A monster #thread on #ATWIAD

ALBUM TITLE

Paisley Park was the intended project title after Purple Rain. The direction of the project then shifted after Wendy & Lisa played Prince a song penned by Lisa’s brother David Coleman called ATWIAD.

Prince became so enamoured with the song that he ditched the Paisley Park project. Inspired by Coleman’s song, Prince began working on a project called ATWIAD.

PSYCHEDELIC BEATLES PHASE

A lot of people call this his “psychedelic” Beatles album or his Sgt Pepper phase:

*well, image wise there are similarities with the album cover.

*Prince could pass for one of the Beatles with the way his hair and clothing looked during this era.

*musically too some parallels could be drawn.

*however, the closest parallel is a conceptual one.

Let us look a little more closely at the musical and conceptual parallels below.

Musical parallel with Beatles

Beatles incorporated transnational sounds into songs such as “Within you Without you” & the infamous “Tomorrow Never Knows” both of which had Indian instrumentation.

On the ATWIAD song Prince also incorporated Indian & Arabic elements.

Paisley Park & Raspberry Beret could be described as psychedelic songs and could be compared to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds & Strawberry Fields.

But Paisley Park probably has more in common with Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” than it does to any Beatles track. Spirit in the Sky was a psychedelic gospel hard rock song that was a big hit in the late 60’s with a strong religious sentiment.

The other songs on ATWIAD like America with its political inferences could be compared to Revolution, Pop Life with its lifestyle inferences to A Day in the Life or With a Little Help from my Friends and Temptation to Helter Skelter.

I am not saying they “sound” alike or that Prince tried 2 emulate them.

Due 2 Prince’s look during this era, the psychedelic sound & subject matter, it was inevitable that journalists would make such comparisons.

But it wasn’t Prince’s intention to try 2 copy the Beatles

Conceptual parallel with the Beatles

The conceptual parallel between ATWIAD and the Beatles Sgt Pepper is much closer than the image, cover or the musical one.

The conceptual link bonding these 2 albums is ‘an experience induced by inescapable fame’ - Prince’s experience during the Purple Rain era & many years earlier by the Beatles during their 60’s heyday.

“Loneliness” is the experience induced by that inescapable fame and this is the conceptual parallel that links ATWIAD to Sgt Pepper’s “Lonely” Hearts Club Band. The theme of loneliness runs deep throughout ATWIAD as it also did on Sgt Pepper.

LONELINESS

This is Prince’s most personal album & he expresses loneliness throughout. Prince was in a deeply introspective state of mind and it encompasses his vision of an alternative utopia.

He conquered the world with Purple Rain and was in the spotlight as one of the greatest musical artists of the time. He was playing to sold out venues every night during the Purple Rain Tour in front of thousands and everyone wanted a piece of him, the music industry, the movie

world, his fans, the fashionistas & paparazzi etc etc.

Post show, he would find himself all alone in a hotel room or in the studio. One minute he was in front of thousands & the next minute he was all alone.

Ironically, when the whole world wants you, you can feel at your loneliest.

So what do you do or where do you go 2 escape that lonliness?

Prince found sanctuary “within” & in doing so he conjured up new worlds & found Paisley Park in his heart.

The overriding theme of this album is of loneliness, of deep introspection & spiritual meditation, a journey 2 find perfection.

“Loneliness is the ally of sorrow; it is a satellite of spiritual elevation”. - Khalil Gibran

ATWIAD is a deep spiritual journey within oneself to help eliminate the feeling of loneliness.

There are also other themes on ATWIAD such as that of the conflict between religion/spirituality & sexuality.

The ATWIAD song, Paisley Park, The Ladder & Temptation deal with religious/spiritual themes whereas all the other tracks deal with the subject of love & sexuality with America, being the odd one out - an Afro American protest song focusing on politics.

ALBUM COVER – PRINCE’S SKY BLUE PHASE

Given the overriding theme of loneliness, ironically, the album cover features images of more people than any other. Most of his album covers feature just him or members of his band.

ATWIAD features an array of mysterious characters that represent songs from the album.

*ATWIAD - Ginger haired child with balloon

*Paisley Park- Girl on the sea saw & Clown

*Condition of the - Clara Bow look alike

*Raspberry Beret - Woman with Raspberry Beret on

*Tamborine - Guy in black with a Tamborine

*America - Black baby with flag

*Pop Life - Elderly Woman handkerchief

*Ladder - Ladder & also the 3 in cloaks with doves

*Temptation - mosaic in the background of a naked lady & nipple, man with red wig & woman undressing

This is Prince’s Sky Blue phase. This is an important metaphor as the sky denotes a limitless potential, a vast expanse that is ever present.

