Purple Rain Soundtrack (1984): Track by Track

<v Speaker 1>Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Surely You Can't
<v Speaker 1>Be Serious Podcast. Shirley Fans, we have an amazing, exciting
<v Speaker 1>episode for you today. This is literally an album that
<v Speaker 1>we racked our brains for months trying to come up
<v Speaker 1>with something to compare it to. And only by comparing
<v Speaker 1>the movies did we find a way to compare two
<v Speaker 1>legitimately incredible albums of nineteen eighty four.
<v Speaker 2>They're two of the best sellers of nineteen eighty four.
<v Speaker 2>Purple Rain is one of the best sellers of all time. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>and actually we are recording this today on June twenty fifth,
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty one. It is the thirty seventh anniversary of
<v Speaker 2>the release of the soundtrack of the movie Peple Rain.
<v Speaker 1>You guys want to hear it for a couple of weeks,
<v Speaker 1>But we are just blessed by divinity to have gotten
<v Speaker 1>here today. Just I mean, we decided two days ago,
<v Speaker 1>let's just record this on Friday, and boom, it happened
<v Speaker 1>to be the exact day that was released.
<v Speaker 2>See, there's a legitimate case to be made this is
<v Speaker 2>the best album of the eighties.
<v Speaker 1>Possibly, there's a legitimate case this is the best album
<v Speaker 1>of all time. I mean, it's it's jump back, it's
<v Speaker 1>it's incredible. Yes, all right, how'd you like to waste
<v Speaker 1>some time?
<v Speaker 2>I cannot resist.
<v Speaker 1>It's really gross. It's not right now, it's not Let
<v Speaker 1>this jogo any first.
<v Speaker 2>I don't want to stop until I reached the top.
<v Speaker 2>Let's dive into Purple Rain. Track by track.
<v Speaker 1>Purple Rain. All right, Before we jump into our first track,
<v Speaker 1>we need to know that this album was produced, arranged,
<v Speaker 1>and composed by Prince and the Revolution.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's the first album that the Revolution gets any
<v Speaker 2>kind of credit.
<v Speaker 1>Well, on nineteen ninety nine, in the album cover he
<v Speaker 1>wrote like backwards in like one of the letters the Revolution,
<v Speaker 1>but this is the one that they actually in the
<v Speaker 1>album notes they get full credit.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, cool.
<v Speaker 1>Now, Prince primarily is the composer of all of this stuff.
<v Speaker 2>This album won two Grammy Awards and an Academy Award.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>This won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score
<v Speaker 2>for the movie Purple Rain. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so before we jump in, okay, let's talk album cover.
<v Speaker 1>We typically do that, Yeah, iconic album cover. Before we
<v Speaker 1>get going, I just want to point something out. We
<v Speaker 1>have been talking to each other now for a couple
<v Speaker 1>of years face to face. And one of the reasons
<v Speaker 1>that I can do that is because you don't have
<v Speaker 1>nose hair. Have you been talking to people and like
<v Speaker 1>you can't even concentrate on what they're saying because of
<v Speaker 1>their nose hair.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely, they like tuck to you.
<v Speaker 1>It dangles, yes, it wiggles. It's a total distraction. Absolutely,
<v Speaker 1>And so let me let me say, if you are
<v Speaker 1>one of those guys, we have a product that is
<v Speaker 1>supporting the podcast that you need to check out. Is
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<v Speaker 2>It is an amazing product. It trims your nose hair.
<v Speaker 2>It's not embarrassing. You just stick it up there and
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<v Speaker 1>You're not gonna look at people and bother them, right,
<v Speaker 1>And I'm one of those guys who's self conscious about
<v Speaker 1>my nose hair. So somebody that you're gonna see me
<v Speaker 1>and I'm gonna be like yanking them out and wincing
<v Speaker 1>in pain, don't do that. There is a special thing
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<v Speaker 1>to the weed Whacker, they have just released something called
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<v Speaker 2>Yes, yes, it is so very it's very good around
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<v Speaker 2>Whack it perfect time.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, Prince on his motorcycle in New York City. Except
<v Speaker 1>it's not in New York City. It's a back lot
<v Speaker 1>at Warner Brothers Studios on Hennessy Street, but made to
<v Speaker 1>look like one of the tenements in New York City.
<v Speaker 2>Really Yeah, okay, I just figured it was Minneapolis. No, okay, no, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's not Minneapolis.
<v Speaker 3>It's not New York City.
<v Speaker 1>It's yeah, it's the back lot of Warner Brothers. I'm
<v Speaker 1>wondering if they took this picture after they went to
<v Speaker 1>La to reshoot the skinny dip in the lake, Mini
<v Speaker 1>talka scenes with her when she got so sick after
<v Speaker 1>the jumping in the water. Probably so, Minneapolis winter, probably so.
<v Speaker 2>Just for the record, Yeah, on this record, yes, thirteen
<v Speaker 2>times platinum, over twenty five million units sold. Wow, twenty
<v Speaker 2>five million. I think it was like standard issue to
<v Speaker 2>everybody in my fourth grade class. I mean just everybody
<v Speaker 2>got a copy of.
<v Speaker 1>Purple rant I got a question for you, so did
<v Speaker 1>you have this? Because you've talked routinely about how your
<v Speaker 1>dad would check your song list, and I don't see
<v Speaker 1>how the this was forgre Filthy fifteen soundtrack would have
<v Speaker 1>made it past at your dad.
<v Speaker 2>This one did not pass inspection at the Calvin household.
<v Speaker 1>So this was under the table.
<v Speaker 2>This was under the table for sure.
<v Speaker 1>Recording songs off the radio, getting stuff from friends.
<v Speaker 2>Mostly recording stuff off the radio was how I got
<v Speaker 2>ahold of this Darling Nikki at my house was against
<v Speaker 2>the rules, for sure.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, let's dive in, track by track, track.
<v Speaker 1>By track, best freaking song for the first song on
<v Speaker 1>the album Let's Go Crazy.
<v Speaker 2>This may be the greatest entry song of any album
<v Speaker 2>in the nineteen eighties. The intro to this song is
<v Speaker 2>I'm saying this song like the first track on any album.
<v Speaker 1>Eight Oh yeah, it is my favorite song on the album. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>it's one of the greatest albums of the eighties, So
<v Speaker 1>potentially this is the greatest song of the eighties. It's
<v Speaker 1>in the conversation. It is definitely in the conversation. We
<v Speaker 1>start with this amazing organ. We have dearly beloved, as
<v Speaker 1>though we're here at a funeral for this thing called life.
<v Speaker 2>Whenever I walk by a hot mic or wherever I am,
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't matter I find a hot mic. I don't
<v Speaker 2>do check check check, I do daily beloved, gathered hit
<v Speaker 2>to day.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it just comes out, yeah, and you're locked into
<v Speaker 1>every word, right, you are wondering what it is he's
<v Speaker 1>talking about. I mean, if this is your first time
<v Speaker 1>to hear the song, you're like, what is going on here?
<v Speaker 1>What's on this rock album? And so you're totally bought in.
<v Speaker 1>And then the drum comes in just before the organ
<v Speaker 1>fades out, and then you get this awesome guitar PowerCore.
<v Speaker 1>It's incredible.
<v Speaker 2>This is an amazing song and.
<v Speaker 1>It's about God and the devil of all things.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, let's talk about the Christian overtones to this song.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So going Crazy and going for a higher floor
<v Speaker 1>is about God. I mean, you can't just say God
<v Speaker 1>in a song, so you have to disguise it as something.
<v Speaker 1>And so going crazy and going higher that's about God.
<v Speaker 1>And then the elevator. It's not just the elevator.
<v Speaker 2>I thought it was the elevator, like years and years
<v Speaker 2>and years.
<v Speaker 1>So Prince has you know you. You can see it
<v Speaker 1>in his song titles like I would die for you,
<v Speaker 1>Nothing compares to you, like he abbreviates you and uses
<v Speaker 1>the numeral tow for the word too all the time,
<v Speaker 1>like even when he's handwriting notes. That book that I
<v Speaker 1>told you I read, the Beautiful Ones it was it
<v Speaker 1>was largely composed from notes that he had written. They
<v Speaker 1>left it in. I mean he would draw the picture
<v Speaker 1>of an I like a blinking eye for the word I,
<v Speaker 1>like I would yes for you yes, And so that's
<v Speaker 1>how that book is written. So D Elevator was the
<v Speaker 1>way that he wrote the lyrics. He didn't write it
<v Speaker 1>the elevator. It was devil, and devil got translated into
<v Speaker 1>D elevator because the devil brings you down.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, awesome.
