Review #8: Purple Rain, Prince and the Revolution
#8: Purple Rain, Prince & The Revolution
As I’ve said before, I’m not much of a dancer but I did a lot of dancing on this road trip. (In my seat, safely buckled in, obviously.) Frankly, you lose a lot of inhibition when you’re alone in a car for long periods of time, and the best way to maintain your sanity is to accept that you will become a different person. I became a person who dances to Prince.
Anyway, this is the soundtrack to a movie starring Prince that I’ve never seen, which according to RS was “based on his life.” If I’m to understand the plot of this movie from Wikipedia, Prince and the people around him abuse each other until his father tries to kill himself, then Prince plays the most bitchin’ guitar solo of all time and becomes a hero. (Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.) I also learned why this album is by Prince and “the Revolution” — the Revolution is the name of his band in the movie! Prince also makes the hilarious choice to name his character “The Kid.” It sounds awesome.
FAVORITE SONGS:
“Let’s Go Crazy” — This song demands that you dance, and I complied.
“Darling Nikki” — This is the dirtiest song I’ve ever heard, but man what a jam. I also love when songs have backwards talking in them — in this song, Prince says “I know the Lord is coming soon” backwards. Ooh, how subversive!
“When Doves Cry” — Maybe we were all wrong; maybe Prince was the Greatest Guitarist of All Time all along.
“I Would Die 4 U” — I love the synthesizers that are all over this album.
“Baby I’m a Star” — Well, when it’s true, it’s true.
“Purple Rain” — Okay, RS says that this song was inspired by Bob Seger. If anyone can find the sonic link between Bob Seger and “Purple Rain,” please write in. Anyway, this song is nine minutes long, but I would listen to Prince and his backup singers jam on it for half an hour.
LEAST FAVORITE SONGS:
“Take Me With You” — Eh.
“Computer Blue” — What the hell is happening in this movie?
IS RS FULL OF IT?
No, Prince rocks and this album rules.
As an aside, I looked up “prince controversy” because I wanted to double-check that Prince didn’t have any horrifying allegations against him or anything, and the only thing I learned was that Prince released an album called Controversy (which is not one of the four Prince albums on RS’s list).
