravity, the sex, the drugs,
11:06
Speaker 1: the bleakness, the blackness brought on by his new unreleased
11:10
Speaker 1: black album. It was so cynical and it was all
11:13
Speaker 1: his fault. Prince knew it. The music was too dark,
11:16
Speaker 1: too craven, too cynical. Who was he anyway, Prince or
11:20
Speaker 1: Rudy ray Moore? And there was, of course no easy answer,
11:25
Speaker 1: because Prince was many people that night. Soon after the
11:49
Speaker 1: ecstasy turned the mood for Prince at Rupert's, Prince bailed,
11:53
Speaker 1: napping the slab of vinyl off of the turntable, ignoring
11:56
Speaker 1: the DJ's compliments, ignoring Wild Child, and most certainly Ignoredduring
12:00
Speaker 1: Morris Day, head down be lined to the exit the
12:03
Speaker 1: sidewalk the back of his waiting limo, security in tow
12:06
Speaker 1: more security, leading the way, a sound seventy mile per
12:09
Speaker 1: hour street escort straight back to his Paisley Park compound,
12:12
Speaker 1: where he moved quickly to the comfort of his studio lounge.
12:17
Speaker 1: The heavy doors swung open, and as usual, there was
12:20
Speaker 1: a little party going on in between late night sessions,
12:24
Speaker 1: and they were all there in his studio waiting, ready
12:27
Speaker 1: to greet him. Prince's alter egos. There was Alexander Nevermind, Hey,
12:33
Speaker 1: how you doing, Joey Koco, Hey you Way and Como,
12:39
Speaker 1: and then there was Jerome's brother Jamie Starr, How you doing?
12:43
Speaker 1: Buddy and his crew, the symbol known as stand Out
12:47
Speaker 1: of Trouble, Camille, Hey Baby, how you doing? And then
12:51
Speaker 1: there was Christa Killer who was Jesse Times brother, Hey
12:55
Speaker 1: to care that thing for you? And you had Gemini
12:59
Speaker 1: sub Prince and Alexander Nevermind I tracked that ding and
13:03
Speaker 1: laid it down fat and Toro Toro who got that
13:06
Speaker 1: nickname because he said everything twice like I'm gonna go
13:08
Speaker 1: track the vocal track the vocal Together they made Prince's
13:13
Speaker 1: greatest hits. Camille rocked the vox on you get the look?
13:16
Speaker 1: And if I was your girlfriend, Jamie Starr shredded Prince's
13:19
Speaker 1: iconic guitar solos Alexander Nevermind oozed frontman confidence. He also
13:24
Speaker 1: wrote the steamy Sugar Walls single for Shina Easton, which
13:28
Speaker 1: made it all the way to number nine. Chris the
13:30
Speaker 1: Killer aka Christopher Tracy brought the hooks. He wrote Manic
13:34
Speaker 1: Monday for the Bengals, which clocked in at number two.
13:38
Speaker 1: Smash Gemini so versatile. She could get the crowd going
13:42
Speaker 1: by singing the dirty melody to Irresistible Bitch in one moment,
13:45
Speaker 1: and would then bring the crowd to its knees with
13:47
Speaker 1: the ballad God and the next. Joey Koco penned Monster Singles,
13:52
Speaker 1: a country single even You're My Love for Kenny Rogers
13:56
Speaker 1: and Toro Tora laid in the cut engineering Prince's nineteen
13:59
Speaker 1: eighty I would put waiting patiently, but one day step
14:02
Speaker 1: out and lead the new power generation. And they were
14:05
Speaker 1: there for him on that night in his studio like
14:08
Speaker 1: they always were, lending an ear supportive. Prince broke it
14:13
Speaker 1: down real quick. The album was a bust. It was
14:16
Speaker 1: too bleak, what were they thinking? Answering critics he was
14:20
Speaker 1: too pop and answering his audience he wasn't black enough.
14:24
Speaker 1: He was Prince, He answered to no one. This album,
14:27
Speaker 1: the Black Album, had disaster written all over it. What
14:31
Speaker 1: if the party really was over? What if they were
14:33
Speaker 1: indeed at a time we could all die any day?
