Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Surely You Can't
Be Serious Podcast. Shirley Fans, we have an amazing, exciting
episode for you today. This is literally an album that
we racked our brains for months trying to come up
with something to compare it to. And only by comparing
the movies did we find a way to compare two
legitimately incredible albums of nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: They're two of the best sellers of nineteen eighty four.
Purple Rain is one of the best sellers of all time. Yes,
and actually we are recording this today on June twenty fifth,
twenty twenty one. It is the thirty seventh anniversary of
the release of the soundtrack of the movie Peple Rain.
Speaker 1: You guys want to hear it for a couple of weeks,
But we are just blessed by divinity to have gotten
here today. Just I mean, we decided two days ago,
let's just record this on Friday, and boom, it happened
to be the exact day that was released.
Speaker 2: See, there's a legitimate case to be made this is
the best album of the eighties.
Speaker 1: Possibly, there's a legitimate case this is the best album
of all time. I mean, it's it's jump back, it's
it's incredible. Yes, all right, how'd you like to waste
some time?
Speaker 2: I cannot resist.
Speaker 1: It's really gross. It's not right now, it's not Let
this jogo any first.
Speaker 2: I don't want to stop until I reached the top.
Let's dive into Purple Rain. Track by track.
Speaker 1: Purple Rain. All right, Before we jump into our first track,
we need to know that this album was produced, arranged,
and composed by Prince and the Revolution.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the first album that the Revolution gets any
kind of credit.
Speaker 1: Well, on nineteen ninety nine, in the album cover he
wrote like backwards in like one of the letters the Revolution,
but this is the one that they actually in the
album notes they get full credit.
Speaker 2: Okay, cool.
Speaker 1: Now, Prince primarily is the composer of all of this stuff.
Speaker 2: This album won two Grammy Awards and an Academy Award.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: This won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score
for the movie Purple Rain. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Okay, so before we jump in, okay, let's talk album cover.
We typically do that, Yeah, iconic album cover. Before we
get going, I just want to point something out. We
have been talking to each other now for a couple
of years face to face. And one of the reasons
that I can do that is because you don't have
nose hair. Have you been talking to people and like
you can't even concentrate on what they're saying because of
their nose hair.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, they like tuck to you.
Speaker 1: It dangles, yes, it wiggles. It's a total distraction. Absolutely,
And so let me let me say, if you are
one of those guys, we have a product that is
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Speaker 2: It is an amazing product. It trims your nose hair.
It's not embarrassing. You just stick it up there and
takes care of it.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna look at people and bother them, right,
And I'm one of those guys who's self conscious about
my nose hair. So somebody that you're gonna see me
and I'm gonna be like yanking them out and wincing
in pain, don't do that. There is a special thing
that they make and they've also just released in addition
to the weed Whacker, they have just released something called
the lawnmower. If you have other areas of your body
that you're looking to trim up. And I'd like to
point out that a giraffe is easier to see in
the planes than it is in the forest. So that's
that's wonderful.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it is so very it's very good around
sensitive areas, if you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah. They have also an entire shavekit called the Ultra
Smooth Package package. You get the idea.
Speaker 2: So who doesn't want their package ultra smooth?
Speaker 1: Right? Right, So don't forget to go to manscapes dot
com and use the promo code fan sided twenty to
get twenty percent off your order and free shipping.
Speaker 2: Whack it perfect time.
Speaker 1: Yes, Prince on his motorcycle in New York City. Except
it's not in New York City. It's a back lot
at Warner Brothers Studios on Hennessy Street, but made to
look like one of the tenements in New York City.
Speaker 2: Really Yeah, okay, I just figured it was Minneapolis. No, okay, no, yeah,
it's not Minneapolis.
Speaker 3: It's not New York City.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's the back lot of Warner Brothers. I'm
wondering if they took this picture after they went to
La to reshoot the skinny dip in the lake, Mini
talka scenes with her when she got so sick after
the jumping in the water. Probably so, Minneapolis winter, probably so.
Speaker 2: Just for the record, Yeah, on this record, yes, thirteen
times platinum, over twenty five million units sold. Wow, twenty
five million. I think it was like standard issue to
everybody in my fourth grade class. I mean just everybody
got a copy of.
Speaker 1: Purple rant I got a question for you, so did
you have this? Because you've talked routinely about how your
dad would check your song list, and I don't see
how the this was forgre Filthy fifteen soundtrack would have
made it past at your dad.
Speaker 2: This one did not pass inspection at the Calvin household.
Speaker 1: So this was under the table.
Speaker 2: This was under the table for sure.
Speaker 1: Recording songs off the radio, getting stuff from friends.
Speaker 2: Mostly recording stuff off the radio was how I got
ahold of this Darling Nikki at my house was against
the rules, for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, let's dive in, track by track, track.
Speaker 1: By track, best freaking song for the first song on
the album Let's Go Crazy.
Speaker 2: This may be the greatest entry song of any album
in the nineteen eighties. The intro to this song is
I'm saying this song like the first track on any album.
Speaker 1: Eight Oh yeah, it is my favorite song on the album. Okay,
it's one of the greatest albums of the eighties, So
potentially this is the greatest song of the eighties. It's
in the conversation. It is definitely in the conversation. We
start with this amazing organ. We have dearly beloved, as
though we're here at a funeral for this thing called life.
Speaker 2: Whenever I walk by a hot mic or wherever I am,
it doesn't matter I find a hot mic. I don't
do check check check, I do daily beloved, gathered hit
to day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just comes out, yeah, and you're locked into
every word, right, you are wondering what it is he's
talking about. I mean, if this is your first time
to hear the song, you're like, what is going on here?
What's on this rock album? And so you're totally bought in.
And then the drum comes in just before the organ
fades out, and then you get this awesome guitar PowerCore.
It's incredible.
Speaker 2: This is an amazing song and.
Speaker 1: It's about God and the devil of all things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's talk about the Christian overtones to this song.
Speaker 1: Okay, So going Crazy and going for a higher floor
is about God. I mean, you can't just say God
in a song, so you have to disguise it as something.
