what do you think?

Depends on how good it was.

skywalker said:

depends...since he's into put all this str8 forward religon stuff in his music mayybe...if it was like the 80's one...then nope! i'd still b groovin to computer blue like it was the best thing i'd ever heard!

Completely as it is, I think yes they would shit on it for the production alone--it really needs updating. The anologue sound is much too bright at times.

But if it where remastered, I think fans would be blwon away by it. Also (go ahead and yell at me), but the title track "Purple Rain" has been done better live. I like it when Prince updates it a little and adds some additional umph to it.

It would be just as well liked as NPS.

it was what it was in the time that it was and that's all it was

A good song is a good song and it doesn't matter when it's released.

EvilWhiteMale said:

That's a hard question to answer because it means that "Purple Rain" would never have been released in 1984. I have often wondered if Prince had never released "Purple Rain" in 1984 and never achieved such great success with that album and movie, would he have ever changed his style with "Around The World In A Day" until years later. I think if "Purple Rain" had never happened back then, he would have continued the synth sound until probably around 1989 or 1990 when the style of music was changing as a whole. I think with the success of "Purple Rain", the album and movie, he was at icon status and could afford to make such a drastic style change.

My answer depends on whether if history remained the same with "Around The World In A Day", the drastic style change, and the same albums that have been released were still released. If "Purple Rain" was being released for the first time today, I would praise it in the HIGHEST form and say "Hot damn! The 'old Prince' is back!"

sorry
[Edited 9/13/04 17:46pm]

in a way, it's sad that purple rain was such a huge thing for Prince, when actually it's shouldn't be seen as anything more than just another great Prince masterpiece like all of his 80s albums were (with the exception of Batman) -- it's too bad that purple rain overshadowed everything else -- he has made better albums (tho few songs can ever top "Computer Blue," "When Doves Cry," and "Purple Rain").

edit: assuming we're talking about the entire album... the song itself is brilliant no matter what time or place it's revealed
[Edited 9/7/04 21:52pm]

vainandy said:

nice,nice...never thought about it this way

Snap said:

I disagree, I think Purple Rain is far better than anything Prince made in the 80s. Everything from Dirty Mind to 1999 hasn't aged very well, ATWIAD, Parade and Lovesexy are overrated and pretentious and SOTT is twice as long and more eclectic but song for song it isn't as strong and the sound isn't as rich (I don't think it needs a remaster personally, I like the panoramic, arena kinda feel). I think Purple Rain sold better than any album he made for a reason.

Throughout the 90's and up until today, I would say Prince has put more emphasize on the R'n'B/soul/funk elements in his music. So if "Purple Rain" was released today, I think it would come across as a strikingly "white" pop album, and surprisingly commercial compared to Prince's music in later years. Perhaps also a little lightweight in that sense.

I think that's also the reason why many people think "Purple rain" is his best album:
It's very pop/rock-oriented, the songs are catchy and easy to listen to, and the musical innovations and experiments are not as prominent as in, for example, SOTT.

Plus, of course, the fact that PR is the album that most people have heard. If you've only listened to 2 or 3 other Prince albums (one of them perhaps being the Batman soundtrack...) I can easily understand if PR is your favorite. But for all of us that are familiar with his entire catalog, there might be other opinions.

Personally, I don't really like PR that much. It represents the point where Prince reached his commercial - though not his artistic - peak, and I think he has made more interesting work both before and after that.

But I think the really interesting question is: What would we think of Prince today, if he was a new, unknown artist? Let's say Musicology was his first album?

RealMusician said:

Sure, Purple Rain is one of his more pop/rock oriented albums, but it's not his only one, and not his only commercially motivated album either (by any means). However, I think it's the one commercially motivated prince album that isn't artistically compromised. Every song on that album is totally unconventional. Think about a bassless psychedlic rock song being on the top of the charts, or a subtly mutating paranoia anthem like The Beautiful Ones being on any kind of typical blockbuster album. What was amazing was that he could achieve mass appeal with an artistically accomplished work and I think being able to communicate your ideas to a mass audience is important measurement of artistry too.

You are right that PR isn't very funky, though. If you're looking for Prince's best funk songs, you're not going to find any of them in Purple Rain.

AsianBomb777 said:

but the purple rain on the album IS live.