Purple Rain Soundtrack (1984): Track by Track!

<v Speaker 1>Hey everyone, this is Chad checking in from Sunny Philippines,
<v Speaker 1>the land of eighties karaoke, and you are listening to
<v Speaker 1>the Surely You Can't Be Serious Podcast. Hello everybody, and
<v Speaker 1>welcome back to the Surely You Can't Be Serious Podcast.
<v Speaker 1>Shirley fans, we have an amazing, exciting episode for you today.
<v Speaker 1>This is literally an album that we racked our brains
<v Speaker 1>for months trying to come up with something to compare
<v Speaker 1>it to. And only by comparing the movies did we
<v Speaker 1>find a way to compare two legitimately incredible albums of
<v Speaker 1>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 decide 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>There's a legitimate case to be made that 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 backs, it's incredible. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>all right, how'd you like to waste 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 jo goo 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. Okay, cool, Now, Prince
<v Speaker 1>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.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Okay, so before we jump in Okay, let's talk
<v Speaker 1>album cover. We typically do that. Yeah, iconic album cover. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>Prince on his motorcycle in New York City. Except it's
<v Speaker 1>not in New York City. It's a back lot at
<v Speaker 1>Warner Brothers Studios on Hennessy Street, but made to look
<v Speaker 1>like one of the tenements in New York City. Really.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, okay, I just figured it was Minneapolis.
<v Speaker 1>No, okay, no, yeah, there's not Minneapolis.
<v Speaker 2>It is 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 Proble Rank.
<v Speaker 1>I got a question for you, so did you have
<v Speaker 1>this because you've talked routinely about how your dad would
<v Speaker 1>check your song list, and I don't see how the
<v Speaker 1>no this was a forgore filthy fifteen soundtrack would have
<v Speaker 1>made it fast 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, right, Darling Nikki at my house was against.
<v Speaker 1>The rules for sure.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, 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, and.
<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
<v Speaker 2>album in the eighties.
<v Speaker 1>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 a gay
<v Speaker 2>that hit to day. Yeah, it just.
<v Speaker 1>Comes out, Yeah, and you're locked into every word, right you.
<v Speaker 1>You are wondering what it is he's talking about. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>if this is your first time to hear the song,
<v Speaker 1>you're like, what is going on here? What's on this
<v Speaker 1>rock album? And so you're totally bought in. And then
<v Speaker 1>the drum comes in just before the organ fades out,
<v Speaker 1>and then you get this awesome guitar PowerCore. It's incredible.
<v Speaker 2>This is an amazing song.
<v Speaker 1>And 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 was the elevator for years and years and years.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so Prince has you know, 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 too for the word two 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, yes, And so that's how that
<v Speaker 1>book is written. So D Elevator was the way that
<v Speaker 1>he wrote the lyrics. He didn't write it the elevator.
<v Speaker 1>It was devil, and devil got translated into D elevator
<v Speaker 1>because the devil brings you down.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, awesome. One of the things that we should mention
<v Speaker 2>that anytime we say the words four or two or
<v Speaker 2>you please, when you're listening at home, just substitute the
<v Speaker 2>numbers or 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 thet age in the
<v Speaker 1>early eighties on how to communicate my 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?
<v Speaker 1>Yes, right, Yeah, But at the very beginning.
<v Speaker 2>Of the song, he says, I call my old lady
<v Speaker 2>for a friendly word. She picked up the phone, dropped
<v Speaker 2>it on the floor, right, Yes, And in the lyrics
<v Speaker 2>it says in parentheses sex sex 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. In our
<v Speaker 2>preceding episode about how wind Dove's cry was blowing the
<v Speaker 2>roof off, Yes, he drops this one, Yes, takes it
<v Speaker 2>at notch is even higher and it's all right before
<v Speaker 2>the movie drops, and definitely helped propel the movie to
<v Speaker 2>its success. This reached number one on the Hot one
<v Speaker 2>hundred September twenty ninth, nineteen eighty four, the second number
<v Speaker 2>one song in a row from this album.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah this one. Interesting things happened with Prince's stuff after
<v Speaker 1>he passed away. Bruno Mars, do 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 Rain regalia, and he played the song, and I
<v Speaker 1>gotta say I was a little nervous when it's he
<v Speaker 1>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>You can 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 this 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. 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 cello 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's he does like with almost that he does with
<v Speaker 1>his whole album. He is merging the psychedelic with this
<v Speaker 1>classic blues rock style and it is buyer.
