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1 more song 4 U

Continuing with my blogging of the songs.

385. Prince - Purple Rain (So it's more like a Prince retrospective than about this one particular song.)

prince.jpg I never heard of Prince before 1982. Apparently he put out three albums before 1999 hit the charts and the man with the royal name became all the rage. To clarify, 1999 came out in 1982.

Prince was obviously a man ahead of his time. He knew all about that Y2K bug before anyone else. He even sang about it:

’cuz they say two thousand zero zero party over,
Oops out of time So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1999

Nevermind that the best song on the album was Let's Pretend We're Married, all you heard on the radio was 1999 and Little Red Corvette. Over and over and over. And just when you finally got that damn armageddon song out of your mind, it was really 1999 and it was back all over the radio again and everyone was partying like hell would freeze over when the year ended. And then 1999 came and went, and it was evident we were still partying and not out of time at all. Song over. Thank you.

I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's take a trip back to 1984. Come on, you know you saw it. In the theater. You paid money, yes you did. Maybe you even wore purple and knew all the words and felt Prince's pain when he was left standing in the Purple Rain. I know I did. I had the purple vinyl picture disc 45 of When Doves Cry and the purple vinyl version of the soundtrack.

Once again, Prince was ahead of his time. With his shorthand spelling (I Would Die 4 U, I never meant 2 cause u any sorrow), Prince foresaw the introduction of America Online Instant Messaging and a million kids were already well-versed in AIM-speak way before it became the first language for millions of illiterate middle schoolers.

And that was it. Anything and everything that followed Purple Rain can be found in the cut-out bin at a Sam Goody near you. Or you can buy them for 99 cents at your local CD swapping emporium.

Did you know that if you rearrange the words The Artist Formerly Known as Prince you get No first-rate workmanship recently? Coincidence? I think not.

Up next: A Michael Jackson retrospective.

Comments

Gett Off and Cream were pretty big back in my college clubbing days...but certainly no Darling Nikki (and I happen to prefer the Foo Fighters cover of that anyway).

I was only 13 when Purple Rain came out, so no theaters for me... but HBO + Purple Rain meant lots of Apollonia visual goodness.

Prince did have some good stuff on his latest release. However I sent it back after seeing the video for Cinnamon Girl. For someone next to the El Al counter when that asshole started shooting, I really didn't feel like someone trying to justify to me why someone might blow up an LAX terminal. Prince, prick, whatever...

Ahhh, colored vinyl and picture disks! Somehow, sill-screened stuff on CD's just isn't the same.

"Holy Shit it's Morris Day and the Time!.... Wait'll Morris sees us; he loves us."

Oh, wait... wrong movie, nevermind

1984-85, my Senior year in high school.

Our school colors? Purple and white.

I'm sure you can figure out how those all tie together.

Buried in the yearbook is a picture of me during 'haze week' when I went out for one of the school clubs. Full face paint, frilly shirt & jewelry, dyed (and curled. Sleeping in curlers no fun) hair, the works. Yep, I had to be a Prince for a day.

...so in Darling Nikki, is the magazine a visual aid or a physical one?

I own Purple Rain on DVD, and I'm not the least bit embrassed by that. Really. Well, maybe a little.

Ever since Prince became a Jehovah's witness, I just have this recurring image of opening my door and finding a short guy with huge curly hair and a hevaily-shoulderpadded purple suit asking me if I "Would like to talk about Jesus" before breaking into "Darling Nikki". It's disturbing, although amusing.

I still think he had some good stuff on Around the World in a Day, Parade, and Sign 'O' the Times. The crap came out when he started fighting with Warner Brothers.

My Purple Rain tape got used so much the lettering wore off. Clearly he was at the top of his game... at age 26.

Diamonds and Pearls was a phenomenal album. The symbol one too. I think I like NPG better than the Revolution.

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