<v Speaker 2>One of the things that we should mention that anytime
<v Speaker 2>we say the words four or two or you, please,
<v Speaker 2>when you're listening at home, just substitute the numbers or
<v Speaker 2>the big letter.
<v Speaker 1>Make it as short as you can, pretend like your
<v Speaker 1>teenager is texting you. Prince set the stage in the
<v Speaker 1>early eighties on how to communicate by text.
<v Speaker 2>That's good, Okay, So I want to talk about the
<v Speaker 2>lyrics on this. This is something I just just discovered.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, okay.
<v Speaker 2>So you have that big intro, the sort of eulogy
<v Speaker 2>at the beginning.
<v Speaker 1>George Clinton style.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, doctor, everything gonna be all right, yes, right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>But at the very beginning of the song, he says,
<v Speaker 2>I call my old lady for a friendly word. She
<v Speaker 2>picked up the phone, dropped it on the floor, right, Yes,
<v Speaker 2>And in the lyrics it says in parentheses sex sex
<v Speaker 2>was all I heard.
<v Speaker 1>He definitely, throughout all of his work equates sex and god.
<v Speaker 1>It's kind of weird. It is. It's a little bit weird. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So this song was released July eighteenth, nineteen eighty four.
<v Speaker 2>This is right before the movie is dropped.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>We talked in our preceding episode about how Windove's cry
<v Speaker 2>was blowing the roof off. Yes he drops this one,
<v Speaker 2>Yes takes it at notch is even higher and it's
<v Speaker 2>all right before the movie drops, and definitely helped propel
<v Speaker 2>the movie to its success. This reached number one on
<v Speaker 2>the Hot one hundred September twenty ninth, nineteen eighty four,
<v Speaker 2>the second number one song in a row from this.
<v Speaker 1>Album, Yeah this one. Interesting things happened with Prince's stuff
<v Speaker 1>after he passed away. Bruno Mar You remember did you
<v Speaker 1>see the twenty seventeen Grammys. I remember watching them, Like
<v Speaker 1>lead out show was Bruno Mars dressed in the old
<v Speaker 1>purple rayin regalia and he played the song and I
<v Speaker 1>got to say I was a little nervous. When it's
<v Speaker 1>not he did a pretty darn good job.
<v Speaker 2>Bruno Mars is about the only guy I can think
<v Speaker 2>of that could pull it off.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, did it well. It was respectful, well played, well sung.
<v Speaker 1>He's a talent guy. But later on the song was
<v Speaker 1>used in a Capital one commercial and like Prince would
<v Speaker 1>never ever ever let something like that happen. I mean
<v Speaker 1>I almost couldn't get his music before he passed away.
<v Speaker 1>I mean it was on Spotify. You couldn't get it anywhere.
<v Speaker 1>I couldn't get it anywhere, and so it was nice
<v Speaker 1>that it was more accessible, Like once he passed away,
<v Speaker 1>which you know, I hate to say that, but then
<v Speaker 1>have Capital One, whoever's running the estate, that said, okay,
<v Speaker 1>capital One, you can use the song that was shocking
<v Speaker 1>and disheartening about what was being done.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this song is actually shortened. When you watch the movie.
<v Speaker 2>He plays a long version and it's our intro.
<v Speaker 1>You know.
<v Speaker 2>We talked about the Godfather scene. Yeah, and you have
<v Speaker 2>a part where he kind of does this weird piano thing,
<v Speaker 2>you know, and it introduces the characters and all that stuff.
<v Speaker 2>But back in the day, because they were records, they
<v Speaker 2>had to trim it up to make sure everything fit,
<v Speaker 2>and so they had to do some cuts. They cut
<v Speaker 2>this one along with the beautiful ones and Computer Believe,
<v Speaker 2>but they cut out that middle piano part, which I
<v Speaker 2>didn't think was any good anyway.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I love that part of the movie. But I
<v Speaker 1>gotta say, my favorite part of this whole song is
<v Speaker 1>the solo at the end. The guitar solo maybe my
<v Speaker 1>favorite guitar solo of all time. He kills it and
<v Speaker 1>he does like with almost that he does with his
<v Speaker 1>whole album. He is merging thiss Achadelic with this classic
<v Speaker 1>blues rock style and it is fire.
<v Speaker 2>You are one hundred percent of the money with that.
<v Speaker 2>To me, this is a pop song with awesome guitar. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>similar I think in spirit to like beat it, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>very much. Beat it as a pop song with Eddie
<v Speaker 2>van Halen just shredded.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, and from this song, not the song alone, but
<v Speaker 1>I mean just knowing the man. He doesn't come up
<v Speaker 1>in the conversation when you're talking about the greatest guitarists
<v Speaker 1>of all time, but he probably should.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>He just was such a rounded musician in everything, and
<v Speaker 1>such an incredible composer and lyricist and performer, you just
<v Speaker 1>don't realize. Hey, he's phenomenal. I mean, you've seen the
<v Speaker 1>my Guitar gently weeps video that that Tom Petty did,
<v Speaker 1>and he comes in with that solo at the end,
<v Speaker 1>and it's just holy cow. He can still just shred
<v Speaker 1>away like he's Eddie van Halen. Like you say, you
<v Speaker 1>walk by a mic and you're saying, dearly beloved. If
<v Speaker 1>this guitar solo is I'm gonna stop whatever I'm doing
<v Speaker 1>might get my knee. I'm gonna way away on the
<v Speaker 1>air guitar, so good man, and the end, where is
<v Speaker 1>that down? And that's like one hundred blues songs in
<v Speaker 1>that way, but he does something so much more with
<v Speaker 1>that end. It's too good.
<v Speaker 2>And you have the big tight yep so that blew
<v Speaker 2>our doors off.
<v Speaker 1>The out of the gate fantastic, and then it drops
<v Speaker 1>us into this beautiful soft pop song called take Me
<v Speaker 1>with You. Okay, So we start with this drum and
<v Speaker 1>synthesizer thing that's almost frantic, like it's just what's going on.
<v Speaker 1>It's like a you know, the panic scene in some movie,
<v Speaker 1>and then it transitions into this it's like we're going
<v Speaker 1>for a while in the park. You know.
<v Speaker 2>It's unconfirmed, but the urban legend is is that Sheila
<v Speaker 2>at the beginning of the song.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, it definitely has her sound, for sure, definitely has
<v Speaker 1>her sound. So this one he had written for Apollonia
<v Speaker 1>six Apollonia singing the co lead in this She's she's
<v Speaker 1>the female voice that we hear. But they didn't put
<v Speaker 1>this song in when they first laid these tracks out.
<v Speaker 1>They didn't have this song in there, and they had
<v Speaker 1>to take it out of the Apollonia six album.
<v Speaker 2>It's interesting. Aberbanguli came to Prince and said, hey, we
<v Speaker 2>need something to go with the montage of the love
<v Speaker 2>scene where the romances blooming and they're hanging out and
<v Speaker 2>they're having fun and they're getting to know each other.
<v Speaker 2>And he's like, well, that's great, I got this song
<v Speaker 2>right here. I'm just going to take it right back
<v Speaker 2>from Apollonia that it was going to go on her album.
<v Speaker 2>Uh huh, And he started to pull stuff from her.
<v Speaker 2>Originally it was Vanity six, yes, and then Apollonia is
<v Speaker 2>more of an actress, you know, so from that album.
<v Speaker 1>I thought I was thinking about this today she still
<v Speaker 1>sings well. I mean, he's not gonna I don't know
<v Speaker 1>that she's going to be a star singer sometime, but
<v Speaker 1>she's not a bad singer.
<v Speaker 2>Her album Listen, her album had Manic Monday, the Glamorous Life,
<v Speaker 2>and take Me with You.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, she could have gone a different direction, she could
<v Speaker 1>have that's true.