And so going crazy and going higher that's about God.
And then the elevator. It's not just the elevator.
Speaker 2: I thought it was the elevator, like years and years
and years.
Speaker 1: So Prince has you know you. You can see it
in his song titles like I would die for you,
Nothing compares to you, like he abbreviates you and uses
the numeral tow for the word too all the time,
like even when he's handwriting notes. That book that I
told you I read, the Beautiful Ones it was it
was largely composed from notes that he had written. They
left it in. I mean he would draw the picture
of an I like a blinking eye for the word I,
like I would yes for you yes, And so that's
how that book is written. So D Elevator was the
way that he wrote the lyrics. He didn't write it
the elevator. It was devil, and devil got translated into
D elevator because the devil brings you down.
Speaker 3: Okay, awesome.
Speaker 2: One of the things that we should mention that anytime
we say the words four or two or you, please,
when you're listening at home, just substitute the numbers or
the big letter.
Speaker 1: Make it as short as you can, pretend like your
teenager is texting you. Prince set the stage in the
early eighties on how to communicate by text.
Speaker 2: That's good, Okay, So I want to talk about the
lyrics on this. This is something I just just discovered.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay.
Speaker 2: So you have that big intro, the sort of eulogy
at the beginning.
Speaker 1: George Clinton style.
Speaker 2: Okay, doctor, everything gonna be all right, yes, right, Yeah,
But at the very beginning of the song, he says,
I call my old lady for a friendly word. She
picked up the phone, dropped it on the floor, right, Yes,
And in the lyrics it says in parentheses sex sex
was all I heard.
Speaker 1: He definitely, throughout all of his work equates sex and god.
It's kind of weird. It is. It's a little bit weird. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So this song was released July eighteenth, nineteen eighty four.
This is right before the movie is dropped.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: We talked in our preceding episode about how Windove's cry
was blowing the roof off. Yes he drops this one,
Yes takes it at notch is even higher and it's
all right before the movie drops, and definitely helped propel
the movie to its success. This reached number one on
the Hot one hundred September twenty ninth, nineteen eighty four,
the second number one song in a row from this.
Speaker 1: Album, Yeah this one. Interesting things happened with Prince's stuff
after he passed away. Bruno Mar You remember did you
see the twenty seventeen Grammys. I remember watching them, Like
lead out show was Bruno Mars dressed in the old
purple rayin regalia and he played the song and I
got to say I was a little nervous. When it's
not he did a pretty darn good job.
Speaker 2: Bruno Mars is about the only guy I can think
of that could pull it off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did it well. It was respectful, well played, well sung.
He's a talent guy. But later on the song was
used in a Capital one commercial and like Prince would
never ever ever let something like that happen. I mean
I almost couldn't get his music before he passed away.
I mean it was on Spotify. You couldn't get it anywhere.
I couldn't get it anywhere, and so it was nice
that it was more accessible, Like once he passed away,
which you know, I hate to say that, but then
have Capital One, whoever's running the estate, that said, okay,
capital One, you can use the song that was shocking
and disheartening about what was being done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this song is actually shortened. When you watch the movie.
He plays a long version and it's our intro.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: We talked about the Godfather scene. Yeah, and you have
a part where he kind of does this weird piano thing,
you know, and it introduces the characters and all that stuff.
But back in the day, because they were records, they
had to trim it up to make sure everything fit,
and so they had to do some cuts. They cut
this one along with the beautiful ones and Computer Believe,
but they cut out that middle piano part, which I
didn't think was any good anyway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that part of the movie. But I
gotta say, my favorite part of this whole song is
the solo at the end. The guitar solo maybe my
favorite guitar solo of all time. He kills it and
he does like with almost that he does with his
whole album. He is merging thiss Achadelic with this classic
blues rock style and it is fire.
Speaker 2: You are one hundred percent of the money with that.
To me, this is a pop song with awesome guitar. Yes,
similar I think in spirit to like beat it, yeah,
very much. Beat it as a pop song with Eddie
van Halen just shredded.
Speaker 1: Yes, and from this song, not the song alone, but
I mean just knowing the man. He doesn't come up
in the conversation when you're talking about the greatest guitarists
of all time, but he probably should.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: He just was such a rounded musician in everything, and
such an incredible composer and lyricist and performer, you just
don't realize. Hey, he's phenomenal. I mean, you've seen the
my Guitar gently weeps video that that Tom Petty did,
and he comes in with that solo at the end,
and it's just holy cow. He can still just shred
away like he's Eddie van Halen. Like you say, you
walk by a mic and you're saying, dearly beloved. If
this guitar solo is I'm gonna stop whatever I'm doing
might get my knee. I'm gonna way away on the
air guitar, so good man, and the end, where is
that down? And that's like one hundred blues songs in
that way, but he does something so much more with
that end. It's too good.
Speaker 2: And you have the big tight yep so that blew
our doors off.
Speaker 1: The out of the gate fantastic, and then it drops
us into this beautiful soft pop song called take Me
with You. Okay, So we start with this drum and
synthesizer thing that's almost frantic, like it's just what's going on.
It's like a you know, the panic scene in some movie,
and then it transitions into this it's like we're going
for a while in the park. You know.
Speaker 2: It's unconfirmed, but the urban legend is is that Sheila
at the beginning of the song.
Speaker 1: Oh, it definitely has her sound, for sure, definitely has
her sound. So this one he had written for Apollonia
six Apollonia singing the co lead in this She's she's
the female voice that we hear. But they didn't put
this song in when they first laid these tracks out.
They didn't have this song in there, and they had
to take it out of the Apollonia six album.
Speaker 2: It's interesting. Aberbanguli came to Prince and said, hey, we
need something to go with the montage of the love
scene where the romances blooming and they're hanging out and
they're having fun and they're getting to know each other.
And he's like, well, that's great, I got this song
right here. I'm just going to take it right back
from Apollonia that it was going to go on her album.
Uh huh, And he started to pull stuff from her.
