{"id":40749,"date":"2008-02-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/purple-rain\/"},"modified":"2008-02-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-17T00:00:00","slug":"purple-rain","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/purple-rain\/","title":{"rendered":"Purple Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. And yes, America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, Purple Rain <\/i>is indeed Prince\u2019s best album \u2013 it just took me this long to realize it. Like George Michael\u2019s Faith<\/i>, Prince\u2019s Purple Rain <\/i>begins with the sound of a church organ. With his tongue firmly planted in cheek, Prince can\u2019t help but utter the appropriate words \u201cDearly beloved,\u201d before launching into the ballroom blitz assault of \u201cLet\u2019s Go Crazy.\u201d This is one relentless dance song that needs to be heard to be believed, especially with the blistering rock guitar solo that unexpectedly comes at the end of it. Right from the get-go, Prince is intent on making the biggest impact and strongest impression possible.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Prince follows up such a breathless opening with a pair of love songs. The first is a mid-tempo favorite of mine entitled \u201cTake Me With U,\u201d where he is joined by one of his many prot\u00e9g\u00e9s (and his co-star in the Purple Rain <\/i>film), Apollonia Kotero. The second is a ballad that builds in intensity, \u201cThe Beautiful Ones,\u201d in which Prince utilizes his upper register. It\u2019s a song that starts out sounding like an unfinished demo and ends with a sweat-drenched Prince down on his knees singing his little heart out at full volume.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Prince goes into tech-geek, experimental mode on both \u201cComputer Blue\u201d and \u201cDarling Nikki.\u201d Two of his background musicians Wendy and Lisa turn in a lesbianic performance of sorts with their spoken word intro on \u201cComputer Blue,\u201d preparing us for Prince\u2019s down and dirty showcase that is \u201cDarling Nikki,\u201d a track that fits into the tradition of other X-rated Prince fare like \u201cErotic<\/st1:placename> City<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>\u201d and \u201cSexy M.F.\u201d Though its raunchy lyrics are clearly for mature audiences only, teenagers were the ones who gravitated to this one like moths to a flame when it was first released.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Speaking of 1984, \u201cWhen Doves Cry\u201d immediately transports the listener back to that golden year for music. It\u2019s funny that I didn\u2019t really care much for it when I first heard it, because now it is one of my all-time favorite Prince songs. I certainly favor it over the overplayed \u201cI Would Die 4 U,\u201d which is the most overtly radio-friendly of all the tracks to be found on Purple Rain<\/i> \u2013 and also the most boring. It does lead into the terrific big finish, \u201cBaby, I\u2019m A Star,\u201d a track most notable for the fact that it was recorded live.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The final song on the album (the encore, if you will) is the overlong title track that you can almost guarantee will be the final song you hear at one of Prince\u2019s shows. Don\u2019t believe him when he says he is never going to perform such songs in the future. He\u2019s already shot himself in the foot once before when he attempted to change his name to an unpronounceable symbol. If he didn\u2019t perform any of his old hits anymore, his career would be over. Finis. Caput. Prince should think twice before he makes statements like that. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is one thing, but public scrutiny is another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":29210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8029],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40749","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-prince-and-the-revolution","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40749"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40749"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}