Speaker 1: All right, everybody, welcome back to the Surely You Can't
Be Serious Podcast. We are on part two of our
comparison of Footloose and Purple Rain, and we are not
going to waste any time. Let's dance.
Speaker 2: This is the sixth episode that we've done so far
on our summer of nineteen eighty four. It's been amazing
to go through and just concentrate on one summer.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the first time you saw either one
of these movies?
Speaker 2: Yes, I saw Footloose in the theater.
Speaker 1: I saw Footloose in the theater.
Speaker 2: And I think I saw Purple Rain on HBO when
I didn't have permission to do so.
Speaker 1: Right, I can remember vividly seeing I didn't see all
of Purple Rain. But my brother was in high school
at the time, and he goes over to this friend's
house that a bunch of high school kids are going
to watch the VHS copy of this thing, and her
little brother and I are banished to the upstairs and like, you,
you know, you guys are too young, you can't watch this.
And so of course we go upstairs for about seven
minutes and they're like, let's go sneak downstairs, and so
we sneak downstairs. We crawl in the dark on our
hands and knees under the chair that everybody's sitting on.
You know that somebody's sitting on there in the movie room.
We sneak up. We see the TV and it is
the Lake Mini Tanka scene. Well, for starters, you have
to purify yourself in the water. Is a lake in
the time, and we get to see Appollonia's boobies and
we're like, our work here is done. We did not
watch the rest of the movie. We're just like, let's
get out of here before we're caught. We've We've gotten
everything we needed to get for our dar movie.
Speaker 2: Thank you, I'm out of here.
Speaker 1: Okay, Jason. Before we get started, we have to acknowledg
our executive producer. Today we have a new Patreon subscriber
and he is our executive producer. That is mister Travis Laslie.
Speaker 2: Travis, thank you so much, man, We really really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: He's one of those guys who's communicated to us over
and over again on Facebook. We love having the conversations
that we have with our Facebook members. Please, if you
haven't signed up already, be sure and follow We're like
our Facebook page so that we can have fun with
you two minutes speak happy family.
Speaker 2: That's right. Okay, we got another executive producer this time
is mister Cameron Eckert, one of my college roommates, Cameron.
Speaker 1: Thanks man. When Cameron was in Egypt's you know, I
bet you never get tired of hearing that.
Speaker 2: I'm sure he's heard it before. Cam, Thanks, buddy, appreciate you.
He and I talk regularly, We go over the episodes
and he gives me input. Okay, and so I think
that makes Cameron our first Canadian executive producer who Canadian.
Speaker 1: A thank you, dear listener. If you want to be
an executive producer of one of our episodes, all you
have to do is come to our Patreon page, which
is patreon dot com slash Shirley Podcast, and you can
sign up for as little as a cup of coffee,
probably less than a cup of coffee these days than
you're staying in Canada.
Speaker 2: Alright, ey, hey boozer, let's talk about production on these movies.
So I mean, we might as well jump into the
Lake Minnetaca scene. Okay, yeah, let's back up just a second. Okay,
So filming started on purple rain Halloween of nineteen eighty three. Okay,
the first scene in the movie is actually Prince and
Apollonia riding around on the motorcycle and you have the
fall foliage of Minnesota. Funny part about that it snowed
the next day.
Speaker 1: Right right. Hearing Apollonia talk about this in various parts,
the severity of what happened is different, but basically her
jumping in that water two or three times. Afterwards, like
she started to black out and the nurse believed she
was going into hype bathermia. And then apparently she was
sick for some time and stayed at Prince's house and
he like made her soup and took care of her
while she got over the cold or flu or whatever
pneumonia probably that she had from jumping in this ice
cold water.
Speaker 2: The Lake Minnetaka scene if you don't remember, Prince says
that he won't help her professionally because she couldn't pass initiation,
and she's like, what are you talking about. He's like,
you got to purify yourself in the lake Manataka, So
she strips down and jumps in. Now that was shot
in Minneapolis. Yes, they realized that they needed some close
ups and some dialogue that they then later shot in
La Yes, not so cold over there, a little bit warmer.
The interesting thing when she stayed at Prince's house, Uh huh,
she says, Yeah, I slept in his bed and he
was a perfect gentleman.
Speaker 1: Nothing happened, which Prince every time?