14:36
Speaker 1: Went the thinking. And if so, what if this album
14:39
Speaker 1: was the last thing anyone ever heard of? Prince? The
14:42
Speaker 1: Black Album was funky, sure, a new kind of funk,
14:44
Speaker 1: even a darker funk, blacker than anything on the charts,
14:47
Speaker 1: perhaps even too much funk for the charts. That scared
14:51
Speaker 1: Prince more than anything the slip. He picked up the
14:56
Speaker 1: phone and dialed his man at Warner Brothers Records, his
14:58
Speaker 1: record label. Shelve it. What the album? The album's shifted,
15:03
Speaker 1: It's on trucks setting the record stores right now as
15:05
Speaker 1: we speak, turned the trucks around DJ's are already spinning
15:09
Speaker 1: advanced copies. I don't care, shelve it, destroy it. I
15:14
Speaker 1: don't want the album coming out. I don't want the
15:16
Speaker 1: world hearing this. It's wrong. And then Prince hung up,
15:21
Speaker 1: and the label had no choice. Prince, despite whatever his
15:25
Speaker 1: contract did or didn't say, was too valuable a commodity
15:28
Speaker 1: to not keep happy if he didn't want this record
15:31
Speaker 1: to come out, no matter the hassle, no matter the
15:33
Speaker 1: financial loss upsetting him, alienating him as big of a
15:36
Speaker 1: star as he was, as big of a cash cow
15:38
Speaker 1: as he was. For warners, it wasn't worth it to
15:40
Speaker 1: the record label best to keep Prince happy. His creative
15:44
Speaker 1: output was legend Besides, he had no doubt another record
15:48
Speaker 1: recorded and ready to ship, regardless the benefits of having
15:51
Speaker 1: an imaginary team of creative alter egos waiting on your
15:54
Speaker 1: every whim to swoop into action. Prince, despite the ecstasy
15:58
Speaker 1: he was on a big no no. On Prince's world,
16:00
Speaker 1: the use of drugs was firmly in control. Control of
16:04
Speaker 1: his music, control of his image, control even of his
16:08
Speaker 1: record label bosses, and it had been that way since
16:11
Speaker 1: the beginning, since the first record contract he signed back
16:14
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy seven. The contract was legendary because of
16:18
Speaker 1: the creative control it gave Prince, who at the time
16:21
Speaker 1: was a young, largely unknown commodity eighteen years old in fact,
16:26
Speaker 1: and with complete creative control, an unbelievable concession from the label.
16:31
Speaker 1: Prince would not only be their star recording artist, he'd
16:34
Speaker 1: write his own hits, he'd play all the instruments, he'd
16:37
Speaker 1: produce himself, total control until now, until the drug caused
16:43
Speaker 1: him to second guess himself. But prior to the hasty
16:46
Speaker 1: shelving of the Black Album, the results had been undeniable.
16:52
Speaker 1: His first demo had sparked a bidding war among major labels,
16:55
Speaker 1: and by the time he was twenty two, he had
16:57
Speaker 1: opened for Rick James and the Rolling Stones, appeared on
17:00
Speaker 1: American Bandstand in Saturday Night Live. It released five full
17:04
Speaker 1: length albums on which he played all the instruments, albums
17:09
Speaker 1: full of singles that burned up the Billboard charts in
17:11
Speaker 1: a wide variety of genres define easy categorization, soul, funk, dance,
17:17
Speaker 1: the Hot, one hundred. Everything he touched turned to gold
17:20
Speaker 1: or more often platinum. This is no unofficial schooling in
17:23
Speaker 1: rockstardom for Prince. Prince schooled his audiences night after night
17:28
Speaker 1: on what it meant to be a star. He'd work
17:30
Speaker 1: from dusk to dawn, and then rehearsal was always at
17:33
Speaker 1: ten am, and he was never late for rehearsal. The
17:36
Speaker 1: physical demand of it all was astounding. His next act,
17:40
Speaker 1: Hammered The Point Home Purple Rain. The album and the
17:44
Speaker 1: film rocketed Prince to an even broader level of mainstream fame.