Everybody sees the sky wherever they may be & so it’s a common denominator the world over.

The Sky as a metaphor for the expansion of your mind. By being deeply introspective we can all find perfection inside of us.

The blue sky is eye catching on the cover and also on the Raspberry Beret video where he is wearing that sky blue suit with clouds on it.

The ladder in the middle of the cover ascending to the Sky is a metaphor for the gateway to mind expansion & profound inner peace. The ladder leads to Paisley Park which resides inside of YOU.

Just say u believe & you’ll find Paisley Park in your heart.

I first heard this album in summer of 85 after the behemoth that Purple Rain had become. It was a beautiful summer day & I was sitting in my bedroom & popped the tape into the cassette recorder & as it played I went on an ecstatic journey as I listened to this beautiful album.

It intrigued me, moved me, crushed me, made me feel sad, made me think, humoured me, puzzled me, surprised me & stayed with me throughout to this point in my life.

It has never once lost its wonder & majesty.

It made me believe & I discovered Paisley Park in my

TRACK 1 - ATWIAD SONG

This is the song that diverted P’s attention away from the Paisley Park project that was in progress after Purple Rain.

Lisa’s brother David Coleman wrote the original track & P kept the Coleman version intact but rewrote the words keeping only the ATWIAD refrain from the original version.

The track contains no bass but does include cello, oud, finger cymbals & darbuka all played by Coleman.

The DX7 Synth flute intro beguiled me. I had never before heard P experimenting with Middle Eastern sounds or instruments such as the Oud & Darbuka.

As a person who found his mojo in different ethnic sounds of the world, this was something I dug in a very deep way.

This was Prince talking to my ethic roots. Something I would never have foreseen after the commercial success that Purple Rain had become.

This is Prince’s first foray into transnational sounds which was a massive departure from the Funk, Rock, Gospel, Electronica, R&B, Soul & New Wave of his previous albums.

Prince was not only travelling around the world in a day but also seemingly incorporating the sounds of his journey into distant lands.

The ATWIAD song sounds part circus, part harem, part medieval fete. I always have this image in my mind of a story telling Prince addressing the Sultan’s court.

“Open your heart, open your mind” are the opening lines, a clear & incisive instruction to prepare you for the journey you are about to embark upon.

It’s a spiritual discovery of the world that you can share with like minded people 2 escape that feeling of loneliness which already knows you.

In the ATWIAD song, P is also opening up 2 a more spiritual vision of the world as opposed to an ‘America only’ vision.

The little will escort you
To places within your mind
The former is red, white, and blue (America)
The ladder is is purple, come on and climb

To me this means that you will not find spirituality by clinging to a national identity but only by submission 2 God.

There are various unreleased mixes including a 10 minute rhythm track with Coleman playing Darbuka & Wendy’s brother, Jonathon Melvoin, on Tamborine.

Other versions of the song recorded range from 3 minutes to 6 minutes.

These & the David Leonard mixes of remain unreleased.

These opening lyrics to the ATWIAD song appeared in the Purple Rain Tour book which provided clues to what was next to come.

TRACK 2 - PAISLEY PARK

Apparently there is another unreleased instrumental track by the same name which is nothing like this released version.

Paisley Park is Prince’s utopia. It isn’t a place but more of an idea/feeling.

Paisley Park has a dreamy hallucinogenic vibe about it with elements of Glam & Psychedelic Rock. It a song with a meaning that gives you a feeling of love, happiness & provides a warm glow in your heart.

Paisley Park is full of colourful people whose hair on one side is swept back & they have found profound inner peace because they BELIEVE.

To believe is 2 submit to God & when you do, you will find Paisley Park in your heart.

This is both surreal & spiritual at the same time. A make believe world that doesn’t exist in any physical sense but which exists in a more spiritual sense in the form of an idea or a feeling which if occupied will bring love, happiness & profound inner peace.

Everyone has a Paisley Park inside of them.

You just have to find it.

And when you do, you will know.

The theme of loneliness is present on this track via the lonely woman who sits alone on the pier.

TRACK 3 - CONDITION OF THE

Recorded alone in a darkened studio just with the accompaniment of a candle on a piano.

Ethereal, classical, new age, hypnotic & heart achingly beautiful.

