I stumbled upon this interview that I'd never seen before where Prince, when asked if he has a favorite song, replies that he thinks that his music "is all one song". Which is a great answer.

He also says that he knows the first song he wrote and wonders what the last one will be. He's quite poignant, open, measured and honest in this interview. The Musicology era was quite nice in this regard, where Prince revealed himself a lot and gave more of himself to us. It was exemplified in the acoustic sets he did on that tour. At least to me.

It may have been discussed before, but what was the last song he actually wrote? The weirdest thing for me when I think about it is that the last two words on his final album were "that's it".

I wonder if there's even a way to know?

I don't think we can read too much into, "that's it".

Look at other albums and see what could have been the last song. There's a few albums which end with songs that we could look at with new meaning if he had died ater that particular album had been released.

Rainbow Children - Last December
Welcome 2 America - One Day We Will All B Free

Around The Wolrd In A Day - Temptation, with the deep voice monologue at the end.

Art Official Age - Org would have gone into meltdown if this was his last album, with the them running throughout.
MPLSound - No More Candy 4 U

Planet Earth - Resolution

Parade - Sometimes Is Snows In April

It's almost as if ending an album with a closing statement is an artistic choice.

coldcoffeeandcocacola said:

I've thought often about the Thats it Its like they say the last footage shot of MJ was that smile he did just before it went dark in the they don't care about us stage show.

Bittersweet I think the last song he ever wrote isn't even on record. I think he kept it in his head. He said music came to him all the time, after all.

As ones brain shuts down, a creative maestro, who knows what he hears. I hope it's wonderful. God bless him. God bless all who pass.

Well, we know that Prince was already working on a song called "Stay Cool" or something like that, because the lyric sheet and some notes were on a music stand. So, "Big City" wasn't the last song he recorded. It's the last song he released.

I think in the realm of Prince, fans really try to dial up the mysticism or whatever around him. Sure, he was a genius. But he was also fallible (noted by his being dead and all). He didn't foresee his death, he didn't plan on it, he didn't "know he was going to die." I mean, we're all going to die, so that's nothing profound or prophetic. It's common sense. Even Prince's view of death wasn't that unique. The U.S. is a largely (but not exclusively) Christian nation to some degree. Many folks believe in an afterlife, or a higher dimension that we can ascend to once we leave this body and this existence. So Prince's view on that wasn't special either. Again, fallible.

I say all that to say this: His discography starting with "for you" and ending with "that's it" is incredibly funny, quirky, and interesting. It's also terribly random and coincidental. But it adds to the Prince-lore, doesn't it?

Given the time frame of when songs for HnR2 were done, to when he was found dead - he could've recorded, touched up, mastered, done anything in that studio, and tossed it into the pre-vault room with all the other crap in there.

^^^Jesus, that almost made my tear up^^^

"That's It" might make a good album title if the estate gets around to releasing a vault box set or something like that. I know that they left some sheet music up in Paisley Park (I think it was Computer Blue?). Not sure but near as I know, they left it there whatever it was. I forget what it was.

I like to think that he was either on his way to record or had finished recording something else when he dropped dead in that elevator. Maybe he had an idea and was making his way somewhere to get it tracked or to call his band?

Still..."that's it" is such an intense way to go out, you know? Especially with how casually the line is delivered on H&R Phase 2.

Fortunately, for us anwyway, that wasn't "it" and we've gotten more.

TheEnglishGent said:

I don't think we can read too much into, "that's it".

Look at other albums and see what could have been the last song. There's a few albums which end with songs that we could look at with new meaning if he had died ater that particular album had been released.

Rainbow Children - Last December
Welcome 2 America - One Day We Will All B Free

Around The Wolrd In A Day - Temptation, with the deep voice monologue at the end.

Art Official Age - Org would have gone into meltdown if this was his last album, with the them running throughout.
MPLSound - No More Candy 4 U

Planet Earth - Resolution

Parade - Sometimes Is Snows In April

It's almost as if ending an album with a closing statement is an artistic choice.

