A signature song not just for an album, or for a film, but for a career
August 18, 2014 7:05 PM Subscribe
I Know Times Are Changing: Anil Dash dives deep into Prince's Purple Rain.
I didn't realize he was that young then. I remember seeing the movie in 1984 with my then-girlfriend who thought that Michael Jackson and Thriller were the greatest things ever. She didn't particularly like Purple Rain, but I remember thinking at the time how mature Prince's whole performance, persona, everything was, like this was indeed a whole career building up to that point (I also thought he had been around forever by then). I never knew he was only two years older than I was at the time.
posted by Curious Artificer at 7:37 PM on August 18, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Curious Artificer at 7:37 PM on August 18, 2014 [3 favorites]
My dad took me (and my cousin) to see this at the theater. I was 11. My dad is awesome, yo. I also received a (not necessarily legal) copy of the videotape the next easter.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 8:23 PM on August 18, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 8:23 PM on August 18, 2014 [2 favorites]
This was also the first cd I purchased for my first cd player.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 8:24 PM on August 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 8:24 PM on August 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
he was only two years older than I was at the time.
And now? Are you insinuating that Prince is a time traveler?
posted by Literaryhero at 9:29 PM on August 18, 2014 [2 favorites]
And now? Are you insinuating that Prince is a time traveler?
posted by Literaryhero at 9:29 PM on August 18, 2014 [2 favorites]
fluffy battle kitten: “This was also the first cd I purchased for my first cd player.”This was the first cassette I bought with my own money.
posted by ob1quixote at 9:31 PM on August 18, 2014
fluffy battle kitten: “This was also the first cd I purchased for my first cd player.”
This was the first cassette I bought with my own money.
Foiks, if I'm not mistaken, we're talking ... 1984? It was part of my 11 albums for 1 penny!
I loved the song "Purple Rain" (and Wendy and Lisa of course) SO much I set a rule that I could only listen to it once a day so I would never get sick of it. IT WORKED!
I scanned the article and caught a reference to Journey's Faithfully ... hmm. Not a gonna read it. ;)
posted by mrgrimm at 9:41 PM on August 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
This was the first cassette I bought with my own money.
Foiks, if I'm not mistaken, we're talking ... 1984? It was part of my 11 albums for 1 penny!
I loved the song "Purple Rain" (and Wendy and Lisa of course) SO much I set a rule that I could only listen to it once a day so I would never get sick of it. IT WORKED!
I scanned the article and caught a reference to Journey's Faithfully ... hmm. Not a gonna read it. ;)
posted by mrgrimm at 9:41 PM on August 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
Hey, that was one of my "11 albums for 1 cent" too!
posted by mmoncur at 9:45 PM on August 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by mmoncur at 9:45 PM on August 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
I loved Purple Rain so much. Got my ass grounded over the poster that came with the album, too. My grandmother was sorely offended by the gorgeous Black man and the pair of beautiful lesbians hanging out on my bedroom wall, and demanded I take it down. I refused. We had a months long stalemate, til Opa stepped in and "Ferchrissakes, Peg, if you don't like her poster, stop going upstairs to look at it."
I bought this album with hard earned babysitting money. On VINYL. I still have it, though I bought the CD years later.
posted by MissySedai at 9:54 PM on August 18, 2014 [5 favorites]
I bought this album with hard earned babysitting money. On VINYL. I still have it, though I bought the CD years later.
posted by MissySedai at 9:54 PM on August 18, 2014 [5 favorites]
And now? Are you insinuating that Prince is a time traveler?
Are you insinuating that he isn't?
posted by 1adam12 at 9:58 PM on August 18, 2014 [4 favorites]
Are you insinuating that he isn't?
posted by 1adam12 at 9:58 PM on August 18, 2014 [4 favorites]
How else would he have partied like it was 1999 in 1982?
posted by weston at 10:27 PM on August 18, 2014 [10 favorites]
posted by weston at 10:27 PM on August 18, 2014 [10 favorites]
I am old. My mom bought me 1999 from Columbia House - I'm guessing this was for xmas 1984, though. IT WAS WITH MY XMAS BOOMBOX, Y'ALL. A lot of semi-important shit happened to me in 1984. I realized earlier that that was the year I somehow managed to convince my father that I should also be able to see Footloose ELEVEN times in the theater. I really don't know how my parents didn't see the path I was on with these choices, guys.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 10:54 PM on August 18, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 10:54 PM on August 18, 2014 [2 favorites]
Man, I am always a half step off the punchli?e. I could use a time machine myself.
