I’ve caught a few of these Susan Rogers videos and they’ve been so insightful. In the above video, she discussed who wrote Manic Monday (it was Prince) and the inspirations behind the lyrics, opening with a story about an aborted date:
Peggy [McCreary] and I compared notes on this and we have very different memories of this which is alarming to us both but we were at home in Minneapolis and I had a night off; a rare night off. Prince was going out, he was going to First Avenue or something so I had the night off and I went out. I had a date and I wore something nice to go on my date because it was the 80s and I was a young woman and uh sure enough come home for my date and I get that phone call that says ‘Susan, can you come down to the down to the warehouse’, where our API console was, and I didn’t have time to change clothes or anything like that so in my nice clothes, I went flying down to that warehouse and I got in there in a bit of a huff because it was so rare to have a night off and to actually go out on a date and be interrupted by that. But you know, whatever.
He called and so I came down in my more fancy clothes and uh I remember him having that notebook and writing it was six o’clock already. “I was just in the middle of a dream/Kissing Valentino by a clear blue Italian stream/But I can’t be late because I guess I just won’t get paid/These are the days when you wish your bed was already made.” Everything, if you’re a writer, everything inspires you. So, your employee rushing through the door disheveled and just a little bit of a huff trying not to be late but you know obviously dressed up for a more romantic evening um I believe was the genesis of that.
Well, damn. I hope Susan had more nights off in the future.