I must have skipped over this part of the GQ article...it was really long and I think I visually lost my place while scrolling down the page at times.

--

That said, what a great story. Prince was just freaking incredible. I wish someone could have examined his brain or done a brain scan to see how it was wired.

206Michelle said:

This story is entirely false as written. It would be closer to plausibility for a misremembered Parade or Lovesexy, but still doesn't fit.

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[Edited 12/10/16 22:33pm]

TwiliteKid said:

Duane is confused or telling tall tales for effect - we know this isn't true.

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Indeed. Except it's Gilbert Davison.

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[Edited 12/11/16 3:04am]

BartVanHemelen said:

TwiliteKid said:

laurarichardson said:

We've been told by Susan Rogers that "Slow Love" was an older song. "Starfish and Coffee" according to Susannah Melvoin was written and recorded at his home right after she told him the story about the kid she knew in school. Susan Rogers has also told many times that "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" was recorded right after Prince had gotten the inspiration from it from a dream and was in such hurry to get it recorded that he didn't care that the construction work for the studio in Paisley Park had not gotten completed yet.

Doesn't really add up.

novabrkr said:

We've been told by Susan Rogers that "Slow Love" was an older song. "Starfish and Coffee" according to Susannah Melvoin was written and recorded at his home right after she told him the story about the kid she knew in school. Susan Rogers has also told many times that "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" was recorded right after Prince had gotten the inspiration from it from a dream and was in such hurry to get it recorded that he didn't care that the construction work for the studio in Paisley Park had not gotten completed yet.

Doesn't really add up.

SR and AM can't always be trusted to remember things correctly.

It would be interesting to adopt the view that he wrote, or at least laid the foundations, for a substantial part of the recording in one felled swoop, given that [1] the Sign O' The Times album has been pared down, with the exception of late addition of 'U Got The Look', from three or more only partially related aborted projects that were [2] conceived and recorded over almost an entire year, [3] each of which project or recording period having an individually discernable production styling, and [4] 'Slow Love' (for which Carole Davis receives attribution as co-writer), 'Strange Relationship', 'I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man' are overdubbed and reworked Vault material from 1982-1985.

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It's also rather hard to admit the lyrics to 'Hot Thing' and 'It' to the realm of poetry, even by Prince standards, if we're limiting ourselves to what Gilbert Davison 'reckons must be the first two sides' to the double LP.

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This is precisely what to expect if you're going to solicit, for byline or clickbait purposes, a story from someone at the periphery of his artistic and business dealings, a very spurious anecdote to keep afloat the legendary mythos; it could apply just as well to SR, SM, GD, or anyone else similarly situated.

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[Edited 12/11/16 14:42pm]

paulludvig said:

novabrkr said:

We've been told by Susan Rogers that "Slow Love" was an older song. "Starfish and Coffee" according to Susannah Melvoin was written and recorded at his home right after she told him the story about the kid she knew in school. Susan Rogers has also told many times that "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" was recorded right after Prince had gotten the inspiration from it from a dream and was in such hurry to get it recorded that he didn't care that the construction work for the studio in Paisley Park had not gotten completed yet.

Doesn't really add up.

SR and AM can't always be trusted to remember things correctly.

Yes, I think I was among the first ones here to criticize SR for her comments seeming contradictory in some cases. Didn't she herself bring this "plane story" up recently?

Regardless, there's just been so much anecdotal stuff about the recording sessions that lead to the completion of the SOTT album that it all simply can't be made up shit.

laurarichardson said:

TwiliteKid said:

laurarichardson said:

-// None of us were around so we really don't know.

The recording of SOTT has been well-documented. We know that the album was written and recorded between March and December 86 (aside from two tracks which originate from 82). Gilbert says Prince wrote the first side during a plane ride, so we're supposed to believe he waited months to record those tracks. Prince just didn't work that way.

