Prince – Purple Rain

Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts Andy, Don, and Dude. Dearly beloved, we're gathered here today to get through this thing called the Album Nerds podcast. I'm Dude. I got Andy and Don with me. Andy, you ready to wash yourself in some purple rain today? You might say I'm ready to purify myself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka. Beautiful. Don, how are you doing? Purple rain would be a good shampoo. It would, yeah. Sure. For those who need shampoo, which I do not.

Some of us need more shampoo than others. All right. So this is the Album Nerds podcast. We love albums in the album format and we like talking about them and spreading that gospel of the power of music. So we've got a really great show for you today focusing on only one album. We're discussing Princess Purple Rain from 1984. Then we're going to check in with Rob from the 1001 Album Complaints podcast for his thoughts on purple rain.

We're going to answer a question that's loosely related to today's topic. And then of course, we'll be spinning the wheel of musical destiny to find out what kind of albums we'll talk about next time. But this week, it's all about that purple rain. That's what I'm talking about. Every so often, we like to go back to things that were discussed on the show before and spend a little more time on it. Deep in the archives of the Album Nerds. Too deep for anyone to travel. Do not go.

So it was episode 27. You guys spent an episode talking about Prince albums. You covered Sign of the Times, 1999, Artificial Age, and of course, Purple Rain. I've actually gone to the Prince well quite a bit. It's a deep well, dude. In episode 92, you guys discussed originals. And then in episode 126, you talked about Sign of the Times again.

And then back, I believe it was my first official episode, episode 143, we discussed three Prince albums, the gold experience around the world in a day, and again, Artificial Age. But today, we're finally going to really delve into, I think what many people see as his masterpiece, but I suppose it's debatable, Prince's Purple Rain. And Prince came in. That's when Purple Rain came out and Prince was the s***. Prince had on like a, it was like a Zorro type outfit.

He had the ruffle come down the front. Learned something they did. They never judge a book by its cover. This cackle ball, man.

Okay, well, let's get into the album. This is the title track and closing cut of the album, Purple Rain. Well, Prince reportedly said, when there's blood in the sky, red and blue equals purple. Purple rain pertains to the end of the world and being with the one you love and letting your faith or God guide you through the purple rain. So that song was originally written as a country song and it was meant to be a potential collaboration with Stevie Nicks.

Supposedly Prince had sent the 10 minute instrumental track to Stevie Nicks for her to write lyrics and I guess she was just overwhelmed and said it was too much for her. So Prince took it back to the revolution. They created the song that you hear now. That's one of three tracks that was recorded at the First Avenue Club in Minneapolis. So it was live. Of course, it was significantly overdubbed later in the studio.

Anyway, so Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by American singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Also a producer, Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson in 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. So it is actually the soundtrack album to the film Purple Rain in which he also starred, which came out the same year. Sold over 25 million copies worldwide. It was his first billboard number one and it's billed as Prince and the Revolution.

The key members of the revolution at the time were Wendy Melvoine on guitar and vocals. Is that Mark Brown or Brown Mark? I wrote it backwards, I think. I should double check that. Is it possible? I think if someone were named Brown Mark, they would not use it as a performing name. I don't believe. Okay. Well, I'm going to go with, we'll go with Mark Brown then on bass guitar. Well guys, I just looked it up. His birth name is Mark Brown, but he actually went by the stage name Brown Mark.

Sometimes it would just be one word Brown Mark. Okay. All right. I stand corrected. Sorry, Brown Mark. Good on you. Also have Lisa Coleman on keyboards, piano and vocals, Matt Dr. Fink on keyboards and Bobby Z on drums. Okay. Well, let's hear another cut on the album. This is the Beautiful Ones. Yeah, that's track that really stands out to me as kind of being like the first really impressive moment on the album for me, at least.

It starts out being such a beautiful little ballad and then transitions into this very emotional heartfelt plea for this person to pick them over the other guy. Just really awesome book performance and the guitar comes in and just kicks ass. But yeah, the three words I use to describe this record are purplest shade of purple. I think this really, I mean, arguably is his best selling record, arguably his best album. I think it really defines who he was at this time.

As much as it is about this character in the film, the story, but I think it's very reflective of Prince himself and he really puts himself out there on these songs. It's a very open personal record, I think. It's interesting because I don't think it really falls into a lot of the genre tropes. I mean, it's a pop record, but I think there's so many unconventional things that happen as you're listening to it.

The way the songs are put together, the different effects, and obviously Prince just has such a unique personality. It doesn't sound like a lot of the pop records at the time or even today. That's right. It kind of reminds me of The Beatles in that I think there's just something about Beatles records that just kind of, they just sound a little bit different than everything else.