<v Speaker 2>He didn't take those songs away from him.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, yes, So this.
<v Speaker 2>Was released January twenty fifth, nineteen eighty five. This reached
<v Speaker 2>number twenty five on the Hot one hundred. This is
<v Speaker 2>Chris Rock's favorite Prince song.
<v Speaker 1>This song has got strings in it, one of the
<v Speaker 1>first times we hear strings in Prince's music. These were
<v Speaker 1>not synthesized strings. These were live string musicians. And Novie
<v Speaker 1>Novage usually just call her nov but she's one of
<v Speaker 1>the players in this.
<v Speaker 2>I heard that the strings were arranged by Wendy and Lisa.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so Lisa Coleman is a classically trained pianist. There's
<v Speaker 1>actually I remember this that when she met Prince, she
<v Speaker 1>met him and his dad at the same time, and
<v Speaker 1>they're like, Okay, we'll play a song for it. She's
<v Speaker 1>like okay, and she starts playing, and they're like, so,
<v Speaker 1>what's the point in really learning technique? It's not really necessary,
<v Speaker 1>is it. And she's like, by learning technique, you're able
<v Speaker 1>to play any and every style of music. And they're
<v Speaker 1>like oh, And it totally changed the way that Prince
<v Speaker 1>approached learning music. All Right, awesome, this little story from
<v Speaker 1>The Beautiful Ones.
<v Speaker 2>Nice, nice, Okay, all right, we done with this one.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, Moving on, all right, moving on to track number three.
<v Speaker 2>This song is called the Beautiful Ones.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so this is the song that he's singing to
<v Speaker 1>Apollonia whenever she's with Morris Day in the club and
<v Speaker 1>he's trying to get her to come back, and it's
<v Speaker 1>also like a challenge to him. And it's interesting because
<v Speaker 1>he actually probably wrote this for that same reason, but
<v Speaker 1>with different people involved. So supposedly this was supposed to
<v Speaker 1>be a song written for Susannah Melvoy and who's Wendy's
<v Speaker 1>twin sister, right, that was the story for a long time,
<v Speaker 1>and she had a boyfriend when they first met, and
<v Speaker 1>so maybe it is that kind of thing of leave him,
<v Speaker 1>come with me. But in twenty fifteen, just a year
<v Speaker 1>before he passed, he gave an interview and he said
<v Speaker 1>this song was for Vanity. Now, if you know the
<v Speaker 1>story of how he met Vanity for the first time,
<v Speaker 1>she was with Rick James and I think it was
<v Speaker 1>at the Grammys or something like that, and Rick James
<v Speaker 1>comes in with Vanity and you know, she's just this
<v Speaker 1>B movie actress, but he falls in love with her
<v Speaker 1>on site, and so it's possi that Vanity is at
<v Speaker 1>the Apollonia and James James is the Morris Day.
<v Speaker 2>Wow. That's awesome, And.
<v Speaker 1>Interestingly, I'd like to see if Dave Chappelle play that
<v Speaker 1>whole scenario out.
<v Speaker 2>Because Dave Chappelle bulls in your core, buddy. Yeah, So
<v Speaker 2>this song to me is enhanced by the movie.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So the.
<v Speaker 2>Performance that he gives in the movie, like you said,
<v Speaker 2>he's singing directly to her heart, and you know, it
<v Speaker 2>hits those screams and it's intense at the end, and
<v Speaker 2>it's emotion and it's do you want him or do
<v Speaker 2>you want me? Because I want you? And I just
<v Speaker 2>think it's one of those where when I saw the movie,
<v Speaker 2>I thought this.
<v Speaker 3>Is a great song.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah. So the beginning of the song starts off
<v Speaker 1>with these drums. It's got a similar sound almost to
<v Speaker 1>the drum sound in the air tonight. But this was
<v Speaker 1>an LM one drum machine, and back then there weren't
<v Speaker 1>very many of them. They cost about five thousand each,
<v Speaker 1>so not a whole lot of folks had them. He
<v Speaker 1>had taken that drum machine and he would run it
<v Speaker 1>through his guitar effects pedals, and he had kind of
<v Speaker 1>made his own drum sounds by using the effects that
<v Speaker 1>he would use on the guitar, which is how it
<v Speaker 1>has that kind of echoey effect at the beginning. So
<v Speaker 1>he kind of kept using what was old technology because
<v Speaker 1>he had made it his own interesting.
<v Speaker 2>This song actually replaced another song called Electric Intercourse that
<v Speaker 2>was scheduled to be on the Purple Rain soundtrack. But
<v Speaker 2>like this one better, and I think that's a good call.
<v Speaker 2>I've heard Electric gun Course and it's not half the
<v Speaker 2>song at this one is this one that has been
<v Speaker 2>covered by Mariah Carey and Beyonce. We talked in our
<v Speaker 2>def Leopard episode about Mariah Carey covering Bringing On the Heartbreak,
<v Speaker 2>and I thought it doesn't really work, but her version
<v Speaker 2>of this song is actually good. All right, everybody, I
<v Speaker 2>just want to formally invite you to come over and
<v Speaker 2>listen to our side project, the podcast Bull of kryptonit
<v Speaker 2>with mister John Reid from the thirty seventy movie podcast,
<v Speaker 2>and of course you and me.
<v Speaker 1>Meanwhile at the Hull of Justice, we are the super Friends.
<v Speaker 2>That's right. We cover the TV show Superman and Lois.
<v Speaker 2>We go over every episode. We have a great time,
<v Speaker 2>and John knows so much about Superman. It's amazing.
<v Speaker 1>If you love Superman, or even if you don't and
<v Speaker 1>you just want to learn more, come check it out.
<v Speaker 1>And if you haven't watched Superman and Lois yet you
<v Speaker 1>need to right now crawl out of your fortress of
<v Speaker 1>solitude and turn the TV on.
<v Speaker 2>Podcast Bull of Crips back, moving on, Moving on. Next
<v Speaker 2>song on the album is a song called Computer Blue.
<v Speaker 1>Wendy, Yes Lisa is the water horma?
<v Speaker 4>Yes Lisa?
<v Speaker 2>Shall we begin, Yes Lisa, And.
<v Speaker 1>Then we have Wendy and Lisa conjuring up images in
<v Speaker 1>young boys minds back in the eighties of what the
<v Speaker 1>water was going to be used for.
<v Speaker 2>All I know is that the idea of Wendy and
<v Speaker 2>Lisa in the bathtub was enough to spiral my mind
<v Speaker 2>out of control an eleven year old.
<v Speaker 1>So then we jump into this horrendous scream and a
<v Speaker 1>entirely different sound, but it is fantastic. It's very computerized,
<v Speaker 1>it's very synthesizer heavy, and it's about the relationship of
<v Speaker 1>humans and computers.
<v Speaker 2>Interesting at a time when that was on people's minds.
<v Speaker 1>You know, yeah, absolutely. This one involved more of the
<v Speaker 1>band in its composition. The keyboard bass line was something
<v Speaker 1>that doctor Fink had come up with fun and he
<v Speaker 1>started playing at one of their sessions. The band kind
<v Speaker 1>of joined in and jammed over it, and Prince was like,
<v Speaker 1>I like this and he, I mean for the for
<v Speaker 1>what the song became. He brought in the bridge from
<v Speaker 1>this song that he had called Father's Song that was
<v Speaker 1>written by his dad, John L. Nelson. It was originally
<v Speaker 1>a much longer song before they put in Windove's Cry
<v Speaker 1>and and take Me with You.
<v Speaker 2>We got to listen to the part where he plays
<v Speaker 2>on his guitar, that piano part that his father wrote.
<v Speaker 2>Let's do it right here. It's kind of interesting that
<v Speaker 2>the Prince's dad gets a credit on the writing of
<v Speaker 2>this song.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it is. It's really neat. Whole band gets credit
<v Speaker 1>and John L. Nelson. Okay, so this song was originally
<v Speaker 1>like seven minutes and thirty seconds long, and I think
<v Speaker 1>there's like a twelve minute version as well, and when
<v Speaker 1>they I think they've released that longer version as well.
