"Purple Rain" (Prince)

You couldn't turn on the radio in 1984 and not hear something from the Purple Rain soundtrack.  Nevertheless, for a 6-year-old kid (as I was in 1984), Prince was a little too adult for me to even comprehend.  I liked the groove of "Let's Go Crazy."  "I Would Die 4 U" was catchy, too.  But then I'd see him on MTV or Casey Kasem's old Saturday morning countdown show on NBC, and the whole makeup/Glam Rock meets S&M theme that he and The Revolution had going on was a little much.  In my kid mind, every performance of his back then was a little like watching Ringling Brothers Circus, where Prince was the ringmaster and The Revolution were the clowns.  Weird clowns who humped their keytars.
It really wasn't until years later, when I went to a special showing of the film Purple Rain at an art house cinema in Chapel Hill, NC, that I had a chance to reevaluate Prince through adult ears and eyes.  I walked away with a whole new respect and admiration of his genius.  And, yes, he is a genius.  Prince's amalgam of New Wave, Glam, early rock and roll, jazz, R&B, funk, and soul into something completely new is pretty amazing.  It's a mix that, at first blush, should not work.  For any other artist, it wouldn't work.  But Prince has roots and influences that range from Duke Ellington to Marc Bolan.  That massive pool of inspiration and musical knowledge in combination with his unbridled creativity changed the way music sounded in the early 80s.
I came out of the theater that evening after watching the last scene of the film, where he finally plays Wendy and Lisa's new song (in reality, Prince alone wrote "Purple Rain"), and I felt like I had been to a revival.  In fact, I think it's the gospel feel of the song that saves it from falling into the "power ballad" camp, even though it does make you want to sway with your Bic lighter in the air.


Since Prince is notorious about keeping any of his music off YouTube and the internet, I regretfully can't post a video of Prince performing this song.  There are HORRIBLE cover versions out there, including one incredibly off-tune karaoke rendition by a guy who looks like Kenny Powers from Eastbound and Down.  There's also some dude who rambles for 9+ minutes about supposed backmasking (aka "backward messages") in the song.  Search "Purple Rain" online at your own risk.