This Friday is blessed for Prince fans, inconsolable since his sudden death in April 2016 from an overdose of pain medication.
The double album "Sign o'The Times", a marvel of funk-pop-rock fusion released in 1987, is reissued in several remastered and enhanced versions.
The Graal?
A super deluxe box set full of treasures, including 45 tracks or versions never before released in the studio, two sublime and extremely rare concerts from 1987, one in Utrecht and one in Paisley Park for New Years Eve with Miles Davis, a book with many anecdotes from his collaborators and musicians ...
It is already our favorite box of the year.
It is also that of Mathilda May.
"Sign o'The Times" is her bedside record.
And Prince was his friend.
The actress and director has never shouted it from the rooftops but she rubbed shoulders with him for nearly thirty years.
Since their meeting in 1988 during an evening organized by NRJ after his concert of the “Lovesexy Tour” in Paris-Bercy.
Lonely and intimidated, she was about to leave when the American musician tapped her on the shoulder.
This great cinephile had spotted the then 23-year-old French actress in "La Passerelle", the film that revealed her that year.
They became friends and she had the privilege of being invited to his home in Minneapolis and even working with him on two songs.
She tells us how this meeting changed her life.
What does it do when Prince slaps your shoulder?
MATHILDA MAY.
A shock.
I was all the more impressed as I was a huge fan of him.
I have always been passionate about music.
I was going, kid, to Champs Disques
(Editor's note: legendary record store on the Champs-Elysées) to
buy imports and I liked Prince from his first album.
It was so innovative, transcending all musical, sexual, theatrical genres ...
How was Prince?
Entirely dedicated to his art, 24 hours a day. He had a crazy capacity for work, an extraordinary vitality, I never saw the slightest sign of fatigue, he was on a mission.
His life was secondary.
Contrary to what one could say, there was no ego in there.
He was not a singer or a musician, he was music.
He had a vision of it so high and wide that he couldn't stand it being done lightly.
I have a memory that sums up his philosophy well.
On the phone, I asked him if he had had a good Christmas.
He replied: “No.
No one wanted to work.
"
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Have you seen him at work?
I was lucky enough to be invited to his home in Minneapolis, where he recorded for his album “Graffiti Bridge” the song “Melody Cool” with Mavis Staples.
Snuggled up in a corner, I saw him coordinate the choirs.
And it was dazzling, precise, efficient, fast and so happy.
When he played, he was so virtuoso that he only needed a take.
He also recorded my spoken French voice on an Eric Leeds track, "Dopamine Rush".
And then he sent me the tapes of a song, "An American in Paris," with directions for singing and speaking.
I went to do it at the studio at the Palais des Congrès.
The discovery of the tracks one by one was another shock in my life.
I still remember all the sounds.
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What happened to this song?
I do not know.
I didn't dare ask him if I could do something with it.
I was ultra-shy at the time.
Then I made an album
(Editor's note: “Mathilda May”, in 1992)
and I didn't dare ask her anything either… It's crazy!
I feel guilty.
In addition, I lost in a move the audio cassette where the song was recorded.
I was sick of it.
If anyone knows these tapes ... It was between 1988 and 1990.
Did you stay in touch with him?
Always.
It's hard to say that we are friends with someone like Prince, he was such a UFO, almost superhuman, supernatural… But each time we were in Paris, we saw each other.
We went to the cinema - he didn't mind that the films were in French - dancing in a club, but when he didn't have an after-show or improvised concerts in the middle of the night, he was mostly busy recording in studios that we rented for him.
He had no breathing, no respite.
Sometimes it bordered on a curse.
And I wonder if that's not part of what killed him.
Have you seen him on stage often?
I saw him twice at the Montreux festival and I never missed him in Paris, until his last concert
(Editor's note: at the Zénith in Paris, in July 2014)
.
He sang better than ever.
We saw each other afterwards and I was amazed that he was so friendly and familiar.
It was as if time had not passed.
Speech was not his forte, but he knew that I had had two children.
And he still had that childish humor, that wonderful, ultra-sensitive laughter, so protecting himself a lot.
He was always looking for ideas, watching how I was undermined, my jewelry.
He was inspired by everything.
READ ALSO>
23 Prince albums land on streaming platforms
His disappearance was a shock ...
A cataclysm.
I do not console myself, but I am still very lucky to have seen him create.
Seeing real talent, freedom, creativity at work… It changed my life.
There is life before and after Prince.
Before, I was in the mold of classical dance, a very closed world.
It opens up immense fields for him, without limit.
His sense of the public, his way of honoring musicians, his rejection of the dictatorship of record companies, of promotion, everything influenced me.
When people tell me that my shows are creative, I'm sure it's thanks to him.
EDITOR'S RATING: 5/5
"Sign o'The Times",
Warner Music, in 2 CD, 3 CD, 8 CD and DVD box sets (149 euros) and 13 vinyls and DVDs (295 euros).