May I add to the list the ending of the black album... "What kind of a f*** ending was that?"...

...

Remember at the time he said something to the effect of "If I died tomorrow, I wouldn't want that to be my last statement"

...

But in a way, I quite like "What kind of a f*** ending was that?" as a statement about his dazzling career - I often think about this force of nature that dashed through our lives and was gone before we could fully understand it all...

TheEnglishGent said:

I don't think we can read too much into, "that's it".

Look at other albums and see what could have been the last song. There's a few albums which end with songs that we could look at with new meaning if he had died ater that particular album had been released.

Rainbow Children - Last December
Welcome 2 America - One Day We Will All B Free

Around The Wolrd In A Day - Temptation, with the deep voice monologue at the end.

Art Official Age - Org would have gone into meltdown if this was his last album, with the them running throughout.
MPLSound - No More Candy 4 U

Planet Earth - Resolution

Parade - Sometimes Is Snows In April

It's almost as if ending an album with a closing statement is an artistic choice.

Exactly. And the silence at the end of the record is a trick I've seen other artists use in recent years. I think the idea is to allow people to catch their breath and contemplate the album's ending before Spotify or YouTube randomly starts playing something else. Me and the musician I work with have used that trick on our own albums for that very reason.

.

Besides, we know from Prince himself and several of his latest associates that he had at least four to six ongoing album projects when he passed (a potential HnR3, a potential second 3EG album, his Black Is The New Black project with MonoNeon, a live album from the piano tour, a series of jazz/funk EP's with his last live band, and the "new Minneapolis sound" project with Michael B. Nelson and Stringenius). Certainly, and as always with Prince, half of it at least would have been abandonned or shelved along the way, but he was definitely planning to record and release more material.

.

Not to mention the fact that HnR2 was completed at least 5 months before Prince's accidental death.

I'm not sure where I heard it from, on a forum or something....but there was word that one of his last recorded songs at Paisley (not ever) was a song with Lianne La Havas contributing vocals. Wish I could remember where.

AZStreet said:

I'm not sure where I heard it from, on a forum or something....but there was word that one of his last recorded songs at Paisley (not ever) was a song with Lianne La Havas contributing vocals. Wish I could remember where.

I just checked and Princevault only lists three songs recorded in 2016: Ruff Enuff, Black Is The New Black and the aforementioned Stay Cool. So IDK.

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The last released new studio song composed by him was definitely Ruff Enuff, but some other stuff (mostly live) came after that: https://sites.google.com/...-list/2016

.

I still remember how moving and heartbreaking it was to have to type the words "Black Sweat (Live) was the last recording ever made available by Prince in his lifetime. Every entry past that is posthumous."

I certainly didn't expect to have to write those words so soon

IIRC, the last officially released studio recording was the snooze-fest and Madhouse-light track, "Ruff Enuff"...

... ... probably not the way he envisioned going out!

.

[Edited 9/20/21 14:52pm]

TheEnglishGent said:

I don't think we can read too much into, "that's it".

Look at other albums and see what could have been the last song. There's a few albums which end with songs that we could look at with new meaning if he had died ater that particular album had been released.

Rainbow Children - Last December
Welcome 2 America - One Day We Will All B Free

Around The Wolrd In A Day - Temptation, with the deep voice monologue at the end.

Art Official Age - Org would have gone into meltdown if this was his last album, with the them running throughout.
MPLSound - No More Candy 4 U

Planet Earth - Resolution

Parade - Sometimes Is Snows In April

It's almost as if ending an album with a closing statement is an artistic choice.

AOA to me is his last true album as it's well known HNR 1 & 2 are compilations of sorts.

So ending off with Affirmation 3 contiuing the theme of Way Back Home resonates deeply.

