Prince (Pt. 2): Bodyguards, Guns, Gangs, and a Revolution
DISGRACELAND
Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 13.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
1984. Prince is at his commercial and creative peak. "Purple Rain" – the album, the soundtrack, and the film – is a sensation. But that's when the backlash sets in. That's when Prince's public persona sours, thanks in part to a tell-all story sold by a former bodyguard for a big drug-money payday. All the while, the world is sinking further into chaos and disorder; guns, gangs, murder, AIDS, earthquakes. In these dark times, can Prince find purpose ... and a musical revolution?
Prince's "Sign o' the Times" was a socially conscious record that addressed contemporary issues head on. What artist best met their moment? Tell Jake at 617-906-6638, disgracelandpod@gmail.com, or on socials @disgracelandpod.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis. |
| 0:03.0 | This is the story about a murder. |
| 0:14.0 | It's the story of a band member with a gun shoved in his face, |
| 0:18.0 | a bodyguard selling his boss's story for drug money. |
| 0:22.5 | It's the story of an earthquake. |
| 0:24.9 | A cop stuck with a dirty AIDS-infected needle of a beating with a baseball bat. |
| 0:30.7 | It's the story of a revolution and a sign of the times. |
| 0:36.8 | It is, of course, a story about Prince, |
| 0:40.6 | a man who might be the greatest pop musician of all time, |
| 0:45.2 | a man who made great music, |
| 0:48.0 | some of the greatest music ever made. |
| 0:50.5 | Unlike that music I played for you at the top of the show, |
| 0:53.5 | that wasn't great music. |
| 0:55.0 | That was a preset loop from my Melotron called Brown Mark's Lament, M.K.1. |
| 1:02.0 | I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to live in on a prayer by Bon Jovi. |
| 1:08.0 | And why would I play you that specific slice of slippery when wet cheese, |
| 1:13.2 | could I afford it? Because that was the number one song in America on February 18, 1987. |
| 1:21.6 | And that was the day the Prince released the song, Sign of the Times. His first single in four |
| 1:26.8 | years without his legendary band, The Revolution. |
| 1:30.1 | A song from an album about death, rebirth, change, crime, and strife from one of the greatest |
| 1:37.5 | to ever do it. On this episode, Bodyguards, Drug Habits, Guns, Gangs, and oh yeah, an ejaculating guitar. Did I mention |
| 1:47.5 | the ejaculating guitar? And of course, Prince. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgraceland. The |
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