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From: LoLife <lolife@bitstream.net<
Date: 1 Oct 1995 04:30:01
GMT
Subject: Why Should I Love You
I know she has a Solid State Logic (SSL) console, because I saw her in some SSL literature with her board. Those things don't go cheap. I don't know what else she has, but I wouldn't mind knowing. Gods knows 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.
anyway...
Later, LoLife
http://www.bitstream.net/gods/lolife
From: kln@crl.com
Date: 2 Oct 1995 16:01:53 GMT
Subject: Re:
Worked on Why Should I Love You
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?
What did you get from Kate to work with? One song or several?
What did Prince do with it?
Is it true he sent back an enormous tape of material?
What did Kate use compared to what he sent, that is, what of his work is part of the song?
Was what you got substantially different from what the finished work is now?
Do you have a copy of what Kate sent over?
Thanks! Karen
From: LoLife <lolife@bitstream.net<
Date: Wed, 4 Oct 1995
20:15:59 -0500
Subject: Re: Worked on Why Should I Love You
< 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 disco 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.
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 1995 09:32:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Stuart M.
Castergine" <scasterg@cd.columbus.oh.us<
Subject: Re: Worked on
Why Should I Love You
Wow. Very interesting story. Sigh. I suppose it would be bad to ask you to digitize that rough mix of Kate's original. I'd put it up on my web site.
< 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
Oh, I think I know where the recording is:
Hey there Michael,
Do you really love me? ;-) ;-)
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 1995 15:48:35 -0500
From: cbullard@HiWAAY.net (Len
Bullard)
Subject: Prince
YO! LoLife! Thanks for the tale from the upper reaches of the music kingdom!!
How often do we get that kind of inside view?
I suppose that in some ways, Prince must'ave been fairly honest in "purple rain" as the character you present resembles the character from the movie... say, just a bit self-centered.
Ah well, the ways of genius. I guess its Ok as long as his checks don't bounce.
len
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 11:34:07 -0700
From: kln@a.crl.com
Subject: Lost Prince ?
Okay, am I nuts, or does anyone else remember an interview where someone told a rather long and detailed story about how the TAPE containing the Prince vocal that Kate decided to use was lost?
I have an almost clear memory of someone being interviewed and talking about how they searched the studio for days trying to find this TAPE and since it never turned up, pulled someone (sorry bud, I've already forgotten your name, too!) into the studio to recreate Prince's vocal.
Karen kln@a.crl.com
I believe it turned into gaffa, myself . . .
On
to Moments 2.2k - You Want Alchemy
Written by Love-Hounds
compiled and edited
by
Wieland Willker
August 1995