Originally it was Vanity six, yes, and then Apollonia is
more of an actress, you know, so from that album.
Speaker 1: I thought I was thinking about this today she still
sings well. I mean, he's not gonna I don't know
that she's going to be a star singer sometime, but
she's not a bad singer.
Speaker 2: Her album Listen, her album had Manic Monday, the Glamorous Life,
and take Me with You.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she could have gone a different direction, she could
have that's true.
Speaker 2: He didn't take those songs away from him.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, So this.
Speaker 2: Was released January twenty fifth, nineteen eighty five. This reached
number twenty five on the Hot one hundred. This is
Chris Rock's favorite Prince song.
Speaker 1: This song has got strings in it, one of the
first times we hear strings in Prince's music. These were
not synthesized strings. These were live string musicians. And Novie
Novage usually just call her nov but she's one of
the players in this.
Speaker 2: I heard that the strings were arranged by Wendy and Lisa.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Lisa Coleman is a classically trained pianist. There's
actually I remember this that when she met Prince, she
met him and his dad at the same time, and
they're like, Okay, we'll play a song for it. She's
like okay, and she starts playing, and they're like, so,
what's the point in really learning technique? It's not really necessary,
is it. And she's like, by learning technique, you're able
to play any and every style of music. And they're
like oh, And it totally changed the way that Prince
approached learning music. All Right, awesome, this little story from
The Beautiful Ones.
Speaker 2: Nice, nice, Okay, all right, we done with this one.
Speaker 1: Yep, Moving on, all right, moving on to track number three.
Speaker 2: This song is called the Beautiful Ones.
Speaker 1: Okay, so this is the song that he's singing to
Apollonia whenever she's with Morris Day in the club and
he's trying to get her to come back, and it's
also like a challenge to him. And it's interesting because
he actually probably wrote this for that same reason, but
with different people involved. So supposedly this was supposed to
be a song written for Susannah Melvoy and who's Wendy's
twin sister, right, that was the story for a long time,
and she had a boyfriend when they first met, and
so maybe it is that kind of thing of leave him,
come with me. But in twenty fifteen, just a year
before he passed, he gave an interview and he said
this song was for Vanity. Now, if you know the
story of how he met Vanity for the first time,
she was with Rick James and I think it was
at the Grammys or something like that, and Rick James
comes in with Vanity and you know, she's just this
B movie actress, but he falls in love with her
on site, and so it's possi that Vanity is at
the Apollonia and James James is the Morris Day.
Speaker 2: Wow. That's awesome, And.
Speaker 1: Interestingly, I'd like to see if Dave Chappelle play that
whole scenario out.
Speaker 2: Because Dave Chappelle bulls in your core, buddy. Yeah, So
this song to me is enhanced by the movie.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the.
Speaker 2: Performance that he gives in the movie, like you said,
he's singing directly to her heart, and you know, it
hits those screams and it's intense at the end, and
it's emotion and it's do you want him or do
you want me? Because I want you? And I just
think it's one of those where when I saw the movie,
I thought this.
Speaker 3: Is a great song.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. So the beginning of the song starts off
with these drums. It's got a similar sound almost to
the drum sound in the air tonight. But this was
an LM one drum machine, and back then there weren't
very many of them. They cost about five thousand each,
so not a whole lot of folks had them. He
had taken that drum machine and he would run it
through his guitar effects pedals, and he had kind of
made his own drum sounds by using the effects that
he would use on the guitar, which is how it
has that kind of echoey effect at the beginning. So
he kind of kept using what was old technology because
he had made it his own interesting.
Speaker 2: This song actually replaced another song called Electric Intercourse that
was scheduled to be on the Purple Rain soundtrack. But
like this one better, and I think that's a good call.
I've heard Electric gun Course and it's not half the
song at this one is this one that has been
covered by Mariah Carey and Beyonce. We talked in our
def Leopard episode about Mariah Carey covering Bringing On the Heartbreak,
and I thought it doesn't really work, but her version
of this song is actually good. All right, everybody, I
just want to formally invite you to come over and
listen to our side project, the podcast Bull of kryptonit
with mister John Reid from the thirty seventy movie podcast,
and of course you and me.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile at the Hull of Justice, we are the super Friends.
Speaker 2: That's right. We cover the TV show Superman and Lois.
We go over every episode. We have a great time,
and John knows so much about Superman. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: If you love Superman, or even if you don't and
you just want to learn more, come check it out.
And if you haven't watched Superman and Lois yet you
need to right now crawl out of your fortress of
solitude and turn the TV on.
Speaker 2: Podcast Bull of Crips back, moving on, Moving on. Next
song on the album is a song called Computer Blue.
Speaker 1: Wendy, Yes Lisa is the water horma?
Speaker 4: Yes Lisa?
Speaker 2: Shall we begin, Yes Lisa, And.
Speaker 1: Then we have Wendy and Lisa conjuring up images in
young boys minds back in the eighties of what the
water was going to be used for.
Speaker 2: All I know is that the idea of Wendy and
Lisa in the bathtub was enough to spiral my mind
out of control an eleven year old.
Speaker 1: So then we jump into this horrendous scream and a
entirely different sound, but it is fantastic. It's very computerized,
it's very synthesizer heavy, and it's about the relationship of
humans and computers.
Speaker 2: Interesting at a time when that was on people's minds.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, absolutely. This one involved more of the
band in its composition. The keyboard bass line was something
that doctor Fink had come up with fun and he
started playing at one of their sessions. The band kind
of joined in and jammed over it, and Prince was like,
I like this and he, I mean for the for
what the song became. He brought in the bridge from
this song that he had called Father's Song that was
written by his dad, John L. Nelson. It was originally
a much longer song before they put in Windove's Cry
and and take Me with You.
Speaker 2: We got to listen to the part where he plays
on his guitar, that piano part that his father wrote.
Let's do it right here. It's kind of interesting that
the Prince's dad gets a credit on the writing of
this song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. It's really neat. Whole band gets credit
and John L. Nelson. Okay, so this song was originally
like seven minutes and thirty seconds long, and I think
there's like a twelve minute version as well, and when
they I think they've released that longer version as well.
