Sonically, this song is very odd. There is an interesting reason:
"The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" came to Prince in a dream and he was inspired to write a song about it. He wanted to work very quickly, waste no time, in order to capture the spirit of the dream. So he called his recording engineer, Susan Rogers, to the studio to record this new song. This studio had a console that Susan Rogers had never used before. As such, she began to test the audio wiring on the console to make sure everything was working properly. However, Prince began playing and told her "Let's record." So she stopped checking the wiring and simply began to record. Prince laid the entire track down - he played everything himself of course. Then he went upstairs and went to sleep. As she listened to the playback Susan realized something was wrong with the recording - it had no high-end whatsoever. Then she realized that the console had not been fully wired and so it was only recording at half power - not enough power to record the high-end. Susan was mortified and was worried that Prince would be angry. But he ended up loving how it sounded because it had a dreamy sound - like his actual dream.
Sonically, this song is very odd. There is an interesting reason: "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" came to Prince in a dream and he was inspired to write a song about it. He wanted to work very quickly, waste no time, in order to capture the spirit of the dream. So he called his recording engineer, Susan Rogers, to the studio to record this new song. This studio had a console that Susan Rogers had never used before. As such, she began to test the audio wiring on the console to make sure everything was working properly. However, Prince began playing and told her "Let's record." So she stopped checking the wiring and simply began to record. Prince laid the entire track down - he played everything himself of course. Then he went upstairs and went to sleep. As she listened to the playback Susan realized something was wrong with the recording - it had no high-end whatsoever. Then she realized that the console had not been fully wired and so it was only recording at half power - not enough power to record the high-end. Susan was mortified and was worried that Prince would be angry. But he ended up loving how it sounded because it had a dreamy sound - like his actual dream.
Wow! truth is stranger than fiction!
Wow! truth is stranger than fiction!