You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Purple Rain – Prince and the Revolution

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

:fire: Don’t Miss Our Best Price of the Year! (Ending Soon)https://www.openstudiojazz.com/summer-sale-2026/Adam and Peter break down Prince and the Revolution's Purple Rain, the 1984 soundtrack that turned him into a global superstar. They go track by track, from "Let's Go Crazy" to the title song. With keyboards in hand, they break down the sophisticated music theory underneath this pop hit to reveal the hidden qualities that make this album great. You'll never hear Purple Rain the same way again.Stay tuned to the end of the episode for a bonus track: A jazzy live performance of Purple Rain by Open Studio and St. Louis soul singer Brian Owens. For more tracks from Open Studio's band, check out @openstudiomusic on YouTube.00:00 Purple Rain - Prince01:27 Prince, the Revolution & the Biggest Album of 198404:25 🎧 "Let's Go Crazy"07:54 Making the Movie and the Album at Once12:58 🎧 "Take Me With U"19:59 Wendy Joins the Revolution23:38 🎧 "The Beautiful Ones"30:24 🎧 "Computer Blue"35:16 🎧 "Darling Nikki"41:50 🎧 "When Doves Cry"45:41 🎧 "I Would Die 4 U"48:58 🎧 "Baby I'm a Star"52:21 🎧 "Purple Rain"58:41 Best Moments On Purple Rain1:01:33 Quibble Bits1:04:56 Snobometer1:06:23 Open Studio Performs "Purple Rain" 

I'm Adam Maness. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast. Music, Explored. Explored with Purple Fringe, Peter. Brought you today by Open Studio. Go to OpenStudiojazz.com. That's OpenStudio.com for all your jazz listen needs Peter over at Open Studio.

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Peter, this has been a long time coming. It has been. You said Purple Fringe? And I thought you was 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. talking about.

Love that dude. That dude's good. That's a good dude, man. Shut up, Selena Gomez. You know who else was a good dude? 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. Just got planted in the carpet.

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 from. For a pop star especially, at the time especially.

At a time of unique, other, I'm like, if everybody's unique, who's unique, right? Yeah, but for him to be so huge, and this album that we're listening to today, Purple Rain, 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 of 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. 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. And to me, this is like an incredible pairing of Prince who had made basically an album per year up until this point since 1970s. Some would 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. And that was a big deal for Prince album. 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 and 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. But 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. Yeah. 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. I mean, they had been playing around with it for a while before. but to present that,

that was a big thing for him to. Like, that was a change in direction. For sure, you know. For sure. Let'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. It's a sermon. Oh, that warbly sinth organ. Suss.

A lot of suss on this record. A lot of suss. Cors. Yeah. A lot of weird keys to you. G-flak. A lot of B major on this record. Suss.

So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Heels, you know the one. When those drums come in, man. That's the toe. This is such an 80s group, but such a prince take on it, right? This is one of the tracks with the Revolution, one of the six

where the full band is playing. Yeah, it's like, it's like little, like, not roto, like roto, um, like roto, I know what you're talking about, it's not that,

but, it's not Timbali or whatever. Like, there's so many little princisms that turn this, this group 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. But there's so many princes. Bo de wado. Maybe it's come. All going to die. Yeah, great rift-based song.

Oh, man, his rifts. The little counter melody is great. Let's go crazy. It's almost like you start an edge of quack. Yeah. When was the last time you watched this movie, too? Has it been a minute? It's been a minute.

I actually, I watched it a lot during one period of nights. I rented it for this episode. So, 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 rewatchable's category.

