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Taylor Swift and my music collection

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:12:26 GMT

This particular problem happens to a lot of people and it takes on many different forms.

You have a lot of something, but at the same time, feel like you have nothing to choose from.

For me, its music.
Two of my aunts have suggested that I invest in books on tape for my commute and I'm starting to think that maybe they had a point.

I have over 100 albums from at least 50 different artists (a lot from one) and I feel like I have nothing to listen to.
Just today I bought another Nickelback album and Rob Thomas's most recent (includes my ringtone "Her Diamonds"). The Nickelback album puts me over for three from the group that's probably the biggest surprise in my collection since the many Prince albums. The lead singer, Chad Kroeger has a very coarse voice that isn't very attractive but when it sings poetic, thoughtful lyrics, it does sound very nice. I only bought this album for one song, "How you remind me" but its one of my favorites of theirs.

I began investing in Taylor Swift's music since the day I first heard "Teardrops on my Guitar" on the radio. In fact she had me at the first line because I knew a guy named Drew that I had the biggest crush on my senior year of high school and I actually thought the same of the girl he was with as Taylor did of the girl her Drew was with.
The only difference in our stories is that her Drew didn't come out of the closet the following fall. Stranger things have happened, but even thought that is true, it remains that he inspired something I wrote. The fate of that work remains to be seen just because I might be going in another direction with it.

I bought her first album the same time as Jesse's "Departure" and have had more time to listen to it. And this week, I spent going through her second album, "Fearless." Much like with Maroon 5's 2nd album, it takes some of the ideas and musical signatures from the first album and takes them to another level. And there are a lot of new sounds to be heard.

The vibe I get from both albums is that Taylor is a country girl from a small town in the south. And she's had good relationships and bad ones. But there's a lot to be said about whether or not they are based in truth.

The strangest part of having Taylor in my collection is her being a country artist and I'm not into country very much. That's the reason why I sold Michelle Branch's second album. Some of her songs can be seen as pop songs as well.

I also went to Borders yesterday and got a couple of books. One is another vampire series that looks interesting. After reading the first book, ill know whether I should keep going with the series. The other is Wuthering Heights, which I only bought because it was Bella's favorite and I wanted to see what it was about and if Catherine & Heathcliff really are among the most reputable couples of all time. Edward didn't seem to think so, but he also didn't put much stock in Romeo either (but he changes his mind after the crazy events that ensue in New Moon).
Actually, Borders has started to repackage that book, Romeo & Juliet and Pride & Predjuice as the original romance novels. All of which I should read at some point in my life. Romeo & Juliet should be much easier to get through than Hamlet was (which is I believe the longest play Shakespeare has written).

I should brush up more on the classics for sure, but I need to finish reading some of the books I started first. One is Interview with a Vampire, which I got to page 100 and stopped cuz I was craving my favorite type of vampries, from Twilight and read through books 2 & 3 in the series.
The other Im making more progress in, the newest installment from "House of NIght" series. I'm just not looking forward to the moment when I finish and find out whether or not I have to wait for another book to come out.

The signature sound of 2K's first decade

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:52:19 GMT

Radio station XM 22 (played non-stop at work) refers to this decade as 2K as its slogan is "we play the music of the 80's, 90's, 2K and today".

This decade has a mix of different sounds so its hard to say what the signature is that separates it from the 90's. If anything, it continues the musical trends of the 90's. And the lyrics are taken a level up as they are more artistic, more beautiful and are much stronger. The early sounds of the decade are the last we hear of the 90's trends of bubblegum pop and boyband music. That is soon followed by two crappy years of rap & hip-hop with the likes of 50 Cent, Eminen, Black-Eyed Peas, so on and so forth (names that I don't include because I don't see any reason to commit them to memory). Justin Timberlake was a major force in music as well, but I dont think he made as much of an impact as I thought he did.

I bought most of my musc in this decade, but I can't exactly say that it resembles the trends of the decade. Michelle Branch, Ryan Cabrera and Ashlee Simpson had songs on the radio but they weren't trendsetters in any way and didnt become huge forces to contend with.

Time went by and I started to find hope in mainstream radio in the summer of 2006, which played the likes of Rob Thomas ("Ever the Same") and The Fray ("Cable Car").
A couple of years before that, I checked out VH1's top 20 video countdown a couple of times on Saturdays just to see what the biggest video artists currently were. Britney Spears was still very huge at the time as her single "Everytime" from her 4th album IN THE ZONE made it to the countdown. I checked just now that it was a hit in 2004. During our morning annoucements at school, they showed us a short slideshow about not mixing drinking with prom as it causes many accidents statisically. During which, they played this song.
I remember simply because I burned a CD with my favorite songs from that year and that was the last one on it (which I can't hear anymore because it got warped too much).

Just for the sake of argument, I'll post the playlist on that CD.

Never be the Same again (Fa fa fa)- Guster (my Physics' teacher's favorite group that he played a lot, this song was the first one I heard my junior year of high school)
11 out of 10- Play (they were in affiliation with Dream Street so they were one of my more recent purchases... actually for my birthday, the year before and also the day before I saw Jesse McCartney at Point Pleasant)
Worthless-Greg Raposo (an ex-member of the recently broken up Dream Street from his only mainstream solo album... he didnt write the song, but Jess Cates, who did, has written a lot of my favorite tracks of the time)
I will carry you- Clay Aiken (also written by Jess Cates... his album was huge for me at the time, I still believe he was the rightful winner of American Idol Season 2)
In the way- Clay Aiken (both songs reminded me of one of the seniors at school that I was majorly crushing on, a brilliant actor and singer with a velvet tenor voice... ironically, I didnt know at the time that he and Clay Aiken shared the same sexual orientation. I knew about his, but not about Clay's until years later)
Stairway to Heaven- Led Zepplin (several tracks I included are from my personal collection because I listened to them on the bus ride to school... this one, my dad played for me when I was 14 and I didnt quite get it... then I heard the actor sing it while someone at school played it on acoustic guitar at our drama class... he sang it so beautifully, but now when i listen to it, i rarely think about him singing it anymore)
"Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (short version)"- Vanessa Mae (my dad has a huge thing for her in that he loves the way she plays and also performs. An extremely gifted Singaporian vilonist that he couldn't help hearing about during his travels to the Far East. I included it more/less for filler to help move to the things to come)
Run to me- Clay Aiken (another brilliant vocal performance and one of my favorite tracks on the album)
I survived you- Clay Aiken (another Jess Cates work, this hit home as much as the first Clay Aiken track I included because they remind me of the actor. This one very strong because it reminds me of the last days of our performing "My Fair Lady", he was Mr. Higgins and I was just in the company... to me, it says "I will survive losing you from our school when you graduate"... I still don't know if he ever made it to Broadway, we weren't particularly close but he knew that I was his #1 fan in high school. I did create a website for him that's now gathering dust)
More to Life- Stacie Orrico (I heard her perform it at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade fall of 2003 and thought that I should get her album on it alone. I ended up selling it back to FYE a couple years later. It's her best song on the album, heard it on the radio a couple times and it hit home for me)
Alla Luce del Sole- Josh Groban (my dad had a thing for Vanessa Mae, my mom had a thing for Josh Groban, both are still true but not as strongly... she first saw him perform on Ally McBeal and she falls to pieces when she hears him sing. He has a beautiful tenor voice with a great range and maybe I have a thing for a great voice that can do different languages. This song is all in Italian and there's just something so powerful about it. It fits well on here with the two Vanessa Mae tracks for sure)
The Second Star to the Right- Jesse McCartney (this is from Disney Mania 2 where associated artists of Disney cover songs from Disney movies, this one was my particular favorite and of course I had a huge thing for Jesse back then, still do. Occasional soundtrack hits were all I had to keep me going after the break-up of Dream Street until he started releasing albums. I have plenty of artists now but back then, the few I had weren't enough to fill that void)
All I Ask of You- Sarah Brightman & whoever played Raul in the original cast of "Phantom of the Opera" (I included this simply because the actor's best friend sang this at our March concert choir concert before we performed the song "Masquerade" to start the concert... oh, I miss those days of high school)
Perfect (acoustic version)- Simple Plan (This was from the soundtrack of "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen"... this song was huge for me in a couple ways. It hit home for me and got through a difficult time. A mild depression when I was denied a trip to AC to see Jesse in concert... it only lasted half a day... and its message reminds me of a situation I have at home, being denied my dream of becoming a writer on the basis that it doesnt' pay well. I'm still writing, as you can see, but getting published is a pain in the butt. But I admit I have nothing good enough at this point that's ready to go)
Contradanza (full version)- Vanessa Mae (my dad played this in the car on my way to school on the day I had to give my Graduation project... or maybe on the way home, I forget exactly. At my school, you have to complete a graduation project where you put together something and show what you've accomplished. It takes the process of 1.5 school years to do. The main requirement is that you need to gain new knowledge in an area of your choice. I put together a portfolio of poetry and did a PowerPoint on what I learned on putting my stuff together and also on the aspect of publishing... one of which went complete bust, the company I sent one of my works to rejected me a week after sending my manuscript and I found out later that they had been charged with fraud a couple times. The presentation was awful because I hadn't rehearsed enough and I HATE oral presenations, Im not good with public speaking. But on my work ethic, new knowledge and completeness, I passed in four of the five areas... as for the song itself, it is just beautiful. Exciting for the majority, but the flute solo at the end just puts the cherry on top, that's why I wanted the full version because the short from the greatest hits doesn't include it)
(4, 3, 2, 1) Barrel of a Gun- Guster (the favorite song from Guster of my 12-student Physics class. It was played several times)
To Where you Are- Josh Groban (my favorite of his in English)
The Prayer- Josh Groban & Charlotte Church (I used to be able to sing Charlotte's part well, especially the very end but with lack of practice, I'm terrible at it. Two girls performed this song at our May concert choir concert and did it really well, so I had to put it as a reminder)
Everytime- Britney Spears (I bought her album for this song alone, though there are 7 others that I like from it... its definitely one of my favorites)

I call this CD my "11th grade soundtrack" simply because I heard them through that year and they remind me of different moments. Whenever I play through the third world in Jak & Daxter, I play the CD and it takes me through it and also helps me get through it with minimal damage.

Okay, so I look back at it and see that none of these songs were huge on mainstream radio or huge on the video circuit just to go from my train of thought that began with the Britney Spears song... but it's funny to see that several of the artists on that countdown have became big musical forces on today's radio. Avril Lavigne's "Happy Ending" was another of my favorites and it made #1 a couple of times. Never did get that album even though there were a couple songs on it that I like a lot.

