Something strikes me when listening and looking at Prince during performances from 1985 - 1987, first of all, it was his most creative period musically IMO, next to that, he looks really happy, free when performing at the stage: pouting, making fun with the public, eyes sparkling... to put it short: a happy man.

Before and after that i often see more restraint and 'posing' when he is on stage, during the late nineties he even seemed unhappy / depressed on stage.

Could it be that the joy he showed during the period 1985 - 1987 had a lot to do with him having a relationship with Susannah Melvoin? Of course other things could have influenced the joy he showed (not having to become a superstar, Purple Rain made him that allready, the joy of creating music together with Wendy and Lisa, exploring new musical grounds) but somehow i have the feeling that the creative peak he reached during that period, the more mature lyrics and the joy he expressed had a lot to do with finding the 'love of his life'.

What are your opinions on this?

Prince was on top form in that period, I'm not sure I'd attribute that to who he was dating at that time.

Prince & Susannah as a couple, I don't remember seeing it being such a big issue at the time, only in retrospect, not like, say, Mayte, who was a very public figure, with Prince, at the time of their relationship.

well, i think 'dating' is an understatement, i mean, when you have found somebody you severely love, a soul mate to use a cliché, a lot changes in your life, its not longer about you, but about the two of you.

Alltough i dont know her personally of course, apart from being a natural beauty, susannah seemed to me an intelligent person, not somebody to mess around with. I mean, Mayte was very young when she did get in contact with Prince, i always thought she looked up to him and was kind of a 'toy' for him, Mani seemed intelligent, but knowing she was a big Prince fan for years before they started a relationship, makes me wonder about the 'equality' within their relationship.
Judging on the lyrics Prince wrote about Susannah, she was / is a strong, intelligent woman, someone who doesnt let people 'play' with her feelings and views. Just the sort of woman Prince needs now IMO.

I honestly don't think I could say.

They were both young, Prince at the height of his stardom, it's a very surreal situation, you know...

He cheated on her enough times ,and never married her..so i doubt she was the love of his life. It just was his most creative time ..and he was dating her during some of it.
[Edited 9/9/06 13:52pm]

Wow, Prince, Susannah, Wendy, Me, Lisa, 5some, what a dream.

Chuck CarlsBad reporting live from the Lame Ass Post awards with the Winner of the Lameass Post of the Day Award....Back to you in the newsroom Dave.....

leeroysoupnutz said:

Mayte was more intelligent than Mani.

ummm well he supposedly cheated on her alot so... idk about all that...

leeroysoupnutz said:

having a bad day there leeroy?

leeroysoupnutz said:

I think that Prince truly loved Susannah but at the same time he wanted a meal and he just couldnt settle just for the side dish.

You know, I sometimes really think she may have been. But being a big revolution fan, that could easily be a blind pipe dream

As for the cheating, find a girlfriend or a wife that he DIDNT cheat on. Thats just the way the man is, it would seem

Oh i defiently think Susannah was the love of Princes life. no doubt. but all that fooling around. She loved him enough to leave him.
he also dedicated a song to her wendy and lisa. a5 years later. that tells you something

STRAWBERRYRAIN said:

you mean ten years later after he and susannah broke up

STRAWBERRYRAIN said:

SHE DIDN'T LEAVE HIM!

He dumped her!

mikek1 said:

Unexpectedly too, by all accounts

You guys sure about prince dumped her. i thought that she left him and she headed back to LA because she couldnt put up with him anymore? and that is when prince did that song Wally because 1986 been a rough year with him with the revolution disbanded, firing of his closest friends wendy and lisa, and his movie UTCM flopped, and also susannah left him all came to play. All this is coming from Per 's DMSR and Possessed?

ladygirl99 said:

hey thanks for the backup
Susannah did dump Prince..... Prince never leaves he just fools around so they will leave him!!!!!

No, without even reading the rest of this thread. I would say: Mayte all the way.

