It is the year 1983. Just think about it for a bit, you are inside a dusty, quiet warehouse in Minneapolis. A young, nervous musician sits at a piano. He is Prince. He is just months away from becoming the biggest, most famous superstar on the entire planet.
But right now, he is not a global king. He is not a megastar yet. He is just a very lonely person pouring his heavy heart out into the keys.
17 Days – Prince
He was working on a brilliant, gospel-influenced gem called “17 Days.”
It started as a simple, fun jam session. His keyboard player, Lisa Coleman, started playing a cool, reggae-style beat on the organ. Prince absolutely loved it. He worked fast. By the very next day, he had written all the lyrics.
But why did he sing about being so deeply lonely?
Prince was standing right on the edge of massive fame. The giant Purple Rain era was coming. He knew his life was about to change forever. That kind of extreme pressure is very heavy. It can make a young artist feel completely isolated from the normal world. In this private piano session, he was not performing for a screaming crowd. He was trying to feel the music deeply. He was getting the song into his own body. He sang the part of a totally broken, lonely man because he understood that deep, quiet fear.
17 Days (Piano & A Microphone 1983 Version)
This beautiful, raw piano demo was totally locked away. It was lost to history. It stayed buried deep inside his famous, secret vault for decades.
But then, a musical miracle happened. On September 6, 2018, the vault doors were finally opened. The secret 1983 recording was officially released to the whole world. It was just pure, personal magic. As Lisa Coleman beautifully said, listening to it feels exactly like you are sitting right in the room with him.
You can be standing right on the edge of total greatness. You can be ready to conquer the whole world. But it is perfectly okay to feel lonely, scared, and totally raw. Sometimes, your most painful, quiet moments become your absolute greatest masterpieces.