Movie Music Monday – Purple Rain

It was on this day in 1984 that Prince’s movie Purple Rain opened across the US.

The soundtrack includes the title track, Darling Nikki, Let’s Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, and I Would Die 4 U.

The album was not free of controversy. Many network executives thought that the video for When Dives Cry was too “sexual” for TV. Then, there were the risqué lyrics of Darling Nikki. Those lyrics got Tipper Gore and folks at the Parents Music Resource Center quite upset. The incident was one of the reasons for the Parental Advisory label/sticker on “questionable” lyrical content.

The controversy didn’t stop the album’s success, as it would spend a whopping 24 weeks as the number one album in America! When Doves Cry and Let’s Go Crazy both went to number one, while Purple Rain and I Would Die 4 U would both reach the top ten.

According to songfacts.com, Prince used his LM-1 drum machine to create the rhythm on I Would Die 4 U. “Released in 1980, the LM-1 was the first programable unit that used real samples, not synthesized sounds. About 500 were made, sold for $5000 each, which kept them in the hands of serious musicians. By 1984, more advanced machines were on the market, but Prince was still using his LM-1. He had a talent for running the beats through guitar effects and embellishing them with other studio tricks, making him one of the best drum machine programmers of his time.”

On the Purple Rain tour, (which just happened to open right here in Michigan at Joe Louis Arena) this was a showcase song for Sheila E. She served as Prince’s opening act and also joined him on stage. Her live percussion on “I Would Die 4 U” compensated for the beats that couldn’t be generated outside of the studio.

It was the fourth of five singles from the soundtrack.

Billboard’s Andrew Unterberger said, “Purple Rain is certainly in contention for the most perfect album in rock or pop history, expertly flowing from track to track while delighting, surprising and astounding at each bend. Personal and universal, familiar and challenging, romantic and narcissistic, religious and orgasmic, accessible to all and profoundly weird, Purple Rain rightly remains the cornerstone of Prince’s recorded legacy, almost too obvious in its brilliance to even be worth discussing at length.”