Every search I bring up online says something different on this particular topic.

I think he played synthesizer on this song.Stevie Nicks supposedly wrote it after hearing "Little Red Corvette" on the radio,and somehow got Prince to visit the studio when it was being recorded?

He apparently wrote (and played) the heavy synth line on it, the DUGGA DUGGA DUGGA sound. I suppose what's weird is that the other synth line is based on Little Red Corvette so it's almost as if he wrote both bits.

[Edited 4/7/14 1:39am]

From one of Stevie Nicks' interviews, she said she contacted Prince after being blown away by Little Red Corvette and wanted him to play on one of her new songs.

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He showed up to her studio (I believe in California), programmed the keyboards and left. She said he was only there about 15 minutes and what he did in that visit was the final version you hear today. She felt that was he did was so critical to the song, that he deserved a songwriting credit.

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I'm at work, otherwise I would search for the proper source.

this is kinda what I had read ... in different forums :

http://www.inherownwords.com/standback.htm

She was more than blown away by LRC, it was an inspiration for SB. She said she sang the melody to him on the phone then it's not clear whether he came by himself or she asked him and yeah he played keys (IIRC the sequencer line and the "toweep toweep" (not "dugga dugga ) sound, but I can't swear it). The verses melody also borrows a lot from LRC's melody anyway so besides P's contributions on keysgiving a lot of strength to the track, sharing songwriting credits made sense, but technically speaking she could as well have kept the songwriting credits, it was more of a gift to him.

It was P's first hit outside of his own songs and protégés and, with Sugar Walls and Manic Monday, it was one of these defining moments that made him one of the most wanted songwriters for a ecade.

It'd be nice if P did a mashup of LRC and SB (as well as one of 1999 and Manic Monday) the same way he merged ICC and Mutiny

databank said:

She was more than blown away by LRC, it was an inspiration for SB. She said she sang the melody to him on the phone then it's not clear whether he came by himself or she asked him and yeah he played keys (IIRC the sequencer line and the "toweep toweep" (not "dugga dugga ) sound, but I can't swear it). The verses melody also borrows a lot from LRC's melody anyway so besides P's contributions on keysgiving a lot of strength to the track, sharing songwriting credits made sense, but technically speaking she could as well have kept the songwriting credits, it was more of a gift to him.

It was P's first hit outside of his own songs and protégés and, with Sugar Walls and Manic Monday, it was one of these defining moments that made him one of the most wanted songwriters for a ecade.

It'd be nice if P did a mashup of LRC and SB (as well as one of 1999 and Manic Monday) the same way he merged ICC and Mutiny

WAAAAA now i'm as confused as the original poster. I was SURE i'd worked it out.

Here, I think she sings it in this interview

http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/368104/stevie-nicks-on-her-connection-with-prince.jhtml

I'm not in the states so can't view it though, someone tell me which synth line she sings in this

[Edited 4/7/14 7:31am]

Wish that Purple Rain demo cassette would leak that she mentions.

jaawwnn said:

Here, I think she sings it in this interview

http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/368104/stevie-nicks-on-her-connection-with-prince.jhtml

I'm not in the states so can't view it though, someone tell me which synth line she sings in this

I'm not in the USA, luckily, but simply add a Forwarded-For header and you're done.

Databank explains it as it is in the video.

jaawwnn said:

databank said:

She was more than blown away by LRC, it was an inspiration for SB. She said she sang the melody to him on the phone then it's not clear whether he came by himself or she asked him and yeah he played keys (IIRC the sequencer line and the "toweep toweep" (not "dugga dugga ) sound, but I can't swear it). The verses melody also borrows a lot from LRC's melody anyway so besides P's contributions on keysgiving a lot of strength to the track, sharing songwriting credits made sense, but technically speaking she could as well have kept the songwriting credits, it was more of a gift to him.

It was P's first hit outside of his own songs and protégés and, with Sugar Walls and Manic Monday, it was one of these defining moments that made him one of the most wanted songwriters for a ecade.

It'd be nice if P did a mashup of LRC and SB (as well as one of 1999 and Manic Monday) the same way he merged ICC and Mutiny

WAAAAA now i'm as confused as the original poster. I was SURE i'd worked it out.

No but the chords are also similar to LRC so u were right too, but the sound is a "toweep" not a "dugga"

databank said:

jaawwnn said:

WAAAAA now i'm as confused as the original poster. I was SURE i'd worked it out.

No but the chords are also similar to LRC so u were right too, but the sound is a "toweep" not a "dugga"

hahaha fair enough

Wouldn't it be outstanding if Prince himself was a member of the Org, and would routinely answer these kinds of threads?