I just found a link for hit singles of 2004.
http://www.aria.com.au/pages/aria-charts-accreditations-singles-2004.htm
And it includes several songs that made that 2-hour video countdown. I'm going to list a few songs that I either liked from back then or just songs I remember on the countdown, most of them are artists that are still huge today

Here without You- 3 doors down (not one of the videos, but one of my favorite songs of the time)
Let's get it started- Black-eyed peas (took #2 a couple times on the video, began my immense dislike for them because the song's just terrible in my opinion... their only good song is "I gotta feeling" and even that is starting to get old)
I remember some of the Kelly Clarkson songs they listed, but not so much the videos being on the countdown
The Reason- Hoobastank (GREAT video that made the top 5 a lot, great song, but the group has probably faded away)
Leave (get out)- Jojo (I remember this song being that summer's breakup song, but I can't even remember how it went. She probably isnt around anymore, but I know she was a hit on Radio Disney, something I had to resort to while retreating from mainstream garbage
Hey Ya- Outkast (remember the video, but HATE the song, still do... don't know if they're still around, probably are)
Nickelback, Finger Eleven, Nine Inch Nails and Seether made the list with different songs, but I can't remember any of them for the life of me... I had no idea that two of the four would still be huge today. Didnt even know that Nickelback was going to make it into my album collection

I was never one for rock bands, but Nickelback changed my mind. Even Linkin Park, which made the video list with "Breaking the Habit" has their moments... their songs, "Numb," "In the End" and their most recent hit "Across this new Divide" just have grown on me for one reason or another. I guess they bring out that teen angst in me that I still have from time to time.
Another few videos and songs that were huge and didnt make the list included "Ocean Avenue" by Yellowcard and "Reason to Live" by Switchfoot. I considered both of those groups but neither got anywhere. Ironically Yellowcard performed at my college a couple years later, which I boycotted because I heard The Click Five would perform and later found that they weren't. Their website was terrible for posting a show that wasn't confirmed and that was before Eric Dill left and the group became difficult to listen to.

There was one video that I had seen a couple times and loved it right away. The best thing I had seen in music in a very long time. I remember one day where the guy who hosted the countdown was talking about the video that made #1 one and I was jumping for joy when THIS was the video that made #1.
"She will be Loved" by Maroon 5

Perhaps the most ironic thing that I will mention here is the fact that I loved this song a lot, but it took me five years to get a Maroon 5 album. I may have been fighting it for one reason or another. There was a special on Fox where a couple of artists performed. Maroon 5 was one of them and there were a couple of blips on the screen stating fun facts of the different artists. According to this, Adam Levine, the lead singer/guitarist was so shy that in earlier performances, he performed with his back to the audience. Clearly, it was something that he got over because he's made several appearance since then with his head towards the audience.
Jokingly, I call them "Moron 5" because that was how my mind saw the word "maroon"... even funnier, I recently found out that Maroon is another word for "idiot," so in a way, I wasn't too far off. And they are the most talented, lovable morons I know.

Last Christmas, I asked for both "Songs about Jane" and "It won't be soon before long" so I could finally accept them into my collection. Perhaps the reason I resisted the group because they played "Songs about Jane" on a loop at the Jesse McCartney Six Flags concert (June 23, 2005), during which he was not only late to his own concert, but the opening act sounded much better than him. That concert that I came away disappointed with the artist I came to see, but even more irony, I got not only one but two new artists from that experience. I'm still with Jesse 100%, but Maroon 5 is slowly taking priority over him.

Before I go on a huge tangent on Maroon 5, the sound of later 2K is hugely instrumental, band-music from them as well as Nickelback, Daughtry, and 3 doors down (to name a few) as well as some techno songs courtesy of Lady Gaga and some strong female artists like Pink, Katy Perry, and Kelly Clarkson. Rob Thomas and John Mayer are arguably two of the biggest forces on the male artist front. I'm on the side of Rob Thomas and most likely will get an album of his very soon.

The two albums by my new favorite band have some similarities where the second continues musical trends set by the first. But the biggest difference lays in one being a straight-lined vibe and the second being very eclectic and various.

The theme of "Songs about Jane" is just as the title suggests. The complicated relationship between Adam Levine and his girlfriend. The group doesn't usually bring huge guitar solos, but they are very guitar-oriented in that their melodies are often played through guitar.
Adam Levine as the lead vocalist of the group is the biggest puzzle piece in the list of reasons why the group is unique and has merit in today's music scene. His voice is very unorthodox in that it isn't particularly brilliant, but does an amazing job in many different settings. I've said that even though Jesse doesn't have a standout voice, the things he does with it make him a good artist. A great singer has to be able to do a great number of things with their voice, meaning it has range and can carry so many emotions with it. Some could say that Adam Levine has a very nasal-sounding voice, but there's a certain charm to it that I can't quite explain.
Another strong thing about the group that sets them apart is the delivery of their lyrics. Often, they are rushed in almost a rapping fashion, but they have a rhythm that makes you work to sing along with them. Also when they're in that way, the lyrics are easy to say and remember.

Several songs from their first album have that characteristic. It doesn't work too well for "Harder to Breathe" because I still don't know the verses. But in the case of "Shiver," "Tangled," "Through with You," and "The Sweetest Goodbye," they work with simple lyrics easy to understand as they are if they were simply spoken. The guitar is funk oriented in "Shiver" and rock oriented in "Harder to Breathe," "Through with you" and "Not Coming Home."
The feel of the album overall is very contemporary and at times, it reminds me of an urban band that would perform at a club every night. What I think I'm trying to say is that the tone of their music here reminds me of John Mayer's work. I tend to find his stuff a little too monotone (a kinder way of saying boring, something I don't buy into), but it works well for Maroon 5.
Storylines make the songs very relatable and easy to love. That's what I like about "She will be loved' (aside from a beautiful vocal) and "Must get out." The vocals just skim across through air in these performances.
"Through with you" is another of my favorites on the album because there's something different about it. It doesn't quite fit the mold of the other songs, as if it was the last song written for the album and has some similarities to the songs heard on the next album. The only fault is its all-too short length.

Just did another Wikipedia search. Apparently Adam Levine honed his vocal style and falsetto with the help of the lead vocalist of the group Five for Fighting. Now that I think about it, there are a lot of similarities between their voices.

I've tried to write a complete review of "It wont' be soon before long" for a while but I quickly lose interest as soon as I begin. I guess that's something I can only do with Prince's albums. I'll try to do my best to write a condensed review to finish this entry. It's nice to be blogging again, but the rest of my life outside of work needs attention sometime today. My story White Tiger in particular.

The album is said to derive influences from 80's artists, Prince being one of them. Its easier to notice other influences in the earlier tracks, but with time, the essence of the group takes on many different forms, all of which fit the tone they've set for their work.

"Never see your face again" starts with a rhythm guitar solo and the synthesizers get the go ahead to lead the song's melody. The bridge includes a higher vocal range for Adam Levine with his group backing him by repeating the last word of each line much the way you hear the back-up singers in a 70's/80's group. Each chorus ends with a sweeping synthesizer that brings the vibe of disco with it. Overall the song is about a summer lover that the character portrayed wouldn't mind not seeing again because he got what he wanted from her despite the fact he didnt think they would get that far.
The first time I listened to the album, I got to track 13, surprisinly knowing the lyrics to it. Then I realized (maybe after reading the album notes) that it was the same song as the first, but it was a duet with Rihanna. She's become a big artist in the R&B genre, but not quite as big as Beyonce. Her songs have gotten better with time and the music in this version of the song has the signature vibe featured in her work. Whether I like this version or the original better is up to debate.

"Makes me Wonder" is a song I actually found online and burned to a CD that includes old and recent songs I'd tracked down, includes Coldplay's "Clocks" Enrique Igeliases' "Do You know? (The Ping Pong song), The Fray's "Cable Car" and Rob Thomas's "Ever the Same."
I've heard this song a couple of times and like "She will be Loved," I've heard it performed live. And both versions sound great.
Now that I've heard it so many times, I'm starting to get sick of it.
It continues the trend of the first song with the synthesizers, but here it sounds more like 80's rock than 70's. As the song goes from verse to chorus, Adam steps up his vocal range little by little until he gets to his higher falsetto. The question this song is trying to answer is why is the couple still together if they can't remember how they got there in the first place.

"Little of Your Time" has a guitar solo brings with it a "surfer" vibe. The lyrics have a speedy delivery, something that goes back to what they did on some tracks on their previous album. It also makes it one of the shorter tracks at a little over two minutes in length. And the lyrics overall are self-explanatory.

"Wake-up Call" starts with an 80's synthesizer solo, but it slows down to a relaxed beat with a dominant rhythm guitar that carries the band's signature sound. Something I can't quite put my finger on or explain. The story goes that the character's girlfriend doesn't see their relationship giving her anything she wants so the guy finds another guy in his bed and shoots him.

"Won't go home without you" is one of my favorites, just as "She will be loved" was. The rhythm of the guitar and the sound of it through the verses sounds very much like the verses in The Police's "Every Step you Take," but with time, the sound differentiates and develops its own sound. Although the final bridge has some similarity to the bridge in the song by The Police.
[Just found out on Wikipedia that the similarity isn't concidental, it was actually based on that song]
The song is a little sad in the melocholy vocal delivery, but its one of Adam Levine's best vocals.

The sallow vibe continues into "Nothing Lasts Forever," which reminds me of the relaxed vibe in The Cranberry's "Linger". The lyrics in the verses are delivered at a fast pace on a simple repeating scale. All of the lyrics are sung on the same scale with no drastic changes except the chorus being recited in a different fashion at the end of the song.

"Can't Stop" is overally simple in its message, but its music is a little too close in places to "A little of your time," making it hard for me to differentiate the two most of the time. It's not one of the strongest songs on the album.

"Goodnight Goodnight" immediately jumped into my favorite songs of the album based on the opening guitar solo, which begins in the same way as 3 Doors Down's "Kryptonite". (Oddly enough, I was never crazy about that song, but after hearing this particular song, I'm finding a little more that I can get out of it). The music is very subdued and in the background a lot of the time, making the vocals the main instrument of the song. The lyrics sung fast in the verses, but not to the point of a lot of the previous songs I'd mentioned. The lead-into and the chorus itself feature more beautiful vocals and are the biggest bright spot of the song. A gem from start to finish.

"Not Falling Apart" is another of the album's strongest tracks. It starts with very subdued vocals that may be by Adam Levine or another member of the band. The low range of them don't bare similarity to Adam Levine at all, but they could still be him and I'm just not used to him singing so low. The first verse and half of the second verse are sung in this fashion while the reason is in one range. The verses themselves are slow and sleep at times, but the chorus explodes with a very quick pace that is part of the reason I like the song as much as I do. The lyrics are simple and easy to hear/recall.

"Kiwi" is probably the only song that I don't like on this album. I can't even pinpoint why that is. Might be the lyrics that are very suggestive (but then again, there are some lyrics heard early on that hint even more at being explicit). The bridge has some of the same sounds as the guitar heard through "Little of your Time."

The next two songs are very relaxed, piano bar oriented. "Better that we break" is the simpler of the two in its delivery and construction. "Back at your door" is my favorite of the two on vocal deliver alone where Adam's voice does a couple of tracks when it sings the chorus.

After the duet between the group and Rihanna, we get to the bonus tracks, which I am very glad to own because its more brilliant music that I would have otherwise missed.

"Infatuation" at times reminds me of some of Prince's 90's songs with the R&B vibe.The short guitar solo sounds like one I'd heard in "Saviour" from his EMANCIPATION album. Its the weakest of the bonus tracks, but it has its moments that make it worth listening from time to time.

