Re: L-H V12.326 (Billboards and Learning Painful Lessons)

[pdc@acorn.net (pDaleCampbell)]

In the latest L-H digest (#326), aawebster@aol.com (AAWebster) wrote:
> I keep thinking of that quote, attributed to her, that we Americans
> "don't want me over there." Kate, I hope you're listening--we in America
> want you to tour.

This is a repetition of Len Bullard's "re-analysis" (Vol 11,#302; Thu, 23 Nov
1995):
> [...] Consider the remark made by the
> fellow who worked for Prince when he
> said she said "I'm not wanted over there."
> That's fear speaking and maybe just a touch
> of insecurity.  Normal but unwarranted.  [...]

...of LoLife's original statement, which in fact was (Vol 11, #252; Wed, 4 Oct
1995):
> [...] I also asked her if she was going to come
> to Minneapolis, and she said I don't think I'm wanted out there right
> now. [...]

Now when *I* read that, it tells me that Kate felt that <TAFKAP> was the fool
who did not want her coming to America.  Given LoLife's description of the
clown prince's twisted (though creative) mind, I think that is BY FAR the most
logical meaning (here we go, arguing "meaning" again).

Since the original post is a fascinating slice-o-life, here it is, at no extra
charge:

> From: LoLife <lolife@bitstream.net>
> Subject: Re: Worked on Why Should I Love You
> Date: Wed, 4 Oct 1995 20:15:59 -0500
> X-Sender: lolife@marley
> To: kln@crl.com
> In-Reply-To: <44p2dh$h04@nntp.crl.com> 
>
> On Mon, 2 Oct 1995 kln@crl.com wrote:
>
> > >   lolife@bitstream.net (LoLife) writes:
> > >  I've begged her to let me record or mix something for years (that's what 
> > >  I do for a living).  My wish came true when I worked on Why Should I 
> > >  Love You when I worked for Prince, but I hated what he did to that song 
> > >  so much it killed me.
> > >  
> > 
> > So, lolife, tell us about this experience.  We're curious little animals, the Love Hounds.
> > 
> > Did you ever get to talk to Kate in person?
>
> I did, but only for a short moment. I was at home and the phone rang. I 
> didn't always answer the phone in those days, because I was severly 
> overworked. So my answering machine picked it up and I heard Julie, from 
> Paisley Park, saying "Mike, I got Kate Bush on the phone and she has some 
> questions about what format they should send things over on, and I 
> thought it would be best if she talked to you. I, being an admitted Kate 
> Bush fan, freaked, but picked up the phone and talked to Julie. She says, 
> Kate, I have Prince's engineer Michael Koppelman on the phone and he can 
> answer your questions. Meanwhile, my answering machine is still recording 
> it all, and blaring loudly. I tell my then girlfriend to shut if off just 
> as Kate comes on and says Hello Michael? (so to this day, if I could find 
> it, i have a tape of Kate saying hello to me...). The conversation 
> consisted only of her asking me if they could send 24-track tapes and 
> what series SSL computer disks. I also asked her if she was going to come 
> to Minneapolis, and she said I don't think I'm wanted out there right 
> now. Then we basically said good-bye and hung up.
>
> It's funny because Prince knew I was a huge KB fan. He was too, but not
> like me. The first time I asked him if he liked Kate Bush he said, she's
> my favorite woman. I also made him a tape of all the KB b-sides, which
> fucking rule. When The Sensual World came out he had someone go get it and
> we listened to it in the studio. He didn't dig it that much, but I knew
> you can't always tell right away with a Kate album. TSW grew on me, but it
> is still not her best effort. This Woman's Work is a masterpiece, though,
> and makes the whole album worth it. But I digress. Prince is weird, and a
> couple stories in this post prove it. I may be tooting my own horn here,
> but Prince has a weird ego. I think *part* of his motivation to work with
> Kate was the fact that I worshipped her, and he knew it would impress me
> that he could call her on the phone and work on her music and shit. 
> ANYWAY, what led up to the phone conversation above: one day Prince's
> assistant, Therese, told me as we were talking on the phone that Kate Bush
> had called. Therese also knew I was a big Kate fan. Then, in the studio
> that day, Prince said, guess who I talked to today. Me, being stupid and
