0:03

You're listening to Sound Opinions and

0:05

this week we revisit our classic

0:07

album dissection of Purple Rain by

0:10

Prince. I'm Jim DiRergatas and I'm

0:12

Greg Cott. Let's get right into

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it. Sound Opinions is supported by Goose

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the full collection. You're

1:35

listening to Sound Opinions and that

1:37

of course is a bit of

1:39

Purple Rain, the iconic title track

1:41

from Prince's sixth album

1:44

released 40 years ago. Man

1:46

40 years Greg in July

1:48

of 84. Do you

1:50

remember where you were when this album and film

1:52

came out? I do. This

1:54

anniversary gives us the perfect reason

1:57

to revisit our classic album dissection.

2:00

figure out why it works, why it's a

2:02

masterpiece, and why. All these years

2:04

later, people are still listening to it

2:06

and still talking about it. Purple Rain

2:08

was the record that more than any

2:10

other release in Prince's career made

2:13

him a superstar, a worldwide phenomenon.

2:16

No small feat considering that in 1982 he had released

2:18

1999, an album that established the

2:23

sound of Minneapolis. He had

2:25

come out of Minneapolis as an

2:27

artist associated with R&B. He was a

2:29

guy who posed in women's lingerie on his third

2:31

album cover, Dirty Mind, in 1980 and

2:34

got a lot of critical acclaim. But

2:37

it wasn't really until those twin blockbusters, 1999

2:39

and Little Red Corvette in 1982, that he

2:43

became a pop star. Purple

2:45

Rain took it a step above. Not

2:48

only was there a movie associated with the

2:50

making of this record, there was this tremendous

2:52

music, 13 million copies sold

2:54

at the height of the blockbuster era gym. Springsteen,

2:58

Michael Jackson, artists selling tens

3:00

of millions of albums. Prince was right there

3:02

with them and in many ways was the

3:04

leading edge of the cutting edge when it

3:06

came to the mainstream pop stars of that

3:09

era. And I'm especially thinking of his guitar

3:11

playing on this record. I think it was

3:13

a real revelation to people who saw him

3:15

as this keyboard heavy R&B musician prior to

3:17

this. You know, his guitar

3:19

playing, the combination of Hendrix and

3:21

Santana, Ernie Isley, Eddie Hazel of

3:24

Harlem and Funkadelic, he was bringing in all

3:26

these predecessors and at the same time being

3:28

a complete original with it. And that guitar

3:30

was all over this record. We've

3:42

heard again and again and again, Thriller

3:45

being credited with the album that broke

3:47

down racial boundaries for this era and

3:49

genre divides, mixing you know, Funk and

3:51

Soul and R&B and pop and rock.

3:53

Yeah, that was true. Obviously it outsold

3:55

Prince yet Purple Rain is the album

3:57

I would take to a desert island.

4:00

Prince had better taste. The rock he adopted

4:02

was cooler rock. He really understood the new

4:04

way of the cutting edge of rock and

4:06

roll in that era. The funk he liked

4:08

was dirtier funk. I mean, he was coming

4:11

from Clinton. You know, there's a couple of

4:13

trademarks with Prince. He was making phenomenal use

4:15

of the Lyn drum machine, one of the

4:17

earliest drum machines at that time. It's a

4:20

big part of his sound. There are certain

4:22

synthesizer patches, the earliest digital synthesizers, that are

4:24

a big part of his sound. But when

4:26

you think 80s music, so much of it

4:28

is dated, and is hamstrung by the technology,

4:31

I think that the sounds he crafted on

4:33

Purple Rain, which all have a sort of

4:35

psychedelic sheen, whether it's a pop song, a

4:37

rock song, or a funk song, they all

4:39

are kind of filtered through this Beatles psychedelic

4:42

notion, which would really flourish in the next

4:44

two albums he made. I can't disguise

4:47

the pounding of my heart.

4:50

It beats so strong. It's

4:54

in your eyes. What

4:56

can I say? They turn me

4:58

on. That's

5:02

one thing. And also, there's just a timelessness.

5:04

He had a certain beat and a groove

5:06

that was his and his alone, and it

5:08

hasn't aged a day. I

5:10

would posit that a big part of the success

5:13

is the fact that he, probably for the only

5:15

time in his long career, had a band that

5:17

he was letting in, and

5:19

actually incorporating in the songwriting and

5:22

in the recording. This was a one-man band,

5:24

previously, up to this point, who made the

5:26

records on his own in his home studio,

5:28

had a wonderful touring band, but when it

5:30

came to writing the songs and recording them,

5:33

he didn't let other people in. Now he

5:35

had a phenomenal group. Some musicians, notably

5:37

the keyboardist, Matt Fink, Dr. Fink, who

5:39

had been with him for a long

5:41

time, and he really trusted, and two

5:43

newcomers who were very notable. Lisa Coleman

5:45

initially came on board with keyboards to

5:47

replace Gail Chapman, who'd been the touring

5:49

keyboardist. Wasn't long after that, Wendy Melvoyne

5:51

was brought on to replace Dez Dickerson

5:53

on guitar. I think they gave him that

5:55

moment in Wizard of Oz, you know,

5:57

where it goes from black and black.

