0:00

This is 1A, I'm Jen White. It's

0:02

the summer of 1984. A

0:05

new single by a 26-year-old pop star

0:07

from Minnesota is on the radio. ["I'm

0:10

Just Too Demanding"] Purple

0:26

Rain Prince's sixth studio album would go

0:28

on to be one of the best-selling

0:31

albums of all time. The

0:33

musical film that accompanied the album would go on

0:35

to win an Academy Award. Hey,

0:37

kid. The boss

0:39

wants to see you. Tell

0:41

him I'm rehearsing. Purple Rain

0:44

ushered in a new era of the rock star

0:46

and a new version of Prince. 40

0:48

years later, how do we remember its impact? Andrea

0:51

Swinson has sought an answer to that question

0:53

for the last decade. She's a music journalist

0:55

and host of the official Prince podcast. She's

0:58

out with a new book, Prince and Purple

1:00

Rain, 40 Years. She joins us

1:02

from Minneapolis to talk about it. Andrea, welcome to

1:04

the program. Thank you

1:06

so much for having me. And we also

1:08

want to hear from you. What are your

1:10

favorite Prince songs? How would you rate Purple

1:13

Rain in his discography? Maybe you have a

1:15

favorite track from that album. Send us an

1:17

email at 1A at wamu.org. Julia emails, it

1:19

was 1984. My

1:21

friend Shelby and her fabulously gay

1:24

dad buddy invited me to Shelby's all-Purple

1:26

birthday party. The evening started out, a

1:28

restaurant appropriately called The Plum. All gift

1:31

bags, wrapping paper, and most gifts were

1:33

purple. But the best part of the

1:35

evening was getting the chance to see the

1:37

premiere of Princess Purple Rain. I've been a Prince

1:39

fan ever since. Andrea set

1:41

the scene for us of 40 years ago, which is so

1:44

hard to say out loud. Purple

1:47

Rain came out. What made it

1:49

such a unique release, especially for Prince?

1:53

Well, you know, it's wild to think

1:55

now in hindsight that this was

1:57

Prince's sixth album. He

1:59

had already. been gigging and touring for

2:01

years and was a critical darling and

2:04

had a very devoted underground fan base,

2:06

a black fan base. He would really

2:08

do well in cities like Detroit as

2:11

he was out on tour earning these,

2:13

you know, fans live with

2:15

his amazing shows, but it really was

2:17

Purple Rain that took him from kind

2:20

of an underground art rock darling to

2:22

an absolute supernova. And it was the

2:24

combination of the music and the film

2:27

together and I honestly think it also

2:29

was a bit about timing because he

2:31

was able to release these music videos

2:34

at a time when MTV was the

2:36

coolest place that you could have your

2:38

music videos featured and the videos served

2:41

as previews for the film. And then

2:43

the film served as a preview for

2:45

the Purple Rain tour and it all

2:48

just kind of worked in coordination

2:50

where suddenly he was dominating, he had

2:52

the number one song, the number one

2:55

album, and then the number one film

2:57

in America all at the same time,

2:59

which is really incredible. So the album

3:01

was recorded almost entirely in

3:03

Minnesota at First Avenue and that's this historic

3:06

music venue in Minneapolis and the

3:08

film was shot around the Twin Cities as well.

3:11

What was most surprising about the production

3:13

of the film as you were doing

3:15

your research? Well

3:18

the biggest surprise is that there were only

3:20

two professional actors in the whole cast, Prince's

3:23

parents, or the

3:25

kids parents, in the film. Everyone

3:27

else was a complete amateur. There

3:30

were acting classes for everyone in the

3:33

revolution and the time and

3:35

Prince, I don't, I actually don't know how

3:37

much Prince got out of taking acting classes

3:39

and how much was just his base instinct

3:41

of what to do on screen. But

3:44

there it was just a complete amateur

3:46

production of first-time director as well, Albert

3:49

Magnoli, who came in when

3:51

there was a draft of a script, but

3:53

he really dramatically overhauled the script and then

3:55

directed the film. I was

3:57

just at a panel the other day where the

3:59

assistant director Craig Rice said he

4:01

literally walked in one day and the producers

4:04

of the film were looking through a book

4:06

called How to Produce a Movie. Oh my

4:08

goodness. The producers

4:10

at the time were Bob Cavallo and

4:12

Joe Ruffalo and they had a partner

4:15

called Farnoli and they had never made

4:17

a film before. They were music producers.

