Purple Rain – Prince and the Revolution

Introduction to the podcast

0:00I'm Adam Ennis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It podcast. Music explored. Explored with Purple Fringe, Peter. Brought to you today by Open Studio.

0:31Go to OpenStudioJazz.com. That's OpenStudioJazz.com for all your jazz listen needs. Peter over at Open Studio. There's big stuff happening. We've got our summer sale going on right now. That won't last very long as you're listening to this. And if you're listening to this later and it's not the summer, you already missed it, but our biggest savings of the year. Go check that out. We've also got a new course from you and I called Jazz Piano for the Bandstand. Talk about how to play with other people. Give you some real concrete examples of how to play the piano with bass and drums. Most of my contribution to that course, to be honest, is just,

1:02this is how you play with other people. Follow me. Yeah. Jump on my back. And then Peter rips it. Go to OpenStudioJazz.com for all your jazz lesson needs.

Discussing Prince and Purple Rain

1:09Peter, this has been a long time coming. It has been. You said Purple Fringe. And I thought you were saying Purple Friend. I was like, oh, I'm your Purple Friend for the day because we're doing Purple Rain. Like Barney the Dinosaur. What are you talking about? Love that dude. That dude's good. Love that dude. That's a good dude, man. Shout out Selena Gomez. You know who else was a good dude? Who? A great talent. Generational talent, perhaps? Oh, not even perhaps. Prince Rogers Nelson. 100%. Right? Maybe the greatest dude. Maybe. Whoa. Whoa. Perhaps. Look at that flag.

1:40Just got planted in the carpet. But an amazing talent, a controversial, controversy, controversial gentleman. That's a great album. Maybe not anymore, but at the time, kind of controversial. I mean, somewhat. No, for sure. But not even, you know, we're going to talk about some of the kind of pop culture stuff, but also a very, I was thinking about this. I was like, what made Prince so unique? Well, that's exactly the word I use for him. For a pop star, especially. Yes. At the time, especially. At a time of unique other, I'm like, if everybody's unique, who's unique, right?

2:12Yeah, but for him to be so huge, and this album that we're listening to today, Purple Rain, Yes. really is the album that made him a huge, huge global sensation. Yes. A huge star. Blockbuster movie. Biggest album of the year. His biggest album ever up to that point, and I think maybe ever, right? Yeah. And the biggest album of 1984. This really put Prince over the top in the global superstar. 84 into 85. But he's a really interesting, unique global superstar. Yeah. Because he's so specific, and so, I mean, he's so interesting, has a really unique point

2:45of view that's different from any other pop star. I mean, this is not Whitney Houston, right? This is not Huey Lewis. This is like a guy. Really? This is a guy who's got some religious things happening in all of his music, a little bit of sex happening in his music, just a hair, just a touch. Really? But I mean, the androgyny, the outfits, the dance, the band, this is the first album made with the revolution. Yep. And to me, this is like an incredible pairing of Prince, who had made basically an album

3:15per year up until this point since 1978. Somewhat by himself. Mostly by himself. But on this album, the revolution, you know, full band on six tracks out of the nine tracks. Yeah. Which is pretty stunning for Prince's album. And that was a big deal for Prince. I mean, you know, obviously this record was so big. It was such a big pop hit, biggest album of really almost two years. I mean, almost for a continuous year from 84 to 85. I remember that because I was a freshman in a little thing called high school. Did you ever attend that? I barely did. For a little while. Yeah.

3:45But so a lot of people, this was their first introduction to Prince, for sure. For sure. And not just the scared parents that heard their kids listening to this freaking out. But it definitely was a lot of scared parents. There's a lot of, yeah. But even for a lot of young people and just like, it was his biggest record. So you're going to collect more people come in. And then a lot of people, of course, went back. But I think, you know, for Prince having done so much writing, playing every instrument, producing, programming, you know, all those records that he did everything to come in with a band.

4:16I mean, they had been playing around with it for a while before this. But to present that, that was a big thing for him too. Like that was a change in direction. For sure. You know. For sure.

Let's Go Crazy

4:26Let's get into it, Peter. The first track, iconic opening track. You think? Oh my gosh. I mean, and we mentioned like sort of the religion that seeps into a lot of Prince's music. But it starts literally in church.

4:41It's a sermon. Oh, that warbly synth organ.

4:49Sus. A lot of sus on this record. A lot of sus. Sus chords. Yeah.

4:56A lot of weird keys too. G flat.

5:02A lot of B major on this record.

5:08Sus. So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills, you know the one, doctor, everything would be all right. Oh, when those drums come in, man. That's the tone.

5:20This is such an 80s groove. It's such a Prince take on it, right? This is one of the tracks with the revolution. One of the six.

5:29Where the full band is playing. And if the elevator tries to break the devil. I'm crazy. Punch the high airflow.

5:44Do, do, do, do.

5:48If you don't lie. What you're living here? Take a look around. At least you got friends. I call my own lady. Those, yeah, it's like, it's like a little, like, Roto, not Roto, um, like, Roto, I know what you're talking about. It's not that, but. It's not Timbali or whatever.

6:12And I mean, like, there's so many little Prince-isms that turn this, this groove could be very corny and dated. And some might say it is in a way, and this is certainly Prince's most pop stuff so far. Yeah, that's good. The walking bass line there.

6:33But there's so many Prince-isms. Boop, do, do, wait, oh. Maybe it's cause. Be, be. Oh, I'm gonna die. Be, be, be. Be, be, be, be. What is it all for? Be, be, be, be. Great riff-based song. Oh, man, his riffs. The little counter melody is great. I'm gonna need the element to break us down. Oh, no, no, let's go, let's go crazy. Let's go crazy.

7:01Boop, boop, boop, banana, till they put us in the truck. Let's go.

7:08Come on, baby. Let's get real. Yeah. Oh, of course. What is that? It's almost like you start an engine. Click, click, click, you know.