Yeah. Uh, man, I will say, watching the movie and knowing this album. Yeah. I always forget, this is a soundtrack technically, right? I mean, it's technically a soundtrack. They, 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. 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, very, very hard. But, man, watching the movie in the buildup to this, first of all, it's, there's some incredible, incredible dialogue. My favorite scene in the whole movie is one of the... of the waitresses at the club

in 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've been saying that are in the house a lot. So there's great moments. But then there's, and then also the classic, the like, you know, cleanse yourself in the, or bathe yourself in the cleansing waters of Lake Lake Minnetaka. And then she's like,

that's not liquid as 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 100

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. And they do a great job. What they pick 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. 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. I'm going to go back because I was a little bit, well, 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'm wondering why I chose that. 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. But 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 a $4 million of the labels money to get the project starter started. Okay, so that was Warner Brothers Music Division. Man, what a different time when like the studios were connected, like that music, television film. Purple Rain, the film made 10x the amount it cost to make, one of Grammy, two singles on the album.

Two singles on the album hit number one. Academy 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. It's valid because that's how I remembered, like, my whole freshman year, even before. I think it came out in the summer and the, yeah, 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. Yeah. And, I mean, I think it was like four or five singles with the, that were one, two, three, four, five, yeah, that were spread out. And 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, 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.

Okay. Shout on Tennessee. My parents wouldn't be thrilled with me listening to the friends. 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, reach number one on the Billboard at Hod 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. There's 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.

Wendy 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. and then of course this next track Take Me With You which features The Revolution

and the co-star of the movie Purple Rain Apollonia on the vocals with Prince I believe there's also some Apollonia Cotero Yeah yeah Take me with you

I remember when I first started this I was like This is killing Yeah That's some rotos there right Sounds like we're Yeah rotodrums drummers What are those things

Are those rhod drums Are those rhod drums The way it slides into that tempo Okay, I'm going to stop right here. So what's happening there? Can you figure out those chords real quick? Yeah. That's a little sauce too, right?

There it is, yeah. So this is a theme that's going to happen on Purple Rain. We heard it on Let's Go Crazy on the A boom boom ba-ba. It's called the pedal point. That bass note is. 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 base 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. There's no 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, do, do, do. But play what it does before it, and then check out how it feels. Yeah, this dramatic, cinematic intro.

They're big. And the bass is moving around a lot. It's the opposite of them. Now we've got our first major. And it slows down a little bit. Oh, right? But it's just hanging out. Same kind of thing on Let's Go Crazy.

Let me get my mic. Man, and here's like clobies. It's like a patient. It gets so strong. And then where does it go here? But it makes those basal prints... Oh, that's such a Prince K. The ball, ball.

Corny, and if anybody else does it. Oh, totally. But Prince nails it. Now, I'm starting to think, like, that's the... 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. Yeah, now that I hear me. You... Goes to the one... Oh, Prince loves the bridge. Oh, sorry. Arranged by Lisa and Prince, not Wendy.

Lisa and Prince and conducted by Wendy and Lisa. That's some Stevie mover right there. I believe Lisa's singing on this, too, with Apollonia. You know what's interesting, Prince, I mean, it's really a whole style, but especially this record.

Yeah. He's very specific. Like, there's not a lot of, like... Woo, do-do-do-do-do-do. He's very intentional about his phrasing, like, where the rhythm lies with his melody. 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. And, like, the dove's cry at the end. He's... I don't care what we do. But, like, that's... There what we... You know, it's all...

part of a program of rhythms. Having said that, I'm going to tell you, the movie is worth it just for the Apollonia part too. She's pretty incredible. Slow your roll. Star, star right there. Yeah.

How would you grade her acting, though? Good. In the movie. Good. Okay. Anyway, I haven't seen a long time. It's just one of those movies that I remember. She's magnetic.

She's magnetic. 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. Yeah, he's really good. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Prince... He's a stoundrel. Everyone's playing himself. 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 it could be for just one day? Can we just get Sean Fennacy 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. I love TakePlythe. You're crazy. Are you serious? 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 Melvin.

I love the intern. I love the riff. Peter, that's real nice. But, 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. 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 Hirsch, Jeffrey Keiser, and much, much more. Go to Open StudioJazz.com to save 50% off our annual membership. That's Open StudioJazz.com to save 50% off an Open Studio annual membership.