But about Prince, Purple Rain is still one of my strong go to songs when we hit the karaoke room after work dinners. It runs a little long for karaoke, but whatever.
posted by Literaryhero at 10:54 PM on August 18, 2014
But about Prince, Purple Rain is still one of my strong go to songs when we hit the karaoke room after work dinners. It runs a little long for karaoke, but whatever.
posted by Literaryhero at 10:54 PM on August 18, 2014
Prince is my generation's Mozart: a brilliant little fucker with a flair for showmanship.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:27 PM on August 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by five fresh fish at 11:27 PM on August 18, 2014 [1 favorite]
When I was at camp in the summer of 1984, around half the girls in my group (10 and 11 year olds) were major Duran Duran fans, and the rest were major Prince fans. Needless to say, there was a constant debate over who was better, Duran Duran or Prince. When one girl went from the Duran Duran side over to the Prince side, it was a huge deal - the Duran Duran fans felt betrayed, and the Prince fans gloated for the rest of the summer.
posted by SisterHavana at 1:09 AM on August 19, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by SisterHavana at 1:09 AM on August 19, 2014 [2 favorites]
Prince is so frustrating to me.
He's incredibly brilliant. I don't think anyone denies that at this point. His musical abilities extend to the outer reaches of the galaxy, not only his prowess with songwriting and guitar playing and singing, but being able to play basically any instrument he decides to play and being a master at multi-tracking. (The Time's Ice Cream Castle album was, with the exception of "The Bird", ALL Prince, except for Morris Day, who was doing a "sing it exactly as I sang it" overdub of Prince's vocals.)
He has had, at times, an amazing ability to feel the pulse of current music and create works which are in time with that beat, but just weird enough to push the boundaries. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.
But he really seems disconnected from Real Life sometimes, if not most of the time. His post Purple Rain material... Well, okay. Around The World In A Day is a pretty fucking hawt album, even if nobody liked it immediately. Listen to it today. Groundbreaking and entertaining all across. Parade is... well, I admit I haven't listened to it in a while, but I don't think it's aged particularly well. Sign O' The Times is a masterwork (admittedly better than the longer, previously-planned album that it emerged from). But after that, it all very slowly starts to come apart for him.
Yes, a lot of the albums, especially those which shortly followed SOTT, are quite good. But it's obvious that he's starting to get lost in his own universe, little by little. The number of obvious missteps become greater as his golden era recedes into the past. He still has some amazing moments, but they become more rare, aren't clustered into a single album like they used to be. (I would love to link to some of his best tracks from across the years here, but His Royal Purpleness has made sure I cannot do that.)
Don't get me wrong, I love the guy. I buy his newest albums, I listen to them several times to make sure I'm not doing the "first listen rejection syndrome" thing with them. There are ALWAYS 2-3 songs which are simply amazing on every single one of them. And the rest of the newer albums are... I dunno. Uninspired? Disconnected? What we used to call in the old vinyl days "filler"? The man has a rumored vault of 10,000 plus songs, and I always find myself wondering why, with that particular set of 12 songs he's released this time, only a small number of them are truly worthy of the Prince I Remember From Back Then.
I do have a goal, to see him live once more, one of these days. Saw him on the Purple Rain tour. (Still have one of the fake carnations that were shot out into the audience like some bands shoot confetti.) He was astounding, I'd never seen anything like it. Haven't managed to see him again since. Nearly went to see him, what, a year or two ago? At a tiny club in Seattle -- tickets were over $300, and I just couldn't justify spending that much. Read reviews of that show and that tour in general later, have been kicking myself for not going ever since.
I long for Prince to put together an hour's worth of truly outstanding tunes that will once again turn the music world's ear sideways and inspire a new generation of music makers. His Super Bowl halftime show a few years back proved that he has the power and the popularity, but what he's been lacking over the past 15 or so years is the ability to hear the pulse of the populace, to know what they want, to give that to them only with that distinctly Prince-esque twist that pulls them into accepting the peculiar as being popular.