The movie and historical context

7:25When was the last time you watched this movie, too? Has it been a minute? It's been a minute. I actually, I... I watched it a lot during one period of months. I rented it for this episode. Yeah. I decided not to. It is an interesting watch in 2026. It's great to see. The concert footage is amazing. Do you have a list of things that haven't aged well from it? That's a rewatchables category. But, man, I will say, watching the movie and knowing this album... Yeah. I always forget, this is a soundtrack, technically, right?

7:56I mean, it's technically a soundtrack. The process of how they made this, like, basically, like, they had a warehouse where they were working on script reads and also working on the album and rehearsing the band for the live sets. Like, it was kind of all happening in the same complex in Minneapolis. And they were kind of making the movie and the album at the same time. And Prince was creatively involved in all of it, as you could imagine. Yeah. Very, very hard. But, man, watching the movie in the buildup to this, first of all, it's...

8:26There's some incredible, incredible dialogue. My favorite scene in the whole movie is one of the waitresses at the club early on in the movie says to Prince, like, Hey, come here, I got something for you. And Prince just goes, What is it? A subpoena? Out of nowhere. No context. There's no... You got the voice now a little bit. What is it? A subpoena? It's so good. Heather and I have been saying that around the house a lot. So there's great moments. But then there's...

8:56And then also the classic, the, like, you know, cleanse yourself in the... Or bathe yourself in the cleansing waters of Lake Minnetonka. Lake Minnetonka. And then she's like, That's not Lake Minnetonka. That's not Lake Minnetonka. What is this, a subpoena? That's so good, man. But what is really cool, and it's a loose story, you know, honestly, but what is really cool is, like, these songs actually mean something in the movie. Like, these songs do follow... They wrote... Apparently Prince wrote, like, a hundred songs for this project. Man, he was prolific. And him and the director picked, like, these nine to be, to help tell the story of the movie.

9:31And they do a great job. What they picked was amazing. And when you watch the film, like, the songs actually mean something more to me. Even something like When Doves Cry, which I've heard a billion times, like, watching it in the movie, I was just like, This is kind of unbelievable. This is amazing. Yeah. So no surprise that it was... The movie was such a big hit, and this album was such a big hit. I think people mostly just remember now the album, because the movie, you know, it hasn't aged as well as the music has, for sure. But it's still, it's worth the afternoon to go watch the film and listen to the music. I'm going to go back, because I was a little bit...

10:01Well, so we have a little bit of research on this. By the time the Triple Thet tour around February 83, Prince started carrying around a purple notebook. Imagine that. I wonder why he chose that. But a bespoke purple notebook, he'd write down ideas for a film that was beginning to form in his mind. He was determined to get into the movies. He told his managers that if they wanted to keep him, they needed to get him a movie deal. It was a moonshot. He didn't even have his first number one hit. A film featuring a semi-popular non-actor was unlikely to get approved.

10:31But the head of Warner Brothers Music Division supported the project. That's interesting, because a few years later, Warner Brothers and Prince would really go at it legally. Yeah, in a big way. Yeah, and Warner Brothers put up $4 million of the label's money to get the project started. Okay, so that was Warner Brothers' music division. Man, what a different time when the studios were connected, like that music, television, film. Purple Rain, the film, made 10x the amount it cost to make. One a Grammy, two singles on the album hit number one.

11:03Academy Award. Yeah. For best original song score. And it's currently still tied for fifth place for the longest run at the top of the Billboard 200. Okay, that's good. That's valid, because that's how I remembered, like, my whole freshman year, even before. I think it came out in the summer. Yeah, the summer. But I think even in eighth grade, maybe one of the singles had come out already. But all the way through, like, this just dominated for week after week after week. And, I mean, I think it was, like, four or five singles that were one, two, three, four, five, yeah, that were spread out.

11:36And it was just, you know, we talk about this with Thriller, with even Up to Bad, just different stuff. You know, Madonna then in the 80s where these albums would enter into the really worldwide, but, you know, we didn't know anything. There was no worldwide web, but the U.S. cultural zeitgeist that just reached everywhere, including some parents that didn't know nothing about Prince. Yeah. You remember a mother named Tipper Gore? Well, we'll get there. Oh, we'll get there. Okay, we're not there yet. Let's save it. Let's save it. Shout out Tennessee.

12:07My parents wouldn't be thrilled with me listening to Prince. Right. You were a little guy. I would have been too young for this. I would have been too young. But, you know, so that opening track, Let's Go Crazy, reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. And like I said, that had featured all members of the Revolution. The Revolution was made up of some pretty incredible musicians. The team, really, of Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, who are still making soundtracks to this day. They're still an artistic partnership. I believe at one time they were actually a partnership in life, but now there's still a musical partnership, very successful musical partnership, Wendy and Lisa.

12:44Wendy Melvoin on guitars, Lisa Coleman on vocals and synthesizers. Matt, Dr. Fink on the keyboard synthesizers. Brown Mark on bass and Bobby Z on drums.

Take Me With You

12:55And then, of course, this next track, Take Me With You, which features the Revolution and the co-star of the movie Purple Rain. Yeah. Apollonia on the vocals with Prince. I believe there's also some... Apollonia Cotero. Yeah, yeah. Take Me With You.

13:14Man, I remember when I first heard this, I was like... This is killing. Yeah.

13:20That's some rotos there, right? Sounds like... Yeah, rotodrums. Drummers, what are those things? Are those rotodrums? Rotodrums.

13:27Woo! The way it slides into that tempo.

13:31Okay, I'm going to stop right here. Yeah. So, what's happening there? Can you figure out those chords real quick? Da-da.

13:38Yeah. That's a little sus, too, right? Da-da-da-da-da. Da-da-da-da.

13:45There it is, yeah. So, this is a theme that's going to happen on Purple Rain. Yeah. We heard it on Let's Go Crazy on the... Boom, boom, ba-ba. It's called the pedal point. Yeah. That bass note is going to stay the same, and they're going to move chords over that bass note. It happens on, like, four or five songs I have. It happens on four tracks on this album. The first two tracks feature those pedal points, musical pedal points, where the bass just stays on that. And the chords move over that bass without the bass moving, which isn't unusual. But the effect that it creates, especially four times on this album, creates this feeling of, like, we're in the pocket.