Even though they're doing sort of typical things in the pop realm, it just has a different sound and yeah, Prince is definitely the same way. Well, by this point, by album six, I believe he felt empowered. He had had success with 1999 and I believe that he just felt like this was his canvas to paint. Nothing was holding him back. As far as the movie goes, I read that he was refusing to resign with his management if they didn't make the movie happen. He wanted that to happen.

They had a hard time getting someone to want to distribute it and all that stuff at first to sign on for the project. Yeah, I think he knew that this was a magnum opus of his career. I think he knew it. Yeah, that's the perfect word for it. The unbridled passion of this particular performance for this song, letting it go vocally where he is just screeching, it's real enough that it's not like an annoying loud sound. You know what I'm saying? Like it actually is full of emotion.

Yeah. It sounds like he gets overcome by the end of the song and the movie performance, he's laying on the ground by the end and he looks exhausted. I feel kind of emotionally exhausted when I get to the end of the song because it's like you've been through something with the guy. What do you guys think about the movie in general? Do you enjoy it? Do you ever, you guys have both seen it, I assume?

I didn't see it until I was in college and I was a little underwhelmed because it's not the best acting in the world, but in subsequent years, understanding his story, understanding who he is and really getting deeper into his music, I watched it again and I enjoy it now because it's just cool to see the performances in particular are amazing, but it's just cool to see him at his height like that.

Yeah, I think I had seen bits and pieces of it over the years, either like on HBO or VH1 or something like that. I think finally, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, I think I sat down and actually watched it and it was okay, but I wasn't blown away by it or anything. The album, I think just kind of stands alone. I almost feel like the film doesn't need to exist. It gives a little bit of context for some of the songs, the content of the songs.

I think it makes more sense if you're thinking about the story of the movie, but I agree. I think that probably the quality of the album is a little higher than the quality of the movie.

There's also the aspect of the movie soundtrack, like the album is kind of the movie soundtrack, but the movie has the time in it, Morris Day in the Time and Napalonia and there's songs by them in the movie and so then they have their own albums, so that completes the soundtrack is if you got Ice Cream Castles by the Time for instance. But the movie was like thriller, right? It was the music video for the album.

And that's, I think it's very necessary to making, at least to what it became commercially and to how people felt about Prince as a passionate performer. You got to see this guy ripping it up on stage and it wasn't some boring concert video. It was a movie, so I think people got to understand him better and the Minneapolis music scene, which no one was paying attention to. All right, let me play another cut from the record. This is a little bit of Take Me With You.

That is a duet with Apollonia Cotero. It was originally supposed to be performed by Vanity and I believe she was supposed to be sort of the female lead in the film, but she moved on. The song was supposed to be released by Apollonia's group at Apollonia 6, but it ended up being a late addition to the film soundtrack.

When they added Take Me With You to it, they ended up shrinking, Computer Blue, I think which initially was supposed to be like seven or eight minutes long and now it's only about three minutes. I just like that song a lot, particularly as the second track. It's a nice contrast after the Let's Go Crazy. I'm just a sucker for those strings and the synth line. The, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Yep, you and your synths.

Well, to me, it sounds like a song that could have easily been on around the world in a day. It's got that more psychedelic sort of sound that I think he focused more on on the follow up to this. Yeah, that's true. The strings were arranged by a Revolution member, Lisa Coleman. The three words I chose to describe the album are end times pop or pop for the end times, I guess. I'm kind of going with this theme of Purple Rain being the end of the world.

I feel like this is maybe, well, some of the subject matter I think is kind of about how to live until you sort of get to the end. But also, it just seems like sort of like the ultimate pop album. This is the last thing humanity produces is this. It's like the celebration at the end of the world of great pop music. Yeah, just a cool musical journey. When Doves Cry is just such a fantastic pop song, an all time favorite. Yeah, it's such a weird sounding song to me.

I always never could place why that track always stands out as being so different. I was reading about it. I was like, there's no bass guitar in that song at all. It just kind of has like this emptiness on the low end and it's just kind of unsettling. That drum machine sound, that's a driver and it does sound empty and alone. These people in a relationship, Doves are the sign of peace, but they butt heads and have drama between them and trying to find a way that you make that love work.

But it's hard to find in that emptiness of that baseless drive, I think really does. Yeah, it feels purple. It does. It's funny. It does. Yeah, one other thing I want to comment on was going back to having the three live tracks on the album. That's usually something that kind of bothers me. I don't like a live song thrown into the middle of an album because it really, I think, can throw off the flow.

