This my fave Prince song, by a mile. I suspect that makes me a heretic, and is also wildly inconsistent because it’s got none of his guitar shredding on it, which always makes me grin ear-to-ear. But it’s a pure pop gem, a thing no song should ever apologize for in any company, no matter how august.
I’m no Prince-ologist. I never managed to catch a live show, but wouldn’t have missed the chance. What else can I say? His Super Bowl half-time show was maybe the coolest ten-minute musical performance by anyone ever. To quote myself on the day: “I get the feeling that Prince decided some heavy rain would help his visuals and he had so much mojo going into this particular Sunday that God took his call and set it up.”
I hated most of his slow-jam moaners, and the extra-stupid sequences in his movies and films, notably the way-too-long opening section in the official Cream video, which I’ll link to anyhow because, you know, official. But I mostly loved Purple Rain anyhow, even the ridiculous parts, just because he was clearly a guy with a vision; it wasn’t that he was out of fucks to give what anyone else thought, he never had any.
This is part of the Song of the Day series (background).
Links · Spotify playlist. This tune on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon. Now, as for live video, here’s (yawwwwn) the official video. Here’s something way better, a live MTV take. Prince is having a blast, giving the audience a hard time for their clap-along ineptitude, cracking jokes. And it’s just him and an acoustic guitar, but somehow the room is 100% full of music. And he gets pretty good rhythm out of the audience by the third verse. The first 2:45 are Cream, then there’s more good acoustic music, stay for the show.