There's a hallway speech. Oh yeah, yeah, so he's like
going down the hallway and each of the doors lead
to different emotions and it's considered by Prince fans as
like one of the best parts of the song that
we didn't even see for a long time, but because
they got to see it in the live shows, they
were like, oh, this is a great part of the song.
But it never made it in the album.
Speaker 2: I saw an interview with Wendy Melbourne right, and it
was actually The Revolution minus Prince Is after his death,
and they were asking her. They're like, what's the deal
with you know, Wendy, Yes, Lisa is the water warming up? Yes, Lisa?
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: They were asking her directly, what does that mean. She's like, well,
he wanted to do something kind of alluring with that,
and so he's like here say this. They're like, okay,
all right, there's the water warming up.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just thought that was kind of a cool, sexy hook.
Speaker 1: So well, acting chops go as they do, Wendy's probably
got the better, the better acting chops. The yes, very computerized.
Could we do it a little less like a zombie
this time? Please?
Speaker 2: Hey, Wendy does a great job in Purple Rain when
she tells Lisa to shut up, shut up. Lisa was like,
she said that before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's feisty. I like her.
Speaker 2: Okay, are we done with computer blue? Ye?
Speaker 1: Move on, listen.
Speaker 2: This is a great song. Yeah, but for me, it's
the weakest song on the album. Okay, okay, Yeah, it's
more of an underlying soundtrack song than a song. I
want to go listen to It's a great song, but
it's not mind blowingly great, which from this point forward,
they're all amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, we've got a tent pole song obviously at
the beginning, and a tent pole song at the end
of side one. Darling Nikki, I'm sorry, Jason, I have
to stop this now. You're not allowed to listen to this.
Speaker 2: Tipper Gore says, press pause on your tape player, kick
it out and go tell your mom you're grounded.
Speaker 1: Okay. So Tipper Gore catches her eleven year old daughter
Karina listening to this song and she's like, she doing
what with a magazine?
Speaker 4: I remember hearing that line and I was like, that
sounds painful. Can you get paper cuts or something that? Oh,
she's looking at the magazine? Okay, makes so much more.
Speaker 1: This was the song that led Tipper Gore on her
crusade where she started the Parents' Music Resource Center, which
ultimately led to parental advisory stickers and a list of
songs that you're not allowed to hear.
Speaker 2: You are exactly right, let's not gloss over that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The reason why we have those parental advisory stickers on
every CD now. Yeah, of course nobody buys CDs anymore
because this song.
Speaker 1: Yes, so this song wasn't released as a single, but
it hit number one on the Filthy fifteen chart. Nick right,
this is the this is the top worst song that
the Parents Music Resource Center had on their list.
Speaker 2: Hey listen, this song committed a couple of sins, Okay,
parental sins. I should say, NICKI was a sex fiend.
Speaker 1: Yes, we know that.
Speaker 2: It also had back masking. Oh yes, which was you know,
the Devil's work back in the day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, except that if you actually listen to the back
masking backwards, it says, hello, how are you fine? Fine?
Because I know that the Lord is coming soon, coming,
coming soon. Kind of an interesting flip.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, I mean you have Christian overtones on a
song called Darling Nicky.
Speaker 1: I told you man, he equates the two. But thank
you Tipper Gore for giving us stickers so that we
would know what the album was we wanted to buy
when we were teenagers.
Speaker 2: That's right. We talked about the Filthy fifteen back when
we did ac DC and their song let Me Put
My Love Into You. Honestly, though, Darling Nikki maybe one
of the most controversial songs in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: Yep. Turns out Karina Gore went on to seminary and
is now actually a professor at the seminary school, like
a dean maybe, so she made it okay. Well, you know,
even if she listened to Darling Nicky.
Speaker 2: Well, that's good. I'm glad to hear that, you know.
In two thousand and one, when Prince got serious about
his Jehovah's witness faith, he moved away from songs like
that and this one in particular. He would not play
this when.
Speaker 1: Live, right, And in fact.
Speaker 2: I listened to a guy and he went to a
Prince concert and Prince started the song and everybody's like,
here it is, and He's like, no, I can't. I'm
not going to play that one for you.
Speaker 1: Oh man. He stopped playing put it on the shelf
yep for six years. Played it again in two thousand
and seven.
Speaker 2: Welcome back.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, sounds.
Speaker 1: Good time to hit stop on your tape player.
Speaker 2: Kick it out, flip it over side two for Purple Rain.
This song is wind Doves Cry.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're gonna be naked in a bathtub? Sorry.
As a throw back to our Sign of the Times episodes.
Go check that out. Another amazing song.
Speaker 2: The guitar at the beginning. This gives me chills.
Speaker 1: So this one. Do you know how this came about?
Speaker 2: Tell me.
Speaker 1: Albert Magnoli, the director of the movie, was like, hey,
we need music to go over the parents fighting with
each other in this awkward relationship. And Prince is like, okay,
I'll go write that. And it's supposed to be partially
inspired by his relationship with Susan Moonsee, who was a
member of Vanity six and Apollonia six. Right, just looked
out the leads and that's the same girl. By the way,
why six there's three girls? I can think of just
a few things that there's six of, and they were
prominently displayed in the live show. Yes, their eyes, their
ears something. Anyway, So he writes this song and Jill Jones,
who had performed with him on Wednesday, which was a
song that was supposed to be on this album, she's
the one that says it sounds too conventional. In the conversation,
the idea was take out the bass, and so we
have this song that becomes a number one hit and
becomes the best selling single of nineteen eighty four, and
it has no bass.
Speaker 2: That's really the big story on this. There is no bass.
Speaker 1: When they play the show live, there is a bassline.
He does play the bass when it's live. And not
only was it interesting because of this, but then we
have the video, which is weird. It's Prince crawling naked
on the ground out of the bathtub with doves flying
around him, and he's the one that directed it. Prince
directed this video, but it's controversial because of some strong
sexual overtimes.