But you were around so you know

novabrkr said:

We've been told by Susan Rogers that "Slow Love" was an older song. "Starfish and Coffee" according to Susannah Melvoin was written and recorded at his home right after she told him the story about the kid she knew in school. Susan Rogers has also told many times that "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" was recorded right after Prince had gotten the inspiration from it from a dream and was in such hurry to get it recorded that he didn't care that the construction work for the studio in Paisley Park had not gotten completed yet.

Doesn't really add up.

maybe there is the difference in 'started writing' vs the final recording?

I mean did Prince could have WROTE/WRITTEN: SOTT IT FOREVER IN MY LIFE THE CROSS on a 3 hour plane ride. But he didn't record it on the plane.

This is one of those post-truth things isn't it.

TwiliteKid said:

Duane is confused or telling tall tales for effect - we know this isn't true.

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Yes that was my thought....most likely a gross exaggeration of what actually did happen.

laurarichardson said:

TwiliteKid said:

laurarichardson said: The recording of SOTT has been well-documented. We know that the album was written and recorded between March and December 86 (aside from two tracks which originate from 82). Gilbert says Prince wrote the first side during a plane ride, so we're supposed to believe he waited months to record those tracks. Prince just didn't work that way.

But you were around so you know

Obviously I wasn't - but that documentation came from people who were. Use some common sense, Laura.

OldFriends4Sale said:

novabrkr said:

We've been told by Susan Rogers that "Slow Love" was an older song. "Starfish and Coffee" according to Susannah Melvoin was written and recorded at his home right after she told him the story about the kid she knew in school. Susan Rogers has also told many times that "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" was recorded right after Prince had gotten the inspiration from it from a dream and was in such hurry to get it recorded that he didn't care that the construction work for the studio in Paisley Park had not gotten completed yet.

Doesn't really add up.

maybe there is the difference in 'started writing' vs the final recording?

I mean did Prince could have WROTE/WRITTEN: SOTT IT FOREVER IN MY LIFE THE CROSS on a 3 hour plane ride. But he didn't record it on the plane.

That would contradict everything we know about how Prince worked - It was the first recorded of those tracks, in May 1986. That would mean that Prince wrote those four songs sometime prior to then, but didn't get around to recording the other three until July and August. It doesn't add up.

[Edited 12/13/16 9:31am]

paulludvig said:

novabrkr said:

We've been told by Susan Rogers that "Slow Love" was an older song. "Starfish and Coffee" according to Susannah Melvoin was written and recorded at his home right after she told him the story about the kid she knew in school. Susan Rogers has also told many times that "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" was recorded right after Prince had gotten the inspiration from it from a dream and was in such hurry to get it recorded that he didn't care that the construction work for the studio in Paisley Park had not gotten completed yet.

Doesn't really add up.

SR and AM can't always be trusted to remember things correctly.

Yeah they can

If the song was an older song written by Carole Davis 'years earlier' then why can't it be an 'older song'?

The song was written by Carole Davis years earlier. She and Prince reworked it in 1986, when they were having a brief relationship. Initial tracking took place on 4 June 1986 at Prince's Galpin Blvd Home Studio, Chanhassen, MN, USA (the day after a configuration of the Dream Factory album was made, the same day as saxophone overdubs on Yah, U Know). The track was initially included as the ninth track on the 18 July 1986 configuration of the Dream Factory album. When the album developed into the triple-album Crystal Ball, the song was included as the seventh track on the first disc on the 30 November 1986 configuration, which was eventually pared down and became Sign O' The Times.

TwiliteKid said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

maybe there is the difference in 'started writing' vs the final recording?

I mean did Prince could have WROTE/WRITTEN: SOTT IT FOREVER IN MY LIFE THE CROSS on a 3 hour plane ride. But he didn't record it on the plane.

That would contradcict everything we know about how Prince worked - It was the first recorded of those tracks, in May 1986. That would mean that Prince wrote those four songs sometime prior to then, but didn't get around to recording the other three until July and August. It doesn't add up.

I just randomly chose those songs for the musics stripped feel.

Is it possible that he wrote some of the beginnings of the lyrics on the plane?

Hmm.

Maybe Davison did not really state that Prince wrote the first LP of SOTT during the plane ride.