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How cool would it be to hear it from the man himself?!

Stevie said he wanted to hit that.

Think she wishes she had let him now?

On the flip side of things I remember Stevie suggested that Prince tryout and use the Sennheiser 441 microphone. To my knowledge Prince did use that mic when he recorded Kiss and the vocal track was left dry even after the mixing was done. Not sure but I think he still uses that mic to record.

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Funny I just heard that story again from Alan Hunter on SirriusXM radio 2 days ago.

[Edited 4/7/14 11:26am]

databank said:

jaawwnn said:

WAAAAA now i'm as confused as the original poster. I was SURE i'd worked it out.

No but the chords are also similar to LRC so u were right too, but the sound is a "toweep" not a "dugga"

right, i've watched the video, Stevie Nicks sings it "didgedidgedidge" and "do dee do dee do dee" so that's the final word on the sounds!

Se7en said:

Wouldn't it be outstanding if Prince himself was a member of the Org, and would routinely answer these kinds of threads?

.

How cool would it be to hear it from the man himself?!

.

There have been numerous DOCUMENTED cases where Prince has blatantly lied about stuff. Just look at the CB liner notes: full of errors and BS.

BartVanHemelen said:

Paraphrased from Stevie's Greatest Hits liner notes.

She had gotten married and was riding on the Pacific Coast Highway and heard Prince on the radio. Doesnt mention which song it was (but it was 'Little Red Corvette') and she says she and he new hubby immediately pulled off the road, hit a record store and bought the '1999' cassette. That led her to write 'Stand Back' but while recording, they couldnt get the synth part right. Someone called Prince, he showed up at the studio, played it for them and left ('walked out of my life' is the way Stevie put it). It worked so well and they were all so impressed that Stevie decided to give him a co-writing credit.

I wonder if he already had those sounds (keyboard parts) in mind for LRC. Maybe they were cut from the final mix and he just gave them to Stand Back. I can almost here those parts in LRC.

Kinda explains how he came up with them so quickly, and that fact that he recorded the parts in front of everyone in the studio. That's very unlike Prince.

G3000 said:

I wonder if he already had those sounds (keyboard parts) in mind for LRC. Maybe they were cut from the final mix and he just gave them to Stand Back. I can almost here those parts in LRC.

Kinda explains how he came up with them so quickly, and that fact that he recorded the parts in front of everyone in the studio. That's very unlike Prince.

I don't think there was anyone but Stevie and Prince and maybe an engineer. And it's not surprising for Prince to have a musical idea out of the blue and record it in 10 minutes.

BartVanHemelen said:

Se7en said:

Wouldn't it be outstanding if Prince himself was a member of the Org, and would routinely answer these kinds of threads?

.

How cool would it be to hear it from the man himself?!

.

There have been numerous DOCUMENTED cases where Prince has blatantly lied about stuff. Just look at the CB liner notes: full of errors and BS.

you need a hug

databank said:

G3000 said:

I wonder if he already had those sounds (keyboard parts) in mind for LRC. Maybe they were cut from the final mix and he just gave them to Stand Back. I can almost here those parts in LRC.

Kinda explains how he came up with them so quickly, and that fact that he recorded the parts in front of everyone in the studio. That's very unlike Prince.

I don't think there was anyone but Stevie and Prince and maybe an engineer. And it's not surprising for Prince to have a musical idea out of the blue and record it in 10 minutes.

she was int he studio with interscope head and BF Jimmy Iovine,,An yes i know he was just a producer at the time

“(Prince) spoiled me for every band I've ever had because nobody can exactly re-create - not even with two piano players-what Prince did all by his little self.”

Stevie Nicks

STAND BACK was a result of Stevie Nicks’ January 29^th wedding. "I'm driving to my honeymoon night in Santa Barbara from L.A., and 'Little Red Corvette' comes on," Nicks remembered. "We're like, oh my God, it's Prince! So I start singing all these words, and I'm like, 'Pull over, we have to get a cassette player! And we have to record this!' I'm writing in the car — here we are, newlyweds, and we get to our hotel and we're setting up the tape recorder and I've made up my whole new melody to [the song].”

When she returned to Los Angeles, she asked and was given Prince’s private phone number (“I'm Stevie Nicks, I can get it.”). “I told him: 'I'm recording this song and I wrote it to "Little Red Corvette" and I'm giving you 50 percent of it and I want to know if you'd like to come play on it on one of the next three nights.' He was there in an hour.”

