Who is the man with the
wealth of knowledge on Beautiful Nights?
Frank J. Morris III, of Southfield, Mich., has been a mainstay on the Facebook group since it started
last fall. He gained popularity on the page by being able to quickly answer fan questions, identify photos and with the infamous Prince-related “Question
of the Day” threads between him and Marcus Scott that were a staple on the page in the spring.
K Nicola Dyes conducted an
interview with Morris in May where he discussed how he became a
Prince fan, how he acquired his information and why he
doesn't want people to think he's a “know-it-all” :
?: Tell me about yourself.
FM3: I was born and raised
in Detroit. I have two kids, a 7-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy. I
work (giving patients) dialisys, but, music is my hobby.
I play guitar, bass and
keyboard. I've played guitar since I was 11 years old and (learned)
the other instruments throughout my teenage years. I do a lot of solo
gigs at coffeehouses and opem mic (nights). I was with a band called
The Spiral Effect for a year and a half.
?: When did you discover
Prince?
FM3: Like everybody
growing up in the '80s, (I liked) Prince and Michael Jackson. But, it
was more Prince for me. I discovered him when I was three years old,
after I saw "Purple Rain." I can't explain what had me so
mesmerized. Maybe, it was the way he commanded the crowd (in the
film).
I had a Prince-themed
birthday party when I was five years old. They (my parents) bought me a Prince
birthday cake, a Prince poster and I got my first guitar. Once I got
older and developed an interest in playing music, I leaned more
toward Prince, because, he was an instrumentalist, whereas Jackson
was more of an entertainer.
What did it for me was
when I read the credits for Prince's (self- titled) second album and
(the liner notes) said he played everything on the album... I
remember my mouth hit the floor. I was going around showing the liner
notes to my family and said “Did you know Prince played all his own
instruments?” They said “Yeah, we knew that.”
That just
made me respect him more as a musician; that (he) could be that
disciplined to play all (his) own (instruments) on the record. It
made me respect music more. As I got older, I found
out that people like Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney had been doing
it for years. But, I guess (there was) something about the way Prince
did it. (He) melded all these different styles and genres (of music)
together, but, made it his own. That just stuck out (for) me.
For a while, all I
listened to was Prince. I had a conversation with my dad, where he
said, “You know, Prince is great, but, there are other people that
you should get into as well.” It wasn't until my teenage years, I
think I was 12 years old, that I discovered Jimi Hendrix. So, for a
while, all listened to was Prince and Jimi Hendrix. Then, when the
movie “What's Love Got to Do With It?” came out (in 1993), I was
on this kick where all I listened to was Prince, Jimi Hendrix and Ike
and Tina Turner (Laughs).
I was (later) reading up
on Prince's influences, then that's when I would go back and listen
to the people that he listened to...He does so many different
styles and genres of music. How can you not like rock music if Prince
plays rock? How can you not like funk when he plays funk? I went
back and got into Sly and The Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield and Miles
Davis because of him. My appreciation for this music can all be
traced back to me discovering Prince.
?: How did you get into
Prince's unreleased music?
FM3: I discovered the
world of unreleased Prince music in 1997, when my mother bought me an
issue of (the now defunct) Uptown Magazine. I had never heard of
that magazine when she bought it for me. I looked on the last page, through the back issues and there was an issue called the
“Bootleg Issue.” I was like “What is a bootleg?” There was
stuff out there that I hadn't heard about?
I didn't actually hear my
first bootleg song until 1998 when I moved back to Tennessee to live
with my father. When I went down there people already knew that I was
a huge Prince fan. They would see me in the hallways and said “You
need to go see Mr. Brown.” Garland Brown (then a teacher at
Morris' high school) was a huge Prince fan and he (now) posts on
Beautiful Nights. I went and found his classroom. It was immediately
like kindred spirits, like "Oh my God, I never knew somebody as
young as me was into Prince.” Of course, we asked each other “Do
you have this? Have you heard that?” We were going toe to toe.
He brought me a tape of
some unreleased songs that I had never heard before. I just flipped
out. From then on, I was on this treasure hunt, like “What
else is out there?” It just became a fervor for me.