Speaker 3: What okay?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 2: Anyway, So during the production of Purple Rain, Yes, one
of the things Prince did to get everybody ready for
this is he gave everybody had show up and do
dance lessons in acting class and acting classes.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Part of it was to get them better for the movie,
and part of it was to get everybody in shape.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: But there's one person that constantly skipped.
Speaker 1: It's who you would expect.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: He was also high during the filming of this movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, mister Morris, mister Morris day at the time.
Speaker 1: He's got one of the funniest bits. Like he and
Jerome have a lot of funny bits. But they do
this bit that's a very apt and Costello who's on first.
That's good. I enjoy that bit. They are the comic
relief of this movie that could be a very heavy
movie without their comedy In it, but one of the
important parts of the movie was what are the songs
that we're going to use? Right? Sure, Prince gives Albert
Magnoli this huge catalog of music and he's like, okay, well,
which of these do you want me to use? He
goes you pick. He's like, oh wow, okay, and so
he's going through trying to find songs, and then they
have this event that is now famous.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is the first.
Speaker 1: Time that Wendy Melvoy plays with the Revolution. She starts
the song and there are three songs from this live
performance that end up in the album. But one of
those songs is the song Purple Rain.
Speaker 2: That concert happened August third, nineteen eighty three. People don't
realize this. I didn't realize it until I started researching this.
The recordings of I Would Die for You Baby, I'm
a Star and Purple Rain are taken from that concert
in nineteen eighty three. Now they produced them up. They
add some strings and some things, but those are the
live recordings from that concert.
Speaker 1: It was the first time they had ever performed Purple
Rain live, and it is the version you hear on
the album. And one of the people in the crowd
was Albert mcnoley, and he comes to Prince afterward and
he says, I think that song Purple Rain is the
key to our movie, and Princess, okay, can we call
the movie Purple Rain? He says, sure, that sounds Let's
do it. Not only is it Wendy's first performance with
the band, but it is the moment that the name
of the movie and of course the name of the
album are inspired. I think that that moment was they
caught lightning in a model as you like to say,
it was magic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was magic, and it makes for a great
climactic part of the movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, apart from the Lake Minnetaka scene, to me, the
most moving part of the movie is when Prince gives
homage to his dad and you have the big climax
of the Purple Rant end of the movie, you actually
have Purple Rain. And then he goes backstage and the
crowd is just chanting and Jill is crying, and they
bring him back and he does I would die for you,
and Baby, I'm a star.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Okay, So here's the interesting thing about this. Okay, Throughout
the course of Purple Rain, they did such a great
job of pacing. There is not any ten minute span
where there is not at least one song except for
one part. There is a gap of ten minutes and
in the middle of that there's a sexy all right.
Speaker 1: Yes, the original storyline as Prince had done it. As
I mentioned before, mom and dad are already dead in
this murder suicide, and the end of his script ends
with his suicide, like he dies at the end of
his storyline, and so that obviously has changed. I think
largely because of our first time director here, who's like,
this is not the right story. What you have is
a guy who wonders, will I turn out like my dad?
And that's why that unpleasant. As the abuse scenes are,
they're critical to the movie because he's realizing that he
is becoming his dad. He is becoming this violent, abusive boyfriend, right,
and he doesn't want to. He saves himself from becoming that,
and that unlocks another key, which is the fact that
he's this kind of domineering. Your music doesn't matter, Wendy
and Lisa, Nobody cares about you. I'm the star, I'm
the key. Well say what you will about Prince and
his abilities. He did a great job acting in this movie. Yeah,
he really really did a great job. And from what
I've read, he would watch himself every day on the dailies,
watch it over and over again figure out what his
mistakes were. And they said, like his improvement was obvious
from beginning to end on his acting abilities. But then
he's got this moment that he's got to go crazy
and tear this stuff up. And that's when he comes
across his father's music. This is the part that you're
talking about. Before his dad's were like that. His dad
was like, that's the difference between you and me, is
you got to write your stuff down. I've got online
right here. Well then he finds out, well, no, his
dad has been writing stuff down, and that's he marries
that with this song that Lisa and Wendy have been
working on the whole movie, and that is the song
that we're led to believe, his Purple Rang.
Speaker 2: It's a great story arc the building of the song
that the clim access to at the end.
