Prince And The Revolution – Purple Rain

All copies of the 2015 Remastered vinyl were NOT mastered by Prince!!!
They were mastered by Joshua Welton….and approved (overseen) by Prince…and this 2015 remaster was first released on vinyl in 2017 !!

What's the best version in LP? I have 2 versions: https://www.discogs.com/fr/release/1623046-Prince-And-The-Revolution-Purple-Rain (which seems to lacks some bass) and https://www.discogs.com/fr/release/3021810-Prince-And-The-Revolution-Purple-Rain

Is there any better one?

my love!...ever a great sound and vinyl need it every time in my life

OUT. FRIGGIN. STANDING! Never another lost and gone forever here until we meet again!

“Purple Rain” is Prince’s sixth studio album, released in 1984 as the soundtrack tie-in to the eponymous film. Prince purposely devised “Purple Rain” to reach an even broader audience than he had done with its predecessor “1999”, enthralling the populace with his extraordinary image and charismatic stage presence in the promotional videos for its hit singles, most notably “Little Red Corvette”.

Now a tightly meshed unit, Prince’s band, The Revolution, are given a major role in both the film and its soundtrack, receiving equal billing on the album cover. In a bid to fully exploit the wider variety instrument combination of the large rock ensemble whilst on stage, Prince triggered the increased visible presence of The Revolution, which in turn enabled him to further fill out his sound and reproduce the more complex elements of his music in a live setting. Unquestionably, the decision to give The Revolution a public face was inspired by the fully integrated configuration of Sly and the Family Stone, whose influence is greatly felt herein, perhaps more so during this period than any other in Prince’s career. Comprised of four men and two women styled uniformly to Prince (apart from Doctor Fink, who wore scrubs), The Revolution emphasized Wendy and Lisa, childhood friends able to exert an influence over his output. It was this rapport that would have a deeper influence on his most creatively fertile and universally loved period. Wendy and Lisa shared Prince’s perfectionist streak and vast musical knowledge, their dynamic and aptitudes exigently informing “Purple Rain” and tempering the electronic Minneapolis sound with echoes of ‘60s psychedelia and classical music.

In order to expand his creative proliferation and go further than merely infiltrate the mainstream as he had done with his previous records, Prince’s realization of his latest absorption of influences was consciously innovative and pop-oriented. Certain pre-existing demos, undeveloped concepts or suites were dramatically condensed or converted to meet the requirements of a soundtrack. For instance, the dense, robotic funk workout “Computer Blue” contained several instrumental passages until the last-minute inclusion of “Take Me with U”, a dreamy duet with love interest Apollonia, led to its truncation. Two of the songs were composed with the film’s narrative in mind, namely the aptly stark textures of “When Doves Cry”, which reflected the intermingling domestic and romantic strife and emptiness of the protagonist. Prince wanted the song to sound anomalous, embellishing the spareness generated by the bassless mix with a baroque keyboard piece, xylophone motif, accelerating guitar and synthesizer solos, electronic drum patterns, and looped discordant vocals and harmonizing. Prince’s subversion of pop forms and aggressive playing style also extended to the visceral exhortations, declarations of sexual ambiguity and biblical paraphrasing of “Let’s Go Crazy” and “I Would Die 4 U”, both of which constitute some of the album’s sermon-like passages, intimacy and vulnerability. In terms of sheer optimism and singular focus, “Let’s Go Crazy” is in the most favourable position on the album, acting both as a monologue and an inducement to the audience. With regards to impacting the recording industry, the sexually explicit “Darling Nikki” overrules, instigating the enactment of Parental Advisory warning labels being imprinted on physical media with content deemed unsuitable for children. Thanks to its risqué lyrics, “Darling Nikki” is a point of discussion whenever the subject of the album and its legacy is raised. Somehow, the enduring notoriety of “Darling Nikki” illustrates how the duality and profanity of Prince’s lyrics went largely under the radar until his music appealed to the masses, or more specifically, the largely middle-class teenage MTV viewership whose conservative parents absurdly dictated traditional values within a democracy ruled by capitalistic freedom.