It actually came at the
right time, because, for me, personally, the late 1990s for Prince
were kind of musically shaky. I was not really interested in the
stuff he was doing. The experimental wave he rode from the 1980s
into the 1990s had kind of died down. He didn't seem as inspired
anymore. I found myself losing interest, but, when I found those
bootlegs, they kept my interest. I felt that until he found his way
back to being the great artist I knew he could be, this gave me an
opportunity to see all these unreleased concerts and hear all these
unreleased songs. It still kept me interested in him.
I think he (Garland) said
he knew a guy in Nashville. He used to go to Tower Records every
other weekend and just check out what was there. I know they sold
Uptown Magazine up there. I think the guy who worked at Tower
Records was his connection (for unreleased music). A lot of places up here (in Detroit)
didn't sell Uptown. You had to find it at these little mom and pop
record stores. The place (that sold it) here was called The Record
Collector and they ended up getting shut down for selling bootlegs.
There was a raid and the whole thing was shut down. For a while, I
didn't have an outlet to get my magazines. I had to order a
subscription.
?: Do you remember the
first unreleased Prince song you ever heard?
FM3: I remember he (Garland) gave
me a cassette -- this was back when folks were still listening to
cassettes-- and if I'm not mistaken, I think the first song on there
was “Rebirth of the Flesh.”
I remember he had been
telling me about that song for a while. I think he had to dig the
tape up out of storage and every day I went to his class and said
“Hey, did you find the tape yet?” and he would say “No, no, not
yet.” He had hyped up “Rebirth of the Flesh” so high, that I
could not wait to hear it.
When I put the tape in and heard that
first beat of the kick drum...I was just blown away and said
“What the hell have I been missing?” Even some of the first
12-inch singles I heard, I heard from him. I had always known that
there were 12-inch (versions) and remixes for “Pop Life,” “She's
Always in My Hair” and (songs) like that. But, I had never heard
them until he hooked me up with a tape with all that stuff on there.
One day, I think it was
during winter break (in Detroit), my mother had to go (to work) to pick up her
check. Since me and my brother were out of school, we rode with her. I
said “Can we stop at The Record Collector?” We went in there and
that's when I saw my first Prince concert bootleg, which was the
Detroit birthday show.
The rest of my collection basically came from trading with people over
the internet. Once I started building up a collection, I was able to
parlay what I had for more stuff.This was during the early days of eBay, around 1998 and 1999. I was on eBay constantly trying
to see what I could find and get my hands on. When I would get
something, I would take it and trade with somebody.
This was before Prince was coming down on Web sites for bootlegs. So,
you could openly ask people “Hey, where can I find this bootleg?
Does anybody have this and can you hook me up?” It was more open.
As a result, you were able to build your collection.
?: How did you learn all
the information that you know about Prince?
FM3: I love reading. I
will read up on and research anything I have an interest in all day
long... It's not enough for me to know something on the surface. I
need to know why this happened, what was going through your mind when
you were doing it and stuff like that. I retained a lot of this
knowledge over the years just by reading so much.
(It) really goes back to
that first issue of Uptown Magazine I received. (The magazine) had
great attention to detail. When you were reading those magazines, it
wasn't like you were reading a magazine in a supermarket and getting
superficial information. The information they gave you (made) you
feel like you were right there in the studio with Prince and his
personnel while these things were happening. Uptown Magazine had a
really good investigative team that really got down to the bottom of
a lot of things.
I also read the different
forums on Prince.org and Housequake.com, where people asked
questions and somebody who knew about whatever
the person was asking would would come in there and answer the question. A lot of
information came from Prince himself, as far interviews he did, as well as interviews with band members over the years. Another
valuable person was Mr. Brown. He knew a lot of stuff that I didn't
know, because, he knew a lot of people in the industry who knew
“stories behind the story.” He told me information that I had no
access to and no knowledge about. I guess it boils down to me just
paying attention and just making full use of a lot of the information
that was out there.
This can get annoying to
some people where they would say “Yeah, I remember when this album
came out” or “The first Prince album came out in 1977, I remember
that day.” I would say “Ummm, actually it was 1978.” So, after
that, people just treated me like a stickler for
details. It just came from reading and retaining a lot of that
information.