The last two sentences of the quote are:

' He had written [the first two album sides of] Sign o' the Times. He had basically written an album in a three-and-a half-hour plane ride." '

What's written inside the brackets seems to be just the editor's attempt at simplifying what Davison stated. Maybe the editor just got the idea of the original comment wrong.

"He had basically written an album in a three-and-a-half-hour plane ride" could have simply meant Prince had recorded so much music after going to the studio from the plane that it could have filled an album, etc.

laurarichardson said:

TwiliteKid said:

laurarichardson said: The recording of SOTT has been well-documented. We know that the album was written and recorded between March and December 86 (aside from two tracks which originate from 82). Gilbert says Prince wrote the first side during a plane ride, so we're supposed to believe he waited months to record those tracks. Prince just didn't work that way.

But you were around so you know

.

Oh for crying out loud, never heard of PAPERWORK?

OldFriends4Sale said:

novabrkr said:

We've been told by Susan Rogers that "Slow Love" was an older song. "Starfish and Coffee" according to Susannah Melvoin was written and recorded at his home right after she told him the story about the kid she knew in school. Susan Rogers has also told many times that "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" was recorded right after Prince had gotten the inspiration from it from a dream and was in such hurry to get it recorded that he didn't care that the construction work for the studio in Paisley Park had not gotten completed yet.

Doesn't really add up.

maybe there is the difference in 'started writing' vs the final recording?

I mean did Prince could have WROTE/WRITTEN: SOTT IT FOREVER IN MY LIFE THE CROSS on a 3 hour plane ride. But he didn't record it on the plane.

.

Or you could read the article.

novabrkr said:

Hmm.

Maybe Davison did not really state that Prince wrote the first LP of SOTT during the plane ride.

The last two sentences of the quote are:

' He had written [the first two album sides of] Sign o' the Times. He had basically written an album in a three-and-a half-hour plane ride." '

What's written inside the brackets seems to be just the editor's attempt at simplifying what Davison stated. Maybe the editor just got the idea of the original comment wrong.

"He had basically written an album in a three-and-a-half-hour plane ride" could have simply meant Prince had recorded so much music after going to the studio from the plane that it could have filled an album, etc.

.

No, that indicates a "not literate quote", i.e. if you listen to the tape you won't hear it exactly like that, but the written down version is for instance a readable edit of a longer more rambling quote.

We don't know that Prince would always after writing some lyrcs immediately record that song. Or even how much relation the lyrics he wrote on this plane have in relation to the finished songs.

BartVanHemelen said:

novabrkr said:

Hmm.

Maybe Davison did not really state that Prince wrote the first LP of SOTT during the plane ride.

The last two sentences of the quote are:

' He had written [the first two album sides of] Sign o' the Times. He had basically written an album in a three-and-a half-hour plane ride." '

What's written inside the brackets seems to be just the editor's attempt at simplifying what Davison stated. Maybe the editor just got the idea of the original comment wrong.

"He had basically written an album in a three-and-a-half-hour plane ride" could have simply meant Prince had recorded so much music after going to the studio from the plane that it could have filled an album, etc.

.

No, that indicates a "not literate quote", i.e. if you listen to the tape you won't hear it exactly like that, but the written down version is for instance a readable edit of a longer more rambling quote.

That was more or less my point. Maybe what's inside the brackets is something either the interviewer or editor truncated into something that misrepresents Davison's original comment.

In any case, it's a bit weird that the "grand statement" made in the title of the article is taken from a comment that's not even available in its original form. It's just poor journalism, especially when considering that the entire quote is simply lifted from another source.

BartVanHemelen said:

laurarichardson said:

But you were around so you know

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Oh for crying out loud, never heard of PAPERWORK?

What about songs that he had just written in a notebook from years before. We really don't know when he actaully wrote anything only when he sent something to the copyright office.

We do not even have access to his studio logs. We know some information because of second hand sources.

At Paisley Park they say they found notebooks filled with lyrics. Do we know when they were written.