Purple Rain (Sdtk) - Prince (CD 1987)

Every rock star secretly harbors one ambition, it seems-to be a movie actor or actress. If you really look at it, every popular musician from Michael & Madonna to Garth & Billy Ray to (insert name of rapper here) has decided to drop the mic for a script and attempt their hand at screen success. Most have failed miserably.

By 1983, Prince Rogers Nelson was a star on the rise. Half a decade of critical success and R&B fandom had finally paid off with his album "1999". "Little Red Corvette" became his first Top Ten hit, and Prince pranced through the door Michael Jackson had just kicked open at pop radio and MTV. Unlike wholesome (then, anyway) MJ, Prince was mercurial, mysterious and definitely had sex appeal to spare, in that dangerous James Dean/sexual deviant kinda way. In other words, the man was perfect to try his hand at the silver screen.

While the movie "Purple Rain" was enjoyable in it's own laughable way and went on to become a major box office smash, the soundtrack album was a whole 'nother animal. Prince took his pop smarts, mixed them with his funk appeal and rock-guitar heroics, set it on spin cycle, and came away with an enjoyably listenable album that was of it's time as much as it was ahead of it's time. Featuring rampaging ego, nod-wink sexuality and a genuine sense of daring, "Purple Rain" remains not only one of the benchmark albums of the 1980's, but also, in my humble opinion, the best soundtrack album ever.

Prince was definitely an envelope pusher, and here he and his backing band, The Revolution, pull off several neat tricks. The most fabled one regards the album's major hit and first single "When Doves Cry". Smartly encapsulating the song's plot within the framework of a single song (Prince is torn between his warring parents when all he really wants in life is peace), this perfect pop song was turned into the ultimate ballsy statement when Prince removed the bass part right before the song was mixed. A song with NO BASS? By a BLACK artist? (although Prince was stills creaming racial ambiguity at the time). No way this song could be a hit! However, the song's offbeat vibe, leavened with a memorable melody and chorus, wound up spending eight weeks at Number One, and still remains one of the most recognizable songs in pop history.

Fortunately, the bass comes back. The ego-driven, pumping "Baby I'm A Star" was one of four songs recorded live in the summer of 1983, and the one-take live band feel makes this song pop, and also makes a strong early case for Prince as a bandleader, as he directs the stop-and-start of the song's pulsating rhythm. "Let's Go Crazy", the album's opener, is a furiously pulsating rocker that ends with a guitar solo that will make you slap your momma. One of the lasting impressions made after listening to this album is how effortlessly Prince fused genres here. The song's funky enough to make Parliament fans bob their head, but features enough screaming guitar to appeal to a Van Halen fan. On this song, Prince provides inspirational advice like "look for the purple banana till they put us in the truck". Huh? Whatever.

"Take Me With U" is a jangling, guitar-pop duet with protege-of-the-moment Apollonia. Well, it's kind of a duet, since all the parts on the song are either sung by Prince and Apollonia in unison (with Prince's voice mixed about three times higher), or by Prince solo. Apollonia, despite jumping naked into the Lake Minnetonka, is not more than window dressing on this pop delight. "Computer Blue" features a weird tempo-change in the bridge and features the spoken exchange by Revolution members Wendy & Lisa hinted at in this review's title.

"Wendy?"
"Yes, Lisa"
"Is the water warm enouogh?"
"Yes, Lisa"
"Shall we begin?"
"Yes, Lisa"

Mmmm...Ok...anyway, Prince has long been known as a master of the boudoir ballad, and he drops a keeper here. "The Beautiful Ones" is a pretty piano-led ballad, but Prince turns from beggar to STALKER as the song thunders to a close. He glides from quiet falsetto to shrieking, unleashing some of the greatest screamin' in rock history. "Darling Nikki" is a delightfully raunchy ballad about a woman who Prince meets as she's pleasuring herself. Is she doing it WITH the magazine or while looking at the magazine? I dunno. Apparently Prince & Nikki do the nasty, she turns out to be the best lay Prince has ever had, then she splits and finds a letter with a number a note: "Thank U 4 a funky time/Call me up whenever U wanna grind". More shrieking on Prince's behalf ensues.

The album ends with the dramatic, lighter-wavin', tear jerkin' singalong title ballad. A gentle note of regret to a friend, this song remains spine-tingling twenty years later. You could be sitting alone in your room when this song comes on the radio, and you can't help sticking your hands to the air and waving 'em side-to-side to the strains of this power ballad.

Not that Prince hadn't made great music before. 'Dirty Mind" is a 5-star album and "Controversy" & "1999" are close behind. But "Purple Rain" was the one album where Prince managed to balance his slightly off-kilter perversion and musical adventurousness against his desire for pop success and come up aces. Featuring danceable grooves, sexy crooning and enoough guitar solos to satisfy the rhythmically challenged, "Purple Rain" is not only an important touchstone in Prince's recently rejuvenated career, it's also a major turning point in 80's music (remember when EVERYONE was either produced by Prince or sounded like him?), and it STILL manages to sound fresh after two decades.

If you're a newbie and trying to "get" Prince, this is the album to start with.

If you're a Prince fan and you don't have this album (although it's about time for a remaster), there's something wrong with you.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Repeat: "When Doves Cry", "Purple Rain", "The Beautiful Ones", "Let's Go Crazy"

Skip: You have got to be kidding me.

Great Music to Play While: Wishing you had a fly sidekick like Jerome, Morris Day's valet in "Purple Rain".