4:20

They knew how to manage tours and how to

4:22

negotiate with record labels. They had no idea what

4:24

they were doing. So

4:26

I think a lot of that just

4:29

raw newness and willingness

4:31

to go there and try it was

4:33

captured on film. And I think that's

4:35

a big part of Prince's creativity as

4:37

well. He loved that first instinct and

4:39

what people were going to do when

4:41

they were given an opportunity. Well, while

4:43

most of the album was recorded with

4:45

Prince's band, The Revolution, this

4:47

song was produced entirely by Prince himself. This is

4:50

The Beautiful Ones. Baby,

4:57

baby, baby, what's

4:59

it gonna be?

5:08

And I know this is your personal favorite off

5:10

the album. Why? Well,

5:13

for one thing, it's amazing to think

5:15

of Prince alone in a studio for

5:17

24 hours and he comes

5:19

out the other side of that

5:21

with this song, you know, to

5:23

get that kind of emotional vocal

5:25

delivery and complex arrangement down with

5:27

one person. It's just

5:29

incredible. You know, he had nothing to respond

5:31

to other than himself. So

5:33

I love that. And then I'm just

5:35

such a sucker for the power ballads,

5:37

the torch ballads, the heartsick

5:40

Prince just screaming, you know, about

5:42

his agony. I think when

5:44

he goes there, he does it so well. Well,

5:46

we got this email from John who says,

5:49

I was a solid metalhead in 1984, but

5:51

Prince was my guilty pleasure. Love every song

5:53

and enjoyed the movie. Not sure how my

5:55

dad wound up with a copy of Purple

5:57

Rain, but grateful he did. And

6:00

Elizabeth emails, my favorite part of the

6:02

movie Purple Rain is the performance on

6:04

the First Avenue stage of Computer Bloom.

6:06

When the revolution reunited in 2017 to

6:09

tour in memory of Prince, they opened

6:11

their concerts with this song. In interviews,

6:13

they've said that this was their favorite

6:15

song to play together. You've

6:18

mentioned, Andrea, that you've covered Prince for

6:20

the last 10 years and your relationship

6:22

with the artist started after he noticed

6:24

a review you wrote for the current

6:26

Minnesota Public Radio's music station. Tell

6:29

us about your first time meeting him. Oh,

6:32

well, so I got on his radar

6:34

because I had written a review, but

6:36

I also included a little doodle of

6:38

him with my review. And

6:41

he enjoyed that, I guess, and

6:43

reached out to me through his people and

6:45

asked for the drawing. So that

6:47

was kind of our first interaction. He

6:50

sent his band at the time, Third Eye

6:52

Girl, to be interviewed by me at the

6:54

station. And then a little while

6:56

later, I was working on a piece about

6:58

Purple Rain that aired on the 30th anniversary.

7:01

And that's when he called me out to Paisley

7:03

Park to actually meet face to face and have

7:05

a conversation. Bobby Z, drummer for

7:07

the revolution, was also there. He kind

7:09

of facilitated our meeting and

7:12

we ended up speaking for quite a long

7:14

time. I was there for maybe two or

7:16

three hours talking to Prince and listening to

7:18

music. And I think the

7:20

point he was making was, you know,

7:23

it's all well and good to look

7:25

back and talk about this big anniversary.

7:28

But what he was doing was making new music and

7:30

he was focused on the future and always trying to

7:32

figure out what was going to come next. And he

7:34

had two new albums in the can that he would

7:36

release in 2014. So

7:38

I really took that to heart

7:41

and started covering him really closely,

7:43

listening to all of the music that he was

7:46

releasing. He would often give us things to play

7:48

on air for the first time, which is really

7:50

a special relationship to have with someone of his

7:52

magnitude. And then going out to

7:54

Paisley Park all the time, I was just constantly

7:56

out there getting invitations to

7:58

little parties. that he was throwing. I

8:00

got to see him perform for Madonna

8:02

one night. He had Kendrick

8:05

Lamar out there freestyling over him playing

8:07

guitar, which was absolutely incredible. Just

8:10

unbelievable moments and

8:12

he wanted someone to come out and write about

8:14

it. And for some reason, for a few years,

8:16

that someone was me. When

8:19

I think about Purple Rain, the album

8:22

and the film, it makes me wonder

8:24

what the public response

8:26

was to that project in

8:29

1984. Like, yeah, album,

8:31

yes. Don't do a few music

8:33

videos, sure. No, we're going to do a feature-length

8:36

film as well when we absolutely

8:38

don't know what we're doing. What

8:40

was the response from the public?