6:00

white to Technicolor, that's what Wendy and

6:02

Lisa brought to Prince and the Revolution

6:04

on Purple Rain. Wendy

6:13

and Lisa continued to record as a

6:16

duo in Los Angeles after leaving Prince

6:18

in the late 80s, releasing a string

6:20

of fine albums together. They also did

6:22

a lot of soundtrack work for TV

6:24

shows including Heroes and Nurse Jackie for

6:26

which they won an Emmy. We're very

6:28

pleased to have Wendy and Lisa with

6:30

us now to talk about their career

6:32

with Prince and the making of the

6:34

Purple Rain album. Lisa welcome to the

6:36

show. Thank you. And

6:38

Wendy welcome to the show. Thanks

6:40

so much. Glad to have you both here. Let's

6:43

start with how you guys hooked up with Prince. Lisa

6:45

you were first on board coming on

6:48

to play keyboards in the band after

6:50

Prince's touring keyboardist left. Yes. Gail

6:53

Chapman was the original girl in

6:55

the band and due

6:58

to her religious beliefs

7:00

it became very difficult for

7:02

her to continue with Prince and the direction

7:04

that he wanted to take. But

7:07

me being the demon that I am I've

7:09

jumped right in. It was great pleasure. Maximum

7:14

in salubrious intentions. I

7:17

know I had no idea what I was getting

7:19

into actually. I thought I was gonna be a

7:21

piano player. But yeah I joined

7:24

on at Dirty Mind. I actually

7:26

started in the

7:28

recording process with Dirty

7:30

Mind before we even played any gigs

7:32

or anything like that. He

7:35

was working on head of course so that was my first.

7:39

That's a way to start. So

8:01

let me

8:04

give this straight. You

8:10

join Prince's band, he wants you to

8:13

wear lingerie on stage and he's asking you to record a

8:15

song called Head. And what

8:17

was your reaction pose? And I'm like, okay. Oh

8:19

my god, I thought it was, wait till I

8:21

get to tell my sordori. I

8:25

thought of it more in terms of a

8:27

really punk rock kind of situation or that's

8:29

where I took it for

8:31

myself to get through and to survive because

8:34

I wasn't really a girly

8:36

girl at all. But

8:38

yeah, I got into it because of,

8:40

well, I liked the music, I liked

8:42

his groove factor and I liked his

8:44

rude boy attitude. When you got to

8:47

go to Minneapolis and see how these guys actually

8:49

lived, I mean, it had to become clear that

8:51

there was the big act on stage and then

8:53

there were the real people, right? Oh,

8:56

you would think. Because anybody who later built

8:58

a studio in Chanhassen, see having lived in

9:00

Minneapolis, you go out there, I mean, it's

9:02

in the cornfield. How cool and how

9:04

alien and wild are you? You're out

9:07

and the big excitement in Chaska was

9:09

to go to the 7-Eleven for a

9:11

Slurpee. My philosophy about Prince

9:13

and having Paisley Park out in the

9:15

cornfields is that he's the king. He's

9:18

the king of Minneapolis. That's part of

9:20

his backyard. That was part of the

9:22

culture conflict between us

9:24

because growing up in Hollywood where

9:26

everybody was just a freak and

9:29

androgynous and just totally cutting edge

9:31

going to Minneapolis, that

9:33

was a rare breed out there and Prince

9:35

was really super freaky compared to the kids

9:39

at White Castle or something. So

9:41

when he looked at me and wanted

9:43

me to doll it up and get dressed up,

9:45

it was sort of like old school. Yeah, that

9:48

was vintage for you. That's not really, yeah, that's

9:50

not so cool. If you're that, you're like trendy

9:52

and that wasn't cool. Your poser is too trendy.

9:54

Yeah. Well, Des Dickerson leaves

9:56

the band next. How long was it before,

9:59

Lisa? you were able to bring Wendy

10:01

in. That was right before, well

10:03

we were recording 1999, Wendy

10:06

came to Minneapolis, but then

10:08

when it really clicked with Prince, I think was the

10:11

1999 tour, where

10:13

our brothers and sisters and everybody

10:15

came to meet me in New

10:18

York, and Wendy was in my hotel room

10:20

playing guitar, and Prince heard

10:22

the guitar coming from behind my

10:24

door and knocked on the door, he's like, who's

10:26

playing guitar in there? He thought it

10:28

was really good, and I

10:30

said, oh it's Wendy, and he came in and

10:32

he was like, play something. She

10:35

just, it was an acoustic guitar,

10:37

and she just strummed this huge beautiful

10:39

chord that he was just like, how do you

10:42

do that? But then the other

10:44

side of it was, then she was

10:46

at soundcheck the next day, where Des

10:49

had been having some. Dissension

10:51

among the ranks. Yeah, he was really

10:54

angry, and he didn't show up to

10:56

soundcheck, so Prince knew, Wendy

10:58

played guitar, and he said, will you check

11:00

my guitar? Well, I go walk around the

11:02

hall, and see how it sounds, so

11:04

she. He said, do you know how to

11:06

play controversy? And I said, yeah,

11:09

sure. Ha ha ha ha.

11:12

Do I believe in God? Do

11:14

I believe in peace? Yeah. Some

11:20

people wanna die, so they can

11:22

be free. So

11:28

life is just a game, we're all

11:30

just the same. I'm

11:36

much more from a fan perspective. I'll

11:38

just go back quickly, when I was 13, and

11:41

my twin sister and I used to sneak out of the house, and

11:43

we used to go to a club in

11:45

Hollywood called the Starwood. I

11:48

remember we were dancing, I was 13, pretending

11:50

to be 16, 17, still underage, but you know. And

11:54

I heard this song on the dance floor,

11:56

soft and wet, and I ran out of time.