"Miss You Love You" has a verse with simply lyrics easy to understand, learn and remember. The story goes that the man in the relationship wants it to end and the girl doesn't want to give up on him, as sung in the lyrics "its a shame you can't stay away from me this time."

"Until you're over me" features what sound like Linn-drums or at least programmed drums that aren't the real ones that have been featured on the majority of the album's tracks. They drew me in earlier on and the chorus is very upbeat, reminding me of a day of summer sunshine. Needless to say, walking on sunshine with a lot of the bright moments that it has.

"Story (of a broken heart)" starts with a standout guitar solo and is delivered with Adam's voice on a very level plain. It doesn't change much from start to finish, except at the end of the bridge where it goes up an octave or two. It has the singer talking to a girl who'd recently had her heart broken, trying to comfort her and at the same time, trying to tell the ex-boyfriend that she did everything for him. Although there is reason to believe that the singer IS the ex-boyfriend.

"Losing my mind" starts with a couple notes on a piano and with the drums that go back to the John Mayer/contemporary/piano bar vibe from their previous album. It is nothing short of irony because the singer says that he has the freedom he deserved after losing his girlfriend but finds himself staking out in front of her house. He got alone as he wanted with his girl being someone he hardly knew, but confesses that he might be losing his mind by wanting her back. Everything in this song is the signature sound of the band, which makes it another favorite.

Now I think I'm good for a while as far as blogging goes. Hopefully that'll make up for my lengthy abscene.

New Moon predictions- disclaimer

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:59:53 GMT

The post that directly above this one will not appear until after I'd seen the newest Twilight film. It will include the scenes that I think will be included in the film, which will be deleted, so on and so forth.

My Policy on Music

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:14:50 GMT

I used to invest in what was popular on the radio. Run out and get a new CD because I'd only heard the singles. Those were the days of boybands and pop singers. The days when I could easily answer the question: what type of music do you listen to?
My answer used to be pop/rock. I doubt that genre exists anymore because there are very few pop songs in this decade. The only ones I can think of to call pop songs go to the credit of Lady Gaga, a dash of Katy Perry's "Hot & Cold" and a sprinkle of Miley Cyrus. I'd add Taylor Swift, but she's considered a country artist more than a pop singer.

With the dissolution of the last of my boybands, I'd had to find my way back to radio only find that hip-hop had almost completely taken over. One of my co-workers made many an attempt on Friday to try to turn me on to rap with some of the worst arguments I'd ever heard. Simply saying that a certain person or group of people like rap doesn't mean I'm getting on that boat. The thought of it makes me gag and just even the hint of Eminen makes me want to jump off a cliff (long story and I have someone on .org to thank for that). For the record I'd hated Eminen long before I came there and shudder the thought of sitting through 8 mile simply because having to sit through 20 minutes of it made me want to do... things I'd rather not discuss. That's before I got anywhere near him getting linked to Prince for all the wrong reasons.

I started getting music that I thought I could listen to with my folks, many an attempt had failed, especially with my dad. He's under the belief that the best music was from the 60's, 70's and 80's and only songwriters are to be taken seriously. Clearly none of the new artists I'd picked had ever had any impact. So I finally decided to stop trying to impress and go with what I enjoy.

These days, my collection increases under the following conditions (excluding movie soundtracks):

1) the artist is a singer/songwriter, plays an instrument, has a unique flair to their sound and/or their music hits home
2) if the artist doesn't play an instrument, they write their own songs
3) if the artist doesn't write their own songs, they have a GREAT voice
4) if the artist dosen't have an exceptional voice, their music resonates really well and/or "we have a history"

Condition 4 is technically the only way I can justify the American Idol alums in my collection and Clay Aiken actually fulfills the 3rd condition because his voice is exceptional. But after the most recent album, I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with him if any more get released. I doubt that'll be any time soon.

To save money, when a certain artist of the 80's catches my attention with some really good songs, I buy a greatest hits album. Prince is probably the only artist where the scheme can never pan out. There's just too much music and he's one to be taken very seriously. I had to be serious if I'd spent $100+ on his music (luckily, it never got beyond that, but most of the albums were gifts).

Michael Jackson is also an artist where I'd never be able to settle for a greatest hits album, but that was for different reasons. I already got Thriller on the fact it was his most famous and arguably the #1 album of all time. I got Bad because a couple of songs caught my attention (and some of the other gems kept it).
After buying 2 albums, getting a greatest hits (namely the album "#1 hits") is pointless. I already have the songs I want.

Come to think of it, though, I don't think I'd taken any of my greatest hits albums seriously. Not in the long run anyway. I'd only listened to Stevie Wonder once. Rick Astley got a handful of listens and when I pick it up, I only listen to maybe 6 songs total.

Just recently, I decided to pick up one of my greatest hits and took it for a spin in the car this past week. The decision to get it was definitely one of my more unusual ones. I heard one song either on the radio or on VH1Classic during their 80's block... i found myself actually getting hold of the song online and it was an extended or just the full album version of it.
Either way, it stuck with me (though not enough for me to remember the words when I heard it again for the first time in months).

I don't know much about Foreigner except that they'd been around a long time. And I'd heard several of their songs before. Aside from "Say You Will," I want to know what love is, Hot-blooded, and "I've been waiting..." stuck with me.

So I started listening to it last week. The first song did nothing for me so Ive been skipping it ever since.

One thing I will say is that the group sure knows how to start a song. They can either do it with a bang or make it subtly memorable so you'll want to stick with the song and see where it goes from there. "Prisoner of Love" starts with a bang and is one of the few songs that is guitar-heavy and has a solo halfway through. The group tends to lean more towards symphonic-esque keyboards, piano with a dash of bass when called for. The lead vocals are also a huge part of the entire package. Can be gritty and harsh at times, but very melodic the rest of the time.

The music gets better around the middle of the CD. It starts with "I've been waiting (for a girl like you)". It starts out softly but when that line of harmonizing keyboards is playing, there are almost no words for it. If ever there was an instance where music strikes you so deep that you reach this level of ectasy that makes you want to cry in ways you're not physically able to, that it makes you mourn for all things happy and sad about it, that would be Foreigner's moment of it. Maybe even more of the biggest defining moments of musical history. It strikes the coals a little differently than "Purple Rain" does, but its the same principle with different flavors.

"I want to know what love is" reminds me of a lot of things. I remember seeing the video when I was only 8 tagged on the end of that VHS tape of several 80's videos and it was one of the few points I didn't like in an otherwise brilliant collection of music video masterpieces. It was a little too mature for my tastes and it is one of the reasons why I can't stand the sound of a choir behind the main attraction. Just doesn't feel right because it turns the original vibe into something completely different. I still don't buy into the choir motif (unless we're talking about "Man in the Mirror," the only exception I found to that odd principle of mine)...
then I heard it mentioned on a VH1 music countdown. I forgot if it was for greatest 80's songs or love songs or whatever. I found it very ironic that Hal Sparks made fun of people listening to that song shortly after they broke up with their latest boyfriend/girlfriend... then when he did Celebrity Duets, he had to do that song and actually killed it. Who knew he could actually sing? (He got far too, although he didnt win. The guy who played Carlton on Fresh Prince (whose name I'm totally blanking out on) won... he could REALLY sing well).

I'll still get emotional when I sing along with it even though I'd never felt that way ever.

"Say You will" is definitely my favorite on the CD, no question, because it was the first. I can't quite say what it is about it, but the music is invigorating that it gets me excited. That rarely happens with Prince's music anymore, that level of excitement, but I'll figure out another way to reawaken that part of me soon. Maybe its just the Rave album. I'd listened to it a couple times over the past couple weeks. Just doesn't turn me onto him like a lot of the other music has.

The Rainbow Children is next in time if I'm not willing to give Rave another shot. The last listen to TRC was pretty encouraging with my newfound knowledge about it, including Prince's idea of shooting a documentary on his "fans" listening to it and commenting on it with Kevin Smith in the director's chair.
The strangest thing I can probably say about it is that it actually sounds/looks like a normal run-of-the-mill music album when compared to Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" album. It gives me the biggest surreal sensation any music has given me. It sure isnt your typical everyday music. That stuff is DEEP. The title track is probably one of the only "normal" sounding tracks because it has a sense of melody and its easy to follow. The rest, you have to think more about.

Coldplay has its bits and pieces of brilliance with that song and "Clocks"... I never took them to be a group that was way out there. And people think Prince is out there. I'll say it again, Coldplay makes Prince seem normal.
And with TRC being among his stranger works, that's really saying something.

Considering a change of pace

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:18:28 GMT

Just to keep things interesting for myself (not that reviewing Prince's albums and films isn't interesting to me anymore, but since my attention isn't quite on anything purple at the moment), I might consider reviewing albums from artists I've been listening to.

First I'd just like to say that this summer has given me new hope for mainstream radio. The first time since 2001 that I've found a promising selection of music on the radio that I can actually listen to. The rap & hip-hop's been limited to a Black-eyed Peas song (not this most recent single) and a couple others I can't think of at the moment. I spent a little while getting a list together of the many songs that really were good. One of which I made my ringtone (since I couldn't find any Prince songs no matter what I searched).

Her Diamonds- Rob Thomas
Show me what I'm looking for- Carolina Liar
Meant to be- Theory of a Deadman
Closer to Love- Mat Kearney
You found me & Never say never- The Fray
* surprisingly, they've released some good singles after "Cable Car". I wasn't too cool with "How to save a life," but those two are really good
Gotta be somebody & If today was your last day- Nickelback
No Surprise- Daughtry
(and apparently I've developed somewhat of a taste for rock bands via Daughtry, Nickelback & Theory of a Deadman, rock hard in places, but their melodies are beautiful at times)
The Man who can't be moved- The Script
Leave the light on & Come back to me- David Cook

A couple of these I'd never heard of before, but I'd been following Nickelback and Daughtry for a couple years.

I got to thinking about reviewing some of my other albums this week, especially after I decided to put Maroon 5's 2nd album in the car. I listened to it the first couple times, thinking that I really wasn't impressed and overly disappointed with it because it sounded like it was moving away from what I think as their signature sound (see songs like "This Love," "She will be loved" and "Must get out" on Songs about Jane).
But a couple rotations in the car has me loving the album. When I get the chance, I'll review it soon on here.

Taylor Swift might be among my next reviews. Very nice music from her, although I need to give her 2nd album a couple more listens to get to know other songs not on the radio (love those ones also).

A couple days ago, I listened to "Rave un2 the Joy Fantastic". The first listen was a little off for me, bringing back memories of "what a bizarre album" making me think that even Prince could fit the bill of weirdness in my book for anything.
But some songs still rang true. Man o' war, sun moon and stars, among others.
And I even remembered the reggae rap from sun moon and stars the 2nd time I listened to the album this week. Just had to hear it once to jog my memory and did it nearly flawlessly (got caught in the last couple measures) the 2nd time. Just something about that song.

Hopefully making a [blogging] comeback

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:07:46 GMT

I admit sometimes I can be really horrible about keeping this blog up. Between trying to get my fiction writing going again with my diving into my different artists (the many that I listened to before Prince came along and have done so after) and my job, it's been difficult. With the 2 hours of driving I have 5 days a week, you'd figure I would have loads to write about when I can put any CD I want into the car.