<v Speaker 1>There's a hallway speech. Oh yeah, yeah, so he's like
<v Speaker 1>going down the hallway and each of the doors lead
<v Speaker 1>to different emotions and it's considered by Prince fans as
<v Speaker 1>like one of the best parts of the song that
<v Speaker 1>we didn't even see for a long time, but because
<v Speaker 1>they got to see it in the live shows, they
<v Speaker 1>were like, oh, this is a great part of the song.
<v Speaker 1>But it never made it in the album.
<v Speaker 2>I saw an interview with Wendy Melbourne right, and it
<v Speaker 2>was actually The Revolution minus Prince Is after his death,
<v Speaker 2>and they were asking her. They're like, what's the deal
<v Speaker 2>with you know, Wendy, Yes, Lisa is the water warming up? Yes, Lisa?
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 2>They were asking her directly, what does that mean. She's like, well,
<v Speaker 2>he wanted to do something kind of alluring with that,
<v Speaker 2>and so he's like here say this. They're like, okay,
<v Speaker 2>all right, there's the water warming up.
<v Speaker 3>You know.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, just thought that was kind of a cool, sexy hook.
<v Speaker 1>So well, acting chops go as they do, Wendy's probably
<v Speaker 1>got the better, the better acting chops. The yes, very computerized.
<v Speaker 1>Could we do it a little less like a zombie
<v Speaker 1>this time? Please?
<v Speaker 2>Hey, Wendy does a great job in Purple Rain when
<v Speaker 2>she tells Lisa to shut up, shut up. Lisa was like,
<v Speaker 2>she said that before.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, she's feisty. I like her.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, are we done with computer blue? Ye?
<v Speaker 1>Move on, listen.
<v Speaker 2>This is a great song. Yeah, but for me, it's
<v Speaker 2>the weakest song on the album. Okay, okay, Yeah, it's
<v Speaker 2>more of an underlying soundtrack song than a song. I
<v Speaker 2>want to go listen to It's a great song, but
<v Speaker 2>it's not mind blowingly great, which from this point forward,
<v Speaker 2>they're all amazing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Well, we've got a tent pole song obviously at
<v Speaker 1>the beginning, and a tent pole song at the end
<v Speaker 1>of side one. Darling Nikki, I'm sorry, Jason, I have
<v Speaker 1>to stop this now. You're not allowed to listen to this.
<v Speaker 2>Tipper Gore says, press pause on your tape player, kick
<v Speaker 2>it out and go tell your mom you're grounded.
<v Speaker 1>Okay. So Tipper Gore catches her eleven year old daughter
<v Speaker 1>Karina listening to this song and she's like, she doing
<v Speaker 1>what with a magazine?
<v Speaker 4>I remember hearing that line and I was like, that
<v Speaker 4>sounds painful. Can you get paper cuts or something that? Oh,
<v Speaker 4>she's looking at the magazine? Okay, makes so much more.
<v Speaker 1>This was the song that led Tipper Gore on her
<v Speaker 1>crusade where she started the Parents' Music Resource Center, which
<v Speaker 1>ultimately led to parental advisory stickers and a list of
<v Speaker 1>songs that you're not allowed to hear.
<v Speaker 2>You are exactly right, let's not gloss over that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>The reason why we have those parental advisory stickers on
<v Speaker 2>every CD now. Yeah, of course nobody buys CDs anymore
<v Speaker 2>because this song.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, so this song wasn't released as a single, but
<v Speaker 1>it hit number one on the Filthy fifteen chart. Nick right,
<v Speaker 1>this is the this is the top worst song that
<v Speaker 1>the Parents Music Resource Center had on their list.
<v Speaker 2>Hey listen, this song committed a couple of sins, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>parental sins. I should say, NICKI was a sex fiend.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, we know that.
<v Speaker 2>It also had back masking. Oh yes, which was you know,
<v Speaker 2>the Devil's work back in the day.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, except that if you actually listen to the back
<v Speaker 1>masking backwards, it says, hello, how are you fine? Fine?
<v Speaker 1>Because I know that the Lord is coming soon, coming,
<v Speaker 1>coming soon. Kind of an interesting flip.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah right, I mean you have Christian overtones on a
<v Speaker 2>song called Darling Nicky.
<v Speaker 1>I told you man, he equates the two. But thank
<v Speaker 1>you Tipper Gore for giving us stickers so that we
<v Speaker 1>would know what the album was we wanted to buy
<v Speaker 1>when we were teenagers.
<v Speaker 2>That's right. We talked about the Filthy fifteen back when
<v Speaker 2>we did ac DC and their song let Me Put
<v Speaker 2>My Love Into You. Honestly, though, Darling Nikki maybe one
<v Speaker 2>of the most controversial songs in the nineteen eighties.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. Turns out Karina Gore went on to seminary and
<v Speaker 1>is now actually a professor at the seminary school, like
<v Speaker 1>a dean maybe, so she made it okay. Well, you know,
<v Speaker 1>even if she listened to Darling Nicky.
<v Speaker 2>Well, that's good. I'm glad to hear that, you know.
<v Speaker 2>In two thousand and one, when Prince got serious about
<v Speaker 2>his Jehovah's witness faith, he moved away from songs like
<v Speaker 2>that and this one in particular. He would not play
<v Speaker 2>this when.
<v Speaker 1>Live, right, And in fact.
<v Speaker 2>I listened to a guy and he went to a
<v Speaker 2>Prince concert and Prince started the song and everybody's like,
<v Speaker 2>here it is, and He's like, no, I can't. I'm
<v Speaker 2>not going to play that one for you.
<v Speaker 1>Oh man. He stopped playing put it on the shelf
<v Speaker 1>yep for six years. Played it again in two thousand
<v Speaker 1>and seven.
<v Speaker 2>Welcome back.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, all right, sounds.
<v Speaker 1>Good time to hit stop on your tape player.
<v Speaker 2>Kick it out, flip it over side two for Purple Rain.
<v Speaker 2>This song is wind Doves Cry.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you're gonna be naked in a bathtub? Sorry.
<v Speaker 1>As a throw back to our Sign of the Times episodes.
<v Speaker 1>Go check that out. Another amazing song.
<v Speaker 2>The guitar at the beginning. This gives me chills.
<v Speaker 1>So this one. Do you know how this came about?
<v Speaker 2>Tell me.
<v Speaker 1>Albert Magnoli, the director of the movie, was like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>we need music to go over the parents fighting with
<v Speaker 1>each other in this awkward relationship. And Prince is like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>I'll go write that. And it's supposed to be partially
<v Speaker 1>inspired by his relationship with Susan Moonsee, who was a
<v Speaker 1>member of Vanity six and Apollonia six. Right, just looked
<v Speaker 1>out the leads and that's the same girl. By the way,
<v Speaker 1>why six there's three girls? I can think of just
<v Speaker 1>a few things that there's six of, and they were
<v Speaker 1>prominently displayed in the live show. Yes, their eyes, their
<v Speaker 1>ears something. Anyway, So he writes this song and Jill Jones,
<v Speaker 1>who had performed with him on Wednesday, which was a
<v Speaker 1>song that was supposed to be on this album, she's
<v Speaker 1>the one that says it sounds too conventional. In the conversation,
<v Speaker 1>the idea was take out the bass, and so we
<v Speaker 1>have this song that becomes a number one hit and
<v Speaker 1>becomes the best selling single of nineteen eighty four, and
<v Speaker 1>it has no bass.
<v Speaker 2>That's really the big story on this. There is no bass.
<v Speaker 1>When they play the show live, there is a bassline.
<v Speaker 1>He does play the bass when it's live. And not
<v Speaker 1>only was it interesting because of this, but then we
<v Speaker 1>have the video, which is weird. It's Prince crawling naked
<v Speaker 1>on the ground out of the bathtub with doves flying
<v Speaker 1>around him, and he's the one that directed it. Prince
<v Speaker 1>directed this video, but it's controversial because of some strong
<v Speaker 1>sexual overtimes.
<v Speaker 2>This was the song of the summer of nineteen eighty four.
<v Speaker 2>We talked in our Huey Lewis episode where I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, if this was it was like huge for
<v Speaker 2>me the summer of eighty four. But this song reached
<v Speaker 2>number one on July seventh, nineteen eighty four, and was
<v Speaker 2>number one for five weeks. It owned that summer and
<v Speaker 2>it was on like on my local radio station. They
<v Speaker 2>played it every album. Is it a pop song, is
<v Speaker 2>it a guitar song? Is it both? Is it something
<v Speaker 2>we've never heard before? It's amazing, it's incredible.
