Q.
Ever a man of secrets and intrigue, Prince (1958-2016) wasn’t one to go on and on about his musical inspirations. What’s an example of a Prince Rogers Nelson song where we do have some background story?

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A.

In an interview on The Current radio, Prince’s New Power Generation music director and keyboardist, Morris Hayes, discussed how the song below – ‘Face Down’ – came to be.

By the time that his 19th album – ‘Emancipation’ – came out in late 1996, Prince tried not to let critical barbs get to him. But, Hayes happened to walk into Prince’s office one day when the musical multi-hyphenate was getting more and more enraged by the words he was reading.

Concerned, Hayes decided to let loose on critics. “I just went on a cussing tirade. I won’t do it here, but I just went on a cussing tirade and said, “They can kiss my butt – matter of fact they can lay us all in caskets face-down and kiss our butts on the way out.”

Prince, Hayes continues, fell back on his desk laughing.

“He’s just dying,” Hayes continues. “Two days later, we had a thing you could call and hit the intercom, and I hear, “Morris come to my office,” and I go up to his office.”

“He’s got this song done, mixed, mastered, everything is done in two days, and it’s all the cussing I did the day in his studio, like all the stuff I said was on that record, and he just called it Face Down… I come in two days later, he’s playing it for me in his office like check this out. And I’m sitting there with my mouth open like you could drive a truck through it.”

⏰ Consider yourself warned: there will be swearing…

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www.justcurious.ca

Header Photo: Prince. Hat with Chains. Herb Ritts. Museum of Fine Arts