Well, now I feel like I should be playing. Yeah, more appropriate. Yeah. Here's Wendy talking about being hired to join the revolution. I was in Lisa's room and I was just practicing my guitar. And 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? And 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, 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. I just stretched this massive beautiful chord and just played a progression for him. And he just

sort of went, hmm. And didn't speak, he just kept staring. And I was like, 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, especially Wendy and Lisa. We're very much a big part of this. They were very free with their ideas for this project. So I'm just remembering back to this time. 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 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 of it. I'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 on the radio. It was everywhere, right? But Wendy and Lisa, like, seeing them in the video,

hearing them play, seeing them, like, 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, they were living the dream.

They're playing with Prince. And 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. That's right. But the thing was, like, as you learn about it, 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 again. I don't think it was an easy van to be in. Where's the subpoena for those chord changes.

Yeah, I think there was a lot of rehearsing. thing. There was a like, Prince was probably a little bit of a perfectionist. And he definitely was wanted to control as much of his art as possible, which is probably what made it so great. But man, it's even, it makes it's way and that's the thing. I 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- It was happening. Art imitating life. They were they were feeding some ideas musically to him that he was eventually open

to apparently, which is kind of cool because like I said, those albums from 1978 up to this point were a lot of them were just prints. Just writing, producing, playing everything. And so to have more of an open collaboration on this album and also for it to be

so huge, I think was very special. The next track is, I mean, honestly, Peter. And look, what I'm saying is going to make more sense, not in the next track, but after that computer blew. We'll talk about that too. The next track is all prints and it's just one of the most amazing songs in 1984. It's the beautiful ones. Man, this is such a...

So gorgeous. Those major sixes, they're so unique. There's an open fifths. Damn. Those synth swells. Yeah. The placement on this. On this.

What a great riff. The way it goes back. We're going to talk about that. That little shaker. Every 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 in this, it's a slow dance. Yeah. But it's thick. I mean, there's a lot going on in there. And it's bridge. It didn't need that.

I did it, though. I did. That's what Jeff. Part of our new series, jazz musicians, ruin Prince. All that. Man, his use of major six versus major seven. Yeah. Bring to life

And I think Man, there's so much going on here When 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? I'm going to show you all that.

Pop, cack, cack, cack. And each verse adds a little bit more you know, a few more counter melodies Sharp 11 Would that be cool Would that be cool? Yes

That's one of my favorite moments One of my favorite moments This line here Is that be cool Would that be cool? It's not like if you a subpoena It's so cool If we got married

Would that be cool? Like he's asking her For a Coke If I got a 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, his, okay, can we break down some of this harmony? Because this is, do-oo. And then, like, he understands, like, how to, like, take you to a place home island and then make you feel a different way. He's a master of that. That 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 it, 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 your young jazz pianist? Yeah. I'm guessing that you didn't listen to anything like beyond 1963. No, I was, no, I was super judging. I was super, although I was always listening to the radio and just because it was, and videos. Yeah. Sure.

So I wasn't. MTV 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. Herbie Hancock's musical music music. 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. 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, oh, okay. And I mean, this is the other thing. It's never all one thing. I had been listening to Stevie at that point. And 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, 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. Yeah, just like say. They never are when he's a peat. But 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 cornered, but then he's combining it with these big fat parallel fifths, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And these sweeping textures, too. These sweeping synth textures. So that's that mu chord. But I love the way he comes out of it. Two different ways. And then back back to that. But the second time, every other time,

da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-do-da. It's like a little false five then to the one and 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, the nerd nook. 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. Shade, 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. Huge, huge album. Next up is Computer Blue, which starts with a little...

Okay, this is what I'm talking about with Wendy. When I heard this, I was just like... I was just drawn in by like 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 Princess handed him 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. Wendy? Yes, Lisa. Is the water warm enough?

Yes, Lisa. Shall we begin? I still don't know what it means. But I'm curious. I mean, now I finally know what it means, but I was 14. They think of all the different pervutations of what it could mean when it's going through your stupid little brain. So hit, though, the song is so hit.

