Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to Alphabet Suite podcast for the Prince Songbook. There are hundreds of songs to choose from. You have chosen. One plus one plus one is three.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: All right, we're back for another episode of Alphabet Suite. Yes.
[00:00:17] Speaker C: Loving it, loving it, loving it.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: We've done one episode.
[00:00:20] Speaker C: Loving it.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: BK.
[00:00:23] Speaker C: BK, bro.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Have it your way.
[00:00:26] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: I know our first episode was on a song that wasn't very commonly known, and this one. This one's not going to be a lot better.
So we're kind of off to a slow start here. But just so you know, I'm Pat.
[00:00:42] Speaker C: I'm Tim.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: And we're the same guys that were here last time wearing the same clothes as last time because we're shooting this at the same time, basically.
[00:00:50] Speaker C: Yeah. You know what? This is starting to remind. I'm sorry, but this is starting to remind me because I used to have to watch iCarly. You watched iCarly with the kids because they loved it. So this is where it's kind of reminded me of Sam. I'm Sam. Like that. You ever seen iCarly? No, I.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: Have you ever seen.
[00:01:12] Speaker C: You know what I'm talking about? There you go.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: I have not seen iCarly.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: All right. But this just reminds me of this. Go ahead.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Do I really want to follow that?
I'm just surprised that you admitted that you watched iCarly because you don't have any kids. What.
[00:01:33] Speaker C: Would need to get these kids out of my house then? I don't know where they came from.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: All right, so anyway, this episode we're talking about, one plus one plus one is two. It's not iCarly, that's for sure.
[00:01:50] Speaker C: I was doing a 1212 iCarly.
Think about that again.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: Is three.
[00:01:55] Speaker C: Yes. One plus one plus one is three.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: So it's a mathematical equation that answers everything. All questions to the universe.
[00:02:03] Speaker C: So it's not one plus one plus.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: One equals three according to my notes that I have here. And if you look.
[00:02:10] Speaker C: That's what I'm looking at.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: It says, you got also known as Equals three.
[00:02:15] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: But when you listen to the song, he never says equals three.
[00:02:18] Speaker C: Right.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: He always says, one plus one plus one is three. Always.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: All right.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: At least in the versions I've heard. So now, I have not been to every concert that he's ever done where he's performed the song. So I don't know.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: Right.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: You may know. You may have been at every concert in between iCarly episodes.
[00:02:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
When they were shooting in Australia one year.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: Prince or iCarly?
[00:02:41] Speaker C: Both. They were together, they were trying to hook up and do a duet, prince and iCarly. And it was at the time of the arms of Orion, it was supposed to know Miranda or whatever her name is.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Miranda.
[00:02:53] Speaker C: I don't know her name. Icarly. Not Sam, not the goofy, but yeah. Okay. So that was good. Good times, man.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Good times. Fun times had by all.
[00:03:04] Speaker C: Here we are.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: So this song was actually on Rainbow Children, which I'm going to tell you right now. At first, when that song came out, that was kind of not that song, but that album. That was such a departure from his normal rock funk. He went to this more bluesy jazz stuff. And I wasn't a fan at first. Not that I'm not a fan of blues and jazz, but just.
I don't know. That album, for me, had to grow on me. I don't know for you, but it had to grow on me. However, now when I go back and I listen to that album years later, because this came out in what, 2001 is when it came out. So here we are 20 plus years later, and I'm really digging it. And I don't know if that's because I'm older or what it is, but I'm really digging it. So when this song first came out, I was not a fan at all, but now I am.
So on this song, we told you we're going to try to find all the different versions that we can find. Well, on this one he did, let's see, 1234 actual audio versions of it and one video version of it. So there's five actual legitimate Prince releases for this song. And I think all of them are live except for one, which is really weird. And I think they're all actually just different edits of the same live song.
[00:04:55] Speaker C: Right.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: I think if I remember, I could be remembering. Oh, no, the music club download was okay. So there's actually a couple of different ones anyway.
Yeah. So this song, again, I wasn't a fan of, but as it grew on me, it was like wine that had to mature or I had to mature, which I don't know if I've gotten there yet, but it's a really nice funk jazz groove, kind of bluesy riffs.
It's a good song.
Agree. Disagree. Are you too busy reading our notes?
[00:05:41] Speaker C: I am.
No, it really is a good song. There is a version that I don't remember which one it was, but I enjoyed more than the others, so it.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Had to be a live. And I like the live versions because if you've never seen Prince I know you can't go see him now. That'd be a little rough. But there are live videos of him out there. We've seen him live.
He was by far one of the best performers I've ever seen live on stage.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: And just the interaction he has with the audience and on this song, when you listen to the live versions, he does that, he'll stop and tell people, get your cell phones out because it's going to get funky in here. You better call somebody good.
You know what? Just hit me. This has got to be so weird because here we are, two old white guys talking about Prince.
How funny is that?
[00:06:48] Speaker C: Old.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Too? Mature.
[00:06:53] Speaker C: Mature. There we go. Wait. Yeah, mature. Yeah.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: That's got to be weird for people because especially since we love Prince. We love Prince's music, but we definitely are not like the Prince Encyclopedia, right? We have our own stories and our own memories and then we do research online.
But, yeah, it's got to be kind of weird. You would think that it would not be us doing a podcast like this.