8:43

It was wild. You know,

8:45

you read a comment there about someone who was

8:48

a metalhead who got converted to Prince. And I

8:50

think that that was happening a lot in this

8:52

period because his true power

8:54

was as a live performer. And

8:56

he was an incredible guitar player

8:58

and he was an incredible vocalist

9:00

and band leader and dancer and

9:02

just all around entertainer. And Purple

9:04

Rain at its heart is a

9:06

live performance film. There's plot

9:08

and there's acting and there's characters and all of

9:10

these things. But really what you're getting out of

9:12

that is seeing Prince on stage at First Avenue

9:15

and feeling like you're there. And I've

9:17

actually been thinking about him a lot now

9:19

that we have, you know, Taylor Swift and

9:21

Beyonce making these concert films that people are

9:23

going to movie theaters to experience. I think

9:26

that was the draw for Purple Rain as

9:28

well. People are connecting with him as a

9:30

live performer. We're talking to Andrea

9:32

Swinson, author of Prince and Purple Rain,

9:34

40 years. And we're hearing from you,

9:36

Jules Lee emails, I was nine years

9:38

old and my favorite song from the

9:40

soundtrack is Take Me With You. In

9:43

the film, you see the love story

9:45

of him with Apollonia against the Minnesota

9:47

roads. I felt like I was on

9:49

his motorcycle and love every moment. We

9:51

want to keep hearing from you. If there's

9:53

a particular track from Purple Rain that you

9:55

love or you want to tell us what

9:57

you think about Purple Rain within Prince discography

10:00

email us at 1a at

10:02

wamu.org. Let's turn to another

10:04

song off the album. Here's a second single,

10:06

Let's Go Crazy. Okay,

10:10

so this song is

10:14

also one of the opening scenes from the

10:18

film. What makes the

10:23

performances

10:32

in this film unique? Well,

10:35

I think at the time to

10:37

see a rock band who had

10:40

choreography and coordinating outfits and every

10:42

little piece of their movement and

10:44

their look and their vibe bought

10:46

out and rehearsed like that. I

10:48

don't think that that was something

10:51

that people were used to in that period. You

10:53

know, you would go to a rock show and

10:55

there'd be times between songs where people are tuning

10:57

or you know, you have to hear feedback and

11:00

there was just no downtime and no raw,

11:03

you know, human moments at a print

11:05

show. It was all orchestrated for the

11:07

audience so that they had that that

11:10

experience. And man, what a what

11:12

an amazing delivery they had. Now you interviewed

11:14

each member of the revolution at least three

11:16

times for the book, Bobby Z, Brown

11:19

Mark, Dr. Fink, Lisa Coleman and Wendy

11:21

Milvoyne. How did he

11:24

choose which collaborators, which

11:26

artists to work with? Well,

11:29

that band came together over a number of

11:31

years. They have a really interesting backstory. Bobby

11:34

Z met Prince when he was making his

11:36

demos for his first album and he was

11:38

really someone that Prince confided in and trusted

11:40

at an early stage in his career. So I

11:43

think he was always going to be along for

11:45

the ride and he was so loyal to Prince

11:47

to the end really, just an amazing friend for

11:49

him. Matt Fink, Dr.