Apart from topping the Billboard 200 - the first Prince album to achieve this placing - “Purple Rain” also received an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and spawned five top ten singles. It has gone on to sell 25 million copies worldwide and remains one of the best-selling albums of all-time. If the returns and rewards of Prince’s efforts are undeniable, neither is the sophistication and greatness of the material he produced and how expertly it is performed in the context of the film. In spite of its gains and ubiquity, the album is rightly recognized as being musically visionary, historically important and aesthetically valuable, but also hauntingly beautiful, as evidenced most notably by the anthemic title track. Perhaps the most stirring moment of both the film and the soundtrack, “Purple Rain” may have aimed at the commercial top 40 market upon its release as a single, but its spiritual sentiments and grandiose feel are geared to a rock audience. Completely revolutionary and unconventional, the song was also intentionally far removed from Prince’s constricting R&B roots, entering mainstream power ballad territory with its transcendent, life-affirming resplendence. An unprecedented move to say the least, not to mention adventurous considering the paucity of anything even remotely resembling the prowess of “Stairway to Heaven” in the charts, the song was the culmination of a failed collaboration with Stevie Nicks and an impromptu jam session with The Revolution, the final product was eventually recorded live at a concert featuring epic guitar solos, live drums, an electric grand piano, an orchestral string outro and emotionally resonant delivery from Prince both vocally and instrumentally. Calculatedly constructed to provide him with the rock radio staple that would see him bypass media segregation, “Purple Rain” is as timeless and sensational as the iconic glittery purple coat Prince wears throughout the film, presenting a palette of lush sounds and inherent depth of feeling. In a constant state of melancholy, combining elements of gospel, rock and country in its instrumentation and arrangement to trigger a passionate reaction in the listener, the song is consummated as a full band performance in a live setting, taking Prince’s credentials to new heights and recasting him as a rock star once the ethereal middle-section guitar solo is underway. Ending on an even more cathartic note, the credits roll alongside the empowering “Baby I’m A Star”, a stunning ode to pop stardom capable of convincing those unconvinced of serious musicianship concurring with effervescence. In the context of the soundtrack, the grand finale is destined to be the eponymous track, inasmuch as it encapsulates the entire album, elliptically touching on changing relationships, redemption and ascendancy.

Prince’s unbridled star power enhanced the credibility of his portrayal of the Kid, a brooding, motorcycle-riding axeman with a highly dysfunctional family. Fitting with his remit as a pop idol, Prince’s overt sexuality may have been refined for accessibility purposes, but he still became an epoch of fashion and pop culture. Prince’s compelling turn as a flamboyant, silver-tongued romantic hero was semi-autobiographical, with “The Beautiful Ones”, a pseudo-psychological breakdown of his character’s unrequited love for the aspirational Apollonia, being entirely consistent with the film’s storyline as well as drawn from his real-life relationships with Susannah Melvoin and former protégé Vanity. It is a chillingly desperate foray into melodrama, complete with wailing pleas, rantings, ultimatums and fantasies. In several sections of the album, Prince takes on the role of a demonstrative gospeller, almost ferocious in his intonation, poetic in his wordplay and vicious in his musical execution. After many years of intensive inventiveness, Prince’s expertise reached masterful levels at the age of just 24. Even though he would extend that proficiency on later albums, “Purple Rain” is the apex.

Owing to the impeccable sequencing and overarching sense of mystery, the album has the distinction of being an individual entity as much as a soundtrack, with its superbly crafted, distinctive yet inexplicably linked parts forming one cohesive whole. Prince does more than demonstrate his raw talent and versatility on “Purple Rain”, he involves the listener in an extension of the end of the world concerns set out on “1999”, albeit from an impassioned perspective rather than insouciant. Unparalleled in terms of its sonic fluctuations and thematic contradictions, the album’s dichotomies of carnality and divinity, simplicity and complexity, fury and harmony, euphoria and melancholy demarcate it from other crossover smashes of the conservative Reagan era, with every song translating well in the contemporary landscape. “Purple Rain” was a massive success, both as an album and a movie, concurrently topping the box-office and the charts in the U.S. alone. Prince was propelled to superstardom in 1984, and he would go on to be viewed as a once-in-lifetime artist of unlimited capabilities, styles and personas. Courtesy of his most supportive and fortifying band The Revolution, it also marked the point where all the elements of his music finally fell into place, cementing the distinguishing characteristics of his iconic profile and manifesting his genius for all to marvel at. Few records from the ‘80s grabbed the listener’s attention as much “Purple Rain”, and although it may not be the peak of Prince’s achievement, the connectivity, consistency, substance, lucidity, quality and timing of the content herein will never be measured up to.

Rating: 5/5

When my daughter was a young teen I tried to protector her from trash like this! I have a nice cd and an excellent vinyl and am always on the look for a better issue

How about the sound quality of this pressing? Worth it?

I think if Warner Bros. could redeem themselves, they should put out ANOTHER Purple Rain deluxe edition, in the same style and faithfulness to the recent 1999 deluxe edition and remastered by Bernie Grundman. THAT'S what it should've come as, not the half-a$$ed edition from 2017, with horrendously bad compressed mastering by Prince, various audio glitches, dropouts and MP3 sourced tracks. Let's face it, it was a rush-released cash-in and I'm sure if they'd have waited longer and used Bernie's remaster, it would've been incredible. A lost opportunity and most probably will never happen again.

Anyone of you knows a full length piano edit / remix of purple rain ? Heard it somewhere in the morning but can’t remember which edit it was...😔

"Let's Go Crazy" is supper. thanks for this amazing songs really great