New Book

[David]

There are two keyboard parts on Stand Back that Prince could have played, and no one would be able to tell whether it's Prince or not. He was a pretty good keyboardist, but these two parts are so simple and mechanical that they may have even been something he programmed on an Oberheim or a Prophet. The first part is an octave tremolo during the chorus--back and forth on the B--and the second part is the synth bass 16th notes undergirding the whole song. Both parts are very Prince-y, very dance-funk, and very simple. I totally believe Prince added them both, for atmosphere. They're the sort of short synth-dance motifs that he added to his own music all the time, like I Would Die 4 U and You Belong 2 Me and 17 Days.

What Stand Back and Corvette have in common, aside from the synth funk atmosphere that Prince helped pioneer, is modulation. That's why you can sing one while the music to the other one is playing. Stevie's credit gift of 50% or whatever was more of a nice Stevie thing to do, and not really legally necessary. (There's a lot more ripoff going on in Illume than in anything in Stand Back.)

It still feels weird to talk about him in the past tense.