00:00:00 Speaker 1: The Quest Left Show is a production of iHeart Radio slight Encore. Because I will regret this, and I know you want to go home, just answer one question from me. I think of your entire discography, your most ambitious song and production ever was the title track to Michael Jackson's History album, just based on all the chaos and all those things happening. I think I texted you about it. I don't think I asked you about it on the show. No, we didn't get that far on the show. But the thing is is that it's so ambitious that it's not a single right when you're working on filler. And here's the thing, I believe the Son of a true Artist is based on the If you're talking to Stevie's catalog, I'm not talking about the singles chosen, Prince, I'm not talking about the singles chosen. 00:01:06 Speaker 2: I like the filler, Yes, I agree, And I. 00:01:11 Speaker 1: Know it's Michael, and I knows you know you're able to be blinded by the michaelness of it all. But I mean, why did you guys work so hard on such an ambitious sounding song, especially in ninety five when I know this wasn't invented yet. Right now with this and everything that's you know, and I know he's always pushed to the limit. Let's go further. When History the song first started, was it just a regular ass song? And then it was like him like, like, how did you get it to what it is now? The most at least he did it in concert, yeah, oh yeah, which I thought he would never do in concert. I'm like, right, I can't even play this, but I know. 00:01:51 Speaker 2: No. He ended his the History tour, he ended with that song. And so the idea of History was that, you know, he had an album called History, and we always thought there should be a song that explains the title track or what that is. And we had the the groove that was on the verse of that song, which was right, that kind of thing. We had that and he loved that part. 00:02:19 Speaker 1: Of the song. 00:02:20 Speaker 2: But then he said, but it should go somewhere, and we said, okay, cool. So the way we envisioned it was, let's go to a nice B section bridge and then let's go to a very single long course, you know, every day create your history, Like we just thought that was the perfect thing. But the idea was sonically to have each section almost be like a movement right, and so then you know, so we had Elmer Bernstein with a you know, seventy six piece orchestra. We had boys them in Wait those weren't samples, No, no, wait, we had Almer Bernstein. 00:02:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, he had Michael Jackson. Bu budget yeah you got. 00:02:58 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a whole different budget thing. 00:03:00 Speaker 1: But it sounds so old, I know. 00:03:02 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, no, well we treated I mean, we made stuff sound old and made like some of the there were speeches that are on there from. 00:03:11 Speaker 1: Yes, we know we did. 00:03:12 Speaker 2: We created all that kind of stuff. 00:03:14 Speaker 1: Oh, because literally when I heard it, I was like, oh, Jam and Luis are going bomb squad on us. Yea, I didn't realize that. Now I have further respect for it that it was. 00:03:21 Speaker 2: Actually yeah, a lot of it was we would take something and really screw it up so that it sounded, you know, that kind of vibe. The thing that was I won't say frustrating about it was that as the deadline for the album was coming up, there was a song we did called Tabloid Junkie. 00:03:37 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:03:38 Speaker 2: A Tabloid Junkie was the most easy song to mix, should have been anyway, the most easy song to mix, And I remember the week. We had a week to get done. So I remember Monday, we mixed Tabloid Junkie. Michael comes in and listens to it and he goes, yeah, that. 00:03:53 Speaker 1: Sounds really good. 00:03:54 Speaker 3: Would you just turn up the hand claps a little bit. 00:03:56 Speaker 1: Yes, we turn up the handclaps. 00:03:58 Speaker 2: Okay, make me a dad and we'll we'll resumed tomorrow or whatever. 00:04:03 Speaker 1: So we do that. 00:04:05 Speaker 2: Next day, exactly the same thing. Next day, exactly the same thing. We were like, Michael, this other song to mix, this history song, and we said, can we take because at the time there were digital recorders, reel to reel recorders. Yes, they had forty eight tracks on each machine. We had all the boys, de Men's tracks and all of that stuff on one reel, forty eight tracks of vocals, we had forty eight tracks of the track itself, We had forty eight tracks of you know, the Elmer Bernstein Orchestra, and we had another tape that had all of Michael's vocals on it. Thank you. We said, can we consolidate all of these down, like we can just make and get everything maybe on two tapes, so maybe it's going to be ninety six tracks, but we can get everything down no, we. 00:05:01 Speaker 1: Don't want to. 00:05:03 Speaker 2: We don't want to do that