In the 80s, when I was in my teens, there were things I often misunderstood or assumed about Prince.

Back then, and for years, I always assume that once someone left Prince's camp, they no longer talked. That Prince hated them, they hated Prince, there was no relationship anymore.

Yet as we grew older, we all learned that he was still friends with Andre, or Morris. That he stayed friendly with Apollonia, that he offered a proposed stage set and rehearsal space to Brownmark for his debut album (despite Mark leaving Prince out of the album thank yous), or his second album. (I forget.)

Just stuff like that is where gossip comes from, etc., but back in the day, the internet didn't exist so our lines of information were limited and often tainted.

So the question is: What was some of your biggest misconceptions about Prince or the folks around him, that you later found out were simply untrue or unfounded?

TrivialPursuit said:

In the 80s, when I was in my teens, there were things I often misunderstood or assumed about Prince.

Back then, and for years, I always assume that once someone left Prince's camp, they no longer talked. That Prince hated them, they hated Prince, there was no relationship anymore.

Yet as we grew older, we all learned that he was still friends with Andre, or Morris. That he stayed friendly with Apollonia, that he offered a proposed stage set and rehearsal space to Brownmark for his debut album (despite Mark leaving Prince out of the album thank yous), or his second album. (I forget.)

Just stuff like that is where gossip comes from, etc., but back in the day, the internet didn't exist so our lines of information were limited and often tainted.

So the question is: What was some of your biggest misconceptions about Prince or the folks around him, that you later found out were simply untrue or unfounded?

He didn't "stay" friends with Morris and Andre.

Things changed and there were growing pains but they eventually reconnected.

Think your analysis is missing matters of degree.

Yes, in many cases he didn't hate those people and would occassionally connect with them. But their degree of access to Prince dramatically changed.

They went from being people who Prince had an open door policy with to people who had to schedule meetings in advance.

They went from being people who Prince would automatically answer the phone to speak to, to people who might get a call back from Prince a month later.

When people say they were out of Prince's life, they don't mean entirely. If that's what you thought, you took it too literally. They mean they were no longer close and part of his inner circle.

lurker316 said:

Think your analysis is missing matters of degree.

Yes, in many cases he didn't hate those people and would occassionally connect with them. But their degree of access to Prince dramatically changed.

Oh I don't disagree. I don't think everyone was circling the Warehouse or Paisley Park in their post-Prince days necessarily. There are degrees to it. But in general, my statements were examples for others to explore what any of their misconceptions may have been.

Another for me was that Love4OneAnother charities just sorta disappeared. We heard about it for a minute, then nothing much after that. Then he dies, and we hear about him donating huge amounts to libraries and schools, taking care of Lauryn Hill's family and Trayvon Martin's family, stuff like that. So the misconception is that L4OA was defunct, and it wasn't.

This is like when you try and rewrite the MJ beef like they were Bert and Ernie.

He would make "amends" over time, but in all cases the former daily-routine "best friends" were barely even mere acquaintances after the break-up. They'd go from starring roles in the opening credits of the Prince sitcom to occasional "special guest" spots with a 10-second Stan Lee-esque cameo relative to what they formerly had been...

TrivialPursuit said:

Another for me was that Love4OneAnother charities just sorta disappeared. We heard about it for a minute, then nothing much after that. Then he dies, and we hear about him donating huge amounts to libraries and schools, taking care of Lauryn Hill's family and Trayvon Martin's family, stuff like that. So the misconception is that L4OA was defunct, and it wasn't.

Were those later donations L4OA affiliated, though? Didn't something happen to the actual charity itself?

WhisperingDandelions said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Another for me was that Love4OneAnother charities just sorta disappeared. We heard about it for a minute, then nothing much after that. Then he dies, and we hear about him donating huge amounts to libraries and schools, taking care of Lauryn Hill's family and Trayvon Martin's family, stuff like that. So the misconception is that L4OA was defunct, and it wasn't.

Were those later donations L4OA affiliated, though? Didn't something happen to the actual charity itself?

I don't think they were L4OA afflilated.

I used to think he was a perfectionist, he didn't take major contributions to songs, he wasn't really banging all the women he worked with, that W & L were just acting like Lesbians, that there are dozens of fully coeptualized records in the vault, that Paisley Park was fancier, and one big one is I didn't think we knew anything about him when it turned out we knew a lot, and a fair amount of the vault had circulated.

lavendardrummachine said:

I used to think he was a perfectionist,

Exactly.

he didn't take major contributions to songs

Oh ?

he wasn't really banging all the women he worked with

Exactly.

that W & L were just acting like Lesbians,

Never doubted that.

that there are dozens of fully coeptualized records in the vault

Exactly the same thought for years.

that Paisley Park was fancier,

Exactly!!!

and one big one is I didn't think we knew anything about him when it turned out we knew a lot,

Exactly.

and a fair amount of the vault had circulated.

Not exactly true i hope.