"They flew me out there and I didn’t meet him. I walk into a room and there’s a tape on the machine, a friend of mine who I knew from Electric Lady Studios named Sal Greco(?) was sort of in charge of the whole place and he was instrumental in getting me in this line of engineers that he was going to try.

So, I walk into the room and they say, “he wants you to mix this”, so I start pushing up the faders on this tape to see what it was about. I don't remember the song – it might have been called “Soul Psychodelicide”.

But what happened with this song, prior to having the big studio, they would rehearse at a place called “The Warehouse” and they had a tape recorder there. So, this particular track, I guess when they recorded it- the lead vocal didn’t get to its track on the 24 track. When I got the lead vocal, I pushed up the fader and [there was] no voice. But on the drums, I heard the voice in the monitors in the room. So, I thought, “Oh, they must have given me the wrong tape”, because how can I mix something if it doesn’t have a lead vocal on it? So, I had to tell somebody in the office, who had to call someone else, to call him, and someone comes back in the room and says “no, this is what he wants you to do, this is the right song”. I was completely confused, because I hadn’t met him and didn’t have clear instructions or anything.

At the time, in New York, in the previous few years, we used to do b-side mixes for 12” records, where we would take out the lead vocal and put some delay effects, years before they had the technology to replace the sounds and we’d work with what was there and try to make a wilder kind of record for the dancefloor. So, I figured, “I guess I have no choice, I guess I’m doing the b-side 12” mix for this song, because there’s no lead vocals”. So, I made some delays... And these spots in the middle- there were these stops and he would say something or yell something – you could hear his voice in the drum overheads, so I had him on another channel with literally about 60db of gain to actually hear these little things he was singing in these spots.

I worked on it, it was another all night thing – I flew in from New York, I got to the studio at about 7 at night and I was right in the seat, doing it. At about 7 or 8 in the morning, I was wrestling with this thing and I made a version and a couple of pieces on the half-inch, I cut them together. And then, someone walks into the room [and says], “he wants to hear something, are you ready?”. I said, “okay” and made a cassette and they sent it to his house.

So, I go back to the hotel – I didn’t even know what happened. I told myself, “you tried your best... there probably gonna send you home on the plane in a few minutes...”. As soon as I got back to the hotel, the phone’s ringing, I pick it up and it’s Sal, “he loves it!”. And that was almost equally as confusing!

I guess he was testing my creativity." - Joe Blaney



Its interesting to note that the full Soul Psychodelicide rehearsal recording does have Prince's mic in the mix, but given the length of the whole recording, this is almost certainly just a soundboard export. Most of the "1986 Master" (or all of it?) is the last section of the rehearsal, so I guess that take was intended to be they final one, given that they multitracked it? It would be interesting for someone to properly analyse/ compare.

Based on PrinceVault, Joe is not credited for the mix on Sign O The Times Super Deluxe, but his decriptions match the product.