rogifan said:

Nice interview. He talks about the infamous Letterman performamce. http://amp.brisbanetimes....zrl79.html

Wow that's great, rogifan. Now I have to find a way to use the word murderized in a sentence!

that's probably my least favorite Morris Hayes interview. I don't think he is lying or out of line. NOthing like that. But I get the feeling that the interviewer cherry-picked all the comments revealing this taskmaster, musical badass side of Prince. All you get from that interview is that Prince was a hardass who happened to be extremely talented. Most Morris interviews have more balance than that. They reveal that side but they also reveal that Prince became more humble as he got older and Prince's funny side. I get the feeling that all the interviewer either asked or focused on were Prince's early days with Morris and his tougher side (I am even the title is harsh). I hope and assume that his stomach didn't continue to hurt when he saw Prince's car in the driveway 10-20 years later--that he proved his merit and was used to Prince by that point.

[Edited 12/2/17 17:51pm]

purplerabbithole said:

MOrris has talked about Prince mellowing however. The GQ article from last year with antecdotes about Prince, a few radio interviews. This recent writer framed the whole interview or article around Prince being a hardass and Morris being some kind of loyal, overworked minion. Annoying to me that the portrait was so one dimensional. If I hadn't read or heard other Morris interviews, I would just think that MOrris thought Prince was just a talented asshole.

Also, Kim talked about him mellowing. Prince was still Prince, but I recently read the facebook of one of his assistants. She said once he saw her breakdown in tears because of the stress of the job. His reaction was to give her a tissue and they talked for a while until she was calm. She said he was very compassionate at that point.

[Edited 12/2/17 18:25pm]

[Edited 12/2/17 18:28pm]

Some of that is just the way musicians talk.

Good point. A bit hyperbolic. Drill sergeants are much tougher than any musical director could be. Drill Sergents have guns and can made you do hard physical labor...LOL.

poppys said:

Some of that is just the way musicians talk.

By the way, Letterman's jokes weren't that bad. I am not sure why he disliked Letterman for doing those jokes when Rosie O'Donnell did the same thing and they got along fine. (mild teasing from him about it but much lighter tone). I know men like Letterman. I grew up in the same place. Stoic midwestern humor can seem arrogant but it is ultimately harmless.

On the other hand, Prince's points about Clive were on the mark even though I can't imagine Prince standing on a table. When it came to music, sex, and business, Prince was almost always fearless. Away from those three things, I am not so sure he could be described as fearless.

[Edited 12/2/17 18:47pm]

I think he liked being under-estimated a bit. That one guitarist during rehearsal who went ahead and played P's part...just fed into P's ambition to show them.

anangellooksdown said:

I knew he was irked by Letterman because when I watched the interview I saw that Letterman didn't really "get" Prince. I love the last paragraph. I always figured he went easy on them until the performance. 😀

a few more well-rounded portraits of Prince...

http://metro.co.uk/2017/0...r-6745556/

https://www.gq.com/story/prince-stories

rogifan said:

purplerabbithole said:

that's probably my least favorite Morris Hayes interview. I don't think he is lying or out of line. NOthing like that. But I get the feeling that the interviewer cherry-picked all the comments revealing this taskmaster, musical badass side of Prince. All you get from that interview is that Prince was a hardass who happened to be extremely talented. Most Morris interviews have more balance than that. They reveal that side but they also reveal that Prince became more humble as he got older and Prince's funny side. I get the feeling that all the interviewer either asked or focused on were Prince's early days with Morris. I hope and assume that his stomach didn't continue to hurt when he saw Prince's car in the driveway 10-20 years later.

I’d love to get more insight from those who worked with him over multiple decades how he change and how working with him changed over time. The Prince of the 2000s was vastly different than the Prince of the 90s but no interviewer has really gotten anyone to talk about this. Afshin Shahidi alludes to it a bit when he talks about Prince maturing, but I’d love to hear more.

I do have mixed feelings about the TAKKAP stuff. Part of me thinks he had a myriad of justifiable reasons. A part of me thinks a more friendly and less cumbersome tactic would have been much better. Unpronuncable name? Really? I think the public would have been more sympathetic to what he was trying to accomplish if he just said "Hey, I need everyone to call me "The Musician" or something until I get my master recordings back." It seemed like an angry, depressed and anti-social tactic that ultimately harmed his career even if it helped revolutionize the industry in some ways. If people didn't understand P, ultimately that was Prince's fault.

anangellooksdown said:

I knew he was irked by Letterman because when I watched the interview I saw that Letterman didn't really "get" Prince. I love the last paragraph. I always figured he went easy on them until the performance. 😀

[Edited 12/2/17 20:00pm]

purplerabbithole said:

As a touring artist, he came back with a vengence. As a recording artist, he had a few gold albums, but I wonder if he would have been more on the radar if the symbol approach had never happened. I know that the late 90's was patchy musically speaking but it wasn't horrendous and he could have remained a bit more relevant as a recording artist if he hadn't alienated folks. There were still folks' comments on articles from 2015 who wondered if he was still going by the symbol.

laurarichardson said:

purplerabbithole said:

I do have mixed feelings about the TAKKAP stuff. Part of me thinks he had a myriad of justifiable reasons. A part of me thinks a more friendly and less cumbersome tactic would have been much better. Unpronuncable name? Really? I think the public would have been more sympathetic to what he was trying to accomplish if he just said "Hey, I need everyone to call me "The Musician" or something until I get my master recordings back." It seemed like an angry, depressed and anti-social tactic that ultimately harmed his career even if it helped revolutionize the industry in some ways. If people didn't understand P, ultimately that was Prince's fault.

