TheFreakerFantastic said:

Seems an interesting, nice guy.

However Militant you are showing a few gaps of knowledge, for example talking about latin music from the orginal 1982 '1999' being done by Sheila E. when she didn't even do any sessions with Prince until the Purple Rain era!

Also, it was slightly embarrasing when you said you couldn't hear Kate Bush's vocals in My Computer. I think you can hear them quite easily when you listen carefully. As HM Buff politely pointed out, they were meant to be backing vocals and not a duet anyway, but saying this to the engineer seems a bit tactless as if he didn't know his job.

Otherwise nice, the girl is nice too. [Unecessary personal attack - snipped - June7]

like...seriously? This actually makes BVH look sane! The Kate Bush mix is a disgrace & the vast majority agree on this. As for the Sheila E comments...shut up already!...I am serious hadcore iei from back when LRC was released, i've seen him live 40+ times..I own everything....etc...& even I didn't know the sheila E stuff!

Have you seen the effort Militant [& Kim] has gone to in putting all these interviews together...for free at HIS expense?! JEEEEEEESUS!

Okay

From biography "PRINCE" by Matt Thorne (I have updated edition published in 2012)

[Edited 7/27/18 20:19pm]

Great interview! Would love to hear the shelved intro of the song "Comeback". Its unfortunate that Prince was apprehensive about releasing songs that showcased his vulnerable side (Empty Room & Wally) but then again being protective of his privacy is human after all. Still, I'm glad that those moments were captured on record even if they're in the vault still. Brilliant job & much appreciated, guys

Finally sat down and listened to this. Some things that stood out to me that are very interesting for discussion (and should hopefully entice you to listen to the interview if you haven't already)

- Out of the whole "I am going to re-record my entire back catalog" thing Prince was talking about, the only thing that was recorded besides 1999: The New Master was a drum & bass version of Let's Pretend We're Married.

- "You have to realize he made music every day. And he would make that music whether he had something to say or not. It's just what he did. And you could tell when he had something to say."

- There was a beginning part to Comeback that was never released which gives him goosebumps just thinking about. And it wasn't erased. It still exists in the vault. Timecode around the 18 minute mark if you want to hear what it was

- The Truth and Don't Play Me were recorded in a single take. Afterwards, he added a couple of overdubs.

- Did a couple of versions of Welcome 2 The Dawn.

- There were some funky acoustic sessions during the recording of The Truth. Fascination was the only one that made the album.

- 2 songs from Musicology were first concieved during The Truth sessions. Specifically mentions A Million Days. Later in the interview, he reveals that the other song was If Eye Was The Man In Ur Life.

- For the Crystal Ball project, Prince gave him a list of songs and had him fish them out of the Vault. He shortened a number of songs. Specifically mentions Crystal Ball, Days Of Wild, Cloreen Bacon Skin. 2 weeks to put it all together. Mastering took a long time.

- He won't mention the name of an amazing song that was considered for Crystal Ball but "it was actually a well known song by another 80s pop star that he actually did a new backing for that he was asked to do but it was never released". Prince talked about how the star's people were just partying to it.

- Wonderful Ass was originally slated for Crystal Ball.

- Manuela and HM Buff convinced Prince to include Strange But True onto Rave Un2 but Prince insisted on overdubbing "those weird scratchy things and the beep bee beep things". Apparently the original version was just linn drum and some keyboards.

- Some things that ended up on Slaughterhouse and Chocolate Invasion came from the Rave sessions. Specifically mentions Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This?

- George Clinton sent the Paradigm tape back when HM Buff was still working there. Prince thought it was awesome. Prince worked on it for like four hours.

- Prince once had a staff meeting without inviting HM Buff and it turned out that the meeting was about reopening the studio. He had the tendancy to just ignore advice that he didn't agree with and avoid people that had an opinion otherwise.

- She Gave Her Angels on Crystal Ball is a very truncated version.

- Prince asked HM what he thought should be taken off of Rave and HM answered The Sun, The Stars And The Moon. To which Prince replied "Hans! How's your sex life?" which meant he included it for the ladies.

- "Why he chose to put out what he chose to put out is much more of a mystery to me." Ditto for the estate choosing to release "the solo piano thing" out of all the things they could release.

- Larry Graham was like a ray of sunshine in Paisley. Treated HM the same way he'd treat Prince.

- The unreleased song that HM said was his favorite unreleased track, which happened to be recorded on his first day with Prince, was "kind of like We March only a bit more Gospel". And the title of that track was The Divine.