<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
<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 the 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. Yeah, he just
<v Speaker 1>was such a rounded musician in everything, and such an
<v Speaker 1>incredible composer and lyricist and performer you just don't realize. Hey,
<v Speaker 1>he's phenomenal. I mean, you've seen the my guitar gently
<v Speaker 1>weeps video that that Tom Petty did, and he comes
<v Speaker 1>in with that solo at the end and it's just
<v Speaker 1>holy cow, he can still just shred away like he's
<v Speaker 1>Eddie van Halen, Like you say, you walk by a
<v Speaker 1>mic and you're saying, dearly beloved. If this guitar solo
<v Speaker 1>is I'm gonna stop whatever I'm doing, I get on
<v Speaker 1>my knees, I'm gonna way away on the air guitar,
<v Speaker 1>so good man. And the end is that Dann that's
<v Speaker 1>like a hundred blues songs in that way, but he
<v Speaker 1>does something so much more with that end. Oh it's
<v Speaker 1>too good.
<v Speaker 2>And you have the big tyke yep. So that blew
<v Speaker 2>our doors off.
<v Speaker 1>Out the out of the gate fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>And then it drops us into this beautiful soft pop
<v Speaker 2>song called take Me with You.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So we start with this drum and synthesizer thing
<v Speaker 1>that's almost frantic, like it's just what's going on. It's
<v Speaker 1>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 walk in the park.
<v Speaker 2>You know, it's unconfirmed, but the urban legend is that
<v Speaker 2>Sheila 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 six.
<v Speaker 1>Apollonia is singing the co lead in this. She's the
<v Speaker 1>she's the female voice that we hear. But they didn't
<v Speaker 1>put 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 Appollonia six album.
<v Speaker 2>It's interesting. Abrabanguli 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 was gonna go on her album, uh huh.
<v Speaker 2>And he started to pull stuff from her. Originally it
<v Speaker 2>was Vanity six, yes, and then Apollonia is more of
<v Speaker 2>an actress, you know. So from that album.
<v Speaker 1>I thought I was thinking about this today she still sings. Well,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, he's not gonna. I don't know that she's
<v Speaker 1>going to be a star singer sometime, but she's not
<v Speaker 1>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.
<v Speaker 2>Gone a different direction.
<v Speaker 1>She could 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 print 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 Novi
<v Speaker 1>Novag 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 a learning technique, you're
<v Speaker 1>able to play any and every style of music. And
<v Speaker 1>they're like, oh, and it totally changed the way that
<v Speaker 1>Prince approached learning music. All right, awesome, this little story
<v Speaker 1>from The Beautiful Ones.
<v Speaker 2>Nice, Okay, all right, we done with this one, yep?
<v Speaker 2>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. Yeah. So supposedly this was supposed
<v Speaker 1>to be a song written for Susannah Melvoy, who's Wendy's
<v Speaker 1>twin sister, right right, That was the story for a
<v Speaker 1>long time, and she had a boyfriend when they first met,
<v Speaker 1>and so maybe it is that kind of thing of
<v Speaker 1>leave him come with me. But in twenty fifteen, just
<v Speaker 1>a year before he passed, he gave an interview and
<v Speaker 1>he said, this song was for Vanity. Now, if you
<v Speaker 1>know the story of how he met Vanity for the
<v Speaker 1>first time, she was with Rick James. I think it
<v Speaker 1>was at the Grammys or something like that. And Rick
<v Speaker 1>James comes within with Vanity and you know, she's just
<v Speaker 1>this B movie actress, but he falls in love with
<v Speaker 1>her on site. And so it's possible that Vanity is
<v Speaker 1>at the Apollonia and Rick James. Rick James is the
<v Speaker 1>Morris Day.
