It's 3/21 aka 3121 day! 17 years ago today Prince released his 31st album on NPG Records and distributed, under a "one-album deal", by Universal Music. As I have said many times, this album is near and dear to me as it was the best period of time I had while working for Prince. It was a special time for sure.
So here is a small but fun anecdote from the 3121 era: One day I was arriving from Chicago to the 3121 house in Los Angeles. I was told Prince was rehearsing, and to go on in to the performance space. It was just me and Prince and the band. No one else in the room. I sat down at a nearby table and Prince and the band proceeded to rehearse "Satisfied" off the 3121 album. Now, if you have heard the song, it's one of those "Sexy Prince" songs, as they say. And as the only person in the audience for this particular performance, I couldn't help but feel like the song was for me. Not because I thought Prince was trying to seduce me lol, far from it. But just that Prince had this way of performing that made you feel like you had a special connection with him. Whether it was an arena of 10,000 people or just you. He was always so in to his performances and being in that moment that you couldn't help but get carried away with it. I almost didn't want to make eye contact with him lol, it was that intimate. It was a brief moment but I still cherish it.
Photo is from the 3121 performance space with an orange Cloud Guitar that I don't think he wound up using at all. But it was there. Photo possibly taken by me or Afshin Shahidi, I really don't remember. I have SO many photos of the 3121 house that it all blurs together. 🙂 I hope that the estate will let me put together an extended version of 3121 with all the sketches, previous versions, outtakes, and iterations of the album art.
Happy 3/21 day!
2 weeks ago