Only problem is that just hasn't been Prince lately for a number of reasons.
One because I listened to nothing but him and The Time the first month or two of my job.
Two because I still have Purple Rain in my car for whatever reason and want to listen to something else.
Three because I don't know what to listen to. I was on my trek of going through all the albums I own chronologically, but its difficult to find time for the ones I don't have on disc.

I probably should listen through Crystal Ball more than once, but timing issues make it difficult.
NewPower Soul would be next up, but I haven't been overly thrilled with it as this blog has shown in the past.

I figure all I needed was just to watch Purple Rain once more, write as much as I can on that and move on.
After watching it last night, it definitely felt like I wasn't long for that world because there was little connection. I found myself watching it and thinking it nothing more than a movie. Nothing like "these are based on real people" came to mind until after the fact.

My fiction writing's been pretty weak these days with lack of time and adequate inspiration (whenever I have it in the car, it always goes out the minute I get out, my vision not entirely clear). What I think I need is to write about Prince again to get those creative juices flowing for the main project I have in mind. At this rate, it probably won't come out until the unthinkable happens, which I won't even mention. On the bright side, though, it would be harder to block a book deal in that day and age.

Last night, I started writing up a little bit of an introduction to the Purple Rain chapter while trying to sum everything up. I have a longer portion hanging around somewhere on my flash drive. What I think I need is another of those so I can get my thoughts more organized, which is hard to do when you only have 400+ MB left (thanks to too many "donations" that I need to have backed up).

What I really don't want to do right now is take the music out of the movie's context because why not keep the two together if they're related.

What I'd like to do more than anything now is just to talk about all of the musical numbers in depth because each is as spectuluar as the next. I got to thinking about it last night and truth of the matter is that its hard to pick one over the other as far as which one I like the best.

There was also something strange going on while watching it that hadn't happened in ages.
I had little to no interest in Morris Day, which there'd been a lot of lately when I made "What time is it?" a regular in the car. There was all this fascination, getting into his gentleman playboy style and even watching two episodes from 2 series that he did shortly after the movie.
I don't think I'd quite repelled the thought of him since the first couple times I saw the movie, seeing him as nothing more than the rival who wanted to come away with everything in the end. The #1 headliner at the club, the one who got the girl and the one who'd ultimately come out as a big star (as did the last 3 acts that went out of the club).

It's not much more than a blip on the radar, but here's the little bit I wrote last night.

PURPLE RAIN

THE MOVIE, THE MUSIC, THE PHENOMENON

Conventional wisdom says if you ask anyone one thing they know about Prince, these two words will be somewhere in their response. While Prince had released five albums before this point, the magnitude of this event would be forever remembered and associated with him.

And for good reason. Not only did it mark Prince’s official entrance into the mainstream and make him a household name, but it marks perhaps his greatest peak of creativity of any point in his career. And for the record, the music isn’t too bad either.

Several stories surround the origin of this great undertaking. One source reveals that Prince had been approached by several parties with movie deals in mind while others suggest that he wanted to do a movie about the kind of life he was living and the music he was making. Dr. Fink said Prince approached him once during the 1999 tour, asking what he thought of them making a movie. The conversation was a mere blip on the radar, but the band seemed to take notice of a purple notebook he carried around for jotting down ideas for his next big project.

1999 was released as a double-LP, up to date, his biggest success and the accompanying tour with its two opening acts (Vanity 6 and The Time) was the hottest ticket in late ’82/early ‘83. Whatever Prince planned to do next had to be incredible to keep his current momentum going. On top of that, he was at the point where his band, soon to be named The Revolution, was on the same playing field, allowing him to use them more in the creation of his next album.

The soundtrack and the film slowly came together simultaneously. After Al Magnoli took his place in the director’s chair, he and Prince developed an amazing relationship, which included a great deal of trust, especially when it came to doing justice to the music. One of the first steps of putting the film together was going through a list of 100 songs Prince had written with this idea in mind. With time, several adjustments were made from some songs being replaced by others, editing songs to make room for others, to simply adding and taking them off the track list. Prince’s duet with Apollonia, “Take me with U,” was written for the scene leading up to the Lake Minnetonka scene and as a result, “Computer Blue” was cut down from 12 minutes to only four minutes.

One of the more famous stories surrounds the origin of “When Doves Cry.” Al Magnoli realized halfway through the filming that he needed a montage and asked Prince to write a song for it that would link the themes of the film together into one piece. The following morning, Prince had the song ready to go and Magnoli was thrilled. At some point during the night, Prince had written a bass line in the song and decided to take it out. Then when WB got wind of the song, they wanted him to add more instruments. Prince asked Magnoli to help him back the song because he liked it as is and the duo won the argument.

Perhaps most surprising is the fact “Purple Rain” wasn’t among the original 100 songs and came about a little later.

PURPLE RAIN

THE MOVIE, THE MUSIC, THE PHENOMENON

Perhaps most surprising is the fact “Purple Rain” wasn’t among the original 100 songs and came about a little later.

PURPLE RAIN

THE MOVIE, THE MUSIC, THE PHENOMENON

Perhaps most surprising is the fact “Purple Rain” wasn’t among the original 100 songs and came about a little later.

I started a file just for everything that would go in the Purple Rain chapter of The Word, but that's all I have in it so far. Of course there'll be a lot more, but I need to figure out how many articles will go in this chapter. There'll be one on the origin of the film and early production (which will overlap with this). There'll be one on all the music and musical numbers. And probably a paragraph on each of the 9 songs that made the final cut onto the album.

Another funny thing happened later on too. I'm watching this and thinking to myself, who knew all of the stuff that would follow this would actually happen? This was probably THE peak of his career because few remember anything else, but he went into so many directions after this project closed. He went to prove that he can do more than just write "perfect" pop songs and muse about partying and sex and all the other stuff he writes about.
Variety in theme and genre proves he can do it all.

Perhaps the following will be another blip to be added to the chapter:

For certain, this album was full of firsts and also marked Prince really coming into his own as an artist. The first couple of attempts were a means of establishing himself, seeing what works and doesn't. Sexually provocative lyrics with all kinds of funk thrown in. Dirty Mind was a grittier approach to getting his thoughts across and Controversy expanded on some heavy things.

Once Prince got out of the "being as loud and flashy as I could" stage, he came to realize that he wanted the focus to be more on the music than what he was (or rather wasn't) wearing on stage. So with the upcoming 1982 album, he devised a whole new look for himself and his band followed suit. Purple was THE prominent color, most notably found on the infamous trenchcoat he donned from 1982 to mid-1985. The hair, I know little about how it came to be as it was, but it was a little more than just the 80's look. It was one of his trademarks in that particular period. In fact, nearly his entire band wore their hair swept back on one side (as quoted from his song "Paisley Park"), which showed them coming together.

The band started to get more of a say in the music and it got to the point where Prince trusted them to play out their parts, as can be seen on the album credits where five of the nine songs are credited to Prince & The Revolution (in the performed by: byline).

1999 couldn't have set up the sound for the following album better. Prince used that time to experiment with a few new instruments, the most notable being the Linn-drum. Without mastering it, When Doves Cry wouldn't have its one of its most distinctive sounds. The Oberheim synth has been a "close friend" of his since the beginning, but his mastery got to the point where it could create the dreamy atmosphere felt through "The Beautiful Ones."

Perhaps the most significant difference in the Purple Rain album revolved around the electric guitar. Aside from a couple of solos in the first two albums, Prince hadn't gone far in incorporating his main instrument into his overall sound.
In a way, Purple Rain was his guitar's "coming out" party, its "debutant ball." Just maybe Prince had spent the past several years perfecting his guitar skills before showcasing them on an album in any length. Granted, he has used his guitar in his shows for years, but the things he did brought more means for critics to compare him to Jimi Hendrix rather than helping his reputation as a guitar player.

If there's anything Prince has taught me through music, its that the electric guitar can do just about everything. It can express every emotion humanely possible, and even goes as far to speak in tongues we barely know to in our spoken language. Purple Rain was the first use of guitar in this manner and certainly wouldn't be the last. Which means the album wasn't just the guitar's debutant ball, but also was a trailblazer for the albums to come.

"Let's go Crazy" starts off with guitar as its simpliest, just creating a melody and carrying it through the song.
"Computer Blue" and "Darling Nikki" give it a sense of aggression, something that even Prince can't do on his own with his intense screaming.
Then of course, "Purple Rain" takes his instrument to a level few of his other songs have reached. The kid gloves are off as the solo puts an exclamation point on the past three verses and makes you understand emotions that can't be brought across using words.

I'll probably think of more to add later, but that's the basic gist of it.

Outer & Inner conflicts in Purple Rain

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:06:18 GMT

You hear about it a lot in literature. A good story needs a conflict and a means of resolving that conflict. And there are different kinds of conflicts. With outer conflicts, the protagonist or main character(s) of the story deal with friction brought upon them by the antagonist or their enemy, which could be a person, people or something in the outside world (such as the weather).

With inner conflicts, its a little bit different. The thing holding a character back is themselves. Their own doubts and fears.
When I write, I focus more on that because I tend to deal more with that than outer conflicts. I'm not a violent person and I don't seek fights with anyone. I try to be on the good side of whoever I can, but when I'm not, I don't say anything to them. Just acknowledge them and move on rather than getting up in arms about it.

As one can imagine, there are several conflicts in Purple Rain. Some were based in truth and others weren't and were present just to add more substance to the storyline. That single conflict, while it doesn't affect Prince's character directly (as in he's the one personally dealing with the physical abuse that his father inflicts on his mother), is one of the many puzzle pieces to leads him to the scene in the basement at the end.
To the least of my knowledge, Prince's biological father never treated him that way. Things were difficult between them at times because Prince was breaking the rules of the house (bringing too many girls to the house and doing inapproriate things with them) and according to him, his father walked to the beat of a different drummer than him so they didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. But despite the falling out when Prince got thrown out of his father's house, the two got together a couple years later, after the success of Purple Rain had hit, and came to an understanding. Some of their musical collaborations have been pretty amazing, which shows the bond that they have.

Some of the conflict that occurred between the Kid's parents could have been based on Prince's relationship with his step-father, but we don't know that for sure. Dr. Fink says he might have heard a couple things about this, but I'm not going to buy too much into it unless I know for sure it was true. But even if it was, what's passed is passed.
Me personally, from what few fragements I saw of the movie years ago, I thought that there was a conflict between the Kid and his father because his father didn't want him to get involved with his music and there was some abuse involved. But we're talking years ago and my memory isn't as clear as I'd like it to be of that particular day.