Speaker 1: So here's the interesting thing that scene where he's talking
to his dad and his dad is like, that's the
difference between you and me, and You've got to write
your music down. Yeah, it's an actual conversation that he
and his dad had. His dad showed up, didn't know
what he was. I mean, he just happened to show
up on the day that they're filming that scene, and
he realizes he's kind of walked into something, so he
hides behind what he thinks is like safe place just
so he can listen, and he hears the scene that
he knows is a conversation that he and his son
have had. And then when the scene is over, Prince
is obviously emotional and he walks around the corner right
into his dad and they have this moment of Wow,
our life just became a scene in a movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for real, that's pretty cool. Yeah, that's really cool.
The interesting thing about his father and the suicide, the
studio wasn't comfortable with a murder suicide, or really even
a suicide. Yeah, and so Albert Magnoly is like, no problem,
he won't die, right, And I'm like, guy, I mean,
he stuck a gun to his head and he didn't die.
Speaker 3: I mean, is that better?
Speaker 1: He missed?
Speaker 5: Wow?
Speaker 2: He's allows you shot, Harry, You're alive and you're a
terrible shot. Okay, did you know that there is another
sex scene in Purple Rain that has been deleted. Yeah,
it's the Purple Rain sex scene. Like, you actually got
some purple rain. It was not at the halftime show
at the Super Bowl, right right. You have the illusion
of the rain in the background and maybe some lights
or something that makes it look purple. But apparently the
scene was even more awkward and they just it just
didn't really work. But you can see it at the
beginning of the Windows Cry video. There's actually a clip
from it. Yeah, here's the thing I want to.
Speaker 1: Talk about real quick.
Speaker 2: Okay, the sex scene between Prince and Apollonia. Yes, so
they shot that scene three different ways. They shot a
TV version, a PG version, and an R version. We
get the R version, but it's odd. It's just an
odd scene.
Speaker 1: Well. I even texted you right after that scene. As
I was watching, I was like, whoa, I do not
remember the V grab that happens in this scene.
Speaker 2: The hands wonder for sure. Yeah, but there's no nudity.
Speaker 1: Nope, although you can pretty well see through her paintings.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I've got a couple of little interesting tidbits
on production Purple Range. Okay, so Prince and his good
buddy Morris Day high school friends and bandmates.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: According to one of the guys in the Time, mister
Jellybean Johnson, they got in a fistfight on the set
of Purple Range. Oh so, as you said before, Morris
Day had a substance abuse problem. He would show up late,
he would show up not at all, he would not
go to dance lessons, and just generally be a huge
pain in the butt to everyone. Prince had enough of
it one day, and apparently they got into it pretty good.
Speaker 1: Wow. So the scene where the Time is doing jungle Love,
this is this really a memorable part where the guys
are dancing like they're up on the balcony and you've
got them all dancing synchronicity together. Yes. So that dance
group was known as Game Boys, and they later like
three of those group of the group members Tony Moseley,
Kirk Johnson, and Damon Dixon became members of Prince's band,
The New Power Generation. They're also background dancers on Graffiti Bridge.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, not a big, not a big, not so much.
Morris Day says a total of thirteen words to the kid.
Yeah you know how many the words the kid says
to Morris Day, that would be a Goose eggainst zero
view the.
Speaker 1: One More Thing yep.
Speaker 2: During the production, Albert Magnola comes to Prince and he says, listen,
I've got this music montage, and I want a song
that kind of encapsulates all of the drama from the movie,
just kind of carries us through all the emotions that
the kid is going through. Right, you got problems with mom,
You've got problems with dad, You've got problems with your girlfriend,
you got problems with your band. Can you come up
with something? So Prince is like, yeah, I think I
can come up with something. The next Day comes back
two songs. One of them when does cry.
Speaker 1: Wow you forgot the bass. We'll get into that when
we go track by track, So one more thing yep.
Just before Prince plays beautiful ones when Morris Day is
trying to pick up Apolonia, remember he leaves the girls
and he goes and sits down at the table that
Apollonia is at. Yes, all of his pickup lines are
paraphrase lines from the Times songs. So Chili saus comes
from ice Cream, Castle comes from Jungle Love, and the
bird What time is it? Yeah? That's actually yeah, the
title of their second album.
Speaker 2: I heard that Albert Magnoli sat down with Morris Day
and Jerome and said, all right, guys, here's what the
script says. Uh huh, Now, how would you say it right?
And they would say, well, I would say this, you know,
I would say that that line, how's the family? That's
More's Day.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay, let's jump back over to Footloose. You know,
we talked about casting already, but let's talk about who
gave the best performance, right, yeah, okay, So we've got
a lot of incredible actors. So you think Kevin.