just in case we want to come back. And it was like Michael, we don't have just in case time here, Like we need to just mix this record. So Steve Hodge mixed the record. We did it at Larrbie North which is now men in Mariquan studio. We literally had two machines in one room, two machines in another room, two mix boards because there wasn't enough room on one mixboard to handle all this stuff. And literally as we're mixing, we're walking between the two studios to get this mixed done, and we work like probably forty eight hours. I don't think we went home. I think we worked the Thursday and Friday to get at home. We go to mastering. Think Bernie Grumman mastered or Brian Garner, one of the two mastered it, and we're thinking, okay, who at least we made it. We don't hear anything, you know, for a long time until the album's actually out. 00:06:01 Speaker 1: No, we put history on. 00:06:03 Speaker 2: He had gone back and redone the mix, and what he did was he loved hand claps. He put the hand claps in the whole song and the whole idea was each section sounded sonically different, so there were big hand claps in the one part, there was no handclaps in the next part. Then there was a kind of a building where it started with a few people singing, then more people, and as a singing rose, there was more hand claps, and it got bigger and bigger. He totally got rid of all that and everything was just these handclaps throughout the whole song, and we were. 00:06:34 Speaker 1: Just, do you have a version of your version? Probably somewhere, we do, probably somewhere. Thank you for my encore question. I appreciate that. 00:06:50 Speaker 3: What's going on everyone? This is cousin Jake, one of the producers of the Questlove Show. This is another mini episode. I'm sitting here with the man himself, Questlove. We've been taking a lot of the feedback and questions that you have been coming up with from episodes, and recently we ran an incredible interview something you've been trying to chase down forever. Not just Jimmy jam coming back to QLs, but you got Terry Lewis yes and kind of on very short notice for us, and it turned into an incredible conversation. I love that At the top. You know, Jimmy even says he speaks in paragraphs. Terry speaks in very succinct, kind of thought bomb sentences. 00:07:29 Speaker 1: Wow, what a gift to have. 00:07:32 Speaker 3: I mean, you went Torik Kanda, right. 00:07:34 Speaker 1: Turka is very curt short to the point, and I'm still explaining what an aquarium does you know from back in nineteen ninety nine. You know. 00:07:42 Speaker 3: The nice thing is is that interview. And just for folks that know that happened at night. A lot of the Quest Love Show tapings this year have been in the late morning, early afternoon. That one because it was on a short whim we did. We didn't do it at iHeart. We did at CDM Studios. They kind of had a hard out at like eleven eleven thirty. You just finished the cameras. For those that have been wondering on the YouTube, why the last thirty minutes are just a montage of photos. 00:08:10 Speaker 1: Oh wow, we ran out of tape. 00:08:12 Speaker 3: Yeah, because it's funny enough and we can talk about it here. Like I couldn't be there. I was up in the morning. We tape Jamie Lee Curtis the same day, and then my co producer Brittany came up for jam and Lewis team. 00:08:22 Speaker 1: Okay, and I asked you that morning. 00:08:24 Speaker 3: I'm like, yo, what are you planning? You're like, oh man, I need like an hour? 00:08:28 Speaker 1: Oh god, you sorry? 00:08:29 Speaker 3: No, how could you apologize to you already know? Yeah, it turned into what it turned into, but we held one thing back. We just gave it in this episode, or I'm about we'll give it right now. You ask him on the way out, like literally, you guys are grabbing your drinks, packing up, they're flipping lights off. Yeah, shout out to Kathleen Conti at CDM. And you asked a question about the Michael Jackson History album. Yeah, and just they talked about it in a really cool way. 00:08:55 Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, this will mark Jams his third time on QLs. He did his Mammoth seven hour thing before and then I forgot that. We talked to him pandemic right and during the pandemic on online as well, and even then we still didn't really get to like nineteen ninety five ninety six. Whatever was in my head at the time was they just mentioned Babyface, and I know the Babyface story with Michael Jackson is they gave Michael Jackson one month and Lionel Richie sort of came to them and said, hey, don't let Michael stall you out and take you out the game, because he will try to hold on to you like exclusively, and unless you're creating like the Lord Jesus Christ, like a person like Teddy Riley could probably afford to take even I mean, you know, minds you, Teddy Riley did this started the Dangerous work in like nineteen ninety and so, so I mean that was really the year, like he really got popping in eighty seven, eighty