I dunno. Maybe the world of pop music has passed him by. It's hard to think of Prince as a relic, a dinosaur act, because even today, when he does some music that feel vital, it feels vital all the way to the marrow of my bones. It just doesn't happen that much anymore.
posted by hippybear at 1:45 AM on August 19, 2014 [3 favorites]
He's incredibly brilliant. I don't think anyone denies that at this point. His musical abilities extend to the outer reaches of the galaxy, not only his prowess with songwriting and guitar playing and singing, but being able to play basically any instrument he decides to play and being a master at multi-tracking. (The Time's Ice Cream Castle album was, with the exception of "The Bird", ALL Prince, except for Morris Day, who was doing a "sing it exactly as I sang it" overdub of Prince's vocals.)
He has had, at times, an amazing ability to feel the pulse of current music and create works which are in time with that beat, but just weird enough to push the boundaries. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.
But he really seems disconnected from Real Life sometimes, if not most of the time. His post Purple Rain material... Well, okay. Around The World In A Day is a pretty fucking hawt album, even if nobody liked it immediately. Listen to it today. Groundbreaking and entertaining all across. Parade is... well, I admit I haven't listened to it in a while, but I don't think it's aged particularly well. Sign O' The Times is a masterwork (admittedly better than the longer, previously-planned album that it emerged from). But after that, it all very slowly starts to come apart for him.
Yes, a lot of the albums, especially those which shortly followed SOTT, are quite good. But it's obvious that he's starting to get lost in his own universe, little by little. The number of obvious missteps become greater as his golden era recedes into the past. He still has some amazing moments, but they become more rare, aren't clustered into a single album like they used to be. (I would love to link to some of his best tracks from across the years here, but His Royal Purpleness has made sure I cannot do that.)
Don't get me wrong, I love the guy. I buy his newest albums, I listen to them several times to make sure I'm not doing the "first listen rejection syndrome" thing with them. There are ALWAYS 2-3 songs which are simply amazing on every single one of them. And the rest of the newer albums are... I dunno. Uninspired? Disconnected? What we used to call in the old vinyl days "filler"? The man has a rumored vault of 10,000 plus songs, and I always find myself wondering why, with that particular set of 12 songs he's released this time, only a small number of them are truly worthy of the Prince I Remember From Back Then.
I do have a goal, to see him live once more, one of these days. Saw him on the Purple Rain tour. (Still have one of the fake carnations that were shot out into the audience like some bands shoot confetti.) He was astounding, I'd never seen anything like it. Haven't managed to see him again since. Nearly went to see him, what, a year or two ago? At a tiny club in Seattle -- tickets were over $300, and I just couldn't justify spending that much. Read reviews of that show and that tour in general later, have been kicking myself for not going ever since.
I long for Prince to put together an hour's worth of truly outstanding tunes that will once again turn the music world's ear sideways and inspire a new generation of music makers. His Super Bowl halftime show a few years back proved that he has the power and the popularity, but what he's been lacking over the past 15 or so years is the ability to hear the pulse of the populace, to know what they want, to give that to them only with that distinctly Prince-esque twist that pulls them into accepting the peculiar as being popular.
I dunno. Maybe the world of pop music has passed him by. It's hard to think of Prince as a relic, a dinosaur act, because even today, when he does some music that feel vital, it feels vital all the way to the marrow of my bones. It just doesn't happen that much anymore.
posted by hippybear at 1:45 AM on August 19, 2014 [3 favorites]
I guess I'm older than most of the folks in the thread but it amazes me that people talk like Prince's career began with 1999. Dirty Mind and to a lesser extent Controversy are also great albums. Re: the article, nice contextualization of Prince's career in the pop music of the time.
posted by aught at 5:43 AM on August 19, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by aught at 5:43 AM on August 19, 2014 [1 favorite]
House painters love nothing more than rain coming in while you are at lunch. If it looks like real rain, then you are done for the day, and with any luck you are eating at a bar, so, plans aren't needed.
Pete and I were watching the downpour inside the bar, reflecting on cause and effect, and talking about music. I mentioned I had just seen Prince's new video, and how it was fucking awesome and mutant and the type of thing semi-educated midwestern music followers had been expecting him to bomb the US with at some point. He was encouraged, but cautiously skeptical. Prince has always been uneven, and flashes of something were always there. I said he'd see for himself soon enough, since MTV was on in every bar, and they're were only about 100 videos.