14:21Yeah. There's nothing... There's no, like, big, dramatic, harmonic changes. No. It's like we're zoning in to this pedal. Yeah. It's kind of set in the... It's a drone. But think about what it's coming off of, that epic intro with, like, a different tempo, and then it slides into that. Yeah, yeah. So, a lesser artist would have gone right to this pedal, which still would have been called, you know, one, two, three, four. But play what it does before it, and then check out how it feels.

14:49Yeah, this dramatic, cinematic intro.

14:55Yeah, they're big. And the bass is moving around a lot. It's the opposite of them.

15:01Now we've got our first major. And it slows down a little bit. Oh, right? But it's just hanging out.

15:10Same kind of thing on Let's Go Crazy.

15:13Let me get my mic.

15:17Man, and here's, like, clave. It's like a patient. And then, where does it go here? I don't care where we go. I don't care what we do. I don't care, pretty baby. Just take me with you.

15:47But it makes those bass movements. Oh, that's such a Prince K. Don't, don't, don't, don't. Yeah. Corny, and if anybody else does it. Oh, totally. But Prince nails it. Now, I'm starting to think, like, that's the... Woo! Those strings. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's like some Sinclair, huh? No, that's a real string session. Oh, is that real? Yeah. Yeah, they did a string session on three of the tracks, Take Me With You, Baby, I'm a Star, and Purple Rain, arranged by Prince and Wendy, and conducted by Wendy and Lisa. Nice. Yeah.

16:17Yeah, now that I hear it. You.

16:22Goes to the one... Oh, Prince loves the bridges. Oh, sorry. Arranged by Lisa and Prince, not Wendy. Lisa and Prince, and conducted by Wendy and Lisa. I don't care if we spend the night on the town.

16:37All I want is to spend the night together.

16:44All I want is to spend the night in your arms. A little Stevie. That's some Stevie mover right there. Uh. I believe Lisa's singing on this, too, with Apollonia. You know what's interesting? Prince on... I mean, it's really his whole style, but especially this record. Yeah. He's very specific. Like, there's not a lot of, like... Woo!

17:10He's very intentional about his phrasing, like, where the rhythm lies with his melody. Yeah. He doesn't do a lot of dancing on top of it. It's, like, built into the melody. I mean, he'll do some, like... He'll use other textures. Yeah. When he's improvising, he'll riff or whatever in between.

17:25And, like, the doves cry at the end. And he's... I don't care what we do. Like, that's... You know, it's all part of a program of rhythms. Just take me with you. Woo! Okay. Just take me with you. One, four, one. It's like... Won't you take me with you? Honey, take me with you.

17:53Now, having said that... I'm going to tell you, the movie is worth it just for the Apollonia part, too. Yes. She's pretty incredible. Slow your roll. Relax there, buddy. Star, right there. Yeah. How would you grade her acting, though? Good. In the movie. Good.

18:08Okay. Anyway. I haven't seen it in a long time. It's just one of those movies that I remember. No, she's great. She's magnetic. She's magnetic. Yeah, yeah. I remember the level of acting from, like, the, you know, Morris Day, Prince... The Morris Day is hilarious. Don't... I won't hear any Morris Day slander at all. Actually, he might be the best... I mean, he's playing himself, right? He's really good. Yeah, yeah. Prince... I mean, Prince is playing himself. He's a scoundrel. Everyone's playing themselves. It's just that there's some... Like, okay, we're not doing the movie. This is not the rewatchables. We're doing the album, so... It's not. But couldn't it be for just one day?

18:40Can we just get Sean Fennessey right here to talk about... No? Okay. Okay, good. Now, having said that, can I be honest? Yeah. Take Me With You has never been my favorite song on this album. I love Take Me With You. You're crazy. Are you serious? I love it. It's one of your favorites? I really like it a lot. Yeah. I feel like it's a little bit of a dip on the album. This is Wendy Melvoin. I love the intro and I love the riff.

19:01Oh, Peter, that's real nice. But, um... You know, it's July, right? It's not Christmas time. Really? Yeah. It feels like it's Christmas because we've got this big sale going on here at Open Studio. Oh, I could see why you would think that. Yeah, it is our big summer sale, 50% off Open Studio annual membership. So it does feel like Christmas in July because you get all of our great Open Studio courses, including our weekly lesson pathways. I teach the beginner and the intermediate. You teach the advanced. And we've got courses from people like Larry Golding, Sullivan Fortner, Emmett Cohen, Fred

19:31Hirsch, Jeffrey Kieser, and much, much more. Go to OpenStudioJazz.com to save 50% off our annual membership. That's OpenStudioJazz.com to save 50% off an Open Studio annual membership. Well, now I feel like I should be playing.

19:46Yeah. More appropriate.

The Revolution and Wendy Melvoin

19:48Here's Wendy talking about being hired to join the revolution. I was in Lisa's room and I was just practicing my guitar.

20:07And he, Prince, walked down the hotel, the hallway to get to his room and he knocked on the door. Who's playing guitar in there?

20:20And Lisa opened the door and he saw me and he had known me and he's like, you play? And I said, yeah, yeah. And he said, play me something. And I said, Wendy, don't freeze, don't freeze, don't freeze, don't freeze. I knew at that point I had a tendency to freeze. You know, I'm the Warner Brothers frog, you know? And instead of like, you know, I just was like, no, I'm not, that's not my gift.

20:53I just stretched this massive, beautiful chord and just played a progression for him. And he just sort of went, hmm. Yeah, sounds like him. And didn't speak, he just kept staring. And there was, and I was like. He looked at me. Yeah. You know, Wendy and Lisa, especially, the whole revolution actually, according to a lot of stories, had a lot of input collaboratively on this album, especially musically. I think Prince wrote all the lyrics for everything, but he let them have ideas and do things,

21:26especially Wendy and Lisa were very much a big part of this. Oh, massive. And they were very free with their ideas for this project. So I'm just remembering back to this time, you know, I'm a 14-year-old boy and I'm listening to this record mostly at first through the wall into my sister's room. Shout out Nancy Martin, my sister. She was a senior in high school at the time. She loved this record. She loved Prince. She had been a big Prince fan, so I'd heard a lot of his music, but I was also kind of a jazz nerd, but I was grasping at straws at that point. I don't know if you remember age 14, man. You're just trying to survive out here.

