1993: You Can Be The Side Effect, I’d Rather Be The Dope
Herb Ritts / Warner Bros / NPG Records
This is the point at which moving through Prince’s career in a straight line becomes impossible. For various reasons, in late 1992 Prince flipped the table, and in a lot of ways, it stayed flipped for the rest of his life. That’s why although there is one album to talk about this week, the more interesting information comes down to a few singles, some odds and ends, and a whole lot of recording industry weirdness.
And Now, A Brief Trip To 1990
After the release of “Purple Rain,” Prince generally refused to speak to reporters. When he did, he often would forbid the use of recording devices or have some other weird rules in play. Every now and then, however, he would let slip something that gives some real insight into his thinking. In 1990, he gave an interview to “Rolling Stone” in which he said:
"You can always renegotiate a record contract. You just go in and say, 'You know, I think my next project will be a country-and-western album.''
Those two sentences tell you everything about the way Prince thought about contracts before 1993. In his mind he held all the cards. Prince had complete confidence he was the person at the table willing to do whatever had to be done to get what he wanted, so the other party was doomed to blink first. He shared the opinion of the protagonist of Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” who said:
"The people who can destroy a thing, they control it."
With this in mind, it’s easy to understand how he got the wrong idea about the deal he signed after Diamonds And Pearls.
Never Had Respect For Money, It’s True
There was a lot of conflict over this particular record deal, and there are very few solid facts to be found about the whole thing. All I can be totally certain of (beyond dates, etc) is that neither Prince nor Warner Bros are totally reliable narrators, and the full details of the contract have never and probably will never be made public. As best as I can determine, here is what I believe to have happened, bearing in mind I am not a lawyer, an accountant, or a professional musician.
photo below: Herb Ritts / Warner Bros / NPG Records
In early 1992, Prince signed an extension to his record deal. Diamonds And Pearls had sold millions of copies, so he was in a very good position for negotiation, and he used it. The one concession he did make was that as a separate provision of the deal (not covered under the other albums required by the deal), Warner Bros. would release a Greatest Hits package. Prince was not super interested in such a thing, but he could see why they wanted him to do it, so he “caved” to this demand. Flush with his success at the negotiating table, he felt a need to crow about it. He issued press releases, made sure his agents and lawyers spoke to the press, and the line they were to toe was simple: Prince’s deal was worth more than $100 million, and it was a better deal than Madonna’s or Michael Jackson’s. He would get a $20 million advance on each album in the contract and a 25% royalty rate on each album sold. On top of this, Warners would invest a further $20 million in Paisley Park Records to expand the scope of the business into other media: books, movies, TV, and anything else Prince could think of. It is worth noting I can find no evidence that he did not believe this was exactly the deal he thought he was getting.
This crowing did not make Warner Bros. happy, for a variety of reasons, not least because Prince’s interpretation of the contract did not square with their understanding of the deal. For example, they (and especially their lawyers) felt the words “worth more than $100 million” were a little presumptuous. They would have preferred the language “worth up to $100 million.” Partially because that didn’t make them sound like complete rubes and partially because it happened to be the truth.
The way the contract was (probably) structured was not at all as Prince’s surrogates made it sound. If you talked to a Paisley Park associate, they would have said “Prince will get a $20 million advance on each album.” In fact, Warner Bros. had structured the deal a little less generously. They had tied the amount of the next album’s advance to the sales of the previous album, capping at 5 million sales giving a $20 million advance. Yes, he would be getting $20 million as an advance on production of 0(+>, but only because Diamonds And Pearls had sold five million copies. If every album covered under the 1992 deal had also sold that many copies, he would have gotten an identical advance. If he sold less (as was far, far more likely), then he would make less.
SPOILERS: They sold less.
The idea behind tying Prince’s advances to prior album sales was Warner Bros.’ latest attempt to slow down Prince’s output. The idea was he would know he couldn’t expect to sell 5 million albums a year, so he would slow himself down if only to soak Warner Bros. for some extra cash.
The $20 million investment in Paisley Park Records was meant to help it become something other than a business entity that did nothing more than deliver master recordings to Warner Bros. when album releases approached. Also, “investing in” is another word for “buying part of”. So they were buying a (very large) piece of Paisley Park Records so they would have some sway in decisions made there from now on.
And what of this “25% royalty rate?” That is a big percentage, is it not? Well, that depends. Royalty on what, exactly? That probably sounds like a stupid question, but there’s a bone of contention that would motivate nearly every business decision Prince made from here on.
