first off sorry if this has been posted before i havent been on these boards in awhile

i was listening to a old radio show from howard stern feb 7 07
when howard when reading some news revealed that the purple rain solo at the end of the song that he loved so much was actually taken from the solo of the group journeys song faithfully this had been mentioned in a few journey interviews howard then played about 10 secs from each song back to back and the similarity between the two was quite amazing,howard then said apparantly prince wrote a letter of apology to journeys keyboardist johnathon cain who took it as a compliment

well after hearing all this i was quite shocked with puruple rain beiing one of my fav songs of all time
what do u guys think
if someone has a site i can upload this little piece for u to listen to im happy to do it

well if journey didn't sue him it probably isn't that similar.
they could have made some big $ if he did nick it from them.

coincidentally, prince stole the purple rain guitar solo, or
at least part of it from himself when he tagged it at the end
of "She gave her Angels". the drumtrack in the BG is identical.

not just similar. identical. it's at 03:16

IstenSzek said:

noone has to sue anyone for it to be similar
all u need is ears to hear that its similar
also a maybe reason why johnathon didnt sue was cause he took it as a compliment i dont know maybe he was a big fan himself and didnt wanna sue someone he really liked

riverdean7 said:

trust me, when someone stole your solo and it was in the title cut
of an album that went on to sell 40 million copies, you'd sue.

that shit could have made him more money that he did with journey.

I just listened to the Journey song... yes it does sound very similar... but I don't know if an exact melody is taken, so I don't think a lawsuit can occur... but I'm certain that Prince heard the Journey song, and it was an influence on Purple Rain...

The chords are the same... Even the singing at the end is kind of similar... the Journey guy is going "Whoa oah oah oah..." Prince goes "Woo hoo hoo ooo..."
[Edited 3/27/07 7:16am]

coolcat said:

coolcat i agree its very similar not identical i hope in the future someone brings this up to prince id like to hear what he has to say about it
maybe the reason he wasnt sued was it wasnt identical to the journey solo just very similar and im thinking this would be very hard to win in court especially at the time when prince was so big

riverdean7 said:

Yeah, it would be a tough case... I think Purple Rain is clearly influenced by this song... but I don't know if I'd say it was stolen...

I found this interview:

http://www.journey-tribut...burgh.html

Sounds like Prince offered to pay, but they weren't upset or anything and just let it go...
[Edited 3/27/07 7:49am]

coolcat said:

hey thanx for that journey interview here ive cut paste the bits dealing with the faithfully purple rain solo

Jon: Well they always say that, you know, imitation is the best form of flattery so
Steve: Yeah that's true, that true.
Vicki: Yeah
M: Mmm Hmm
Neal: or
Jon: It's kind of flattering when like Prince I mean he
Vicki: Prince
Steve: Oh Yeah
Neal: or
Jon: He, he called up he took the chords from "Faithfully" and put em' in "Purple Rain" and didn't realize it until you know, he heard our song and then his manager called up and said jeez, Prince is awfully sorry but um um
M: And he'll pay you so don't worry about it
Steve: Listen, listen, listen to this, the last chords of "Purple Rain, Purple Rain(Sung w/guitar)" which is the end of "Faithfully," just so you know.
F: You guys do it better.
M: They're still breathing heavy in here because of you guys.
Steve: That was "Faithfully," okay.
Vicki: Okay
Steve: Okay. But he asked us yeah.
Neal: or
Jon: That was very nice of him to call.
Steve: He called and says "Forgive me I've made a mistake."
Neal: or
Jon: And we said good luck, have a hit.
M: That's nice.
Vicki: Nice, nice guys at you?
Neal: It was good for us it should be great for you

Just took a listen 2 this song 4 the 1st time. No question that it HEAVILY influenced Purple Rain. Stolen? No.....but only a deaf man/woman could NOT hear the influence. The chord progression is EXACTLY the same.

Interesting.....