Speaker 2: This was the song of the summer of nineteen eighty four.
We talked in our Huey Lewis episode where I'm like,
you know, if this was it was like huge for
me the summer of eighty four. But this song reached
number one on July seventh, nineteen eighty four, and was
number one for five weeks. It owned that summer and
it was on like on my local radio station. They
played it every album. Is it a pop song, is
it a guitar song? Is it both? Is it something
we've never heard before? It's amazing, it's incredible.
Speaker 1: So because this came along later on, because their request
for the song came later on, this one that was
not performed by The Revolution for the album. This was
all prints wrote, it played, it played every instrument on. Yeah.
Speaker 2: He had actually finished the soundtrack. I think they may
have even started the initial pressings of it, and he
came in he said, guys, I got one more song,
and they were like, no, we've barely fit everything in
there as it is, and he's like, no, you're going
to want this one on there. You think, Wow, the
number one single in nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 1: How many stories have we told were the last song
to come up in the process? Is the best song
on the album? Yeah, this one is certainly. I mean,
it's the best selling single of nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: It may be the best song of nineteen eighty four.
In a year where the competition is incredibly high.
Speaker 1: And this one they changed the rules on how to
get a platinum single. Before they changed the rules to
make it easier, this was the last single to reach
platinum steps.
Speaker 2: Okay, let me talk to you about this. Okay, we've
talked about how this song is sounds different. There's no baseline.
You know, you've got two different solos and you've got
these sort of weird sounds at the end. He's kind
of doing some weird vocalization at the end, and it's
five and a half minutes long. It's a risky choice
for the first single because we talked about it. If
it bombs out of the gate, do they market Purple
Rain like crazy? I would have thought that Let's Go
Crazy would have been a much safer choice for the
first single. Absolutely that this one comes out and it
is a huge smash.
Speaker 1: Huge smash number one followed by another number one, followed
by the movie. Of course it's going to do well.
This is why the movie, I mean we talked about
it before. There's no reason this movie should have been
a success other than this album coming out first and
these two songs being the lead singles.
Speaker 2: The video is like an ad for the movie.
Speaker 1: I mean absolutely, absolutely Okay, So before we finish up
with it, we got to talk about this last synthesizer solo. Okay. So,
as I mentioned, Prince did all of the instrumentation on
this right well. He slowed down the track to half speed,
lowered it an octave, and then sped it back up
to get it. Swear it's the same sound. It fits
the sound correctly, right, smart, very smart, But doctor Fink
then had to learn how to full speed whenever they
did their lives.
Speaker 2: Good luck with that, dude.
Speaker 1: When you hear this, you have to be playing the
air piano on your dashboard or your steering wheel or
whatever wherever you are. You're doing that little keyboard bit
with your fingers, for sure. One dred percent.
Speaker 2: Okay, you know what else was a huge hit in
nineteen eighty four, Dancing in the Dark Bebrus Springsteen. Yes,
only made it to number two because it.
Speaker 1: Could not push this one out of the way, couldn't
unsea when Dove's cry I hate to leave it.
Speaker 2: It literally may be the best song in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: There really is. But the good news is the next
song is I Would Die for you. Greater love has
no one than this, to lay down one's life for
one's friends.
Speaker 2: John fifteen thirteen and quoting scripture.
Speaker 1: Well, well that's what this song is about. It is
so good. It's I am something you'll never understand. It is,
I'm willing to lay down my life for you. And
you know what, it's such a happy, great song. It's
a good way to have a Hollywood end to a
otherwise pretty dark movie.
Speaker 2: It's an amazing pop song. Yeah, and like you said
in the movie, after we reached that emotional peak of
Purple Rain where Purple Rain comes in, he plays it.
It clears the deck, it solves all the problems that
it is, the awesome climax of Purple Rain. Then you
finish with two super fun songs where you have this
song and then the next song we're going to talk
about and it's just it's just good old fashioned, awesome
pop fun.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I think when he did when he had his conversion,
he stops saying I'm the Messiah. I think he started
saying when he would sing it live, he would say
He's the side. Yep.
Speaker 2: This song was released November twenty fourth, nineteen eighty four.
This reached number eight on the Hot one hundred.
Speaker 1: How did this song only get to number eight?
Speaker 2: Another top ten hit, But it.
Speaker 1: Should be I mean it should be closer to number one.
Speaker 2: Than is eight Top gold that pop gold.
Speaker 1: So the B side on this one was a song
called Another Lonely Christmas. It is a much downer song
than this song. This is happy Go Lucky. The other
side's about a guy spending Christmas alone because his significant
other died. On Christmas Day, therefore it is tragic.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you this. Some people open presents on Christmas.
Other people open their wrists.
Speaker 1: Okay, Gremlin. So that's how I found out there was no.
Speaker 2: Sane flashback to our Gremlins episode.
Speaker 1: We've got Sheila e on this one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, shei le becoming a prominent member of Princess entourage.
Speaker 1: When they would do this tour. Sheila was a part
of the show and she would come back out for
this song and play the drums and they would sing
it together on the song.
Speaker 2: It's a great song. Yeah, what else is there to
say other than it's so fun, it's popgold.
Speaker 1: There's nothing else to say. Let's go on to Baby
I'm a Star.
Speaker 2: It slides right into Baby I'm a Star.
Speaker 1: Okay, So this is the beginning part of this song.
Make you think of the scene in Batman where Jack
Nicholson is dancing around.
Speaker 2: Yes, the Joker parade scene.
Speaker 1: There is a reason for that, right. This is the
song that was supposed to be in that scene, and
it was just going to be the only Prince song
in the soundtrack, But then Prince got signed on to
the entire soundtrack, and so he said, we're going to
take that song out and we're going to put in
a song called two hundred Balloons, and they went, can
we go back to the other song? Was like, ok, I,
we won't do two hundred balloons, but I've got another
song that's much closer to Baby I'm a Star. And
the song is called Trust and we can play that
right here. See how close it is.