I'm no one for conspiracy but I do feel he was lowkey saying goodbye to us with that album

RODSERLING said:

Of course he knew it was his last album. There s a minute of silence after Big City'that's it. The only photo of Prince in the booklet is a blurred picture of him, IIRC. As if he was fading away. In his autobio he said he was done with music, and rather focus on writing books. At least, that's what he wanted/thought at the time.

That's intersting to think about.

I'm not one who subscribes to the suicide theories (and especially not the murder ones) but I do remain of the opinion that he was ill and not sharing it, which would certainly be how he'd deal with that and that he would explain it cryptically through his music if he bothered to explain it all.

My money remains on liver damage/illness for several reasons but I'll sit on that for now.

Also, I don't put much credence into Prince saying he was "done with music", this, that or anything. He'd said shit several times over the decades that he was done touring, would retire certain songs, wasn't gonna record anymore, the internet was dead, no more interviews, was gonna re-record his back catalog and blah blah blah. He changed his mind as often as he changed his clothes, so every day.

But that final outro..."That's It", combined with the silence you mention is kind of haunting. I haven't listened to it in a while but IIRC, it sounded like he was walking away as well.

Do we know for sure when that song was actually recorded and laid down? I'd like to cross that against the timeline of some other stuff if we can nail down a hard date.

TheKid94 said:

TheEnglishGent said:

I don't think we can read too much into, "that's it".

Look at other albums and see what could have been the last song. There's a few albums which end with songs that we could look at with new meaning if he had died ater that particular album had been released.

Rainbow Children - Last December
Welcome 2 America - One Day We Will All B Free

Around The Wolrd In A Day - Temptation, with the deep voice monologue at the end.

Art Official Age - Org would have gone into meltdown if this was his last album, with the them running throughout.
MPLSound - No More Candy 4 U

Planet Earth - Resolution

Parade - Sometimes Is Snows In April

It's almost as if ending an album with a closing statement is an artistic choice.

AOA to me is his last true album as it's well known HNR 1 & 2 are compilations of sorts.

So ending off with Affirmation 3 contiuing the theme of Way Back Home resonates deeply.

I'm no one for conspiracy but I do feel he was lowkey saying goodbye to us with that album

I agree. Especially in retrospect.

He always said everything was all right there in the music and it's hard to read a lot of AoA in any other way than a farewell.

herb4 said:

RODSERLING said:

Of course he knew it was his last album. There s a minute of silence after Big City'that's it. The only photo of Prince in the booklet is a blurred picture of him, IIRC. As if he was fading away. In his autobio he said he was done with music, and rather focus on writing books. At least, that's what he wanted/thought at the time.

That's intersting to think about.

I'm not one who subscribes to the suicide theories (and especially not the murder ones) but I do remain of the opinion that he was ill and not sharing it, which would certainly be how he'd deal with that and that he would explain it cryptically through his music if he bothered to explain it all.

My money remains on liver damage/illness for several reasons but I'll sit on that for now.

Also, I don't put much credence into Prince saying he was "done with music", this, that or anything. He'd said shit several times over the decades that he was done touring, would retire certain songs, wasn't gonna record anymore, the internet was dead, no more interviews, was gonna re-record his back catalog and blah blah blah. He changed his mind as often as he changed his clothes, so every day.

But that final outro..."That's It", combined with the silence you mention is kind of haunting. I haven't listened to it in a while but IIRC, it sounded like he was walking away as well.

Do we know for sure when that song was actually recorded and laid down? I'd like to cross that against the timeline of some other stuff if we can nail down a hard date.

Big City was recorded in October 2011, according to http://www.princevault.co...e=Big_City

TheEnglishGent said:

herb4 said:

That's intersting to think about.

I'm not one who subscribes to the suicide theories (and especially not the murder ones) but I do remain of the opinion that he was ill and not sharing it, which would certainly be how he'd deal with that and that he would explain it cryptically through his music if he bothered to explain it all.

My money remains on liver damage/illness for several reasons but I'll sit on that for now.