11:51

Fink, also a local person. He was

11:53

plucked out of the local scene to

11:55

be an early keyboard player. Lisa

11:58

Coleman came in next during the Dirty Mind

12:00

era and Brownmark also

12:03

came in around that controversy era in

12:05

the early 80s. And

12:07

then Wendy Melvoyne was discovered because she was

12:09

in a relationship with Lisa Coleman and she

12:11

came along in the 1999 tour

12:13

and Prince was walking past their hotel room

12:15

one night and heard Wendy playing the guitar

12:17

and totally fell in love. Something

12:19

that I think is just so incredible about

12:21

Wendy's story is that she was

12:24

only 19 years old when she joined

12:26

Prince's band. Actually, Brownmark was as well,

12:28

but for her first show, it was

12:30

this rehearsal show at First Avenue,

12:33

August of 1983. Prince

12:35

agreed to perform a benefit concert

12:37

for the Minnesota Dance Theater because

12:39

they were having some financial difficulties

12:42

and decided to record it. So they had

12:44

a recording truck out back, kept capturing the

12:46

live performances and those performances of

12:48

Purple Rain and I Would Die For You

12:50

and Baby I'm a Star are all recorded

12:52

on that night with Wendy playing her first

12:55

show ever. I mean the first chords of

12:57

Purple Rain that we know so well, those

12:59

are performed by Wendy at her first show

13:01

ever. I cannot emphasize how cool I think

13:03

that is because what an opportunity

13:05

and what an amazing talent

13:08

to be able to step up to the

13:10

plate that early in her career and deliver

13:12

something iconic. What

13:14

did they share with you about how

13:18

their experience with Prince shaped

13:20

them as musicians

13:22

and artists? They

13:25

each speak of it almost like

13:27

they were strapped into an

13:31

aircraft. It was an

13:33

experience. It was you went from being

13:35

like a normal person who chose

13:37

when they ate and slept to

13:40

being someone that was in Prince's band,

13:42

which means no more sleeping, maybe

13:44

eating once every eight hours and the rest

13:46

of the time you're just rehearsing. They

13:50

all talked about these marathon rehearsals in

13:52

Prince at the time had a warehouse

13:54

out in one of the suburbs here

13:57

and they would literally play a single song

13:59

for Prince. five hours just to get the

14:01

groove down. Brown

14:03

Mark has stories about he would fall

14:05

asleep and wake up and still be

14:07

playing the same song. It

14:10

was grueling. But

14:12

I think the purpose behind all of that

14:14

was that then when they did get on

14:16

stage, and Prince was anticipating this, as they

14:18

go on the Purple Rain tour, they're playing

14:21

in front of 15,000, 20,000 people, your body

14:23

goes into almost like adrenaline driven shock, but

14:28

they were so well rehearsed that they could just

14:31

play everything that they needed to play and

14:33

not let the nerves take over. So

14:35

they all talk about it like it

14:37

was either

14:40

training for an Olympic team

14:43

or doing something so high

14:46

stakes, like a sports, a lot of

14:48

sports metaphors came out in a lot

14:50

of the interviews, where

14:52

you're just preparing for these moments where you

14:54

know it's such a huge deal. I mean,

14:56

when they performed towards the end of the

14:58

Purple Rain tour, they did a show in

15:01

Syracuse, New York that was going to

15:03

be the first satellite broadcast concert and

15:05

it was broadcast to 1.7 million people

15:08

in Europe. In addition

15:10

to the 35,000 people in front

15:12

of them in the arena, that's

15:14

an incredible amount of pressure

15:16

for these very young people to

15:18

go through. And somehow they

15:20

all did it because they believed in Prince and

15:23

because they had his belief in

15:25

them that they could pull off these

15:28

experiences. I mean, it just

15:30

sounds absolutely surreal and intense.

