Meshell Ndgeocello on Prince's "Purple Rain" (1984)

The Album: Prince: Purple Rain (1984)

I was dreaming when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray. But when I woke up this morning and realized that Oliver and I spent an hour or so talking with Meshell N'degecello about Prince's seminal "Purple Rain" album, I was beside myself with hype.

We spoke about the album's forward thinking musicianship and arrangements, Prince as a visionary, his Messiah-like presence and the extended version of Computer Blue. She told us about keeping "I Would Die 4 U" on elevated decibels and repeat and the pure dopeness of "When Doves Cry".

We all revisited the moment we first experience Purple Rain.

Simply put, we talked to one genius guitar hero about another. It gets no better than that. Throw on your best purple garments and get up on this.

"Hey, take a listen. Tell me do you like what you hear..." -Prince

More on Prince and Purple Rain:

• Prince Wikipedia Entry
• Purple Rain Review?" (THR)
• Prince: The Oral History of Purple Rain (Spin)
• Purple Rain Review (Pitchfork)
• Let's Go Crazy: Why Prince's Purple Rain is a Masterpiece (Rolling Stone)

More on Meshell Ndegeocello:

• Plantation Lullabies: Review (BBC)
• Meshell Covers Prince (Color Lines)
• Website|Twitter| Instagram

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Purple Rain unless indicated otherwise):

• Purple Rain
• Prince: For You
• Purple Rain
• When Doves Cry
• I Would Die 4 U
• Let's Go Crazy
• Take Me With U
• Prince: I Wanna Be Your Lover
• Computer Blue
• I Would Die 4 U
• The Beautiful Ones
• When Doves Cry
• D'Angelo: Alright
• J Dilla: Bye.
• Alice Smith: Fool For You
• Flying Lotus: All the Secrets
• Purple Rain
• When Doves Cry
• Take Me With U
• Prince: Erotic City
• The Ronettes: Be My Baby

Here's the Spotify playlist of as many of the songs above as we can find on there.

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