12:00

up to the DJ at the time and I was

12:02

like oh my god who's who's that girl that you're

12:05

playing and he

12:07

was like oh no that's not a girl it's just

12:09

this kid from Minneapolis his name is Prince he's human

12:12

19 blah blah blah and that's where

12:14

it started for me cut

12:31

two when I found out

12:33

that Lisa got a call

12:36

to go and try

12:38

out for this guy

12:47

Prince who she had no idea who it

12:50

was and I had already been like completely

12:53

versed and flipped out for

12:55

this guy and then I

12:57

go into the Coleman's house

12:59

and she has a cassette

13:02

of the dirty mind record and

13:05

puts on head I couldn't believe oh

13:07

my god you're playing with Prince do

13:09

you know what you're doing and then

13:11

cut to they're playing in all these little

13:13

clubs in town like they played flippers which

13:16

is like it was

13:18

a roller skating rink here in Los Angeles

13:20

that doesn't exist anymore I

13:22

mean I couldn't believe it and then

13:25

as you know time went on blah blah blah I'm you

13:27

know out of high school I'm 18 I fall in love

13:31

with Lisa at a younger age we become

13:34

a couple and then he asks me to

13:36

play do you know how to play controversy

13:38

and I of course

13:40

tried to keep my sh you know what

13:42

and I couldn't and I but I did

13:44

and then you know whatever I went home

13:46

and she calls me on the phone like

13:48

a week and a half later and says

13:51

I think Prince is calling you I was

13:54

like what and that

13:56

was kind of like the beginning of it and then it was

13:59

shortly thereafter that we started recording

14:02

the songs to Purple

14:04

Rain. When

14:12

we get back we'll continue our classic

14:14

album dissection of Prince's Purple Rain with

14:16

Wendy and Lisa. What fun to hang

14:18

out with them and Greg and I'll

14:21

each share one of our favorite tracks

14:23

from the album. That's in a minute

14:25

on Sound Opinions. Sound

14:31

Opinions is supported by Goose Island

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Beer Company. Since 1988 Goose Island's

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been brewing beers in and inspired

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one-off beers at the Fulton Street

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Tap Room or their new Salt

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Shed Pub. The perfect place to

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go before a show at the

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Salt Shed. Me and Andrew were

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there on opening night. Greg it

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was really exciting. You had Rocky

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Chicago's beer and Sound Opinions is. Welcome

15:58

back to Sound Opinions. I'm Greg Cott. Jim

16:00

DeRigatus, we're in the

16:02

midst of a classic album dissection

16:04

of Prince's 40-year-old album, Purple Rain.

16:06

We've been talking with Wendy Melvoy

16:09

and Lisa Coleman, members of Prince's

16:11

band, The Revolution at the time.

16:13

And one of the things that was so

16:16

unique about the album is how collaborative Prince

16:18

was in the studio during the making of

16:20

Purple Rain. Now in the

16:22

past he'd done everything himself and then

16:24

he'd have the band out on stage

16:26

but with Purple Rain all that changed.

16:28

For this album he brought The Revolution

16:30

into the songwriting process and gave

16:32

them songwriting credits on the album which was pretty

16:35

rare for Prince. So Wendy, what

16:37

was the reality of this for you two?

16:39

Well it was a reality for me and

16:41

Lisa but it didn't pay the bills. Mm-hmm.

16:43

How's that? Um, yeah that was

16:45

pretty accurate for the

16:47

most part. There were a couple songs

16:49

on the album I think that Prince

16:51

did do by himself. I think Darling

16:54

Nicky was all by himself. All him.

16:56

Which you can kind of tell because

16:58

it's got that fierce like ridiculously crazy

17:00

quality. But

17:29

other than that we had we were

17:31

always set up in a warehouse which

17:33

was the tradition anyway but we

17:35

were seriously camped out in a

17:37

warehouse with some 24-track machines and

17:40

we were working out these songs, writing the

17:43

songs and we would really write them as

17:45

a band. It was we were so tight

17:48

by that time and Wendy fit in so

17:50

well and added such a beautiful color in

17:53

her guitar playing and her funk

17:55

abilities. You know she had the

17:57

perfect combination of groove and like

17:59

nice beautiful. chords, which is really

18:03

indicative of that record, Purple

18:06

Rain, the whole, well, the song itself,

18:08

the opening chords are Wendy,

18:10

you know, with her beautiful big chords with like

18:13

a chorus effect on it. And I remember

18:15

Joni Mitchell asking her like, what

18:17

is that tuning you're using for those chords?

18:20

And it was just a

18:22

regular standard tuning. A lot of guitar players have

18:24

asked Wendy, what are those chords? Because they're so

18:26

thick and beautiful and using like all

18:29

11 or 12 strings, six string guitar. But

18:34

we would all look at each other and just

18:36

kind of know where things would

18:38

happen. Bobby would hit the cymbal at just the

18:40

right time. And, you know, Prince

18:42

would kind of guide us and like, bring it up, break

18:44

it down. Let's try going to a G here. Let's

18:48

try, you know, and we just

18:50

carved it out. And then I

18:52

think we booked a gig at First Avenue and videotaped

18:54

it and recorded that show.