17:48
Speaker 1: The album netted three Grammy Awards and the film won
17:51
Speaker 1: Prince in Oscar for Best Original Score. Prior to big
17:54
Speaker 1: screen success, Prince cockered the small screen with his video
17:58
Speaker 1: for Little Red Corvette wrote the color Barrier MTV along
18:02
Speaker 1: with Michael Jackson's Billy Jean. Prince called his backing band
18:05
Speaker 1: The Revolution for obvious reasons. He had risen to the
18:08
Speaker 1: highest heights on sheer creative talent, a prolific multi instrumental
18:12
Speaker 1: monster who could devour every musical influence that came his
18:15
Speaker 1: way and digest it all to produce something totally seductive,
18:19
Speaker 1: impossible not to dance to. And brand fucking knew after
18:24
Speaker 1: all this success, all the creative control handed to him,
18:27
Speaker 1: because his brilliance was just that undeniable. It was no
18:30
Speaker 1: wonder he trusted his instincts about the Black Album. Prince
18:34
Speaker 1: knew he made the right decision, and they all agreed
18:37
Speaker 1: with him. Camiono, Alexander Nevermind, Joey Koko, the artist formerly
18:41
Speaker 1: known as Gemini, Christopher Jamie Starr, even though sometimes obstinate,
18:45
Speaker 1: Toro tore the bleakness of the Black Album the deprevity
18:49
Speaker 1: at Rock back at Rupert's would not sink Prince, It
18:53
Speaker 1: would not tumble him from his firm standing atop the charts,
18:56
Speaker 1: and would not cause him to lose control. Nothing would
18:59
Speaker 1: no one, would not even the King of Pop. We'll
19:07
Speaker 1: be right back after this word word word. The score
19:16
Speaker 1: was so big that any common thief wouldn't have been
19:19
Speaker 1: able to pull it off. The heist required resources. The
19:23
Speaker 1: King had those resources, and his cunning was unmatched. The
19:28
Speaker 1: theft was brazen, out in the open, pulled off right
19:31
Speaker 1: out from under their owner's nose, A near fifty million
19:33
Speaker 1: dollar heist. Not in jewels, not in cash, but in melodies, riffs, harmonies, emotions, nostalgias,
19:40
Speaker 1: psychedelic inspiration, pure pop, power, pop revolution, yellow submarines, strawberry fields,
19:46
Speaker 1: Norwegian would and any and all perceive Megavalue from the
19:50
Speaker 1: greatest music catalog of all time, The Beatles Publishing Michael Jackson,
19:58
Speaker 1: the King of Pop, had befriended the Beatles Paul McCartney
20:00
Speaker 1: back in the late seventies, collaborated with him on numerous songs,
20:04
Speaker 1: and by the time Michael's groundbreaking album Thriller was released
20:08
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two, the pair a due edit on
20:10
Speaker 1: the album single The Girl Is Mine. It hit number
20:13
Speaker 1: two on the Billboard chart number one on the R
20:16
Speaker 1: and B chart. Critics savaged it. In nineteen eighty three,
20:20
Speaker 1: Paul McCartney released an earlier recorded collaboration between he and
20:24
Speaker 1: Michael Say Say Say, taking full advantage of the new
20:28
Speaker 1: music video medium beginning to dominate the record buying public's imagination.
20:33
Speaker 1: The video, featuring the two multi generational pop stars mugging
20:37
Speaker 1: it up in a way that the world hadn't seen
20:39
Speaker 1: McCartney do since his early sixties days with John Lennon,
20:42
Speaker 1: pushed the song to number one. It was clear McCartney
20:46
Speaker 1: and Michael had all kinds of chemistry, and it appeared
20:49
Speaker 1: that a true friendship had been established. As close friends
20:53
Speaker 1: do one confided in the other. McCartney griped to Michael
20:56
Speaker 1: that he had lost control of the Beatles' music publishing,
21:00
Speaker 1: being the vast majority the massive sums of money Beatles
21:03
Speaker 1: music generated was not going into his pockets or the
21:06
Speaker 1: pockets of John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono's. It was going
21:09
Speaker 1: into the pocket of an Australian billionaire who had purchased
21:12
Speaker 1: the majority stake in the Beatles catalog of music Back
21:15
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven, McCartney explained to Michael that the
21:19
Speaker 1: Beatles Publishing was going back up for sale and that
21:22
Speaker 1: he was trying to put the money together to purchase
21:24
Speaker 1: it back for himself. The going price would be at
21:27
Speaker 1: least thirty five million dollars, likely more. McCartney had swallowed
21:32
Speaker 1: his pride and went to Yoko Ono to see if
21:34
Speaker 1: she'd be interested in going in on the deal with him,
21:37
Speaker 1: putting up the capitol with him to get the deal done.
