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Thread started 05/06/19 2:15pm

PennyPurple

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Ani DiFranco on Prince

Ani DiFranco has a memoir coming out and here is an interview she gave Rolling Stone.

The section that details her experience playing and recording with Prince is much more positive. It was when he was desperate to get out of his deal with Warner Brothers and the two had traded quotes in the press about how he should come record with Righteous Babe. Then his white limo showed up backstage after she played a set. When he invited her and Maceo Parker to swing by Paisley Park and record on his new album, DiFranco was rightfully terrified. Prince wanted her to lay down a guitar track on his piano ballad “Eye Love U, But Eye Don... U Anymore” on the spot. “He knew I was in mortal panic and he was messing with me,” she writes. “I managed to play a very basic lunk-headed fingerpicked accompaniment to his song. … The whole thing was over in five minutes.”


Here, the powerful symbol that Prince represents remains the most potent memory. “It’s so much easier to write about people who’ve passed on. I mean, I didn’t have to worry about getting it wrong for him, a person I love,” DiFranco says. “So, I just talked about him as I see him, which I’m sure is not how he sees himself. And I know what it’s like to be public property and to be defined by others so much of the time; it’s excruciating. But whether he wants it or not, he was a valued gender hero. A queer fuckin’ hero, like Bowie himself. It’s just hard to imagine, to remember the culture before that. And the amount of women he worked with — you still don’t see that now. I feel, because I got in the door a couple of times, I could see that dynamic … and appreciate how that worked for him.”

https://www.rollingstone....ur-831543/

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Reply #1 posted 05/06/19 2:26pm

gandorb

Anni has always been a wise person, and she is so spot on about talking about famous people after they have died.
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Reply #2 posted 05/06/19 4:45pm

poppys

Cool. Ani is a genuine. Thanks for posting.

"if you can't clap on the one, then don't clap at all"
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Reply #3 posted 05/06/19 5:03pm

violetcrush

Love Ani DiFranco and her music. Also love that Prince saw her talent and wanted to record with her. He loved many different alternative female musicians through the years including Kate Bush and Suzanne Vega. Love that!!
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There is a YT video of her describing how she came to visit PP and record with Prince. If I find it I’ll post it here.
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Reply #4 posted 05/06/19 5:29pm

jdcxc

“Providence” is also a cool tune.
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Reply #5 posted 05/06/19 6:52pm

violetcrush

jdcxc said:

“Providence” is also a cool tune.

YES!!! Love that song with Prince
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Reply #6 posted 05/07/19 7:54am

databank

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ANi is a remarkable artist with a great discography. Her memoir should be most interesting nod--

A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/
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Reply #7 posted 05/07/19 7:10pm

Grog

Thanks for sharing this. Ani is great. She is also gracious because I am sure there were things about Prince later in his life that did not fit with the "gender hero" persona of his early years. Ani, like most of us, would rather forget some of the later, negative aspects of his words and beliefs. Anyway, I look forward to reading the interview very soon.

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Reply #8 posted 05/07/19 10:14pm

mynameisnotsus
an

Saw her open for Bob Dylan early 2000's - she was great cool
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Reply #9 posted 05/08/19 3:35pm

herb4

I don't know too much about Ani but I heard and interview she gave on NPR that was rather enlightening. The stuff where she was talking about growing up in a two story home that was basically just 2 big rooms (no walls) was interesting.


https://www.npr.org/2019/05/07/720657501/ani-difranco-relives-her-indie-rock-rise-i-wanted-a-different-kind-of-power

Also just lol at Prince always being OH SO HOPEFUL to really attractive women artists, even several with little to no talent at all. Not ragging on him. I'd do the same thing.

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