While watching the movie this last time, I noticed something pretty interesting when it came to our two leading men. Listening to the music as closely as I do, I have a thing for Prince and Morris Day, depending on the occasion. There's this ongoing conflict between the two characters in the movie. The majority deals with the rooster of performers at First Avenue. There's only room for 3 acts and if Morris's girls' group makes the cut, one of the existing acts has to go. The Kid wants nothing more than to perform his music for a crowd, but I think a lot of it goes down to the music itself. Its what he believes in more than anything. And when I say his music, I mean HIS music.
There's a side conflict that's fueling the other one. Morris hears that there's something going on between him and Lisa & Wendy, which leads him to believe the group won't be together much longer. Now The Revolution is a hard-working band that gels really well with each other, but since Lisa & Wendy have been spending some time on their own rehearsing and such, they'd be coming up with their own beats. The Kid holds a pretty high standard for what he plays, so of course he only trusts his own music to make the impression he wants to. There was a little friction on this matter in real life, which boils down to the dawning of the Parade era. Wendy & Lisa were supposedly at the airport, ready to board when one of the members of the Revolution convinced them to stick around for one more album. It might have been Bobby Z, but don't quote me on that, I need to check my sources.
I read something recently, though, that the conflict between Prince, Lisa & Wendy never elevated to the point in the movie where they actually call him out and voice their opinions openly. But they always fit a tad alienated by his control-freak-ness, never getting the just respect that they deserved for their collaborations. There isn't going to be bigger proof of their input than what you find on the Parade album. Because Prince was so busy shooting for the accompanying movie, he gave his tapes with his instruments and his vocals to Wendy & Lisa to finish up, add their back-up vocals, etc. A lot of the songs wouldn't have been the same without them and in the case of Mountains, probably wouldn't exist if they had gotten on that plane.

Ever since their creation, there'd always been a little competition between The Revolution and The Time, but it was all in good fun. It boiled down to whoever could hit it harder on the stage that night. Pranks were array, so on and so forth. The story of there only being room for 3 acts at First Avenue was true, but I don't know how much of what happened in the movie was true to life.
The friction between Morris & The Kid balloons far beyond what it was in reality because the two were very good friends on and offstage, have been for years.
There's also the question of whether the two ever fought over a girl the way the two fought over Apollonia in the movie. Morris probably was going after her to get something from her. Tricky said it best in UTCM about Christopher Tracy: they use you until there's nothing left. It doesn't appear, though, as if Morris knows that The Kid is after Apollonia until the performance of The Beautiful Ones. All the while, he tries to plant doubts in her head so she'd lean more towards him.
Then again, he might be after her to complete his girls' group that would ultimately boot out The Revolution, his #1 competition at First Avenue.

As for the relationship between The Kid and Apollonia, a lot of conflict comes from what he wants and what she wants. She wants to sing, which leads her to be interested in Morris's group. But he doesn't want her involved. Either because its getting her too close to Morris or he doesn't want her to be his competition. Something similar happened between his parents where his father supposedly messed up his mother's career and he wants her to stay around the house rather than doing the things she wants to do. There's always the question of how Francis L. messed up his career and why he hadn't played piano in a long time.
Prince wanted to follow his father's footsteps his whole life because they had so much in common, both being musicians. That could be the reason why The Kid instinctively follows his father's footsteps in the film, by replicating the behaviors he'd seen.

The conflict with Wendy & Lisa is big in the flim, but seems to take a backseat to a lot of the other things going on with The Kid. While he hates the fact they're defying his order of things, he's still listening to their cassette throughout the movie, seeming to be intrigued by how good it sounds.
The downward spiral begins with the first confrontation in the basement where his father actually hits his mother. Then Apollonia gives the news that she'll be joining Morris's group, which he takes as a betrayal and retaliates by slapping her. In doing so, he puts their relationship on the rocks for the majority of the film.
If that weren't enough, he shows up at rehearsal where Wendy & Lisa don't show, and Billy gives him the news that if he doesn't shape up, he's going to lose his spot at the club to Morris's girls' group. Things cool down just a little after The Kid confronts his father in the basement. This scene is reminscent one that Prince experienced as a kid, when his father told him "never get married." It could have been around the time where he left, but I can't be sure. The interesting thing is that his father says that he's written many songs but doesn't have to write them down, which could also be true about Prince's father.

The next night at the club, the Revolution's music takes on a completely different tone based simply on all of these conflicts going on in The Kid's life. Given how close Prince is to the music, I believe that his setlists are often based on how he feels that night before going in. While he drills his bands with a number of different material, he chooses what they play because he's more likely to deliver a heartfelt response to them, which leads the audience to get the reaction he's looking for.
Playing "Computer Blue" at First Avenue probably isn't the best idea because it sounds almost unbalanced rather than enjoyable, danceable music that the crowd tends to like more. The performance has to be one of my favorites. I'd say my favorite, but I have a lot of consider in that particular area. It boils down mostly the choreography, which is so sharp because it fits the song to a T.
If that weren't bad enough, he follows that up with "Darling Nikki," which is more/less staging on an attack on Apollonia for betraying him. Basically, the song calls her a whore who rocked his world. Only those in the band know who the song truely was about, but Prince might even regret penning it because he calls his one of the coldest songs he's ever written. The content of the song is R, almost X-rated and what he does at the very end of the song indicates that he's pretty much lost his mind. That particular scene, I remember being so afraid of when it came time to see it for the first time, because I knew how notorious and nasty this song was supposed to be. If Prince was acting it out, who knows what he would have done. Now that'd been overexposed to it, its not quite as bad as I thought it would and I enjoy it a little too much for my own good at times.

The following night, nearly everything The Kid lives for starts to slip away from him. He feels the possibility of losing his spot at First Avenue is almost inevitable. He loses Apollonia. And his father commits suicide. All of this boils inside his head when he's left alone in the basement. The conflict between his parents finally starts to show its effect on him. He passes back and forth, fearing that he might commit his father's mistakes. With everything going on, he probably is considering hanging himself at this point because he keeps looking at the rope on the floor, but he refuses to follow his father to the grave the same way. He literally explodes and spills his emotions all over the basement floor as he destroys everything but his father's sheet music. At that point, he comes to his senses.

The next scene where The Kid plays Lisa & Wendy's song on the piano is somewhat reminsicent of what happened when Prince's father left the house as well as his piano behind. He never let Prince play the piano because he wasn't as good as him, but once he left, Prince took it up on himself to learn piano until he was as good as him.

Everything is ultimately decided the next night at First Avenue. The Time gets the audience in a great mood, which they often do, knowing how to play crowd-pleasing music and all.
As he does before any show, The Kid is meditating, but probably is considering everything that's gone wrong in his life up to this point.

When he gets on stage and performs Purple Rain, a wave of calm sweeps over the audience. They're mesmerized by the lyrics and subtly of the music. It speaks to them like nothing they'd heard before. Due to overexposure, I'd probably lost any possibility of completely going to pieces because of this song. When I saw the performance for the first time, seeing how emotional he was and more importantly, how beautiful that electric guitar solo was, I was overwhelmed. I'd never heard electric guitar sound like that before in my life. And over several albums, I came to realize that that instrument made more than just noise that I'd heard from the heavy metal bands of the 80's (which I'm not crazy about to say the least), electric guitar can be beautiful. Even sing words that no person would be able to pronounce or do justice to, not even Prince, who is great with lyrics, but even better with making his guitars sing.

Clearly, The Kid wins in the end. His father lives, he gets Apollonia back and his place at First Avenue is solidified. Billy thought at the beginning of the film that The Kid would be the next act to leave First Avenue and become a big star as the last 3 acts before him had. It may seem that The Kid did break out and became huge after that fantastic night.

So I guess UTCM is up next, while I'm sticking with watching the movies and such. What I should do, though, is get around to listening to Crystal Ball in its entirity so I at least can go onto the next couple of albums in my car because I have them all on disc.

Who's BAD?

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:21:36 GMT

The song "Bad" supposedly came about because Quincy Jones dreamed of a duet between Prince & Michael Jackson, two people always pitted against each other by music fans.
The story supposedly is that they wanted to do a duet, but couldn't agree on the lyrics or style of music. On the sound bit on the album, Quincy Jones insists Prince is the one that walked out, saying "you guys don't need me."

In the whole debate forever pitting these two against each other, I doubt that Michael will ever be seen as the "bad" one, the intimidating tough guy. He tries to sound tough, but just doesn't have that something extra to back it up.
Compare him to Prince, who not only screams a lot on his tracks, but the material he writes about is R and beyond in some cases. Plus I don't think Michael's ever cussed in any of his songs. Prince doesn't anymore, but he sure did quite a bit of that back in the day.

All that aside, though, after hearing some of the tracks (rather, seeing their videos), I knew that I had to get my hands on this particular album. And again, I'd been surprised over and over.

After getting through the catchy title track, "The way you make me feel" is a fun song with very nice back-up singers. It brings forth the feeling of what its like to be in love.

"Speed Demon" I'm still getting my head around simply because the lyrics are hard to decipher, yet the couple of times I hadn't looked at the album insert, I never bothered to check into it.

"Liberian Girl" is a story within itself. I never expected anything like it to come from Michael Jackson. Ever. He'd already gotten me touchy-feely over the song "We are not alone," but there's something mesmerizing about this song.
Prince had written several like this where there's this whole swaying Mideastern vibe. For now, I can only say that this is Michael's verison of "The One," but with simpler lyrics. So simple that they're easy to learn.
The delivery of the lyrics is probably the star in this song. A silky smooth voice and back-up vocals to bring every possible emotion to the table, especially in the last minute of the song. It's absolutely beautiful.

"Just good friends" is one of the weaker tracks because I can't fully get into it. I understand the premise, but the lyrics are a little hard to decipher at times.

"Another part of me" is kind of curious, especially now that I know it could have been replaced on the album by the song "Streetwalker," which is included in the special edition of the album. I'd like to see the lyrics to see just what he means by the title. It sounds like it'd be an interesting message and compared to the other songs, it doesn't quite fit in with the general scheme of things.

"Man in the Mirror," I'd hear many rave reviews about long before I heard the song itself. The Prince fans I'd talked to over the past couple years say its his best song because the message is so deep and makes you think. Based on the title, I'd pictured the song being about something else and I could probably think of something to put together.
Whenever a song has a choir behind the singer, I'm usually not cool with it. Don't know quite what it is, but it gets on my nerves. Part of it is because they'd done it on almost every American Idol finale where the final song the winner sings has a choir backing them up. I'd rather just hear the artist sing on their own without an elaborate arrangement.
But in this case, it just works. I can't quite explain how, but it seems fitting, especially when there might be religious connotations attached.

"I just can't stop loving you" is, in a word, beautiful. Between the lyrics, the duet between Michael and one of the songwriters of this particular track, and the melody that backs up the chorus. If that weren't enough, the special edition of the album also includes a Spanish version and I think I'm enjoying it more than the English version. Just so much more beautiful.

One of the biggest surprises on the album was also one of the very odd reasons I didn't like Michael Jackon years ago. I vaguely remembered seeing the video for "Dirty Diana" and really not liking it at all. The song was too dark and there was nothing really to catch my eye. On a VHS tape with lots of 80's videos mixed together, its hard to like a video that's devoid of the bright colors that I ID the decade by.
I even saw it recently when I watched the DVD-R I recorded the VHS on and didn't really think much of it.