Also, I don't put much credence into Prince saying he was "done with music", this, that or anything. He'd said shit several times over the decades that he was done touring, would retire certain songs, wasn't gonna record anymore, the internet was dead, no more interviews, was gonna re-record his back catalog and blah blah blah. He changed his mind as often as he changed his clothes, so every day.

But that final outro..."That's It", combined with the silence you mention is kind of haunting. I haven't listened to it in a while but IIRC, it sounded like he was walking away as well.

Do we know for sure when that song was actually recorded and laid down? I'd like to cross that against the timeline of some other stuff if we can nail down a hard date.

Big City was recorded in October 2011, according to http://www.princevault.co...e=Big_City

Thanks for that.

Well...if I'm being honest about things and the time line then that doesn't really jibe with several of my theories about his health, his impending mortality and what he may have been trying to tell us thru the music, so I may be way off here. Perhaps he added that outro in production though when he polished up the record for release? I honestly don't know...

But between AoA, his general physical appearance in the later years, his cryptic statements and attitude regarding his health scares, his pain killer addiction and what have you, I still feel like he was telling us...

something.

Of course, I could be WAY out of bounds here by miles but the music seemed to be trying to tell us something.

"That's It" is almost to perfect and gift wrapped to be an accident but Prince was always gonna Prince so it might mean nothing at all.

[Edited 9/21/21 15:31pm]

herb4 said:

I stumbled upon this interview that I'd never seen before where Prince, when asked if he has a favorite song, replies that he thinks that his music "is all one song". Which is a great answer.

He also says that he knows the first song he wrote and wonders what the last one will be. He's quite poignant, open, measured and honest in this interview. The Musicology era was quite nice in this regard, where Prince revealed himself a lot and gave more of himself to us. It was exemplified in the acoustic sets he did on that tour. At least to me.

It may have been discussed before, but what was the last song he actually wrote? The weirdest thing for me when I think about it is that the last two words on his final album were "that's it".

I wonder if there's even a way to know?

There is a picture of a song he was working on at PP, it was on the music stand in the music room.

There was talk about it here on the Org, but I don't remember what it was called.

If I remember correctly the lyrics were finished.

Ooops, I just seen Trivials post. He is correct.

[Edited 9/21/21 16:35pm]

toejam said:

Regardless of what Prince had in his mind the last few years of his life, the "that's it/intended final album" narrative is nothing but a seducing fairy tale.

.

For all the possible depressed (or even suicidal) thoughts Prince may have had at the end of his life (if he had any at all - and this is open to debate), we know for a fact (both from his own statements and multiple associates statements) that Prince was actively working on, and planning to release several new projects (listed in my previous post above) in the months between HnR2 and his death. And he sounded quite excited by these projects, too!!

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So he couldn't possibly, by any means, have intended HnR2 to be his last release. Period. Trying to circle around this for the convienience of the narrative necessitates cherry picking (taking the elements that favor the narrative and convieniently ignoring those that contradict it): it doesn't work.

.

Dishonest people will try and fool others into believing this, praying on the weak minded and on those who will find emotional comfort in believing it, but it's plain, utter, absolute BS or, in other words, a lie.

.

The reason I insist on this is that there are some teenagers and young adults coming here to read us, new fans, kids who weren't necessarily there, who trust the old fans who seem so literate about Prince and may be easily fooled by a beautiful narrative like this one or the Black Album conspiracy theory. This place being the #1 global public message board for all things Prince, it shouldn't become a Prince fake news farm, feeding those kids lies.

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Peace

databank said:

So he couldn't possibly, by any means, have intended HnR2 to be his last release. Period. Trying to circle around this for the convienience of the narrative necessitates cherry picking (taking the elements that favor the narrative and convieniently ignoring those that contradict it): it doesn't work.

100% agree with this.

The conspiracy theorists could take any album released in his last 15 years, look at the last track and say, 'wow, he was telling us something'. They just have to pick a date that fits their theory and will 'know' that Prince knew back then.