21:39
Speaker 1: Because McCartney was short, Yoko told him to go pound sand.
21:43
Speaker 1: Suddenly she wasn't interested in money. So Paul McCartney sat
21:50
Speaker 1: on his couch with Michael Jackson watching cartoons and explained
21:53
Speaker 1: to him how songwriting publishing worked, how great of an
21:56
Speaker 1: investment it was, how every time the material was exploited,
22:00
Speaker 1: played on the radio, in a film, commercial, stadium, etc.
22:03
Speaker 1: The songs generated money. He explained how he himself had
22:07
Speaker 1: recently purchased the rights to Buddy Holly's music publishing as
22:10
Speaker 1: an investment to help dull the sting of not owning
22:12
Speaker 1: his own music. Michael listened like a thief. McCartney went
22:17
Speaker 1: in for the clothes he asked Michael if he himself
22:19
Speaker 1: would like to own part of the Beatles catalog, the
22:22
Speaker 1: two would go in on it together, put the scratch
22:24
Speaker 1: together to buy the music back from the AUSSI billionaire
22:27
Speaker 1: and cash in forever. Michael giggled, what did he know
22:31
Speaker 1: about any of it? Anyway? Paul went back to his cartoons.
22:37
Speaker 1: When Michael left Paul's place, he called his lawyer and
22:39
Speaker 1: told him to get into it without Paul. Michael Jackson
22:43
Speaker 1: was the king. He had more money than the Beadle. Hell,
22:46
Speaker 1: he had more money than all the Beatles and Yokohono,
22:48
Speaker 1: and so he didn't need Paul McCartney or his silly
22:51
Speaker 1: love songs or his friendship. He went straight for the
22:54
Speaker 1: booty himself. He outbid McCartney and Richard Branson and some
22:58
Speaker 1: others as well, and stole Paul McCartney's songs and his
23:01
Speaker 1: legacy right out from under his nose for a whopping
23:04
Speaker 1: forty seven point five million dollars. Say say, say what
23:09
Speaker 1: an asshole. But Michael Jackson had what he wanted control,
23:15
Speaker 1: and in nineteen eighty five, when he executed this great theft,
23:18
Speaker 1: Michael needed it the control. Despite being the king, he
23:22
Speaker 1: felt himself slipping from his throne. Prince knew this, and
23:26
Speaker 1: of course he knew all about the number Michael pulled
23:29
Speaker 1: on McCartney. Prince knew Michael was slippery as fuck, not
23:33
Speaker 1: to be trusted and vulnerable. In nineteen eighty two, Michael
23:37
Speaker 1: Jackson released Thriller. The album went to number one, had
23:41
Speaker 1: seven top ten singles, and catapulted Michael Jackson to becoming
23:44
Speaker 1: the biggest star on the planet. In nineteen eighty two,
23:47
Speaker 1: Prince released nineteen ninety Nine. The album went to number nine,
23:51
Speaker 1: had three top twenty singles, and made Prince a household name,
23:55
Speaker 1: but Michael was clearly on top. However, between the releases
23:59
Speaker 1: of Thriller nineteen ninety nine, Prince had released the groundbreaking
24:03
Speaker 1: Purple Rain album single in movie all of the same name,
24:07
Speaker 1: and with that three headed release Monster, Prince had the
24:10
Speaker 1: number one album single in movie in the US all
24:13
Speaker 1: at the same time, a feat that no artist had
24:16
Speaker 1: pulled off since the Beatles did it back in nineteen
24:18
Speaker 1: sixty four with the release of A Hard Day's Night.
24:21
Speaker 1: You can buy the rights, MJ, but you can't buy
24:24
Speaker 1: a three Headed Monster. Prince wasted no time and released
24:28
Speaker 1: his follow up album Around the World in a Day,
24:30
Speaker 1: mere days after the Purple Rain World tore wrapped with
24:34
Speaker 1: no advanced promotion and no advanced single, The album still
24:37
Speaker 1: went to number one on the back of the infectious
24:39
Speaker 1: Raspberry Beret track. It was clear that Around the World
24:42
Speaker 1: in a Day wasn't trying to pick up or Purple
24:45
Speaker 1: Rain left off creatively. It was something totally different, psychedelic
24:50
Speaker 1: but still somehow more pop. Prince was pushing himself in
24:54
Speaker 1: pop music in general as a genre forward. He was
24:57
Speaker 1: in control, whereas my Michael Jackson, aside from bamboozling Paul McCartney,
25:03
Speaker 1: was in a way reeling terrified into creative stillness by
25:07
Speaker 1: the success of Thriller. Michael feared the failure of a
25:10
Speaker 1: follow up. He was too scared to write to record.