Video comes on one pitcher of American draft beer later. Whole bar just stares at the screen, trying to figure out what the heck they are looking at.
Afterward, Pete leaves the table, and is gone for 15 minutes. He returns with the album, purchased down the street. "C'mon, we're out."
Three block hike, a stop for package beer, and the needle drops at his place. Whole album plays, and we are laughing hysterically because it is wildly out of place compared to anything else you will hear that year in any mainstream outlet in this, the year Reagan will be re-elected.
His roommates return from classes and work, more beer is acquired, the building residents want to know what that music is, doors are opened, the album is replayed in full many times.
Pete knew what he was doing when he ghosted to buy that album. It was a good day. Great fun was had by all.
posted by dglynn at 6:08 AM on August 19, 2014 [12 favorites]
Pete and I were watching the downpour inside the bar, reflecting on cause and effect, and talking about music. I mentioned I had just seen Prince's new video, and how it was fucking awesome and mutant and the type of thing semi-educated midwestern music followers had been expecting him to bomb the US with at some point. He was encouraged, but cautiously skeptical. Prince has always been uneven, and flashes of something were always there. I said he'd see for himself soon enough, since MTV was on in every bar, and they're were only about 100 videos.
Video comes on one pitcher of American draft beer later. Whole bar just stares at the screen, trying to figure out what the heck they are looking at.
Afterward, Pete leaves the table, and is gone for 15 minutes. He returns with the album, purchased down the street. "C'mon, we're out."
Three block hike, a stop for package beer, and the needle drops at his place. Whole album plays, and we are laughing hysterically because it is wildly out of place compared to anything else you will hear that year in any mainstream outlet in this, the year Reagan will be re-elected.
His roommates return from classes and work, more beer is acquired, the building residents want to know what that music is, doors are opened, the album is replayed in full many times.
Pete knew what he was doing when he ghosted to buy that album. It was a good day. Great fun was had by all.
posted by dglynn at 6:08 AM on August 19, 2014 [12 favorites]
I prefer his Professional White Rain.
posted by Jahaza at 7:13 AM on August 19, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Jahaza at 7:13 AM on August 19, 2014 [3 favorites]
he was only two years older than I was at the time.
And now? Are you insinuating that Prince is a time traveler?
posted by Literaryhero at 11:29 PM on August 18
Hell, if anyone is a time traveler, it's Prince.
posted by blurker at 7:18 AM on August 19, 2014 [1 favorite]
And now? Are you insinuating that Prince is a time traveler?
posted by Literaryhero at 11:29 PM on August 18
Hell, if anyone is a time traveler, it's Prince.
posted by blurker at 7:18 AM on August 19, 2014 [1 favorite]
This thread needs a reminder of this excellent essay that I first encountered, I think, on another Prince thread here on the blue.
posted by uberchet at 7:45 AM on August 19, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by uberchet at 7:45 AM on August 19, 2014 [2 favorites]
How else would he have partied like it was 1999 in 1982?
How would he have even KNOWN HOW TO DO THAT?
THINK ABOUT IT PEOPLE!
posted by Naberius at 8:21 AM on August 19, 2014 [1 favorite]
How would he have even KNOWN HOW TO DO THAT?
THINK ABOUT IT PEOPLE!
posted by Naberius at 8:21 AM on August 19, 2014 [1 favorite]
the album is replayed in full many times.
One night my first semester at college I was up all night writing a paper which I'd foolishly put off until the very last moment while there was a party down the hall where the revelers kept playing "Purple Rain." Not the whole album, just that song. Over and over and over and over. My whole memory of that night is a kind of cinematic montage of pacing and writing and typing in the purple rain.
posted by octobersurprise at 9:18 AM on August 19, 2014
One night my first semester at college I was up all night writing a paper which I'd foolishly put off until the very last moment while there was a party down the hall where the revelers kept playing "Purple Rain." Not the whole album, just that song. Over and over and over and over. My whole memory of that night is a kind of cinematic montage of pacing and writing and typing in the purple rain.
posted by octobersurprise at 9:18 AM on August 19, 2014
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