I'm still in awe of the sheer power and greatness of this song off "Purple Rain". The guitar riff on the chorus is amazing. The musical backdrop was so daring and inventive. Back in 1984, this sounded unlike anything LIL MAN had ever done.I used to wonder was this song autobiographical. It sounded like P was reliving a kinky night he spent with a stone cold freak. Especiallly awesome is the way he work the cymbals on the drums before the backward message. This song has amazing energy. Still sounds awesome in 2002. Tipper probably even thought the muscial backdrop was a work of genius evev if she rebelled against the lyrical content.

* Brother 9/15 aka CR3

Definitely great song but check out "Automatic" for a similar riff.

I love Darling Nikki

Avant garde

Its a cool song i like the ALT. version a bit better has a insturmental break in it.

Redirecting from General Discussion forum to Music: Prince....

purpledarling55 said:

I too love the song Darlin' nikki. I find it a little creepy in a strange sort of way also.

Good Morning Everybody,

I also wish to mention that on the Purple Rain tour stop here in Atlanta (Jan 7,1985), I think this was the song that everyone was most anxious to see him perform. When the opening segments of the song played, the place erupted!!!!Yes he's right.... the Revolution could tear this song to pieces LIVE!!!!!

Brother 9/15 aka CR3

Funny this came up..I was just listening to the soundtrack..Everything about this song I love but what really gets my blood boiling in when I have the movie on with the stereo blasting and he starts that screaming....Lord, lord lord...the pumping the stage and the leg grab ..U just don't know (mmm,mmmm,,mmmm) COME BACK NIKKI COME BACK!!!!!

This song is definitely unique in that even today most artists (just to use the term loosely) try to duplicate it's sound and can't even come close it is definitely in a class of its own.

micorison requesting radio silence...
[This message was edited Fri May 3 11:58:08 PDT 2002 by micorison]

"Darling Nikki" will always be brilliant. I was 14 when I first heard it, and I KNOW at that time, I had never heard anyone use music to express something like this before.

It's angry. It's sexy. It's intense. What's even better, is that Prince never did anything like it again -- and no one else has come close to touching what that song evokes. .

Paul

Well, i think the noteworthiness of Darling Nikki lies in a few factors:

1) The music. The music is really, really cool. The major-key chords in a dark song (kinda creepy in a '60s British spy film kinda way), what feels like an odd meter for the beat (which is different in its tom-heaviness. P's playing the mess outta dem drums), the octave-drenched tone of his guitar which made it sound rawer, dirtier...

2) The sonic nature of those chords, the raw guitar complement what is a self-consciously dirty song. "I met her in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine" was gratuitous, as far as lyrics go. It still is. Prince's sing-song, coy delivery conveys the fact that something is off-kilter: It's a perverse, purple fairy tale that fits well in Prince's ouvre (I've always wanted to use that word!!!) of unrequited-love songs. He gets to be dirty, but his heart still ends up broken (in that, he might have argued, it was an immoral song with a moral to it).

3) And, as dirty, pretentious songs go, it was quite obvious that this was to be Purple Rain's "dirty" song. This was to be the song and performance in the film that cemented his role as a bad boy. The ensuing firestorm that greeted it (thanks to Tipper, among others) guaranteed Prince a lot of controversy and free publicity, which he greeted with equal parts lasciviousness in concert and doe-eyed, "I'm-so-innocent-and-afraid" public persona.

It was a big marketing ploy/publicity stunt.