21:57I'm trying to forget it. You're just trying to wear the right thing or play the right thing. But I was doing some gigs or whatever. So I had, I liked this record. I mean, it was, and it was on the radio. It was everywhere, right? But Wendy and Lisa, like seeing them in the video, hearing them play, seeing them, like we, I didn't really know because you only knew what you heard on the radio and saw in the videos, what the label was putting out there. Maybe you'd see them on Johnny Carson or Soul Train or some variety show. But I mean, basically like that, they were living the dream. They're playing with Prince there.

22:27And I couldn't tell. Like they all, in my mind, it was like this wild orgy all the time with Prince and his band. That's what they were portraying. Well, I wonder where you would have got that idea from. But the thing was, like, as you learn about it, it was, it was probably 2% that it was like 98%, like she was saying. A lot of work. A lot of work. It's like shedding, no, try it, you know, try it again. I don't think it was an easy band to be in. Where's the subpoena for those chord changes? Yeah. I think there was a lot of rehearsing. There was a, like, Prince was probably a little bit of a perfectionist and he definitely was, you know, wanted to control as much of his art as possible, which is probably

22:58what made it so great. But man, it's even, it makes its way. That's the thing. You're always saying Prince was a freak. I think he was more of a control freak then, maybe both. Probably. But when you watch the movie, you know, that actually becomes a plot line where Wendy and Lisa are trying to get him to play some of their songs. But apparently that was art imitating life. Like they were, they were feeding some ideas musically to him that he was eventually open to apparently. Yeah. Which is kind of cool because like I said, those albums from 1978 up to this point were a lot of, a lot of them were just Prince.

23:28Yeah. Just writing, producing, playing everything. And so to have more of an open collaboration on this album and it, and also for it to be so huge, I think was very special. The next track is, I mean, honestly.

The Beautiful Ones

23:40And look, what I'm saying is going to make more sense, not in the next track, but after that Computer Blue. We'll talk about that too. The next track is all Prince and it's, it's just one of the most amazing songs in 1984. It's the beautiful ones.

24:01Man, this is such a, so gorgeous.

24:11Those major sixes, they're so unique.

24:19It was open fifths. Damn.

24:24What's it gonna be?

24:31Baby, baby, baby, baby. Woo!

24:38Those synth swells. Yeah. The placement on this. On this.

24:46What a great riff. Don't make me lose my mind, baby. The way it goes back.

24:58Baby, baby. We're gonna talk about that. That little shaker.

25:04Every Prince album contains some of the greatest vocal performances in pop music history. Yeah. One of the greatest vocalists. These kind of ballads, would you call this a ballad? Yeah, this is a ballad. It's a Prince ballad. I mean, if you're dancing to this, it's a slow dance. Yeah. Yeah. But it's thick. I mean, there's a lot going on in there. And this bridge.

25:24Moo!

25:28It didn't need that. I did it, though. I did it. That's what Jeff. Part of our new series, Jazz Musicians, Ruin Prince. All that. Yeah. Man, his use of major six versus major seven. Bring to life a vision in one's mind. And I think, man, there's so much going on here. Always smash the picture.

25:56When you get that much going on, like, you have to nail the details and how they set together. And what's the thing that's staying there? Can we cut his keyboard, please?

26:18I'm going to show you all that.

26:23And each verse adds a little bit more. You know, a few more counter melodies.

26:35Sharp 11.

26:40Yes. That's one of my favorite moments. You want a Sabina? One of my favorite moments.

26:49This line here. If we got married. Would that be cool? Would that be cool? If not, I give you a subpoena. It's so cool. If we got married. Would that be cool?

27:13Like he's asking her, like, for a Coke. If I grab the Coke out of your fridge. Would that be cool? Okay, so there he goes up to the tonic. That's the first time. It's always, like, the sixth, the major seventh, the fifth. That's such a, man, like, such an apex moment of this song. Well, it's almost like Prince knows what he's doing, Pete. Man. Okay, can we break down some of this harmony? Because this is... And then, like, he understands, like, how to, like, take you to a place home. And then make you feel a different way.

27:44He's a master of that. The synth line goes down to that sharp 11 or flat 5. Yeah, and then it doesn't go back until there again. It does it two times. So I think that, and I remember now, because I used to get in arguments with my sister, because I was super judgy. Can you imagine that? Well... It doesn't seem like something I would be... To be fair, you're probably, you're 14? Yeah. You're probably, and you're a young jazz pianist? Yeah. I'm guessing that you didn't listen to anything, like, beyond 1963. No, I was, no, I was super judgy, and I was super, although I was always listening to the radio and just because it was, and videos, you know.

28:16MTV was huge. But my thing was more like, okay, I enjoy this, but this is simple and basic. And I remember my sister being like, you don't understand, Prince is a musical genius. And I was like, no. No, Herbie Hancock's a musical genius. Yeah, exactly. No, that's what I was saying. I was like, Herbie, like, he plays all these different chords. And I remember my sister playing this, and she's like, well, listen to those chords at the bridge. Yeah. Do you know that? And I couldn't figure it out. But I went in there, like, tried to figure it out. And I couldn't at the time. I mean, I kind of could. God bless you, Nancy Martin, for challenging. But that's when I started thinking. I'm like, okay. And I mean, this is the other thing. It's never all one thing. I had been listening to Stevie at that point.

28:47And so I understood, like, the harmonic depth. And there's a lot of Stevie imprint, actually, on this record. I always thought it was more, I mean, certainly, like, Sign of the Times, we talked about it, for sure. It comes out in there. But there's a lot of compositional stuff. But I think this bridge, like, there's a couple things happening. Like, at the beginning, you know. And I can't remember the voicing, but it's definitely, like, a major six, which is a dangerous, corny chord to play. Well, but we already established this. Prince can do things that, in other hands, might be kind of corny.