18:58

And I think that's the

19:00

majority of where the album comes from. Do you really love

19:02

it? We're rather here today to give you this thing called

19:05

life. Electric

19:09

word, life and means forever. And

19:13

that's a mighty long time. But here to

19:15

tell you, there's something else. The

19:18

afterworld. A world of never-ending happiness. You

19:23

can always hear the sun, day

19:26

or night. So when you call up that

19:28

string and you're barely healed, you know one doctor and

19:30

then be all right. The

19:32

basis of those tracks were those live recordings

19:34

of that First Avenue show. And it's

19:37

interesting because the script for the movie, I

19:40

guess, was kind of being written as he was recording,

19:42

right? And the band was a big part of the movie.

19:45

So it was almost like the band was

19:47

written into Prince's life. And he says, oh, you

19:49

know, hey, maybe I ought to involve these guys more. So

19:51

it was a case of like art imitating life

19:54

or life imitating art one way or the other.

19:56

It seemed like there seemed like some kind of

19:58

a cross-pollination there. Yeah,

20:00

exactly. It's sort of funny because you know

20:02

like how the was that guy who used

20:04

to do the voiceovers for movie trailers and

20:07

Before Prince made the movie he lived the

20:09

life And and

20:11

it was really true It's kind

20:13

of how it all happened kind of

20:15

at the same time Prince It had an

20:18

idea to make a movie for a long time, but

20:21

it was kind of a different movie it ended up That

20:24

that movie didn't get made it evolved

20:26

into this purple rain idea That

20:28

was the Battle of the Bands it was like kind

20:30

of like a West Side Story Kind

20:33

of inspiration for him with you know

20:35

like I've been abused by my mommy

20:37

and daddy Situation so it started

20:39

out as one thing and it ended up kind

20:41

of being the rock and roll West Side Story

20:44

Well in terms of the musical contributions I

20:46

think it's become something of a critical shorthand

20:49

Since Prince took such a turn with

20:51

purple rain and and and much more

20:53

toward the new wave for

20:55

lack of a better term side of things

20:58

and and since you two were new forces

21:00

relatively in the band a Lot

21:02

of that's been credited to you people have said you

21:04

know Prince brought a lot of the new wave rock

21:06

and roll Synth rock kind of sound into the into

21:08

what he was doing because Wendy and Lisa came on

21:10

board do you take credit for them? I

21:13

think that we were instrumental in Influencing

21:17

him and Lisa and I

21:19

were cinephiles

21:21

and Music colleges

21:24

freaks and we were from a

21:26

different city and we were

21:28

close to him and we came became this

21:30

triumvirate and he

21:32

relied on everything musically that he

21:35

In us that he knew he didn't

21:38

have and we became a great combination

21:40

And we were absolutely more than

21:43

willing to give him what we had

21:45

well so I'll

21:47

tell you my take on that because I think the

21:49

song computer blue Does not

21:52

get written unless you two are in the group? I

22:00

think you're right. I think

22:02

you're right about that.

22:18

I mean that is my guitar line. In

22:22

the three parts suite and all that stuff, that seems

22:24

to me like Lisa's classical training right there. Prince

22:26

didn't have any classical training that I know about.

22:29

I mean it's a very ambitious track. And the song

22:31

is credited to Prince, Wendy and Lisa, Dr. Fink. There's

22:35

this songwriting credit shared. He

22:39

did start spreading the credits

22:41

around. And it was really just

22:43

out of... We

22:45

were young and we were really inspired and

22:47

we hung out together. We would

22:50

hang out and play records for

22:52

each other. And like, have you heard this thing and have you

22:54

heard that? And it was... It was

22:56

fantastic. Those were the days. Yeah, just

22:58

how it is like maybe if you're

23:00

in your college dorm or something. We

23:03

were our college years for sure together. For

23:05

sure. Can you remember

23:07

anything you were listening to when making

23:09

Purple Rain? Lisa and I

23:12

were listening to... It

23:15

would be things that you wouldn't really necessarily think

23:18

had any influence. But they were so

23:21

ambitious themselves. Symbiosis. Symbiosis, the Bill Evans

23:24

record with Klaus Augermann was a big

23:26

record that Lisa and I were listening

23:28

to. And we also turned

23:31

him on to a lot

23:33

of Peter Gabriel. Lisa and I

23:35

were big security people and all those records.

23:37

They were like Ricky Lee Jones. Of

23:40

course, Joni Mitchell. We

23:44

would drive around in my car, which had like the

23:46

biggest, most amazing stereo

23:48

system in it. And

23:50

we would drive around and listen to Von Williams. And

23:53

he really got turned on to classical music

23:55

and got into listening to Mahler. And

23:58

yeah, it was really interesting. Well, you had this

24:00

relationship with him on a number of levels. Wendy,

24:02

I heard a story about you that I think

24:04

Des might have told it to us. Where

24:07

you were just the character in the

24:09

studio, you know, your ability to sort of loosen

24:11

him up. Apparently there was an incident where Prince

24:13

was playing keyboard shirtless and

24:16

you started pulling his armpit hair while he was

24:18

playing. And he started saying, stop that, Wendy. And

24:20

next thing you know, you were kind of having

24:23

this fake fight with him. And all the other

24:25

band members are supposedly standing around in awe, going

24:27

like, I can't believe she just did that. And

24:29

what more, you seem to be enjoying it. That's

24:32

step, definite. I used to do it to his

24:34

chest hairs. Yes, I did it all the time. I

24:37

also was the one who used to

24:39

tell him if he played something that was

24:41

cheesy to me, I'd say it sounded like porn music and

24:43

he wasn't allowed to use it on the record. So, yeah.