If you consider how he felt about the Black Album and how he didn't want that to be his last artistic statement if he died, it's not impossible to consider that he crafted any final track of any given album as something that could be taken as his final statement in the event of an untimely death. This lends way more credence to it just being artistic style than it being any kind of forseen parting message.

It's not somethin I speak on much beecause the threads tend to get a bit crazy, but I do believe that he was sick and knew he might not have long left and that Art Official Age was intended as a last artistic statement. That doesn't preclude him from planning more or working on other things since then but the Hit n Run releases do seem less like artistic statements and more like finishing things off. It seemed weird to me that he was using that naming for completely unrelated albums. This is the man that refused to give us Purple Rain 2 but then gave us Hit n Run 2...

I suppose you could couter argue why would he use Phase 1 if he thought he wouldn't be around for Phase 2, but to me that just suggests he knew he had some time but not how much time. Unfortunately an accidental overdose took him before he had those last months/years.

TheKid94 said:

TheEnglishGent said:

I don't think we can read too much into, "that's it".

Look at other albums and see what could have been the last song. There's a few albums which end with songs that we could look at with new meaning if he had died ater that particular album had been released.

Rainbow Children - Last December
Welcome 2 America - One Day We Will All B Free

Around The Wolrd In A Day - Temptation, with the deep voice monologue at the end.

Art Official Age - Org would have gone into meltdown if this was his last album, with the them running throughout.
MPLSound - No More Candy 4 U

Planet Earth - Resolution

Parade - Sometimes Is Snows In April

It's almost as if ending an album with a closing statement is an artistic choice.

AOA to me is his last true album as it's well known HNR 1 & 2 are compilations of sorts.

So ending off with Affirmation 3 contiuing the theme of Way Back Home resonates deeply.

I'm no one for conspiracy but I do feel he was lowkey saying goodbye to us with that album

I second this. I love HNR2, but it's never felt like a true album. We'd been listening to half those songs for years. HNR1 is mostly a remix album of AOA stuff.

TheEnglishGent said:

databank said:

So he couldn't possibly, by any means, have intended HnR2 to be his last release. Period. Trying to circle around this for the convienience of the narrative necessitates cherry picking (taking the elements that favor the narrative and convieniently ignoring those that contradict it): it doesn't work.

100% agree with this.

The conspiracy theorists could take any album released in his last 15 years, look at the last track and say, 'wow, he was telling us something'. They just have to pick a date that fits their theory and will 'know' that Prince knew back then.

If you consider how he felt about the Black Album and how he didn't want that to be his last artistic statement if he died, it's not impossible to consider that he crafted any final track of any given album as something that could be taken as his final statement in the event of an untimely death. This lends way more credence to it just being artistic style than it being any kind of forseen parting message.

It's not somethin I speak on much beecause the threads tend to get a bit crazy, but I do believe that he was sick and knew he might not have long left and that Art Official Age was intended as a last artistic statement. That doesn't preclude him from planning more or working on other things since then but the Hit n Run releases do seem less like artistic statements and more like finishing things off. It seemed weird to me that he was using that naming for completely unrelated albums. This is the man that refused to give us Purple Rain 2 but then gave us Hit n Run 2...

I suppose you could couter argue why would he use Phase 1 if he thought he wouldn't be around for Phase 2, but to me that just suggests he knew he had some time but not how much time. Unfortunately an accidental overdose took him before he had those last months/years.

Interesting thoughts there, thank you

.

+ didn't Prince have an appointment with some addiction doctor on the day after he died or something? He certainly seemed to have been ruminating dark thoughts on occasion the last few years (who wouldn't in his situation? - I once suffered severe back pain for over 6 months, I can attest that it takes a serious toll on morale when you're in pain every day), but he was clearly planning on trying and going on living and recording music.