eight, all that momentum, right, Like, if he didn't have Dangerous to do, I'm almost certain that Teddy Riley could have probably knocked out like maybe twelve more projects or songs of that sort of thing. But like Lonal Richie basically told babyfaces, don't let him wear you out to the point where you're saying no to the other artists because he keeps making you do something over and over again. Of course, Michael makes them. I forget the name of the song that they did, but you know, it was going on a month and they were just like, all right, we're out, and so I remember them telling me that they did scream kind of in record time because they had already created the track ahead of time, and usually artists like to be there for the process of you know, but they just played a track and he instantly felt, you know, the scream song. So that was half the work right there. But History was the first time that I was slightly slightly and people who are young like get mad at me for saying this. This This is my version of saying that Prince's first ten albums count and then you know, everything else is whatever. The thing I didn't like about History was because he had such a chip on his shoulder to try to prove something, and I know his preference for perfection, where if it's too perfect, you're going to just get numb after the fourth song, and you need highs and lows. You need to hear human Like we take advantage of Off the Wall because it's like, oh, it's a great album, but we're also just responding to like a collaboration of actual human beings and spirits captured the stuff that you don't hear through a microphone, right And if it's too perfect, it just wears you out. You know, it's like enough already, I get it. You have the loudest kicks ever, the highest snare ever. Your engineer is panning stuff in a circle that no one else can do. And so by the time I got to History, I was just worn out and really didn't listen to it. But you know, for the record, I've also went on record in my book to say that I have a problem with penultimates and last songs, Like I don't watch any series the last two episodes of streaming series, I don't watch until I know there's another season. And so with the History album, like with Smile, the Charlie Chaplin cover and Yeah, I think I tuned out after Smile because that's way too sad to listen to. Yeah, And so when I finally got to History, God damn. History is like the most ambitious. It's like Michael Jackson's version of Neither of the Living bass Heads by Public Enemy. If your hip hop head of a certain ilk and you respect certain type of arrangements like it, just the song goes all over the place, and it's so ambitious. And it was a record in ninety four, so I know that MacBook pros and the tools we use now weren't you. So I meant a lot that song was too ambitious for its own good, and I just hit jam up one night, like yo, man, like I know that this song came with like like a sacrifice or something like what did you have to give up? Like your your marriage could be in trouble because it's like, no, I got a Mike's called me to the studio whatever, and I think he told me a story of like there's a really important Lakers game that he wanted to see between like it was either MJ and Magic's like last last thing together or something. Yeah, and he like Mike was like no, like I gotta cut vocals again and da da da da da, and He's like, yeah, it's like a really important game. But yeah, no, but like when the spirit, you know, he does the Michael Jagon when the Spirit hits me thing. So I'd like, I I think I listened to that song because I know like a lot was sacrificed humanity behind it, yeah, to make it happen. So maybe that's why I resonate with it. 00:14:42 Speaker 3: We got three questions that came out of that episode. I might add a fourth. This is a real easy one, but you're the person to ask. Lyles Leland. I hope. I said that right. Asked, is there an instrumental version of Chill Sauce by the time in existence Chili sauce? Oh, chill, Yeah, Chili sauce not in. 00:15:02 Speaker 1: You know what. Instrumentals are hard to come by in Prince world. There's I mean, unless you like have access to the stems or whatever. The only time sketch that I have that doesn't have any vocals on it. For some reason, I have the work reel of the Walk, and I don't even know how I got it. But essentially, if you listen to Chlorine Bacon Skin, which is this Prince at Mars goofing a round on Drummond bass, the same thing for the Walk, except Prince's playing in C sharp minor so instead of the ki of A. But yeah, I do not know of there being an instrumental of Chili Sauce. 00:15:53 Speaker 3: Have you ever experienced a duo as in sync as Jamin Lewis. 