Speaker 2: Bacon good, but I wouldn't say he's the best. John
Letcott again excellent, but not the best performance.
Speaker 1: Lori singer, No what who do you have?
Speaker 3: Hey?
Speaker 1: Listen.
Speaker 2: They all did a great job, including Chris Bean, sarahj
Justica Parker, Dian Weist. They all did a great job.
But the person who gave the greatest performance in Footlers
is the kid who falls asleep in church at the
very beginning. When his dad wakes him up, he looks
like he wishes he were dead.
Speaker 1: That was a memorable There's not a better performance. That
was for real, real stuff.
Speaker 2: Look I've been in church a lot of times, and
I guarantee I've looked like that a lot of times too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so let's let's talk a little bit about
prep work that these guys did for their acting performances. Okay.
So Kevin Bacon was twenty four at the time that
he was going to do this performance, and so he's like,
am I still in touch with what high schoolers are doing? Right?
And so he hit up the principle of a local
high school and said, Hey, I'd like to come, you know,
check out your high school. And he had this plan that,
like he was going to be like John Travolta in
Saturday Night Fever, trying to strut through the place and
be cool and stuff, and he ended up having an
experience that was completely different than they expected.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So he walked in like mister tough guy and realized
pretty quickly this is very uncomfortable. So he lowered his eyes,
lowered his head, tried not to be noticed, and felt
very alone, isolated, even scared.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was wearing a tie, like a skinny tie
and literally got made fun of for the skinny tie,
like the line of the movie hey nice tie. It
came from that experience, and so it's really truly interesting
because I think that frames up a much better movie
if you've got a character who's like kind of happen
to duck his head and he wants to be cool,
but he's struggling. I mean, he's struggling throughout the beginning
of this thing because he's unsure of himself, which would
make sense. I mean, living with your mom to this
new place where nobody knows you, and you're getting hassled.
Speaker 2: I mean, you think you're cool, but nobody else thinks
you're cool.
Speaker 1: Right, You're doing the stuff that was cool where you
were from, but everybody here seems to think that that's
the devil's music. I know, hey, you know what that
reminds me too.
Speaker 2: When they first explained to him that dancing is illegal. Yeah,
he's like jump back, jump back. That was a term
that Kevin Bacon actually brought to the script, right, and
they thought, all right, that's cool enough to leave in.
Speaker 1: So yeah, okay. So it's interesting because John Lithcow kind
of did the same thing on his own. So he
wasn't raised in like a Christian household, It wasn't a
part of his upbringing, so he wanted to know what
it was like, and so he called a local minister
there in the town that they were filming at and
posed as someone who was having spiritual difficulties and you know,
I've got questions, can you help me out? And the
guy was like, oh, of course, and met with him
and talked with him for hours, and he said, I
felt like a total snake in the grass because this
was just the nicest guy, really persuasive about Jesus and
his love, and it was just like I felt lower
than low. But again, that's the perfect thing to inform
his performance for this movie.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think that's awesome. That's super fascinating that both
of those actors would probably have taken their role in
a different direction had they not done those two things.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, so. I can remember as a kid, I
thought John Lefga's character was just this awful, you know,
tyrannical human being. But watching as an adult, I'm like, no,
this guy is the guy who's like, he's trying to
do his best. He's trying hard to make things right
and protect his flock because he's lost one of them,
and the one that he lost was his own kid. Yeah,
that's a huge that's a huge deal. And so when
I go back and I look and I'm like, who's
the hero? Well, you got two. You have two heroes
in here, two guys who make character shifts. And so
that Kevin Bacon, going from the guy who's insecure and
trying his best to you know, be a part of something,
finds this thing to latch onto, this cause to latch onto,
and then he gets to stand up and talk in
front of the entire town. And it's not something you
can tell, it's not something that he enjoys. As a
matter of fact, that Kevin Bacon, the actor said, I
really don't like public speaking, Like it was difficult for
me to do that scene because I'm not used to
talking in front of a large group of people like that.
Speaker 2: He brokes that in hives.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I means kind of weird. I mean, he's a
Broadway actor before this, but I guess, you know, the
lights are down, you don't see people, you just in
the moment. But with this one, he's trying to talk
to an entire crowd of people. And as for a
lot of folks, it's really intimidating. But he it's because
of that he gets that character shift where he's like
he finally gets to pound the table and say this
is wrong and he stands up for something where he's
been kind of beat down through the beginning of the episode.