- The Love We Make and The Divine were recorded on the same day.

- Most of the music seemed to grow out of musicial moments in the studio and HM wonders how many of the song explanations were attached by Prince afterwards as a cool little aside.

- He looked at the police photos they released and the vault looked exactly the way it did when he left 20 years ago. He agrees with the estate's decision to move the contents to Iron Mountain.

- "There's two albums for every one that was released on there so start saving up people."

Great interview... thanks for doing it, and keep them coming!

FWIW re My Computer, I've always heard her in the chorus, but I agree that it's very subtle. As Buff said, it's not intended to be duet, though I wish Prince and her had done one.

Just downloaded it. I can't wait to listen to this tonight. Hans-Martin is freaking great and I'm sure that you and Kim brought the thunder!

It is podcasts like this, and other interviews and books by those who were there that seriously help extend Prince's legacy. So many people are grateful for this type of information, so thank you!

Congrats to all of you on another great one!

When he talks about Roadhouse Garden? I missed it.

amokeru said:

It was all written in Japanese. I don't know how to upload pics but i'm trying now...
An interviewer asked him that 1999 was written 17 years ago and now it is 1999 but what can you see 17 years later from now. He basically said that he just wrote Future Soul Song and sometimes he can hear angel's voice while sleeping and that was the inspiration for Future Soul Song. He also said that I wanna write beautiful music that we will be able to sing together.

[Edited 7/27/18 4:41am]

[Edited 7/27/18 4:42am]

[Edited 7/27/18 20:24pm]

Nice to know! Thanks for sharing that. According to the person cataloging the contents of the vault,there was a song titled "Future Soul" recorded November 20th 2009 along with "Sticky." which I assume is short for "Sticky Like Glue."

[Edited 7/28/18 15:26pm]

Strive said:

Finally sat down and listened to this. Some things that stood out to me that are very interesting for discussion (and should hopefully entice you to listen to the interview if you haven't already)

- Out of the whole "I am going to re-record my entire back catalog" thing Prince was talking about, the only thing that was recorded besides 1999: The New Master was a drum & bass version of Let's Pretend We're Married.

- "You have to realize he made music every day. And he would make that music whether he had something to say or not. It's just what he did. And you could tell when he had something to say."

- There was a beginning part to Comeback that was never released which gives him goosebumps just thinking about. And it wasn't erased. It still exists in the vault. Timecode around the 18 minute mark if you want to hear what it was

- The Truth and Don't Play Me were recorded in a single take. Afterwards, he added a couple of overdubs.

- Did a couple of versions of Welcome 2 The Dawn.

- There were some funky acoustic sessions during the recording of The Truth. Fascination was the only one that made the album.

- 2 songs from Musicology were first concieved during The Truth sessions. Specifically mentions A Million Days. Later in the interview, he reveals that the other song was If Eye Was The Man In Ur Life.

- For the Crystal Ball project, Prince gave him a list of songs and had him fish them out of the Vault. He shortened a number of songs. Specifically mentions Crystal Ball, Days Of Wild, Cloreen Bacon Skin. 2 weeks to put it all together. Mastering took a long time.

- He won't mention the name of an amazing song that was considered for Crystal Ball but "it was actually a well known song by another 80s pop star that he actually did a new backing for that he was asked to do but it was never released". Prince talked about how the star's people were just partying to it.

- Wonderful Ass was originally slated for Crystal Ball.

- Manuela and HM Buff convinced Prince to include Strange But True onto Rave Un2 but Prince insisted on overdubbing "those weird scratchy things and the beep bee beep things". Apparently the original version was just linn drum and some keyboards.

- Some things that ended up on Slaughterhouse and Chocolate Invasion came from the Rave sessions. Specifically mentions Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This?

- George Clinton sent the Paradigm tape back when HM Buff was still working there. Prince thought it was awesome. Prince worked on it for like four hours.

- Prince once had a staff meeting without inviting HM Buff and it turned out that the meeting was about reopening the studio. He had the tendancy to just ignore advice that he didn't agree with and avoid people that had an opinion otherwise.

- She Gave Her Angels on Crystal Ball is a very truncated version.

- Prince asked HM what he thought should be taken off of Rave and HM answered The Sun, The Stars And The Moon. To which Prince replied "Hans! How's your sex life?" which meant he included it for the ladies.

- "Why he chose to put out what he chose to put out is much more of a mystery to me." Ditto for the estate choosing to release "the solo piano thing" out of all the things they could release.

- Larry Graham was like a ray of sunshine in Paisley. Treated HM the same way he'd treat Prince.