Prince only knows the ans

CherrieMoonKisses said:

MAYTE WAS A MONEY WHORE OUT FOR PRINCE'S MONEY, AND EARNED EVERY PENNY
BUT OF COURSE NOBODY SEES THAT

STRAWBERRYRAIN said:

Oh come on. That is just plain mean. That man was that woman's life for like ten years...she obviously adored him. Prince is a very perceptive man, if she was really like that he would have seen it in her, I think. I just don't get a negative vibe from her...a fiesty vibe at times, maybe she might have a jealous streak in her, but a golddigger I've never gotten that impression from her. She seems really cool.

I don't think anyone but Prince knows who the true love of his life was/is. Who says you only get one? There are women whom we know nothing about. Relationships that we only received glimpes of. Who knows in what ways Kim (from Purple Rain), Vanity, Susannah, Sheila E., Susan, Nona Gaye, Robin Powers, Kim Bassinger, Ana Garcia, Cat, Carmen Electra, Troy Beyer, Mayte, or Mani touched P's heart, soul, body or mind. We don't know what connections Prince has made with women or how they've affected his music. We just know there's always been a lot of women around him whether as friends, associates or lovers.

I have to say that I think that Prince was very happy on stage after the Revolution years. But that is my opinion. I've seen him live 11 times and watched countless concerts. The only times that he didn't seem genuinely happy to me were The Jam of the Year and Hit N Run shows. Something was missing, but he had gone through a lot during that time. Other than that, I would have to disagree that he was the happiest during the Susannah years. Different people affect you in different ways based on the stage of your journey.

At the end of the day, it is all speculation, because only the man knows himself and his heart.

Riverpoet - it goes against every sensible, soap-opera hating fibre in my body, but I completely agree with you, and it's something I think about every time I see or hear music from that period. Whenever I hear the track Crystal Ball or Play In The Sunshine, I can just imagine how much fun they must have been having in the studio. The couple of clips I've seen of the Parade tour - man, he looks like he's having so much fun!

After Susannah? Well, though we know he's always been a religous man, LoveSexy was trying too hard to be "spiritual" - my theory (bring on the flames!), the whole thing was a guilty overreaction to the Ecstasy business. Still a pretty good album, though. Diamonds & Pearls, and pretty much everything since then bar Gold, has seen him trying way too hard to be a specifically "Black" artist. (Hear me out with this one, please!)

My point is that on Parade and SOTT, he wasn't trying to be "Christian", nor was he trying to be "Black" or "White" or "Mainstream" or "Alternative". He wasn't trying to be anything - he was just BEING an artist, creating whatever came into his head, and that's why that period was so exciting.

Anyway, I'm not sure why, but I just have the feeling that Susannah could've kept his head in that place. We'll never know, I guess.

I'm off to watch that clip of Anotherloverholenyohead now!

P
[Edited 11/2/06 19:03pm]

Hell on toast - I've just heard "Empty Room" for the first time, and now I'm convinced I'm right.

Goodness, I'm even more of a sucker for this soap opera business than I first thought!

Hotstuff said:

No offence, but what kind of ridiculous statement is this? In what way is Mayte more intelligent than Mani? Mani didn't turn herself into a video ho and she's gone forward with her life making a difference with charities etc. What has Mayte done and how is she more intelligent? Do tell.

what make you think you know how intelligent ANYONE is by the way they look.

the consesus seems to be that mani is somehow more classy, intelligent and respectable(by comparison) than mayte bcos she's not a performer. maybe manuella just doesn't have any marketable talent- ever consider that?

for what it's worth she has always seemed to me more like apollonia- pretty but not particularly talented or interesting which makes for a better wife in your middle age than it does an onscreen or stage co-star.





and here's another

susannah has always been very overated,imo. the love of his life? i bet we'll never know, but she's a cute singer.. . . . like countless others .. .. . with a twin sister, which is no doubt the most interesting thing about her to a raving gemini like prince, no?
[Edited 11/3/06 10:28am]

wavesofbliss said:

I totally agree with ya on Susannah being overrated. Wendy being in the band, I feel, had a lot to do with P staying with Susannah as long as he did. Besides, P was ALREADY dating her BEFORE Purple Rain was even released. "The Beautiful Ones" shows that P was involved with her on a serious level, and this was 83. So she was there, with Wendy, who was already hanging around the band when Dez was still there. No telling how long P had been seeing Susannah before the public got hip to it. Certainly a good few years before 85.