15:33

And I think for a lot of them, once they got to

15:35

the point when they were no longer in the band, it was

15:37

very hard to remember how to be

15:39

a person again. Well,

15:41

Andrea, what is it about Prince that makes him

15:44

such an interesting subject for you both as

15:46

a musician, but also as a person? I've

15:50

done a lot of deep dives into different

15:52

periods of his career now. I've worked on

15:55

liner notes for several of

15:57

the reissues and I host the podcast

15:59

about him. for the labels in the

16:01

estate. And what I've realized is

16:03

that even focusing on just a year

16:05

at a time in these projects, I'm

16:07

learning new things about him all the

16:10

time. There's new stories, there's new angles,

16:12

there's new revelations. And I can't think

16:14

of another person where this many projects

16:16

in, it would still

16:18

be so revelatory. He lived 10,

16:21

12, 100 lives in one person's

16:23

lifespan. I

16:26

remember one of his managers told me once he had the

16:29

ability to keep 100 people busy 24-7. He

16:32

was so prolific. And it

16:34

just kept being fascinating to me. We're

16:37

discussing the 40-year anniversary of Purple Rain

16:40

with music journalist and host of the

16:42

official Prince podcast, Andrea Swinson. And so

16:44

to come, how did Prince's relationship with

16:46

Purple Rain change through his career? And

16:48

where can we see Prince's influence in

16:51

music today? Jules Lee, you

16:53

told us your favorite song from the soundtrack

16:55

has taken me with you, so of course

16:57

we had to play it for you. We

16:59

also heard from Shanika who emails, I became

17:01

a fan after watching Purple Rain. I was

17:03

too young to see it in the theater

17:05

but found an edited version on television. Not

17:07

too long ago I was able to go

17:09

to Paisley Park. It's amazing to see all

17:11

the artists that passed through there. Seeing the

17:14

Purple Rain room made me shed a tear.

17:16

Keep sharing your memories of Purple Rain with

17:18

us. Email us at 1a at wamu.org. We'll

17:20

be right back. Now

17:54

back to our discussion of the 40-year

17:56

anniversary of Purple Rain with music journalist

17:58

and host of the official Prince podcast.

18:00

cast Andrea Swenson. In March of 2004

18:03

Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall

18:05

of Fame. Here he is performing Kiss at

18:07

that ceremony. We

18:36

heard from Ellie who says I'm 22 and

18:38

my mom is from Minnesota and is a

18:40

longtime Prince fan. A Purple Rain moment never

18:42

fails to make me cry. The whole album

18:44

is absolutely fantastic but I never wanted to

18:46

be your weekend lover. I only wanted to

18:48

be some kind of friend. It's the type

18:50

of line that hits you right in the

18:52

heart and speaks to life's most harrowing moments.

18:54

Well we want to hear from you if

18:57

you have a favorite track on the Purple

18:59

Rain album give us a

19:01

email at 1a at wamu.org. Now

19:03

Andrea Prince went through many eras

19:06

in his career. We see him

19:08

sort of evolve over time. Where

19:10

was he in his career and personal life when

19:12

he decided to record Purple Rain? He

19:16

had already reinvented himself

19:18

as you said a few times. You

19:20

know he started out as someone

19:23

that the music more closely mirrored what

19:25

was going on in the late 70s with R&B and

19:29

a little bit of disco and then

19:31

he went through his you know heavy

19:33

punk phase bringing in those elements with

19:35

Dirty Mind and getting down and

19:37

dirty you know making a lot of demo recordings

19:39

in his home instead of in this you know

19:41

glossy studio and I think

19:43

by the time he got to

19:45

1999 he was starting to think

19:47

more about showbiz. I think when

19:49

you see that sparkling purple jacket

19:51

come out in the 1999 music

19:55

video he's starting to think about how

19:57

he's gonna look on screen how he's

19:59

gonna connect with people in that medium.

20:01

And by the time you get to Purple Rain,

20:03

now he's got a full tour production. He

20:06

knows how to execute these large

20:08

visions and he's stepping into

20:10

the film world as a star. And

20:13

I think for him, that was a

20:15

journey through becoming more confident in his

20:17

impulses and his visions and his belief

20:19

that he could do that. And

20:23

also getting the resources through

20:25

having some successful recordings, especially

20:27

with 1999, that he could

20:29

finally, you know, do this really big scale

20:31

project that he wanted to do. We

20:34

got this from Susan who says, can we get

20:36

a shout out to the brilliant Erotic City single?

20:38

It didn't make it into the movie or on

20:40

the album, but as the B side to Let's

20:42

Go Crazy. It got a lot of play on

20:44

the air and in the clubs. And Andrew, when

20:46

we think about Prince, one of the things

20:48

he's known for is having just prolific

20:52

creative output. As you've been covering

20:54

him and as you

20:56

interviewed him, what did you learn about

20:59

the treasure trove of

21:01

music that we've

21:04

never heard? The

21:07

vault. The vault. It's mystical.

