I am a big Jimi Hendrix fan, and Jimi's longtime recording engineer Eddie Kramer has done a great job curating Jimi Hendrix's music for hardcore fans. Every posthumous release of Jimi's music has great liner notes by Eddie. Any documentary about Jimi's creative process like the "Band Of Gypsys" DVD, "Miami Pop Festival" and "Woodstock" documentaries has Eddie giving excellent and sought-after information about how Jimi created his songs, guitar techniques, circumstances surrounding recordings and concert gigs and is a regular at seminars. That got me thinking about Prince's legacy in the same way. Susan Rogers from 1983-1987, as an engineer witnessed the making of some of Prince's greatest recordings and live performances and could do the same thing for Prince as Eddie Kramer has done for Jimi. If Prince was fully cooperative with producing a series of projects where Susan Rogers explains how Prince's seminal works were recorded, how would it be curated?

I'd never seen her interviewed prior to the recent BBC radio documentary on the vault, but I really liked her in that - and, in fact, her contributions were the highlight of it for me. She came across as very articulate and engaging, and it was obvious that she had tremendous admiration for Prince as a recording artist. It's one of the eternal mysteries of Prince how he lets some of these great people he once had around him slip away, and even treats them contemptuously. (I recall reading, possibly in Per Nilsen's 'DMSR', that Prince had replied to a question which mentioned something she'd said about her time as his engineer, with something like, "You might interview Susan Rogers and find she never knew Prince at all", which just seemed silly.)

Anyway, I'd certainly read anything she wrote or talked about regarding her former role, and I imagine she'd offer some great insights. We all know Alan Leeds and Questlove have already got first dibs on curating the remasters project if it ever happens, though.

deebee said:

I'd never seen her interviewed prior to the recent BBC radio documentary on the vault, but I really liked her in that - and, in fact, her contributions were the highlight of it for me. She came across as very articulate and engaging, and it was obvious that she had tremendous admiration for Prince as a recording artist. It's one of the eternal mysteries of Prince how he lets some of these great people he once had around him slip away, and even treats them contemptuously. (I recall reading, possibly in Per Nilsen's 'DMSR', that Prince had replied to a question which mentioned something she'd said about her time as his engineer, with something like, "You might interview Susan Rogers and find she never knew Prince at all", which just seemed silly.)

Anyway, I'd certainly read anything she wrote or talked about regarding her former role, and I imagine she'd offer some great insights. We all know Alan Leeds and Questlove have already got first dibs on curating the remasters project if it ever happens, though.

"Susan Rogers, for the record, doesn't know anything about my music. Not one thing. The only person who knows anything about my music (pause for pointed effect).... is me."-Prince circa 2002. It's odd that Prince has an ambivalent relationship with former musical associates like Wendy And Lisa, Eric Leeds, Sheila E. to name a few. You're right about Susan Rogers in that BBC radio documentary. I have read her interviews about the making of certain song and album projects but never got to see her on camera. Susan Rogers like Eddie Kramer was in the studio with musicians who lived 24/7 in the studio, tireless artists demanding more out of themselves than the people around them and helped use technology to bring out the vision they wanted from their respective clients. I would like to see VH1 Classic or documentary with Susan Rogers in the studio, playing the tapes of music she worked with Prince, showing fans different takes of songs, or isolating tracks like bass, drums, keys, vocals to show the evolution of the making of the music.

Hendrix seemed to take direction well from Kramer. Jimi let him loose on the mixdowns and effects on his recordings....and Jimi seemed to be impressed and blown away. Where I think P and Susan's musical relationship was different.. I could see P pretty much telling her what to do and telling her what he needed.

Great point about Kramer having input allowed by Jimi to experiment with edits and sound engineering. From May 1970-August 1970 , Eddie and Jimi were inseparable. Jimi's creative stamina that produced "Dolly Dagger" "Beginnings", "Pali Gap", "Midnight Lighting" and "Hey Baby (New Rising Sun) at Electric Lady is astounding. I don't know the musical equivalent to the same output with Susan Rogers. If a great box set equivalent to "Columbia Masters" by EWF, "Complete Recordings of Average White Band or the Beatles stuff was done for Prince's music from his first decade as a recording artist with Susan Rogers doing liner notes or showing how some songs were recorded for a documentary, Prince would win financially and a new generation would see his stature rightfully with the greats.

bashraka said:

deebee said:

I'd never seen her interviewed prior to the recent BBC radio documentary on the vault, but I really liked her in that - and, in fact, her contributions were the highlight of it for me. She came across as very articulate and engaging, and it was obvious that she had tremendous admiration for Prince as a recording artist. It's one of the eternal mysteries of Prince how he lets some of these great people he once had around him slip away, and even treats them contemptuously. (I recall reading, possibly in Per Nilsen's 'DMSR', that Prince had replied to a question which mentioned something she'd said about her time as his engineer, with something like, "You might interview Susan Rogers and find she never knew Prince at all", which just seemed silly.)

Anyway, I'd certainly read anything she wrote or talked about regarding her former role, and I imagine she'd offer some great insights. We all know Alan Leeds and Questlove have already got first dibs on curating the remasters project if it ever happens, though.

"Susan Rogers, for the record, doesn't know anything about my music. Not one thing. The only person who knows anything about my music (pause for pointed effect).... is me."-Prince circa 2002. It's odd that Prince has an ambivalent relationship with former musical associates like Wendy And Lisa, Eric Leeds, Sheila E. to name a few. You're right about Susan Rogers in that BBC radio documentary. I have read her interviews about the making of certain song and album projects but never got to see her on camera. Susan Rogers like Eddie Kramer was in the studio with musicians who lived 24/7 in the studio, tireless artists demanding more out of themselves than the people around them and helped use technology to bring out the vision they wanted from their respective clients. I would like to see VH1 Classic or documentary with Susan Rogers in the studio, playing the tapes of music she worked with Prince, showing fans different takes of songs, or isolating tracks like bass, drums, keys, vocals to show the evolution of the making of the music.

That would be terrific. What makes his interview comments rather sad is that, from what I've seen and read of her, she really holds his art in very high regard, and the way she describes it really brings out what's so remarkable about it. A lot of music docs with band members and people from an artists' camp end up with comments of the, "Man, it was just a really great time!" variety; and Prince himself has tended towards being somewhat gnomic in interviews. It's pretty rare that someone can really take you into the nuts and bolts of the craft itself - which is, of course, what we all crave: someone letting us peek inside the creative process, and know a little more about how this music we all adore was put together. So, yeah, I'd happily devour anything she had to say in liner notes or documentary interviews, and I bet I'd come away with even more admiration for Prince as an artist.

Btw, when I was looking for the interview, I came across this follow-up interview with her by Housequake. Once again, she's very gracious in responding to his defensive comments - and arguably plays down more than she needs to her own ability to offer an insight, as someone who was there and, at the very least, watched him at work for hours, as well as assisting him. Chill, Princey! They're not all out to get ya!