24:46

Well, this is fascinating, not for the personal

24:48

angle, so much as the fact that Greg

24:50

and I as critics, you know, huge Prince

24:52

fans. But many of the

24:54

problems of his records in the

24:56

last 10 or 15 years, we've always gotten the

24:58

sense that there's nobody around Prince who can come

25:01

up to him anymore and say, you know, that

25:03

ain't cutting it. You know, the idea of having

25:05

Najee play on your record, not cutting it. I'm

25:07

not cutting it. There's nobody in Prince's camp

25:09

that can pull his chest hair and get away with it. Nobody

25:11

can do that. And yet you two... He wouldn't

25:13

let anybody near him. I know. I just didn't like

25:15

it unless he was married to you. He's

25:18

cut so many people out of his life professionally

25:20

and personally, and yet you two, you've always told

25:22

him straight. Yeah, I

25:25

mean, that's...there will always be a connection there

25:27

and there will always be a healthy amount of anger

25:30

towards each other and a healthy amount

25:32

of respect for each other. And I

25:35

just hope that at some point he

25:37

can let us back in

25:39

naturally. I just don't know. Prince,

25:42

call me. I

25:47

miss you, honey. Oh, my

25:49

God. It's a three-year blur for Lisa

25:51

Coleman and Wendy Melboy, and they live

25:53

to tell about it. Well, it's been

25:55

an absolute pleasure having you guys, Wendy

25:57

and Lisa. Thanks for being on Sound

25:59

Opinions. It was so fun. Thank

26:01

you so much you guys. Thank you. You're

26:22

listening to Sound Opinions and our classic

26:24

album dissection of Prince's 1984 blockbuster,

26:27

Purple Rain. You

26:29

know Greg, in thinking about Purple Rain's

26:31

influence, there's no bigger testament, I think,

26:33

to its greatness other than the number

26:36

of groups that have covered music from

26:38

this record which range all over the

26:40

map from the Chicago punk band Apocalypse

26:42

Hoboken to the indie-tronica combo Chairlift. From

26:45

Mariah Carey to Of Montréal,

26:48

there is so much in that sound that so

26:50

many different people can take different things and

26:53

not even have anything in common. The

26:55

song I want to play though shows that

26:58

Prince was still dangerous in this period. Now

27:00

in a lot of ways, we're not talking

27:02

much about the movie in part because I

27:04

think it's a pretty rotten movie. It's a

27:06

silly movie. You see it

27:08

once and you don't really ever get to

27:11

see Purple Rain again. One thing that isn't

27:13

shown in the movie is that dangerous side

27:15

of Prince and yet it's there on Purple

27:17

Rain. We heard Wendy and Lisa talking a

27:19

little bit about the song Darling Nicky which

27:21

stands out because it is one of

27:23

the tunes that Prince worked on by himself alone

27:25

in the studio. I think in

27:27

that context, the tunes that are Prince Solo

27:29

songs work well with the group songs because

27:32

it's an album. It's

27:34

a different flavor in between. This

27:36

song became notorious when Tipper Gore,

27:38

wife of the then soon to

27:41

be future vice president Al Gore

27:43

and her parents' music resource council,

27:45

made this public enemy number one

27:47

along with a handful of other

27:49

tunes led directly to the stickering

27:52

of albums, parental

27:54

advisory warning which so what? That's

27:56

like by me instead because I'm

27:58

a nasty record. people

28:00

forget is that major chain stores across

28:02

America would not sell anything that had

28:04

one of these stickers. In

28:06

retrospect, I always thought Darling Mickey was

28:08

a filthy song and then I finally

28:11

actually read the lyrics and like there's

28:13

nothing in them. I mean, compared to

28:15

an Eminem, Eminem has more nastiness in

28:17

one couplet than Prince doesn't have any

28:19

in this entire song. Yes, it's a

28:21

song about a groupie who is hot

28:23

to trot who wants to jump Prince's

28:25

bones. I find it not sexist or

28:27

pandering at all because the woman is

28:29

in charge throughout and he is basically left

28:31

as a limp dish towel on the floor

28:33

at the end of this. He doesn't know

28:35

what hurricane named Nicky hit him and there's

28:37

a certain amount of self-deprecation. In a lot

28:39

of ways, it's like John Lennon's song Norwegian

28:41

Wood. It's about something happened to me last

28:43

night. This woman ran me over. I feel

28:46

like I got hit by a Mack truck

28:48

and now I'm going to sing about it.

28:50

So in that regard, it's a very sweet song

28:52

except there is this dirty, sexy, funky beat. So

28:54

I'm going to play Darling Nicky. Here it is

28:57

on Sound Opinion. Darling

29:27

Nicky by Prince and the Revolution from

29:29

Purple Rain. We are in the midst

29:31

of our Purple Rain classic album dissection.

