The year 2020 is, mercifully, coming to an end. Who’d like to join me in putting this year behind a Big Tall Wall? #Princetwitterthread @deejayumb @EdgarKruize

Do you like to dance with your dark side? #Prince’s “Big Tall Wall,” a previously unreleased song that’s part of #SOTTDELUXE, is about the shadow side of love and adoration -- and it’s wryly funny too, if you’re blessed with a dark sense of humor.

The story Prince tells is from the point of view of an obsessed lover who plans to put his beloved behind a big, tall, wall to show her how much he loves her.

The imagery might bring to mind Rapunzel in a tower, but this obsessed lover is no prince. In his overzealous passion, what he’s done is imprison her.

This thread will cover the two versions of BTW from the #SOTTDELUXE box set. The first was recorded in April 1986 in the Galpin Blvd home studio and was slated for the Dream Factory project. https://open.spotify.com/track/0QvXkEvrlMiLDAjw4Vn3dZ?si=oQaYtN-FQt6PFvBzvQfhpA

It’s got a pop vibe that wouldn’t be out of place at a 50s sock hop (“when I look at you I drippity drip/all my cool goes slippity slip.”) But the upbeat music belies the squirm-in-your-seat subject matter.

The second, a rock/funk version, is decidedly darker in tone. One of the first songs recorded in brand-new Studio A back in July 1987, this minimalistic approach features Prince’s vocals over the Linn Drum machine. https://open.spotify.com/track/374zTIRyaLJOtOMbNiO8Bl?si=2rJSiSsiT06zEjRmUjpoqQ

In Version 1 our obsessed lover had issues but by Version 2 he’s got entire subscriptions. What kind of weirdo walls off his girlfriend and then runs around on her? “G is for my girlfriend, yah you know I got another one/ but that ain't gonna stop me and you/ From having fun.”

Prince toyed with placing Version 2 as the lead-off track of the “Graffiti Bridge” album. The separation/connection theme could’ve been compelling. (“You wanna see my wall? You wanna see my bridge?”).

Instead, he chose “Can’t Stop This Feeling I Got” and BTW was relegated to unreleased status until the end of time -- or at least, 2020.

At the time Prince first recorded BTW, he’d asked then-fiancee @SusannahTwin to move out of his Galpin Blvd house. According to @PrinceVault, the lyrics “are a direct reference to the round apartment building in Lake Calhoun to which she moved.”

Curious, I asked Minneapolis historian Kristen Zschomler what building this could be. She pointed me to Calhoun Isles Condominiums.

A former grain elevator, this big, tall building was converted to condos in 1985 and features rounded walls and views of Bde Maka Ska (formerly Lake Calhoun). I reached out to @SusannahTwin -- and she confirmed this was indeed the building.

Few artists could sing about wanting to imprison someone and then, seemingly in all seriousness, deliver this line: “True love is what it’s all about.”

“I found it challenging to listen to this song,” said @TheCurrent host @SlingshotAnnie in a discussion of BTW on the Official @Prince Podcast. #MeToo , @SlingshotAnnie. #MeToo .

@SusannahTwin replied, “I was kind of the bird in the gilded cage, a little bit, a lot, I think.” Beyond this literal background, however, I’d like to suggest a broader interpretation of the story Prince tells.

Walls were on Prince’s mind in this era -- and I’m not just talking about “Sugar Walls.”

In late 1985, Prince told MTV, “One thing I’d like to say is that I don’t live in a prison and I’m not afraid of anything. I haven’t built any walls around myself.” https://fb.watch/2rh1uymYyB/ 

That summer, Prince had told @NealKarlen that he agreed to their @RollingStone interview because “I don’t want people to think I live in a prison.” https://tinyurl.com/y9c6ndh8 

“Well, one needn’t be Columbo, or anything more than a twenty- five-year-old reporter who knew fuck-all about anything, to know what this meant. Prince was in prison,” Karlen writes in “This Thing Called Life.”

“Fame is prison,” tweeted @LadyGaga on Oct. 24, 2019. Through fans’ fervent adoration, do they inadvertently wall off the person they love?

I’d like to suggest that the adoring public, the fans, can represent the obsessed lover building a metaphorical stone circle around their musical idol.

They’re doing it to show their idol how much he’s loved, but it creates a prison and now he can’t get out. Taken to the extreme, the vision that comes to mind is @StephenKing’s creepy story of fanaticism, “Misery.”

The imprisonment theme isn’t easy to stomach, making BTW a challenging song to listen to -- but it’s a compelling idea even while it touches on darker themes. Painting by @blule

Thanks to @djumb and @EdgarKruize for inviting me to participate and to @pressrewind for teaching this newbie what Twitter’s all about. If you haven’t already please check out previous installments of this thread! #Princetwitterthread