Speaker 1: Hellover one.
Speaker 2: My name is Travis Lastly, and I'm the unofficial president
of the Michigan chapter of the Shirley You Can't Be
Serious Podcast fan Club, And you're listening to the Shirley
you Can't Be Serious Podcast?
Speaker 1: All right, everybody, Welcome back to the Surly 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 dan.
Speaker 3: 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? Yes, I saw Footloose in the theater.
Speaker 3: I saw Footloose in theater, and I think I saw
prop raina on HBO when I when I didn't have
permission to do.
Speaker 1: So, 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.
Speaker 3: Well, for starters, you have to purify yourself in the water.
Speaker 1: Is a lake in a 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 gotten everything we needed to get for our Redar movie.
Speaker 3: Thank you, I'm out of here, okay, Jason.
Speaker 1: Before we get started, we have to acknowledge our executive producer.
Today we have a new Patreon subscriber and he is
our executive producer. That is mister Travis Laslie.
Speaker 3: 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 man speak, happy family.
Speaker 3: That's right. Okay, we got another executive producer this time
it 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. I'm sure
he's heard it before.
Speaker 3: 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. Thank
You're staying in Canada.
Speaker 3: Alright, eh a boozer. Let's talk about production on these movies.
So I mean we will 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.
Speaker 1: Next day, 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 hypothermia. 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 3: The Lake Mantaka 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.
Speaker 1: Yes, not so cold over there, a little bit warmer.
Speaker 3: 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, are we tiking? Wow?
Speaker 3: Okay, all right. 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 3: 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 3: But there's one person that constantly skipped.
Speaker 1: It's who you would expect. Yeah, he was also high
during the filming of this movie.
Speaker 3: 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 appt and Costello, who's on
first bit's good. I enjoy that bit. They are the
comic relief of this movie. Yeah, they would 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 out 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 to trying to find songs, and then
they have this event that is now famous. Yes, it
is the first 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 3: That concert happened August third, nineteen eighty three. People don't
realize this. I didn't realize 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 one of the people in the
crowd was Albert mcnoly 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 3: Yeah, it was magic, and it makes for a great
climactic part of the movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, apart from the lake Manataka 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 ran dand 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 3: Okay, So here's the interesting thing about this. Okay, Throughout
the course of Prople Rate, they did such a great
job of pacing. There is not any ten minute span
where there is not at least one song played, except
for one part. There is a gap of ten minutes
and in the middle of that there's a sex scene.
Speaker 1: All right, it's 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 Lisai, 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 ring.
Speaker 3: It's a great story arc the building of the song
that the climaxis at the end.
Speaker 1: So here's the interesting thing. Yeah, 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. 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. Yeah
for real, that's pretty cool. Yeah, that's really cool.
Speaker 3: 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 Magnoally is like, no problem,
he won't die, And I'm like guy. I mean he
stuck a gun to his head and he didn't die.
Speaker 1: I mean, is that better he missed?
Speaker 3: Wow, he's a lousy 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.
Speaker 1: Like, you actually got some purple rain. It was not
at the halftime show of the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Here's the thing I want.
Speaker 3: To talk about real quick. 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,
an R version. We get the R version.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: 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 it, I was like, whoa, I do
not remember the V grab that happens in this scene.
Speaker 3: The hands wonder for sure. Yeah, but there's no nudity.
Speaker 1: Nope, although you can pretty well see through her paintings.
Speaker 3: 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. Yep, 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,
there's this really 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 groups 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 3: 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.
Speaker 1: That would be a goose against zero view the one
more thing yep.
Speaker 3: During the production, Albert Magnolay 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 got problems with dad, you got problems with your girlfriend,
you got problems with your band. Can you come up
with something, so Princess like, yeah, I think I can
come up with something. The next day comes back two songs,
one of them when does cry Wow you forgot the bass.
We'll get into that when we go track by track.
Speaker 1: So one more thing yep. Just before Prince plays beautiful Ones.
When Morris Day is trying to pick up Appolonia, 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 3: 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 Bacon good,
but I wouldn't say he's the best. John Lefcott again excellent,
but not the best performance Lori Singer, No, what who
do you have?
Speaker 3: Hey?
Speaker 1: Listen?
Speaker 3: They all did a great job, including Chris Bean, Sarah
Jessica 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 3: Look, I've been in church a lot of times, and
I guarantee I've look 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
was 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. Yeah.
Speaker 3: 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 sperience, 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 having
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 3: 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 3: 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 won 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 3: 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 Lefgas'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.
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 3: He brought that in hives.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he's 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 of most.
Speaker 3: 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. Phyllis 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 Reed. We got together
with John and we decided to start a new podcast
and we call that one Podcast Full of Kryptonite.
Speaker 3: Podcast Full of Cryptites, a whole lot of fun. We
covered 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 Podcasts full of Kryptonite.
