The producers wanted a strong lead single, so Prince belted out another batch of songs, picking “When Doves Cry” as his champion. Amazingly, “When Doves Cry” was not in the original set of songs written. That honor went to the unlikely but brilliant hit, “ When Doves Cry.” Prince reportedly wrote more than 100 songs for the film and album (now there’s a deluxe edition waiting to happen). charts, but it wasn’t the first single released from the album. “Let’s Go Crazy” may have been the hard-charging debut rock song on the album, reaching #1 on the U.S. and keyboardist Matt “Dr.” Fink also made themselves known through their playing, which far outshined their limited acting abilities. Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin (the newest and most talented member), more commonly known as Wendy and Lisa, provide strong harmonies to Prince’s quasi-religious wailing, while drummer Bobby Z. Just as in the movie, Prince also made this a vehicle for his `new’ backup band, the Revolution. More than on any other song in Prince’s career, “Let’s Go Crazy” blended the styles of soul, R&B, dance and rock. The gospel-like opening of “ Let’s Go Crazy” tells us that we are entering into a sacred place, while the heavy Hendrix guitars let us know that its okay to party in this church. The story behind the film was simple enough, just tell Prince’s own story, his childhood with an abusive father and his rise to fame through the Minneapolis club First Avenue, throw in a romantic triangle and as many Prince penned tunes as you could fit in two hours and the rest was history. So too did Prince on his fifth album, essentially a distilled soundtrack to the breakthrough musical film, Purple Rain, in the character of `the Kid’ and his backup band, given title credit for the first time, the Revolution.Īfter two mildly successful initial albums, then the sexual cavalcade of Dirty Mind and the epic grandiosity of 1999, Prince had a bee in his bonnet about making a movie, about becoming a star of multiple medias. Besides all of the comparisons that could be made due to the various slurs and criticisms heaped on each of them, on Bowie’s album, The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, he created an alter ego, someone who could express everything he was thinking through a mask of sorts. Prince also shared a similar career ideology and path as my other favorite solo artist, David Bowie. Prince battled off derisions about his height, sexuality, religion, appearance, race and just about everything in between, still vaulting himself into super stardom, not waiting for people to recognize his talents, but telling them, with Purple Rain in particular, that he was a star. At a time when I felt really insecure about myself, my popularity, and how I fit in with my peers, I had Prince to let me know that not only did adults go through the same thing, but that you could rise above it. Prince is a polarizing artist, you either buy into his style, his persona and his sex appeal, or you don’t. Even my wife, the person closest to me in the entire world, quite often just doesn’t get it. Purple Rain means so much to me, that there’s very few people in the world who would understand my relationship with the album and the artist who created it. In fact, I could probably write one of those 33 1/3 books on the album. I am going to try to restrain myself, but when it comes to Prince, and most specifically Purple Rain, I could go on for ages.
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