> unable to keep my mouth shut, said, Kate Bush? Prince got a little miffed,
> and said How did you know that? And I said Therese told me, and he said,
> hmm, I should dock here for that. At that point I knew I fucked up and
> tried to say, no, she just knew I'm a big fan. As a side note, I told
> Therese that Prince was a little pissed that she had told me that, and she
> apologized to him. Therese is a really cool person. So, Prince tells me
> that he and Kate are going to work on a tune together. He also told me
> that while they were talking he told her that his engineer would rather
> work with her than him. (I thought, wow, Prince and Kate Bush talking
> about me!) ANYWAY, Eventually the phone call above occured and the tapes
> arrived and I put them up and got a rough mix up. I still have a cassette
> of it. It fucking rules. It is 1 million times better than the lame diso
> Prince put on it. There was, of course, no disco on it before Prince got
> his hands on it. So Prince comes in and listens to it. And the brutality
> began. First we sampled the drum thing and synced it up to my Powerbook so
> we could do MIDI. At that point, we essentially created a new song on a
> new piece of tape and then flew all of Kate's tracks back on top of it. So
> now we could run the sequencer and add all the keyboards that Prince put
> on. So Prince stacked a bunch of keys, guitars, basses, etc, on it and then
> went to sing background vocals.  When Prince does vocals, he sits right at
> the recording console with a microphone hanging over it and does his own
> punching in and out. So he kicks everyone out of the room when he sings.
> It took him a few hours and then he called me back in and played me the
> thick, multi-tracked background vocals he had put on. Now, as we all know,
> the song in question goes "Of all the people in the world why should i
> love you". When Prince called me back in and played me what he had done,
> he had sung "All of the people in the world", instead of Of All. I said,
> isn't it OF all the people in the world? Not ALL of? He said, no, we had a
> little talk about that, in his cocky way, as if to say he had talked with
> Kate about changing the words to "all of" instead of "of all". The next
> day, I was waiting at my hotel room for the call to go to the studio when
> the assistant engineer, Sylvia Massy, called and said Prince was in the
> studio doing vocals. I was surprised; i was always called well in advance
> of Prince going into the studio. When I got there he was changing all the
> vocals to "Of All", and was sampling them in himself, which is something
> he would normally never do himself. My interpetation? He made a mistake,
> as humans do, and didn't have the guts to admit it. That's weird. So I
> sorta poked my head in at one point and asked him if he needed any help,
> and we went on with the day. Eventually he had me do a rough mix, and when
> he had approved it, we sent it to Kate. I got a call from Therese a few
> days (or weeks, I forget) later. She said, Kate Bush said to destroy all
> copies of that mix. I said, huh? Did she not like it or something?  (my
> heart rejoiced, because I hated what Prince did to it) She said, I don't
> know, she just said to destroy them. Later on Prince told me, Kate Bush
> liked what we did. She said it sounded very American. So at that point I
> wasn't sure if she was even going to use it. We sent the tapes back and
> she sort of split the difference with what he sent and what's on the
> record. Kate, if you read this, stick the pre-Prince version of Why Should
> I Love You out on something. And let me do a remix of Not This Time. 
>
> Later,
> LoLife
> aka
> Michael Koppelman
> lolife@bitstream.net
> http://www.bitstream.net/gods/lolife
>
> DISCLAIMER: The above is my perception of what occured. I was there, and 
> that's what I thought of it. I did not intend to invade anyone's privacy, 
> nor have I signed a non-disclosure agreement with any of the parties 
> mentioned. I also want to add that I truly enjoyed my years working for 
> Prince, but the man treats people as if he thinks he is actually "better" 
> than them, like he's royalty or something, and that makes it hard to look 
> back on working with him fondly.

pDale "Clavinistic virtues" Campbell
pdc@acorn.net
"I shook my head and smiled a whisper, knowing all about the place"