29:34

Mr. Cott, what are you going to

29:36

lay on us? Well, Jim,

29:38

I'm going to go a little bit more

29:40

mainstream. A song that actually got played on

29:42

the radio. Darling Nicky, because of some of

29:44

those objections that Tipper Gore raised, didn't get

29:46

near any radio stations. But most of the

29:48

rest of the songs on this record got

29:50

played a lot on mainstream radio. And one

29:52

of the biggest hits, of course, was Wind

29:55

Dubs Cry. Listen to this

29:57

song again and tell me what you

29:59

hear and tell me... that it doesn't sound

30:01

absolutely contemporary. Like this song could have

30:03

been released in 2009 and

30:05

still fit on the commercial radio spectrum today. I

30:08

think it shows what a brilliant ear Prince

30:10

had for music and the kind of chances

30:12

he was willing to take with his music

30:14

at the time of his greatest commercial success.

30:16

And I think that's why this album holds

30:18

up. And what's missing from this song? A

30:21

bass line. Absolutely, weird to have

30:23

this huge dance track without a bass line. It

30:25

is so amazing to hear that song now and

30:27

realize the first thing that hits your ear is

30:30

all the sense of space that's within the song.

30:32

And he did pull that bass line out

30:34

of there. When it was originally recorded with

30:36

the band, the bass was in there. He

30:38

pulled it out and everybody said, well, what's

30:40

missing here? And he says, exactly. That's what

30:43

this song needed. I think that

30:45

that adds a sort of a weird vibe to

30:47

this song. And at the same time emphasizes what

30:49

made this album and this song in particular so

30:51

great. It opens with this very

30:53

intense bit of guitar playing from Prince.

30:55

And I think that's one of the

30:57

factors that I think made Purple Rain

31:00

such a great crossover record because he

31:02

not only had those R&B synths in

31:04

there, but he had that heavy guitar

31:06

attack. And then he adds a vocal

31:08

line underneath that guitar that almost sounds

31:10

like a distorted grunt, a groan of

31:12

some sort. It's Prince's voice clearly, but

31:14

it's distorted to the point where it

31:16

almost sounds like another instrument. Then he

31:18

adds that drum machine that was such

31:21

a big part of this song. And

31:23

finally, he comes in with that classic

31:25

keyboard line over the top. And

31:27

you have this amazing sense of an

31:29

almost avant-garde track because it doesn't have

31:31

that traditional bottom that you associate with

31:34

a dance single. So when

31:36

you talk about producers like Prince Paul,

31:38

the Dust Brothers, Bomb Squad with Public

31:40

Enemy, DJ Mugs with Cypress Hill, Timbaland,

31:42

all these producers who in later decades

31:44

brought a sense of the avant-garde into

31:46

the pop mainstream. I think they were

31:49

all referencing what Prince was doing in

31:51

the early eighties and in particular on

31:53

a track like this, which was a

31:55

huge hit. But at the

31:57

same time, still sounds amazingly fresh and

32:00

exciting. experimental. It's when Dove scribe

32:02

from Prince from the Purple Rain album on Sound Opinions.

32:34

When we get back we'll pay tribute to Prince

32:36

and play a couple of tracks that have been

32:39

released since the artist's death. That's in a minute

32:41

on Sound Opinions. Welcome

32:46

back to Sound Opinions. I'm Greg

32:48

Cott, he's Jim DiRigatus. We're finishing

32:50

up our classic album dissection of

32:53

Prince's Purple Rain for the album's

32:55

40th anniversary and we'd like to

32:57

take some time to acknowledge the

32:59

artist's passing. After that we'll

33:01

play a couple tracks that have been released

33:03

since his death. You know you ain't kidding

33:05

Greg. By my count there

33:07

have been 12 albums since Prince's

33:10

death. Some of them deluxe editions of

33:12

albums we already had but with as

33:15

many as three dozen or more new

33:17

tracks added. And this is from a

33:20

mountain of unreleased music that

33:23

is supposed to be 8,000 songs? I'm

33:27

not surprised at all. Since his death in

33:29

2016 people have been mourning him but

33:32

the music lives on. I was

33:34

at Paisley Park three times and each

33:37

time there would be different engineers there.

33:39

And I go hey you're different

33:41

from the guy I met last time. They go well, Prince

33:44

pretty much wears his engineers out.

