Multi Instrumentalists

"I think Prince was heads, hands and feet about all the rest of them, I thought he left (Michael) Jackson in the dust. Prince was way beyond that. But how pathetic that he killed himself. Don't kid yourself, that's what he did. Slowly, I'll grant you … but that's what drugs and alcohol is: a slow death."

"The morning of the game, I opened the curtains in my hotel room, and Oh my God — it was like a scene from Moby Dick — it was like the winds were blowing the palm tress, the rains were one of those Miami rainstorms which would just not relent ... were in this truck, sitting behind Don Mischer, and I remember Don said, put me off the phone with Prince. Don says, "I want you to know it's raining" — and Prince, like: "Yes it's raining" — and "Are you OK?" And Prince was like "Can you make it rain harder?" — and I thought Right on! … To me its about one guy in front of a hundred thousand people, and a hundred million people on television, and its your moment to be "Prince — at the Super Bowl", and Mother Nature is dropping thousands and thousands of gallons of rain. I always thought, how cool the guy is — to rise up and to just get stormed upon — and just bring what he brought — that was so special."

"I’ve never seen the moon look so lovely as the night I saw it with you. It let me know I’d never seen the moon before. (Never seen the moon before) So many speak of the moon as though it had no flaws. But to compare it to a beauty like yours would give one pause."

"It's 2 o'clock in the morning and I just can't sleep Outside the rain is pourin', I'm lonely as can be Maybe 2night'll be different than the nights before I need 2 feel someone beside me, I can't be alone no more"

"Somebody like Prince, who is so impressive as a human being, it is difficult to not completely canonize him. He is amazing, a gift to humanity. But at the same time, he was a guy we worked with every day and it could get really stressful and annoying. One day he'd come in and be all excited and energetic and happy and want to goof around. The next day he'd walk in really somber with a cloud over his head, mumble into the microphone, and be a dick. Evey show we played, he videotaped and made us watch on the bus afterward. He was charming and funny, but also boring, repetitive and self-absorbed."

"[M]ost of the pop music out today I consider to have become a homogenized product. It gets to the point that so much of what is going on is copying everything else that is out, because there is a businessman that knows what he has just sold millions of records with, and so he keeps trying to get every group that comes in to do it, you know. You know, you approach somebody who is well known as a booker or manager, and the first remark will be, "I love what you do, but you would have to change this to this, and that to that, and this to this, in order for me to be able to sell it." Well, by the time you've changed that, of course, it's like everything else that is out there. And when Prince first started sending me songs, I thought maybe that by the time I had done four arrangements that I would have started getting some sort of a repetitive something or other. I have been extremely surprised to find that each one is as different from the last as the next one is going to be different. Some of them are like little art songs. Some of them have dealt with heavy things like friendship and death. I mean, death of a friend. And yet, some of them are as baudy as..."

"Could you be The most beautiful girl in the world? Could you be? It's plain to see. You're the reason that God made a girl. Oh, yes, you are."

"I've talked to him on the phone, received notes through the mail, but I've never seen him face to face. I sent him my last LP and I understand that he turned his head away as he took the disc out, saying, "I don't want to see what he looks like. I have this image and I don't want to destroy it." So there's a certain amount of mystery involved. I suppose if he knew I were a gray-haired, older guy with a big paunch, he might say, "Oh, that ruins it.""

"Prince is intelligent. He never visits the studio when I am working for him; and I have never met him in person. He sends me memos and we talk over the phone. Once I sent him my Grammy-winning CD. I heard from people that were present at the time that while he took out the disc he looked away from the cover, saying, 'I don't want to know what he looks like. It is working just fine as it is.' Prince does not want to meet me because he knows that the minute he walks into a studio he will start interfering. It is uncommon that a person with such a strong ego realizes that I have an ego too."

"I'm going down 2 Alphabet Street I'm gonna crown the first girl that I meet I'm gonna talk so sexy She'll want me from my head 2 my feet."

"And I said, baby don't waste your time I know what's on your mind U wouldn't be satisfied with a one night stand And I could never take the place of your man."

"This feeling's so good in every single way, I want it morning, noon and night of every day; And if by chance I cannot have it, I can't say But with it I know heaven's just a kiss away."

"Here we are folks The dream we all dream of Boy versus girl in the World Series of love Tell me, have U got the look?"

"Oh yeah In France a skinny man Died of a big disease with a little name By chance his girlfriend came across a needle And soon she did the same At home there are seventeen-year-old boys And their idea of fun Is being in a gang called The Disciples High on crack, totin' a machine gun."

"U walked in (I walked in) I woke up (U woke up) I never seen a pretty girl look so tough' baby (baby) U got that look, yes U do (yes U do) Color U peach and black Color me takin' aback, baby Crucial, I think I wantcha."

"I've seen the future and it will be I've seen the future and it works If there's life after, we will see So I can't go like a jerk Systematic overthrow of the underclass Hollywood conjures images of the past New world needs spirituality that will last I've seen the future and it will be."

"I want to live life to the ultimate high, Maybe I'll die young like heroes die, Maybe I'll kiss you some wild special way. If nobody kills me or thrills me soon, I'll die in your arms under the cherry moon."

"Pop life Everybody needs a thrill Pop life We all got a space 2 fill Pop life Everybody can't be on top But life it ain't real funky Unless it's got that pop Dig it."

"Happiness in it's uncut form Is the feeling that I get, you're warm, warm Happy's what I get when we do what we do Happiness, mama, is being with u Good lord."

