'Purple Rain', the song, album and film which catapulted Prince to new musical heights, is the subject of a new book which talks in detail about the how the late singer's masterpiece raised the stakes for pop music.
In "Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain", music journalist Alan Light takes a look at the making and incredible popularising of this once seemingly impossible project.
With tidbits and interviews with people who witnessed and participated in Prince's audacious vision becoming a reality, Light reveals how a rising but not yet established artist from the Midwest was able not only to get 'Purple Rain' made, but deliver on his promise to conquer the world.
'Purple Rain' is a song, an album, and a film - widely considered to be among the most important albums in music history and often named the best soundtrack of all time. It sold over a million copies in its first week of release in 1984 and blasted to number 1 on the charts, where it would remain for a full six months and eventually sell over 20 million copies worldwide.
It spun off three huge hit singles, won Grammys and an Oscar, and took Prince from pop star to legend - the first artist ever simultaneously to have the number 1 album, single, and movie in the country.
"The stage is dark. A chord rings out. It's an unusual chord - a B flat suspended 2 with a D in the bass. A year from this night, the sound of that chord will be enough to drive audiences into hysteria. But right now, in this club, the crowd of 1,500 or so people listen quietly, because it's the first time they are hearing the song that the chord introduces.
"A spotlight comes up, revealing a young woman playing a purple guitar. She is dressed simply, in a white V-neck tank top, patterned miniskirt, and white, metal-studded, purple-trimmed high-top sneakers. Her asymmetrical haircut is very much on trend for 1983, the year this show is taking place.
"Wendy Melvoin, the girl holding the guitar, is just 19 years old, and this is not only the first time she is performing this song in public, it is also her first appearance as the new guitarist in Prince's band, the Revolution. So far tonight, they have played nine songs; this one is kicking off the encore," the book, published by Simon & Schuster, begins.
Wendy plays through a chord progression once, and the rest of the five-piece band falls in behind her. They go through the cycle again, and then again. The fifth time around, one can hear a second guitar coming from somewhere offstage.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