21:10

It's, oh yes, I love thinking about

21:12

the vault because like

21:14

all good entertainers,

21:16

he left us wanting more, right? He

21:18

gave us 39 albums when he was

21:20

alive. And there's at least

21:23

that many more, at least that's what

21:25

he told us when he was alive,

21:27

waiting to be discovered. And

21:30

it's really incredible to think about how much

21:32

music he did release, not just under Prince,

21:34

but in the summer of Purple Rain, he

21:36

also put out a record by Sheila E

21:38

who performed on Erotic City

21:40

with Prince. That was her first time in

21:42

the studio with him on one of his

21:44

tracks. He was producing the

21:46

album from the time and also Apollonia

21:48

6 in addition to his own. And

21:50

he gave songs like Manic Monday

21:53

to the Bangles. So he just had material

21:55

absolutely pouring out of him. And

21:58

then there was still material that didn't make sense. it

22:00

out anywhere and ended up in his vault. So

22:02

the story that I have been told is that

22:05

once he built Paisley Park in

22:07

Chanhassen, his creative complex,

22:10

they had a room with

22:12

literally a bank vault door that

22:14

they started putting his tapes into.

22:16

And when that filled up, the

22:18

room leading into the vault started

22:21

to become the depository. And that

22:23

was completely overflowing with tapes and

22:25

film reels and studio reels and

22:27

photographs and clippings and anything that

22:29

he wanted to save. So

22:33

in the time since he's passed, it's

22:35

been a real undertaking just to make

22:37

sure that all of that material is

22:40

safely stored and also able to be

22:42

archived and preserved. And it really boggles

22:44

the mind to think about, it's been said

22:46

that they could put out an album a

22:48

year for the next 100 years

22:51

with how much material was left

22:53

behind that we haven't heard yet. Well,

22:56

there was a time when Prince declared he

22:58

wouldn't perform Purple Rain anymore. And he held

23:00

true to that until the 2007 Super

23:02

Bowl halftime show. And that's where he

23:05

gave this iconic performance in

23:07

the rain to one of the biggest crowds of his career. He

23:20

got this

23:22

email from

23:24

Kevin who

23:26

says, I

23:47

can't pick just one song from the album.

23:49

I love the whole thing. But his Super

23:52

Bowl performance was epic. How did the rain

23:54

hold off until the perfect moment? God is

23:56

a Prince fan. How did

23:58

Prince's relationship with with Purple

24:00

Rain, both the album and the film

24:02

change across his career. It

24:05

got quite complicated for Prince. By the end

24:07

of the Purple Rain tour, he was so

24:10

over it. He was done. He was supposed

24:12

to go on a much longer tour. He

24:14

made it six months. His

24:16

managers, I was able to interview Bob Cavallo.

24:19

They're still upset about it today, 40 years

24:21

later. What could have been if Prince had

24:24

only done the world tour like we wanted

24:26

and then they wanted him to come

24:28

home and make Purple Rain too and just

24:31

keep the train rolling. Prince

24:33

himself said in interviews, especially

24:36

in the late 90s, it took him

24:38

about 15 years to open up in

24:40

interviews about this, that he

24:42

got to a point where he felt

24:44

like he was just set into this

24:46

very predictable set list. They were playing

24:48

the same songs every night because everything

24:50

was timed with this high level production.

24:52

He just couldn't do it anymore.

24:54

By the time the Purple Rain

24:56

tour even rolled out, he had a

24:58

new album around the world in the

25:01

day already recorded. He was very eager

25:03

to get back and release that. Over

25:05

time, I think he started to feel

25:07

like the success of Purple Rain, the

25:09

commercial success, however you want to define

25:11

that, it started to pigeonhole him. People

25:13

were coming to his shows wanting to

25:15

hear that. He went through a period

25:17

of really rejecting not just that, but

25:19

his whole identity as Prince. He

25:22

changed his name to a symbol in the 90s

25:24

for a variety of

25:26

reasons. I think one of them

25:28

was to divorce himself from this

25:30

expectation of having to be this Prince

25:33

in Purple Rain, the Prince that everyone

25:35

got to know and love in 1984.