<v Speaker 3>Wow.
<v Speaker 2>That's awesome.
<v Speaker 1>And interestingly, I'd like to see if Dave Chappelle play
<v Speaker 1>that whole scenario out, because that.
<v Speaker 2>Dave Chappelle malls in your core. Buddy.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, so this song to me is enhanced.
<v Speaker 1>By the movie. Okay, Oh yeah, 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 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 echoe 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.
<v Speaker 2>Interesting. This song actually replaced another song called Electric Intercourse
<v Speaker 2>that was scheduled to be on the Purple Raine soundtrack.
<v Speaker 2>But like this one better, and I think that's a
<v Speaker 2>good call. I've heard Electric Intercourse and it's not half
<v Speaker 2>the song. 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 Leppard 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 crypt
<v Speaker 2>Tonight with mister John Reid from the thirty seventy movie
<v Speaker 2>podcast and of course you and me meanwhile at the
<v Speaker 2>Hall of.
<v Speaker 1>Justice, we are the super Friends. That's right.
<v Speaker 2>We cover the TV show Superman and Lois. We go
<v Speaker 2>over every episode. We have a great time, and John
<v Speaker 2>knows so much about Superman it's amazing.
<v Speaker 1>If you love Superman, or even if you don't, you
<v Speaker 1>just want to learn more, come check it out. And
<v Speaker 1>if you haven't watched Superman and Lois yet, you need
<v Speaker 1>to right now crawl out of your fortress of solitude
<v Speaker 1>and turn the TV on.
<v Speaker 2>Podcast Bull of cryptoback, moving on, Moving on. Next song
<v Speaker 2>on the album is a song called Computer Blue, when
<v Speaker 2>we yes, Lisa, is the water warm?
<v Speaker 5>Yes Lisa?
<v Speaker 2>Shall we begin, Yes Lisa?
<v Speaker 1>And then we have Wendy and Lisa conjuring up images
<v Speaker 1>in young boys minds back in the eighties of what
<v Speaker 1>the 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 1>Out of control an eleven year old. So then we
<v Speaker 1>jump into this horrendous scream and a entirely different sound.
<v Speaker 1>But it is fantastic. It's very computerized, it's very synthesizer heavy,
<v Speaker 1>and it's about the relationship of humans and computers.
<v Speaker 2>Interesting at a time when that was on people's minds,
<v Speaker 2>you know.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, absolutely, This one involved more of the band in
<v Speaker 1>its composition. The keyboard bassline was something that doctor Fink
<v Speaker 1>had come up with.
<v Speaker 2>It's fine, and.
<v Speaker 1>He started playing at one of their sessions. The band
<v Speaker 1>kind of joined in and jammed over it, and Prince
<v Speaker 1>was like, I like this, and he I mean for
<v Speaker 1>the for what the song became. He brought in the
<v Speaker 1>bridge from this song that he had called Father's Song
<v Speaker 1>that was written by his dad, John L. Nelson. It
<v Speaker 1>was originally a much longer song before they put in
<v Speaker 1>Gwindov's cry 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>Prince's dad gets a credit on the writing of 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 after his death, and
<v Speaker 2>they were asking her. They're like, what's the deal with
<v Speaker 2>you know, Wendy, Yes, Lisa is the water warming up?
<v Speaker 1>Yes Lisa? Right.
<v Speaker 2>They were asking her directly, what does that mean.
<v Speaker 1>She's like, well, he.
<v Speaker 2>Wanted to do something kind of alluring with that, and
<v Speaker 2>so he's like here say this. They're like, okay, all right,
<v Speaker 2>there's the water warming up, you know. Yeah, and he
<v Speaker 2>just thought that was kind of a cool, sexy hook.