But they did a good job of actually kind of making you not even notice that those are live tracks. Although it's sort of like there's that space in the sound or something that makes it feel live, but it doesn't throw me off at all.

To me, it's more like the way that rock and roll records and all records were recorded previously, which is live performances, not with a crowd cheering and stuff, but like the doors, all of their stuff, they would perform the band in one room and Jim Morrison in the other room singing. It was happening in real time. And I've always preferred that and enjoyed that because you can kind of feel it. You can feel it, especially in the mistakes.

Now, of course, you can go fix some stuff here and there, but I like that organic feel. What are the other two songs that were recorded live? It's that last suite of songs basically. So the I Would Die For You, Baby I'm A Star, and Purple Rain. All right, well, let's go back to the beginning of the record. Here's Let's Go Crazy. So yes, this is the album opener. I mean, Prince invites the audience to go crazy.

And this has been interpreted a lot of ways, going against the silent norms, being yourself, you know, celebrate life, digging into this, which has been one of the best times of my life. Having an excuse to just listen to this album over and over and over again. There was an interview that Prince did with Chris Rock in 1997. And he said that this song served as a metaphor for the battle between God and the devil, good and evil.

And he kind of had to obscure it because he didn't, you know, there was a lot of, as we talked about, a lot of religious undertones and faith, you know, beneath the surface on some of this stuff. He said that as he wrote it, that it was about God and the de-elevation of sin, and that the de-elevator was the devil. And I think to him, I think God was that creative side of him.

I think the stuff he was able to do was his way of touching God, you know, and I think that's what he was celebrating here. Let's rip this thing open. Let's do this on this record. Let's let it all hang out. Let's beat the de-elevator and make the perfect record. Wow. I just blew my own mind, guys. You kind of give me a minute. I just love that Prince comes up with these little terms to disguise his concepts. Such a Prince thing to do.

So you're kind of saying that Prince is creating his own God, essentially, on this record. Well, I'm saying that his talent, his creativity, I think to him was in some ways the creator flowing through him. That was his way of touching his faith. Reach out, touch faith. So yeah, obviously I enjoy this record. The three words I'm going to use to describe it, mystical, sensual, and revolutionary. Oh, I get it. Yeah, revolutionary.

So mystical kind of touches on what we were just talking about, the spiritual aspects behind it, the emotions. There's something ethereal about the melodies and there's this other worldly atmosphere that is created. Sensual, pretty obvious. He's a very sexual being. It comes through in the songs, some of which more than others. And then revolutionary, it shattered boundaries, blending rock, pop, funk, R&B. And the album isn't totally perfect.

There are some weird moments, but I think it's experimenting too. There's a lot of experimentation here. And that's a bold move, right? And that's what he continued to do throughout his career. And he had some huge successes and then some less successful projects, but he never stopped trying to revolutionize who he is as an artist. And this album, I think, is a great example of when he gets it right.

I think he was always reaching for that Sistine Chapel moment where his fingers touching God's, you know what I'm saying? Like always. And that was beneath it all. And I think people had a hard time seeing that because of his sexual nature, his energy, and people had a hard time accepting that you could be both. Let's talk about that sexual energy for just a moment. Listening back to this show here, I was struck by Darling Nikki in particular and how explicit that track is.

It really is, especially for the time. But yeah, it's spicy. Does it make more sense in the context of the film or something? Because I think he's using the song to sort of humiliate the girl or something. Yeah, at some point, she's trying the lead singer from the time is courting her, trying and telling her he's going to help her with her music career, but he's really trying to get to the kid.

So then in a performance, the kid, the character is kind of a douche and is singing about all of his naughty exploits with Darling Nikki to break the girl's heart. She runs off. Dick move, the kid. Prince, you're cool. I don't know about that kid character though.

Yeah, I'd read supposedly though that Darling Nikki was the song that pushed Tipper Gore over the edge to- The tipping point for- The tipping point for Tipper, I guess, to go forward with that little sticker there, the parental advisory sticker. The PMRC, that's how it all started. Yeah, they had like hearings and everything, but yeah, she got the record for her kids because it was the new pop sensation and then heard that song.

I mean, if there had been a sticker on that, maybe she would have listened to it first by herself before playing it for her children. But yeah, little kids probably shouldn't hear Masturbating with the Magazine. I feel like there's a song on every Prince album that makes me just a little uncomfortable. Yeah. That's true.

So yesterday, I was listening to the record and I was in and out of Zoom meetings and stuff and I usually have music playing in the background, but I'm in a meeting and then that song starts and I'm like, skip, skip, because I didn't want anything from that. Sometimes people say, what are you listening to? So I still feel that too, Don, where I was a little like, eww. Well, that's good. Because he doesn't, I mean, usually in rock and roll, it's innuendo, right?