?: What's your favorite
Prince album?
FM3: That's a hard
question and I always cheat when I answer this, because, I always say
Parade, Sign o' the Times and Lovesexy. It's hard for me to separate
those three albums. It's almost like the trinity: the Father, the Son
and the Holy Ghost. That's how I feel about those three albums.
I say that, because, I
feel those three albums represent a turning point in his artistry and
career. As great as the albums before and the albums after were,
those three albums represent him at the peak of his powers, where he
was so in touch and in tune with his music that I can't separate
them...Those three albums tell one whole story. You can't have one
without the others.
?: What kind of story do
you think those albums tell? What makes you feel like there is one
continuous story?
FM3: I'll start with
Parade: That's when he really allowed Wendy and Lisa to have more of
a role in the studio with him and I think the three of them together
just created some the most amazing music. With the Parade album and
that whole time period, I think that's when he allowed himself to
kind of open up and allow other people's influence come into his
music to get across whatever he was trying to get across.
There was a lot of
experimentation. There are things on that record that you didn't hear
before in his music, period. At that time, it seemed like he was the
only artist adventurous enough to do some of the things he was
doing. I couldn't hear anybody (else) doing a song like “Do U Lie?”
I couldn't hear anybody else doing “Christopher Tracy's Parade.”
“Venus De Milo” is just gorgeous, almost brings you to tears. He was an amazing artist and musician before that, but, with the
Parade album he tapped into something within himself that wasn't
there before.
He wasn't trying to go
after another hit; he wasn't trying to do a “Purple Rain Part 2,”
it wasn't anything like that. He got to the point where he wanted his
audience to grow with him and he knew after Purple Rain, (some)
people were only buying his music, because, he was the
“flavor of the month.” He
switched it up rather than continue in that vein. He showed people “Okay, I can do that, but, I can
do this as well.”
That gave me tons of respect (for him), because,
he alienated most of those people who bought Purple Rain. You knew
then who his core audience was, because, those were the people who
wanted to be challenged and who wanted see “Well, okay, you've done
Purple Rain already, what else can you do?” He didn't hold back.
I think that the creative wave
he was on lasted through (recording) Sign o' the Times and Lovesexy.
Lovesexy was an even more challenging record than Sign o' the Times,
because, it was more experimental and it had elements of jazz fusion. I
think those three records had things he hadn't done on any of his
previous records.
On some of his records, like 1999, Purple Rain
(and) Around the World in a Day, you can pick out certain songs:
“When Doves Cry” and “Paisley Park” had similar elements.
“Paisley Park” has no bass, the drum beats are kind of the same.
I have said “America” almost sounds like “Baby, I'm a Star.”
On each album, I picked out something and said “He's done this
before.” With the albums Parade, Sign o' the Times and Lovesexy he was almost in uncharted territory that he and
his audience had never been in before. He made it work.
?: How many times have you
seen Prince in concert?
FM3: Last weekend (April
27) in Las Vegas marked my 18th concert. (The first time was)
December 27, 1997 on the “Jam of the Year” Tour in Detroit.
?: Do you think that growing up in Detroit and your love for Prince's music are linked?
FM3: I would say so. I
always wished I was older growing up in the 1980s in Detroit when
Prince was doing his thing.
I don't know how it was in
other cities, but, in Detroit, you couldn't turn on the radio without hearing Prince on some station. Like I said before, when other
stations were playing “Kiss” and “When Doves Cry,” we were
hearing “Automatic,” “Lady Cab Driver” and “Private Joy." I think it made the atmosphere for being a
Prince fan just a little bit different. It seemed like even though he
was from Minneapolis, he was “ours.”
That's an interesting
question, because, I think it would've been different if I had grown
up in a different city and been a Prince fan. It's weird to think about
how it could have gone. But, I think that me being in Detroit at that
time does have a lot to do with it.
There was a radio DJ here called The Eletrifying Mojo and he really helped break in not only Prince, but, other artists of the “Minneapolis Sound.” He wasn't just playing the hits, he was playing the album cuts as well, so, it gave people who were probably on the fence about Prince and some of these other artists a chance to say “Okay we know what the hits sound like, let's hear what else he sounds like.”
