The June 2025 issue of Uncut magazine has a three page oral history on the recording of the song "Purple Rain". This is an excerpt:

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BOBBY Z: I first met Prince around 1977. The band had been through various changes, but one by one the Revolution came together. When Wendy joined, everything started to gel. It felt like wewere a group who were going to conquer ewere a group who were going to conquer the world together. It started with "Let'sGo Crazy". That's when we knew that these songs were different. Prince was gearing towards the movie on a higher plane.

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We'd rehearse at the Warehouse on Highway Seven and at the end of one of those exhausting io-hour days, he said: "I want to try something before we go home," then started playing "Purple Rain" on the piano. So we just kind of all fell in. He didn't really instruct us much at all that first time. Was it a country song, a gospel song, a rock song, a ballad, a love song, an inspirational song? It was really hard to tell where it was going.

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DAVID Z: The first time I was aware of "Purple Rain" was when Prince gave me a rehearsal tape of him teaching the song to the band. He was shouting out the chords, so it wasn't a complete performance at all.

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BOBBY Z: I still have that first tape and he's laughing at our mistakes. It's actually a pretty simple song, but then Wendy added these expansive opening chords, which ended up being so iconic. They're probably the most famous opening chords next to "A Hard Day's Night". By the time we got to August 3, 1983, we were able to lay down "Purple Rain" at First Avenue.

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For those who feel like bashing W&L, don't please.

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Wendy's (and probably the other Revolution members too) impact on that period is still not fully known. Wendy's chord progression on the intro of that song remains so unbelievably and unmistacably one of the GOAT classics.

Some even doubted if it was her, iirc. She rightfully can say she helped writing the song.

If ever we could hear the first idea, a demo, some recording by Prince before he learned them how to play it, the raw version without the band's impact, that would be so amazing.

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Even in the movie, Wendy kicks off the song. Prince gave her this moment? Or Magnoli? He easily could've had Prince doing it, for the moviestar or movie's sake.

It's truely amazing that new info still pops up now and then.

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Bobby Z needs to write a book. Honestly.

Same for Wendy & Lisa, and the others.

[Edited 4/28/25 15:11pm]

Also note that Lisa was basically in charge of the recording of the string arrangement at the end of the song. She taught the musicians their parts by playing them on the piano.

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It's remarkable that this article uncovered new details plus the existence of that rehearsal tape. Let's hope the estate allows us to hear it on an SDE of PR, as well as other early recordings of some of those PR songs. It is incredible how little we know about some of them, often little more than "first recorded at First Avenue".

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And we also still don't know anything about the "hundred" songs Prince gave to Magnoli on several tapes, despite Magnoli telling that story for over a decade.

bizzie said:

luv2tha99s said:

Didn't some of those hundred songs end up on the deluxe edition of purple rain a few years ago? IE love and sex(not the Sheila E one)?

Yes, around 10-12% of those songs ended up on that set 8 years ago IIRC.

Yes, i am beiing extremely cheeky right now.

I've always assumed that when Magnoli said Prince gave him 100 songs, he was being hyperbolic. He didn't mean it literally. He simply meant Prince gave him a lot of songs.

In the real world, people rountinely speak hyperbolically.

lurker316 said:

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I've always assumed that when Magnoli said Prince gave him 100 songs, he was being hyperbolic. He didn't mean it literally. He simply meant Prince gave him a lot of songs.
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In the real world, people rountinely speak hyperbolically.

Exactly. Possibly he also gave older/yet released songs?

But... then again, who really knows...

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Someone, ever doing a new interview with Magnoli should ask more into that.

Link?

Bart, I visited thte UNCUT site.

Couldn't find it.

Is the full article (already) available online?

Did I skip something?

(or, one probably has to sign up, buy the magazine)

Vannormal said:

lurker316 said:

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I've always assumed that when Magnoli said Prince gave him 100 songs, he was being hyperbolic. He didn't mean it literally. He simply meant Prince gave him a lot of songs.
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In the real world, people rountinely speak hyperbolically.

Exactly. Possibly he also gave older/yet released songs?

But... then again, who really knows...

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Someone, ever doing a new interview with Magnoli should ask more into that.

Or songs that were released after Purple Rain that we didn't know come from that era

lurker316 said:

I've always assumed that when Magnoli said Prince gave him 100 songs, he was being hyperbolic. He didn't mean it literally. He simply meant Prince gave him a lot of songs.

In the real world, people rountinely speak hyperbolically.

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Oh sure, so do I, but people like Duane Tudahl say he might be right.

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However, the current evidence doesn't support a cache of 100 or so unreleased songs by that time. Then again, we only recently learned that ICNTTPOYM dates to 1979, so maybe there are a bunch of older versions of songs.

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And if he really has a bunch of tapes in storage, he really needs to get those out and hand them to someone who can take care of those.

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Magnoli really needs to sit down with a Prince historian for a recording and tell his story at length.

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Why hasn't he never mentioned any of those "hundred songs"? Why not say whether some of those got released later?

Vannormal said:

lurker316 said:

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I've always assumed that when Magnoli said Prince gave him 100 songs, he was being hyperbolic. He didn't mean it literally. He simply meant Prince gave him a lot of songs.
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In the real world, people rountinely speak hyperbolically.

Exactly. Possibly he also gave older/yet released songs?

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No, he said they were unreleased and professionally recorded.

Vannormal said:

Link?

Bart, I visited thte UNCUT site.

Couldn't find it.

Is the full article (already) available online?

Did I skip something?

(or, one probably has to sign up, buy the magazine)

.

All the info is in my post.

Vannormal said:

Link?

Bart, I visited thte UNCUT site.

Couldn't find it.

Is the full article (already) available online?