"There is a park that is known 4 the face it attracts colorful people whose hair On 1 side is swept back The smile on their faces It speaks of profound inner peace Ask where they're going They'll tell U nowhere They've taken a lifetime lease On Paisley Park."

"I never meant 2 cause u any sorrow I never meant 2 cause u any pain I only wanted 2 one time see u laughing I only wanted 2 see u laughing in the purple rain."

"I was workin' part-time in a 5-and-dime. My boss was Mr. McGee, huh. He told me several... times That he didn't like my kind cuz I was a bit 2 leisurely. It seems that I was busy doin' somethin' close 2 nothin', But different than the day before That's when I saw her, ooh, I saw her, She walked in through the out door ...out door.She wore a raspberry beret The kind U find in a second hand store Raspberry beret And if it was warm she wouldn't wear much more Raspberry beret I think I love her."

"Women not girls rule my world I said they rule my world Act your age, mama (not your shoe size) Not your shoe size Maybe we could do the twirl U don't have 2 watch Dynasty 2 have an attitude U just leave it all up 2 me My love will be your food Yeah.U don't have 2 be rich 2 be my girl U don't have 2 be cool 2 rule my world Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with I just want your extra time and your Kiss."

"Pardon me 4 living, but this is my world 2 I can't help that what's cool to us might be strange to u. Pardon me 4 breathing, can we borrow some of your air? The problem with u and your kind is that u don't know love is there."

"Gett off - 23 positions in a 1 night stand. Gett off - I'll only call u after if u say I can. Gett off - let a woman be a woman and a man be a man. Gett off - if u want 2 baby here I am (Here I am)."

"I'm not a woman; I'm not a man. I am something that U'll never understand. I'll never beat U; I'll never lie. And if U're evil I'll forgive U by and by."

"Last night I was watching TV. I was watching . And he had Prince on. I wanna— What a character he is! Holy cow! Entertainer. Singer. And he can dance. He's a little bitty guy. He had a weird beard. I tell ya it was— I couldn't explain it."

"While the children laughed I was always afraid Of the smile of the clown So I close my eyes Till I can't see the light And I hide from the sound We're two of a kind Silence and I We need a chance to talk things over Two of a kind Silence and I"

"Time, flowing like a river Time, beckoning me Who knows when we shall meet again If ever But time Keeps flowing like a river To the sea"

"Her stage name was inspired by the hospital where Dylan Thomas spent his last hours. “It’s the place where poetry comes to die,” she said, joking. “That’s me.""

"I read an interview with her one time, where she was asked, something along the lines of "Why do you write from the perspective of a lot of characters?" And she said very simply and eloquently "because they're more interesting than I am.""

"For that to have come out of someone's brain, period, is a remarkable feat. For that to have come out of someone's brain, at 17 years old — this incredible song, incredible song … there aren't that many amazing pop songs that have two or three key changes in them —‚ and I'm not talking about some modulations, I'm talking: "Okay, now we're in the key of Q." It's like WHAT?! But it's so brilliant, it's so memorable. I always karaoke that song — if I drink enough."

"I'm convinced that, as great as that record sounds, if you had anyone else sing it, you know, anyone else try to kind of weave and make it do that thing where it burns like wildfire and it comes alive, no one else could do it. It's incredible the way she kind of brings this cold arctic atmosphere, It's just like fire, you know? It's like all aaarh coming out of her mouth. … and now I'm listening to the song in my head. "Do you know what I really need? Do you know what I really need? I need lalalala yea yo yea yo your love.""

"Bodies like wrecking balls fuck, fuck with dynamite."

"You can hear one note of a Kate Bush song, or one note of her voice even, and know immediately what it is. And that is the biggest feat of any artist, especially when you consider, you know, all the roads that she's gone down."

"I still remember going to the CD store and buying The Sensual World when I was 16, and the cover — there was a rose in front of her mouth, that has bloomed, she's got big wide eyes, and I remember, you know, putting it on the shitty car stereo on the way home, you know — and my life was forever changed."

"You don’t ever get the sense that she's making music to pander to anyone. I think you always get her absolute best attempt at her true vision whenever you get a Kate Bush record."

"The first time I saw her perform — she must’ve been 15, maybe 14 — she got up in a club in Dallas, sat in with her guitar teacher’s band, played "The Wind Cries Mary" and just blew everybody away. ... At that time she was very shy and diminutive, except when you listened to her guitar playing. ... She’s physically a very intense player. She takes a kind of ferocious approach to the technique of the guitar, a real high energy."

"I'm just the same but brand new And anything you wrote I checked for codes and clues."

"I wish I had a gentle mind and a spine made up of iron."

"I traded my plot of land for a plane to anywhere Oh where did you go. And I can't see the future but I know it's watching me. All my old friends aren't so friendly And all my old haunts are now haunting me."

"Honey can you reach the spots that need oiling and fixing. H E L P Help Me."

"If you want we could go somewhere else."

"Just like an amnesiac, trying to get my senses back. Oh where did they go."

"We're sleeping underneath the bed to scare The monsters out With our dear daddy's Smith and Wesson. We've got to teach them all a lesson."

"Oh but I'd pay anything to keep my conscience clean. I'm keeping my eyes on the the exit sign. Steady now."

"Tomorrow's some kind of Strangerland where all the news is good."

"Let's pour wine in coffee cups and drive around the neighborhood And shine the headlights on houses until all the news is good."

"What would the neighbors think? Oh no! If they only knew."

"I'm a wife in watercolors I can wash away what seventeen cold showers couldn't wash away."