29:17Yeah. Just like, say, do you want a subpoena? Because he's all in on it. Just like what... What is it, a subpoena? What is it, a subpoena? But I'm saying, like, because he keeps doing that, and he's relentless with those two, F major six to B flat major six. Yeah. You know, would be so corny. But then he's combining it with these big, fat, parallel fifths. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And these sweeping textures, too. These sweeping synth textures.

29:42So that's that moo chord.

29:45But I love the way he comes out of it. Two different ways.

29:50And then back to that. But the second time, every other time.

29:57It's like a little false five into the one that it feels. And it's usually there or there. But that last time it goes up to the tonic. Okay, I'm getting my ass out of the nerd note. You want to hear a couple of other albums that were released in 1984? Yes. Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA. Oh, that was a big one. Tina Turner, Private Dancer. That was a big one. Madonna, Like a Virgin. Damn. Sade, Diamond Life. We used to be a real place, Peter, with real music. And the fact that this was bigger than... Is that possible? It was bigger than any of those? It was in the fall, for sure. Damn.

Computer Blue

30:23Huge, huge album. Yeah. Next up is Computer Blue, which starts with a little... Okay, this is what I'm talking about with when they... When I heard this, I was just like... I was just drawn in by the voice, and I was just like, I want to be in that pool. I thought it was a hot tub. They talked about it. In my mind, it was. I think Wendy and Lisa talked about it, and Prince just handed them a script, because they were like... Someone asked them, do you know what that meant? And they were like, no, we had no idea what we were talking about. We were just reading the lines that Prince gave us. I still don't know what it means.

31:06But I'm curious. I mean, now I finally know what it means. When I was 14, they think of all the different permutations of what it could mean when it going through your stupid little brain. So hip, though. This song is so hip. Man, how did he take a Huey Lewis groove and make it hip?

31:27Shout out to Huey Lewis. And the news.

31:31Specifically the news.

31:35It wins the sports podcast, Pete. Man, this is totally... I forgot how up and down this record is Prince's most pop record. Most pop record. Where is my love now? Like the grooves and the band sound, right? The original version of this song was 12 minutes long. Damn. Damn. This is another track with the full revolution.

32:16And he's still messing with that sauce back and forth, Dominant Seven. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Nope.

32:33It's such a killing harmonic move that happens there in this little interlude, this guitar interlude. man i mean we've talked about what a great songwriter is what a great producer is a great vocalist he is incredible guitarist oh my incredible guitarist just the one of the my favorite rock guitarist because that's what he does man he throws on that distortion pedal

33:05he rips these shredding solos we listen to that let's go crazy at the front there's a great video of and caleb if you're as you're editing this maybe link to this in the show notes but um it was the snl 40th anniversary after party right after the the snl 40th anniversary show um and this would have been not too like pretty pretty um close to the the point where he was was uh about to pass away yeah so not too long before he died um but he played that after party where he sat in on that

33:37after party and they do a version of let's go crazy that's just like oh it's so happening yeah and his he's just like crushes this guitar solo and of course the famous super bowl halftime where he plays purple rain yeah and it starts to rain yeah in the stadium well well from the lights but then he's just shredding one of the greatest solos there's all these great moments on youtube him sitting in at uh at uh george harrison's memorial concert and just grabbing guitar and coming in and just schooling everybody yeah incredible i know i totally agree that it's such a it's not

34:11really underrated because obviously everybody knows great guitars but i think when you like this is the eddie van halen rock guitar era right um sammy hagar um did sammy hagar play guitar no he was a vocalist you're i mean i know you're an expert and i know you know that no but yeah you got like this was the era of sure you got van halen you got guys like steve vi and joe satriani are doing these like i don't know about them yeah of course yeah but this is the thing what i was gonna say is like the prince is very much a rock guitarist and he's a blues guitarist what he's not i mean like

34:44those are the influence and then he's his own crazy thing yeah yeah um and i mean jimi hendrix is sort of the guitar personality that hovers you know heavy over that over all of us but he's not really like a jazz guitarist no he has jazz sensibilities and he has a big interest in jazz and you hear that like in some of his keyboard work and some of like this stuff you know boom you know sort of how his voicings work but his approach and this is not a good or bad thing but i never hear like and i think that would kind of mess it up as far as that influence being in there you mentioned hendrix and i think that's the sort of direct lineage you can hear in his playing yeah next up so this is darling

Darling Nikki

35:18nikki now this is the track that tipper gore uh heard her daughter listening to and uh is that true yeah tipper gore al gore's wife uh vice president al gore's wife he was senator at the time i believe from the great state of tennessee that's correct heard her daughter listening to darling nikki and she then looked up the lyrics and she was so shocked she formed a group that created the parental advisory labels that would appear on albums thereafter so this also known as 1985 karen genesis of karen exactly this track darling nikki is the reason why when you buy dr drace the

35:53chronic it has that parental advisory what's crazy about that though is there actually any vulgarities on this well let's listen well no i know i know the lyrics but oh man this is such a oh wait can we come out of computer glue on it this is one of the great lp trends i don't know if you're gonna screw it up yeah it doesn't work as well but let's try it let's try this is such an and this groove man this crazy shit in computer blue the way it segues is i love this segway

36:24yeah it's a great transition and that's a very stevie kind of synth sound man those oh this those the way the drums hit in the reverb yeah it's great so compelling i knew a girl named nikki i guess you could say she was a sex fiend

37:00i met her in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine she said how'd you like to waste some time and i could not resist when i saw little nikki grow there goes that blues minor oh that's so killing man that's syncopation i'm gonna back it up i'm gonna back it up okay and just can we just talk about real quick

37:34so this is such this is b major and he you know it's got like i don't know if he actually goes to the b major seven but it's a b major is such an optimistic and this is such an interesting thing because of how the lyrics sort of start to you know the kind of erode very quickly and get get very weird and then it sounded so there's two

37:55b major and g major and then we're kind of hinting at the four to the five but not in a real heavy bluesy way but then when it's like dude and then we're then we're now it's getting nasty you know what i mean like it's it's almost theatrical the way he weaves the harmony with the lyrics now could you please explain the harmony and how the story works no ah it went so hard man