<v Speaker 1>So well. Acting chops go as they do. H Wendy's
<v Speaker 1>probably got the better, the better acting chops, the yes,
<v Speaker 1>the very computerized. Could we do it a little less
<v Speaker 1>like a zombie 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?
<v Speaker 1>Listen?
<v Speaker 2>This is a great song. Yeah, but for me, it's
<v Speaker 2>the weakest song on the album.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, okay, Yeah, it's more of an underlying soundtrack song
<v Speaker 1>than a song I want to go listen to.
<v Speaker 2>It's a great song, but it's not mind blowingly great,
<v Speaker 2>which from this point forward, they're all amazing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Well, we've got a tentpole song obviously at the beginning,
<v Speaker 1>and a tentpole song at the end of side one. Darling, Nikki,
<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry, Jason, I have to stop this now. You're
<v Speaker 1>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>Carina listening to this song and she's like she doing
<v Speaker 1>what with a magazine? I remember hearing that line and
<v Speaker 1>I was like, that sounds painful. You get paper cuts
<v Speaker 1>or something. Oh, she's looking at the magazine. Makes so
<v Speaker 1>much more. This was the song that led Tipper Gore
<v Speaker 1>on her crusade where she started the Parents Music Resource Center,
<v Speaker 1>which ultimately led to parental Advisory stickers and a list
<v Speaker 1>of 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>It's 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 charts. 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 sents, okay,
<v Speaker 2>parental sins. I should say Nikki was a sex fiend.
<v Speaker 1>Yes we know that. Yeah.
<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 uh 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 find
<v Speaker 1>when we were tea.
<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.
<v Speaker 1>Yea.
<v Speaker 2>Honestly, though, Darling Nicky maybe one of the most controversial
<v Speaker 2>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>we all keep it if she listened to Darling NICKI no, well,
<v Speaker 1>that's good.
<v Speaker 2>I'm glad to hear that one.
<v Speaker 5>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 live, and in fact, I listened to a
<v Speaker 2>guy and he went to a Prince concert and Prince
<v Speaker 2>started the song and everybody's like, here it is, and
<v Speaker 2>He's like, no, I can't. I'm not going to play
<v Speaker 2>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 1>Okay, all right, sounds good time to hit stop on
<v Speaker 1>your tape player.
<v Speaker 2>Kick it out, flip it over side two for Purple Rain.
<v Speaker 2>This song is when doves cry.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you're gonna be naked in a bath tub? Sorry.
<v Speaker 1>As a throwback 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 1>Tell me. 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 back. And it's supposed to be partially
<v Speaker 1>inspired by his relationship with Susan Moonsee, who is a
<v Speaker 1>member of Vanity six and Apolloni six. Right, it 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 to 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 like on my local radio station, they played
<v Speaker 2>it every album. Is it a pop song, is it
<v Speaker 2>a guitar song? Is it both? Is it something we've
<v Speaker 2>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 it. 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 we've barely fit everything
<v Speaker 2>in there as it is, and he's like, no, you're
<v Speaker 2>going to want this.
<v Speaker 1>One on there.
<v Speaker 2>You think, wow, the 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 tell talk to you about this. Okay.
<v Speaker 2>We've talked about how this song is sounds different. There's
<v Speaker 2>no baseline. You know, You've got two different solos, and
<v Speaker 2>you've got these sort of weird sounds at the end.
<v Speaker 2>He's kind of doing some weird vocalization at the end. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>and it's five and a half minutes long. It's a
<v Speaker 2>risky choice for the first single because we talked about it.
<v Speaker 2>If it bombs out of the gate, do they market
<v Speaker 2>purple Rain like crazy?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>I would have thought that Let's Go Crazy would have
<v Speaker 2>been a much safer choice for the first single. Absolutely,
<v Speaker 2>But this one comes out and it 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, I.