<v Speaker 1>So because this came along later on, because their request
<v Speaker 1>for the song came later on, this one that was
<v Speaker 1>not performed by The Revolution for the album. This was
<v Speaker 1>all prints wrote, it played, it played every instrument on. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>He had actually finished the soundtrack. I think they may
<v Speaker 2>have even started the initial pressings of it, and he
<v Speaker 2>came in he said, guys, I got one more song,
<v Speaker 2>and they were like, no, we've barely fit everything in
<v Speaker 2>there as it is, and he's like, no, you're going
<v Speaker 2>to want this one on there. You think, Wow, the
<v Speaker 2>number one single in nineteen eighty four.
<v Speaker 1>How many stories have we told were the last song
<v Speaker 1>to come up in the process? Is the best song
<v Speaker 1>on the album? Yeah, this one is certainly. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>it's the best selling single of nineteen eighty four.
<v Speaker 2>It may be the best song of nineteen eighty four.
<v Speaker 2>In a year where the competition is incredibly high.
<v Speaker 1>And this one they changed the rules on how to
<v Speaker 1>get a platinum single. Before they changed the rules to
<v Speaker 1>make it easier, this was the last single to reach
<v Speaker 1>platinum steps.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, let me talk to you about this. Okay, we've
<v Speaker 2>talked about how this song is sounds different. There's no baseline.
<v Speaker 2>You know, you've got two different solos and you've got
<v Speaker 2>these sort of weird sounds at the end. He's kind
<v Speaker 2>of doing some weird vocalization at the end, and it's
<v Speaker 2>five and a half minutes long. It's a risky choice
<v Speaker 2>for the first single because we talked about it. If
<v Speaker 2>it bombs out of the gate, do they market Purple
<v Speaker 2>Rain like crazy? I would have thought that Let's Go
<v Speaker 2>Crazy would have been a much safer choice for the
<v Speaker 2>first single. Absolutely that this one comes out and it
<v Speaker 2>is a huge smash.
<v Speaker 1>Huge smash number one followed by another number one, followed
<v Speaker 1>by the movie. Of course it's going to do well.
<v Speaker 1>This is why the movie, I mean we talked about
<v Speaker 1>it before. There's no reason this movie should have been
<v Speaker 1>a success other than this album coming out first and
<v Speaker 1>these two songs being the lead singles.
<v Speaker 2>The video is like an ad for the movie.
<v Speaker 1>I mean absolutely, absolutely Okay, So before we finish up
<v Speaker 1>with it, we got to talk about this last synthesizer solo. Okay. So,
<v Speaker 1>as I mentioned, Prince did all of the instrumentation on
<v Speaker 1>this right well. He slowed down the track to half speed,
<v Speaker 1>lowered it an octave, and then sped it back up
<v Speaker 1>to get it. Swear it's the same sound. It fits
<v Speaker 1>the sound correctly, right, smart, very smart, But doctor Fink
<v Speaker 1>then had to learn how to full speed whenever they
<v Speaker 1>did their lives.
<v Speaker 2>Good luck with that, dude.
<v Speaker 1>When you hear this, you have to be playing the
<v Speaker 1>air piano on your dashboard or your steering wheel or
<v Speaker 1>whatever wherever you are. You're doing that little keyboard bit
<v Speaker 1>with your fingers, for sure. One dred percent.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, you know what else was a huge hit in
<v Speaker 2>nineteen eighty four, Dancing in the Dark Bebrus Springsteen. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>only made it to number two because it.
<v Speaker 1>Could not push this one out of the way, couldn't
<v Speaker 1>unsea when Dove's cry I hate to leave it.
<v Speaker 2>It literally may be the best song in the nineteen eighties.
<v Speaker 1>There really is. But the good news is the next
<v Speaker 1>song is I Would Die for you. Greater love has
<v Speaker 1>no one than this, to lay down one's life for
<v Speaker 1>one's friends.
<v Speaker 2>John fifteen thirteen and quoting scripture.
<v Speaker 1>Well, well that's what this song is about. It is
<v Speaker 1>so good. It's I am something you'll never understand. It is,
<v Speaker 1>I'm willing to lay down my life for you. And
<v Speaker 1>you know what, it's such a happy, great song. It's
<v Speaker 1>a good way to have a Hollywood end to a
<v Speaker 1>otherwise pretty dark movie.
<v Speaker 2>It's an amazing pop song. Yeah, and like you said
<v Speaker 2>in the movie, after we reached that emotional peak of
<v Speaker 2>Purple Rain where Purple Rain comes in, he plays it.
<v Speaker 2>It clears the deck, it solves all the problems that
<v Speaker 2>it is, the awesome climax of Purple Rain. Then you
<v Speaker 2>finish with two super fun songs where you have this
<v Speaker 2>song and then the next song we're going to talk
<v Speaker 2>about and it's just it's just good old fashioned, awesome
<v Speaker 2>pop fun.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely. I think when he did when he had his conversion,
<v Speaker 1>he stops saying I'm the Messiah. I think he started
<v Speaker 1>saying when he would sing it live, he would say
<v Speaker 1>He's the side. Yep.
<v Speaker 2>This song was released November twenty fourth, nineteen eighty four.
<v Speaker 2>This reached number eight on the Hot one hundred.
<v Speaker 1>How did this song only get to number eight?
<v Speaker 2>Another top ten hit, But it.
<v Speaker 1>Should be I mean it should be closer to number one.
<v Speaker 2>Than is eight Top gold that pop gold.
<v Speaker 1>So the B side on this one was a song
<v Speaker 1>called Another Lonely Christmas. It is a much downer song
<v Speaker 1>than this song. This is happy Go Lucky. The other
<v Speaker 1>side's about a guy spending Christmas alone because his significant
<v Speaker 1>other died. On Christmas Day, therefore it is tragic.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I'll tell you this. Some people open presents on Christmas.
<v Speaker 2>Other people open their wrists.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Gremlin. So that's how I found out there was no.
<v Speaker 2>Sane flashback to our Gremlins episode.
<v Speaker 1>We've got Sheila e on this one.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, shei le becoming a prominent member of Princess entourage.
<v Speaker 1>When they would do this tour. Sheila was a part
<v Speaker 1>of the show and she would come back out for
<v Speaker 1>this song and play the drums and they would sing
<v Speaker 1>it together on the song.
<v Speaker 2>It's a great song. Yeah, what else is there to
<v Speaker 2>say other than it's so fun, it's popgold.
<v Speaker 1>There's nothing else to say. Let's go on to Baby
<v Speaker 1>I'm a Star.
<v Speaker 2>It slides right into Baby I'm a Star.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So this is the beginning part of this song.
<v Speaker 1>Make you think of the scene in Batman where Jack
<v Speaker 1>Nicholson is dancing around.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, the Joker parade scene.
<v Speaker 1>There is a reason for that, right. This is the
<v Speaker 1>song that was supposed to be in that scene, and
<v Speaker 1>it was just going to be the only Prince song
<v Speaker 1>in the soundtrack, But then Prince got signed on to
<v Speaker 1>the entire soundtrack, and so he said, we're going to
<v Speaker 1>take that song out and we're going to put in
<v Speaker 1>a song called two hundred Balloons, and they went, can
<v Speaker 1>we go back to the other song? Was like, ok, I,
<v Speaker 1>we won't do two hundred balloons, but I've got another
<v Speaker 1>song that's much closer to Baby I'm a Star. And
<v Speaker 1>the song is called Trust and we can play that
<v Speaker 1>right here. See how close it is.
<v Speaker 2>That's exactly like Baby I'm a Star.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, you got no question when you're hearing this. This
<v Speaker 1>is Brits, right, and so that's how we get that
<v Speaker 1>awesome image. But this one, this song actually came about
<v Speaker 1>in nineteen eighty one. This whole album other than this
<v Speaker 1>song was written eighty three ish right right, And this
<v Speaker 1>one actually he had written before December of eighty one,
<v Speaker 1>when he had just started to become famous. And he's like,
<v Speaker 1>Baby I'm.