Speaker 2: That's exactly like Baby I'm a Star.
Speaker 1: Yes, you got no question when you're hearing this. This
is Brits, right, and so that's how we get that
awesome image. But this one, this song actually came about
in nineteen eighty one. This whole album other than this
song was written eighty three ish right right, And this
one actually he had written before December of eighty one,
when he had just started to become famous. And he's like,
Baby I'm.
Speaker 2: A Star, that's great, and your your batman reck is awesome.
Somebody tell me he's got one of those things. Okay.
So there's that string part right there, that that little tune,
that musical tune. It reminds me a lot of Raspberry Beret.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the same you got again. I mentioned her before.
This is Nobe Novag. She's the one playing the strings
on this arranged by Winnie Lisa. Right, you get the
same sound, same string sound when you have Raspberry beret.
That's why they sound the same. When Novie came in
to record this, this is like completely the opposite of
what I would expect from Prince. But she came in
and she was like, Okay, I'm going to try it out.
She plays it and she's like, Okay, I think I've
got it. He's like Nope, that's good. She's like, no,
I can do it better than that. He's like, no,
I really like the the energy that you had on
that one. I don't want to use anything else. And
she's like, okay, thanks, because I'll.
Speaker 2: Knock off earlier then. Baby, I'm a star. I would
die for you. Let's go crazy and Purple Rain We're
all played at First Avenue on August third, nineteen eighty three,
for that concert.
Speaker 1: The benefit for the Minnesota Dance Theater.
Speaker 2: Yes, when I think about that, I'm like, man, there's
a few concerts that I would have killed who have
been at right. I mean, we're talking for sure, Live
Aid the Moscow Peace Festival and that night at First
Avenue of Minnesota on August third. To hear these songs
we played for the first.
Speaker 1: Time, it's like the lost Arc being opened, well in
a good way, not the bad one Lost Arc. I mean,
this is a moment where we get the title song
for the movie. Albert. We talked about it during the
movie episode. Albert Magnolia is in the audience. Here's them
play Purple Rain along with those other songs, and he's like,
that song needs to be the key song to my movie.
They hadn't put live music on an album before this.
Speaker 2: It's incredible. These songs were played live. Now, they overdubbed
some and they added some vocalizations and some strings to them,
but these were plucked right out that concert.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, this song almost always follows I Would Die
for You whenever they play it live. They blend together perfectly.
It's kind of like we will rock you and we
are the champions. You've got to hear these two songs.
Speaker 2: You play one, you get the other.
Speaker 1: You got to have the other. They're they're they're a pair.
Speaker 2: All right, You've done with this one. Were ready to
tackle this beast.
Speaker 1: This talk about saving the best for last man. This
is so good.
Speaker 5: I okay, hold on, hold on, push pause, push pause,
hold on.
Speaker 1: I just got to talk about this for just a second. Okay.
I've talked about four chords songs before, and how like
there there's a million rock pop hits that are the
same four chords. Right, Yes, we've got don't stop Believing,
We've got Africa, We've got Minute work down under all
kinds of songs, the same four chords, faithfully by Journey,
which we'll talk about here in just a second. Right,
same four chords. So this song is a four chord song. Literally,
the entire song is only four chords long. But what
happens is something amazing with these four chords that's unlike
the other songs. Okay. So normally in a four chord song,
depending on the key, you're going to have B flat,
G minor, F and E flat. Okay, that's normally what
you would have. There's if you put in a different key,
it'd be a D F sharp minor and E. I mean,
it's just they are they bear the same relationship to
each other on the scales, right, Okay, So this one, though,
you have an entirely different voicing for each of the chords.
So instead of having B flat, you have a B
flat nine, which makes it a much prettier sounding chord.
Let's listen to the first chord, and then that transitions
into not just a G minor, but a G minor
seven suspended four, which is again so beautiful. And then
this one's the basic chord. It goes right into that
F except the other guitar plays an F minor. So
every single chord he's taking these that four chord song,
but he's turning it into something bigger and better and
more beautiful. And then he finishes off not with an
E flat but with an E flat nine, which is
this beautiful chord. Okay, now we can just play this song. Wow.
Speaker 2: I never meant to.
Speaker 1: I never meant.
Speaker 5: Oh.
Speaker 2: You know, they were following Bob Seger around when they
were touring, and they were kind of chasing him around
the States, and Prince went to Matt Beek one day
and he's like, man, these white people in the Heartland
they love Bob Seger. I don't really get it. Tell
me why they're so into it. And Matt Veink says, well,
it's just this, It's just this kind of heartland thing, right.
They want to sing along and they want to be
moved and they want to want to feel a part
of it. And so Prince modeled this song Purple Rain
after turn the page.
Speaker 1: So interestingly, this song started out it wasn't going to
be a song for him. It was going to be
a song for Stevie Nicks. Yeah, And it wasn't this
power ballot. It was a country style song. He sends
it to Stevie Nicks and it's about ten minutes. I mean,
he gives her ten minutes of these four chords over
and over right. He's like, will you just write some
lyrics to this and you sing it and it'll be
our song together. And it freaks her out and she's like,
this is overwhelming. I can't do this. I'm scared I'm
going to mess it up. It's too beautiful. I don't
want to touch it. Here's it back, yeah, And so
they bring it back in to their studio and their
rehearsals and it's one of the first times that they
have Wendy rehearsing with them, and they start playing the
kind of country style chord progression and Wendy is the
one who does this voicing with the chords that I
just talked about. And when she does that, it completely
eliminates the country sound and it brings it into that
power ballad world that we.
Speaker 3: Love, you know, when you're talking about Stevie Nicks.
Speaker 2: She gave it back to him and said, basically, like
you said, it's too epic, it's two grand I can't
handle it. But she also added it was an olive
branch of him giving me that cassette, which was huge,
but I think he would have liked to have a
romance with me as well.
Speaker 1: Well, she is Stevie Nicks. That is shocking, Well not really.
So this song spent two weeks in the number two position.
It never made it to number one. Do you know
what kept it out of the spot?