<v Speaker 1>Mean absolutely absolutely. Okay. So before we finish up with it,
<v Speaker 1>we've 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 live show.
<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 finger for sure.
<v Speaker 2>One percent. Okay. You know what else was a huge
<v Speaker 2>hit in nineteen eighty four, Dancing in the Dark Vibrus Springsteen. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>only made it to number two because it could not
<v Speaker 2>push this one out of the way.
<v Speaker 1>Couldn't Unsea when Dove's cry I hate to leave it.
<v Speaker 2>It literally maybe 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, Well, that's what this.
<v Speaker 1>Song is about. It is so good. It's I am
<v Speaker 1>something you'll never understand. It is, I'm willing to lay
<v Speaker 1>down my life for you. And you know what, it's
<v Speaker 1>such a happy, great song. It's a good way to
<v Speaker 1>have a Hollywood end to a otherwise pretty dark movie.
<v Speaker 2>It's an amazing pop song.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>And like you said in the movie, after we reached
<v Speaker 2>that emotional peak of Purple Rain where Purple Rain comes in,
<v Speaker 2>he plays it. It clears the deck, It solves all
<v Speaker 2>the problems that it is the awesome climax.
<v Speaker 1>Of Purple Rain.
<v Speaker 2>Then you finish with two super fun songs. Have this
<v Speaker 2>song and then the next song we're going to talk about,
<v Speaker 2>and it's just good old fashioned, awesome pop fun.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely. I think when he did, when he had his conversion,
<v Speaker 1>he stopped saying I'm the Messiah. I think he started saying.
<v Speaker 1>When he would sing it live, he would say piece
<v Speaker 1>in the side.
<v Speaker 2>Yep. 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?
<v Speaker 1>But it should be I mean it should be closer
<v Speaker 1>to number one then 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 the year before. Is tragic.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I'll tell you this. Some people open presence on Christmas.
<v Speaker 2>Other people open their wrists.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Gremlin, So that's how I found out there was
<v Speaker 1>no Sanita.
<v Speaker 2>Flashback to our Gremlins episode.
<v Speaker 1>We've got Sila e on this one.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, sheile 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.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, what else is there?
<v Speaker 2>To 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 parise 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? He was like, okay,
<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're hearing this, this is Prince, right,
<v Speaker 1>And so that's how we get that awesome image. But
<v Speaker 1>this one, this song actually came about in nineteen eighty one.
<v Speaker 1>This whole album other than this song was written eighty
<v Speaker 1>three ish, right right, And this one actually he had
<v Speaker 1>written before December of eighty one, when he had just
<v Speaker 1>started to become famous. And he's like, maybe I'm a stock.
<v Speaker 2>That's great, and your batman reck is awesome. Why somebody
<v Speaker 2>tell me he's got one of those things? Okay, So
<v Speaker 2>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 nob 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 the 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 goods. No, I can
<v Speaker 1>do it better than that. He's like, no, I really
<v Speaker 1>like the energy that you had on that one. I
<v Speaker 1>don't want to use anything else, and she's like, okay, thanks,
<v Speaker 1>because I.
<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 to have
<v Speaker 2>been at, right, I mean we're talking for sure, Live Aid,
<v Speaker 2>the Moscow Peace Festival and that night at First Avenue
<v Speaker 2>in Minnesota on August third. To hear these songs have
<v Speaker 2>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 forgers Lost Arc.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, right, this is a moment where we get
<v Speaker 1>the title song for the movie. Albert. We talked about
<v Speaker 1>it during the movie episode. Albert Magnolia is in the audience.
<v Speaker 1>Hears them play Purple Rain along with those other songs,
<v Speaker 1>and he's like, that song needs to be the key
<v Speaker 1>song to my movie. They hadn't put live music on
<v Speaker 1>an album before this. It's incredible these songs were played live.