<v Speaker 2>A Star, that's great, and your your batman reck is awesome.
<v Speaker 2>Somebody tell me he's got one of those things. Okay.
<v Speaker 2>So there's that string part right there, that that little tune,
<v Speaker 2>that musical tune. It reminds me a lot of Raspberry Beret.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's the same you got again. I mentioned her before.
<v Speaker 1>This is Nobe Novag. She's the one playing the strings
<v Speaker 1>on this arranged by Winnie Lisa. Right, you get the
<v Speaker 1>same sound, same string sound when you have Raspberry beret.
<v Speaker 1>That's why they sound the same. When Novie came in
<v Speaker 1>to record this, this is like completely the opposite of
<v Speaker 1>what I would expect from Prince. But she came in
<v Speaker 1>and she was like, Okay, I'm going to try it out.
<v Speaker 1>She plays it and she's like, Okay, I think I've
<v Speaker 1>got it. He's like Nope, that's good. She's like, no,
<v Speaker 1>I can do it better than that. He's like, no,
<v Speaker 1>I really like the the energy that you had on
<v Speaker 1>that one. I don't want to use anything else. And
<v Speaker 1>she's like, okay, thanks, because I'll.
<v Speaker 2>Knock off earlier then. Baby, I'm a star. I would
<v Speaker 2>die for you. Let's go crazy and Purple Rain We're
<v Speaker 2>all played at First Avenue on August third, nineteen eighty three,
<v Speaker 2>for that concert.
<v Speaker 1>The benefit for the Minnesota Dance Theater.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, when I think about that, I'm like, man, there's
<v Speaker 2>a few concerts that I would have killed who have
<v Speaker 2>been at right. I mean, we're talking for sure, Live
<v Speaker 2>Aid the Moscow Peace Festival and that night at First
<v Speaker 2>Avenue of Minnesota on August third. To hear these songs
<v Speaker 2>we played for the first.
<v Speaker 1>Time, it's like the lost Arc being opened, well in
<v Speaker 1>a good way, not the bad one Lost Arc. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>this is a moment where we get the title song
<v Speaker 1>for the movie. Albert. We talked about it during the
<v Speaker 1>movie episode. Albert Magnolia is in the audience. Here's them
<v Speaker 1>play Purple Rain along with those other songs, and he's like,
<v Speaker 1>that song needs to be the key song to my movie.
<v Speaker 1>They hadn't put live music on an album before this.
<v Speaker 2>It's incredible. These songs were played live. Now, they overdubbed
<v Speaker 2>some and they added some vocalizations and some strings to them,
<v Speaker 2>but these were plucked right out that concert.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Yeah, this song almost always follows I Would Die
<v Speaker 1>for You whenever they play it live. They blend together perfectly.
<v Speaker 1>It's kind of like we will rock you and we
<v Speaker 1>are the champions. You've got to hear these two songs.
<v Speaker 2>You play one, you get the other.
<v Speaker 1>You got to have the other. They're they're they're a pair.
<v Speaker 2>All right, You've done with this one. Were ready to
<v Speaker 2>tackle this beast.
<v Speaker 1>This talk about saving the best for last man. This
<v Speaker 1>is so good.
<v Speaker 5>I okay, hold on, hold on, push pause, push pause,
<v Speaker 5>hold on.
<v Speaker 1>I just got to talk about this for just a second. Okay.
<v Speaker 1>I've talked about four chords songs before, and how like
<v Speaker 1>there there's a million rock pop hits that are the
<v Speaker 1>same four chords. Right, Yes, we've got don't stop Believing,
<v Speaker 1>We've got Africa, We've got Minute work down under all
<v Speaker 1>kinds of songs, the same four chords, faithfully by Journey,
<v Speaker 1>which we'll talk about here in just a second. Right,
<v Speaker 1>same four chords. So this song is a four chord song. Literally,
<v Speaker 1>the entire song is only four chords long. But what
<v Speaker 1>happens is something amazing with these four chords that's unlike
<v Speaker 1>the other songs. Okay. So normally in a four chord song,
<v Speaker 1>depending on the key, you're going to have B flat,
<v Speaker 1>G minor, F and E flat. Okay, that's normally what
<v Speaker 1>you would have. There's if you put in a different key,
<v Speaker 1>it'd be a D F sharp minor and E. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>it's just they are they bear the same relationship to
<v Speaker 1>each other on the scales, right, Okay, So this one, though,
<v Speaker 1>you have an entirely different voicing for each of the chords.
<v Speaker 1>So instead of having B flat, you have a B
<v Speaker 1>flat nine, which makes it a much prettier sounding chord.
<v Speaker 1>Let's listen to the first chord, and then that transitions
<v Speaker 1>into not just a G minor, but a G minor
<v Speaker 1>seven suspended four, which is again so beautiful. And then
<v Speaker 1>this one's the basic chord. It goes right into that
<v Speaker 1>F except the other guitar plays an F minor. So
<v Speaker 1>every single chord he's taking these that four chord song,
<v Speaker 1>but he's turning it into something bigger and better and
<v Speaker 1>more beautiful. And then he finishes off not with an
<v Speaker 1>E flat but with an E flat nine, which is
<v Speaker 1>this beautiful chord. Okay, now we can just play this song. Wow.
<v Speaker 2>I never meant to.
<v Speaker 1>I never meant.
<v Speaker 5>Oh.
<v Speaker 2>You know, they were following Bob Seger around when they
<v Speaker 2>were touring, and they were kind of chasing him around
<v Speaker 2>the States, and Prince went to Matt Beek one day
<v Speaker 2>and he's like, man, these white people in the Heartland
<v Speaker 2>they love Bob Seger. I don't really get it. Tell
<v Speaker 2>me why they're so into it. And Matt Veink says, well,
<v Speaker 2>it's just this, It's just this kind of heartland thing, right.
<v Speaker 2>They want to sing along and they want to be
<v Speaker 2>moved and they want to want to feel a part
<v Speaker 2>of it. And so Prince modeled this song Purple Rain
<v Speaker 2>after turn the page.
<v Speaker 1>So interestingly, this song started out it wasn't going to
<v Speaker 1>be a song for him. It was going to be
<v Speaker 1>a song for Stevie Nicks. Yeah, And it wasn't this
<v Speaker 1>power ballot. It was a country style song. He sends
<v Speaker 1>it to Stevie Nicks and it's about ten minutes. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>he gives her ten minutes of these four chords over
<v Speaker 1>and over right. He's like, will you just write some
<v Speaker 1>lyrics to this and you sing it and it'll be
<v Speaker 1>our song together. And it freaks her out and she's like,
<v Speaker 1>this is overwhelming. I can't do this. I'm scared I'm
<v Speaker 1>going to mess it up. It's too beautiful. I don't
<v Speaker 1>want to touch it. Here's it back, yeah, And so
<v Speaker 1>they bring it back in to their studio and their
<v Speaker 1>rehearsals and it's one of the first times that they
<v Speaker 1>have Wendy rehearsing with them, and they start playing the
<v Speaker 1>kind of country style chord progression and Wendy is the
<v Speaker 1>one who does this voicing with the chords that I
<v Speaker 1>just talked about. And when she does that, it completely
<v Speaker 1>eliminates the country sound and it brings it into that
<v Speaker 1>power ballad world that we.
<v Speaker 3>Love, you know, when you're talking about Stevie Nicks.
<v Speaker 2>She gave it back to him and said, basically, like
<v Speaker 2>you said, it's too epic, it's two grand I can't
<v Speaker 2>handle it. But she also added it was an olive
<v Speaker 2>branch of him giving me that cassette, which was huge,
<v Speaker 2>but I think he would have liked to have a
<v Speaker 2>romance with me as well.
<v Speaker 1>Well, she is Stevie Nicks. That is shocking, Well not really.
<v Speaker 1>So this song spent two weeks in the number two position.
<v Speaker 1>It never made it to number one. Do you know
<v Speaker 1>what kept it out of the spot?
<v Speaker 6>Jane Jones quick before go go oh Hey, George Michael
<v Speaker 6>and Andrew Ridgeley had some power in nineteen eighty.