And then you got John Lithgow who sees, you know,
he's doing all he can to protect people. He's trying
to stop what he sees as this menacing thing. But
then he starts to realize at the book burning right
after he has this horrible encounter with his daughter in
the church, he goes because they're burning books in front
of the library and he sees that his flock has
taken it too far right. It's like he's like, oh no,
this is you know, what I meant for good has
turned into something evil and I've got to I got
to change my perspective.
Speaker 2: As that's really interesting that you say that. So for me,
when you say give me a movie that you had
one perspective as a young person and that perspective has
changed over the years. Phillis is my number one example.
Speaker 1: Hey guys, if you love our podcast, be sure to
catch another couple of great podcasts. One is the thirty
something Movie podcast starring mister John Ree we got together
with John and we decided to start a new podcast
and we call that one Podcast Full of Kryptonite.
Speaker 2: Podcast Full of Cryptites, a whole lot of fun. We
cover the TV show Superman and Lewis, and we've got
John Reid who knows more about Superman than I could
ever know. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: The knowledge is so much that my family avoids me.
So be sure and check that out. Check out thirty
something movie podcast, check out Podcast full of Kryptonite.
Speaker 2: As a young person, I'm like, let the kids dance, man, absolutely,
and I still like let the kids dance. But let's
not forget the pastor. He lost his son in an accident. Yeah,
and he's lost and he's hurting, and he doesn't want
to lose his daughter as well. And he's got the
responsibility of his flock, like you said, and so it's
complex and he's trying to do the right thing for everyone, right.
And Ariel is a little bit off the rails and
she's standing on two racing cars going towards a semi.
As a father, I would brown upon that behavior, yeah,
of course.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And my daughter will tell you like that because her
parents were too restrictive.
Speaker 2: Well, and we all have something to learn.
Speaker 1: And I mean I can identify with that as how
I felt when I was a kid too, you know,
like this is too much. I'm gonna go out and
I'm gonna do things that are crazy just because I
need to live life a little bit. Yep.
Speaker 2: And you mentioned the scene where Wren goes in front
of the school board. Yeah, no, it's the public. It's
the town council.
Speaker 1: It's the town council, real life, real life Elmore City
was the school board. By the way, Arla mentioned that
Larry Current that preacher actually looks like John Witkow.
Speaker 2: Really, Yeah, that's going to meet that guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2: But anyway, Dean Pitchford I listened to the commentary, Dean
Pitchford said that that scene was originally written as a
more pound the table type of thing, let us dance,
this is our moment, we need this, but Kevin Bacon
pulled back and it gave more gravitas and it was
more like you could hear a pin drop type of thing.
And he said that was the right thing, that was
the right choice for that character.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, the insecurity that you can see and having to
overcome that made it more compelling.
Speaker 2: And absolutely and as a church going person, when you
pull out scripture to aid you in your argument against
a pastor, it's a little disarming.
Speaker 1: This powerful moment, A powerful moment, okay. And I want
to say one of the things is when I hadn't
brought Arlen up. So just a couple of other little stories.
He says he can remember there were some guys who
were trying to break dance behind the school and cop
came and told him if they didn't stop that they'd
get arrested. Now keep in mind he's younger, like he's
he graduated in the late eighties, but this law was
still a law up until nineteen ninety two in Elmore City. Wow,
I mean that's twelve years after they have their first prom.
Finally they changed the law to allow for public dancing.
He said. It was actually the second time that those
guys had gotten caught. The first time they got caught
was by the shop teacher and he just wailed on
him with a paddle old school.
Speaker 2: Which again, right, that's awesome. Hey, you guys, break it up,
no more breakdancing. Back here and get the paddle out,
grab your ankles. So Kevin Bacon had to do some dancing.
He had to do some gymnastics. He actually said that
during the rage dance. Okay, let's let's talk about the
rage dance for a second. So Ren finally gets tired
of it. He's had enough, so he goes to this
warehouse and he rage dances right, and he smokes and
he drinks and he dances right. This is the Rebellious Act.
And it's a little bit it's I mean, it's a
lot corny.
Speaker 1: And so like cheet, but the music is great and
so we go along with absolutely.
Speaker 2: But during that scene, I think there were five total
people involved, including Kevin Bacon. So you have a gymnast,
you have like a ballet dancer, you have Kevin Bacon,
you have a dance and so there's five people involved
in that scene. And Kevin Bacon wanted to do it
all himself, and they had to kind of say, Nick
and Kevin.