“When I got there, her and Jimmy Iovine couldn’t figure out how to work the drum machine,’ added Prince, ‘because people were using live drums at that point… so I went down there and programmed it for them and pretty much played most of the song there in about 20 or 30 minutes.”

“He came in, listened to the song you know, very cool, very quiet,’ fleshed out Nicks. ‘And I said, "Do you hate it?" and he said "No, it's okay, it's cool" and they set up an OB8 for him and he played the doo doo doo doo doo, the 1/16 note thing and then, he did it like one time. And then he went to the middle part where it goes deedat deedat deedat deedat.”

Stevie would eventually add “not only did Prince make it up right on the spot, he played it with only two fingers. Then he left.”

Ultimately, they didn't use everything he played, but his synth part is prominent in the final mix.

Stevie’s 1991 Timespace tour book summed up the way the song came together. “It never belonged to me, it has always belonged to the world~and to Prince, who inspired the entire song.”

"Prince and I became really good friends," Nicks eventually proclaimed to MTV news, "and he actually gave me a cassette, and said, 'There's a song on it, and I would like you to write.' I take it home and put it on, and I'm listening to this like amazing song ... and it's 'Purple Rain'! And I'm like, I can't write a song to this! It [wasn't] 'Purple Rain' yet, but it [was] the track that became 'Purple Rain.”

There is more to it, but this is the basic story.

(from an early, unpublished draft of PRINCE: The Studio Sessions by Duane Tudahl)

BobGeorge909 said:

In finally b listened to this song for the very first time just now. I hadn't heard it because of a known distaste I have for stevies voice. I've made a mistake and should have stayed the course. Her voice....WOW...how can ANYone bear that voice for more than 2 seconds is beyond me. She sounds like a dying witch in the middle of having her vocal chords ripped out. Flat out horrid. I hope in the future I can keep the promise to myself of never listening to a Stevie nicks song again.

And you think Prince's voice doesn't grate on more people even more?

Take a poll!

Ugh. I love her SO much, I can't stand it!

madhouseman said:

“(Prince) spoiled me for every band I've ever had because nobody can exactly re-create - not even with two piano players-what Prince did all by his little self.”

Stevie Nicks

STAND BACK was a result of Stevie Nicks’ January 29^th wedding. "I'm driving to my honeymoon night in Santa Barbara from L.A., and 'Little Red Corvette' comes on," Nicks remembered. "We're like, oh my God, it's Prince! So I start singing all these words, and I'm like, 'Pull over, we have to get a cassette player! And we have to record this!' I'm writing in the car — here we are, newlyweds, and we get to our hotel and we're setting up the tape recorder and I've made up my whole new melody to [the song].”

When she returned to Los Angeles, she asked and was given Prince’s private phone number (“I'm Stevie Nicks, I can get it.”). “I told him: 'I'm recording this song and I wrote it to "Little Red Corvette" and I'm giving you 50 percent of it and I want to know if you'd like to come play on it on one of the next three nights.' He was there in an hour.”

“When I got there, her and Jimmy Iovine couldn’t figure out how to work the drum machine,’ added Prince, ‘because people were using live drums at that point… so I went down there and programmed it for them and pretty much played most of the song there in about 20 or 30 minutes.”

“He came in, listened to the song you know, very cool, very quiet,’ fleshed out Nicks. ‘And I said, "Do you hate it?" and he said "No, it's okay, it's cool" and they set up an OB8 for him and he played the doo doo doo doo doo, the 1/16 note thing and then, he did it like one time. And then he went to the middle part where it goes deedat deedat deedat deedat.”

Stevie would eventually add “not only did Prince make it up right on the spot, he played it with only two fingers. Then he left.”

Ultimately, they didn't use everything he played, but his synth part is prominent in the final mix.

Stevie’s 1991 Timespace tour book summed up the way the song came together. “It never belonged to me, it has always belonged to the world~and to Prince, who inspired the entire song.”

"Prince and I became really good friends," Nicks eventually proclaimed to MTV news, "and he actually gave me a cassette, and said, 'There's a song on it, and I would like you to write.' I take it home and put it on, and I'm listening to this like amazing song ... and it's 'Purple Rain'! And I'm like, I can't write a song to this! It [wasn't] 'Purple Rain' yet, but it [was] the track that became 'Purple Rain.”

There is more to it, but this is the basic story.

(from an early, unpublished draft of PRINCE: The Studio Sessions by Duane Tudahl)

Awesome! Thx so much! I really hope u can finish this book one day, it could be the next big thing next to Per Nielsen's DMSR (hopefully going beyong 87)!