- The unreleased song that HM said was his favorite unreleased track, which happened to be recorded on his first day with Prince, was "kind of like We March only a bit more Gospel". And the title of that track was The Divine.

- The Love We Make and The Divine were recorded on the same day.

- Most of the music seemed to grow out of musicial moments in the studio and HM wonders how many of the song explanations were attached by Prince afterwards as a cool little aside.

- He looked at the police photos they released and the vault looked exactly the way it did when he left 20 years ago. He agrees with the estate's decision to move the contents to Iron Mountain.

- "There's two albums for every one that was released on there so start saving up people."

Thanks, Strive! 2 albums for every one released? Sounds cool to me! Can't wait to hear it!!!

Just listened to the interview (on a drive to a great Prince party here in LA put on by the Prince Army Los Angeles/Bumpsquad) and it was great. I love insights like this, so thank you to everyone involved. Another great job!

Militant said:

TheFreakerFantastic said:

Seems an interesting, nice guy.

However Militant you are showing a few gaps of knowledge, for example talking about latin music from the orginal 1982 '1999' being done by Sheila E. when she didn't even do any sessions with Prince until the Purple Rain era!

Prince and Sheila met in January 1980, so it's not totally inconceivable, actually. If there's unreleased Latin percussion in a song, it's a fairly obvious thought to muse on - you'll note that I didn't state it as a fact.

.

I think it has been common knowledge for many years that the first time Prince and Sheila worked together was on Erotic City, and that was almost 2 years after 1999 was recorded.

.

Great interview. Congrats to both of you at the Violet Realty, Militant.


Great job keeping us informed with new and insightful information.


Don't bother feeding the trolls. They're beneath you, (and us) and not worth a response. In truth, I think we all would be better served if you just deleted their posts. They're antagonistic and not productive in the least.

Militant said:

Thank you all for the kind words, and WOW at that interview about Future Soul Song. That just proves how much largely unknown info is out there that Prince may have mentioned once or twice and it wasn't noticed. And of course that goes both ways, like when I mentioned to Hans about Prince mentioning "The Divine" in recent years. I agree that there's many gaps when it comes to Prince's 90s (and later work) - I think it's important that we try and close these knowledge gaps by talking to the people that were there. My personal bugbear is that often when people who worked with Prince get interviewed, the questions are quite superficial - usually because the hosts aren't fans, if the interviews are being conducted for radio or television to promote something. And we shouldn't have to wait for somebody to write a book to get new information - the pace is too slow. So that's where Uncovering Prince comes in! Please subscribe to the YouTube channel if you enjoyed it - I'll try to post all new episodes here but it won't always be possible. For anyone unaware, we already interviewed Anthony Malzone, Anna Fantastic, Elisa Fiorillo, Judith Hill, Marylou Badeaux, and more!

I can only thank you for that. What you and others (The Prince Podcast, Peach & Black, Funkenberry...) do is really cool. As you say, until we get 40 years of career covered in books such as Duane's, you guys manage to uncover precious infos in the meantime, and should be supported. Don't pay attention to those bitching and doing nothing. Your work is appreciated

Thanks Militant. Kiss.

Great interview. Nice to hear some really informed questions. Keep up the good work.

very interesting, Thanx

I listened to it yesterday..great interview. The ones with Marylou and Griff were great too....Hoping they'll get Dez, Andre or Bobby down the road.

Thans Militant. Watched it last night and really enjoyed the anecdotes. I hope to hear other interviews from others involved with the studio process: for me this really helps with the grieving process, raised a smile

[Edited 7/30/18 13:21pm]

these are the things i want to know thanks militant and kim and thanks hans.

ooh. i'd really like to see the rest of this page since it goes into unreleased projects there

amokeru said:

From biography "PRINCE" by Matt Thorne (I have updated edition published in 2012)

Doozer said:

I’m glad Militant has the wherewithal to know that some people are just idiots, and there’s no helping them. Awesome interview. Thanks for adding so much to what we know about Prince’s work, and helping us realize how much we have yet to discover.

Agree. Great for long time fans to get some new bits of info

.

Off topic; Doozer, I've enjoyed listening to a few of your podcasts. Good work

IstenSzek said:

ooh. i'd really like to see the rest of this page since it goes into unreleased projects there

amokeru said:

From biography "PRINCE" by Matt Thorne (I have updated edition published in 2012)

Here what Steve Parke says..

thank you, amokeru. i appreciate it!

dodger said:

Amazing. Thanks.