Speaker 1: You're pretty good at a bunch.
Speaker 2: Of things, but this isn't what we want.
Speaker 1: So let's go someplace dark and put your face in
the shadow. That's it, and by your face with me.
Speaker 2: The other guy, one of the guys was Chuck Gaylord,
who is Mitch Gaylord's brother, Mitch Gaylord being the Olympic
like nineteen eighty four Olympic gymnasts starred in the movie
American Anthem nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1: Wow looking shoot with your knowledge that boom.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's talk about the tractor scene.
Speaker 3: Okay, first of all, you have read on a tractor.
Speaker 2: He has no idea how to drive a tractor, and
they give him the crash course of like, okay, here's
the clatcher's steering.
Speaker 1: Well, that's a great scene where Chris pen keeps repeating
everything that the other guy is saying. It's hysterical.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, there's a clutch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a clutch.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And his shoelace gets caught on the accelerator.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: I mean, this movie is rebel without a cause, except
that he has a cause now right. It is a
throwback to the old James Dean thing. And of course,
just like the old James Dean thing, they've they've got
a race, a chicken race, right, and so you've got
this awesome moment where it's if anybody studied game theory,
this is a really interesting kind of dynamic that you
got to look at because somebody's got to give. Somebody
has to give in this game, and it turns out
Rin is the one that gives.
Speaker 2: Rain tries to give about ten dimes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he gives like ten seconds in. Yeah, okay, that
guy's like one hundred feet from me. So I'm gonna
go ahead and oh shoot my footstock. Yeah, my shoelace
is stuck.
Speaker 2: Around the acceler and then he finally is like, okay,
here it comes.
Speaker 1: I can't get off, and so now my only option
is to just keep going forward and not like go
off the end of the ditch. And I wondered because,
like before when I had watched it, him, like how
does he get a shoelace off so easily? Afterwards, when
he finally stops and it starts again, and it stops again,
you can see him yank his foot really hard. I
can give that up as he's just finally like I'm
ripping this thing off, and then he starts cheering like
he's the hero and didn't Yeah, holding out.
Speaker 2: For the Hero, And you overlay it with the great
Bonnie Tyler song holding Out for a Hero.
Speaker 4: It is a great scene.
Speaker 2: It's funny, it's entertaining, and it's thrilling.
Speaker 1: Totally, totally great scene, one of the best of the movie.
Speaker 2: By the way, I don't know if we talked about this.
All this was filmed in Utah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he went to Kevin Bacon went to a high
school in Utah. John Lyndgusov preacher in Utah, and the
tractor race was in Utah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's Utah County, Utah. It's like the heart of Utah.
And when they talked to Herbert Ross, Dean Pitchford was like, well,
I was kind of thinking like the wheat fields of Oklahoma,
and Herbert Ross is like, listen, trust me. When there's
nothing on the screen, but there's mountains in the background,
it's more interesting to look out. Just just go with
me on this. And they're like, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, you cannot beat the wheat fields in northern Oklahoma.
Whenever it's June harvest time, it's wonderful. It's like golden
oceans out there. But that's only for about a month
out of the year. Yeah, so not a good time
to try to do that.
Speaker 2: One more thing, I wanted to talk about the dance
montage with Kevin Bacon and Chris Penn where he's teaching
him how to dance. So there's this whole dance montage
set to Let's Hear It for the Boy by the
Denise Williams, and Kevin Bacon is taking Crispin under his
wing and he's teaching him how to dance in preparation
for the prom It's interesting because they scattered around and
it's it's in the gym, it's at farm, it's in
the fields, it's at the football field.
Speaker 1: It's all over the cars.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: So what they did was while they were filming it,
the last scene of every day on the shooting schedule
was the dance scene, and so Kevin Bacon and Crispan
would dance. Here's the interesting thing. The song that they
had was not Let's Hear It for the Boy. It
was one of the original songs that they have, which
we'll talk about when we go track by track next week.
But when they would do their dancing the last scene
of every day, and then they cobbled this montage together.
And that's why it's really cool to see a ton
of different locations and they're dancing.
