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Prince · S2 E5
Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
Rock guitars on a funk album. The first sign that Prince refuses to stay in one lane
A rehearsal room in Minneapolis, 1979. Prince plugs into a Marshall amplifier, cranks the distortion past anything his bandmates have heard before, and plays a rock guitar solo that makes the drummer stop mid-beat.
"Purple Rain" (Prince and the Revolution, 1984). The guitar instinct that first appeared on "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" reaches its fullest expression five years later. A Black artist on a funk label playing arena rock, and nobody blinks.
Purple Rain, Prince and the Revolution (1984)
"Purple Rain" started life as a country song Prince considered giving to Stevie Nicks. It transformed during a band rehearsal when guitarist Wendy Melvoin began revoicing the chord progression, adding ninths and suspensions that turned something simple into something vast. They played it for six hours straight, and by the end of the day the arrangement was locked. Listen for Melvoin's guitar in the intro: those open, cascading chords are the reason the song sounds the way it does, and the rock confidence behind them traces back to what Prince first tried on "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?"
Sources
Coleman, Lisa and Melvoin, Wendy. Interview with NPR, July 2024.
Tudahl, Duane. "Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984." Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.
TAP TO REVEAL: What happened when radio stations received "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?"
Rock on a Funk Album
"Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" is the track on the Prince album that nobody at Warner Bros expected. Over a driving rock guitar riff and a heavy backbeat, Prince abandons the disco-funk formula that made "I Wanna Be Your Lover" a hit and plays like he's fronting a hard rock band. It confused the label, confused the radio programmers, and thrilled every musician who heard it.
Sources
Hahn, Alex. "Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince." Billboard Books, 2003.
Thorne, Matt. "Prince: The Man and His Music." Faber & Faber, 2012.
“People forget he was a guitar player first. The funk, the falsetto, the keyboards, all of that came second. His first love was the guitar, and he played it like he was trying to set the building on fire.”
— Dez Dickerson, guitarist, as quoted in Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince (Alex Hahn, 2003)
Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?: The File
Bambi, Prince (1979)
The other rock track on the Prince album, and the one that goes even further. "Bambi" is three and a half minutes of distorted guitars, screaming vocals, and a tempo that owes more to Led Zeppelin than to Earth, Wind & Fire. If "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" was a hint, this is the full confession: Prince is a rock guitarist trapped in a funk career, and he's done pretending otherwise.
Bambi, Prince (1979)
Underneath the wall of guitars, Prince tells a story that's raw and direct. No double meanings, no clever wordplay. Just distortion and honesty. This is the most un-Prince song Prince ever wrote.
Why did "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" struggle on the charts despite being a strong single?
Prince has a pop hit, a rock streak, and an audience that doesn't know what to expect next. Next: opening for Rick James on a nationwide tour, getting booed by crowds who came for funk, and the night Prince decides he will never open for anyone again.
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