Chris Steller

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oh I forgot I can't speak knowledgeably about anything there's two of

My CD player is cobbled together from a micro DVD player, a 40 year old RCA cable, and a shortwave radio, because that is how little of an audiophile I am

A wildfire-smoke coloured sky, featuring a setting sun, is seen behind a row of trees along Michener Road in Crystal Beach Ontario

Red Rubber Ball (Complete).

#FortErie #CrystalBeach #Sunset #Photography

🎶 math is money and money is math
I was passed out at the Crop Art in a crop top and some assless chaps

Beautiful dreamy sunset.

I was reminded to look up...

At the movies yelling Dumb after every trailer

The NYT When Everybody Has Airport Lounge Access, Nobody Does Aug. 3, 2025

It’s ever a good idea to see what’s going on at the NYT, but

I have this single but I didn't know Mitch Ryder was in town the same week, riding his current release, the first cover single of a Prince song. And we have Prince superfan John Mellencamp, Ryder's producer on that record, to thank.

Looks great and the article is great. Thanks!

Rashad Shabazz’s book on Prince which comes out next April.

Just to promote my friend’s work, this is the cover.

That’s my colleague Rashad Shabazz’s work in Places. He has a book on this subject coming out next April.

Thank you. Excellent excerpting.

"In fact, the crowd was so quiet [hearing "Purple Rain" for the first time], producer David Z had to tweak the recording. 'I cheated and put a crowd from the Minnesota Vikings in the audience track.'"

This has to have been the first time two different acts performed "When You Were Mine" in the same city in the same week.

The band reunited with engineer Steve jelstad at Blackberry Way the Dinkytown studio had boosted its operation since the Replacements last recorded there, from sixteen to twenty-four tracks. Sessions began on August 27, just as Jesperson wrapped up the final R.E.M. date. He flew back to Minneapolis with a couple of Peter Buck's guitars. Buck himself followed a day later and was a presence for the first week of recording. "Me being there was really just kind of an excuse to run around at the clubs at night," Buck recalled. Buck figured prominently on the album's first and most famous song, "I Will Dare." A chiming pop number, Westerberg had written it that February, just as Hootenanny was being mastered. "I got a call from Paul saying, Tve just finished the best song I've ever written. We need to record it now," recalled Jesperson. "But the record was already done, so we couldn't do it."

Paul, Tommy, and Chris laid the rhythm track as a trio, but there were tuning problems. "We tend to thrash around in the studio like we do onstage, and things go haywire," noted Westerberg. After getting the basic take down, Westerberg borrowed Buck's twelve-string electric Rickenbacker to add to the song's jangle, while the bouncy riff that threaded the tune was Bob Stinson's invention. In the control room, Buck watched in amazement as Bob played through the tracks. "Bob knew all the songs, but he referred to them as that one song?' or 'that other song,' or 'that other fucking song?' He didn't know the titles of anything. No matter how many times they played the song, it was a brand-new song for Bob." Bob's frustrated attempts at a solo led to Buck's famous cameo on "I Will Dare." "I was just sitting there, and Bob said something like, 'I can't play a solo on this fucking thing? Those weren't his chords," recalled Buck. "And Paul goes, 'Hey, Peter, you do it.' Buck delivered a spindly sixties folk-rock figure, à la the Lovin' Spoonful's Zal Yanovsky. "That's exactly who I was thinking of when I did it," said Buck. "It only took a minute." Buck and Westerberg hung out a few evenings, getting drunk and putting on pancake makeup and eye shadow and playing out their mutual Marc Bolan/ Peter Perrett fantasies. They ended up invading the First Avenue ladies' room, later nearly getting into a fight at White Castle with some Northeast Minneapolis toughs who objected to their "faggy" appearance. For a while that autumn, Westerberg donned kohl makeup before he went onstage. Leaving his parents' for a gig one night, he walked past his father all dolled up. "Who does he think he is, Big George?" asked Hal Westerberg, referring to Culture Club's Boy George.

The Pete Buck/Let It Be stuff is detailed on these two pages from Bob Mehr's "Trouble Boys." The Pete Buck/Purple Rain tidbit I learned from www.remtimeline.com/1983.html

we love northeast Mpls From the local crime watch page tonight..Aug. 2 - NE Minneapolis - 9 people rescued by MFD Ladder 10 from the ferris wheel at Lowry and Marshall St NE due to a mechanical issue. 22:10

Hot rocking Saturday night.

Yes, and he agreed with me!

The Current podcast/transcript goes into that, particularly Andrea Swennsson's contribution.

Both mention how hot & muggy it was in Minneapolis that night, and how smoky and stifling the atmosphere inside First Avenue was. I was there and don't remember that, or much else about it, unfortunately. I know where I was standing. And during "Purple Rain" I said to myself: "Prince has gone folk."

The Current Rewind: Aug. 3, 1983 Most casual Prince fans know 'Purple Rain' was partially filmed at First Avenue. But did you know the title song is a live recording, taped at First Ave a few months before filming started? In this ep...

An excellent oral history of Prince and Friends' August 3, 1983 benefit concert at First Avenue can be heard (or read!) at The Current Rewind podcast webpage. The show is also the centerpiece for an exploration of Prince in Minneapolis at @placesjournal.bsky.social
placesjournal.org/article/prin...

🔥🔥🔥🔥

Amazing!

YouTube video by Risjah Mitch Ryder - When You Where Mine

Not at First Ave 8/3/83 was Mitch Ryder, on a tour that saw him hit Duffy's in Minneapolis 4 days later. But Ryder surely played one song from Prince's set: "When You Were Mine." Ryder's version, the first cover of a Prince song released as a single by anyone, peaked on the Hot 100 that week (at 87)

Stopped in Madison and snapped some photos of Smart Studios, where Butch Vig recorded a lot of awesome music. That includes 1995’s breakout “Let Your Dim Light Shine” LP by Soul Asylum.

No, I have a body memory of where I was standing and it's much further back, to the right as you face the stage.

Peter Buck and Paul Westerberg out on the town, wearing eyeliner. Buck is in a "The [English] Beat" t-shirt. Photo is August 1983. (Photo courtesy of Lynn Blakey)

Also in attendance at First Avenue to see "Prince and Friends" play songs from "Purple Rain" for the first time Aug 3, 1983 was Peter Buck of R.E.M., in town for the Replacements recording sessions that week for their "Let It Be" album (he plays on "I Will Dare"). Photo via @bobmehr.bsky.social's IG

Prince in purple seen from above with a few rows of fans from the Aug. 3, 1983 concert at First Avenue.

First Avenue had never asked $25/ticket before. Estimates of the crowd range from 1,100–1,500 (probably the difference of paid vs. total attendance w/guest lists). I was there, with an exchange student who'd arrived days before from Oslo—I got her an ID from a pal whose Swedish looks were close enuf

srsly!

Wendy Melvoin playing guitar on Aug. 3, 1983 at First Avenue in her debut with Prince's band. Taken from film clip posted on FB: https://www.facebook.com/100066308659504/videos/prince-purple-rain-did-you-know-that-most-of-the-recording-of-the-single-purple-/937197743065530/

You are hearing guitarist Wendy Melvoin in her debut performance with Prince's band (she replaced Dez Dickerson). That night's band became the classic lineup of The Revolution:
Prince (vox/guitar)
Bobby Z. (drums)
Brown Mark (bass)
Wendy Melvoin (guitar)
Lisa Coleman (keyboards)
Dr. Fink (keyboards)