25:39

Once he got some distance from that

25:41

and had this basic creative and spiritual

25:43

rebirth in the late 90s, I think

25:46

that's when he started to come around

25:48

and accept the fact that people saw

25:52

that as an important work and

25:54

that that was an important part

25:56

of American cultural history. Once

25:58

you get to that Super Bowl, in

26:00

2007, I think then he had started to move

26:03

into this role as an elder person

26:05

in the music industry who served

26:08

this role and inspired people and

26:10

had the opportunity to mentor the

26:12

next generation. And he

26:14

was just completely reinventing how he

26:17

saw himself. And it felt safe

26:19

again to play Purple Rain. I

26:21

also think it's poignant to note that

26:24

when he went out on his last tour, which

26:26

was called Piano and a Microphone, I got

26:29

a chance to see him do that at Paisley

26:31

Park before it rolled out to

26:33

a couple of dates. And he played Purple Rain

26:35

in that performance. He hadn't moved it to the

26:37

end of the set yet because he was still

26:39

kind of figuring out what he wanted to do.

26:42

But when he was playing it, he moved himself to

26:44

tears. And it was

26:47

really jaw-dropping to see him so

26:49

raw, so alone and vulnerable for

26:51

us, telling all these stories and

26:54

crying about his own music. He

26:57

lifted his hands to his eyes and cast

26:59

away the tears kind of dramatically and said,

27:01

I forgot that music can be emotional sometimes.

27:04

And he would continue weaving Purple Rain into all

27:06

of his final performances. And it ended up being

27:08

the last song that he ever played for people.

27:12

We're discussing the 40-year anniversary of Purple

27:14

Rain with music journalist and host of

27:16

the official Prince podcast, Andrea

27:19

Swinson. We're also hearing from you, Nate emails, I

27:21

wasn't born until 1988, so I wasn't around when

27:24

Purple Rain came out. But I

27:26

play three instruments and have played ever

27:28

since high school. I've always thought Prince

27:30

was extremely underrated for his guitar playing.

27:33

In my opinion, he can hold his

27:35

own right up there with the greats

27:37

like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck,

27:39

Jimmy Page. The list goes on. We

27:42

also heard from Richard who says, Princess Purple

27:44

Rain Tour was the very first concert I

27:46

ever attended. It was an amazing show. After

27:49

I watched Purple Rain for the first time in the theater,

27:51

I watched it every day. And I even

27:53

went to the Midnight Movies at my local theater to

27:55

watch it. I know the whole movie dialogue by heart

27:57

and all the songs. Adrienne,

28:00

how do you think Purple Rain, both

28:02

the music and the film, changed

28:05

pop culture in 1984? Well,

28:09

I think in terms of being underrated,

28:12

I think Prince is a style icon.

28:14

It's also something that we have to

28:16

talk about because him appearing on stage,

28:18

or on screen rather, in this

28:20

completely unique wardrobe. It

28:23

really set a tone for the rest of the 80s. The

28:26

hair, the suit, the- The

28:29

ruffles. The ruffles, yes. And

28:32

his amazing high heels that matched every single,

28:35

he had a different pair for every outfit.

28:37

It was all so immaculate, and it

28:39

was also uniquely him. You

28:42

can draw these lines to people like Little

28:44

Richard, or some of the glam rockers in

28:47

the 70s, but

28:49

he was doing it in this whole new way,

28:51

and he had his band outfitted in that as

28:53

well. So they had their own look and feel

28:55

and vibe, and I think you can see that

28:57

echoing across the rest of the 1980s with

29:00

the way people dressed on stage and

29:02

the way music videos were shot and

29:05

all of these things. And then

29:07

I think it also just served

29:09

as an inspiration for other artists

29:11

that you don't have to be

29:14

just one thing. You can be

29:16

an amazing live performer,

29:18

but you can also have these

29:20

ideas about making movies. And

29:23

there's also a long history of

29:25

great rock movie, well, not always

29:27

so great plot wise, but rock

29:30

artists getting on screen

29:32

and starring in films. But

29:34

something I was thinking about just the other day is two

29:37

years after Purple Rain came out, then you have David

29:39

Bowie and the Labyrinth, and there's

29:41

all these other instances of musicians

29:43

getting on screen and trying

29:46

out being actors. And I think he

29:48

was absolutely a trailblazer in that way

29:50

as well as a great multidisciplinary

29:53

artist. We

29:56

got this from Jane who emails, Prince

29:58

loved chocolate malts at the Baskin River.