My favourite from this album.

Paris, London, Arabia, fool hardy notions, girls, dames, ghetto, yellow daises, real Princes, whims, giggles, cologne, Clara Bow, longing, love, loneliness & a terminal condition of the heart.

Prince at his most personal & vulnerable being rejected, lost & forlorn.

This is Prince in his Mozart mode, pure genius & completely unique.

This is truly timeless & will remain so for decades to come.

The reoccurring issue of loneliness pervades this song too where he admits he is a sometimes lonely musician.

Condition of the paved the way for songs like Venus De Milo, Sometimes it Snow, Q of U, The Plan, Osaka, Tokyo, Xhalation, Arboretum, Ur Gonna C Me & Here on Earth.

My only regret with this song is that Claire Fischer had not yet arrived in Prince world to conduct the strings on this track.

I would die a thousand times to hear a Claire Fischer version of this song. Can u just imagine that.

TRACK 4 - RASPBERRY BERET

A lot of peoples favourite from the album & also the most recognisable song from it.

Lisa wrote the opening harpsichord riff which is an important element of the track.

RB is pretty much in the “Manic Monday” school of songs & they could both be easily seen as sister songs.

RB is a very positive, upbeat, day glo kind of song that immediately puts a smile on your face. It has a sing along like quality and could put the life into any party.

The song is essentially about Prince losing his virginity & consequently falling in love as a result of that intimacy.

The lyrics are very cinematic & employ an interesting & colourful narrative.

There is imagery from Purple Rain in this song -

*“I put her on the back of my bike”

*“the rain sounds so cool when it hits the barn roof” (deleted love scene from Purple Rain).

The is the most commercial song from the album which references Jesse Johnson (old man Johnson’s farm) & Led Zeppelin (she walked in through the out door, out door).

I can hear hints of Zeppelin’s “In through the outdoor” on this song particularly from elements of songs like South Bound Suarez & Carouselambra.

The hints are not easily detectable but if u listen closely u can hear the mood & vibe of them on Raspberry Beret.

It is well known that Susan Rogers played In through The Outdoor to Prince during these recording sessions & subconsciously, it must have rubbed off on him.

Loneliness can be implied & presumed in this track as he may have been working alone at the 5 & dime & also by the 2 lovers being alone in the barn.

TRACK 5 - TAMBORINE

The Bonhamesque drum line on this is mind blowing. I remember hearing it for this first time & thinking this is coolest & funkiest thing I’d ever heard.

The drums, that bass, the words, those whistles, the triangle ping and then Tamborine Tamborine Tam bo reen, the background vocals, the screams, absolute genius.

2 put it plain & simple it’s a track about masturbation. A solitary act which usually occurs when one is alone.

The Tamborine is a metaphor for his love stick & he joyfully sings about how he loves playing with it whilst being alone and fantasying about an attractive person

This is such an underrated gem & is one of my all time favourites period.

TRACK 6 - AMERICA

I have already covered this far from patriotic song in a previous pretty exhaustive tweet. See link below.

https://twitter.com/deejayumb/status/1205668887213330432?s=21

This is a political Afro American protest song & for a long time Afro Americans have been alone in their continuing struggle.

Another truly funky & standout track. The even more renowned & extended 21 minute version that was released as a 12” is essential listening.

TRACK 7 - POP LIFE

The dreamy hallucinogenic introduction sounds like you are falling from a beautiful clear blue sky and landing on a large fluffy cloud.

Pop Life is a symphony, a cyclical, rotating, wondrous symphony. Metaphorically, this describes the endless cycle of drug abuse that one gets caught up in.

Just like a hamster wheel - a monotonous, repetitive, unfulfilling activity in which no progress is achieved.

Fame does bring solitude & solitude can bring pain & pain leads 2 escape & some choose 2 escape via recreational drug abuse.

This song is about a fall from grace, that lonely spiral into the depths of despair.

This song is partially about Morris Day’s lonely drug fuelled world & in general, the excesses of celebrity.

TRACK 8 - THE LADDER

The string interlude at the start was originally recorded for “Our Destiny” for the Roadhouse Garden project but later repurposed for the beginning of The Ladder.

The most spiritual song on the album based on a chord progression written by his father.

This is Purple Gospel at its finest. This is about total submission 2 God & finding your way 2 that submission.

The Ladder is a metaphorical journey which when you embark upon, you leave behind all your earthly possessions 2 attain spiritual elevation.

