In the Studio with Prince, Part 3 Addendum

Before I move on from Graffiti Bridge (See Part 3), I wanted to share a couple more stories from that era.

I only met Morris Day from the Time once. He was absolutely nothing like the character he plays in Purple Rain and Graffiti Bridge. He was quiet and unassuming. I realized later that the Morris Day character was very much an alter-ego of Prince himself. When Prince was on a roll, joking around with his band or giving me or the other engineers shit, he sounded exactly like the Morris Day character. Prince’s public persona was very reserved and quiet. He was this soft-spoken and private genius who seemed uncomfortable in the spotlight when he wasn’t playing music. This was very much a premeditated strategy to craft his public image. Prince was not spiritual, he wasn’t kind, he wasn’t quiet and he wasn’t really uncomfortable with fame. He was an artist and his art extended well beyond his music. He was a consumate craftmen and it worked! Movie stars got nervous around Prince because of the mysterious genius persona. The real Prince was a lot like the Morris Day character — loud, mocking, laughing and full to the brim with ego.

I wrote music for one scene in the film. Prince was out of town and he needed a piece of music for when he and Ingrid are on the bridge. It came out really nice and I recall Prince telling me how sad it was. He said I would get credited for it but when the film came out there was no credit. I asked him about it and he said it would be correct on the video. I’ve never checked if that happend. Usually Prince was very good about credit.

The movie sucked, it is almost universally agreed, but the album is not bad and it was my first gold record!

Ok, on to Diamonds & Pearls.