<v Speaker 1>Now they overdubbed some and they added some vocalizations and
<v Speaker 1>some strings to them, but these were plucked right out
<v Speaker 1>of that concert. Yeah. Yeah, this song almost always follows
<v Speaker 1>I Would Die for You. Whenever they play it live,
<v Speaker 1>they blend together perfectly. It's kind of like we will
<v Speaker 1>rock you and we are the champions. You've got to
<v Speaker 1>hear these two songs.
<v Speaker 2>You play one, you get the other.
<v Speaker 1>You got to have the other. There, they're a pair.
<v Speaker 2>All right, you're done with this one. We 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.
<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 chord songs before, and how like
<v Speaker 1>there's a million rock pop hits that are the same
<v Speaker 1>four chords. Right, Yes, we've got Don't Stop Believing, We've
<v Speaker 1>got Africa, We've got minute work down under, all kinds
<v Speaker 1>of songs, the same four chords, faithfully by Journey, which
<v Speaker 1>we'll talk about here in just a second. Right, same
<v Speaker 1>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
<v Speaker 1>angle wow.
<v Speaker 2>I h You know, they were following Bob Seger around
<v Speaker 2>when they were touring, and they were kind of chasing
<v Speaker 2>him around the States, and Prince went to Matt Beek
<v Speaker 2>one day and he's like, damn, these white people in
<v Speaker 2>the Heartland they love Bob Seger. I don't really get it.
<v Speaker 2>Tell me why they're so into it. And Matt think 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 moved,
<v Speaker 2>and they want to want to feel a part of it.
<v Speaker 2>And so Prince modeled this song Purple Rain after turn
<v Speaker 2>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.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>And it wasn't this power ballad. It was a country
<v Speaker 1>style song. He sends it to Stevie Nicks and it's
<v Speaker 1>about ten minutes. I mean, he gives her ten minutes
<v Speaker 1>of these four chords over and over day and he's like,
<v Speaker 1>will you just write some lyrics to this and you
<v Speaker 1>sing it and it'll be our song together, and it
<v Speaker 1>freaks her out and she's like, this is overwhelming. I
<v Speaker 1>can't do this. I'm scared, I'm gonna mess it up.
<v Speaker 1>It's too beautiful. I don't want to touch it. Here's
<v Speaker 1>it back, Yeah, And so they bring it back into
<v Speaker 1>their studio and their rehearsals, and it's one of the
<v Speaker 1>first times that they have Wendy rehearsing with them, and
<v Speaker 1>they start playing the kind of country style chord progression,
<v Speaker 1>and Wendy is the one who does this voicing with
<v Speaker 1>the chords that I just talked about, and when she
<v Speaker 1>does that, it completely eliminates the country sound and it
<v Speaker 1>brings it into that power ballad world that we love.
<v Speaker 2>You know, when you're talking about Stevie Nicks. She gave
<v Speaker 2>it back to him and said, basically, like you said,
<v Speaker 2>it's too epic, it's two grand I can't handle it.
<v Speaker 2>But she also added it was an olive branch of
<v Speaker 2>him giving me that cassette, which was huge, but I
<v Speaker 2>think he would have liked to have had a romance
<v Speaker 2>with me as well.
<v Speaker 1>Well. She is Stevie Nicks. That is shocking, Well not really, Okay,
<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 2>Quickly got got Oh, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley had
<v Speaker 2>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.
<v Speaker 2>It's just yeah, it's tragic that song was released number
<v Speaker 2>twenty sixth nineteen eighty four made it to number two,
<v Speaker 2>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>Kane 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 in your head, listen to those first four
<v Speaker 1>chords and then go down now now no no no
<v Speaker 1>now now now no no no, 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. 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, So it just it's the.
<v Speaker 1>Last it's kind of the last bit of one of
<v Speaker 1>the lyrics in the song. Prince takes it and obviously
<v Speaker 1>makes it his own. You know what purple rain is?
<v Speaker 1>Do you know what it's 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. We was
<v Speaker 2>talking about the sky was all purple, there are people
<v Speaker 2>running everywhere.