It gave people a chance to hear who Prince really was outside of the hit maker. As a result, it made people go out and buy the albums. Once (listeners) found out he was a multi-instrumentalist (and) wrote all these songs for people, it gave (listeners) a deeper appreciation for him as an artist.
One of the examples that I point to is when Prince was doing the “Dirty Mind” Tour (in 1981),.People were used to the cute R&B and Pop hit maker with songs like “Soft and Wet” and “I Wanna Be Your Lover.” DIrty Mind's shock value alienated a lot of people. As a result, on that tour, he was playing a lot of theaters and small clubs. But, because The Electrifying Mojo spent those two years breaking Prince in, by the time he got to Detroit he sold out Joe Louis Arena, which held about 20,000-30,000 people, whereas in other cities, he could barely sell out 2,000-or-3,000-seat theaters and clubs.
Prince knows that and he's had a great love affair with Detroit, especially throughout the 1980s. Even after “Purple Rain” premiered in Detroit, I don't know how they did it in other cities, but, they gave out posters to the people here. Billy Sparks (who played the club owner in “Purple Rain”) is from Detroit. His two former backup dancers--who started off as bodyguards--- from Parade and Sign o' the Times, Wally Safford and Greg Brooks are from Detroit. A lot of people who were instrumental in his early career, like Quinton Perry, a concert promoter, whom people probably wouldn't if they heard the name, is from Detroit as well.
(Prince) used these Detroit connections and it helped break him in, that's why when he kicked off the “Purple Rain” Tour, he kicked it off here in Detroit with seven concerts, if I'm not mistaken. When he played Detroit for his birthday, he wasn't on an official tour, he would do these different concerts, popping up in different cities and they called it the “Hit and Run” Tour. He said on stage that night “I could have stayed in Uptown (a neighborhood in Minneapolis) and partied, but I wanted to come here and party with ya'll.”
That was his way of giving back to the city for all the love we had shown him over the years. He played the Cobo Arena, but, the ticket demand was so great that he had to play an extra show at a smaller place before (the birthday concert), just to meet the demand. I also think the “Sign o' the Times” movie premiered in Detroit before it played anywhere else.
?: What's your favorite
live performance by Prince? Which one really strikes you every time
you watch it?
FM3: I would say the
concert at First Avenue on August 3, 1983, when he first premeired
five songs from Purple Rain. That's a good one for me. There's
another smaller concert from October 25, 1984 at First Avenue that a
lot of people don't know about. It's only about a half hour long,
but, I love it to death. It shows him in a loose setting and he is
just jamming and having fun. It was an unannounced concert and (the
band) did an impromptu jam session.
There's a concert from the
“Parade” era in San Francisco in May 1986. I loved the “Parade" Tour as a whole, but, at this particular concert he was in great
mood and he was joking around. He was doing abbreviated versions of a
lot of songs (at other shows), but, at this show he was playing the
full versions of songs. It showed The Revolution at the peak of their
powers. He had added the horn section and it showed what they could
do. On that tour, Bobby Z. didn't rely on the drum machine, he was
actually playing, so, you got to see his chops as a drummer. It was
the beginning of Prince coming into that experimental phase of his
career and it really worked out well on the “Parade” Tour.
There was a “Lovesexy”
aftershow from 1988 in New York City. A “Sign o' the Times” Tour
warmup show from 1987. In some of the later years there was the “One
Nite Alone” Tour in Chicago, that's one of my all-time favorite
Prince concerts, period. The “Musicology” Tour in San Jose in
2004. One of the warmup shows he did for the “Musicology” Tour at
a place called Club Black is one of his all-time greatest
performances. The list could go on and on.
?: How did you end up
being the person with the answers to everyone's questions on
Beautiful Nights?
FM3: I think it started
when people would post things: they might post a picture and I might
chime that the picture came from this year or this era. Next thing
you know, I would sign on to Facebook and I would have these alerts
where someone tagged me and said “Hey, Frank. I have a question for
you” or people would debating about something and said “Let's
have Frank settle it.”