There are steps in between finding the Ladder and then ascending it. The Ladder must be ascended whilst you are still here on Earth & that could mean through prayer, charity & doing good godly deeds for fellow mankind. Those are the steps in between.

Once you find & then ascend the Ladder you will feel worthy, the world will be one & you will never again be alone.

You will receive the highest reward.

Everyone must make an attempt to find & ascend the Ladder, it’s a solitary quest but the fulfilment of that journey is unimaginable reward & a profound inner peace.

TRACK 9 - TEMPTATION

Prince has said that he could easily have followed up Purple Rain with the first track on the next album featuring a blistering guitar solo akin to the outgoing solo on Let’s Go Crazy.

Well, if he had started ATWIAD with this final track, that might have rang true but thankfully he made this the final track as opposed to the opening track in an attempt to create some distance between ATWIAD & Purple Rain.

Temptation represents the conflict between Love & Lust & Sexuality & Spirituality & that conflict is in full force on this track.

From the blistering guitar solo at the intro over which he utters the words:

Sex

Temptation

Lust

To the coda of the song where he ends up in a surreal conversation with God.

This bluesy number was slowed down from its earlier much faster incarnation which gives it a sleazier strip joint kinda vibe.

It’s a track that is reminiscent of Darling Nikki & Bambi and deals with a similar subject matter - SEX.

It’s the longest track on the album reaching an almost epic 9 minutes & when I first heard this back in 85’ that intro just smashed my skull.

It was the dirtiest, sleaziest, most sexually rampant thing I’d ever heard, so much so that I swear you could smell semen & wet panties

When you listen to this song, It gives off that kind of sexual odour.

What intrigued me most was that coda at the end when things slow down and the conversation with God begins.

It had me imagining Prince at the pearly gates of heaven, still in his high heels, begging God to let him live & not to thrust him into Hell Fire.

I always found it a comical but also utterly compelling image.

Prince asks God for forgiveness & to let him live, promising that he’ll be good & confirming that he now understands the difference between Love & Sex & Sexuality & Spirituality & begging to be given another chance.

It appears that God is willing 2 give him a further chance & so lets him live. After all, God is all merciful.

(Perhaps God liked seeing Prince in those high heels begging for doe eyed forgiveness )

However, as Prince is leaving, he admits that it’s likely that he might return 2 face this same fate again but he doesn’t know when.

So here is an admission that he may really not have learned his lesson at all.

This strikes at the fact that as humans we are not infallible & can continue 2 repeat the same mistakes over & over again.

The Goodbye at the end also mirrors what Prince was telling those around him at the time. He wanted to take a break for a few years & wasn’t sure if he was coming back.

Prince is not alone in having the thoughts & temptations he has in this song, as we all do.

However, he does stand alone to be judged before God (as we all will if you are god fearing) & having to answer for his vices.

(The reoccurring theme of loneliness strikes again).

THE END

This is one of my favourite Prince albums, most definitely in my top 3.

I heard it the month it came out in 85’ & as I previously said it was a gloriously hot summer’s day.

Curiously, to fit in with the theme that runs deep throughout the album (but I didn’t know this at the time) I listened to it all alone.

It was a welcomed departure from the commercial success & excesses of Purple Rain. It was a personal & intimate album. A mature album beyond the years of the artist who had created it.

Wide & expansive in so many ways:

-the range of different & new instruments he introduced into his repertoire

-the number of session musicians he used on the recording

-the range of differing sound he creates on the album

-the depth of the themes he covers all united by the theme of loneliness

Although it is overlooked & continually underrated, it is a hidden jewel that you ought to spend time with if you consider yourself a committed listener of his music.

By listening to this album & giving time to appreciate it, you may too:

-find a way to rid yourself of the temptation to stray into vices that put that pop into your life.

-you might consider why America when you could go around the world in a day.

- U may find the Raspberry Beret girl 2 cure your terminal condition of the so that when you are alone U no longer need to play with your Tamborine.

-eventually you may find the Ladder to take you to the Paisley Park in your heart

And when u do

u will no longer be alone

MORE

This is my second #megathread on a Prince album, the previous one I did was on 1999.

I discovered a common theme running through on that 1999 album too & so if you are interested 2 read about the pieces of the puzzle I put together for that one you are welcome to look back via this link below.

https://twitter.com/deejayumb/status/1197850246455463941

You can also view my long ass thread on the political connotations of the song America here:

https://twitter.com/deejayumb/status/1205668887213330432?s=21