I thought I'd try and start a little series, just to have a bit of a conversation starter
or a jumping board for a friendly discussion.

So moving forward I'll be picking a random deep cut, either released or unreleased,
and shine a little love on it.

Join in and let me know what you think of the tracks, when you first heard them, in
what year if you remember, if you listen to them often, what you think is special or
unique about this particular track etc.

I'd like to keep the Purple Pick series mainly about the music, what is cool about a
certain track from a musician's view point. I am not, but I love to read stuff about
tracks, as musicians hear them - the crazy shit that prince did in tracks often flies
right over my head, I just enjoy them, without noticing just how special some of his
techniques are.

aaaanyway, for the first Purple Pick, I've chosen to give a little love to "God Is Alive".

dig it out and dust it off and play it loud, today. has it been a long time since you've
listened to it? and is it what you remembered it to be or are you noticing things in it
that surprise you?

will you return to it again in the coming days? or is this one that you will leave in the
archive until chance makes you stumble upon it again for a single play in the future?

[Edited 7/12/24 3:06am]

let me start by saying that this track has a couple of things that stand out for me:

Mavis, obviously. Love the work he did with her. I hope there's more in the vault.

The Guitar.

I think the first time I heard this track was on the bootleg "Deposition" back in the day.
there weren't that many places where you could get the entire outtake collection in one
big bulk and so whenever I had some extra cash I would splurge on a bootleg to get my
hands on some more songs that I didn't know yet.

What I remember is that I loved it from the get go.

The "God is coming like a dog in heat" line made me do a double take though
especially having Mavis sing that. That might have taken him some convincing.

Always been crazy about the whole Lovesexy body of work.

But, I would been more happy if this song were a B-side instead of 'Escape.'

Song is great, but somehow happy it's not on the Album.

The Lovesexy album is so cohesive! So smart and has so much more to offer in these layers of layers of arrangements.

I like this song with Mavis.

Imagine a maxi version on vinyl, or on CD-maxi, whatever.

But a good clean version should be 'it' for me.

And...Indeed that guitar!

-

Maybe I should check my BFTP series once again... Volume 6 if iu'm correct...

Don't know if it's on it.

I think this was recorded after Lovesexy was finished? It was included on a configuration
of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic tho.

Would have been cool to have this as a b-side back in the day, yes, for sure.

There were more artists, especiallin the late 80s and through the 90s who had lots of
amazing songs as b-sides. Sometimes 3 non album tracks on 1 single.

I kind of wondered why Prince didn't do that since he had so much material. He could
have easily filled each and every single he released with 3 non album tracks.

Vannormal said:

Thanks. Was too lazy to look for it on princevault. Always thought it was a real Lovesexy outtake. So that’s ckear it from after these sessions. What i like about it most, is that it uses all the Lovesexy instrumentations and sounds. Even some drum arrangements. And the chorus is like Alphabet st.’s Yeah Yeah’s. But this time only ‘wooohoowoow wow.’ After a re-listen just now, the song sound like a demo to me. Unpolished. Maybe that’s why I like it.

yup, I hope we will one day get the Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic Album or at least
all of the tracks that composed the various sequences.

It's an interesting sound and I would love to hear a whole album or at least a big
collection of the tracks he worked on right after Lovesexy.

I feel like Batman somehow took him into a different direction and always think
'what might have been if...'.

FrankieCoco1 said:

I forgot this was still unreleased - how is that so? I remember seeing the Musical Portrait doc with Prince and Mavis working on it in the studio and looking forward to it coming out. Also think I must have heard it on a bootleg of the Grosse Freiheit aftershow (Hamburg, 31 August 1988) at some point (being sung over the Take This Beat music).

I should check that out and see if I have that show somewhere on a harddrive.

So many little gems and nuggets of gold left to discover

LILpoundCAKE said:

FrankieCoco1 said:

LILpoundCAKE said:

I should check that out and see if I have that show somewhere on a harddrive.

So many little gems and nuggets of gold left to discover

If not on your hard drive, that show is easily found on that ‘me cylinder’ thing!

