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ONE NIGHT AT PAISLEY PARK Andrea Swensson recounts her encounters at Prince’s compound. |
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ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALLEGRA LOCKSTADT
riving through downtown Chanhassen, the last thing you see before you turn the corner and glimpse Paisley Park is the cross and steeple of the neighborhood church. Which seems appropriate, given how many Prince devotees from around the world have flocked to the music icon’s recording studio and party pad. Although the devout Jehovah’s Witness would have cringed at the thought, he had reached an untouchable God-like status in so many of his fans’ minds. Prior to his death and especially now, Paisley Park is Mecca. Most trips out to Paisley Park began the same way. A smoke signal would appear above the Purple One’s compound — in recent years, that would come in the form of a cryptic tweet, but back in the nineties, it might’ve been as subtle as a fan noticing that the lights on the building’s white brick exterior had turned to his signature violet hue — and the mayhem would begin to unfold. Devotees would race out to the Twin Cities suburb, lining up at the property’s gates in their finest heels, sports coats and teased hairdos. And before
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| Magazine of the North
the doors could even open, the entire block would be vibrating with the anticipatory feeling that anything might happen that night. Seriously, anything. Like the time Madonna dropped by after her show at the local arena and 30-odd fans watched in awe as the two superstars exchanged knowing glances while Prince serenaded her. Or when he crashed the stage during an Alabama Shakes performance, ripped one perfect guitar solo and disappeared. Or when he brought Kendrick Lamar all the way to Minnesota to perform one blissful song. Of course, not every trek to Paisley Park was a historic event. More often than not, fans were allowed inside to dance for a couple hours to a blaring mix of Prince jams, seventies funk singles and eighties pop hits before getting booted back into the Chanhassen night. No alcohol was served and cell phones were prohibited, so the experience could feel a bit like a junior-high lock-in, everyone shuffling their feet and craning their necks to see if Prince might make an appearance. But the anticipation that something incredible might happen, that incredible things have