25:13
Speaker 1: He heard the rumors that he didn't have it anymore,
25:15
Speaker 1: that he lost it, that he wasn't in control. So
25:18
Speaker 1: he got an idea. Prince sat across from Michael Jackson
25:25
Speaker 1: and heard him out. You see, man, you're bad and
25:28
Speaker 1: I'm bad, So just listen, man, we should do it,
25:32
Speaker 1: you and me. Michael then popped the duet he was
25:34
Speaker 1: proposing its cassette demo into the boombox and pressed play.
25:38
Speaker 1: Prince leaned back completely nonplussed. The horns kicked off the track,
25:43
Speaker 1: the tiki talk beat kicked in. Prince nodded along. Michael's
25:48
Speaker 1: voice filled up the speakers with the opening verse line,
25:50
Speaker 1: and Prince stood up immediately slammed down the stop button
25:53
Speaker 1: on the boombox. He'd heard enough. He looked at Michael,
25:58
Speaker 1: Hold up, who's going to sing that line? That first line?
26:01
Speaker 1: Your butt is mine? I ain't going to sing that
26:03
Speaker 1: line to you, and you sure is how I'm going
26:05
Speaker 1: to sing that line to me. Michael felt the quick
26:10
Speaker 1: sting of rejection, and there would be no Prince collaboration
26:14
Speaker 1: for Michael Jackson post Thriller. Things would never be the same.
26:18
Speaker 1: Perhaps he knew it then, this was the beginning of
26:20
Speaker 1: the end. Michael was sunk, Prince was out. He was
26:30
Speaker 1: no fool. He was in control for the time being, anyway.
26:52
Speaker 1: Prince closed out the eighties with another multi media smash hit,
26:55
Speaker 1: the Batman Soundtrack, and he kept up his pace of
26:58
Speaker 1: a new album nearly every year. Art just pour it
27:02
Speaker 1: out of the artist. But this created growing tension with
27:05
Speaker 1: his label, Warner Brothers, who disagreed about which song should
27:09
Speaker 1: be singles, wanted a package his back catalog at the
27:11
Speaker 1: greatest hits and B sides albums, and actually asked their
27:15
Speaker 1: star artist to slow down his output, partly out of
27:18
Speaker 1: fear of flooding the market, but more to the point,
27:21
Speaker 1: so Prince wouldn't tear through his contractual obligations so fast.
27:25
Speaker 1: Prince was in a battle for control, the kind of
27:27
Speaker 1: battle he always won. In order to work around Warner
27:30
Speaker 1: Brothers restrictions, he changed his name to a symbol known
27:34
Speaker 1: to fans as the Love Symbol and tore through record
27:37
Speaker 1: after record until he would be out from under Warner's demands.
27:41
Speaker 1: And the effort took up most of the nineties, but
27:44
Speaker 1: it worked. Finally, free of the label, the name of
27:47
Speaker 1: Prince's comeback album was Emancipation. The world's greatest entertainer was
27:52
Speaker 1: his own man again. The success, the envy of his peers,
27:56
Speaker 1: the accolades, hell, the fun of life, the thrill, and
27:59
Speaker 1: the high of creativity. For Prince, the pop life was
28:03
Speaker 1: all anyone could ask for. But he had been experiencing
28:06
Speaker 1: pain due to the NonStop physicality of his regiment. But
28:09
Speaker 1: Prince would work through the pain for his next performance.