And so there's little metaphors and euphemisms and stuff like that that are sort of hiding the meaning or something. But Prince just says it. Yeah, he's a pretty open guy. I mean, what a record, guys. I continue to be impressed with it. It's one of the few albums where it just keeps getting better for me. That's like impossible, right?

I mean, by the time I'm 80, I'll be listening to this and then sitting on the floor, like floating above the floor because I've reached some kind of spiritual enlightenment because I've really got, I've finally gotten it all the way. Record has become purple rain. Yeah. I'll start glowing purple and floating above the floor. That's going to be awesome. No, I think it does warrant those closer listens and there is a lot going on, especially sonically.

I think it's such a rich and textured record with some really inventive ideas and just outside the box thinking from a production standpoint that, and to know that Prince was so involved with that aspect of it too, it just gives it a whole nother level that you wouldn't get for most records of this time period. Well, it sounds like this is Einhoff material. You think? Yeah, it might be heading that way. All right, it's in. Right, we don't need to do a ceremonial vote for the record. Of course.

I vote yes. I guess I also will vote yes. I vote yes. Which is yes. Congratulations to Prince and the Revolution. Well deserved. Is this our first Prince album in the Hall of Fame? I think so. We're going to be doing some other revisits, I imagine. Rectify that situation. Yeah. I'm good enough. I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me. If you're enjoying the show and we hope you are, do us a solid leave a review on Apple podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Maybe we made you laugh or you discovered an album you enjoy. Leaving a review keeps the show going and helps other music fans find us. Say hello to my new friend. All right, gentlemen. Well, we have a special guest review from another podcast called 1001 Album Complaints. Great show. Yeah. So they, if you haven't heard it before, they're actually responding to this list that's out there. It's like 1001 albums you must hear.

And so each episode they choose another album on that list and they give honest reviews and kind of decide whether they truly are albums that you must hear. So anyway, so here's what Rob from 1001 Album Complaints thinks about Purple Rain. Hey guys, this is Rob from 1001 Album Complaints delivering my Purple Rain review. So let me start by saying for a pro songwriter Prince, these songs just aren't that good.

Listen, I understand Prince is an insanely prolific writer that's worthy of great respect. Certainly. It also means his sheer quantity gets in the way of his average quality. There are a lot of high highs on this record. There are some really low lows. Prince has killer vocal range and is a multi-instrumentalist of epic proportions.

And quick diversion while we're on that topic, Prince is a terrible actor and the movie Purple Rain is laughably bad, save forgetting to see Prince live, which is indeed cool. But okay, here's a couple of specifics. Let's Go Crazy is a high point. We're talking full rock and roll excess on display from start to finish. When Dove's Cry still sounds like nothing else ever put to tape, Purple Rain is a classic, but it's longer than Hey Jude.

And yeah, I know it's a live take, but still it goes on a bit. Low points are stuff like the half baked jams of Darling Nikki and the beautiful ones where Prince runs out of production tricks and ideas and just starts screaming over the track to try to sell it. In conclusion, Purple Rain is rightfully thought of as a classic album, innovative and fun, but not without its dated eighties fashion excesses, the kinds you find in a secondhand store. He's on fire! Ooh, that was spicy.

So here we are, showering love, kissing Prince's butt for the last 20 minutes. And then Rob comes in and kind of ducks on us, right? It is refreshing though to hear a different perspective. I think I grew up with that album being held and regarded so highly that I don't know any other way to look at it. What did you guys think of hearing someone point out some of the blemishes that I hate to admit there's some truth to? I wouldn't trim a second from the title cut personally.

I think that's great. Whether it's eight minutes or not. Yeah, I mean, eighties are a time of excess. I mean, he's not wrong about that. I'm not going quite as far as he going though. I think it's a pretty great record. Well, he thinks that, yeah, he admitted it's a great record, but he had the, you know, those guys have the guts sometimes I think to even those things that are held so highly to point out some blemishes. I don't see any of them.

Yeah, I think maybe my problem is I start to find the blemishes charming or something or because I think an album is great, but you know, the flaws maybe become something I actually like about it. I don't know. Maybe we do need to be a bit harsher moving forward.

Yeah, so thanks, Rob. Thanks 1001 Album Complaints. Great podcast. You guys should go check it out. These guys are unafraid and it's fun to listen to. So thanks again. Excuse me. I'd like to ask you a few questions. It's time to ask ourselves a question. So the Purple Rain film is famous for Prince's great stage performances. What other concert films would you recommend? Well, I think there's a bunch of good ones. I'll throw out a few that came to mind initially for me.

