Nothing Compares 2 U

An Oral History of Prince

Touré

• Publisher: Permuted Platinum
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781642939194
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Rock Music

The real Prince in the words of those who knew him best—from award-winning author Touré. "...one of the rare oral histories I'd recommend as an introduction to its subject. The author's interview skills and his trusted status in the Prince orbit mean that his book—based on decades of interviews—is full of revealing insights into Prince's life and work."—Jay Gabler, The Current Nothing Compares 2 U is an oral history built from years of interviews with dozens of people who were in Prince's inner circle—from childhood friends to band members to girlfriends to managers to engineers to photographers, and more—all providing unique insights into the man and the musician.This revelatory book is a deeply personal and candid discussion of who Prince really was emotionally, professionally, and romantically. It tackles subjects never-before-discussed, including Prince's multiple personalities, his romantic relationships, his traumatic childhood and how it propelled him into his music career, and how he found the inspiration for some of his most important songs, including "Purple Rain, " "Starfish and Coffee, " and the unheard "Wally." Nothing Compares 2 U paints the most complete picture yet written of the most important and most mysterious artist of his time.

1

Nothing Compares 2 U

The Greatest Musician Ever

Wendy Melvoin (Guitar, the Revolution 1983–1986): His gift was big, big, big, big, big, big. He knew he had a duty to be the best because his gift was so big. On any instrument, he was mind-blowing.

Alan Leeds (Tour manager 1983–1989, then president of Paisley Park Records 1989–1993): I was completely stunned by his innate musicality, just like everybody else who ever saw him.

Wendy Melvoin: He was a great piano player.

BrownMark (Bass, the Revolution 1981–1986): He’s an awesome drummer.

Wendy Melvoin: He could play the hell out of his synth. He knew exactly how to bend and use his pitch wheel to elicit that thing where you’d feel a note just barely hit the beat.

BrownMark: He was an incredible bass player.

Alan Leeds: Everything he touched was brilliant. Not just good, but brilliant to the point where if all he did was play bass, he would have been a first-class bass player. Same with drums and keyboards. You just sit there and scratch your head and say, “How in the world could one musician become so proficient on so many instruments?” Each one of those instruments is a separate skillset. People like Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock will tell you it takes years and years and years of practice to master one instrument. The idea that you could become an elite level guitarist takes years and years and years of practice. But Prince never met an instrument he couldn’t master quickly. This is not your average rock ’n’ roll star.

Wendy Melvoin: I don’t think there was a better guitar player. There was a certain way he became his instrument. When you watched Prince play, there were blurred lines between the guy and the instrument. It was unbelievable. I’ve played with amazing players who I’m in awe of, but, with Prince, it wasn’t an extension of him, it was him. He mastered that instrument with astonishing agility and ability. He mastered the neck. He mastered his tone. He knew exactly how to dance and choke the neck when there was distortion. He actually knew how to carve his distortion. He was able to control the tone, his foot pedals, everything was incredibly well-timed. He was able to control rhythm. He mastered his internal clock. His internal clock was beastly. His timing was unbelievable. He knew how to push and pull a rhythm that I am still amazed by. If you were slightly out of time, he sniffed it, and he would look at you and wave his hand to slow you down or speed you up. He was always right. And his feel was incredible. It was like part of the way his hands touched the guitar. He could think twenty steps ahead. It was incredible. His guitar playing was interstellar. And he got better over time.

BrownMark: He was one of the great guitar players in the world. The broad spectrum of genres this guy could reach is amazing. I’d sit there and watch him rip through some jazz like it was nothing. That’s why Miles Davis liked him. If we wanted to do rock or country or blues, it really didn’t matter. He just had this way where he could just find it no matter what. He always said, “If I can hear it in my head, then I can play it.”

Morris Hayes (Keyboards, New Power Generation 1993–2012): In every position in the band, he could come over to your instrument and beat you so you had to really get it right. You had to crush it or else you were gonna have a headache because his antenna would go up. He’d walk over to your instrument, tell you to move out of the way, and then he’d show you how it actually goes. He did that to everybody. He’d take your bass away from you, he’d take your guitar away from you, he’d take your drums and be like, “Move out of the way,” play the part, and then he’d say, “Now, you do it.”