33:46

It's 24-7. He's in here all

33:49

the time recording stuff. Prince

33:51

would play me tons of tracks that never came

33:53

out. I can only imagine how much stuff is

33:56

in those vaults. It's an amazing overflow

33:58

of music. material and in some cases

34:00

I'm listening to some of the stuff

34:02

and I'm going this is pretty good

34:04

I hope this comes out someday and

34:07

we're starting to see some of

34:09

that overflow. You know some of it

34:11

is pretty good some of it is

34:14

weird and at least illuminating of

34:17

the artist's process and some of

34:19

it you're like there's a reason

34:21

this wasn't released right you know

34:23

because we have to remember despite

34:26

that wonderful conversation that we just

34:28

revisited with Wendy and Lisa it

34:30

was rare for him to take

34:32

advice from even the most trusted

34:34

people in his orbit right you

34:36

know and somebody like Prince all

34:38

of these superstars need somebody to

34:40

say hey hey hey Roger yeah

34:42

maybe this one ain't as good

34:44

you know maybe reconsider this or

34:46

this one we need to work

34:48

shed a bit more every

34:51

artist needs that and we say that as

34:53

writers we are made better by good editing

34:55

yes absolutely and you know that's

34:57

the role that Wendy and Lisa played

35:00

in you know what is many consider

35:02

his greatest album and the revolution early

35:04

on in his career were those people

35:07

but the thing is he could play every instrument himself he

35:09

could wake up an instrument and make something make us get

35:12

music out of it even even if

35:14

he wasn't particularly technically trained on that

35:16

instrument it was an incredibly instinctive musician

35:19

you know one of his engineers told

35:21

me what's his best instrument she goes

35:24

it's his bass you know his bass player nobody

35:26

talks about that he's an incredible bass player he's

35:28

got that feel for the funk you know he's

35:30

talked to Larry Graham a lot remember that he

35:33

did where he was just a band member at

35:35

the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago backing Chaka Khan and

35:37

Larry Graham and he was just in the background

35:39

being a band member playing bass as I were

35:42

and he loved it and you know at his

35:44

concerts you'd never see him I mean he'd pick

35:46

up the guitar but I saw an entire show

35:48

where he never once touched his guitar yeah maybe

35:51

we're going well how do you play the guitar

35:53

well you did all this other stuff right I

35:55

was up there the track I want to focus

35:57

on from the posthumous flood of

35:59

music that's come out is from that

36:01

1999 box set that

36:04

came out a few years ago. To

36:06

me, that had 35 additional

36:09

tracks from that era. You know that

36:11

we talk about artists having a certain

36:14

point in their career where they're extremely

36:16

prolific. They're just writing, writing, writing, and

36:18

as a result of that you're going

36:20

to cull a bunch of good

36:23

tracks and make up a masterpiece. That was the

36:25

case during the 1999 era.

36:27

In fact, when I reviewed the record

36:29

for the Chicago Tribune, I said he's

36:31

got a second album in here that

36:33

should have come out. But it did.

36:36

There's enough material here to warrant a

36:38

second album that it was that good.

36:40

And I also happened to talk to

36:42

Des Dickerson who was working with him

36:44

around that time. The track I'm going

36:46

to play is one that Dickerson had

36:48

an incredible influence on. Dickerson is the

36:50

guitar player in the early incarnations of

36:52

Prince's Band was a new waver.

36:54

He loved rock and roll, man. And he

36:56

brought that vibe to what Prince

36:59

was doing. When you think about a dirty mind

37:01

record like that, that sort of

37:03

vibe, Des was very influential. Well, and we

37:05

had talked to him once in a way

37:07

earlier incarnation of Sound Opinion. Right. And

37:09

you know he worked with Prince on this

37:12

particular track. They were in the studio together.

37:14

You know it had a very new wave

37:16

vibe to it. It was in a major

37:18

key. It was funky, but it also had

37:20

pop elements, soul things. He was

37:22

bringing together all these musical elements that

37:25

didn't make sense on paper. But the

37:27

way Prince did it with the falsetto

37:29

vocals and this guitar thing

37:32

that he had going on at the

37:34

time, there was a fresh energy. Dickerson

37:36

was deeply admiring of the

37:38

way Prince took those ideas and ran

37:40

with it. And Prince, of course, ends

37:42

up recording the entire track himself. He

37:44

doesn't use anybody else but Prince. Cuts

37:46

Des out. And he gets this amazing

37:48

track called Can't Stop This Feeling I

37:50

Got, which I thought, man, if you

37:52

put that out at that

37:54

time, this would have been a huge

37:57

hit because it would have fit right in with that

37:59

sort of new wave vibe. that was going on in

38:01

the early 80s and what had brought a new dimension

38:03

to his music. Recorded in

38:05

spring of 1982 at his home

38:08

studio, pre-Paisley Park era, right? This

38:10

was before Paisley Park was built.

38:14

It later surfaces on Graffiti

38:16

Bridge in 1990 in

38:18

an expanded, more produced arrangement.

38:20

But I want to focus

38:22

on the one from the

38:24

1999 Super Deluxe set, which

38:26

is really stripped down, just

38:28

prints in the studio from 1982. Here's

38:32

Can't Stop This Feeling I Got from

38:34

Prince. Can't

38:58

Stop This Feeling I

39:01

Got, one of the

39:03

overflow from the 1999

39:05

era, and man, it's

39:16

a keeper for me. Yeah, it's interesting that

39:18

you went to the stripped down Prince, because

39:20

so did I. When the originals

39:23

album came out in 2019 on

39:25

what would have been Prince's 61st birthday, it

39:29

was restricted to title, so I think

39:31

a lot of people didn't hear it. And

39:33

now it's streaming everywhere, right? So the

39:35

idea was these are the original demos

39:38

of songs that Prince wrote for

39:40

other artists. A lot of them

39:42

were people in his circle, right?

39:44

The time and Apollonia, Sheila E,

39:46

you know, and then there were

39:48

a couple of outliers, The Bangles,

39:50

Manic Monday, we all love that.

39:53

Nothing compares to you, you know,

39:55

immortalized by Sinead. Originally, he wrote

39:57

it for the family. And

40:00

now, there's this one Greg. Now

40:02

you are a Prince super duper

40:04

fan. I don't know if you

40:06

even know of this song. You're

40:08

my love. Alright. He wrote

40:11

it for Kenny Rogers. Kenny

40:14

Rogers, the gambler right?

