Prince Cloud 2 Blue Angel Guitar
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Photo: Frank Ebet Roberts / Getty Images JUNE 19 & 20, 2020 BEVERLY HILLS, CA JULIEN'S AUCTIONS PUBLIC EXHIBITION & LIVE AUCTION LOCATION Julien's Auctions 257 N. Canon Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90210 PUBLIC EXHIBITION Monday, June 15th – Friday, June 19th, 2020 Daily: 11:00 a. m. – 6:00 p. m. Pacific Time Free to the Public LIVE & ONLINE AUCTION MUSIC ICONS Friday, June 19th Session I: 10:00 a. m. Pacific Time Session II: 1:00 p. m. Pacific Time MUSIC ICONS Saturday, June 20th Session III: 10:00 a. m. Pacific Time Session IV: 1:00 p. m. Pacific Time For inquiries, please contact Julien’s Auctions: phone: (310) 836-1818 | fax: (310) 742-0155 email: info@ juliensauctions.com Julien’s Auctions Mailing Address: 8630 Hayden Place | Culver City, CA 90232 Julien’s Auctions will broadcast live streaming video of auction and provide viewers with real-time, interactive bidding during the auction. Online viewers can watch the auction in real-time and bid live against the bidders in the room, phone bidders, proxy bidders and other collectors from around the world. You may also place bids online in the weeks leading up to the auction. Visit www. juliensauctions.com Sale Number 3261 JULIEN’S AUCTIONS 1 Photo: Picture Alliance / Getty Images 2 Photo: FG/Bauer-Griffin / Getty Images DARREN JULIEN President / CEO, darren@ juliensauctions.com MARTIN J. 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FRANK N OLAN Project Manager, fra nk@ julie nsauctions.com Julien Entertainment.com, Inc. d/b/a Julien’s Auctions Property Special ist, adriana@ juliensauctions.com 8630 Hayden Place Culver City, CA 90232 ADRIANA RA MOS phone: (310) 836-1818 HILLARY ANNE RIPPS Execu tive Offices, hillar [email protected] fax: (310) 742-0155 email: info@ juliensauctions.com VINCENT SA NDOVAL Freelance Photogra pher www. juliensauctions.com JASON WATKI NS Property Specialist, jason@ juliensauctions.com www. juliensauctions.co.uk DREW WO OD IT Specialist LAURA WOOLLEY Consulting Sale Specialist ISABEL YEO Director of Cataloging Department, Jewelry Specialist, isabel@ juliensauctions.com VINCENT ZAPIEN Auctioneer “The Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson is not affiliated, associated or connected with ‘Julien’s Auctions’ or this Auction, nor has it endorsed or sponsored ‘Julien’s Auctions’ or this Auction. Further, the Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson has not licensed any of its intellectual property to ‘Julien’s Auctions’ or the sellers of this Auction.” JULIEN’S AUCTIONS 3 Lot 386 BIDDING ON THIS LOT REQUIRES SPECIAL REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS. Please contact info@ juliensauctions.com or call (310) 836-1818 for additional information to bid on this lot. 4 JULIEN’S AUCTIONS 5 PRINCE OWNED AND PLAYED ORIGINAL CLOUD 2 “BLUE ANGEL” GUITAR, 1984 - WITH ROADCASE AND MAGAZINE BUILDERS: O’HAGAN GUITAR COMPANY, TOMMY STINSON, DAVE RUSAN, MARK SAMPSON, BARRY HAUGEN The guitar, currently painted an electric blue finish, has been refinished a number of times, but began white. The guitar has also been painted and used by Prince as peach, light blue, and yellow. The guitar neck is cracked from between the 6th and 7th frets up to the headstock. From 1984 until the time that Andy Beech began making Cloud guitars for Prince in 1993, this was Prince’s primary performance Cloud guitar. Guitar is accompanied by a custom purple Calzone case with stenciled labeling identifying this as “C1” and listing the address for Paisley Park. A detailed timeline of this guitar and its many finishes is provided below. It is important to note that this is the only Cloud guitar that was painted the lighter blue/teal color giving it the nickname “Blue Angel.” • The guitar was created for and used throughout the Purple Rain Tour (1984-1985) • Used throughout the Parade Tour (1986) • Used throughout the Sign o’ The Times Tour (1987) • Appeared in the 1987 music documentary “Sign o’ The Times” and it is featured on the poster for the film • It is the primary guitar Prince used throughout the Lovesexy Tour (1988-1989) • Prince played this guitar on September 24, 1989 when he appeared on the Saturday