An admission: I came on board with Purple Rain. Gimme a break, I was thirteen, and of the two radio stations in my Northern Alberta town, one played things like Anne Murray and the Carpenters, and the other one was country. So I was helpless to hear Prince until he was HUGE.

So, Take Me With U was actually the third Prince song I ever heard (WDC, bought the tape, LGC and then TMWU). So to my ears, TMWU was pretty much par for the course when it came to Prince... or so I thought.

But it came up on shuffle today, and I found myself really listening to its vibe and orchestration, and comparing it to P's prior catalogue, which I have now for decades of course been intimately familiar with.

So I have to think, for those of you who grew up with Prince and had for years been grooving to 'Uptown', 'Controversy', and 'Automatic', TMWU must have come RIGHT out of left field. I mean, there's nothing in his prior catalogue that sounds even remotely like it.

I'm not saying TMWU is one of the most mind-blowing tracks on Purple Rain (far from it!). But for you OLD-old schoolers, how did this song hit you, that very first time?

I think there was a bit of warning (so to speak) with 17 Days, which people heard as the B-side to When Doves Cry before the album came out. They both carry an almost pop/ psychedelic simplistic feel to them.

[Edited 9/5/15 14:38pm]

bluegangsta said:

I think there was a bit of warning (so to speak) with 17 Days, which people heard as the B-side to When Doves Cry before the album came out. They both carry an almost pop/ psychedelic simplistic feel to them.

[Edited 9/5/15 14:38pm]

Hmm! I didn't hear 17 Days until a few months later, so I forgot to factor that in. However (in my mind anyway), that song still sounds like a logical extension of the 1999 material - the linn drum, the synth hook, the 'emotionally detached' Lisa Coleman vocal... an evolution to be sure, but one I can still trace back to 1999.

But TMWU - the acoustic guitars, the strings, the tambourine, the almost bell-like snare sound... it sounds to me like a new dimension in the Prince sound (and certainly a precursor of ATWIAD, but that's for another thread).

one thing that blew my mind was that according to wendy and lisa prince did not know about music theory... he just got it. it was all natural. so weird cord changes on parade were just his instinct.

Now I think he is trying to sound some way and not just doing what he thinks makes sense... i think that is why his last several albums have done almost nothing to excite me...

OnlyNDaUsa said:

one thing that blew my mind was that according to wendy and lisa prince did not know about music theory... he just got it. it was all natural. so weird cord changes on parade were just his instinct.

Now I think he is trying to sound some way and not just doing what he thinks makes sense... i think that is why his last several albums have done almost nothing to excite me...

Prince just "getting" it is completely normal and vastly preferred. Playing by ear is the most natural way to get creative. He's got all the music theory he needs, he just doesn't know the names of the stuff. Then you have the opposite where people know all the theory but they don't know how it sounds until they try it out.

Music is a language. Socrates was illiterate yet he is the most important western philosopher that ever lived, (providing he wasn't a creation of Plato).

If you can sing a tune, you have the theory. You just don't know how to write it down or read it. You don't need to be able to read or write to be an amazing conversationalist.

Whatever was happening in 1983 totally blew open the doors of sound in Purple Music

Take Me With U has a fresh Spring day feel

full band recording along wit cello viola and violin D Coleman Suzi Katayama and Novi Novog

Manic Monday also follows the vibe of this song

First time hearing 'Take Me With U"? It was a really cool, chilled/mellowed out song. Love the strings on this one. It's one song, though, that I never sang along with the track. I, still, like it.

Appollonia's voice sounds intriguing/funny to me. I wonder, if Vanity, with her voice could have pulled this one off...probably not. I can't imagine Vanity on this song!

Prince could do no wrong on Purple Rain!

williamb610 said:

First time hearing 'Take Me With U"? It was a really cool, chilled/mellowed out song. Love the strings on this one. It's one song, though, that I never sang along with the track. I, still, like it.

Appollonia's voice sounds intriguing/funny to me. I wonder, if Vanity, with her voice could have pulled this one off...probably not. I can't imagine Vanity on this song!

Prince could do no wrong on Purple Rain!

idk I think Vanity's natural sexiness would have done something special for this one.
I still compare the 2 Sex Shooter versions. I don't remember the last time I listened to the rel version

eyewishuheaven said:

An admission: I came on board with Purple Rain. Gimme a break, I was thirteen, and of the two radio stations in my Northern Alberta town, one played things like Anne Murray and the Carpenters, and the other one was country. So I was helpless to hear Prince until he was HUGE.

So, Take Me With U was actually the third Prince song I ever heard (WDC, bought the tape, LGC and then TMWU). So to my ears, TMWU was pretty much par for the course when it came to Prince... or so I thought.

But it came up on shuffle today, and I found myself really listening to its vibe and orchestration, and comparing it to P's prior catalogue, which I have now for decades of course been intimately familiar with.

So I have to think, for those of you who grew up with Prince and had for years been grooving to 'Uptown', 'Controversy', and 'Automatic', TMWU must have come RIGHT out of left field. I mean, there's nothing in his prior catalogue that sounds even remotely like it.

I'm not saying TMWU is one of the most mind-blowing tracks on Purple Rain (far from it!). But for you OLD-old schoolers, how did this song hit you, that very first time?

Loved it then, still do now.