Now, that I'm listening to the lyrics and getting a feel for all 360° of the track (made even better by listening to this in the car), it's almost like the kiss of death. Something very forbidden and dark, but in the best possible way. It's so bad (the content) that it's almost good, more than almost, its brilliant.
Several people have compared it to Prince's "Darling Nikki," saying they're both tracks written about nasty girls that try to take advantage of whomever they meet. The storyline for "Dirty Diana" is a lot more in-depth, but the emotional delivery of "Darling Nikki" makes it so much more powerful.
Most recently, when American Idol did a Michael Jackson night, Alexis Grace (one of my favorites to win, but she only made the top 11) performed this. So I can only hear this song coming from her voice at times, when it comes to my singing along with it.
Each lyric is a surprise after another, especially the last verse.... like, damn....

Part of the reason I knew I had to get the album was based solely on the song "Smooth Criminal." The only problem I have with it is the fact its not long enough. The video ran for at least 6 minutes, but this song only lasts for 4 at most. The beat is very catchy, but the increasing intensity of the delivery of the lyrics is just... no words can descrie them. Just amazing. But I don't think it'll ever do justice without the video with probably the most amazing dancing I'd seen as of yet from Michael Jackson.
There are many reasons why I find myself geared towards certain artists. I don't know why it had happened sooner, but it was probably a lot due to the media. I can't even think of Michael anymore by coupling him up with the things that had gone array, especially with the trials and such. I'm not even paying attention to that bs anymore whether it was true or not. The music is what matters now.
His dancing is what caught my eye and made me want to pick up a couple of albums. The moves from "Smooth Criminal" just were impossible... I can't put words together for them.
A simple sensation happened with Prince during the last 10 minutes of Purple Rain. I'd never seen anyone move like that before, but it got to the point where I'd forgotten how to breathe because I was too busy watching what he'd do next.

"Leave me Alone" is a great way to end the album before we get the bonus stuff. The video was pretty crazy all around with the different images and stuff. The lyrics say its about him telling a girl to leave him alone, but the video suggests that he's telling that to the media with all of the conspiracies they're breathing against him. Just singing along with those key words is fun because they're layered and layered and layered with different vocal ranges.

The bonus material was a couple of short "tracks' that were interviews with Quincy Jones and man, is he one cool cat. So many interesting things and takes he had on the different songs.

"Streetwalker," according to him, was up against "Another part of me" for a spot on the album. For Bad, Michael had written 33 tracks... pretty impressive feat. "Man in the Mirror" was an anthem that got thrown in there because they felt they needed an anthem sort of track.
It came down to a listen and a vote between those two songs. I can see why Michael preferred "Streetwalker" because it sounded like he had a lot more fun recording it.

Then after a beautiful Spanish verison of "I just can't stop loving you," "Fly Away" was an outtake from the album that ends the special edition. It starts out talking about Michael wanting to take the girl away with him so its just the two of them and turns into him asking her not to fly away. Very light-hearted song, but the beginning is so much more different than the rest of it. After listening to it a couple times, it reminds me of something I'd heard Stevie Wonder write.

I came into this album not at all thinking it was going to be a Thriller follow-up. I never thought it would be because a lot can happen in 5 years and clearly something did. Michael tried to come up with a tough guy image for a lot of the album and even though I didn't buy into it, I kind of prefer it to the Thriller album's vibe. A little more maturity here and maybe it helps that Michael took care of a lot of the songwriting himself. That's something I won't be able to deny again.

For the record, Michael Jackson can DANCE (I never really denied that fact, I just never took notice of how well, I believe the first time I saw the moonwalk, I was completely floored) and he definitely is very talented at songwriting.

Purple Rain might be worth another watch, but I'll see what kind of mood in later.

1999 & Purple Rain: more to come

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:50:00 GMT

I'd been bouncing back and forth between these albums over the past couple of weeks. Especially with Purple Rain, I'm trying to get a feel for it. The whole experience with the album, the movie and such so I can condense it into one solid piece of writing. I'd written so much about the whole era that it seems like I'm running out new things to say.

I may be better off just starting a Word document just so I can copy and paste everything I'd written into one place and at least try to condense it.
Of course after reading a lot of old entries I'd written, I realize that condensing old material might not be the best idea. My opinions have changed a great deal and somewhat, the writing sounds better because I know more in the time between entries.
I already started something about how Purple Rain came about, how Bob Cavallo, Al Magnoli and Prince got together and bounced different ideas off each other. So many questions still answered and I doubt I'll find the answers to all of them. One source says that Prince had been writing down ideas for the movie in his "purple notebook" and another said different companies have approached him with movie deals. The latter, I doubt because nobody but WB wanted to take on a first-time director with first-time actors.

Then I started putting together what I know about when the movie first went into shooting simply based on the special features of the 20th anniversery Purple Rain DVD.
Right now, I'm not really thinking of any of the songs as being separate from the movie. Meaning that they weren't written just for the movie and were inspired by other people and things (The Beautiful Ones definitely had a different purpose as did Darling Nikki and Computer Blue). Meanwhile, I know that Take me with U and When Doves Cry were written particulary for the movie while Purple Rain somehow fit the mold of what was expected as the movie's climax.

As I went back and forth between the albums today, I noticed something interesting. Prince's music had changed quite a bit between 1999 and Purple Rain. A two year break would do that for anyone, but a lot had changed. It could have been because Prince and The Revolution were getting really tight and pouring all of their resources into the music, particulary in the songs they played together on the album. Me, I think the key factor was "confidence"... somewhere between the two albums, Prince found a certain confidence that he didn't have before. Other than the sound of the Purple Rain album, there's a certain X-factor that transcended through the music.
I guess maybe I came up with this conclusion while listening to I would Die 4 U and Baby I'm a Star. Before those two, the likes of those songs were non-existent with Prince. Now suddenly, he's taking the reins and diving headfirst into the crowd. The music that came before this in the previous albums, I can see more as a quiet genius at work more than anything else. The songs are a pleasure to listen to and they're gleaming in brilliance, but whatever he achieved in Purple Rain wasn't noticeable before.

After being a couple of weeks with the albums, I'm ready to move on, but I don't know what to move on to. It certainly would have to be later on in his career. Under The Cherry Moon and the Parade album probably will be my next stop since its been a while since I seen the movie. Then there's that confidence in the music in songs like "Girls & Boys" that I'm dying to get a hold of.

Maybe what they say is true, that there is something to admire with a man with great confidence in his abilities.

Celebrating Purple Rain's 25th in Print

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:01:02 GMT

I figured that since I came across a whole lot of stuff on the movie by simply googling "Purple Rain 25," I'd include the links and the text of some of the more interesting gems I found out. To share and also to keep on record for myself.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/94061-inside-the-revolution/

First off: wow, it’s been 25 years since Purple Rain first came out. What are your initial reactions to this? Are you surprised the film’s legacy has lasted as long as it has?

FINK: Am I surprised by that? Yes and no. I mean, I think it’s a wonderful thing that people are still remembering it and [are] still influenced by it and still watching it. It’s still being played regularly on stations like VH1 and other cable [channels] on a fairly regular basis; ‘cos no matter what, every year it’s played several times. So it’s a wonderful thing: it’s become a classic from that period of time, much like other movies of the day—like The Wizard of Oz, they air that every year, no matter what ... Casablanca—ya know: classic movies. So yes, in that respect, I’m not surprised. I’m grateful that it was so successful and still is in people’s minds.

LEEDS: Initial reaction is purely personal: time flies! I suppose the film’s legacy standing is a bit unexpected given the normally brief shelf life of pop art. But the long term impact of Purple Rain may be abetted some by the fact that youngsters playing “real” music on traditional instruments is so less common than it was twenty five years ago. In my lifetime, the idea of a bunch of young hopeful musicians getting together and starting a band was almost cliché-ish. Today, it’s almost unheard of. Youngsters with musical ambitions today concentrate on computer skills and the entire process of writing and recording music has become completely masturbatory. I suppose, in the sense that he played all the parts on many of his recordings, Prince was a precursor to that which makes the impact of Purple Rain all the more ironic.

[To Leeds:] In the chronology of things, you were brought in at a very interesting time in Prince’s life: right at the tail-end of the 1999tour when relations between the touring band (and the Time and

Vanity 6)

weren’t exactly ideal. What events transpired that lead this spat of internally bickering musicians to become one of the most powerful, cohesive bands of the ‘80s?

LEEDS: I don’t think the so-called rivalries between Prince’s groups had any meaningful bearing on the Revolution’s accomplishments. The Revolution and the original Time were both outstanding bands comprised of unusually talented individuals. Prince, of course, egged on the rivalry. He sensed, correctly, that fostering a competitive environment would motivate both bands when on tour together and, at times, keep things interesting for himself as well. What’s important to remember is that The Time was, if anything, Prince’s own alter-ego, notwithstanding the talents within that group. The Time’s concept, songs, style and records were all Prince.

Any real bickering was more about the members of The Time wanting to stretch the boundaries and assume more creative control over their careers - something that was greatly exacerbated when Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis famously missed a gig, stranded in an airport after spending an off-day working on an outside project.

What were the early days like? How would you compare those experiences to your times “officially” with the Revolution?

FINK: It was a very creative time. I mean, there was a lot of influence and input from band members towards what he was doing. Even thought he was doing most of the recording and writing on the first two albums, there was still influence there and still a lot of ideas being thrown around that he could draw from. He was always open to anybody trying to contribute creatively to the process of writing. It wasn’t really until Dirty Mind that he brought in myself to perform on that record. I’m trying to remember: I think the first two albums he really did all himself; I don’t believe he had any other people involved from the band at that point. Then going forward from there, he kept bringing in group members, to do some session work or have some co-writes here and there.

When the whole “Revolution era” started up, it opened up a lot of possibilities for Prince’s sound. How did the writing process work with him? For example, how did you got about writing a song like “Computer Blue”?

FINK: Well “Computer Blue” really grew from a seed, so to speak, that took place during a jam session. We’d always warm up before rehearsals doing free-form improv rock/jazz music jams, and someone would start a chord progression (or Prince would or one of us would) or in this case on that day, I started playing that main bass groove which was the main bass part for “Computer Blue” which was later brought into that. So the band started grooving on it, next thing you know we’re all sort of joining in, doing some jam on that. Prince started coming up with some stuff [and] we recorded a rough version of it and he took it into the studio and just incorporated it all and made it fly that way. Lisa & Wendy came in and they did some of the stuff on it. Prince borrowed the bridge/portal section from his own father who had given him some music over the years to play around with. So that particular song was a real mixture of different people and influences. So that’s how that one came about. So I kind of germinated the beginning of it—the bassline, the main groove, Bobby Z. was there to play the drums, of course—and that’s how it evolved. Prince, ya know, he really was the main lyricist and melody maker for the songs and I’m pretty sure very rarely took or did not take any lyrical content from people. He was really the main guy on that.

After the film and soundtrack went on to garner huge profits and incredible acclaim, all reports that I’ve read indicated that Prince became more introverted and secluded during this time, almost as if he was deliberately shying away from the spotlight even after he designed Purple Rain to be the very thing to turn him into a superstar. In your view, how did the success of the project alter Prince’s personality? Additionally, how did it change the fabric of the Revolution?