38:26second verse this has a bit of sign of minor it's not major anymore this has a bit of sign of the times vibes the very you know what i mean absolutely and he and the way he's

38:54his vocal vocal easing vocalizing third verse

39:07now he changed up the harmony this is so good

39:25and now we're back it's it's such a like light and dark right it's it's it's the saturday night and the sunday morning like he's weaving all that in there

39:58maybe his best vocal performance on the whole album too yeah it's incredible incredible i love the way sign of the times on his on the tracks where it's not the revolution the three that are on here i mean he uses bass so sparingly yeah in a way you don't i mean because he uses percussion so thickly yes like the percussion gets thick when prince is producing it from the ground up i mean this happens on sign of the times as well yeah and he he often like will sort of like let the bass stroll a little bit but i'll put it in it like this one moment where it's just like that foundation yeah it melts you it happens again on this next track this this is i think is going to be in competition

40:32i can play the backwards message at the end with some volcano no we don't know shall we do it i don't even remember where

40:39was there something in here that's like

40:42something sinister sinister easter egg sounds like a space odyssey

40:57yeah this was something played back i think we tried to play it so and then all the monkeys touch the the monolith and the space odyssey and then i mean the thing is i think i remember this beat this this was not a single they wouldn't have done that but i definitely remember them playing this on the radio but it was like late at night like they had to play it after a certain time or maybe i'm confusing it but i remember remember this like sometimes when they

41:29would where they would normally be the end of the radio edit but sometimes they would play it longer and like people would try to record it if they had to help you or whatever but then we went and listened but yeah this was i just think it's weird because i don't think there's any vulgarity unless it's in that i mean they he says masturbate and he says grind can't talk about that well i mean i don't know tipper were you ahead of your time or behind your time the next track wife in 85 or or loving wife of of our future um inventor of the internet ironic you know he really opened the floodgates there you go the next number one are you nervous buddy

When Doves Cry

42:01the next number one single is the next track and this we're talking about um the sparse bass and this definitely has that same does it have any bass i don't know we don't listen this is and this is probably going to be a competition for desert island track i think for both of us this is when doves cry greatest guitar riff opening short yes man that's so killing

42:37oh that rhythm

42:41that's syncopation man so important propels this whole every time it comes back in

42:55there's no tonality outside of what he's doing at the melody it's implied there's some yeah but there's nothing being played there's nothing being played

43:08so when that those triads come back in the implication is that a minor yeah maybe maybe i'm just like my father just like my mother she's never satisfied

43:42we scream at each other this is what it sounds like when doves cry now we're getting a little bit of arpeggiation in the middle but still no bass line there's no

44:15no i don't think there is any bass in this but you start to hear it you think it's there it's implied because i hear like wedding bands play this and they're like

44:30yeah i'm like really i don't think this comes at a pretty emotional height of the film as well yeah

45:01that rhythm

45:05so important and he's just going to keep building on this and keep adding layer after this is all prince produced program everything this is a this is a prince produced one yeah we're going to come back to and actually for my this is not going to be my desert island this is going to be my apex mobile we'll come back it's such a great track it's an outstanding track it might not be mine either but it's it's got to be yeah it was number one hit yeah it's got to be a number uh

I Would Die For You and Baby I'm a Star

45:31only number one no the let's go crazy was also a number one and purple rain was number two it never went to number i know that's because of those other records it was probably got caught up in sade or madonna well our next track i would die for you broke the top ten it reached number eight on the billboard hot 100 and this is another this is another track that uses uh a pedal but in a really interesting way so we talked about how let's go crazy and uh take me with you and a little bit of when doves cry there's an implied pedal that's happening yeah i would die for you there's a

46:03reverse pedal so the base on this there is base on this um and it it moves around quite a bit but prince's melody stays on one note especially in the verse and it's really really effective it's like the one tone stays the same but the thing moves around flipped from those other two songs check it out can we just hear the beginning again i love a man play oh he didn't need it but we love it fire

46:35can we get details like that back in music ah they're there peter they're there

46:41okay so here's the here's the that pitch stays the same yeah the bass so it's like the the melody yeah i got your reverse pedal and it's got a gives it a sussy vibe

47:05and that's oh man he loves the four to the one so this track a little move this track mini move this is the last the start of the last three songs on the album strong the last three songs were initially recorded at a live concert a benefit concert in minneapolis with a remote rig and then were overdubbed uh uh overdubbed in la later but these last three tracks including purple rain were all recorded live right

47:37i think the purple rain is the live version isn't it they're all live yeah this is live all right with over the over track yeah right

47:46yeah first time i gotta tell you my first avenue song oh man the lyrics on this one too are so great i mean he could rip off almost like a just snare drum but for songwriters out there like notice

48:16that again going back to the pedal thing like one one element of a lot of these songs remains static yes you know whether it's the bass yeah or it's the drums or it's the vocals he's just gonna drill one thing right and then move everything around it and then he keeps the interest going lyrically and rhythmically yeah for sure melodically it's stationary and textually the production texture yeah but even with just if and like that's a little moo in there on there and then the syncopation keeps the groove so like front forward you know unbelievable yeah

48:56unbelievable song baby i'm a i'm a star i mixed feelings about this one so this one also contains uh how you feel about this one i love this one this one has this the strings on it as well and also some pedal work yeah

49:10that same thing as the bass being static and a pedal on the or as a pedal and the chords moving over it

49:32i can smell the sticky beer floor of that club first avenue and just moving those triads over that bass yeah

50:04i mean i'm rich on personality so true

50:18lyrics are killing all this he's killing it to me it's just you know it's always been the groove that's it to me this is not the grooviest on this album it's something are you serious yeah it's fine but hard disagree if everything's great then nothing's great this is great okay that's what i'm saying what's not great on this album we'll get to that okay okay this is my quibble bit actually

50:46man his vocals on the problem is the problem is on tracks i feel like tracks that we don't like as much especially going back because the way i learned look at him he loves it he loves it i just i just i just pooh-poohed on his uh poopoo platter um we don't listen to them as much because we skip them over so we don't know them you don't yeah whenever this would start i'd be like skip you need to go back to cassette tape where you pretty hard to skip the a track you can only skip to the same place on the next tune