Man, how did he take a Huey Lewis groove and make it hip? Shout on Huey Lewis and the news. Specifically the news. Yeah, when's the sports podcast, Pete? Man, this is totally, um... I forgot how up and down this record is Prince's most pop record. Most pop record. Like the grooves and the band style, right?

The original version of this song was 12 minutes long. Damn. This is another track with the full revolution. And he's still much with that suss back and forth, Dominant 7th. It's such a kill and harmonic move that happens there in this. This little interlude. This guitar interlude.

Man. I mean, we've talked about what a great songwriter is, what a great producer is, but a great vocalist, he is. Incredible guitarist. Oh, my God. Incredible guitarist. Just one of my favorite rock guitar.

because that's what he does, man. He throws on that distortion pedal. He 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 it was the SNL 40th anniversary after party, right? After the SNL 40th anniversary show. And this would have been not too, like pretty, pretty close to the point where he was, was

about to pass away. So not too long before he died. But he played that after party, or he sat in on that after party, and they do a version of Let's Go Crazy that's just like, it's ripping. It's so happening.

And he just like crushes this guitar solo. And of course the famous Super Bowl halftime where he plays Purple Rain. And it starts to rain in the stadium. 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 George Harrison's Memorial concert

and just grabbing guitar and coming in and just schooling everybody. Yeah. Incredible. No, I totally agree. It's such a, it's not really underrated because obviously everybody knows great guitars, but I think when you, like, this is the Eddie Van Halen rock guitar era, right? Sammy Hagar. Why did Sammy Hagar play guitar?

No, he was a vocalist. 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 or doing these like... I don't know about them.

Yeah, of course. But this is the thing. What I was going to say is like, Prince is very much a rock guitarist and he's a blues guitarist. What he's not... I mean, like, those are the influence. And then he's his own crazy thing.

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, Jimmy Hendricks 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 know,

You hear that like in some of his keyboard work and some of like this stuff, you know, boo, you know, sort of how his voices 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 Hendrickson, I think that's the sort of direct lineage you can hear in his playing. Yeah. Next up, so this is Darling Nikki. Now, this is the track that Tipper Gore heard her daughter listening to. Is that true?

Yeah, Tipper Gore, Al Gore's wife, 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. Also known as 1985 Karen, Genesis of Karen. This track, Darling Nikki, is the reason why when you buy Dr. Dres the Chronic, it has that parental advisory. What's crazy about that, though?

Is there actually any vulgarity? on this. Well, let's listen. Well, no, I know the lyrics. Man, this is such a... Oh, wait, can we come out of computer blue on it? This is one of the great LP trends. I don't know if they're going to screw it out.

It doesn't work as well, but let's try. This is such an... And this grooves... Man, this crazy shit in Computer Blue. The way it segues is... I love this segue. Yeah, it's a great transition. And that's a very stevie kind of

synth sound. Those. Oh. Boop, clacko. 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 feed. I met her in a hotel lobby, masturbating with the magazine. She said, How'd you like to waste some time? And I could not resist.

When I saw little naked grind There goes that blues minor Woo That's so killing Man that's syncopation I'm gonna back it up I'm gonna back it out Okay

And just can we just talk about real quick So 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 7 but B major is such an optimistic, and this is such an interesting thing

because of how the lyrics sort of start to, you know, that kind of erode very quickly and get very weird. And then it's down, so there's two B 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, do-da-d-d-d-k-da-d-d-d-k-d-d-and-and-then. And then we're, now it's getting nasty.

You know what I mean? Like, it's almost theatrical the way he weaves the harm. with the lyrics. Now, could you please explain the harmony and how the story works? No. I'm waiting so hard, man. Second verse. She had so many devices

and fair thing. She said, sign your name on a daughter. It started to grind. This has a bit of science. She's not major anymore. This has a bit of the Times vibes. You know what I mean? Absolutely. And the way he's His vocal, vocalizing, vocalizing, third verse.