Speaker 1: Sounds great. Okay, let's jump back over to the performances
in Purple Range. Okay, we talked before all of the
characters were pretty much I mean they were based on
their real life counterparts, right right. But you've got one
critical character that is an actor that came from the
mod squad, Clarence Williams the third He is a guy
who is a driving force through this whole movie, right right,
So it's not a complicated script, right, it's boy meets girl,
Boy loses girl, Boy realizes that he's enacting the abusive
behavior of his father and mother and realizes he should change,
and then also realizes that he's got this commonality with
his father. Boy gets girl back, Boy.
Speaker 2: Plays amazing song. Win's girl back. That's right, right.
Speaker 1: So at that point, you know the scene where he's
talking to Prince and he's at he talked to the
kid and he's at the end of his rope and
he asked him about having a girlfriend. Yeah, and he's
like lover. He's like, you know, I don't know yet, right,
and he's like, don't ever get married. Was so powerful
that Albert Magnoli said they wept as they watched them
perform the scene. Strong, strong performance. And then again, the
reason I say he's the driving force is because of
that change that has to occur in the kid like
he's doesn't want to be like his father, he doesn't
want to be like his mother. But then he as
time goes on, he sees himself becoming them, which I
think was the idea from the beginning, when Prince first
wrote these words down on notebook paper. That was the
whole notion, was that he had become his mother and
had become his father, and that's why he wanted to
play those parts himself in flashback scenes. But obviously the
way they did it was much better than that idea.
But he's got to make that change. Did I tell
you that like the end of the movie that Prince wrote,
he commits suicide, Like that's the end of that movie,
Like he puts in his mom's ear rings and he
goes ahead and commits suicide. So thank goodness that they
didn't do it that way. This was not this could
not be a downer movie with the music that you have.
Speaker 2: No, no, they thank you for not making that choice.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: By the way, that advice don't ever get married, Yeah,
that's actual advice from Prince's dad to Prince as a
young man.
Speaker 1: It is very biographical this movie. Yep. Yeah.
Speaker 2: By the way. I don't know if you know this,
and I don't want to get too much into music.
We're talking pretty strictly about movie. But when Prince and
Albert Magnoli were working on Purple Rain, Prince gave him
one hundred songs to choose. From one of those songs
that was not in that hundred Purple Rain, right, another
one win dubscry right.
Speaker 1: All of I mean, those two and one other that
made it onto the soundtrack all came through the live
performance in nineteen eighty three. It went third nineteen eighty three,
Wendy Melvoin's first performance. It was, like I said, last time.
Albert was in the crowd when they did that performs
and when he heard Purple Rain, that was what made
him go to him and say, I would really like
to make this the key song in the movie. It's
so powerful, And Prince said, can we name the movie
Purple Rain? Sounds great, Let's do it, And what a
great name. It's great, that's great.
Speaker 2: The scene where Prince's dad is playing the piano, yep,
and he they're having this discussion about that's the difference
between you and me. I don't have to write my
songs down that piano piece of piano music, it's actually
being played by Prince.
Speaker 1: Right, and it ends up in one of Prince's songs.
Speaker 2: It's like it's on computer blue.
Speaker 1: It's so hard not to talk about the music on
the movie is all about the music.
Speaker 2: I know, I know. Did you know that Purple Rain
was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by
the Library of Congress.
Speaker 1: Well, it's an incredible move.
Speaker 2: We will get into that. We will get into that.
You know who the only guy who doesn't speak in
the movie from the Revolution?
Speaker 1: Is it Mark Brown? Mark Brown Brown Mark.
Speaker 2: What an unfortunate nickname.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's terrible.
Speaker 2: So let's move on to the reception and the success
of these movies.
Speaker 1: Right, So both of these movies, the album came out
before the movie, right.
Speaker 2: And that's huge, particularly in Purple Rain's instance.
Speaker 1: I would say it's huge in Footloose's instance as well, Okay,
because I mean, if you don't know those songs already,
there are new songs when you're watching a movie and
they're not as impactful.
Speaker 2: Well, that's true Footloose.
Speaker 1: The album did so well that people would buy the
album having never seen the movie before the fact that
it was getting played on the radio had a huge imbo.
I mean, just like we talked about with Huey Lewis,
Power of Love was the number one song the week
that Back to the Future came out. The very first
cool scene that we see is him skateboarding behind the
cars and that music is what's playing in the background.