Talking Heads Stop Making Sense, if you haven't seen that. It's more of a live concert performance with some minor production flourishes. Pretty awesome. Ziggy Starr Residence Parties from Mars, similar concept, also pretty awesome. But I just watched recently more of a documentary type film about the Ruin Stones called Gimme Shelter. I think it's on HBO right now. It's about a specific concert in their career and some events that surround it.

But it was also pretty interesting and some really good live performances from the group. Yeah, that Festival Altamont is considered basically what ruined the summer of love after Woodstock. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. The first thing that came to mind was Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park from 1978, which was on ABC television. Oh, wow. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Kiss... Hanna-Barbera? Was this animated?

Parts of it were because they had cartoon lightning bolts and stuff coming out of them. So there's some performances at this amusement park, but then an evil guy that makes the animatronics hates that Kiss is getting all the attention and he makes robot kiss that fight the real kiss. Anyway, there's a few performances of Bath and Shout It Out Loud and stuff. And I saw that when it was on. I was a little kid. That was the first time I probably saw live concert footage really that impacted me.

So that came to mind, but it's not really on the level of Purple Rain in any way, shape or form. Stuff that I would throw in that category, the song remains the same, Led Zeppelin, The Band, The Last Waltz. That's really a documentary, but also concert performance stuff. It's pretty awesome. And then things like Bohemian Rhapsody, right?

I mean, it's one of the few of those kind of biopics that have done it to that level that make people moved by the performance, even though it's not the real performance, which drove people to go watch the Live Aid Queen performances on YouTube and stuff. So it's kind of anti, but it kind of fits. Yeah, it actually reminds me of the recent Elvis movie by Baz Luhrmann. At the end of the movie, they actually have real footage of Elvis, seemingly not long before he actually passes away.

And he does a version of Unchained Melody that's really just fantastic. And it's kind of emotional because you see just this fat guy that's just like a shell of himself physically, but you're still hearing inside the magic underneath. And so that was actually my favorite part of the movie was the live Elvis footage. But yeah, probably my favorite kind of concert doc film is Depeche Mode 101, surprise, surprise.

It was done by D.A. Pennebaker, who actually did Dylan's Don't Look Back and the Monterey Pop films. But it's actually interesting because there's like two things going on. So it's Depeche Mode on their Music for the Masses tour, touring the United States, which culminates in them doing this giant show at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles. And this is, you know, they're an alternative band that, you know, nobody would expect to fill a place like that.

But at the same time, it's a contest where all these Depeche Mode fans get to ride a bus from New York City to L.A. and see Depeche Mode a bunch of times. But they document what these fans are doing along the way. And so some people say it might have helped pave the way for things like the real world and road rules and stuff like that. Well, thank you, Depeche Mode. Depeche Mode and D.A. Pennebaker. What a legacy to leave behind. I want to throw one more in.

I got to say this because of today's theme. Go watch Sign of the Times prints. It's a concert footage of all the songs from the album Sign of the Times. I haven't seen that. It's awesome. What's your favorite concert film?

Let us know. Hit us up on the socials, Facebook, Instagram, threads. Also Discord, AlbumNerds.com slash Discord. I'm your density. I mean, your destiny. All right, boys and girls, gather around. It's time to go. Let's gather around. Once again, do you see what fate has in store for us on next week's episode? Make love, not war. Next week, you will be exploring albums that feature songs of protest. Protest comes in many forms and for many reasons.

Some artists have made it their mission to speak out for those without a voice. So go out and fight the power. Protest music, okay. So when artists have an opportunity to call to arms or to shine lights on injustices and wrongs in society, a little protest. Sounds fun. All right. Well, what's your favorite Prince record? What's your favorite protest album? What else are you listening to? Let us know. Join fellow Album Nerds on Discord at AlbumNerds.com slash Discord.

You can email us at podcast at AlbumNerds.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and threads at Album Nerds. Please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast app. And if you'd like to support the show, you can do so via PayPal at AlbumNerds.com slash support. Thank you so much for joining us on this very special purple edition of the Album Nerds podcast. We'll catch you next time with some protest music. Thanks for listening, everybody. Catch you next week.

Are you going to dare sing Prince songs? I don't know. I don't know. How can you just leave me standing? I'm going in this world. Sorry Prince. I heard that pretty low there. He does it a little better. Dig if you will a picture. No. I feel like... Stop. Shatner should do that. This is like the British version. Dig if you will. See, right now you're being the D elevator, my friend. Stop it. It's ridiculous.