Speaker 3: 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
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 right. As a father, I would brown
upon that behavior, of course.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And my daughter will tell you she's like that
because her parents were too restrictive.
Speaker 3: 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 your 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 3: 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. Really.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got to meet that guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 3: 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, huh. That 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 3: 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 that I went ahead
and 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 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 the paddle.
Speaker 4: Old school, 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.
Speaker 3: 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 and so like it is a little bit ye,
but the music is great and so we go along
with absolutely. 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 making.
Speaker 1: Kevin, you're pretty good at a bunch of things.
Speaker 3: 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
and the other guy.
Speaker 3: 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 3: Okay, let's talk about the tractor scene. First of all,
Ren on a tractor. He has no idea how to
drive a tractor, and they give him the crash course
of like, okay, here's the clutch, here's staring.
Speaker 1: Well, that's a great scene where Chris Penn keeps repeating
everything that the other guy is saying. It's hysterical.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, there's a clutch. Yeah, yeah, there's a clutch.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And his shoelace gets caught on the accelerator.
Speaker 1: Right. I mean, this movie is rebel without a cause,
except that he has a cause now, right is a
throwback to the old James Dean thing. And of course,
just like the old James dean thing. 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 Ren is
the one that gives.
Speaker 3: Ring 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.
Speaker 3: Yeah, shoelace is stuck around the excel 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 rails into the ditch. And I wondered, because,
like before when I had watched it, H'm like, how
does he get a shoelace off so easily? Afterwards, when
he finally stops and it starts aginning 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 3: For the hero, and you overlay it with the great
Bonnie Tyler song holding Out for a Hero. It is
a great suit. It's funny, it's entertaining, and it's thrilling.
Speaker 1: Totally, totally great. One of the best of the movie.
Speaker 3: 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 Lynch gasaw preacher in Utah, and
the tractor race was in Utah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's Utah County, Utah, and 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 at.
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 3: 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 Chrispin 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, that's the football field.
Speaker 1: It's all over the right.
Speaker 3: 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 they 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, Okay, let's jump back over to the
performances in Purple Rank. 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 grow back, Boy.
Speaker 3: Plays amazing song. Win's Girl back.
Speaker 1: That's right, right. So at that point, you know the
scene where he's talking to Prince and he's at he's
talking 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 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 and 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 no.
Speaker 3: No, they thank you for not making that choice.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: 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 3: 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, right, But when Prince
and Albert Magnoli were working on Purple Rain, Prince gave
him a hundred songs to choose. From one of those
songs that was not in that hundred Purple Rain, right,
another one one 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 was third nineteen eighty three,
Wendy Melvoy's first performance. It was, like I said, last time.
Albert was in the crowd when they did that performance,
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 3: 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.
It's like it's on computer blue. It's so hard not
to talk about the music on. The movie is all
about the music.
Speaker 3: 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 3: 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 3: What an unfortunate nickname.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's terrible.
Speaker 3: Okay, 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 3: 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. Well, that's true, Footloose. 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 impot me.
It was, 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 it's perfect that the album comes out before
and everybody's familiar with these and they are dancing along
with those guys.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about the original ending of Phillis before we
oh yeah, okay, we kind of it goes along 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, Yeah, 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.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: And so when they originally screened it with the just
arriving at the prom and that's the end of the movie,
audiences did.
Speaker 1: Not like the movie.
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 1: You went into Bill Cosby a little bit and the
dancing with Jews and stuff.
Speaker 3: But it went from a movie that was disliked 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 spending the
whole movie trying to get the car and you end
with them getting the keys, the audience is like going
to be where's the car. I want to see the car.
Speaker 3: I want ride 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, yeah,
Trick's boyfriend. 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 3: Nice.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's any break dancing going on.
I don't think break dancing a thing yet in nineteen
eighty I think it was like eighty two that break
dancing really started.
Speaker 3: That's the type of information you get here at the Shirley.
Can't be serious there you go.
Speaker 1: Nowhere else will you find that information?
Speaker 3: Yes, all right, let's flip back to Purple Rain. Okay,
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 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 five.
Speaker 1: Then they have the Hollywood premiere of the movie. Everyone
shows up. It's crazy like it's a red carpet event.
You've got Eddie Murphy, You've got Prince and all his
purple wonderfulness. It is a huge, huge event. It is.
It is.
Speaker 3: Let me back up a second. I got a little
bit ahead of myself.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So when they finished the movie, they screened.
Speaker 1: It for Warner Brothers.
Speaker 3: Ok okay, they showed it. After the first screening, everybody
thought it was a dud zinks 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 tested 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 gonna
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 this thing happened.
Speaker 1: Numbers through the roof.
Speaker 3: 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 3: 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.
Speaker 1: Man. I'm ready to talk Musing 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. We're going to go track by track,
gonna learn things about these songs that you never knew.
Come back next week.
Speaker 1: Come in? Do you like what? Do I got?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Sh