Many people don’t think about this, but when you buy music, royalties go in two directions. (Well, of course money pays out in more than just two directions, but we are only concerning ourselves with two.) First, to the owner of the intellectual property of the composition (usually referred to as publishing rights) and second to the owner of the master recording from which the copy you bought was made. Just to be sure I’m completely clear, here’s an example: Prince already owned the rights to the composition
of the song “Raspberry Beret” and received royalties as the composer – the intangible, intellectual property. That royalty was (I believe) in single digits, now it went up to 25%. Warner Bros. owned the rights to and had possession of the physical, tangible object that is the recording of Prince performing that song – which is what people want to hear when they ask for “Raspberry Beret.” Once upon a time, when record companies owned both publishing rights and master recordings, these differences were academic. But when singer-songwriters started wanting to “own their songs,” suddenly, there was a need to make that distinction. Since record companies were the ones creating that distinction, would you like to guess which is worth more: ownership of the publishing rights, or ownership of the master recordings?
photo above: Herb Ritts / Warner Bros / NPG Records
So, yes, Prince’s royalty on publishing rights to his songs was increased. But his bank balance did not go up much as a result. This left him vexed, especially when he figured out why. He asked for ownership of his master recordings. That did not go well. After all, ownership of the masters was the way record companies made money in the long term. If Prince owned the masters and decided he didn’t want to be with Warner Bros. anymore, he could take off to a competitor and then release all his albums on that label, leaving them with nothing.
Personally, I’m not sure I care about a massive corporation being put in a bind like that, but it’s not hard to see why they would screw someone over in this way.
In (I believe) early 1993, Prince asked to be released from his contract. Warner Bros. found this very funny.
Meanwhile...
All this was going on during the “Act I” tour. Accounts from NPG members at the time are pretty consistent that Prince was frustrated and angry except when he was with Mayte, in the studio, in rehearsal or on stage. The shows themselves are legendary, and the habit of doing a two or three hour concert followed by another two or three hours at a small club at an aftershow was firmly established during these tours.
Even so, there was a feeling among the band that Prince was all but banging his head against a wall, trying to find some way to make Warner Bros. budge. The contract was completely airtight. Prince even thought maybe he could release things independently without Warner Bros. Rumblings of this reached Warner Bros., and they made sure their lawyers reminded Prince what the words “exclusive contract” meant.
As the American tour wound down, Prince finally got the tiniest bit of movement from Warner Bros. They would not allow Prince to release anything independently, but if the New Power Generation (wink wink) wanted to release an album through independent channels and sell it on the European tour, Warner Bros. would look the other way – as long as everyone understood that Prince was to keep himself out of the spotlight on the project. Also, it was understood that Warner Bros. was definitely, positively choosing to look the other way.
This was important for a few reasons. For one thing, it meant that with dogged persistence, progress could be made against the record company. Secondly, Prince was swiftly coming to the conclusion that any sort of mainstream record deal was not going to be what he wanted going forward. In that case, he needed to get some experience releasing music himself. And that’s how the New Power Generation came to release an album whose name I cannot in good conscience repeat.
1993 – Gold N***a
Sorry About The Additional Tony M.
Yes, it’s Tony M., but this is the last time I promise. The good news is that this is the best stuff he ever did in the Prince camp. That, and there is almost no chance you’ll be able to find it even if you do want to listen to it. And yes, this is the title. No I won’t be repeating it without censorship, because I agree with Chris Rock’s opinion that the answer to the question “can white folks say this word?” is “Not. Really.”
And Now, Some Notes On Historical Precedence
As much as I talk about Prince’s phenomenal output and Warner’s resistance to that output, there are plenty of examples in music history of artists who produced similar amounts of music, if not more, and there are many who released music much, much faster. I’m pretty sure if you do the math, even the Beatles had a higher rate of output during the years they were together than Prince did during the most prolific times of his career. Miles Davis and Frank Sinatra could give him a run for his money at the very least. And then, of course, there is the Godfather of Soul, the Hardest Working Man In Showbusiness, Mr. Please, Please, Please Himself, Soul Brother Number One, James Brown.
James Brown Live in Hamburg, 1973. Photo : Heinrich Klaffs. Photo provided under Creative Commons, link here.
James Brown put out a ludicrous number of albums. His first album was released in 1958. By the end of 1970, he had released thirty studio albums, six live albums, and five compilations. In 1971 alone he released four studio albums and an additional live album.
Below: Quick, Crappy Collage of James Brown's 1971 albums. Images: Polydor
Then in 1972 his band, The J.B.’s, began releasing music as well. If you haven’t heard their music, you should. “Pass The Peas” alone is worth tracking them down. But I digress. In theory, these were essentially James Brown records minus the James Brown. In practice, these were James Brown records that were largely instrumental and featured the band far more than James himself. But he was there, producing, often playing the organ, and occasionally singing. Which kind of defeated the purpose of calling it a J.B.’s record.