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TBH, I don't really understand why people need to put some meaning on it ("he knew", "he planned it", "he was murdered"...). Accidents do happen randomly, meaninglessly, for no reason at all, and they happen all the time and to everyone. Now, I also usually stay away from such conversations too, because it gets crazy indeed, and it's not really something I'm interested in anyway, si that was my 2 cents and I'll leave it at that.

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That said, to be fair, what is or what isn't an artistic statement is very much subjective. Both HnR albums are perfectly cohesive artistic statements, with both of them having a clear musical direction, and I think the only problem with these two is 1/ the similar titles and 2/ (for HnR1) the fact that some fans have a hard time accepting an album they don't like as an album (yes, "NEWS and Xpectation aren't real albums because Prince doesn't sing" people, I'm looking at you), and (for HnR2), the same problem as with CB98: some fans having a hard time accepting an album mostly comprised of material that is known to be older (and totally ignoring the fact that many older Prince albums, GB being the best example, contained older tracks, only we didn't know it at the time). If Prince decided to assemble a collection of tracks, it is a statement of some sort, and it's not up to the audience deciding what is an "real album" and what is a "fake album". At some point, people need to accept reality as it is, not reshaping it according to their wishes, opinions and "intuitions".

.

As for the naming, I hope some associate can tell us someday, but using Occam's razor (don't look for a complicated explaination when a simple one that works offers itself), it seems pretty obvious that the naming had to do with the distribution model (i.e. that deal with Tidal), not the content of the records. With those 5 album covers, it seems that there would be 5 phases altogether (that is, if Prince wouldn't change his mind along the way, as he so often did), most likely made of very different albums if we look at the first two. But again, hopefully, someone from Prince's camp can someday offer clarification as to what the plan was, since AFAIK that remains a mystery to this day.

.

databank said:

As for the naming, I hope some associate can tell us someday, but using Occam's razor (don't look for a complicated explaination when a simple one that works offers itself), it seems pretty obvious that the naming had to do with the distribution model (i.e. that deal with Tidal), not the content of the records.

.

Them being tied to the Tidal deal could indeed make sense with regard to the naming.

PennyPurple said:

herb4 said:

I stumbled upon this interview that I'd never seen before where Prince, when asked if he has a favorite song, replies that he thinks that his music "is all one song". Which is a great answer.

He also says that he knows the first song he wrote and wonders what the last one will be. He's quite poignant, open, measured and honest in this interview. The Musicology era was quite nice in this regard, where Prince revealed himself a lot and gave more of himself to us. It was exemplified in the acoustic sets he did on that tour. At least to me.

It may have been discussed before, but what was the last song he actually wrote? The weirdest thing for me when I think about it is that the last two words on his final album were "that's it".

I wonder if there's even a way to know?

There is a picture of a song he was working on at PP, it was on the music stand in the music room.

There was talk about it here on the Org, but I don't remember what it was called.

If I remember correctly the lyrics were finished.

Ooops, I just seen Trivials post. He is correct.

[Edited 9/21/21 16:35pm]

I thought the music sheet picture was a much older song. Like 'U Got the Look' or 'Raspberry Beret' for some reason. Google is failing me and perhaps my memory is off so I'll take TP's word on that one.

And FWIW, just to clarify, I'm NO conspiracy theorist and I don't mean to come off that way at all.

I don't think the fact that Prince had plans and several projects in the works preclude him from still knowing that he was ill or otherwise had a serious problem on his hands, one way or the other. Also, if, say, 3121 or 20Ten were his last record, I probably wouldn't project any larger meaning onto 'Get on the Boat' or 'Laydown'. The reflective elements of AoA and/or "that's it" very well might not mean anything and just be coincidence.

One of the things I am most curious about Prince is about what happened musically after that plane incident. There is a talk that he recorded for many hours, but it´s probably a rumour.

.

Anyway, I wonder if those last moments made him reflect more about his life and if it inspired some music, like it happened to Bowie on Blackstar.