Graycap23 said:

i just finished listening to the whole journey song and after listening to it im surprised that i dont think there as much a similarity between the 2 as i thought i mean definetly not suable this is probably why there was nothing about this in the press at the time i think its only about 20 perecent the same plus prince added way more to his solo then again im not musician

I've had that song hammered into my head being in middle school and high school when Journey was played a lot... but I never once thought of "Faithfully" when I saw and heard "Purple Rain". The Journey video was played a lot on MTV before Purple Rain came out, and no one, not even my Rush, Journey wannabe musician friends ever mentioned this odd similarity...

how funny.

Man, I've mentioned this on this site for years. I've known this when I first heard Purple Rain. P was heavily influenced by Neal Schon's solo. P had been checking out Neal from the get, being that Neal used to play with Santana.

blackguitaristz said:

Man, I wish the mods could pull out all the old posts I've made mentioning this.
As a kid, I used to play these solos on guitar all the time. These were must learns for me.

blackguitaristz said:

blackguitaristz said:

-----
Did Faithfully come out in "87" I do not remember this song being out around "84"

interesting info; i have 2 check it out later; i love that song by journey 2; i can hear it in my head but i don't think they're identical just similar.

laurarichardson said:

Apparently it's from 83...

laurarichardson said:

No, it was released in 83 from the album "Frontiers".

riverdean7 said:

Just listened to "Faithfully for the first time. As has been said above, the chords are exactly the same! I can't say Prince lifted the solo, that's a bit of a stretch, but those chords and the way the song progresses, wow.

So much for Wendy & Lisa, he should have asked the band Journey to come on stage at the end of Purple Rain!

its similar but not enough to be striking. journey's drifts away from the 4 initial chords and the motif reminds me of 'coming around again' by carly simon. the formula of rock ballads for bands like these rolls of the conveyor belt.

its 4 chords in a major key, taken for granted that the first is the root of the key so that leaves 3 to think of for the chorus, so there will be lots of songs that fit this chord template. strange the way this in B and purple rain is in Bb.

i struggled to listen to it all, with all the cliches making it so safe. i can imagine the hair and twirling drumsticks, without even seeing the video.

spoida said:

I totally agree with spoida. As a musician also, I can only hear the four basic cords after that, the embellishments and the "coloring" is differnt.( Musical term, not racial) Similar, but not "lifted"....but you wanna talk about "lifted" from your Royal Highness..check out Sweet Obsessions "Being in love aint easy" and tell me what Purple Rain track was copied.....

Stolen? Na
That's what's so great about Prince. He takes styles that he likes & puts a twist on them. Like the 1,4,5 blues feel of Kiss. It sounds familiar but it's all Prince. Howard Stern is just a joker & a bit of a sh@t disturber. LOl

lots of songs have the same chord progression - doesn't mean they're stolen or copied.

blackguitaristz said:

PR was recorded in 83....at that famous 1st ave charity concert.

SlamGlam said:

-----
I know when PR was recorded and I am saying how do we know what came out first.
We know Prince puts things out that have been sitting around for a few years on the shelf.

chakah said:

--

I have to agree, i could have listened to the song 100 times and wouldnt have made purple rain as a connection, i was brought up listening to rock, metal and m.o.r bands like journey,yes,elo,boston etc and so i tend to hear all kinda songs within Faithfully, the piano intro reminds me of a meatloaf song (that i cant place the title) THe chord progression is similar for sure to purple rain and there are some repeat notes and phrasing in the guitar solo, but its very minimal. IMO

Having said that I think Prince has a track record of borrowing the odd note or two from a wide variety of music, including songs that were just about to be/ or had just been released at a similar time.
Both these songs being 1983 of course.


Wasnt the story behind Purple Rain - That Prince was encouraged to write a rock anthem by Eric Leeds during the 1999 tour when they were sharing arena complex,s with the Bob Seger Band.( They sat in on a few concerts, Prince goes off and writes PR and the rest is history.
[Edited 3/27/07 16:35pm]