00:15:57 Speaker 1: I have not experienced a duo as instinct of Jam and Lewis. However, I know a trio and I will probably say the most ideal relationship between three entities that are creatives that I have not seen one spot nor wrinkle when Dave was here with us, I would look at the friendship of Dayla Soul with absolute envy, Like there's no song or album they created that made me more enviable than just the bond that they have with each other. Like you've heard Maco laugh a lot on Daylight Rocket like that really thing. Yeah, So, I mean there's at least twenty moments where I've either walked back by a dressing room or like say what up to them as they're pulling up to a van and we would do like you know Coyle shows together whatever, Like Dave will say something and then Macio will laugh and kind of post rounds it up with like the eye roll, like this guy, Like I didn't know that adult, non high school friends could be at that level where the roots just got to that level. We're that level on stage, which is how I prefer it. I'm more to myself off stage, so I can't even say I might be the problem in that equasy. So, and the other group is the Beastie Boys touring with them like post ill communication, they got super enlightened, and so you know, we thought we were doing the License to Ill tour. 00:17:54 Speaker 3: You mean at that point when they were getting into bettering freedom. 00:17:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, like we thought we were walking into at least Paul's boutique. The boys and all right, where's the beer cannon, where's the where's the women at? Wait? What are these kids doing here? And wait, you guys are playing basketball? Yeah, you could travel with your own basketball court and humus again. And literally I think Kamoral and I kind of had like a disappointed thing, like, man, they're all like nice and family men and joking with each other like that was our introduction to that synergy. But even then when when y'aut passed, That's the thing I actually remember is just they kind of had like a magic circle thing happening before they go on stage, like they just get each other hyped up and stand in their circle, arms around each other like it's, you know, like they're about to conquer the world or whatever. So I've seen that a few times. 00:18:50 Speaker 3: So yeah, trios, last question in this jam and Lewis Batch and this week is appropriate to ask when we're recording this overall favorite Prince deep cut today, my. 00:19:04 Speaker 1: Favorite deep cut? When do we put this on the air. 00:19:07 Speaker 3: We'll probably put this on the air next week. 00:19:09 Speaker 1: All right, So I'm happy to announce. Actually it went live as we're taping this. I believe like maybe it went up like maybe ten minutes ago. Rolling Stone assigned me my first real task in crafting for the tenth anniversary of Prince's passing. They asked me to just put together like ten of my favorite print songs. And you know, I know I've used this cliche before, but you know I'm not going to get in trouble for trying to name my favorite oxygen gas. For that, I took in right. So I went a step further and I said, well, can I do more than ten? They were like, well, do you have time to do more than ten? So I fucked them around and wrote a whole damn book. I wound up doing two hundred, and then it started to turn into a memoir, because again I have this where it happened to turn and shit into me once I get the assignment. However, for Rolling Stone, I whittled it down to one hundred songs in which and I was very specific in not trying to craft like Prince's best songs or like my rankings, because that gets you in trouble. So I will say that these are very specific to how these songs affected me, and a lot of your favorites are there, A lot of your non favorites are there. So yeah, it's live on Rollingstone dot com. Right now, I will quickly read one hundred to ninety and then of course you have to if you buy the physical copy of Rolling Stone they have my top ten in there. If you go online you will see the remaining ninety. All right, So number one hundred is alphabet street. Number ninety nine is in a large room with no light. Ninety eight is visions slash dream Factory. Number ninety seven is uptown. Number ninety six is she Spoke to Me. Ninety five is thirteen by Madhouse, ninety four is purple Music. Ninety three is our Destiny slash Roadhouse Garden, ninety two is anti Christian, ninety one is why you want to treat me so bad? And ninety is another lever hole in your head the twelve inch version only. So those are a ten for. 00:21:42 Speaker 3: You and you over delivered on that question. Thank you. Just as a general reminder, please if you go to Questlovesupreme dot com, the original name of the former podcast, there's a contact to us form write your questions that is the best way to send them. Otherwise, DM the QLs channel. Do not Questlove. You'll never get received. Yeah, but thank you. And also I know we asked this a lot, but I think when we changed our name, our reviews changed in Apple podcasts. Please, if that's how you consume, leave us a review, give us a rating, spread the word. It's how we do this week to week. Thank you all, Thank you. 00:22:42 Speaker 1: Quest Love Show is a production of iHeartRadio.