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Prince · S1 E3
Bernadette & Mattie
His mother leaves. His father leaves. A teenager bouncing between homes, finding stability only in music
The fighting starts before dinner most nights in the Nelson house. A boy sits at the piano and plays loud enough to drown out the sound of two people who used to love each other.
"Thieves in the Temple" (Prince, 1990). "Love, come quick, love, come in a hurry, there are thieves in the temple tonight." The closest Prince ever came to putting his childhood loss into a single metaphor.
The Split
John and Mattie Nelson's marriage does not survive the mid-1960s. The arguments are constant, loud enough for the neighbors to hear. By the time Prince is around seven, the divorce is final and his world splits in two.
Thieves in the Temple (Prince, 1990)
The track opens with a sampled vocal loop and a descending synth line that sounds like something sacred being pulled apart. Prince wrote and produced it for the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack, layering his own vocals into a call-and-response with himself. The "temple" works on every level: the body, the soul, the home. Listen for the moment the beat drops away and Prince is left alone with his voice.
“I ran away from home when I was twelve. I've changed out of and into many different families. And it was hard for me because I was always the new kid in school.”
— Prince, interview with Oprah Winfrey, 1996
Musical Chairs
After the divorce, Prince lives with his mother Mattie. She remarries a man named Hayward Baker, and Prince does not get along with his stepfather. Within a few years he moves in with his father across town, but that arrangement doesn't last either.
TAP TO REVEAL: Who gave Prince his real home?
Bonus Listening
"Sometimes It Snows in April" (Prince, 1986). From Parade. One of the most vulnerable recordings in Prince's catalog. Just a voice, an acoustic guitar, and the kind of grief that does not raise its voice. Prince wrote it about a fictional character, but the loss is too real to be made up.
Who took Prince into their home when he was a teenager with nowhere to go?
Prince has a basement, a best friend who plays bass, and a band forming in his head. Next: Grand Central, the first rehearsals, and the sound of the North Side learning to make noise.
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