<v Speaker 1>Everywhere. Yeah, could have sworn it was Judgment Day. Sky
<v Speaker 1>was all purple, there were people running everywhere. So it's
<v Speaker 1>about the end of the world, and that's what this
<v Speaker 1>song 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 equals purple rain.
<v Speaker 1>There you go, how create it?
<v Speaker 2>That's why I'm here. Nuggets like that, ladies and.
<v Speaker 1>Gentlemen, Okay, and so we've mentioned it multiple times now,
<v Speaker 1>but just as a reminder, this was one of the
<v Speaker 1>songs at the benefit for the Minnesota Dance Theater. This
<v Speaker 1>was the first concert that Wendy Melvoy played. She was
<v Speaker 1>only nineteen years old when she played with them. At
<v Speaker 1>the time, they brought recording equipment with them. They didn't
<v Speaker 1>know what it was going to be about. They just
<v Speaker 1>knew Prince just does this stuff. So David Z, who
<v Speaker 1>is the brother of Bobby Z, brings over recording equipment
<v Speaker 1>and thank goodness, because I mean Bobby Z said it
<v Speaker 1>was one of the best concerts they've ever ever done.
<v Speaker 1>And you're talking about I've got the drummer for the
<v Speaker 1>Revolution says 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 two 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. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I was just gonna say, you can see that
<v Speaker 2>on the beautiful Ones.
<v Speaker 1>I think that range is there. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>One of the things I want to talk about, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>just briefly, is the super Bowl.
<v Speaker 1>Super Bowl forty one, two thousand and seven. Do you
<v Speaker 1>remember who the teams were that were flaying?
<v Speaker 2>Was the Bears and the Cold Cycle very 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
<v Speaker 2>and I just threw it out there and I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>we're watching.
<v Speaker 1>The super Bowl performance. I'm like, what 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 half time show was a magical moment because he
<v Speaker 1>goes 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 supowl 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 gonna be my thing. Right,
<v Speaker 2>So Jumble Love and the Bird feature prominently in the movie,
<v Speaker 2>both great songs. Jumble Love was a big hit in
<v Speaker 2>nineteen eighty five. Then, of course you also have sex
<v Speaker 2>Shooter by Appolonius six not a great song, it's okay,
<v Speaker 2>Apolony looks fantastic and so.
<v Speaker 1>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>This guy 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 overwhelming. You have a
<v Speaker 1>phenomenal album. Phenomenal Footloose has hit after hit after hit.
<v Speaker 1>It's the album that knocked 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>Ann 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 was It's a wake
<v Speaker 1>me up, before you go go album. It is made
<v Speaker 1>to be accessible to the public, and it's not musically intricate.
<v Speaker 1>On the other hand, and you have prints taking songs
<v Speaker 1>that not only have those pop sensibilities, but you have
<v Speaker 1>the musicianship of Him and the Revolution. I mean, they've
<v Speaker 1>got to get a lot of credit in this one,
<v Speaker 1>but it's conceivably the best album of the decade. In
<v Speaker 1>a decade of great albums, it is conceivably the best.
<v Speaker 1>It is the best album of nineteen eighty four. It is.
<v Speaker 1>And you got a lot of good stuff that year.
<v Speaker 1>So sorry, Footloose, You've got some great stuff. You definitely
<v Speaker 1>are a big hitter, but there's no way you can
<v Speaker 1>overcome the Purple One. What are your thoughts?
<v Speaker 2>That's tough to follow up right there? That was pretty
<v Speaker 2>pretty on the nose. I love the Footloose soundtrack. When
<v Speaker 2>you talk about the eighties, the soundtrack was a really
<v Speaker 2>big deal. If you had music videos and songs that
<v Speaker 2>went with your movie. They kind of went hand in
<v Speaker 2>hand and helped each other out. Footloose hit it right
<v Speaker 2>on the nose. And what we say, they were like
<v Speaker 2>six hits of the top forty.
<v Speaker 1>Or 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>a not 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, Peple 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?