<v Speaker 1>Four Human Beings of the World. I love that song,
<v Speaker 1>but it should not have kept out The Purple Master.
<v Speaker 1>I agree, it's just yeah, it's tragic.
<v Speaker 2>That song was released September twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four
<v Speaker 2>made it to number two, blocked by Wham.
<v Speaker 1>So after he had put this song together, he realized
<v Speaker 1>it sounded a lot like one of those four chord
<v Speaker 1>songs Faithfully Right by Journey.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he actually called Jonathan Kane. Yes, he called Jonathan
<v Speaker 2>Caane and he said, hey, here's the tape of this song.
<v Speaker 2>I'm afraid that I copied you. Would you listen to it?
<v Speaker 2>Make sure that you're cool with.
<v Speaker 1>This, right and if you if you're trying to figure
<v Speaker 1>that out into your head, listen to those first four
<v Speaker 1>chords and then go down now now no no, no,
<v Speaker 1>down now now no no now, and you will hear it. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>But Jonathan Kane said, no, man, it's just the same
<v Speaker 1>four chords. This is obviously a completely different song.
<v Speaker 3>Okay.
<v Speaker 1>So the first time that you hear the words purple
<v Speaker 1>and rain put together in music is a song by
<v Speaker 1>this band called America called Ventura Highway.
<v Speaker 2>This Blew Me Away.
<v Speaker 1>So it just it's the last it's kind of the
<v Speaker 1>last bit of one of the lyrics in the song.
<v Speaker 1>Prince takes it and obviously makes it his own. You
<v Speaker 1>know what purple rain is? Do you know what it's
<v Speaker 1>supposed to be?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean I read this where it's talking about
<v Speaker 2>you have a blue sky and you've got blood in
<v Speaker 2>the sky and therefore you have purple rain, right, which
<v Speaker 2>for me that was a little bit of a revelation.
<v Speaker 2>I remember the lyrics from nineteen ninety nine was talking
<v Speaker 2>about the sky was all purple, there are people running everywhere.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, could have sworn it was Judgment Day. Sky was
<v Speaker 1>all purple, there were people running everywhere. So it's about
<v Speaker 1>the end of the world. And that's what this song
<v Speaker 1>is about.
<v Speaker 2>Wow. Back when I was in middle school, we had
<v Speaker 2>this little riddle we used to tell each other. Yes
<v Speaker 2>that blue thunder plus red dawn, eagles, purple rain.
<v Speaker 1>There you go. How created That's why I'm here.
<v Speaker 2>Nuggets like that, lady and gentlemen.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, And so we've mentioned it multiple times now, but
<v Speaker 1>just as a reminder, this was one of the songs
<v Speaker 1>at the benefit for the Minnesota Dance Theater. This was
<v Speaker 1>the first concert that Wendy Melvoyn played. She was only
<v Speaker 1>nineteen years old when she played with them. At the time,
<v Speaker 1>they brought recording equipment with them. They didn't know what
<v Speaker 1>it was going to be about. They just knew Prince
<v Speaker 1>just does this stuff. So David Z, who is the
<v Speaker 1>brother of Bobby Z, brings over recording equipment and thank goodness,
<v Speaker 1>because I mean, Bobby Z said it was one of
<v Speaker 1>the best concerts they've ever ever done, and you're talking
<v Speaker 1>about I've got the drummer for the Revolution and says,
<v Speaker 1>one of the best concerts we've ever done.
<v Speaker 2>So glad that they had the foresight to do that.
<v Speaker 1>He's got a huge Prince is not what I would
<v Speaker 1>describe as a great singer. Like he does. His voice
<v Speaker 1>is good and it's enjoyable to listen to him, but
<v Speaker 1>it's not like he's He's not some amazing Steve Perry
<v Speaker 1>esque kind of singer. But his vocal range on this one,
<v Speaker 1>he goes from a B flat to all the way
<v Speaker 1>up to a C sharp six, which is a huge,
<v Speaker 1>huge vocal range for one song.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Well, I was just going to say, you can
<v Speaker 2>see that on the beautiful ones. I think that range
<v Speaker 2>is there.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. One of the things I want to talk about, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>just briefly, is the Super Bowl Super Bowl forty one,
<v Speaker 1>two thousand and seven. Do you remember who the teams
<v Speaker 1>were that were playing?
<v Speaker 2>Was the Bears and the Cold Cycle Good.
<v Speaker 1>It's really hard to remember the teams, but it sure
<v Speaker 1>is easy to remember. Prints.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, we posted on Facebook during the Super Bowl. I
<v Speaker 2>was watching the Super Bowl with you at your house. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>and I just threw it out there and I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>we're watching the super Bowl performance. I'm like, what what
<v Speaker 2>are we watching here?
<v Speaker 1>You know?
<v Speaker 2>So I threw it out there on our Facebook page.
<v Speaker 2>I said, if you will, a picture of the world's
<v Speaker 2>best Super Bowl performer ever.
<v Speaker 1>And the response was unanimous and overwhelming. Thank you all
<v Speaker 1>of our Facebook friends. It blew up. But it was
<v Speaker 1>again this magical moment, like that concert was a magical moment.
<v Speaker 1>The halftime show was a magical moment because he goes
<v Speaker 1>through these songs. He had played Baby I'm a Star,
<v Speaker 1>and the last song that he plays is Purple Rain
<v Speaker 1>and Lo and Behold. It starts to rain on the
<v Speaker 1>concert and there are purple lights making the rain purple.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, you just you can't get any more religious
<v Speaker 1>experience than that.
<v Speaker 2>It was fantastic.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, amazing moment of silence for Prince's SUPO performance. Tragically,
<v Speaker 1>this is also the last song he ever performed live.
<v Speaker 1>He performed this April fourteenth, twenty sixteen, one week before
<v Speaker 1>he died.
<v Speaker 5>Is that right?
<v Speaker 2>I did not realize.
<v Speaker 1>That, But what a great way to end that epic career.
<v Speaker 2>Wow, wow, Okay, are we done with Purple Rain? I
<v Speaker 2>just want to throw a couple of songs a bone
<v Speaker 2>here real quick.
<v Speaker 1>Okay.
<v Speaker 2>They weren't on the Purple Rain soundtrack, which was interesting.
<v Speaker 2>So More's Day in the Time have Jungle Love and
<v Speaker 2>the Bird, which featured prominently in the movie. But Prince
<v Speaker 2>made it clear to Morris Day. He's like, listen, you
<v Speaker 2>put those songs on your own album. I'm gonna make
<v Speaker 2>my own album and this is going to be my thing, right,
<v Speaker 2>So Jungle Love and the Bird featured prominently in the movie,
<v Speaker 2>both great songs. Jumb Be Love was a big hit
<v Speaker 2>in nineteen eighty five. Then, of course you also have
<v Speaker 2>sex Shooter by Appolonius six, not a great song. It's okay,
<v Speaker 2>Apolony looks fantastic.
<v Speaker 1>She does, and so there you go.
<v Speaker 2>Now are we ready for final Judgment Purple Rain?
<v Speaker 1>It is Judgment Day.
<v Speaker 2>The sky was all purple. There are people running everywhere.
<v Speaker 2>Footloose soundtrack yep versus Purple Rain soundtrack, the go.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, there's no question, it's it's overwhelming. You have
<v Speaker 1>a phenomenal album, phenomenal Footloose has hit after hit after hit,
<v Speaker 1>it's the album that not Thriller out of the number
<v Speaker 1>one spot and then stayed in that spot for ten
<v Speaker 1>solid weeks. You've got performers at the top of their game.
<v Speaker 1>You've got Kenny Loggins, You've got Denise Williams, You've got
<v Speaker 1>Anne Wilson and Mike Reno. I mean, there's just an
<v Speaker 1>amazing amount of talent in this album. But it's a
<v Speaker 1>pop album. It was made. It's a wake me up
<v Speaker 1>before you go go album. It is made to be
<v Speaker 1>accessible to the public, and it's not musically intricate. On
<v Speaker 1>the other hand, you have Prince taking songs that not
<v Speaker 1>only have those pop sensibilities, but you have the musicianship
<v Speaker 1>of him and the Revolution. I mean, they've got to
<v Speaker 1>get a lot of credit in this one, but it's
<v Speaker 1>conceivably the best album of the decade. In a decade
<v Speaker 1>of great albums, it is conceivably the best. It is
<v Speaker 1>the best album of nineteen eighty four. It is, and
<v Speaker 1>you've got a lot of good stuff that year. So sorry, Footloose,
<v Speaker 1>you've got some great stuff. You definitely are a big hitter,
<v Speaker 1>but there's no way you can overcome the Purple One.