30:00

Robbins on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis before

30:02

he hit it big. My college

30:04

roommate's father owned the store and we worked there in the

30:06

1980s. He liked them

30:08

made from gold medal ribbon, heavy on

30:10

the malt, and syrup. Then he'd

30:12

go use the payphone. During the filming of

30:14

Purple Rain, my college boyfriend did deliver for

30:17

Green Mill Pizza. Sure enough, he

30:19

delivered to the studio where they were filming

30:21

music videos. Prince was chained to a brass

30:23

bed, but he was uncuffed for everyone to

30:25

take a break with deep-dish pizzas. How

30:28

is Prince's influence still felt

30:30

in Minnesota? He

30:33

looms large here, absolutely. It's

30:37

a little bit bittersweet to watch because

30:39

I do feel like there's been this

30:41

enormous outpouring of love and

30:43

adoration for him since he left us.

30:46

I do wish that he was able to enjoy

30:48

some of that when he was still here. There

30:51

have been just amazing strides taken in

30:54

Minneapolis to really brand the city where

30:57

Prince came from and made famous.

30:59

There's a huge mural now across

31:01

the street from First Avenue with three

31:04

different huge paintings of him at different

31:06

parts of his career. There's

31:08

a street that's been renamed actually in

31:10

front of First Avenue and in front

31:12

of Paisley Park now. You can

31:14

drive down the Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway as

31:17

you go out to Paisley Park. There's

31:19

just been this real public

31:23

acceptance and celebration of him

31:25

for his magnitude and for

31:28

what he contributed to this place. That's

31:31

been really wonderful to see. I know there's

31:34

a few friends of mine that are really

31:36

passionate about eventually having our airport renamed Prince

31:39

International. I don't know, I'm just putting it out

31:41

there. I think that'd be really cool. He's

31:44

got a store at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.

31:47

It's really amazing. Not

31:50

just that with commerce and all that,

31:52

but I do think culturally the

31:54

impact has been enormous and there's so

31:56

many young artists here who are really...

31:58

inspired by what he did and to

32:01

know that someone came from where you

32:03

came from and did what he did.

32:06

It's really deeply moving for

32:08

the younger artists coming up now. But I

32:11

wonder, you know, when we think about people

32:13

who we consider icons, sometimes the image we

32:15

have of them in their

32:17

fame at the height of their careers, it can

32:19

become very divorced from the human that's

32:21

behind that status. What legacy do

32:23

you hope we hold

32:26

of Prince? Oh,

32:29

I think about this all the time. Just what

32:31

you said, you know, there's something that happens when

32:33

you get to a certain level of fame and

32:35

then you pass away where you become like an

32:38

avatar. You know, you think

32:40

about the headshot posters and

32:42

the t-shirts of certain bands.

32:45

I think Prince's legacy is going to

32:48

be inspiring the next generations

32:50

to pick up instruments, to learn to

32:52

become excellent at their craft. He was

32:54

such an excellent performer on every level

32:57

and had such high standards. And

32:59

I think that people that are just discovering

33:02

him now will be inspired to really

33:04

pursue art in this all-encompassing way in

33:06

the way that he did. That's

33:08

Andrea Swenson, music journalist and host of the

33:10

official Prince podcast, also winner of the Minnesota

33:13

Book Award. Her new book is called Prince

33:15

and Purple Rain 40 years, and

33:17

it's available now. Andrea, thank you so much. Thanks

33:20

for having me. This has been a blast. We

33:22

got this email from Anne who says, I was in love with

33:24

Prince from the moment I heard and saw him. In that summer

33:27

of 84, I was nine months pregnant

33:29

sitting in the theater and I can tell you

33:31

solidly that all the cool my son was born with

33:33

was 100% Prince and 0%

33:35

genetic. My son turns 40 this

33:38

summer and Paisley Park is on my

33:40

summer road trip list. I am still

33:42

in love with Prince. Two husbands later.

33:44

Today's producer was Arfi Getty. This program

33:47

comes to you from WAMU, part of

33:49

American University in Washington distributed by

33:51

NPR. I'm Jen White. Thanks for listening. We'll

33:53

talk again tomorrow. This is 1A. I!