LEEDS: I don’t think it changed Prince much ... maybe just exaggerated who he already was. His increased seclusion was more a result of the degree of his popularity/notoriety than any changes within himself. Thanks to avid fans and media attention, it simply became more complicated for him to appear in public. Trading his “freedom” for the spotlight was a “deal with the devil” that he willingly made way before Purple Rain.

As for his professional “personality”, Purple Rain doubtlessly increased his self-confidence. While he always had decided what was best for his career, NOW he KNEW what was best. All the skeptics who thought a black wanna-be rock star with but a couple mild hit albums under his belt could never succeed in the film world had to eat a lot of crow.

The Purple Rain phenomenon may have ultimately had more of an effect on the five core members of the Revolution than on Prince himself. There were indications that they felt the significance of their unit was more than that of simply Prince’s back-up band. Prince’s post-Purple Rain quest to enlarge his band to include additional musical elements and input put that theory quickly to rest. Without speaking for anyone, I suspect there were some members of the Revolution who would have preferred the band remain the same and intact with a somewhat inflated sense of self-importance.

I was watching the film the other night, and there were the scenes where the band was arguing over their input on the songs. I can only imagine how many portions of that were taken directly from real life experiences …

FINK: None of that was really true to life—and if it was, nobody voiced those sorts of thoughts to Prince [Laughs.] Even if they maybe thought them inside, no one ever in real life would say something like that because the reality is that this was his career, and we were just allowed to fortunately be along for the ride as his sidemen. In 1978 he was signed to Warner Bros. as a solo artist—he had no band, and much like a

Madonna or someone doing that sort of thing, they had to hire a backup band. Now with Madonna, her main collaborator was Patrick Leonard in the early days, her keyboardist, and he co-wrote a lot of material but the rest of the band members didn’t—they were just there to play. They were touring musicians in that sense. Fortunately for us, we were at first brought in as strictly sidemen—touring/live players—and then allowed to be brought in on the creative process as well, which was really nice of him to do that. He didn’t have to do that, really. He could’ve had his pick of just about any great sidemen that were around out in L.A. or New York. He could’ve hired people out of town but he choose to go with primarily Minneapolis people to begin with, and then later he brought in Wendy & Lisa who were based out of Los Angeles.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/94059-maybe-im-just-like-my-father-princes-anxiety-of-influence-and-purple-/

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/94060-the-minneapolis-sound/

Prince’s first two albums, For You and Prince, showed that he had a beyond-his-years skill at arranging, producing and performing mainstream urban R&B and funk. He established himself as a singular talent in the studio, giving rise to the ubiquitous label that would appear on many of his albums: “Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince”. He traded in horn sections for synthesizers and drummers for drum machines, taking advantage of the new technologies that were slowly usurping traditional funk instruments and allowed him to be a one-man studio band. He laced his flirtatious falsetto with suggestive double entendres and racy innuendos. And live he was an androgynous spectacle, vamping it up in bikini briefs, leg warmers and pumps. When he opened for Rick James in early-80, the 19-year-old often upstaged and out-freaked the Super Freak himself. Yet Prince’s music was still fairly conventional on his first two albums—lite, pleasant soul-pop that was more style than substance. The type of music that ingratiated him to black, R&B audiences, but had little crossover appeal. Prancing around stage in boots and little else, Prince was already pushing the boundaries of sexuality, but he wanted to break down racial barriers in music, too. He was half-black and half-white and he wanted his music to reflect that mix. He wanted to appeal to the Ohio Player and Parliament fans as much as the Rolling Stone and Blondie fans. He wanted to bring about a utopian musical paradise that looked past race, age and gender. His next album would be his creation story.

When Prince released Dirty Mind in the fall of 1980, no one was prepared for, as Rolling Stone put it, “one of the most radical 180-degree turns in pop history.” Gone was the simply enjoyable, slightly suggestive commercial R&B of Prince’s previous albums; in its place was a visionary, wildly ambitious amalgam of funk, punk, new wave, R&B, pop and experimental rock, laced with sexually explicit lyrics and over-the-top shock. The change was like stepping out of a Rated R movie on to a hard-core porno set as Prince gleefully sings about oral sex, threesomes, and even incest. On the album’s cover he stands defiant and seductive, wearing nothing but a bandanna, black bikini bottoms and a bedazzled jacket, letting it all hang out and looking like some new-wave, punk-funk Chippendale. And the music finally matched the image, too. From the title track’s robotic funk to the synth pop of “When You Were Mine” to the hyper-drive punk of “Sister” to the straight-up dance party jams, “Uptown” and “Partyup”, Prince experiments with everything on Dirty Mind and fuses black and white musical styles with little regard for established genres. This breathtaking, newfangled fusion of electro-pop, hard rock and funk not only won over rock and new wave audiences, but it also held on to his R&B audience. More importantly though, Prince’s audacious third album set the style and tone for much of the innovative urban music the Twin Cities would soon be known for.

Besides working Warner Brothers for a self-production deal, Prince also insisted on a clause in his major-label contract that would enable him to recruit and produce other artists for the label. In 1981 he cherry-picked musicians and friends from other Minneapolis bands to puppeteer the Time. The dapper new-wave funk band would be Prince’s pet project and an outlet for his extra material and expansive backlog of potential hit songs. He enlisted local players like Jimmy Jam on keyboards, Terry Lewis on bass,

Jesse Johnson

on guitar, and his childhood friend Morris Day to sing. Day was a freckle-faced, ego-tripped loudmouth with a penchant for lewd humor and loose women, and Prince let him sing only because he used Day’s song “Partyup” on Dirty Mind—and because Alexander O’Neal, another singer from the city’s Uptown funk scene, was “too black.”

Prince wrote most of the music for the Time, which sounded like Parliament filtered through new wave keyboards and funk-rock riffs, and he performed all instruments and backing vocals on the group’s studio albums — leaving lead vocals to Morris Day and the occasional guitar line to Jesse Johnson. Hits like “Jungle Love”, “777-9311”, “Gigolos Get Lonely Too”, and “The Walk” were all over the R&B charts in the early ‘80s and the Time even inspired a new dance: “The Bird”. Their music was much more accessible than the sexually explicit studio experiments Prince was putting out, and bands like Flint, Michigan’s Ready for the World and Augusta, Georgia’s Le Klass started to pick up on this electronic funk-rock sound. According to Pete Rhodes, owner of BlackMusicAmerica.com, the early ‘80s in Minneapolis was the new era for urban disco and funk. He says, “Even Babyface, who was in a group called the Deele out of Cincinnati, sounded just like the Time. Everybody wanted to sound like the Time.” But the Time were even more well known for their ridiculous live shows. They opened for Prince during his Controversy Tour and often upstaged him with their humorous stage antics and mock-blueblood choreography—later immortalized in Prince’s Purple Rain film.

The same year Prince assembled a Minneapolis all-female vocal trio called Vanity 6 (the name referring to front woman Vanity a.k.a. Denise Matthews and the number referring to the group’s breast count). Incorporating even more new wave and dance-pop into his funk formula, Prince provided the provocative songs while Vanity 6 provided the voices and sex appeal. The three women—two black, one white—performed in lingerie and dripped sex on stage, seductively singing while the Time played the music behind a curtain. This Prince-sanctioned set-up caused some serious friction between the musicians. After releasing one album and achieving a couple hit singles (all written, performed, and produced by Prince), Vanity left the group for a lucrative solo deal and Apollonia Kotero replaced her in the rechristened Apollonia 6. More importantly, she took over Vanity’s lead role in Purple Rain opposite Prince, which propelled her to overnight (albeit temporary) stardom.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/94057-the-importance-of-being-morris-fop-vs.-fop-and-duality-in-purple-rain/

The film’s main protagonist played by Prince, known simply as “The Kid”, isn’t your traditional hero. There are aspects about his persona that are simultaneously endearing and hard to take. On one hand, he’s charismatic, talented, and charming. On the other, he’s selfish, insecure, and overly-controlling. As the song, “When Doves Cry” elaborates, The Kid may be—like his father—“too demanding” and “too bold”. Much of The Kid’s positive and negative traits mirror those of his father, a former Minneapolis scene musician known as Francis L. (Clarence Williams III) who had squandered his talent through his own arrogance. In turn, Francis takes his frustration out on his long-suffering wife, The Kid’s mother (also a former singer/musician who came under her husband’s influence), a frequent victim of her husband’s domestic abuse.

On a personal level, The Kid battles with himself, trying to stave off the influence of his home life. He continually comes to his mother’s defense when his father argues with and beats her, often throwing himself into harm’s way. Yet, at the same time, The Kid thinks nothing of cracking his girlfriend, Apollonia, five across the eyes whenever she defies The Kid’s wishes and attempts to further her own musical career.

On a professional level, The Kid is constantly at odds with himself in attempting to achieve greater fame. Already famous on the club scene he dominates, The Kid is one of the big fish in the pond and may want to take it his band, The Revolution, to a bigger, national stage. Again, he may be his own worst enemy. His arrogance and dictatorial nature alienate him from his well-intentioned bandmates from whom he demands sycophantic devotion without valuing their individual contributions. As a result, The Kid ends up breeding resentment, hurt, and invalidated feelings among his friends in The Revolution.

The concept of “man vs. himself” is an intriguing one, but for dramatic and film purposes—particularly a stylistically shot, rapid jump-cut laden film like Purple Rain—inner turmoil and self-destruction alone just don’t cut it.

In order to have a true morality play, you need a villain to serve as the hero’s foil. The Kid is something of a petulant brat (although much deeper issues are at work for this defense mechanism) with an overabundance of self-confidence. In order to make The Kid a more palatable hero, Purple Rain needs a villain, a physical opposing force to bring forth the hero’s good qualities.

That’s where Morris Day comes in.

The character of Morris offers a sharp contrast to The Kid, yet mirrors many of the same traits. Both are charismatic and talented, yet incredibly vain and arrogant. They battle for the same girl and battle for domination of the same club on the same Minneapolis scene. They’re cut from the same cloth with the same passions, but view the world in different ways.

The two characters share a similar trait of narcissism. They’re both a pair of preening pricks, yet extremely likeable in spite of themselves. The Kid may know that he could have any woman in the club that he wants by either slyly smiling at them or playing it icily cool, but Morris makes a blatant display of his vanity—going so far as to incorporate it into The Time’s stage show. His friend/attendant/minion, Jerome, funkily prances onto the stage during their set to offer Morris his gilded mirror, prompting him to bust out a comb and style his pompadour for the crowd.

Offstage, Morris blatantly propositions numerous women before openly insulting them with hilarious put-downs. In a scene played for humorous effect and as an insight into Morris’ character, he thinks nothing of sicking Jerome on one of his cast-offs who appears seemingly out of nowhere to berate him. Morris responds in kind by having Jerome dispose of the loud-mouthed lady in the nearest dumpster, deadpanning his disapproval with the inimitable line: “Lord! Such nastiness.”

