PURPLE RAIN

By the time Purple Rain was released I had truly worn out my copies of Controversy and 1999, and was excited when I heard that this new Prince album was coming out. By this stage I was quite passionate about many bands and was enjoying all the different tastes of music that the early 80s seemed to serve up weekly on the charts.

Unfortunately for me I was too young to actually go and see Purple Rain in the cinema, so when my older brother came home to tell me all about I was just itching to see it. Thankfully I had the album to let me paint my own visual story. Maybe in retrospect not seeing the movie made me able to separate the music from the hype the movie created. But regardless of actually seeing the movie, the music itself spoke of a more epic nature.

The opening strains of LETS GO CRAZY and the whole “dearly beloved” intro just seemed to make a bold statement, that this was going to be something special. When the beat kicks in, and the guitar riff kind of guides you into the song you can’t help but feel your heart race a little. Pure funk rock energy is laid out here and a few Prince trademarks were coming to the for, like the double rim shot accents, and the way the backing vocals would pick key phrases to highlight in the verses. The song just builds and builds until it washes over you with pure sonic electricity that explodes in that blissful swirling guitar solo. If ever there was a doubt about Prince’s ability to make the guitar sing, here was the proof.

TAKE ME WITH U followed and literally took me on a journey of perfectly crafted pop. It just seems to be infused with happiness that is hard not to feel uplifted by. And for the first time we hear a string section accentuating Prince’s melodies. Here was an artist pushing himself and spreading his musical wings and taking flight. A pure pop romance.

As if contrasting the lightness of Take Me With U, The Beautiful Ones, delves into the darker tones of 1999 but gives his ballads a new sense of maturity and realness. Whereas in the past I had always skipped over the ballads, this one hooked it. It was sparse, seductive and distraught. In the same way that Something In the Water drew me in, the agony displayed in the final 90 seconds just feels so raw and real you couldn’t help but pay attention.

COMPUTER BLUE just blew my mind. IT was the best parts of 1999 pushed to breaking point. The flanging synth bed, the rock guitar, the subtle stabs of synths, and the flurry of quirky strings and keys and guitars in the solo breakdown. To this day I hold this up as a song that has been completely underrated by most people when listening to the album. And unlike the hits that seem to have lost some of the freshness, this track offers new rewards with each listen. And here, for the first time is the new and improved Princely clap-pop. Like the mini opuses off Prince, the track feels like 3 songs in one, but here it seems to have a direction, a destination. It’s like being blindfolded and led on a musical journey that lands you right in the lap of DARLING NIKKI.

Here was Prince at his most controlled explicitness. The whole song drips sex, from the obvious one night stand lyrical content, to the way the music hits and pumps harder with each passing chorus. And again the final minute of the song just erupts in a musical climax that is second to none. The haunting backward masking of the vocals just added to the allure of the track. It wasn’t until I played it to my brother who showed me how to play the song backwards that the secret was revealed. “Hello, how are you? I’m fine, cause I know that the lord is coming soon, coming coming soon”. It sounded even more foreboding played correctly.

What can you say about WHEN DOVES CRY. By the time I got the album I had already bought the 12” and had fallen in love with both the a and b-side. The trippy use of a flange on the rim shot just seems to add to the hypnotic nature of the song. Again the sparse arrangement seems to allow Prince’s vocals to be even more front and center. Story has it that the bass line originally intended for the song was dropped from the mix, when Prince decided it felt too conventional. Written after the filming of Purple Rain, it’s really the only song that has a overall narrative to it that sums up what the movie was about. It was destined to be a classic, and to this day still sounds fresh and mildly eccentric for a pop hit.

There is frenetic energy underpinning I WOULD DIE 4 u and BABY I’M A STAR that would see then as conjoined twins for many years. As a song in it’s own right, IWD4U is as funky a song as you will ever hear. Unfortunately the bass s too low in the mix, but that aside there is no faulting this song. Prince’s craft as a songwriter was evident and by now undisputed. There is a sense of excitement in these two songs that you can’t resist thanks in part to the “live” recording of BABY I’M A STAR. Another funk party jam, this song struts it its cocksure posture. As if either declaring or demanding his place as a star, Prince lays it out there in a way that you can’t ignore. As a kid on the verge of being a teen, this self-assured attitude was massively appealing. “Take a picture sweetie I ain’t got time to wait”. Classic.

Speaking of classics, closing out the album with PURPLE RAIN was a masterstroke. Movie aside, the song just seems to remind you of the special musical journey you have been taken on and leaves you wanting more. So of course you flip the disc and play the whole thing again. It’s hard now to listen to Purple Rain without the whole history of the song and how it has become his signature tune. Whether or not he borrowed the phrase from America’s Ventura Highway seems irrelevant when Prince takes the phrase and wraps it up in his own persona. A twisted love song about wanting nothing but the best for a loved one, even if that means not being with them is a theme that Prince would return to later in his works. This mix of regret, solace, and desire meld in one of the most beautifully arranged “love” songs. It’s easy to see why the song has struck a chord with so many. It’s haunting, it’s raw, it’s alluring. It’s a song about isolation that thousands feel united by. And even hearing it fro the first time you knew there was something special about this song that would outlast the hype of a movie.