I like that, that's clever

Love God Is Alive. The Bass line, The Title, Mavis, Prince Guitar solo, The Lyrics, etc.

Astasheiks said:

Love God Is Alive. The Bass line, The Title, Mavis, Prince Guitar solo, The Lyrics, etc.

Cool Song! I remember seeing a clip of Mavis "recording" it. And didn't she mention it in an interview? I think when Prince was the musical guest she did the interview? She said she was concerend about the "like a dog in heat" line...

LILpoundCAKE said:

I think the first time I heard this track was on the bootleg "Deposition" back in the day.
there weren't that many places where you could get the entire outtake collection in one
big bulk and so whenever I had some extra cash I would splurge on a bootleg to get my
hands on some more songs that I didn't know yet.

What I remember is that I loved it from the get go.

The "God is coming like a dog in heat" line made me do a double take though
especially having Mavis sing that. That might have taken him some convincing.

was "God is coming like a Dog in Heat" In one of the leaked versiosn? The one I have heard was changed to "NEWS is coming..."

OnlyNDaUsa said:

LILpoundCAKE said:

I think the first time I heard this track was on the bootleg "Deposition" back in the day.
there weren't that many places where you could get the entire outtake collection in one
big bulk and so whenever I had some extra cash I would splurge on a bootleg to get my
hands on some more songs that I didn't know yet.

What I remember is that I loved it from the get go.

The "God is coming like a dog in heat" line made me do a double take though
especially having Mavis sing that. That might have taken him some convincing.

was "God is coming like a Dog in Heat" In one of the leaked versiosn? The one I have heard was changed to "NEWS is coming..."

I stand corrected! Indeed.

News is coming like a dog in heat

he's looking for soldiers, with strong feet.

But it's still a weird line, I can see how she was suspicious of it

it could easily be construed as:

News is coming!
Like a dog in heat, he's looking for soldiers -with strong feet.

LILpoundCAKE said:

Astasheiks said:

Love God Is Alive. The Bass line, The Title, Mavis, Prince Guitar solo, The Lyrics, etc.

We may even put this on our Set List in the Fall,

https://www.facebook.com/truefunk777

nice!

LILpoundCAKE said:

Vannormal said:

Thanks. Was too lazy to look for it on princevault. Always thought it was a real Lovesexy outtake. So that’s ckear it from after these sessions. What i like about it most, is that it uses all the Lovesexy instrumentations and sounds. Even some drum arrangements. And the chorus is like Alphabet st.’s Yeah Yeah’s. But this time only ‘wooohoowoow wow.’ After a re-listen just now, the song sound like a demo to me. Unpolished. Maybe that’s why I like it.

yup, I hope we will one day get the Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic Album or at least
all of the tracks that composed the various sequences.

It's an interesting sound and I would love to hear a whole album or at least a big
collection of the tracks he worked on right after Lovesexy.

I feel like Batman somehow took him into a different direction and always think
'what might have been if...'.

I hope so to, but i think with God is Alive they'll proabbaly release the version with Patti Labelle's overdubs (is the full version of that one circulating?)

LILpoundCAKE said:

OnlyNDaUsa said:

was "God is coming like a Dog in Heat" In one of the leaked versiosn? The one I have heard was changed to "NEWS is coming..."

I stand corrected! Indeed.

News is coming like a dog in heat

he's looking for soldiers, with strong feet.

But it's still a weird line, I can see how she was suspicious of it

it could easily be construed as:

News is coming!
Like a dog in heat, he's looking for soldiers -with strong feet.

it is not your fault! Mavis quoted it as "God is comming like a dog in heat." She said that on one of the shows she was on (I think Prince was preforming). She may have been talking to Shelia who was in the audance...but that may have been Patti LaBelle....?

Patti was on one of the Arsinal Hall shows (the first time and Shelie is in the audiance)

but I can not find when Mavis was on (some other show) and she mentions "god is alive" and misquotes it. He was also on Letterman and Chris Rock at the same time....

[Edited 7/17/24 7:09am]