Speaker 6: Jane Jones quick before go go oh Hey, George Michael
and Andrew Ridgeley had some power in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1: Four Human Beings of the World. I love that song,
but it should not have kept out The Purple Master.
I agree, it's just yeah, it's tragic.
Speaker 2: That song was released September twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four
made it to number two, blocked by Wham.
Speaker 1: So after he had put this song together, he realized
it sounded a lot like one of those four chord
songs Faithfully Right by Journey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he actually called Jonathan Kane. Yes, he called Jonathan
Caane and he said, hey, here's the tape of this song.
I'm afraid that I copied you. Would you listen to it?
Make sure that you're cool with.
Speaker 1: This, right and if you if you're trying to figure
that out into your head, listen to those first four
chords and then go down now now no no, no,
down now now no no now, and you will hear it. Yeah.
But Jonathan Kane said, no, man, it's just the same
four chords. This is obviously a completely different song.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: So the first time that you hear the words purple
and rain put together in music is a song by
this band called America called Ventura Highway.
Speaker 2: This Blew Me Away.
Speaker 1: So it just it's the last it's kind of the
last bit of one of the lyrics in the song.
Prince takes it and obviously makes it his own. You
know what purple rain is? Do you know what it's
supposed to be?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I read this where it's talking about
you have a blue sky and you've got blood in
the sky and therefore you have purple rain, right, which
for me that was a little bit of a revelation.
I remember the lyrics from nineteen ninety nine was talking
about the sky was all purple, there are people running everywhere.
Speaker 1: Yeah, could have sworn it was Judgment Day. Sky was
all purple, there were people running everywhere. So it's about
the end of the world. And that's what this song
is about.
Speaker 2: Wow. Back when I was in middle school, we had
this little riddle we used to tell each other. Yes
that blue thunder plus red dawn, eagles, purple rain.
Speaker 1: There you go. How created That's why I'm here.
Speaker 2: Nuggets like that, lady and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: Okay, And so we've mentioned it multiple times now, but
just as a reminder, this was one of the songs
at the benefit for the Minnesota Dance Theater. This was
the first concert that Wendy Melvoyn played. She was only
nineteen years old when she played with them. At the time,
they brought recording equipment with them. They didn't know what
it was going to be about. They just knew Prince
just does this stuff. So David Z, who is the
brother of Bobby Z, brings over recording equipment and thank goodness,
because I mean, Bobby Z said it was one of
the best concerts they've ever ever done, and you're talking
about I've got the drummer for the Revolution and says,
one of the best concerts we've ever done.
Speaker 2: So glad that they had the foresight to do that.
Speaker 1: He's got a huge Prince is not what I would
describe as a great singer. Like he does. His voice
is good and it's enjoyable to listen to him, but
it's not like he's He's not some amazing Steve Perry
esque kind of singer. But his vocal range on this one,
he goes from a B flat to all the way
up to a C sharp six, which is a huge,
huge vocal range for one song.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I was just going to say, you can
see that on the beautiful ones. I think that range
is there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. One of the things I want to talk about, yeah,
just briefly, is the Super Bowl Super Bowl forty one,
two thousand and seven. Do you remember who the teams
were that were playing?
Speaker 2: Was the Bears and the Cold Cycle Good.
Speaker 1: It's really hard to remember the teams, but it sure
is easy to remember. Prints.
Speaker 2: Hey, we posted on Facebook during the Super Bowl. I
was watching the Super Bowl with you at your house. Yeah,
and I just threw it out there and I'm like,
we're watching the super Bowl performance. I'm like, what what
are we watching here?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: So I threw it out there on our Facebook page.
I said, if you will, a picture of the world's
best Super Bowl performer ever.
Speaker 1: And the response was unanimous and overwhelming. Thank you all
of our Facebook friends. It blew up. But it was
again this magical moment, like that concert was a magical moment.
The halftime show was a magical moment because he goes
through these songs. He had played Baby I'm a Star,
and the last song that he plays is Purple Rain
and Lo and Behold. It starts to rain on the
concert and there are purple lights making the rain purple.
I mean, you just you can't get any more religious
experience than that.
Speaker 2: It was fantastic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing moment of silence for Prince's SUPO performance. Tragically,
this is also the last song he ever performed live.
He performed this April fourteenth, twenty sixteen, one week before
he died.
Speaker 5: Is that right?
Speaker 2: I did not realize.
Speaker 1: That, But what a great way to end that epic career.
Speaker 2: Wow, wow, Okay, are we done with Purple Rain? I
just want to throw a couple of songs a bone
here real quick.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: They weren't on the Purple Rain soundtrack, which was interesting.
So More's Day in the Time have Jungle Love and
the Bird, which featured prominently in the movie. But Prince
made it clear to Morris Day. He's like, listen, you
put those songs on your own album. I'm gonna make
my own album and this is going to be my thing, right,
So Jungle Love and the Bird featured prominently in the movie,
both great songs. Jumb Be Love was a big hit
in nineteen eighty five. Then, of course you also have
sex Shooter by Appolonius six, not a great song. It's okay,
Apolony looks fantastic.
Speaker 1: She does, and so there you go.
Speaker 2: Now are we ready for final Judgment Purple Rain?
Speaker 1: It is Judgment Day.
Speaker 2: The sky was all purple. There are people running everywhere.
Footloose soundtrack yep versus Purple Rain soundtrack, the go.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no question, it's it's overwhelming. You have
a phenomenal album, phenomenal Footloose has hit after hit after hit,
it's the album that not Thriller out of the number
one spot and then stayed in that spot for ten
solid weeks. You've got performers at the top of their game.
You've got Kenny Loggins, You've got Denise Williams, You've got
Anne Wilson and Mike Reno. I mean, there's just an
amazing amount of talent in this album. But it's a
pop album. It was made. It's a wake me up
before you go go album. It is made to be
accessible to the public, and it's not musically intricate. On
the other hand, you have Prince taking songs that not
only have those pop sensibilities, but you have the musicianship
of him and the Revolution. I mean, they've got to
get a lot of credit in this one, but it's
conceivably the best album of the decade. In a decade
of great albums, it is conceivably the best. It is
the best album of nineteen eighty four. It is, and
you've got a lot of good stuff that year. So sorry, Footloose,
you've got some great stuff. You definitely are a big hitter,
but there's no way you can overcome the Purple One.
