I have an old innerview with Prince, where he says:

"I didn´t write Purple Rain - somebody else did!"

Do any of you guys have an idea about, who he´s referring to, because I cant´t find notes about it anywhere?

Thanx and love

Kirs E

KirsE said:

He was reffering to the movie.
The director had an Italian name I think...I don't remember...He's in the credits...

The IMDB page is here: http://imdb.com/title/tt0087957/

William Blinn and Albert Magnoli wrote it.

Efan said:

There it is. I was about to say Farringoli.

Even if Prince didn't write "Purple Rain." Prince makes believing in purple rain a happy thing 2 do.

ToraToraDreams said:

Hi ToraToraDreams,

Ok - so that means, that you are sure, that he wrote Purple Rain - the song -himself?

Kirs E

Y'all know that I wrote the original version of Purple Rain.
Not the movie ! The song !
P stole it from ME ! It was originally called "Pumpernickel Plain", I was very hungry when I wrote the song.

It went something like this
"Pumpernickel Plain, Pumpernickel Plain ,I only want to see you, see you fixin' me a sandwich on Pumpernickel Plain"

I can see the Crowd waving German Bread back and forth,right now...

maxim9691 said:

maxim9691 said:

Prince wrote the song.

Prince had a journal he traveled with on tour and jotted down ideas for the movie for a long time. He may not have officially written the movie, but he did have a lot of influence and his notes were used. It was a collaboration.

I think he wrote like 100 songs for the movie and choose the ones for the album. I don't think Purple Rain was on the original list, nor were When Doves Cry & Take me with (I think). He wrote those basically overnight on request for certain scenes.
[Edited 3/24/08 18:37pm]

vman4639 said:

Someone's been watching the commentary!

cassingle said:

haha... you gottsta watch the commentary and all that fun stuff if you want to get all the info...

I was gonna say something just like that

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Sorry girl, had to steal your thunder
For me, the commentary was half great and half blah. Most of the information was unexciting, but it was worth listening to for the few great tidbits (ie the story about When Doves Cry, etc)

cassingle said:

I would have liked to hear more about the different songs. like Computer Blue and Modernaire no mention of Dez.
but kinda interesting how they mentioned bits and pieces here and there...
though, did they really have to say what was filmed where?
kinda spoils the magic of one of the scenes cuz once i hear something i never forget it.

What I found interesting was what happened in the basement was changed around and Prince wanted a certain ending that he didnt get and someone else made a comment that was just as hilarious

Reply to 'Who wrote Purple Rain?'

Yo mama.

cassingle said:[quote]

vman4639 said:

Guilty. It's been about a year since I watched it - but that's what I recall.

Everyone seemed pretty honest in the commentary - none of that Prince stuff where you don't know what to believe.

vman4639 said:[quote]

cassingle said:

I definitely agree with you, but notice that they really didn't talk about Prince very much, besides to say that it was all his choreography and that he was always professional. There were no personal anecdotes or stories, which made me wonder if they didn't talk about his stuff on purpose...we ended up getting a lot of "wow, Appollonia is beautiful!" comments as well as the location stuff DreamyPop mentioned.

cassingle said:

They were very hush hush on the tension during filming as well. I wish Jesse Johnson and Brown Mark would have been there though. More Time members would have been nice.

cassingle said:

I don't get why people don't believe Prince when he clarifies something.

Some personal ancedotes were mentioned, but in the context of the movie. Like the scene where his father says "I would die for you"... they said how that really happened to him and what might have inspired the song.

Haha, it was kind of funny during the "Sex Shooter" scene where they said they were so busy filming that they couldn't enjoy the performance or see how beautiful the girls were. I watched the movie with a close friend of mine and she said Apollonia was beautiful. And I agree. I know why people here don't like her much, but I do.

sometimes it never hurts to watch through the commentary because u can catch some things that u don't remember hearing before.

Back to the subject, I was ready to start throwing things if they meant the song. What really annoys me is how some of the members of the Revolution said independantly that they helped inspire Prince to write the song. Not just in the commentary or on the DVD. Though I do believe Wendy & Lisa when they say that they helped write the song. Wendy mentioned how she played one chord on her guitar and followed that up... and also how Prince wrote the majority of the song and had the Revolution add their own parts around his.
"It was the perfect song for that band."

Then I heard on some other commentary how Dr. Fink was talking with Prince. And Prince asked why Fink liked the group that was touring around the same time they were. Fink said that Prince should write a powerful song that everyone can relate to. Sounds to me like Fink and a few others are trying to take the credit for writing the song.

One may argue though (and I've heard this mentioned) that Prince wouldn't have gotten to that particular place at all if Dez wasn't in The Revolution for a while. And how he inspired Prince's rock sound a bit.

cassingle said:

I remember reading that in "prince a pop life" I forget the author's name.
Its laying around the house somewhere, I trip over it every once and awhile.

I was disapointed with the DVD commentary.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Interesting points DPR I'm still not sure about the Dez thing though...everyone always seems so crazy about him and I don't quite get it. I'm not saying that I dislike him or anything, but...the dude hasn't changed his look for thirty years!

Still, I definitely agree that he influenced P's style and rock sound, but I if Dez was so great, wouldn't he have had a few hits by now? No disrespect to Dez at all, but I think people are always trying to come up with a reason to discredit P and it seems like it's just not quite worth it.

cassingle said:

It's been known to happen... a lot, in fact

I understand where you're coming from. Though last I heard, Dez was coming out with an album... and he also wrote a book. I wouldn't mind having a look at that. Its him talking about his years working with Prince.

i hav tha special editin set and the director said somethin lik p walked around wit a note book fittin characters or sumn.

4849 said:

A few of the band members of The Revolution can attest to that. There was a "purple notebook" Prince was writing in for a couple of years and it was full of ideas for this movie. Most likely, he scribbled a few notes about different songs he'd have in it as well... but I don't think the idea of the song "Purple Rain" was conceived for a while.