28:15
Speaker 1: Two thousand and four New York, New York Rock and
28:18
Speaker 1: Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony. Prince was being inducted,
28:22
Speaker 1: but first there was the matter of another beatle to
28:25
Speaker 1: take care of George Harrison. He was being inducted posthumously,
28:29
Speaker 1: and his friends Tom Petty, Jeff Lynn, and Steve Winwood
28:32
Speaker 1: were planning a send off from the stage, a rendition
28:35
Speaker 1: of George's while my Guitar gently weeps the deep cut
28:39
Speaker 1: from the White Album with the blistering and heavily emotional
28:41
Speaker 1: guitar solo by Eric Clapton. Steve Faron, Tom Petty's drummer,
28:46
Speaker 1: sat behind his kit before their performance, talking with Steve Winwood,
28:50
Speaker 1: seated at his B three organ. Holy shit, that's Prince.
28:54
Speaker 1: Prince was plugging in his guitar on stage. Aron got
28:57
Speaker 1: up to introduce himself. All Prince said was yeah, man,
29:01
Speaker 1: I know who you are. Farwon went back to his kid.
29:04
Speaker 1: What's he like? Winwood wanted to know. I don't know,
29:07
Speaker 1: Faron replied. Cool. Prince then started making noise with his
29:11
Speaker 1: telecaster and noodled out the meters via Junior Wells riff
29:14
Speaker 1: to average white band schoolboy Crush, a song for arn
29:18
Speaker 1: Co wrote while then staring straight at Faron across the
29:22
Speaker 1: stage with that rise smile shit, Faron thought, he does
29:26
Speaker 1: know who I am. When the band finally gets down
29:32
Speaker 1: to business and kicks into George Harrison's most famous song
29:35
Speaker 1: with his son Danny Harrison on stage aside Petty on
29:38
Speaker 1: acoustic Prince is nearly completely off the stage. In fact,
29:43
Speaker 1: he's in the shadows. It's as if he's embarrassed, too
29:46
Speaker 1: cool to be on the same stage with this most
29:48
Speaker 1: classic of classic rock lineups. The song has performed magnificently.
29:54
Speaker 1: Petty and Jeff Flynn nail the vocal. Winwood's organ gives
29:57
Speaker 1: the song lyft and far own as usual, is beastly
30:00
Speaker 1: behind the kit a machine. Lynn's guitar player Mark Man
30:04
Speaker 1: nails Eric Clapton's solo. It's note for note perfect, as
30:08
Speaker 1: good as any hand paided fine art replica, and Prince
30:11
Speaker 1: princes in the shadows of the stage off to the side,
30:14
Speaker 1: with Tora Tora lying in the cut, strumming along to
30:17
Speaker 1: the chord progression nothing special waiting. Petty propels the band
30:22
Speaker 1: forward forever the band leader. He's wearing purple, perhaps an
30:26
Speaker 1: affectionate nod to the Purple One that he's sharing the
30:28
Speaker 1: stage with the artist he's sparred with creatively in his mind,
30:32
Speaker 1: at least throughout the eighties, an artist he has nothing
30:35
Speaker 1: but affection for and clad in red. Ever, the heartbreaker himself,
30:40
Speaker 1: that artist. Prince emerges from the shadows during the song's outro,
30:44
Speaker 1: nabbing the guitar solo from Lyn's Man, stealing it back
30:47
Speaker 1: and taking it to an entirely new level. Prince is
30:50
Speaker 1: now in control, no longer in the cut. It's his
30:53
Speaker 1: song now. His playing is infectious, petty, as cool as ice.
30:57
Speaker 1: But you can see his enthusiasms slip out of the
30:59
Speaker 1: corner and there's a slight smile forming on his face.
31:03
Speaker 1: Danny Harrison can barely contain himself. The crowd loses their mind,
31:07
Speaker 1: and Prince gives them a Hall of Fame performance for
31:09
Speaker 1: the ages going above and beyond George Harrison, above and
31:13
Speaker 1: beyond Eric Clapton, clutching the Devil's Sparks straight from Jimmy
31:17
Speaker 1: Hendrix's left hand and lighting up the strings of his
31:19
Speaker 1: telly with it. He smiles, he snarls, he shreds, He
31:23
Speaker 1: turns his back to the audience. At the lip of
31:25
Speaker 1: the stage and falls backward towards certain disaster. He's caught
31:29
Speaker 1: mid air by a security guard and pushed back onto
31:32
Speaker 1: the stage. His playing never stops. He's possessed. The band
31:36
Speaker 1: is wrapped. Prince continues the solo, bringing the song home.