Night Live 15th Anniversary Special and performed “Electric Chair.” The guitar featured Batman fingerboard decals at that time. • Appeared on September 1991 Spin magazine cover, a copy of the Lot 386 magazine is included with this lot. • Used at the September 5, 1991 MTV Video Music Awards when he performed “Get Off.” • September 9, 1991 Prince appeared on the Arsenio Hall show for a now legendary performance of five songs on stage for over 20 minutes throughout the show. He played this guitar for the opener “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Cream,” and “Purple Rain” • Used in the music videos for “Get Off” and “Cream” • Used throughout the Diamonds and Pearls Tour (1992) 6 September 1991 Copy of Spin Magazine Included as Part of This Auction Lot. JULIEN’S AUCTIONS 7 It is not simply a play on words to say that the history of Smithsonian with a sneaking suspicion” regarding the Prince Cloud guitars has, to this point, been a bit Cloud guitar at the Smithsonian. The article continues to nebulous. This is due in large part to the many conflicting explain that after Woodland shared his research with the and inaccurate accounts floating around the internet. Smithsonian, their guitar underwent a CT scan and extensive paint analysis. The article quotes John There were a great number of later copies of the Cloud Troutman, curator of American music at the National commissioned by Prince that, to the casual observer, are a Museum of American History saying, about the close match to the originals; by design. It doesn’t help Smithsonian’s Cloud guitar, “All evidence suggests that that Prince was a perpetually evolving artist whose this was the first cloud guitar ever built for Prince.” instruments are reminiscent of the Emerald City of Oz horses of a different color that cycled through the colors Woodland guided our investigation of this guitar of the rainbow. performing the same diagnostic analysis through the use of paint samples and CT scans performed on the guitar All of this is set against the background of a virtual by Westside Medical Imaging in Beverly Hills. revolving door of guitar techs who worked with Prince throughout his long career. Unlike some prominent We also consulted former Knut Koupeé employees as well guitarists who employ one guitar tech for decades at a as former O’Hagan guitar employee Dave Seaton. We not time, techs generally didn’t last long with Prince. One only had to go beneath the surface details of the guitar story relayed by a former tech tells of hash marks on the figuratively, we literally had to look inside this guitar to warehouse walls to mark the number of days each tech discover its details of construction. would last, and some reportedly chalked up only one mark. Therefore, there is no single person with continuity The first thing people are going to see when they look at from the time this guitar was made until this guitar has this guitar is the fact that the headstock looks like a come to market that can trace the entire history of this Schecter. We’ll get to that, there’s a very good reason for instrument from start to finish. this, but that is at the end of this story chronologically. The research on this guitar required going back to the In order to understand the need for all of this, it is very beginning of the Cloud guitar itself to determine how important to start at the very beginning, before the Cloud it was constructed, repaired and refinished through the as we know it was born. While the details of the story years (and it was repaired and refinished a lot). vary from version to version, all accounts confirm that in 1976 Prince was in New York City shopping around his We consulted with John Woodland who has spent a year demo tape recorded by Chris Moon, when he saw a bass and a half researching the origin and creation of the guitar designed by luthier Jeff Levin of Sardonyx Guitars original Cloud guitars. Woodland also performs in the window of Umanov Guitars. Prince bought the conservation work on Prince’s guitars at Paisley Park. He instrument, later known to Prince fans as the Cloud bass, is currently writing a book with Gerald Ronning (former but Levin called it the F-Bass because he based the Knut Koupeé Music employee, 1983) on the subject.