I’m on The Eagles (Band) email list. Last year, they gave me an incredible opportunity to buy pre-sale VIP tickets. In addition to sitting you in one of the first 3 rows, you could enjoy a reception before the concert. (And, no, Don Henley would not be eating a beanie weanie next to you.) All for the incredibly low price of $750 per seat. But wait, there’s more! You also got a complimentary t-shirt.
Instead, I only paid $150 for 5th row side.
And just last week I paid $130 for Amy Grant’s Christmas show. $130. Per ticket. For Amy Grant. My only consolation is that they are great seats and I didn’t have to wait in line all night in the cold like the old days.
I really don’t know Prince’s music much; never had any of his albums. But I remember going to see Purple Rain the movie when it came out, and the refrain still haunts me. I thought the music in the movie was great, but other than tunes we hear enough on the radio to recognize (like Let’s Go Crazy), I don’t remember any of the other tunes. I doubt I’ve heard PR on the radio much. I don’t listen to rock radio much at all, but I know I’ve heard LGC many times. The others are a blank to me. Perhaps if I heard Doves today, I’d prefer it to PR.
I never hang out on Facebook, but a couple of years ago, a music friend turned me on to a link on some random person’s page. I wouldn’t know how to find it now. It was a video clip of the concert Prince and the Revolution put on at First Avenue - the one that was recorded and edited for use in the movie and the soundtrack. Purple Rain is great - the various lead-in bits last longer, the solo is longer, the outro with the high vocal is much longer. Really fascinating and great to hear. Curses that it isn’t more available.
Prince’s use of gospel influences in songs like PR are simply wonderful.
I still remember seeing Vanity 6, The Time, and Prince (when Dez was still there) in the Houston Summit on one ticket way back in the 80s. I think it was around Controversy.
Vanity performed in lingerie. Dez and Prince on guitar together was really cool. Prince played* (on various songs) the guitar, keyboards, grand piano, drums, and did his James Brown style dancing with the mic stand.
The best song from my personal favorite Prince album. The twelve inch extended version is crazy good (“Put your foot on the rock / Let the girls see ya / Put your foot down on the 1 / Shake your body, have some fun”).
Pretty much a start-to-finish great album (though not my favorite of his), with “Darling Nikki” probably the weakest song. “Let’s Go Crazy”, “The Beautiful Ones” and the title track are all strong contenders for the best. Even the relatively minor “Baby I’m A Star” is impressive for the sheer ebullience of the performance. But I had to go with the crowd on this one and pick “When Doves Cry”. If you can come up with a great bass-less funk song, you deserve some credit.
And then he took it even further with “Kiss.” That song is nothing but a very stripped-down beat, a guitar, and Prince’s falsetto. Amazing arrangement.
Let me preface this by saying I am a diehard metal head, DIE HARD. Princes sound was FAR outside my normal tastes in the 80’s and 90’s and even today I listen to nothing even remotely like that. With that said…
Purple Rain is THE most enduring, timeless soundtrack of all time. It is one of the only soundtracks ever made where every single song was excellent and it’s very hard to choose a single “best” track. All of the songs sound so different from each other but come together perfectly into a single album.
Had a hard time choosing between WDC and PR. Darling Nikki was a very close 3rd. Went with WDC though.
Well, I guess I’ll be one of the few to admit voting for “Baby I’m A Star.”
All the songs are great - like others have said, it’s a fantastic soundtrack from start to finish. I can’t think of a better one.
I think “Baby” is the catchiest of all the songs. It’s the one that sticks in my head the most. Uptempo, catchy and one of those songs that gets your foot tapping.
Prince always seems to make great music. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time. My personal favorite record from him is “Sign O’ The Times.” Also happens to be one of the best concert films I’ve ever seen.
“Take a picture sweetie! I ain’t got time to waste!”
While I love many of the songs on the soundtrack and think “Purple Rain” is probably the best song, I think “Let’s Go Crazy” is my favorite only because it’s so fun. And I’m only referring to the extended version, which isn’t on the actual soundtrack but is the version in the movie. I love the section in the middle with the funky piano and drum fills. I bought an EP with the studio extended version on it many years ago.
I recently caught it on cable a month or two ago; my wife had never seen it (yet I married her anyway) and I made her watch it. I hadn’t seen it in probably 25 years, and didn’t realize back then how abysmally bad the acting was. But it’s not really about that, it’s about the music, which kicked ass.
I’ve always scratched my head why only Prince’s songs were part of the ‘soundtrack’ album, Morris Day got pushed out of some well-deserved spotlight, even if his songs did see their own separate releases. A record label decision? Prince ego? Dunno.
“Booty Time is the only white disco song as far as I’m concerned.”
I’d not heard the song, so it took me all of 20 seconds to find