You know what I mean?
But I think that also speaks to Prince.
He crossed boundaries in every way, musically and racially. And he was definitely an artist for all people.
[00:07:36] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. He reached. He could reach anybody.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Anybody, any age. When we went to his concerts, I remember going to his concerts in the love, sexy. And just even there, you saw people at that time. Now, this is back in.
[00:07:55] Speaker C: 88, 80.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: And even then you had people that were in their fifty s and sixty s and seventy s. And then you had people bringing their kids that were kind of our age. And then you had teenagers.
You name it. You go to a Prince concert and it's a melting poT. And that's what made it so fun.
I know, I digress. We go off topic.
[00:08:25] Speaker C: That sexy dancer you had helped a lot, too, Cat.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Yeah, but think about it. He always had sexy women on stage with him everywhere. Yeah, everywhere. Sheila E. Drumming for him.
[00:08:40] Speaker C: Oh, my Lord.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: You had cat. And then later in life, you had diamond and Pearl. And.
[00:08:47] Speaker C: She was so beautiful. Hey, we off topic?
Our director is telling us we need.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: To get back on Daniel Lane.
[00:08:57] Speaker C: Bro, look, I've seen that on NFL.com or their podcasts and stuff. They're like, yeah, our producer is telling us to get back on topic. So I'm on that. Got you.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: I'm not sure our producer really cares.
[00:09:10] Speaker C: Yeah, he's just like.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: So anyway, he's good to go. He is.
[00:09:14] Speaker C: Props to our producer.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: So when you look down the list, we have the version that was on the Rainbow Children, which was a studio version. And that was also included on the anthology album that they did remember right after he passed, they came out with anthology.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: Right.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: And what was cool about that is they took all the songs from his later career when he wasn't quite as mainstream as he was. And so this was on that same version. It's not like it's a different version.
[00:09:53] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: And then he did it on one night alone Live. Not the one Night Alone album, but the one Night Alone live album.
[00:10:00] Speaker C: Right.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: It was also an edit of that one was also on the Days of Wild single.
Then there was a version on the NPG Music Club, which we talked about last episode.
[00:10:16] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Remember that? Yep. So there was a version there. And then he also did the live at the Aladdin DVD.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: Thank you. Because I was like, is it my glasses that are funny or what does that say?
[00:10:29] Speaker B: And so you were thinking, like, mean, like.
[00:10:33] Speaker C: All right, it was bugging me now for a.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: There was. You missed something on the Disney soundtrack. Yeah.
I don't recall Genie saying that.
No. He did a live DVD called Live at the Aladdin. And if you haven't seen it, I would recommend watching it. But it's not quite indicative of some of his earlier concerts.
He was calming down and making his set smaller by then, a lot, but he still performed well.
Don't, dude, take it easy with the equipment.
This stuff ain't cheap.
[00:11:13] Speaker C: Old one two.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: So those are the versions that we found. We found no cover versions, no samples.
[00:11:24] Speaker C: What are you supposed to slow down, though? I mean, it's not like slow down.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: He always was recreating himself.
That was something that I really liked about him because I love diversity in music. Even in a song. If you can give me, like, three or four different. Speed it up and then slow it down for the course and then a different beat. I mean, mix it up, but you got to do it right. I mean, you can't just hodgepodge things together.
[00:11:47] Speaker C: Right.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: But when you look at his musical career, it almost seemed to progress in, like, a logical pattern until right after Purple Rain. So if you started his first album, it was kind of a discoe, and then it progressed into his second one, which was a little more technoy, but still a little discoe. And then he went to. He kind of did a 180 with dirty Mind, but then you go from that to controversy to 1999 to Purple Rain, and you see this progression of his music just growing in almost like a predicted pattern. But then you hit around the world in a day, which from there on in, everything was different, right.
The only other two albums that I can think of that he did that were very similar consecutively were Diamonds and Pearl and the symbol album.
Musically, in my ear, anyway, which is old, but I can hear them being like a double album or the same album, right. But you listen to everything else, and he was always recreating and always redoing and pushing his limits as well as everyone else's. And so I think at this point in his life, the one thing he hadn't done, I mean, yes, he is getting older, but he went kind of old school with kind of, like I said, it was more of a jazz, soul, r and B bluesy album.
And if you notice, that was the one album. And then after that, he changed again.
He was constantly reinventing himself.
And that's one of the things that, for me, is great about an artist like that. Not just Prince, but there are other artists that do that. They recreate themselves and their sound, if not every album, every couple albums. I think it's where you are in your life, right? Which I think also is for listening to music. When I first heard this, I was not in a place where I liked it, but now I like it. I think it's a pretty good album. I think it stands on its own and it is pretty good. And I can see the artistry and the music behind it for more than just the sound. Does that make sense?
[00:14:10] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: So I think that's why he did that. But I never got a chance to sit down and ask him.
I don't know if he ever would have told me anything anyway.
But anyway, so that's one plus one plus one is three. Or one plus one plus one equals three, however you want to do it.
We found no remakes, no covers, no sampling.
At least I couldn't. Again, if you can find something, hit us up, let us know and we'll go from there. And as always, check out our Facebook page and look at below. We'll list the versions that we have found.
So, until next time, peace. Peace.
