I recently found this picture of Studio A at Paisley Park. I've seen the graffiti before, namely in the Oprah interview. But I never quite made out all the words on it. This picture has more detail. I recognize a lot of the words, or song titles. "Graffiti Bridge", "The Grand Progression", "Big Tall Wall", Camille,

But I wonder what "Puff", "Big Sister", "Griff", "Washington", "Beatown", "Almost", or "Vienna" are about. And who is Joshua? This predates Dunham or Welton, as it was in the Oprah interview, which was 1996 or early 1997.

Anyhoo - it's a good shot of the artwork.

Off the toppa me head Almost was the character Dr Fink was supposed to have played in GB. Vienna was a role intended for Cat. Beat Town was a song that never made the final cut. Ruthie Washington was meant for Madge and her song was Ruthie Washington Blues. Or something

Handel said:

Off the toppa me head Almost was the character Dr Fink was supposed to have played in GB. Vienna was a role intended for Cat. Beat Town was a song that never made the final cut. Ruthie Washington was meant for Madge and her song was Ruthie Washington Blues. Or something

All of this.

The painting was obviously commissioned based on a very early draft or even tracklisting of Graffiti Bridge, before it became "Purple Rain 2".

Never seen this before, very cool.

.

With the song titles and character names, it would date to 1987, possibly 88.

Militant said:

Handel said:

Off the toppa me head Almost was the character Dr Fink was supposed to have played in GB. Vienna was a role intended for Cat. Beat Town was a song that never made the final cut. Ruthie Washington was meant for Madge and her song was Ruthie Washington Blues. Or something

All of this.

The painting was obviously commissioned based on a very early draft or even tracklisting of Graffiti Bridge, before it became "Purple Rain 2".

I actually had no idea about the character names with Almost, Vienna, etc. Although Ruthie Washington tweaks something in my brain. That's one cool thing about Prince & his music - there's always something new, even in the old stuff.

TrivialPursuit said:

Militant said:

All of this.

The painting was obviously commissioned based on a very early draft or even tracklisting of Graffiti Bridge, before it became "Purple Rain 2".

I actually had no idea about the character names with Almost, Vienna, etc. Although Ruthie Washington tweaks something in my brain. That's one cool thing about Prince & his music - there's always something new, even in the old stuff.

Ruthie Washington was to be Prince's love interest in the film, and he at one stage envisioned Madonna playing this character. The song was "Ruthie Washington Jet Blues", and Eric and Atlanta recorded horns on it.


"Angel" was to be played by Sheila
"Almost" was to be played by Dr Fink
"Big Sister" was to be played by Boni Boyer
"Joshua" was to be played by Atlanta Bliss
"Sax" was Eric Leeds' character
"Puff" was Wally Safford's character
"Gruff" was Greg Brooks' character
"The Brothers" were Miko and Levi's characters.