And so it's perfect that the album comes out before
and everybody's familiar with these and they are dancing along
with those guys.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the original ending of Phittlos before we
oh yeah, okay, we kind of this goes a long
with what you were talking about this success. The original
ending was they got the council to agree to let
them have a dance. Yes, And the director, his quote was,
if you spin the whole movie trying to get the car,
when they give you the keys to the car, you
actually possess the car, right, and that's the end of
the story. So they screened it with basically they arrive
at the prom and that's the end, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Dean Pitchford says, guys, I think we need to
add a song here and let them dance and let
the audience participate in the dance absolutely, And so when
they originally screened it with the just arriving at the
prom and that's the end of the movie, audiences did
not like the movie. But you throw in the Kenny
Loggins go Crazy footloose song, and you have the break dancers,
and you have Kevin Bacon come in, Let's dance and
they dance, and you have the credits and all that stuff.
A little bit, but it went from a movie that
was this liked to a movie that was a huge
smash because the audience wanted to party with the cast.
Speaker 1: I mean it's like you said, if you're spinning the
whole movie trying to get the car and you end
with them getting the keys, the audience is like going
to be what, where's the car?
Speaker 2: I want to see the car. I want in the car.
Speaker 1: That's the whole point of the whole movie. And you
also had to have some sort of resolution with the bullies, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Trick's boyfriend.
Speaker 1: You had to have some sort of resolution, and they
chose to have a parking lot brawl out of it.
I think that's great. Let's kick a little, but let's
get these guys out of here. Let's do a big
karate kick to the face and then let's go dance.
That's it, Let's dance. Side note. Elmore city first prom
theme was Stairway to Heaven.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's any break dancing going on.
I don't think breakdancing was a thing yet in nineteen eighty.
I think it was like eighty two that breakdancing really started.
Speaker 2: That's the type of information you get here at the Shirley.
Can't be serious there you go nowhere else will you
find that information? Yes, all right, let's flip back to
Purple rainka reception. Here is where the match hits the
fuse of the megaton bomb that becomes purple Rain, so
you have win. Doves Cry is released as a single
and a video May sixteenth and nineteen eighty four, and
I can tell you from experience it was the song
of the Summer of eighty four. The album drops a
month and a half later June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty four,
and then on July sixteenth, nineteen eighty four, Wind Doves
Cry is the number one song in the country. That's
when they released Let's Go Crazy July sixteen, and then
the movie drops July twenty seventh, nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 1: Then they have the Hollywood premiere of the movie. Everyone
shows up.
Speaker 2: It's crazy, like it's a.
Speaker 1: Red carpet event. You've got Eddie Murphy, You've got Prince
and all his purple wonderfulness. It is a huge, huge event.
Speaker 2: It is it is. Let me back up a second.
I got a little bit ahead of myself.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So when they finished the movie, they screened it for
Warner Brothers. They showed it after the first screening, everybody
thought it was a dud zoinks what So Magnoli said, listen,
this movie's going to do forty million dollars. Don't kill
this movie. If you do, it will be a travesty
against art. Let this movie live. And he kind of
had that pounding thing. He said, here's what you do.
Here's your marketing campaign. You put an ad in every
paper saying Warner Brothers presents prints in his first motion picture,
Purple Rain, in every major city that has a black community.
They test it in Culver City, California. The numbers were
so far through the roof that they accused the producer
of stacking the deck. They're like, this is bogus, this
is bull You called all your friends. So what we're
going to do is we're going to screen it two
other places, and we're not going to tell you where
we're going to do it. So they screened it in
Denver and in San Diego, and the same thing happened.
Speaker 1: Numbers through the roof.
Speaker 2: They had to show up multiple times because people would
come back and want to watch it again. Yeah, and
so they were like, well, this is crazy, we don't
get it, but it's it's on fire, right. So that's
when they decided. One of brothers decided to put on
nine hundred screens worldwide and it made close to seventy
million dollars that summer.
Speaker 1: That's awesome, by.
Speaker 2: The way, if you get a chance to go back
and look at that MTV premiere, yeah, it's super cool.
Speaker 1: All right. So normally this is the point where we
would go into the soundtracks of the movie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, let's do it. Man.
Speaker 2: I'm ready to talk music.
Speaker 1: Next week. No, these two albums are too big to
make a single part of some other show. You've got
to come back. We will talk Footloose next week. We
will talk Purple Rain the album the week after that,
and then we will give you our final judgment. What's
the best movie, what's the best out.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be amazing.
Speaker 2: We're gonna go track by track. You're gonna learn things
about these songs that you never knew.
Speaker 1: Come back next.
Speaker 5: Week, mister, do you like what you pass back? I
got no mone