Now he changed up the harmony. Ah. Yeah, it's so good. He goes in the riff. And now back to the... It's such a light and dark, right? It's so good. It's the Saturday night and the Sunday morning.

Like, he's weaving all that in there. Maybe his best vocal performance on the whole album, too. Yeah, it's incredible. Incredible. I love the way... On the tracks where it's not the Revolution, the three that are on here... I mean, he uses bass so sparingly.

In a way you don't... Because he uses percussion so thickly. Yes. Like, the percussion gets thick when Prince is producing it from the crowned up. I mean, this happens on Sign of the Times as well. And he often will sort of like let the bass stroll a little bit, but I'll put it in it like this one moment.

It gives you that foundation. Yeah, it melts you. Bunga-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d- It happens again on this next track. This is, I think, is going to be in competition. I'm not going to play the backwards message at the end. Let's some vulgar? Shall we do it? I don't even remember where.

Wasn't there something in here that's like something sinister? Sinister Easter egg? Sounds like a space odyssey. Yeah, this was something played back. I think we tried to play it. And then all the monkeys touched. the monolith in the space odyssey and then...

I mean, the thing is, I think I remember 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 something, maybe I'm confusing it. But I remember, remember this like sometimes when they would, 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'd have 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, And 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. Trad wife in 85 or a loving wife of our future inventor of the internet. Ironic. And now he really opened the flag gates. There you go.

Are you nervous, buddy? The next number one single is the next track. And we're talking about the sparse bass. And this definitely has that same. Does it have any base? I don't know. We don't think so. 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. Oh, that rhythm. That syncopation.

Man, so important. Propels this whole... Every time it comes back in. There's no tonality outside of what he's doing at the melody. Well, it's implied. There's some implications. Yeah, but there's nothing being played. There's nothing being played.

So when those triads come back in, the implication is that A minor. That's the implication. Arpeggiation in the middle, but still no bass line. There's no. No, 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, I'm like, really? You don't need it. A pretty emotional height of the film as well. Yeah. So important. And he's just going to keep building. on this and keep adding layer after layer.

And this is all Prince produced, programmed, everything. This is a Prince produced one, yeah. We're going to come back to the end, actually, for my... It's not going to be my desert island, but it's going to be my apex mobile. We'll come back later on. It's such a great track. It's an outstanding track. It might not be mine either, but it's got to be... Yeah, it's got to be a number one.

It's got to be a number one. No, the Les Go Crazy was also a number one. And Perraim was number two. It never went to number... I know, that's strange. Because of those other records, it was probably got caught up in Chade or Madonna. Well, our next track, I would die for. you broke the top 10, it reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, and this is another,

this is another track that uses a pedal, but in a really interesting way. So we talked about how Let's Go Crazy and take me with you. And a little bit of When Doves Cry, there's an implied pedal that's happening. I would die for you as a reverse pedal. So the base on this, there is base on this,

and 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. It's flipped from those other two songs. Check it out. Woo!

Can we just get at the beginning? I love a... Man, play it. Oh, he didn't need it, but we love it. Fire! Can we get details like that back in music? They're there, Peter. They're there. Okay, so here's the...

Here's the... That pitch stays the same. Yeah, the bass move. So it's like the melody is the pedal. Yeah, well, I got your reverse pedal. And it's got to... Gives it a sussy vibe. Nine four.

And that's... Oh, man, he loves the four to the one. So this track... A little move. This track... Mini-moo. This is... the last, the start of the last three

songs on the album. The last three songs were initially recorded at a live concert, a benefit concert in Minneapolis with a remote rig and then were overdubbed in L.A. later. But these last three tracks, including Purple Rain, were all recorded live

with the band. I think the Purple Rain is a live version, isn't it? They're all live. Yeah. This is live. All right. With overdubts happening. Oh, it's overtrack. Yeah. Yeah, first avenue. I got to tell you my first avenue saw it. And the lyrics on this. And the lyrics on His background. His background.