[Edited 12/2/17 20:00pm]

By this 2004 he had flipped everything back and landed on his feet.

Below is what Morris posted about the article:

"Funny what becomes the headline in some of these articles. I guess they have to grab you with the most sensational part of the article. Context folks. Context. It’s pretty well done in the end. Tell me what you think. Have a great weekend everybody! Peace."

I loved the article - he worked for Prince, he wasn't his shrink, lawd. Prince shot himself onstage to get out of shaking Letterman's hand - LOL!!!

Late Show with David Letterman 1995

www.youtube.com

[Edited 12/3/17 11:18am]

If you put out recordings independently you are going to struggle to get radio airplay which will hurt your sales. I firmly believe his getting older, being put in the RnB caterogy by WB meant if he stayed with WB and not have gone done the symbol road nothing would have been any differnt. Not to mention to this day WB is not a power house in the music business.

The fact that 1,000 Hugs and Kisses was a top 15 RnB song in 2015 was nothing short of remarkable. Also 3121 did very well. He did what he wanted to do and he had to know he was going to be on a hard road.

purplerabbithole said:

As a touring artist, he came back with a vengence. As a recording artist, he had a few gold albums, but I wonder if he would have been more on the radar if the symbol approach had never happened. I know that the late 90's was patchy musically speaking but it wasn't horrendous and he could have remained a bit more relevant as a recording artist if he hadn't alienated folks. There were still folks' comments on articles from 2015 who wondered if he was still going by the symbol.

laurarichardson said:

purplerabbithole said: By this 2004 he had flipped everything back and landed on his feet.

Lol, I didn't care for Letterman either.

purplerabbithole said:

By the way, Letterman's jokes weren't that bad. I am not sure why he disliked Letterman for doing those jokes when Rosie O'Donnell did the same thing and they got along fine. (mild teasing from him about it but much lighter tone). I know men like Letterman. I grew up in the same place. Stoic midwestern humor can seem arrogant but it is ultimately harmless.

On the other hand, Prince's points about Clive were on the mark even though I can't imagine Prince standing on a table. When it came to music, sex, and business, Prince was almost always fearless. Away from those three things, I am not so sure he could be described as fearless.

[Edited 12/2/17 18:47pm]

i can tell you why, many of us minorities see white humor as nothing more than arrogant smartassedness that ain't even really funny. if i could slap the shit out of every white guy who has said something stupid without getting in trouble, there would be a long list. they sure don't like it when you fire back, i can tell you that.

anangellooksdown said:

I knew he was irked by Letterman because when I watched the interview I saw that Letterman didn't really "get" Prince. I love the last paragraph. I always figured he went easy on them until the performance. 😀

i could see him playing coy until it was real, if he showed his whole hand the whole time they might have tried to sabotage him.

Not all white guys who try to be funny are saying offensive things and getting pissed when people fire back. those guys exist of course. Letterman has an arrogant tone but really doesn't say controversial or offensive things. His sarcasm is mild. that being said, I don't think Letterman is really that funny. Hell, I don't think Leno was either. Leno seems nice but he actually said something on tv once that I did offense over--20 something years ago he told some jokes about the 13 year old chelsea clinton's looks--he called a pre-teen girl who didn't chose to be in the public eye ugly...I didn't watch him for years after that. Now, i kind of enjoy him in old clips.

PeteSilas said:

purplerabbithole said:

By the way, Letterman's jokes weren't that bad. I am not sure why he disliked Letterman for doing those jokes when Rosie O'Donnell did the same thing and they got along fine. (mild teasing from him about it but much lighter tone). I know men like Letterman. I grew up in the same place. Stoic midwestern humor can seem arrogant but it is ultimately harmless.

On the other hand, Prince's points about Clive were on the mark even though I can't imagine Prince standing on a table. When it came to music, sex, and business, Prince was almost always fearless. Away from those three things, I am not so sure he could be described as fearless.

[Edited 12/2/17 18:47pm]

i can tell you why, many of us minorities see white humor as nothing more than arrogant smartassedness that ain't even really funny. if i could slap the shit out of every white guy who has said something stupid without getting in trouble, there would be a long list. they sure don't like it when you fire back, i can tell you that.

[Edited 12/5/17 3:34am]