40:16

The chart-topping country pop

40:18

artist right? And

40:20

believe it or not it comes

40:23

out as a single, the B-side

40:25

to a tune that Kenny recorded

40:27

on his 14th studio album with

40:29

Ronnie Milsap. They don't make them

40:31

like they used to. Goes to number

40:34

one on the country charts. I say

40:36

this in the year of Beyonce's Cowboy

40:38

Carter. Yeah. Right? Prince got there first.

40:40

Okay? Even the Prince.

40:42

Now you know what Prince dedicated hardcore

40:45

fans are like right? The websites, the

40:47

blogs, right? This is

40:49

the first song he recorded

40:51

under his namde songwriter Joey

40:54

Coco. Which

40:56

would surface numerous times. There were several.

40:58

Yeah there was several. Now

41:00

this is you know he writes this

41:02

the same year and wrote

41:05

it, recorded it, you know out in

41:07

Chanhassen at the home recording studio out

41:10

past Minneapolis in the cornfields the same

41:12

time as You Should Be Mine. So

41:15

it's an artist at the height of his

41:17

power. It's not like he needs like extra

41:19

cash. I don't think. What's he

41:21

doing? I'd love to read more about

41:23

the story of how he comes

41:25

to be hooked up with Kenny Rogers.

41:28

You know? It's a I couldn't find

41:30

a whole lot. Illuminate us if any

41:32

of you Prince super fans are

41:34

listening. Now is the

41:36

song any good? See I think the

41:39

story was so great. I just wanted

41:41

to tell it. And to illustrate you

41:43

know Prince loved first and foremost music.

41:46

He went past every genre.

41:48

He had some interesting fondnesses.

41:50

You know like who would have expected

41:53

that deep love of psychedelic pop from

41:55

the mid 60s, right? Merging

41:57

with the obvious love of funk. But

42:00

you know, country, it's a fairly straight

42:02

country ballad, which is to say it's

42:04

a little cheesy. You know, when we

42:07

hear Prince's version, you'll be able in

42:09

your head to hear Kenny Rogers doing

42:11

it. I just would love to

42:13

hear this stuff, but it illustrates, you

42:16

know, first and foremost, the guy

42:18

was a songwriter. If he'd never

42:20

recorded a single thing, he would

42:22

have given us so many immortal

42:24

tunes that others would have made

42:26

their own, Sinead, famously. Anyway, You're

42:28

My Love by Prince from the

42:30

Originals album. That's

43:04

pretty darn original, ain't it, Greg? Well,

43:07

you know, it's Prince doing his take

43:09

on country or what he thinks is

43:12

country. His take on middle

43:14

of the road country pop. He did love

43:16

that stuff. And again, this reminds me of

43:18

one of the tracks that Prince played for

43:20

me when I was at Paisley Park for

43:22

the first time was a

43:24

cover of a Shania Twain song. Oh,

43:27

yeah. So, you know, that country pop thing in the 90s

43:30

was, you know, he was listening to that stuff. He

43:32

goes, I can do something with that song. That's

43:35

a great hook, a great melody. I like that

43:37

song. But Kenny Rogers

43:39

is 10 or 15 years past

43:41

his prime when Prince comes to

43:43

the rescue as Joey Coco. Yeah.

43:46

Was he 10 or 15? I think so. What

43:49

era was this? What year was that? He

43:51

records it at the same time as early

43:53

80s. All right. So, he's... Kenny

43:56

Rogers was still pretty huge. Yeah, I get it.

43:58

But the gambler was what? I've had it five

44:00

years. Not that much. All right. I

44:03

guess Kenny Rogers was still pretty hot.

44:05

The thing is, Prince was hot. People

44:07

wanted Prince songs. I guess Kenny's brother,

44:09

you know, released the 13th Floor Elevators

44:11

albums. Well there you go. Laila

44:14

Rogers. Well Kenny Rogers was a bit

44:16

psychedelic too. I know. What condition is

44:18

your conditioning? Yeah.

44:22

Exactly. That wraps up

44:24

our classic album dissection of Prince's

44:26

Purple Rain and our chat about

44:28

Posthumous Prince. Whether there's 8,000

44:30

songs or only even like one tenth

44:32

of that, we could do, you know,

44:35

a hundred hours of Prince shows to

44:37

come. But right now we

44:39

celebrated the 40th anniversary of Purple Rain. As

44:41

always, we want to hear from you. What

44:44

do you think of that album? What

44:46

do you think about what we've gotten

44:49

from Prince Posthumously? Leave us a message

44:51

on our website, soundepinions.org, with your thoughts.

44:53

Now Mr. Cott, what do we have

44:55

on the show next week? Next

44:58

week Jim, we are going to profile a

45:00

band we both love, a hot new band

45:02

out of Dublin, Sprints. And

45:04

don't forget to check out our bonus podcast

45:07

feed wherever you get your podcasts. Sound

45:09

Opinions is produced by Andrew Gill,

45:12

Alex Claiborne and our associate producer

45:14

Sol Delgadillo. Our Columbia College

45:16

intern is Max Hatlam and our social

45:19

media consultant is Katie Cott. Do

45:25

you ever feel like the room is heavy? Like

45:32

the air is hot and

45:35

the air is sweaty. Do

45:40

you ever feel like the room is

45:43

heavy?