His background. He could rip off almost like a drister drum. But for songwriters out there, like notice that, again, going back to the pedal thing, like, one element of a lot of these songs remains static. Yes. You know, whether it's the bass or it's the drums or it's the vocals. He's just going to drill one thing 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 is the textual. 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 song. Yeah. Unbelievable song. Baby I'm a star. Mix feelings about this one. So this one also contains...

How are you feeling about this one? I love this one. This one has the strings on it as well and also some pedal work. Yeah. That same thing, the bass being static and a pedal as a pedal

and the chords moving over it. You can smell the sticky beer floor of that club. First Avenue. Bases and just moving

those triads over that bass. Yeah. So true. So true. Lyrics are killing all this. He's killing

to me it's just you know what? It's always been the groove that's it. To me this is not the gruviest

on this album. Are you serious? Yeah. It's fine, but hard to 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 in Quibble, okay. This is my quibble bit, actually. Man, his vocals on him.

Problem is, on tracks, I feel like tracks that we don't like as much, especially going back because of the way I learned, look at him, he loves it. He loves it. I just I just pooped on his poo-poo platter. We don't listen to them as much because we skip them over. So we don't know them as well.

Whenever this would start, I'd be like, skip. You need to go back to cassette tape where you get pretty hard to skip. The A track. You can only skip to the same place on the next tune. This never really goes anywhere, too.

I mean, it feels like a time track, actually. It feels like a Morris Day of the time a little bit, has that flavor. Speaking of the time, okay, so first avenue, These were recorded at First Avenue.

I actually did a jazz gig there. Oh, hello. 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.

Playing acoustic jazz. Whoa, he's jumping right in. Pardon me? Excuse me. But I remember being like, damn, this is first avenue from the movie. This is the place. And 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, there's just one more time. That's where we're going, though, right? What? Purple rain. This is where we're going, yeah. Here's in the world.

One of the most, 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 animal. Yeah, for good reason.

Title track. Title track. 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? That's perfect.

What does that snare sound scream to you? 1984. 1984, yeah. LJ. So this, definitely the most gospel on this record influences some other print stuff there's a lot more gospel influences a parent this one very much in the harmony and his delivery

of course where he's going to go on future verses don't want to do that the 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

all the boys lined up on one wall all the girls lined up on the other wall and then you and a friend would take a shot And I mean, you know, you know what they say is like, you. Gospel. I mean, what's that thing they say, you know, if you don't try, you're not going to succeed? No, even if you try, you don't succeed, too.

That's what happened to me. Ours was at my dances, it was Boistam End of the Road. That was a big one. Yeah, nice. Nice. It becomes like its own sauce for of the... Free break, man. Damn, church.

This Bobby Z on drums Killing it. Yeah, yeah. That high hand work? The revolution just crushes everything, man. The Revolution was an incredible man. Prince kept him, whenever he had a band,

several literates, he kept him a good band. Especially drummers, he never had a half-ass drummer. Bobby Zee just crushing, Brown-Mart crushing on the bass. Dr. Fink on the Keys, Lisa Coleman on the Keys and the vocals. Wendy Melvoin on the guitar. And 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. Because he's at three. Listenership just drops. Pocket. He should try some of that bebop language. Huh? He should try some of the bebop language.

You might have done better. Might have reached number one. Instead of number two. That's what the kids want. No one's still. Those are still watching. Hit us up in the comments if you're still watching. Say, Bebop lives.

Not going to be able to pull this one out, Liz. All the Prince heads are coming for you, buddy. That's all right. I'm inspired. But, I mean, the chords, so this is my thing. Oh. Oh. Like Prince keeps in there, sauce.

You said at the beginning. He's loving the sauce This is great These stack his Levels I mean what a feeling this must have been To see live in concert 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 I mean either But he did I really really regret that He did come to a...