<v Speaker 2>You go first, okay, all right, now listen fully admitting
<v Speaker 2>that I am born and raised in Oklahoma, So there
<v Speaker 2>is a sauce spot in my heart for stories that
<v Speaker 2>are born here. Elmore City is right down the road
<v Speaker 2>from where we're recording right now.
<v Speaker 1>Say thank you again to Arlen for all of those
<v Speaker 1>incredible stories that.
<v Speaker 2>Are and those were fantastic stories. Yeah, so I love
<v Speaker 2>the movie Footloots, probably more than the average Joe on
<v Speaker 2>the street. With that said, the movie Footloose, the cast
<v Speaker 2>alone is amazing. I mean, John Lithgow, Kevin Bacon, Laurie
<v Speaker 2>Singer does a great job, Chris Penn is awesome. Sarah
<v Speaker 2>Jessica Parker and she's on her way up. She looks great.
<v Speaker 2>Diane Weist is awesome. The kids leaving a church is awesome.
<v Speaker 2>Purple Rain is a movie held up by the songs.
<v Speaker 2>Now you have Prince at the height of his powers
<v Speaker 2>performing amazingly, and Apollonia is gorgeous. But this is propped
<v Speaker 2>up by the songs. So when it comes to the movies,
<v Speaker 2>footlos is clearly the better movie, Purple Rain is clearly
<v Speaker 2>the better soundtrack. That's where I 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 girl.
<v Speaker 1>Back story. That's great. I mean, it's Prince's story and
<v Speaker 1>it's entertaining, but it's not a movie that if I
<v Speaker 1>saw it, I'm gonna be like, oh, Purple Rain, I
<v Speaker 1>gotta watch that. You know, maybe the lake mini talka scene,
<v Speaker 1>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 Rain.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you get Yeah. I'm watching that first, those first two,
<v Speaker 1>and then I'm like, all right, foot Loose on Footloose,
<v Speaker 1>I'll go back and watch again and again. 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 Footlots. 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, just one
<v Speaker 1>day of being in high school, completely changed the way
<v Speaker 1>that he decided to portray this character. And it was
<v Speaker 1>a key to the movie. And John Lithgow met with
<v Speaker 1>the Preacher for just one meeting and it completely influenced
<v Speaker 1>how he played this Preacher. And as a grown man
<v Speaker 1>watching this movie, I'm like, this guy is not an evil,
<v Speaker 1>you know, being 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 mentioned this. This is
<v Speaker 1>about a son who's lost a father and a father
<v Speaker 1>who's lost a son and them making peace with each other.
<v Speaker 1>And that is a movie that you just don't see
<v Speaker 1>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?
<v Speaker 2>Rank them one, two, three, four, Okay.
<v Speaker 1>Purple Rain soundtrack Footloose movie Footloose Soundtrack, Purple Rain Movie one,
<v Speaker 1>two three four.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, I'm going Purple Raine soundtrack, Footloose Soundtrack, Footloose Movie,
<v Speaker 2>Purple 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
<v Speaker 1>four for us.
<v Speaker 2>We've had a lot of fun doing a four parter
<v Speaker 2>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, we.
<v Speaker 2>Are off summer of eighty four, right, we'll.
<v Speaker 1>Return to eighty four in just a few weeks. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>because we're gonna throw in Terminator and Terminator two after that,
<v Speaker 1>and then we're going to compare all four of those
<v Speaker 1>movies since they're so heavily James Cameron, not all, but heavily,
<v Speaker 1>and see how they all match up against each other.
<v Speaker 1>We'll do a one two three four on that one
<v Speaker 1>as well.
<v Speaker 2>All right, next week, nineteen seventy nine, Alien.
<v Speaker 1>Come back to join us. Then, if you're still listening,
<v Speaker 1>you've enjoyed the show, please hit the follow button, hit
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<v Speaker 2>Patreon Forward Slash Shirley Podcast, Thank you for a funky time.