This is the best J.B.'s compilation I know of. Photo: Polydor Records
The point is, there is a precedent for a prolific artist sneaking music out under his band’s name. Over the years, Prince would do this twice more, with better results. This one was definitely done as a showcase for Tony M. and the Band, and as far as that goes, it absolutely does that job well. I genuinely think with another year or two of development, Tony could have made a much better album with this band. As it is, the good stuff is great. Then there’s the other stuff.
The album had been knocking around at least as a concept for quite a while. While the Diamonds And Pearls tour was in Australia, Prince took the band into the studio and recorded the title track, “Deuce And A Quarter” and “Goldie’s Parade.” Most of the rest of the album was recorded at Paisley Park in early 1993. The album was put together during the transitional period between the NPG lineup of Diamonds And Pearls and the slightly altered version for 0(+>. The result is that Rosie Gaines appears on a couple of songs, but doesn’t appear on the packaging, nor did she appear when the NPG opened for Prince on a few dates of the Act II Tour.
Below: Ticket To the Concert in Ghent 9 / 4 / 1993
Yup, you read that right. They would essentially open for themselves, then play a full show. How did they physically do this tour? For example: On September 4, 1993
in Ghent, Belgium, the NPG opened for Prince. They played roughly a half hour set.
Then, they played a two hour show with Prince. THEN they played a 70 minute aftershow in Brussels at 2:00 a.m.. The next day, they did it again, minus the aftershow. That wasn’t the most typical couple of days of the tour, but it was not the only episode like it by far.
Above: Ticket to the 9 / 5 /1993 (a.m.) aftershow
For the last six dates of the Act II Tour, the NPG’s album was being almost discreetly sold at Prince’s merch booths. Apart from those dates, the album was only ever sold at the New Power Generation Stores that were opened in Minneapolis and London in a couple of years, and very briefly on Prince’s website in the early 2000’s. That’s it.
One track, “Call The Law” was a B-Side to “Money Don’t Matter 2Night” and another track is available on a compilation that’s almost as rare as the album. It’s not streaming anywhere. This is basically a phantom album. It’s so rare (and the overall quality low enough) that I’m not even going to bother with a track-by-track breakdown. If it gets re-released during the time I am working on this project, I will update this entry, but honestly, you cannot legally obtain this music except through the secondary market, and I couldn’t even find a copy on the internet to quote the outrageous price you’d no doubt be charged.
Just in case it ever does become available, here’s the short version. The best songs are “Guess Who’s Knockin” (which probably won’t be on the album because of an uncleared interpolation of Paul McCartney’s “Let ‘Em In”), “2 Gether”, “Black MF In The House”, “Call The Law” and “Johnny.”
Meanwhile (again)…
Below: Photo: Herb Ritts / Warner Bros. / NPG Records
As the conflict over the record deal heated up, Warner Bros. persisted with their interest in releasing the greatest hits package. Several versions of this were apparently proposed, including a 4-or-5 CD set, but that would have cost too much. Meanwhile, Prince had contributed some unreleased material to the project, and at first had some interest in the project, but somehow things got slowed down. I’m not sure how this happened.
Below: Photo: Herb Ritts / Warner Bros. / NPG Records
Did Prince lose interest? Possibly the drama over the record deal caused Prince to drag his feet. In any case, Prince was eventually paid to just go away and let Warner Bros. get on with it. His involvement really boils down to an early cut on a tracklist, the unreleased songs and he did a single day of photos with Herb Ritts for the album art.
I think if Prince was not the cause of the slowdown of this project, at some point he would have been. He just was not good at looking back. If you look at most people’s greatest hits albums, the album covers all have the same purpose: to evoke the image of the artist at their most memorable. For example, you don’t see many KISS greatest hits albums featuring the band from 1983 when they looked like a bunch of creepy uncles on their way to a Sammy Haggar show.
Above / Below: Mercury Records
No. The Greatest Hits should have the band from 1976, the ”Destroyer” full makeup nonsense, right? So in late 1992, Prince decided not to have any images from his 1980’s work on The Hits. Instead, he wore the same outfit he wore in the latest music video shoot (for “Insatiable”) and that was that.
The album art does look completely unique. It doesn’t look like anything else in Prince’s discography or like anyone else’s greatest hits collections, but it does end up looking arid and spare. Then again, that’s what you hire Herb Ritts for, in a way. It appears that the shoot was at least somewhat fraught, given a note that Prince sent Ritts later.
A Note Unreleased Material On The Hits Collections
Once again, Prince was reticent to look too far back, but on the whole, the songs were appropriate and fit into the tracklist pretty neatly. Three of the songs were very new recordings, so I’m sure Warner Bros., and fans hoping for a peek into the vault were somewhat disappointed, but for people like me who came to this material later, this is all great stuff that may not have found its way out otherwise, but because of this opportunity, they got releases as proper singles.