In the opening moments of the film, The Kid is shown in full regalia, studiously applying his eye makeup without so much as a smile. By contrast, Morris is shown wearing a rather plebian tank top, head rag, and boxers while vacuuming his pad. Even while going about humdrum chores, Morris is giddily eyeing up his neatly-pressed club suit hanging on the door, posing with it on the hanger in front of him in the mirror and cackling to himself at what prospects may come as he’s wearing it that night. His appearance is nearly cartoonish and you can almost see him twirling an invisible Snidely Whiplash mustache marking him as Purple Rain‘s villain.

Morris Day ‘s comedic timing (particularly in his scenes with the equally good Jerome Benton) is genius. Together, the duo provide much of the film’s humor, and making Purple Rain entertaining on numerous levels.

Pegged as a natural by the acting coach brought in to coax better performances from the cast of acting amateurs, Day adds a jolt of comic relief to an otherwise dry film rampant with wooden acting. Morris is total camp and plays it to the hilt! He exudes a take-no-prisoners joie de vivre and imbues even the most mundane line with character. ("You should see my home. It’s ... so exciting!") While there’s something comical about Morris doing his housework in his skivvies (which begs the question, where was Jerome and why wasn’t he vacuuming!?), in spite of his clownish exterior, Morris is not inept, nor is he one-dimensional.

Although they share the same passion for music and performing, the contrast between the protagonist and antagonist’s bands speaks volumes about their respective frontmen. The Time’s music in Purple Rain is all about dancing, partying, and the superficial. Dissimilarly, The Revolution’s music is much more introspective and personal. (This personal, possibly self-cathartic aspect of The Kid’s music may corroborate his hesitancy to relinquish songwriting duties to his bandmates, Wendy and Lisa, who continually offer him their material.)

But wait a minute ... can we get back to the clothes (because you know Morris would certainly want to!)?

Fashion was a big part of Purple Rain’s influence, but it also sharply defined the characters in the film. Let’s face it. Both The Kid and Morris are 80s neo-fops. They both possess feminine attributes in spite of their undeniable virility. The Kid sports a mixture of modern, Edwardian,

Louis XIV

style, defining his character as both regal, yet fragile. On the flipside, Morris rocks the flashy, 30s gangster-style suits and matching Stacy Adams shoes. When we’re introduced to them in the film, Morris wears a gold lamé and zebra print suit, draped in a long, white coat cashmere coat (which we later find out costs $400). The Kid is shown wearing his white, ruffled shirt and purple satin Edwardian jacket. Intentional or not, there may be some sartorial symbolism at play pitting Morris’ golden, worldly royalty against The Kid’s spiritually regal purple. If the clothes make the man, the message they send is one of The Kid’s music coming from a pure place—doing it for the music as opposed to the money. As evidenced by his frequent primping in front of the mirror and ostentatious displays on-stage and off, Morris has much more in mind than just his art.

Sure, he loves to have a good time and spends the duration of Purple Rain in the pursuit of women and cash, but whereas The Kid is merely selfish, Morris is calculating.

Business remains business and is separate from Morris’ performance onstage. Conversely, The Kid uses his pulpit to hurl thinly veiled insults in the form of songs directed at those in his life. He is passive-aggressive, where Morris, by contrast, leaves his personal business out of his music, preferring face-to-face confrontations off-stage.

Along with his trusted friend/attendant, Jerome, he plots to knock The Kid from the top of the club scene. Morris E. Day does not like to share the limelight. He talks in the ear of club owner, Billie, planting the seed that The Kid isn’t pulling in crowds like he used to. Rather than appeal to any emotional level, Morris operates purely from a business standpoint to make his case. By that token, he isn’t really malicious in his intent – just Machiavellian. In fact, there’s a sort of joyful glee about Morris when he’s outlining his unscrupulous plans and giggling to himself and with Jerome. He’s unabashedly materialistic and derives pleasure from business, as well as his artistic pursuits.

He also makes pleasure his business when he attempts to wrest The Kid’s girlfriend, Apollonia from him. It’s not so much that he desperately wants Apollonia: she’s just another conquest and another potential notch on the bedpost. He uses her ambition and goals to further his own agenda. She’s a pawn with possible “benefits” in Morris’ attempt to demoralize The Kid and get him out of the picture. By corrupting his already tumultuous relationship with the one person he can truly claim as his, Morris disrupts The Kid’s precarious sense of balance.

In order to chip away at The Kid’s relationship, Morris plays the charming devil by dangling a star spot in the all-girl group he’s formed in front of Apollonia. Notably, at one point during the film, she tells him “Your horns are showing, Morris.” This further touts his status as the designated villain in this musical morality play. With his mirror and manservant in tow,

Morris Day (the character, not the actor playing the role of the same name) embodies the venial sins of greed, lust, and vanity.

Ah! Vanity! More than just the Prince-given name of his one-time muse, Denise Matthews; it’s a key component of Purple Rain, as are some of the other seven deadly sins. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to believe that even during his Purple period, Prince had a strong sense of polarizing forces of light and darkness as evidenced by his later work and spiritual epiphany.

This sentiment and Prince’s conversion was further underscored in Purple Rain‘s unofficial sequel, 1990’s Graffiti Bridge. Following an epiphany in 1988 surrounding his Black Album which was yanked after a limited run of 500,000 copies by Prince himself who believed the album to be “evil”, Prince’s music took on a much different direction. While still somewhat sexual in nature, he much more favored hymns of praise than odes to girls “in a hotel lobby / masturbating with a magazine”.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/94055-baby-hes-a-star-princes-life-in-film/

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/94056-the-beautiful-one-prince-and-the-fashion-of-purple-rain/

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/93997-a-track-by-track-rundown-of-purple-rain/

“The Beautiful Ones” follows the traditional pattern of a man trying to win over a woman by singing directly to her. He’s wooing her, trying to win her away from another man. In the film, it’s Prince wooing Apollonia away from Morris Day. In life it’s said to have been Prince’s attempt to woo Susannah Melvoin, the sister of his Revolution band member, Wendy Melvoin. In the song, the person of his affectations seems more distant, less specific. That vagueness only grows as the song progresses, because with each second his chances seem to be dwindling, as his come-on – or really, ultimatum – grows more crazed. He begs, pleads, and ultimately freaks out so thoroughly that any impression of his confidence has shattered. In the film, Apollonia is brought to tears of shock but also apparent understanding. In the song it’s hard to see him as succeeding. This isn’t the man who will sweep you off your feet and fly you to the moon, or even the carefree but lovesick Prince of the previous song, “Take Me With U”. This is the man howling into the wall or crying uncontrollably into his own chest. Earlier he sweetly begged, “don’t make me lose my mind,” and, now, he has.

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/entertainment/movies/11290

To celebrate its 25th anniversary milestone, here are 25 little-known facts about “Purple Rain” and its making.

[I find a lot of this interesting, but know a bunch of them already. That's what I get from watching the commentary far too many times tonight, I'll check into it again]
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1. An early, simpler, version of the unpronounceable symbol that Prince changed his name to during his dispute with Warner Bros. Records is painted on the side of the gas tank on Prince's motorcycle.

2. The film almost got an X rating because of the lone sex scene with Prince and Apollonia. However, after several seconds were cut from it, the film got its R rating. Rumor has it that the more explicit footage still exists.

3. Director Albert Magnoli filmed a second love scene that was not included in the final cut of the film. This scene has special meaning because it contains the actual illusion of purple rain. A snippet of this scene is included in the theatrical trailer for the film, as well as the “When Doves Cry” montage. The scene, as well as the other deleted footage that led up to it, is also outlined in the film's screenplay found on various Web sites.

4. The film's original screenplay contained an extremely sexually explicit scene between Vanity and The Kid during the "ride of rage" sequence. It's unknown if the scene was actually filmed when Apollonia replaced Vanity as the film's leading lady. This adds to the mystery surrounding a long rumored early edit of "Purple Rain" that was given an X rating by the MPAA.

5. Most of the songs in the movie were recorded live.

6. James Foley was offered the job of director by Prince's management after seeing a rough cut of "Reckless." He said he was too busy and declined, but recommended his editor, Albert Magnoli.

7. TV writer and producer William Blinn, who was the executive producer of the “Fame” TV series at the time, wrote the first draft of the script and called it "Dreams." Prince didn't like the story, and wanted the word "purple" in the title.

8. Although Albert Magnoli and William Blinn shared the writing credits, it is not known how much of Blinn's material was used. Magnoli estimates that only two or three of Blinn's scenes are in the final cut of the film.

9. The success of this project benefited just about every division of Warner Bros. The box office grosses helped the film division; the soundtrack sales helped the record division; the home video release helped that division; the promotional videos aired on MTV constantly helped the music video division ... and so on.

11. Prince's protégée and then-girlfriend Vanity was originally slated to be cast as The Kid's love interest. However she left the film - and Prince - prior to shooting. Therefore, the girl group Vanity 6 became Apollonia 6, and actress Patricia Kotero was cast as Apollonia.

12. Scenes of The Revolution bandmates Wendy and Lisa kissing were deleted from the final version of the movie.

13. Wendy and Lisa were dating throughout their time in The Revolution, something that was hinted at but never fully revealed to the public (although their positioning on the poster that was included in the original “Purple Rain” album certainly suggests so.) The two are now with other partners, but dated for 20 years.

14. Probably due to pacing reasons, when The Revolution is performing “Darling Nikki,” the third verse is omitted from the final film. It can still be heard on the movie's soundtrack album.

15. According to the director's commentary, three versions of the love scene were filmed with three different ratings: A G-rated version, PG-rated version and R-rated version, which is what was used in the film.

16. Originally, The Kid's father was to die of his self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. At the last minute, the director and the producers decided to let the father live.

17. Two takes of "The matter with this house ... " sequence were filmed. According to the director's commentary, the film lab lost the camera negative for the scenes and had to use footage from a work print to include in the film. This explains the loss of picture quality during the scene.

18. “Purple Rain” was shopped around to numerous production companies, including Indigo Films, which was owned by Jim Brown and Richard Pryor. Brown expressed his disappointment about not acquiring the project in the Spike Lee 2002 documentary “Jim Brown: All American.”

19. When Vanity left the project, her role was first offered to “Flashdance” actress Jennifer Beals, who turned it down to go to college.

20. In “Purple Rain,” Appolonia runs out on a $37.75 cab fare from the Greyhound station to the First Avenue nightclub, where the concert numbers were filmed. In reality, the station and the club are right across the street from each other.

21. Prince won an Oscar for Best Original Song Score for “Purple Rain” in 1984. (The category has since been eliminated.) The soundtrack sold 14 million copies in the U.S., but Prince has been quoted as saying no one will ever be able to truly determine how many copies of the album have actually been sold.

22. According to Wendy Melvoin, the title track for the movie was truly a collaborative effort. Prince came in with the melody and the words and an “idea” of what the verses would be like. She played the opening chords, and everyone in The Revolution chipped in from there.

23. The “Purple Rain” soundtrack spent 24 weeks at #1 on the Billboard charts.

24. Patty “Apollonia” Kotero told Spin magazine that she never dated Prince and was, in fact, during the filming of “Purple Rain,” with rock star David Lee Roth.

25. According to Dr. Fink, Prince’s keyboardist in The Revolution, just about every member of The Revolution, including him, has approached Prince at one time or another to work with him again - and he’s turned them all down.