it's good, a little showtune-y

when it surfaced as a boot...I was underwhelmed. However, upon hearing it on the SOTT SDE, I was thrilled. I'm sure the story of the song helped but you can hear his total sadness in how he sings the song and the guitar solo...and all that hollering. naked.

old friends for sale is more exposing tbh than this version of wally

wally does have a certain sadness, but its also a bit showtuney which removes some of the raw feeling. it also has some pretty silly lyrics as well, which make it a bit of a weird song, all in all.

I must've missed where Billy Sparks and Wally Safford were in-laws.


At soundchecks over the years, Prince had been writing a song that’s appeared on bootlegs as ‘Billy’ or ‘Billy’s Sunglasses’ but was actually called, Safford suggests, ‘Billy, Where’d You Get Those Glasses?’. It was about Wally’s brother-in-law, Billy Sparks, who had a minor role in Purple Rain where he was distinguished by his outsize eyewear.

The jab about Sparks' huge glasses makes way more sense in the lyric.

The song was very underwhelming. Yes, I know it was the second take, after he slept off those emotions, etc. But still, the nature of the song is sorta boring. I'm not sure any amount of emotion would've enlightened the listener anymore than the myth surrounding it for all these years.

It clearly didn't match the story, but I've come to appreciate it.

Agree that Old Friends for Sale, (and I'll add Beautiful Ones) are much more vulnerable, honest, and raw. Wally, the version we got, is too performative and it's like he's writing sad guy in a saloon lament instead of a real fuck me, expresion through song moment. Kind of seems like you could apply that story to any song like the original 17 Days Piano and Mic practice tape or whatever, and we'd be fooled.

honestly, its like something that would fit on the vault OFFS album in the 90s.

im surprised he didnt dust it off with the NPG.

with some redrafts it could have been fine.

the unreleased/bootleg version of OFFS is the one to hear. the released one was obv smoothed out and made less exposing. prince obv didnt want the original to be heard. the original warehouse recording of empty room is another good one in terms of his rawest songs, yep.

wally is an odd song as it does have moments of real pure emotion mixed with showtuney distancing techniques.

Wally is great. It captures what Prince was feeling. It's Prince being depressed and dramatic at the same time.

I so wish Susan Rogers had done some studio trickery to save that original take.

I'd love an official release of the ‘Billy, Where’d You Get Those Glasses?’ rehearsal, however long it is. (Mine's 50 minutes, but I think there's some fan loopery going on there. Even so, I like it.)

dustoff said:

I'd love an official release of the ‘Billy, Where’d You Get Those Glasses?’ rehearsal, however long it is. (Mine's 50 minutes, but I think there's some fan loopery going on there. Even so, I like it.)

Listening again, when he slides into Strange Relationship at the end, classic.

I think that it's perhaps a bit like the bootleg version of Old Friends 4 Sale compared to the one he later re-recorded in the 90s and stuck on The Vault...OF4S.

The former, original is one of his best, most emotional and naked songs ever. It's just stunning.

The rerecorded version leaves me totally cold. I listened to it, maybe 10 times in all, just because
I can't believe that any version of OF4S would leave me cold, yet it does.

Now, the original version, I have listened to, I'll guess, about 500 times over the years.

laytonian said:

I so wish Susan Rogers had done some studio trickery to save that original take.

So I guess Prince isn't allowed any privacy at all. If it's too personal then it's too personal.

paisleyparkgirl said:

laytonian said:

I so wish Susan Rogers had done some studio trickery to save that original take.

So I guess Prince isn't allowed any privacy at all. If it's too personal then it's too personal.

It seems that a tape=casette from the master(erased by Prince himself) has been made & given to Prince by Susan , but what we don't know if this tape is in the Vault or has been erased one more time by Prince after ...rumours heard here & there said that this tape would exist !

[Edited 9/14/22 0:09am]

eye thought there were rumblings over wally appearing on the SDE that there were mulitple version maybe and what to include now as opposed to releasing later .. reminded me of the Nirvana with that Courntney Love wanting to save You KNow You're Right for the greatest hits when the band wanted it out on the box set .. it sounded like nobody wanted to admit out loud the other wally was waiting for it's own highlighted release and there may have been some internal argueing over it .. pure spectulation based upon what was not said but if the og wally is truly gone perhaps sinead could record a version and bring the song to life the way she did NC2U .. which didn't have much appeal in its original version either .. eye do like the SDE wally but it is easy to imagine the version Susan describes and how much better it probably was

dustoff said:

I'd love an official release of the ‘Billy, Where’d You Get Those Glasses?’ rehearsal, however long it is. (Mine's 50 minutes, but I think there's some fan loopery going on there. Even so, I like it.)

The guitar on Billy is scorching . Never gets old.

Wally lyrically is fantastic...and there are times in the song where you can hear he's hurting. But the music doesn't match the sincerity of the song imo. I am glad its out there...but have to admit it was a bit of a letdown after years of wondering...

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

https://www.thesocial.com...tt-thorne/ This song is ok tbh The myth was better than what we actually got Obv if the original is out there than it might be better but until then ,it doesnt live up to the hype RIP mr safford

This is always interesting too me.

The myth is better, so maybe when nobody had heard about it before people would think its a fantatic song.

The song cant help it there was a myth.

Its interesting to see how much expectations have an influence on our taste

love2thenines2003 said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

So I guess Prince isn't allowed any privacy at all. If it's too personal then it's too personal.

It seems that a tape=casette from the master(erased by Prince himself) has been made & given to Prince by Susan , but what we don't know if this tape is in the Vault or has been erased one more time by Prince after ...rumours heard here & there said that this tape would exist !

[Edited 9/14/22 0:09am]

I'm pretty sure that cassette exists. Prince would have listened to it and decided it was worthy of a re-try. If it's ever released, it will be a big event. Iworry that when Michael Howe was let go, anything he hadn't worked on or had set aside was trashed.

laytonian said:

I worry that when Michael Howe was let go, anything he hadn't worked on or had set aside was trashed.

Do you have any more info or articles about him being let go? Was it because Comerica is being let go? I heard SNJ want to move the music back to PP - is that part of it?

kiowatrail said:

this songs content doesnt actually matter anymore anyway. its basically become a prompt for journalists looking to rehash susan rogers account in per nielsens book to illustrate something about princes personality, that he couldnt bare anyone seeing him truly vulnerable, his need for control, etc etc

FrankieCoco1 said:

kiowatrail said:

Do you have any more info or articles about him being let go? Was it because Comerica is being let go? I heard SNJ want to move the music back to PP - is that part of it?

Since the start of this year, Jan 2022, his Linkedin profile shows him as a Vice President A&R at BMG Music Publishing.

Thanks for the info. I don't think that means for sure that he's not still working on archiving the vault material with some of his time - unless SNJ/Londell or others want him out.

kiowatrail said:

FrankieCoco1 said:

kiowatrail said: Since the start of this year, Jan 2022, his Linkedin profile shows him as a Vice President A&R at BMG Music Publishing.

Thanks for the info. I don't think that means for sure that he's not still working on archiving the vault material with some of his time - unless SNJ/Londell or others want him out.

....from what we know M.Howe & Troy Carter are out of the game with the New team at this Estate ..Mc Millan's Team did not wish to work with them !