This is Prince, the story of Sign of the Times, brought to you by The Current in collaboration with the Prince Estate, Haysley Park and Warner Records. We're going to play in the sunshine.

Wanna be free.

Without the help of a Marguerite or ecstasy.

We want a kick like we're used to. Hello I'm Andrea Swenson. Before we get into this week's episode I want to take a moment

to acknowledge that we are now on the sixth of eight episodes in this series about the making of

Prince's Magnum Opus Sign of the Times and we are just now getting to the part of

the story where Prince assembles his new live band, releases the album,

and dazzles audiences all across Europe with his Sign of the Times tour.

It took five episodes to reach this point because of how prolific Prince was in the studio in the period leading up to Sign of the Times.

As we've discussed, he recorded enough material in this era to fill several albums. There was also so much happening in his life.

By the end of 1986, Prince had dissolved the revolution and he and his fiance,

Susanna Melvoyne, had broken up for the last time.

Oh my laddi-dada, Wally, where'd you get those glasses

Those are the freakiest glasses I've ever seen

This is the second version of a song called Wally that Prince wrote at the end of December 1986 about the changes he was experiencing that

winter. The first version was even more personal.

After recording it, Prince demanded that his engineer Susan Rogers erased the tape.

The second version recorded on December 30th, 1986, has remained in Prince's vault until now. That day is so bad.

Check it out, Wally. I'm on the prowl tonight.

Because my baby... I'm on the prowl tonight.

Because my baby don't love me no more. She said,

she said, maybe I do, just not like I did before.

...