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 stayed and enjoyed but let's talk about some categories okay

what's your desert on a truck you kind of hinted at it I'm going for I would die for you okay that's a great one I one of the most optimistic sounds ever every time it starts I just I'd freak out

so I'm going with the beautiful ones I think that that's great call I think it's such a interesting thing for apex moments I was going to go with that transition the beginning of Darling darling Nikki. Great call.

But I want to do when doves cry if you go to about 440 or so this is some like this is deep into the cut into the cut

so a lot of people aren't catching this but this is another side of Prince his harmonizing I think it's here yeah right after this

like you think he's kind of introduced to everything already there's a breakdown here yeah great call Pete

yeah great moment. So much emotioning. And they're killing keyboard line. Yeah, great call. Great moment. He does it get him. You think DiAngelo got a chance to hear that?

Maybe. And like this is, 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 background, like if you hear,

it's just such a, it's some of the most stunning, like three-part harmony and stuff. DeAngelo 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 organ intro, this sermon. Yeah. Call to the altar. A call to the altar. The Warbly DX7. The After. I think it's a DX7. I don't know what that is, exactly.

But when the drums come in here, Yeah. The warbly organ is almost. Oh, nice. Oh, yes. So when you call up that shrinking Beverly Hills. You know the one. Dr. Everything will be all right.

Instead of that big gated snare. Man, and it's interrupted 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 trick in Beverly Hills, you know the one. Doctor, 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 and the spiritual and the secular, right? And he's already mixing that. And then he just pushes it all the way through with the shrinking

but barely helps. 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. 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. But couldn't we have gotten a little bit of... I'd be okay with Morris Day in the Time. That would have made this a soundtrack. It would have multiple artists. Woo. Interesting, yeah. So you're saying an equivalent bit on Prince's...

On Purple Rain is there's not enough Morris Day in the Time. 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. But there's some music that's in the movie that I would love if this was maybe just at the end of the album. I don't know.

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 went to, after watching the film, I was like, I wish Morris Day was on the other. 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 is the big thing. Maybe that's a terrible take. I don't know, but I really love Morris Day in the Time. Sue you. My quibble bit is Baby I'm a star. I just feel like it's a little bit

of a weak link on this record. It's fine. It's fine. And I mean, I think some of the drums... Actually, the drum sound not even a quibble bit. It's just a period thing. What you got for Akuchamaltz? You're wrong. Okay. Akutramans, I have a 10. There's literally a blockbuster movie attached to this album. Is that part of the cruchemots?

It created the color purple being in the zeitgeist. There's all the, you know, the lace and everything and the look and the motor cycle. Oh, you're really extending out the Akutonka. There's all the stuff.

You're extending out the Akutja monster. There's so much lore around the making of it and 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 acutemones?

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 he doesn't he do it like 10 times he kind of overacts and i know this whole movie the whole movie is like him trying to like figure that stuff out but i was just like damn it was a different time it was a different time it was different time is this prince's best album um i'm gonna say no i'm gonna i think on the other episode i'd sign of the times i said that what 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 there the K-O-B of Prince's albums?

Yes. Yeah, I don't think it's, for me, it's not my favorite. Actually, I have a tie for first, and it's Dirty Mind and Controversy. I think those two that came out 80 and 81 are perfect albums. 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. Like, I can't get enough of it. I'm just addicted to those albums.

Yeah, got it. Snobometer. 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 like a virgin Madonna since this is that that that's you know what I mean controversial 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 falloff to Madonna. I mean, artistically, probably. But, I mean,

in terms of, like, defining those times, you're right in there. I'm back in 84, 85 if I go to that. And I don't love that Madonna record

or Madonna, period, but it's, it's very indicative of the times. What you got? I'm going to go with, Huey Lewis sports and that's all I'm going to say

Okay, got it. Very good. 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, a curious genius.

Can we do controversy next time? Yeah, sure. That'll be a great next one. Yeah, it'd be a great one. Yeah, if the Prince heads let us. Thank you. Until next time. You'll hear it.

cause you never meant to cause you any pain I just want one time to see you there purple rain wanted to be your shout for something new that means you took your mind better close it and let me guide you