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts that's tough to follow up, right there.
That was pretty pretty on the nose. I love the
Footloose soundtrack. When you talk about the eighties, the soundtrack
was a really big deal. If you had music videos
and songs that went with your movie. That kind of
went hand in hand and helped each other out. Footloose
hit it right on the nose. And what we say,
they were like six hits of the top forty.
Speaker 1: Something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, six out of nine. Yeah, I mean every song
but one was released as a single. It was a
huge album, and it was a number one seller, and
it knocked Thriller out of the top spot. And I
love it. If you tell me that Footloose is the
second best soundtrack of the eighties, I'll go with you
on that. But it can't overcome the mass amazing appeal
of Purple Rain. Purple Rain, I'm spiking the Football is
the best album of the nineteen eighties, and since I
only listened to was basically in the eighties and nineties,
it's probably my favorite album of all time.
Speaker 1: Wow, better than Thriller?
Speaker 2: Yes, because I like Bad better than Thriller.
Speaker 1: Better than Bad?
Speaker 2: Yes, Yes, Purple Rain is the best album that we've
covered so far and I don't see anything topping it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's hard to argue with that, it really is.
And we mentioned this frequently. We've got a lot of
Ready Player one fans. You still haven't read Ready Player
two yet. I have, But I will just say, Prince
and the Afterworld is a major, faceted part of this book.
You've got to go read it. Awesome, Awesome.
Speaker 2: Hey, you know what we really didn't do Judgment Day.
Speaker 1: On movies on movies. Yeah, that's what we got to
do next is Okay, so we are obviously both on
the same page. Purple Rain far and away the better album, Yes,
Footloose or Purple Rain movie wise, you go first?
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, now listen, fully admitting that I am
born and raised in Oklahoma, so there is a soft
spot in my heart for stories that are born here.
Elmore City is right down the road from where we're
recording right now.
Speaker 1: Say thank you again, into Arlin for all of those
incredible stories that alan.
Speaker 2: Those were fantastic stories.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I love the movie Footloo's probably more than the
average Joe on the street. With that said, the movie Footloose,
the cast alone is amazing, I mean John Lithgow, Kevin Bacon,
Laurie Singer does a great job. Chris Penn is awesome,
Sarah Justica Parker and she's on her way up. She
looks great. Diane Weist is awesome, The kids leaving a
church is awesome. Purple Rain is a movie held up
by the songs. Now you have Prince at the height
of his powers performing amazingly, and Apollonia is gorgeous. But
this is propped up by the songs. So when it
comes to the movies, Footloss is clearly the better movie.
Purple Rain is clearly the better soundtrack. That's where I
am spiking the football.
Speaker 1: Well, you don't need to spike the football on me. Man.
We're again on the exact same page on this one.
Purple Rain. The movie is, like you said, it's carried
along by the music. It is a music video followed
by some boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets
girl back story. That's great. I mean, it's Prince's story
and it's entertaining, but it's not a movie that if
I saw it, I'm gonna be like, Oh, Purple Raen,
I gotta watch that. You know, maybe the lake Mini
Taka scene. But that's about it.
Speaker 2: You get to the opening scene, let's go crazy, you
get Lake Mantonka, and you get purple.
Speaker 1: Ranting, Yeah, you get Yeah. I'm watching that first, those
first two and then I'm like, all right, foot loose,
on foot Loose, I'll go back and watch again and again.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't grab a CD of a movie
as you're going out the door. But if I'm finding
things to watch on TV, I'll watch Footloops. I'll watch
it over and over again. It had been a long
time since I'd seen it. And like you said, the
performances made this movie. Kevin Bacon, this was his first
really big breakout role, but he did a phenomenal job
with it. And we talked about how it was that
going to the high school for one day, one day
of being in high school completely changed the way that
he decided to portray this character and it was a
key to the movie. And John Lithgow met with the
Preacher for just one meeting and it completely influenced how
he played this Preacher. And as a grown man watching
this movie, I'm like, this guy is not an evil,
you know, beating thump in the Bible Helen Brimstone preacher
like I thought he was. He's a guy who is
concerned about the well being of the people. He lost
a son, and I think you you mentioned this. This
is about a son who's lost a father and a
father who's lost a son and them making peace with
each other. And that is a movie that you just
don't see very often. And then the fact that you've got, yeah,
you've got You've got the young kids dancing their hearts
out trying to beat the oppressor. Brilliant, brilliant movie. Obviously
the winner.
Speaker 2: Okay, how about this one last curve ball?
Speaker 1: Okay? Rake them one two three four, Okay. Purple Rain soundtrack,
Footloose Movie, Footloose Soundtrack, Purple Raine Movie one two three.
Speaker 2: Four, Okay, I'm going Prople Raine soundtrack, Footloose Soundtrack, Footloose Movie,
Prople Rain Movie. Okay, we would love to hear from you.
Where are you guys on this?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Rank them one two three four, one two three four.
Speaker 2: For us, We've had a lot of fun doing a
four parter on these two.
Speaker 1: Such a good time, such a good time.
Speaker 2: Hey, next week we are coming back with Alien Versus Aliens.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: We are off summer of eighty four.
Speaker 1: Right, we'll return to eighty four in just a few weeks. Yeah,
because we're gonna we're gonna throw in Terminator and Terminator
two after that, and then we're gonna compare all four
of those movies since they're so heavily James Cameron, not all,
but heavily, and see how they all match up against
each other. We'll do a one, two, three four on
that one as well.
Speaker 2: All right, next week nineteen seventy nine, Alien come back
to join us.
Speaker 1: Then you're still listening, you've enjoyed the show, Please hit
the follow button, hit the subscribe button, whatever is on
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time