Singles From The Hits
Pink Cashmere
In spite of my deep and abiding love for “Peach,” this is the best single to come off The Hits. Originally recorded in 1988, probably originally inspired by his girlfriend at the time Anna Garcia (aka Anna Fantastic), the orchestral icing provided by Clare Fischer really takes the song over the top. One of his best songs of that period, and it really would not have fit on any album, so it’s fortunate it could find a home here.
Nothing Compares 2 U
This is from a Paisley Park show in the early hours of January 12, 1992. The Super Bowl was in Minneapolis that year, and this was actually an impromptu Super Bowl afterparty. Only 200 invitations were handed out to VIPs at the game. This is maybe the best version of the song available. Rosie Gaines turns in one of her best performances with the NPG and Eric Leeds tears it up on the sax. I have never been able to tell if there are any overdubs on this, but I’m relatively sure this is one of the more raw live trackss Prince released.
Peach
I love this song, in spite of one really unfortunately coarse lyric. Prince is not the kind of person who can say the word “titties” and have it work. Apart from that, having Prince and the NPG back line doing an overdriven blues rock rave up with several guitar solos is pretty much my idea of heaven. Not literally, of course, but I think my point stands. This is another poppin’ fresh song, recorded in June 1992 in London. Notice the pattern here? The vault is staying, for the most part, tightly sealed.
Pope
This last single is the least single. It was also the only one not commercially released on its own. It had a brief European promo release, but that’s about it. It’s a basic Prince patter song recorded soon after "Peach" that is not among his best. It is mostly of interest for its subject matter. First, it’s pretty obvious that he enjoyed the work of Bernie Mac, whose famous Def Comedy Jam set (see below, NSFW language, very 90's subject matter and even more unfortunate clothing choices) is sampled throughout. Which makes sense, given Mac's vaudevillian structure and almost Gospel delivery feels almost musical to begin with. Also, there are many veiled and not so veiled jabs at Warner Bros. and the record business in general. He also specifically mentions the near future in which fans could (and would) digitally record his shows and share them freely among themselves. He seems to be all in favor of that. Prince in 1993 and Prince in 2003 had very, VERY different ideas on that subject.
Meanwhile (yet again)…
Even though the NPG “solo” album was allowed to go forward, Warner Bros. remained otherwise intractable. Prince continued to explore his options, but nothing worked. The label was particularly stubborn because they had just signed the deal with Prince less than a year ago. This was the moment in time when they had the most leverage over him. Why budge now, when they stood to gain the most by hanging on to him?
At some point early in 1993, Prince started to formulate a plan. The only way to make Warner Bros. move was to somehow make them want to move. There was the problem though: as long as Prince was a valuable asset to the company, why would they want to give him any room to move?
On top of that, he began to be troubled by the idea that he couldn’t really “own” his name. Trademark and copyright law doesn’t do much to help someone copyright or own the intellectual property of a name. Especially one as legally generic as “Prince.” You can sometimes trademark a name, but the best, most solid trademark is for an image, a logo or a slogan.
In Spring of 1993, just before the Act II Tour was ready to kick off, Prince decided how to solve his problem. He was going to take control of his career, the way he always planned to if necessary. He was going to burn it down until Warner Bros. let him go. And, in the meantime, he was going to make sure his name could not be claimed by anyone else.
And that is how Prince intentionally self-destructed the commercial potential of his career for the next decade. He issued statements to the press saying from now on, he
would no longer answer to his birth name. He would be called <unpronounceable symbol here>. To all major news organizations, he sent a floppy disk (yes, it was the Bronze Age) containing a special character with his name that could be used in word processing programs. This was 1993, though, and it almost never worked.
Image: The Prince Estate
Hell, it's 2022, and I still can't make it work. This made him seem completely insane, and the media had a field day. It was a bonkers, completely unexplainable thing to do. There was no way to take control of this narrative in the press. After June 1993, this was the only thing you could talk about when you talked about Prince. Which kind of sucked for Warner Bros., who was releasing The Hits in September 1993.
This was such an abrupt move that on much of the Act II Tour, he was still billed as “Prince” because all the posters, tickets and merch were already printed. One of the more interesting things about this situation is that as the entire world took one look at this and asked the obvious questions, like “what the hell is this?” one group of people calmly found their Buddha consciousness and went with the flow. Yup, Warner Bros. just went right along with it. They did not take the bait, at least at first. All versions of The Hits sold well, and Prince still owed them a bunch more albums. Why worry? What else could he do to them?
NEXT WEEK: The Years Of Competing Prince Albums Begin! Round 1: Come vs 1-800-NEW-FUNK
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