[Previous entry: "Beau's exposé of the "commuting mafia"."]
[Main Index]
[Next entry: "Better late than never??"]
08/03/2001
"Let's go Crazy..."
I love WXPN. Today, during the World Cafe, the topic was Prince's Purple Rain (1994) and how the movie and album impacted the music culture of the day.
Predictably, all the participants lauded Prince as a "pioneer" and as "visionary". Between the sound bites came the music....
Oh, did it take me back.. back to the fall of '84, my sophomore year of college. I had survived pledgeship the previous spring and entered into my first semester as a full brother. I was living in a cool coed dorm, classes were going well... in retrospect, '84-'85 was probably my best year at college.
Purple Rain was the soundtrack for almost that entire year. Every song I heard today triggered different memories of that year... like how we all had that "preamble" to "Lets go Crazy" memorized (I was still able to say it word for word today in the car). I remembered how scandalous the lyrics of Darling Nikki were considered at the time (I met her in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine). Hmph! Compared to what we hear now, this seems so mild, doesn't it? Yet this song was the impetus for Tipper Gore's mid-80's crusade for warning labels on music. Go figure.
Replies: 1 Comment
Oh, you'd so love Purple Pain. We had this album when I worked at Tower Records in college, and when the punk cover of "Let's Go Crazy" came on, we'd thrash around the rock/R&B section with the chorus: "LET'S GO CRAZY! *guitar riff* LET'S GET NUTS! *guitar riff*"
Anyway, it's hard to find now, but if you find it, it's worth it. (And if you find two copies, buy them both and send me one, I'll reimburse ya!)
Posted by Jason @ 08/06/2001 12:11 PM EST