51:18this never really goes anywhere too i mean it feels like a time track actually it feels like a morris day of the time track a little bit has that flavor speaking of the time okay so first avenue this these were recorded at first avenue i actually did a jazz gig there oh hello and uh and i feel like this was so much later than this but thinking back now that i'm old af it wasn't that long after this would have been 1995 with the joshua redmond quartet we did a little tour of rock venues that didn't work out great

51:53playing acoustic jazz whoa he's jumping right in no that's that's first avenue go ahead but i remember being like damn this is first avenue from the movie this is the the place and i'm i also remember being like wow the dressing rooms at rock clubs aren't quite as nice as like concert halls and college gigs you know but it's i mean it's such a historic venue such a cool place i don't know what's happening with it now but first avenue minneapolis minnesota i love minneapolis man shout out minneapolis minnesota incredible stuff okay uh there's just one more that's where we're

Purple Rain and final thoughts

52:22going though right what purple purple rain this is where we're going yeah there's no world one of the most uh i think this is probably of all these songs even though this only reached number two and there was two number one hits this is the one that people remember yeah you know this has become the anthem yeah for a reason title track another great it's epic yeah it's eight minutes long eight and a half minutes long yeah i mean is there any many more of a get your lighter in the air moment than this

52:53perfect

53:07what does that snare sound scream to you 1984 1984 1984 yeah i only want to see you landing in the purple rain purple rain purple rain So this, definitely the most gospel on this record, Influences.

53:45Some other Prince stuff, there's a lot more gospel, Influences apparent. This one very much in the harmony and his delivery. Of course, where he's going to go on future verses.

54:00Oh, no. Don't want to do that.

54:12The space, the time that he leaves open. I had quite a few rejections from the ladies during this period to dance to this song. I had a couple of, okay, you know, that's what I learned how to fail. All the boys lined up on one wall. All the girls lined up on the other wall. Awkward. And then you and a friend would take a shot. And, I mean, you know, you know what they say is like, gospel. I mean, what's that thing they say, you know, if you don't try, you're not going to succeed.

54:45No, even if you try, you don't succeed, too. That's what happened to me. Ours was at my dances, it was Boyz II Men's, End of the Road. That was a big one. Nice. Yeah. Nice.

54:57Oh, guitar stuff going on.

55:09That almost becomes like its own sus form.

55:17Every break, man. Damn. Church. This Bobby Z on drums, killing it. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. That high-hand work. The Revolution just crushes everything, man. The Revolution was an incredible band. Man, Prince kept him, whenever he had a band, several literate, he kept him a good band. Especially drummers, he never had a half-assed drummer.

55:49Bobby Z just crushing, Brown Mark crushing on the bass, Dr. Fink on the keys, Lisa Coleman on the keys and the vocals, Wendy Melvoin on the guitar.

56:01And he's so curious harmonically, but he knows how to hold back, too. He's not giving everything like a stupid jazz person like me would do. Which you're currently doing.

56:15It goes as that three. Listenership just drops.

56:30Pocket. He should try some of that bebop language. Huh? He should try some of that bebop language. He might have done better. Might have reached number one.

56:41Instead of number two.

56:45That's what the kids want.

56:51No one's still watching. Hit us up in the comments if you're still watching. Say bebop lives.

56:59Not going to be able to pull this one out, Liz. Sorry.

57:07All the Prince ads are coming for you, buddy. That's all right. I'm inspired. But I mean, the chords. So this is my thing. Oh. Oh.

57:21Like Prince. Prince.

57:26Prince. Prince. Prince.

57:31Oh, Phil. So good, dude.

57:46And he keeps it there. Sauce. You said it at the beginning. He's loving the sauce.

57:53This is great. Man, he's stacking levels.

58:16I mean, what a feeling this must have been to see live in concert. I mean, it just must have been amazing. I really regret that. I never got to see Prince live. Did you ever see Prince live? No. Yeah, me neither. But he did. I really, really regret that. He did come to a gig. I think I told that story already. You can go back to the old episode. He came to a gig we were doing and left. There's that.

58:39Stayed and enjoyed. But let's talk about some categories. Okay. What's your desert island truck? You kind of hinted at it. I'm going for I Would Die For You. Okay. That's a great one. One of the most optimistic sounds ever. Every time it starts, I just freak out. So I'm going with the beautiful ones. I think that that's great. I think it's such an interesting thing. For Apex Moments, I was going to go with that transition, the beginning of Darling Nicky. Great call. But I want to do When Doves Cry.

59:12If you go to about 440 or so, this is deep into the cut, so a lot of people aren't catching this. But this is another side of Prince. His harmonizing.

59:24I think it's here. Yeah. Right after this.

59:29Like, you think he's kind of introduced everything already? There's a breakdown here.

59:39Great call, Pete.

59:47Yeah, great moment. So much emotion. And they're killing keyboard line.

59:53Yeah, great call. Great moment. He does it against me. You think D'Angelo got a chance to hear that? Maybe.

1:00:03And like, there's so much automated drums, which may be a little bit of a quibble bit, but that's more of a quibble bit from the period. Yeah. But so like the humanity of those backgrounds, like if you hear, it's just such a, it's some of the most stunning like three-part harmony and stuff. D'Angelo was very influenced by that particular kind of, you know, vocal writing and execution. So I love it there. I'm going to go when the drums come in on Let's Go Crazy, the opening track, the very beginning of the album, because, you know, we have this, this organ intro, this sermon.

1:00:36Yeah. Call to the altar. A call to the altar. The Warbly DX7. The afterworld. I think it's a DX7. I don't know what that is actually. But when the drums come in here. Yeah. The Warbly organ is almost.

1:00:54Oh, yes. So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills, you know the one, the one, Dr. Everything will be all right. Let's sit back in the morning. That big gated snare. Man, and it's interrupting what he's saying, too. It's like, come on, let's do this. It's such a great line for them to come into. When you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills, you know the one. Dr. Everything's going to be all right. It's such a great moment for the beat to come in. It's just like, let's go. One of the most incredible moments in pop music history, honestly. It's great. And I mean, I love like this, you know, it's like the secular and the spiritual and the secular, right?

