2023-07-31 09:00:01
Prince in concert at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago (Illinois), on December 10, 1984, during the “Purple Rain” tour. RICHARD E. AARON/REDFERNS/GETTY
It was his “signature song”, as is said of the dishes of great chefs. In the minutes, the hours, the days that followed the announcement of the death of Prince, on April 21, 2016, at the age of 57, of all his compositions – more than forty albums during his lifetime , from 1978 to 2015, dozens of titles released only as singles – this is Purple Rain which was broadcast repeatedly by radio stations, television channels, quoted in news bulletins. A shortcut, certainly, but which spoke to the general public, easily situating the title track of the album published on June 25, 1984, and its music video designed from sequences of the film of the same name, directed by Albert Magnoli, released at the end of July 1984.
Read the obituary (in 2016): Article reserved for our subscribers Prince’s farewell kiss
to the epic Purple Rain, the “purple rain”, a pop-rock ballad lasting almost nine minutes – most of which had been recorded during a concert, on August 3, 1983, at the First Avenue club in Minneapolis (Minnesota), with a solo part of guitar that has become as famous as its melody – it has been given a partly apocalyptic meaning, associated with the description of relationships between characters. Prince rarely explained the meaning of his texts. A quote, undated but dating back to the period of worldwide recognition brought to Prince by the song, the album and the film, has however been regularly repeated: “The purple rain is about the end of the world and being with who you love and letting your faith/god guide you through the purple rain. »
Played over a thousand times
In the thinly scripted film, Prince, who is The Kid, struggles between conflicting family relationships, a love affair, his group’s rivalry with another, and triumphs over it all as he plays Purple Rain at the end. The text of the song is like a summary. pass the loved one (“I only wanted to see you/Laughing in the purple rain”), the treason (“It’s such a shame that our friendship had to end”), the suggestion that the purple flow can lead to renewal (“And let me guide you to the purple rain”).
For the 1984-1985 tour, Purple Rain came to a conclusion, its length extended at times to almost twenty minutes. Prince performed it, not always at the end, on most subsequent tours. It would have been played more than a thousand times, until its ultimate interpretation, during the second of the two shows, on April 14, 2016, at the Fox Theater in Atlanta (Georgia) during the tour of Prince alone on piano and vocals.
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