Episode #233 | 5.13.25

Prince (Pt. 2): Bodyguards, Guns, Gangs, and a Revolution

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1984. Prince is at his commercial and creative peak. "Purple Rain" – the album, the soundtrack, and the film – is a sensation. But that's when the backlash sets in. That's when Prince's public persona sours, thanks in part to a tell-all story sold by a former bodyguard for a big drug-money payday. All the while, the world is sinking further into chaos and disorder; guns, gangs, murder, AIDS, earthquakes. In these dark times, can Prince find purpose ... and a musical revolution?

Sources

Prince and the Parade and Sign O’ the Times Era Studio Sessions 1985 and 1986, by Duane Tudahl

The Beautiful Ones, by Prince (edited by Dan Piepenbring)

Dig If You Will the Picture: Funk, Sex, God & Genius in the Music of Prince, by Ben Greenman

My Life in the Purple Kingdom, by BrownMark

Prince talks (Rolling Stone)

Prince’s Epic ‘Purple Rain’ Tour: An Oral History (Rolling Stone)

Man indicted in 1980 death of disc jockey (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

How Prince wrote ‘Sign O’ the Times’ (NY Times)

State v. Williams :: 1988 (Minnesota Supreme Court Decisions)

1987 Pazz & Jop: Significance and Its Discontents in the Year of the Blip (Village Voice)

That one time Prince made Roger Sadowsky build two ejaculating guitars (The Gear Page)

It’s a Crime, but This City Is Losing Its Peaceful Image (Chicago Tribune))