1:01:26And he's already mixing that. And then he just pushes it all the way through with the shrink in Beverly Hills. Then you're like, oh, okay, that's what's up. Quibble Bits. I have one. And that's, you know, watching the movie, there's so much great music. The movie is a big quibble bit. There's so much great music that's in the movie that, I know this isn't technically, I guess, a soundtrack. Although, isn't it a soundtrack? I think it is. Yeah, but couldn't we have gotten a little bit of...

1:01:52Woo! You know, I'd be okay with that.

1:01:59Morris Day in the time. Uh-huh.

1:02:02That would have made this a soundtrack. It would have had multiple artists. Woo! I, I've been watching you. Interesting, yeah. So you're saying a quibble bit on Prince's, on Purple Rain is there's not enough Morris Day in the time. Well, and there was this great Apollonia track. There's another one. It was like a, I forget what the artist's name was. New Wave kind of thing that happened in the movie. Hit me up in the comments. I'm spacing right now.

1:02:32But there's some music that's in the movie that I would love if this was, maybe just at the end of the album. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. I mean, how can you, it is a small quibble. That's our first quibble bit that there wasn't enough of another artist on the record. Well, yeah, but I wanted to, after watching the film, I was like, I wish Morris Day was on the album. Well, it's like your thing with the reverse pedal. This is like a reverse soundtrack. You're right. The movies, I mean, the record comes out of the idea for the movie, but the record's the big thing. Maybe that's a terrible take. I don't know. But I really love Morris Day in the time. Sue you. Yeah. My quibble bit is Baby I'm a Star.

1:03:03I just feel like it's a little bit of a weak link on this record. It's fine. It's all right. And I mean, I think, you know, some of the drums, actually the drum sound's not even a quibble bit. It's just a period thing. What do you got for accoutrements? You're wrong. Okay. Accoutrements, I have a 10. There's literally a blockbuster movie attached to this album. Is that part of the accoutrements? It created the color purple being in the zeitgeist. Yeah. There's all the, you know, the lace and everything and the look and the motorcycle. Oh, you're really extending it. Lake Minnetonka. You're extending out the accoutrements. There's so much lore around the making of it

1:03:35and there's so much like legend of all the relationships that formed and were burned in this making of it and the aftermath of it. Are you including Apollonia as part of the accoutrements? Yeah. Okay. Okay. I'll give it a 10 then. There's a great moment, by the way, after she gets out of Lake Minnetonka where he takes off on his motorcycle and then he comes back to get her but she starts getting on the back and he, like he's such a jerk. Right. But doesn't he do it like 10 times? He does it like 10 times. He kind of overacts that part. And I know this whole movie, the whole movie is like him trying to like figure that stuff out

1:04:07but I was just like, damn. It was a different time. That's cold blooded. It was a different time. It was a different time. Is this Prince's best album? I'm going to say no. I'm going to, I think on the other episode, I signed the Times, I said that, my favorite, Desert Island, like if I had to pick one. This is a great one. This is his most popular. This is probably his most pop, which isn't a bad thing. Not a bad thing. But I mean, look, a lot of people are going to say, is this the KOB of Prince's albums? Yes. Yeah. I don't think it's, for me, it's not my favorite. I actually, I have a tie for first and it's Dirty Mind and Controversy. I think those two that came out,

1:04:3880 and 81, are perfect albums. Yeah. And I love, I could, and also, I mean, even the self-titled 79, but Dirty Mind and Controversy together are like crack to me. I can't get enough of it. I'm just addicted to those albums. Yeah. Got it.

1:04:56Snubometer. One. Well, I was going to do one. I'm doing three. Oh yeah. It's just the biggest album of the year. No, but there's some things to, you know, your story about Tipper Gore and the rise of the Karens, no offense to any Karens, like that would push it off of a one a little bit, wouldn't it? Why? I don't know. Let's move on. Up next. Up next. What do you got? I think I have, uh, like a virgin Madonna. Since this is that, that, that, that's, you know what I mean?

1:05:26Controversial to controversial. Interesting. I mean, artistically I would, look, pop wise, it's not a big, I mean, pop impact during that year. It's not a big fall off to Madonna. I mean, artistically, yeah, probably. But I mean, in terms of like defining those times, you're, you're right in there. I'm, I'm, I'm back in 84, 85 if, if I go to that. And I don't love that Madonna record or Madonna period, but it's, it's, it's very indicative of the times. What you got? I'm going to go with Huey Lewis sports.

1:06:02And that's all I'm going to say. Okay. Very good. Um, I think we did it. And then we even did a little bit more. Maybe too much. That was good. Prince, man. Thank you, Prince. Yeah. Curious, a curious genius. Can we do controversy next time? Yeah, sure. That'd be great. Next one. Yeah. That'd be great. Yeah. If, if the Prince heads let us, thank you. Till next time. You'll hear it.

1:06:32I never meant to cause you any sorrow.

1:06:42Never meant to cause you any pain. I just want one time to see you there laughing. I only want to see you laughing in the purple rain, purple rain, purple rain. I only want to see you, babe.

1:07:39I only wanted to be some kind of friend, yeah. I only wanted to be some kind of friend, yeah. I only wanted to be some kind of friend, yeah. Honey, I could never steal you from another. I could never steal you from another.

1:08:09I could never steal you from another. Mm-hmm. It's such a shame my friendship had to end Purple rain, purple rain Purple rain, purple rain Purple rain, purple rain

1:08:42I only want to see you underneath the purple rain Honey, I know, I know, I know times are changing I think it's time we all reach out for something new That means you too, baby

1:09:13Said you want to lead up, but you can't seem to make up your mind Better close it and let me guide you to the purple rain Purple rain, purple rain Purple rain, purple rain Purple rain, purple rain

1:09:50I only want to see you, only want to see you In the purple rain

1:10:12I always want to see you, only want to see you I am tasks for you, only for me I always use the blue rain Thank you.

1:11:06Thank you.

1:11:36Thank you.

1:12:06Thank you.

1:12:36Thank you.