Purple Rain

June 2, 2016 1:13 AM

Amanda Palmer and Jherek Bischoff create a pretty great (IMO) cover of Purple Rain, with proceeds from sale of the song on Bandcamp going to Prince + Shelia E's music education/therapy charity Elevate Hope Foundation.

I also thought their David Bowie tribute EP was pretty outstanding. YMMV.

posted by hippybear (17 comments total)

You had me at 'Amanda Palmer'.
posted by ZaneJ. at 2:26 AM on June 2, 2016

I've never really liked Amanda Palmer's work, but seeing Jherek Bischoff on this made me look again. I first saw him play as part of a jazz ensemble at my university in Seattle, and then a few house parties, and his playing always drew attention. Then he showed up at some really interesting shows as part of a few different groups...saw him with Xiu Xiu, the weird performance art group the Degenerate Art Ensemble, and my favorite The Dead Science. Lost track after that when nearly a decade a later, he's on Fresh Air talking about his symphonies, collaborating with David Byrne, and other projects. It's worth spending some time seeking out his music.
posted by msbrauer at 3:46 AM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think I may have reached a "Purple Rain covers are abundant and low value" stage. It does have a Steely Dan chord in it, though.
posted by thelonius at 4:08 AM on June 2, 2016 [5 favorites]

I think it would have been affecting if more of the emotion was kept inside? But I am a sourpuss. Lovely arrangements
posted by Sebmojo at 4:20 AM on June 2, 2016 [4 favorites]

my wife's been a big AFP fan for a while now, which is how I became aware of Jherek Bischoff.

he is def one mothergrabbing great arranger.
posted by lodurr at 6:15 AM on June 2, 2016

I do understand why all the purple rain covers are happening but at the same time I sit around thinking, "he had tons and tons of great songs." Will nevertheless check this out later in the day.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 6:16 AM on June 2, 2016 [4 favorites]

I do understand why all the purple rain covers are happening but at the same time I sit around thinking, "he had tons and tons of great songs."

Totally agreed.

Lydia Loveless covered "I Would Die 4 U" and it's pretty damn great.
posted by Ufez Jones at 6:23 AM on June 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

I love this. By itself, without the context of the original, it's really wonderful. But knowing the context adds a layer of appreciation to it. I only have cursory knowledge of AFP, so I don't have a real opinion about her, other than I've like a few things she's done visually. And I have never heard of Jherek Bischoff, but now I'm going start paying attention!
posted by numaner at 8:08 AM on June 2, 2016

I think it would have been affecting if more of the emotion was kept inside? But I am a sourpuss. Lovely arrangements

Strong second, I find it goopy :/ Agree on arrangements
posted by cotton dress sock at 10:29 AM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I came in to this fully willing to give it a fair swing, but holy crap is it overwrought. It's oddly sexual, which i mean yea it's prince, but in a really trite/offputting way that the source material never was.
posted by emptythought at 1:45 PM on June 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

Meanwhile, at Boston Calling this weekend, Janelle Monae paid tribute to "my hero, my mentor, my friend" Prince with an incendiary cover of "Let's Go Crazy". LIZZO, a Minneapolis native who I believe played at one of Prince's Paisley Park parties, interpolated the opening speech from "Let's Go Crazy" into one of her songs during her Boston Calling set. I can't find video of it online, but here she is covering "The Beautiful Ones" at the Prince block party outside of First Avenue.

It's really nice to see some genuinely talented artists, like Lizzo and Janelle, pay tribute to Prince.
posted by pxe2000 at 2:37 PM on June 2, 2016 [4 favorites]

So overwrought. It feels like a cheap exercise made to sound expensive, and the singer sounds like she thinks what she's doing is edge of your seat stuff, and it isn't. As the man himself said, roughly, they can do ____ but they can't cover "Housequake".
posted by trbojanglesm at 7:56 PM on June 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

I like AFP. And I love the strings in this. But her vocals made it so I never want to hear it again. Here's to hoping someone makes a stripped down version without vocals.
posted by greermahoney at 8:00 PM on June 2, 2016

I'm a huge Prince fan. I continue to find it puzzling in the extreme why so many artists pay "tribute" to a prolific songwriter and performer with a career that spanned nearly 40 years...by endlessly covering one song from 32 years ago. It does NOT honor his memory; it shows that the person doing the covering really didn't get Prince at all.

Plus, this particularly version? Swill. Couldn't listen to much of it, skipped forward and listened for a few seconds at a time and that was enough to make me want to shake her.
posted by mysterious_stranger at 11:07 AM on June 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Amanda Palmer=Avoid Permanently.
posted by mysterious_stranger at 11:09 AM on June 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you only have time for one "Purple Rain" cover...make it this one.
posted by pxe2000 at 4:59 PM on June 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Jherek's a genius. Amanda's a sweetheart. This is great!

Jherek's playing in Seattle Monday night (the 6th) at The Neptune theater if you can make it. Guy always puts on a helluva show.
posted by artof.mulata at 3:47 PM on June 4, 2016