31:40
Speaker 1: He's in complete and total control for Rowan leans into
31:44
Speaker 1: the crescendo. Prince sustains a final note and lifts his
31:47
Speaker 1: guitar over his head, off of his shoulders, throws it
31:50
Speaker 1: straight into the air, and struts off stage before the
31:53
Speaker 1: rest of the band even finishes the song. To this day,
31:56
Speaker 1: Steve Faron swears the guitar and never came back down.
32:00
Speaker 1: Prince kept walking throughout the odds. His legend grew, but
32:06
Speaker 1: so too did something else, his pain. Chronic pain in
32:11
Speaker 1: his hips, his hands, his back from decades of demanding
32:15
Speaker 1: physical stage performances, on stage acrobatics, Somersault's high jumps, splits,
32:20
Speaker 1: and by the time twenty sixteen rolled around a demanding
32:24
Speaker 1: solo piano tour led to crushing pain in his hands.
32:27
Speaker 1: It made it near impossible for him to recover from
32:30
Speaker 1: his performances without the use of painkillers. Performing creating part
32:35
Speaker 1: of Prince's life's blood. It's what kept him going, what
32:38
Speaker 1: propelled him forward, his performances, his recordings. For an artist,
32:42
Speaker 1: they are defining, for better or worse than artist's entire
32:46
Speaker 1: identity is tied to what they do and what they make.
32:49
Speaker 1: And no artists controlled the whole of their output and
32:52
Speaker 1: their identity more effectively than Prince. Paul McCartney lost control
32:57
Speaker 1: of his music, Michael Jackson lost control of his life,
33:00
Speaker 1: while Prince maintained until the pain became too much, the
33:05
Speaker 1: irony that the performances led to the pain, which led
33:08
Speaker 1: to the painkillers, which ultimately led to Prince losing control
33:13
Speaker 1: of not just his art, of his life. April fifteenth,
33:18
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, Atlanta, Prince was on stage at the Piano alone,
33:24
Speaker 1: and that's what this tour was all about. Just a
33:26
Speaker 1: piano and a microphone and Prince. No one else, no band,
33:30
Speaker 1: no alter Egos, no Torah Tora, no Gemini or Alexander,
33:34
Speaker 1: nevermind Christopher or Camille, no Jamie Starr, and no Joey Koko. Collectively.
33:40
Speaker 1: They were too much to wrangle, not with the pain
33:43
Speaker 1: impossible for Prince to control all of it. Managing the
33:46
Speaker 1: pain was hard enough that night, especially on the plane
33:51
Speaker 1: ride home. On his private jet back to Minneapolis, Prince
33:54
Speaker 1: had already lost track of how many painkillers he'd taken.
33:58
Speaker 1: He passed out in the middle of his meal, and
34:00
Speaker 1: the pilot had to make an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois.
34:04
Speaker 1: Prince could have shot a narcan on the tarmac and
34:06
Speaker 1: was revived. His life was saved. He and his entourage
34:10
Speaker 1: made it home, but the pain wouldn't quit. It took over,
34:14
Speaker 1: wrapping itself around him like a snake, constricting his every move.
34:18
Speaker 1: He could feel it all over and his hips, his back,
34:21
Speaker 1: his fingers, hands, neck, his legs, and there was no
34:24
Speaker 1: moving without pain. He pulled more painkillers from the bottle,
34:28
Speaker 1: prescription pills, vicotin supposedly, but in the bottle a random
34:33
Speaker 1: pill laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid fifty times more
34:37
Speaker 1: powerful than heroin. It went to work quickly. The drug
34:41
Speaker 1: took control. The drug killed the pain, and ultimately the
34:45
Speaker 1: drug killed Prince. Throughout his career, Prince was notoriously anti drug. Sure,
34:55
Speaker 1: he would experiment from time to time, but when he
34:57
Speaker 1: turned to prescription drugs, it was because there were no
35:00
Speaker 1: other options for the pain. To this day, the authorities
35:05
Speaker 1: and those close to Prince firmly believe that Prince had
35:08
Speaker 1: no idea he was taking bentanl. He had just unbelievably
35:13
Speaker 1: lost control and that is a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan
35:19
Speaker 1: and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly
35:40
Speaker 1: and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for
35:43
Speaker 1: this episode can be found on the show notes page
35:46
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35:50
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36:31
Speaker 1: He then man