How a Stunning 1983 Prince Recording Was Lost and Found
"Can you turn the lights down?"
With that request to an engineer, a 24-year-old Prince sat down at a piano in his home studio and, in a single 34-minute take, delivered extraordinarily potent sketches of songs that would define the golden age of his career. He sang three future classics in embryonic form (including just over a minute of “Purple Rain”), two covers (one a Joni Mitchell song, the other a slavery-era spiritual), one already-released slow jam and three gems that would never surface in completed form.
It was 1983, and after the one-two-three punch of , and , Prince was a singular star, one who held nothing back. During this session, he sounds funky, inspired and disarmingly intimate.
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