Me: He played everything except for horns, but if he absolutely, positively had to…

Jill Jones (Singer, Prince’s girlfriend 1982–1990): When he was recording “My G-spot,” he wanted a sax on it and Eric Leeds was not around, so Prince asked someone to get him a sax. He sat there all day and all night playing those riffs by himself. I was upstairs watching a movie or whatever while he was downstairs like, “Berp, beep, berp, berp.” You could hear him making mistakes. I was dying, just cracking up, but he was teaching himself everything he was hearing in his head and after a while, he got it down and it sounded alright. He’d gotten the notes, but then he needed the feeling like a real sax player could deliver. He kept going after it all night long. He was so tenacious and so disciplined. I couldn’t believe he sat there for like twelve hours playing this, “Berp, beep, berp, berp, berp.”

Susan Rogers (Prince’s engineer 1983–1987): Who plays that well on that many instruments? Because he was one of the world’s great bass players, and he’s that good on guitar, and he’s that good on piano, and on organ. Oh, and we’re not done yet—let’s put up a vocal mic. How many men have that chest voice and that falsetto and can give you that soul preacher vocal without ruining his voice? He never developed vocal nodes. He never destroyed his voice, and yet he could scream like any punk or rock artist, and he could shout like any gospel preacher. He could croon like Al Green. Who’s got that range?

Wendy Melvoin: He was a masterful singer. He could sing live better than most. He knew exactly how his voice sounded live and how to work it—never needed inner ear monitors, always relied on the monitors on the floor or the house sound.

Susannah Melvoin (Fiancée, lead singer of The Family 1984–1985): What makes him an amazing singer is he’s completely not self-conscious. He’s the opposite of self-conscious. He’s totally in the unconscious mind. He’s completely willing to bare himself, and to get a good vocal out you must let yourself be exposed. You must open yourself up and hear the shitty notes and hear the good notes and not compete with someone outside of you, but just be the best you that you can be and allow yourself to be your most vulnerable. He said, “The uglier you look when you sing, the better it’s going to sound coming out of your mouth.” Prince was willing to go 100 percent, never doubted himself, never doubted the vocal, never doubted his playing, never doubted any of it.

Chuck Zwicky (Prince’s engineer 1987–1989): The most beautiful thing I ever found with Prince’s vocals is when he does his background vocals. You listen to any one of those tracks on its own and it’s a totally different personality singing. Together it conveys the sense of a group singing. Usually, if the lead singer sings the background parts, everybody’s speaking in the exact same way but with Prince you felt like there’s six people around you and some can sing better than others and they all have their own separate personalities.

Morris Day (Childhood friend, drummer in Grand Central 1974–1975, front man for The Time 1981–1983, 1989–1990): As far as doing backgrounds, I know firsthand because I was in the studio with this dude on the other side of the glass producing, and it was a job. He would have me singing, and layering notes, and doing things differently each time until you just can’t take any more. So, I know for himself, he took the time and layered his own vocals and put so many layers and different textures, and things on it that it was just crazy. He would just sit there at the board with the mic and do that all night, just working on structuring background vocals and arranging them.

Me: Many musicians say Prince’s drum programming truly changed the game.

Susan Rogers: His use of the drum machine had a lasting impression on the culture. He truly innovated the way electronic rhythm works.

Questlove (Friend of Prince, drummer in The Roots): To my ears, Prince is bar none the best drum programmer of all time. I’ll put Prince up against my favorite hip hop drum programmers. He is the master. He is the only cat who programmed drums to make you feel like a human played ’em. He was able to take the Linn LM-1 drum machine and humanize it. When I was a kid, I thought that was him playing drums because he was smart enough to program little things that only drummers would notice. Why is this part speeding up? Why is this part slowing down? He wanted the sonics of the LM-1, but he wanted it as if a real drummer played it so he would do it in real time and he would purposely speed shit up during the chor...