Did I skip something?

(or, one probably has to sign up, buy the magazine)

It's an article in the magazine, page 76-79.

bizzie said:

EnglishGent2 said:

Vannormal said:

Link?

Bart, I visited thte UNCUT site.

Couldn't find it.

Is the full article (already) available online?

Did I skip something?

(or, one probably has to sign up, buy the magazine)

It's an article in the magazine, page 76-79.

Thank you.

lurker316 said:

bizzie said:

However, the current evidence doesn't support a cache of 100 or so unreleased songs by that time. Then again, we only recently learned that ICNTTPOYM dates to 1979, so maybe there are a bunch of older versions of songs.

I thought we always knew ICNTTPOYM was from 1979? . . . [Edited 5/3/25 13:39pm]

Yeah, that bit about ICNTTPOYM dating back to '79 really surprised me too when it came out. I always assumed it was from a bit later in the timeline. But it just goes to show how much material Prince had brewing early on that we’re only now starting to get proper insight into. Who knows what other early versions or unreleased stuff might still be sitting in the vault? The man really was on another level.

andree23 said:

lurker316 said:

bizzie said: I thought we always knew ICNTTPOYM was from 1979? . . . [Edited 5/3/25 13:39pm]

Yeah, that bit about ICNTTPOYM dating back to '79 really surprised me too when it came out. I always assumed it was from a bit later in the timeline. But it just goes to show how much material Prince had brewing early on that we’re only now starting to get proper insight into. Who knows what other early versions or unreleased stuff might still be sitting in the vault? The man really was on another level.

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It's downright criminal that even today so much of his early career is apparently still undocumented, and that we're only getting some glimpses when the estate gets its act together to release an SDE (or a one-off single when the previous regime was in charge). Who knows what previously unknown gems are available for a proper PR SDE? Who knows how many unreleased songs are available for SDEs of those early albums which we're not getting because the current regime is incredibly incompetent?

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The mid-1980s were well documented and we still got some astonishing surprises on the SOTT SDE. Yet the late 1970s and early 1980s are so sparsely documented. We barely know of a handful of outtakes from the Dirty Mind era, for instance. I mean, look at https://princevault.com/i...orded_1980 and compare that to https://princevault.com/i...orded_1986 -- surely there must be more from 1980?

Vannormal said:

muleFunk said:

Vannormal said:

For those who feel like bashing W&L, don't please.

-

Wendy's (and probably the other Revolution members too) impact on that period is still not fully known. Wendy's chord progression on the intro of that song remains so unbelievably and unmistacably one of the GOAT classics.

Some even doubted if it was her, iirc. She rightfully can say she helped writing the song.

If ever we could hear the first idea, a demo, some recording by Prince before he learned them how to play it, the raw version without the band's impact, that would be so amazing.

-

Even in the movie, Wendy kicks off the song. Prince gave her this moment? Or Magnoli? He easily could've had Prince doing it, for the moviestar or movie's sake.

It's truely amazing that new info still pops up now and then.

-

Bobby Z needs to write a book. Honestly.

Same for Wendy & Lisa, and the others.

[Edited 4/28/25 15:11pm]

Damn Wendy and Lisa. According to them they wrote every lyric, arranged every song, and came up with every idea Prince is credited with. Prince was just the vessel for their creative genius.

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I don't think your assessment is justified. Contrary to some other Prince bandmembers and collaborators, Lisa and Wendy always clearly explained what their contributions were and their stories haven't changed with Prince's passing either. To my knowledge, they never made broad claims about any song by saying "I wrote that!" or "we wrote that" – they explained in detail THE PART they came up with, for example Wendy coming up with Purple Rain's chords, but she never said "I co-wrote Purple Rain with Prince". She just said she/they helped P writing it, and that is correct.
Lisa never claimed to have written Raspberry Beret, she explained that the piano intro was something she came up with and Prince based the song on that. Those are honest and in my view, correct statements. I never had the feeling they exaggerated what their contributions were.

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Now I can't say the same about some other collaborators, I'm afraid.

[Edited 5/18/25 18:38pm]

Kares said:

muleFunk said:

Vannormal said: Damn Wendy and Lisa. According to them they wrote every lyric, arranged every song, and came up with every idea Prince is credited with. Prince was just the vessel for their creative genius.

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I don't think your assessment is justified. Contrary to some other Prince bandmembers and collaborators, Lisa and Wendy always clearly explained what their contributions were and their stories haven't changed with Prince's passing either. To my knowledge, they never made broad claims about any song by saying "I wrote that!" or "we wrote that" – they explained in detail THE PART they came up with, for example Wendy coming up with Purple Rain's chords, but she never said "I co-wrote Purple Rain with Prince". She just said she/they helped P writing it, and that is correct.
Lisa never claimed to have written Raspberry Beret, she explained that the piano intro was something she came up with and Prince based the song on that. Those are honest and in my view, correct statements. I never had the feeling they exaggerated what their contributions were.

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Now I can't say the same about some other collaborators, I'm afraid.

Leave it.

It's just another W&L negativity.

Some willingly want to forget and neglect that Prince surrounded himself with The Revolution members to have benefits from their extra creative input and new or different ideas (besides only having them as a live band to perform his music).

He invited them into his creative processes so much more than any other later bandmember.

But whatever.

There will always be someone against the importance of those two.

And most of all, neither of them ever brag about it.

They have the right to talk about it. Their stories are always consistent.

Prince basically never talked about the importance of anyone's input, plus was never clear with his credits, etc.

We all know this story already for so long.

I will defend them, simply because their freedom of input and result never ever came back into Prince's music. No matter how Prince thought whomever was worthy getting the same possibilities, for the rest of his carreer. My opinion.