The first time I saw that,
it kind of threw me for a loop. I don't know anything more than
anyone else. I just do a lot of reading. The same information I can
get my hands on is out there for everyone. To see people leaning on
me and depending on me and saying “Hey, let's ask Frank” trips me out sometimes.
Marcus Scott will tell
you, he came to some Prince parties here in Detroit and they had
trivia contests. If you win the trivia contests you win a prize. They
banned me from playing a few times and said I know too much. They
said “If anything, (I) could help (them) come up with questions that
will stump people.”
?: Is there anything you
don't know about Prince or associated artists?
FM3: As much as I know
about Prince, I don't know everything (emphasis added). If anybody
were to ask me about lyrics (to songs) in the NPG Music Club era in
2000 and 2001, I would be stumped. I didn't really care too much for
a lot of that stuff. Somebody has posted lyrics to (a song) and I
said “Wait a minute, which song is that?” Then I would look it up
and find out that it's a song I really didn't care for.
I got into Prince, but, I
didn't really do that with the associated artists. I would say that
the things I know about them is more on the surface. I couldn't tell
you when Morris Day's birthday is. Little stuff like that would trip
me up. The way I can get deep on stuff about Prince, I can't do that
with the associated artists.
Going back to Prince, I
don't really know personal stuff about him. Someone was joking the
other day and they posted a picture of Prince. They said “His skin
is so clear, I wonder how he gets it so clear?” Someone said
“Well, ask Frank!” I don't know stuff like that. They were kind
of being smart about it. When people say stuff like that, I feel
they're kind of coming for me.
That's why I make it known that I'm
not the one going around telling people that I know everything about
Prince, like I'm a walking Prince encyclopedia. I never said that.
It's what people put on me. Even when Scott said you wanted to
interview me, I said “Why? Nobody cares about me!” He said “Your
fans want to know.” I said “Fans? What fans?”
?: How did the “Question
of the Day” feature between you and Scott on Beautiful Nights get
started?
FM3: It started when we
got into this big debate about whether there was a colorized version
of “Under the Cherry Moon.” There isn't, as much as fans want to
believe there is. Some people said “No, there is one and I've seen
color pictures from the movie.” I said “Sorry to burst your
bubble, but, there's not.” It became a debate on that one little
topic.
I woke up the next morning
and there was a question of the day. So, I answered that one. Then
the day after that there was another one. And another one. I said
“Wait a minute now!” At first, I thought they were thinking
“This dude thinks he knows everything, let's see what we can trip
him up on.” Like I tell people, I don't know everything, but, I
know what I know. I'm glad it slowed down. I haven't gotten one in a
week or so.
I would dread seeing that
in the morning and said “Oh my God. Now I have to come up with
these longs drawn-out answers. That's why on one or two of them I
said “Feel free to help me out, because, I'm so busy today, I'm
not going to be able to sit here and come up with shit.”
One of the questions was
“Name all the people Prince has dated.” I named all the ones I
knew about, but, people said “What about Sherilynn Fenn?” I said
“Well, okay, dang. You put me up on something I didn't know.”
That shows I don't know everything. Another one was “Name the set
list from every tour he's ever done.” I went and did the old copy
and paste. People were thinking “Oh, he went and typed that whole
thing.” I'm like “Hell no.” I added little notes at the end
with stuff I did know. But, did they think I was about to sit there
and type all of that out. Please!
?: Is there anything you
would to add for your fans on Beautiful Nights?
FM3: I'm a cool person.
I'm a humble person. I don't want people to think that I'm a know it
all, that I know more than them or I'm up on this high horse and
things like that.
There are clearly things I
don't know, that's why I sometimes lean on the Beautiful Nights
people to help me out. The whole Beautiful Nights fan group is cool,
because, we can all learn a lot from each other. I'm learning stuff
from people every day and people are learning from me. As we continue
to grow as a group we will have a wealth of knowledge at our
fingertips.
Stay Beautiful, Kristi
--
All photos courtesy of Frank J. Morris III.
--
Like us on Facebook: Dyes Got the Answers 2 Ur ?s and Beautiful Nights.
--
All photos courtesy of Frank J. Morris III.
--
Like us on Facebook: Dyes Got the Answers 2 Ur ?s and Beautiful Nights.