Looking back now Purple Rain is part inspired genius and part calculated ambition. The songs are perfectly crafted, packed with energy and the Prince sound, and even with a song as notorious as Darling Nikki on it, it deliberately strays away from being too explicit with swearing that had been displayed in 1999 and Dirty Mind. It was as though he knew the time was right. And he wanted to step into the spotlight with an album that a reflection of him but one also made for the mainstream to handle.

This is really a masterpiece of modern record making. Not a dud track on it, and closing out 44 minutes it makes you want to go back and back again. Sadly with the advent of 80 minute Cds the risk of filler would be greatly increased.

So what are your thoughts on Purple Rain?

And for other discussions to this point check out:


FOR YOU http://prince.org/msg/7/311337
PRINCE http://prince.org/msg/7/311446
DIRTY MIND http://prince.org/msg/7/311567
CONTROVERSY http://prince.org/msg/7/311655
1999 http://prince.org/msg/7/311739

Hi-5...Cosign...whatever you want to call it..I agree totally!!..The impact of the album is easily evident right here in these forums..we all talk about "pre-Purple Rain" or "after Purple-Rain" as its acknowledged that this was his benchmark..not one bad song makes it easier to listen repeatedly..you saw this coming in the making with controversy and 1999 and he nailed it!..I was already a big prince fan so it just made feel like a proud papa once the masses finally saw what i already saw and knew...genius

Gimme some of that purple drank!
[drink, wtf is a drink?]

SavonOsco said:

Nicely put.

Swa

great review

nyse said:

Thank you - but I would also be interested in yours....

Swa

Purple Rain was the first Prince album I had ever heard, before that I had never heard of him. I remember getting the soundtrack for my 12th birthday,and then eventually begging my Mom to rent the movie. I have to say that even though I loved this album,when I was 12,I was still to young to thoroughly appreciate exactly what I was listening to. When listening to songs like Let's Go Crazy I would find myself thinking "Why would someone be excited that they were going to die"? but it wasn't until later that I was able to pick up on the religious undertones of the songs. It wasn't until I found this site that I found out that the weird talking at the end of Darling Nikki was actually a backwards message The album is perfect,from beginning to end,I can listen to it all the way through without skipping a song.
[Edited 6/22/09 1:36am]

If my house was on fire and could only save one album it would be this one cos it really is the best - not a dud on there for sure.

Prince will never top Purple Rain, it was perfect: the single (WDC), the album and the movie was at # 1 at the same time,

it was a record previously made only by the Beatles and Elvis, (afaik)...

Prince was unstoppable, Purple Rain was at # 1 for 24 weeks in 1984, but..

Sign O' The Times,
1999,
Parade,
Lovesexy

these are brilliant as well, but they can't beat... Purple Rain - cuz PR is just perfect.

Maybe this album also was Prince's kind of curse, becuz he couldn't live up to those sales figures later on in his career, thank God his music was still brilliant in those years that came, and Prince remained important despite he wasn't / isn't selling that much. But damn, I really wish Parade, SOTT and Lovesexy had sold around 10 million each. Prince deserved that imo....

However, Prince can surely be proud about what he has achieved in his life, especially 1980-1988 - and Prince can surely be proud of Purple Rain, the best album of the 1980s - and one of the finest albums ever.

Purple Rain the song is 8:41 of drama.

Simply the best.

The first albums that I bought were Purple Rain and Thriller.

I'm an '80's chick, and I can honestly say I wasn't paying as much attention to Prince when he exploded on to the scene with PR.
I think I was innundated with all of the other music coming out.
Not to say I didn't notice him (who couldn't?).
However, right before Lotus was released (if feels like 100 years later - getting old sux), I somehow found my way back in time and appreciating PR immensely.
I've been slowly building up my Prince CD collection ever since.
I've gone back to PR time and time again.
At this point, PR is number one for me.
It's timeless and untouchable.

oopsie! wrong thread.
[Edited 6/22/09 16:48pm]

Someone said that you can judge how great an album is if it defies eras. Purple Rain can be played now and people would "get it". Tremenodous album of music.

In the Dec 1989 issue of Rolling Stone they listed the Top 100 Albums of the 1980's and Purple Rain was #2 behind The Clash's London Calling. I disagreed and put it #1 and Thriller was #2. Today Thriller even sounds more dated than Purple Rain.

The album had the most complete set of B-Sides to any Prince album ever. Erotic City was #1 on the Black/R&B charts at the same time Let's Go Crazy was #1 on the Pop charts. 17 Days charted as well.

Just think if the entire Computer Blue suite would have been released.

.
[Edited 12/26/09 19:27pm]

I gotta wonder how many more hits Purple Rain would have had if Prince had worked it a little longer? Surely "Baby I'm A Star" and "The Beautiful Ones" could have been top forty pop hits?

Obviously, his best pure pop album. "Take Me With U" is probably my favourite track with "The Beautiful Ones" right behind it. And yes as others have said Purple Rain had some great b-sides.

I once read that Electric Intercourse was a consideration for the movie and the album. How might that have changed the dynamics of Purple Rain?

Darwintheorgangrinder said:

Good question. It's hard to say as back in the day when you had limited time on a record, you had to be quite selective. And as observed this is a near flawless album, so you can't say oh just drop Darling Nikki and put it there.


Swa

Swa said:

Hard to think it's been 25 years. The album still sounds fresh and relevant today.

Swa