<v Speaker 2>What are your thoughts that's tough to follow up, right there.
<v Speaker 2>That was pretty pretty on the nose. I love the
<v Speaker 2>Footloose soundtrack. When you talk about the eighties, the soundtrack
<v Speaker 2>was a really big deal. If you had music videos
<v Speaker 2>and songs that went with your movie. That kind of
<v Speaker 2>went hand in hand and helped each other out. Footloose
<v Speaker 2>hit it right on the nose. And what we say,
<v Speaker 2>they were like six hits of the top forty.
<v Speaker 1>Something like that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, six out of nine. Yeah, I mean every song
<v Speaker 2>but one was released as a single. It was a
<v Speaker 2>huge album, and it was a number one seller, and
<v Speaker 2>it knocked Thriller out of the top spot. And I
<v Speaker 2>love it. If you tell me that Footloose is the
<v Speaker 2>second best soundtrack of the eighties, I'll go with you
<v Speaker 2>on that. But it can't overcome the mass amazing appeal
<v Speaker 2>of Purple Rain. Purple Rain, I'm spiking the Football is
<v Speaker 2>the best album of the nineteen eighties, and since I
<v Speaker 2>only listened to was basically in the eighties and nineties,
<v Speaker 2>it's probably my favorite album of all time.
<v Speaker 1>Wow, better than Thriller?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, because I like Bad better than Thriller.
<v Speaker 1>Better than Bad?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, Yes, Purple Rain is the best album that we've
<v Speaker 2>covered so far and I don't see anything topping it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, well, it's hard to argue with that, it really is.
<v Speaker 1>And we mentioned this frequently. We've got a lot of
<v Speaker 1>Ready Player one fans. You still haven't read Ready Player
<v Speaker 1>two yet. I have, But I will just say, Prince
<v Speaker 1>and the Afterworld is a major, faceted part of this book.
<v Speaker 1>You've got to go read it. Awesome, Awesome.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, you know what we really didn't do Judgment Day.
<v Speaker 1>On movies on movies. Yeah, that's what we got to
<v Speaker 1>do next is Okay, so we are obviously both on
<v Speaker 1>the same page. Purple Rain far and away the better album, Yes,
<v Speaker 1>Footloose or Purple Rain movie wise, you go first?
<v Speaker 2>Okay, all right, now listen, fully admitting that I am
<v Speaker 2>born and raised in Oklahoma, so there is a soft
<v Speaker 2>spot in my heart for stories that are born here.
<v Speaker 2>Elmore City is right down the road from where we're
<v Speaker 2>recording right now.
<v Speaker 1>Say thank you again, into Arlin for all of those
<v Speaker 1>incredible stories that alan.
<v Speaker 2>Those were fantastic stories.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So I love the movie Footloo's probably more than the
<v Speaker 2>average Joe on the street. With that said, the movie Footloose,
<v Speaker 2>the cast alone is amazing, I mean John Lithgow, Kevin Bacon,
<v Speaker 2>Laurie Singer does a great job. Chris Penn is awesome,
<v Speaker 2>Sarah Justica Parker and she's on her way up. She
<v Speaker 2>looks great. Diane Weist is awesome, The kids leaving a
<v Speaker 2>church is awesome. Purple Rain is a movie held up
<v Speaker 2>by the songs. Now you have Prince at the height
<v Speaker 2>of his powers performing amazingly, and Apollonia is gorgeous. But
<v Speaker 2>this is propped up by the songs. So when it
<v Speaker 2>comes to the movies, Footloss is clearly the better movie.
<v Speaker 2>Purple Rain is clearly the better soundtrack. That's where I
<v Speaker 2>am spiking the football.
<v Speaker 1>Well, you don't need to spike the football on me. Man.
<v Speaker 1>We're again on the exact same page on this one.
<v Speaker 1>Purple Rain. The movie is, like you said, it's carried
<v Speaker 1>along by the music. It is a music video followed
<v Speaker 1>by some boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets
<v Speaker 1>girl back story. That's great. I mean, it's Prince's story
<v Speaker 1>and it's entertaining, but it's not a movie that if
<v Speaker 1>I saw it, I'm gonna be like, Oh, Purple Raen,
<v Speaker 1>I gotta watch that. You know, maybe the lake Mini
<v Speaker 1>Taka scene. But that's about it.
<v Speaker 2>You get to the opening scene, let's go crazy, you
<v Speaker 2>get Lake Mantonka, and you get purple.
<v Speaker 1>Ranting, Yeah, you get Yeah. I'm watching that first, those
<v Speaker 1>first two and then I'm like, all right, foot loose,
<v Speaker 1>on foot Loose, I'll go back and watch again and again.
<v Speaker 2>It is.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, you can't grab a CD of a movie
<v Speaker 1>as you're going out the door. But if I'm finding
<v Speaker 1>things to watch on TV, I'll watch Footloops. I'll watch
<v Speaker 1>it over and over again. It had been a long
<v Speaker 1>time since I'd seen it. And like you said, the
<v Speaker 1>performances made this movie. Kevin Bacon, this was his first
<v Speaker 1>really big breakout role, but he did a phenomenal job
<v Speaker 1>with it. And we talked about how it was that
<v Speaker 1>going to the high school for one day, one day
<v Speaker 1>of being in high school completely changed the way that
<v Speaker 1>he decided to portray this character and it was a
<v Speaker 1>key to the movie. And John Lithgow met with the
<v Speaker 1>Preacher for just one meeting and it completely influenced how
<v Speaker 1>he played this Preacher. And as a grown man watching
<v Speaker 1>this movie, I'm like, this guy is not an evil,
<v Speaker 1>you know, beating thump in the Bible Helen Brimstone preacher
<v Speaker 1>like I thought he was. He's a guy who is
<v Speaker 1>concerned about the well being of the people. He lost
<v Speaker 1>a son, and I think you you mentioned this. This
<v Speaker 1>is about a son who's lost a father and a
<v Speaker 1>father who's lost a son and them making peace with
<v Speaker 1>each other. And that is a movie that you just
<v Speaker 1>don't see very often. And then the fact that you've got, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you've got You've got the young kids dancing their hearts
<v Speaker 1>out trying to beat the oppressor. Brilliant, brilliant movie. Obviously
<v Speaker 1>the winner.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, how about this one last curve ball?
<v Speaker 1>Okay? Rake them one two three four, Okay. Purple Rain soundtrack,
<v Speaker 1>Footloose Movie, Footloose Soundtrack, Purple Raine Movie one two three.
<v Speaker 2>Four, Okay, I'm going Prople Raine soundtrack, Footloose Soundtrack, Footloose Movie,
<v Speaker 2>Prople Rain Movie. Okay, we would love to hear from you.
<v Speaker 2>Where are you guys on this?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? Rank them one two three four, one two three four.
<v Speaker 2>For us, We've had a lot of fun doing a
<v Speaker 2>four parter on these two.
<v Speaker 1>Such a good time, such a good time.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, next week we are coming back with Alien Versus Aliens.
<v Speaker 1>Oh my gosh.
<v Speaker 2>We are off summer of eighty four.
<v Speaker 1>Right, we'll return to eighty four in just a few weeks. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>because we're gonna we're gonna throw in Terminator and Terminator
<v Speaker 1>two after that, and then we're gonna compare all four
<v Speaker 1>of those movies since they're so heavily James Cameron, not all,
<v Speaker 1>but heavily, and see how they all match up against
<v Speaker 1>each other. We'll do a one, two, three four on
<v Speaker 1>that one as well.
<v Speaker 2>All right, next week nineteen seventy nine, Alien come back
<v Speaker 2>to join us.
<v Speaker 1>Then you're still listening, you've enjoyed the show, Please hit
<v Speaker 1>the follow button, hit the subscribe button, whatever is on
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