S Poddar
Prince in 2014 was still performed on the popular show Saturday Night Live alongside 3rdeyegirl. This will be one of the most legendary moments in the history of this show. The 8-minute long version from about 18 months before he died in is just full of unbelievable live energy, mixed reviews of two of his albums at the time: Art Official Age and Plectrumelectrum. These songs, though, failed to leave an impression if judged as studio versions, but on the stage, Prince lived them with power that nobody else could give. The set kicked off with the title track from Art Official Age, with Lianne La Havas trading vocals on “Clouds”. Prince segued immediately into guitar work on “Marz” and “Anotherlove”, two noisier-than-usual songs from Plectrumelectrum. Witnessing the trio of Hannah Welton on drums, Donna Grantis on guitar, and Ida Kristine Nielsen on bass accompanying Prince prompted instant acclaim. Rolling Stone referred to the show as “unprecedented” and “mind-blowing,” thereby scoring it amongst the most unforgettable acts in SNL‘s storied history.
Things could have taken a vastly different turn that night, though. Josiah Gluck is the audio engineer responsible for live sound of SNL. He was working behind the scenes to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. Gluck shared his recollection from the night in an interview running nearly 90 minutes long at an Audio-Technica event held in New York. His replay of that night gives an account of how potential disaster was nipped in the bud through quick thinking and calm nature.
Working with an artist like Prince, who has a madness for detail, makes it difficult from day one.
Gluck remembers the setup as nerve-wracking. Prince came on Saturday, the day of the performance, ready to discuss specifics—specifically, his guitar tone, which needed some tinkering. “Prince comes in to listen in the mix room because he hadn’t come in on Thursday,” Gluck recalls. “He has a very firm handshake and he’s courteous, but all business. As we’re listening, Prince turns to his mixer and says, ‘Where are the doublers on the guitar? ‘ His mixer responds with, ‘We don’t use doublers on the guitar.’ And Prince responds, ‘Oh, yeah, we do; we do have doublers on the guitar.
At this stage, Gluck had to think fast. He remembered a rehearsal tape from Paisley Park, realized Prince was fixated on a particular sound effect created by the acoustics of the place, and said, “Well, I have this vocal doubling effect,” Gluck says. Once he applied it, Prince approved. Problem solved.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Prince wanted the guitars to be very crunchy and the snare drum darkened, the latter of which he’d never done before; that just added to the technical challenges he was up against. Just days from the gig, Gluck determined where that was okay and made necessary adjustments on his plan toward meeting Prince’s needs. What he really needed, though, was for Prince to be okay with everything being cool before he goes on stage. “I ask Prince, ‘Are we cool here? Because I think we’re gonna singe all living matter within a quarter-mile radius of this place tonight.”‘ Prince, ever the perfectionist, laughed. Making Prince laugh moments before going on stage, Gluck considers this a career highlight.
As soon as the show started, things only got more intense. Chris Rock introduced the performance, heightening the excitement in the studio, but backstage things began to fall apart. As Prince moved from the keyboard to center stage to grab his guitar, Gluck was last-minute instructed not to open the guitar channel until Prince plugged in. But at the moment of truth, Prince forgot to plug his guitar into the amp. Gluck, shot put athlete-like cool, quickly noticed his mistake and remained poised with the channel shut until he corrected the error.
“You see him give a knowing look, plug in, and start to play,” Gluck remembers. Timing was everything, and with his experience, Gluck was able to gauge where Prince was musically and adjust the sound on the fly, preventing what could have been a major disruption in the performance.
Now, watching the performance, it’s impossible to tell there ever was an issue. Gluck says that this was achieved easily due to his experience and instinct about the keyboard. He likes to say that this is an example of why live sound engineering still needs a human touch. “I don’t know if AI can accurately say, ‘Oh, he’s not playing. Let me bring this down. Let me listen to where we are in the music,'” Gluck reflects, emphasizing experience and quick thinking in live environments.
Everything clicked into place that night in 2014, culminating in a performance that arguably would be rated as one of Prince’s finest on television. And the vision behind the curtain belonged to Gluck’s rather calm and collected approach to making magic happen.
