The Grammys 1984. Michael Jackson takes home a record eight Grammys for Thriller. He is the all conquering “King of Pop”, at the very summit music history. Seated in the audience, Prince looks on. Expressionless, while the world goes nuts about Michael. That night, after the ceremony and all the parties are done, Prince turns to his drummer Bobby Z, and, in the deep baritone of his, he says something that will define the next decade of music. “Next year,” he says, “that’s gonna be us.” Not “we’ll try to get up there.” Not “let’s work hard and we’ll see.” Simply, “That’s gonna be us”.

That’s Prince in a nutshell. Arrogant – maybe. But arrogance borne of absolute certainty about his talent, his vision and his ability to execute. And then, he didn’t just go off to his studio at Paisley Park and make an album to compete with Thriller. Nooooo! He made a Movie. He made a movie that would have music and drama, with him as the lead. He made a movie that would be a cultural event, not just an album release. He whipped up a tornado. A tornado that blew away every one else. The album held the #1 spot for 22 consecutive weeks from August 1984 through the end of the year. The film became iconic. The title track became one of the greatest rock songs ever recorded. And suddenly….Michael Jackson wasn’t the undisputed “King of Pop” anymore. The Prince had arrived. Or as Prince sang in “My Name is Prince” a few years later – “You must become a Prince before, you’re King anyway”. 😆

“Purple Rain” is a monument to Prince’s incredible talent and his prodigious musical output. When the director asked Prince for some songs for the soundtrack, Prince came back with over 100 songs for him to choose from! Prince wrote the outline for the movie himself, basing it on his own life-story. He was deep into the casting. He directed the dance routines. And although every studio turned it down, he just went ahead and made the movie anyway and had Warner Bros release it. On a total cost of $7M, it grossed over $70M worldwide, becoming a box office smash. It won the Oscar for best original score, Grammy for Original Score, Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Group and was nominated for Album of the Year. It is without a shadow of doubt, one of the greatest albums of all time. “Purple Rain” made Prince only the second artist ever (after Elvis) to have the #1 Single, the #1 Album and the #1 Movie at the same time! Now that’s what one calls a “Mike drop” moment (see what I did there! 🙃)

And here’s a post script to the “Purple Rain” story – you know those “Parental Advisory” stickers that come on explicit songs and albums? That’s a direct outcome of the song “Darling Nikki” from the Purple Rain album. Tipper Gore – the wife of Al Gore – came across her 11-year-old daughter listening to the very raunchy song – and was horrified! A few months later she co-founded the Parents Music Resource Centre and in 1990, they managed to pressure the music industry into putting Advisory stickers on every explicit song/album! The gift from Prince that keeps on giving!

I first came across Prince in January 1985. You must remember the first ever Grammy’s pre-award show on Indian TV? All of us music-starved young ‘uns were going crazy, watching music videos for the first time, and seeing what our musical idols actually looked like. And that year was the greatest line-up in Grammy history – Stevie Wonder ( “I Just Called To Say I Love You”), Tina Turner (“ What’s Love Got To Do With It”), Lionel Ritchie (“Hello”), The Cars (“Drive”), Cyndi Lauper (“ Girls Just Want To Have Fun”), Phil Collins (“Against All Odds”), Kenny Loggins (“Footloose”, Billy Ocean (“Caribbean Queen”), Chaka Khan (“I Feel For You”), Stevie Ray Vaughan (“Voodoo Child”), Pointer Sisters (“Jump”) ! It was like we had died and gone to heaven. And there was also …..Prince (“Purple Rain”)

It was my first proper exposure to Prince – and, between us, I thought he was really weird! 🫣 Ok, Ok, stop heckling in the cheap seats – we all make mistakes! Honestly, I just couldn’t figure out why the world was going nuts about “Purple Rain”. Thin as a rake, 5 feet 2 inches tall, wearing heels, big afro. Weird. To be fair to me, we had never heard Prince (Philip Neelam would have died of embarrassment if someone requested “Darling Nikki” on Forces Request 😂). The movie hadn’t been released in India. And I didn’t know Prince’s backstory. The only Prince song I had heard was “Let’s Go Crazy” on Radio Australia (it rocked)!. But here he was singing some weird ballad about purple coloured rain. Weird.  And so, to my eternal shame, I passed on Prince, only to come back to him a few years later, regretting all the bad musical choices I made in between.

Prince was a musical genius. Stevie Wonder-level genius. He was a musical prodigy who could sing and play any instrument. Drums. Keyboards. Piano. Percussion. Harmonica. On his debut album “For You”, he sang and played every instrument. E.V.E.R.Y. Instrument. The liner notes of the album listed him as the musician behind “all vocals” as well as “electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, bass synth, singing bass, Fuzz bass, electric piano, acoustic piano, mini-Moog, poly-Moog, Arp string ensemble, Arp Pro Soloist, Oberheim four-voice, clavinet, drums, syndrums, water drums, slapsticks, bongos, congas, finger cymbals, wind chimes, orchestral bells, woodblocks, brush trap, tree bell, hand claps and finger snaps”. Just like Stevie did on his masterpiece “Innervisions” album. And on top of that, he was a phenomenal producer and arranger. And an incredible lyricist. Genius I tell you, genius!!

But, you know what really bugs me. Prince is criminally underrated as a guitarist.

People talk about his song writing. His music production. His multi-instrumental genius. But his guitar playing? That’s somehow secondary, like he was “also” a guitarist, when really, he was one of the greatest guitarists of all time. And to those of you who never believe anything I say – you know who you are – he is currently rated #14 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of “250 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time”. And just to drive the point home – Keith Richards is #15, Stevie Ray Vaughan is #20, David Gilmour is #28, George Harrison is #31, Brian May is #33 and Eric Clapton is #35. Just let that sink in. And while you do that, sit back and watch Prince blow away Tom Petty and Steve Winwood at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction of George Harrison. Prince stole the show while they played “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. 

Prince wasn’t even supposed to be on stage for this one. The original line-up was only meant to be people who were George Harrison’s dear friends. But Prince was also being inducted that night. And the producers somehow convinced Olivia Harrison to allow Prince to join in. The song had all been arranged already so Tom Petty suggested he play a solo at the end of the song. The cameras weren’t expecting Prince and for the first 3 minutes of the song, we don’t really see him. And then at 3:20, he casually steps into the spotlight. And plays one of the greatest guitar solos of all time. You should see the excitement on Dhani’s face as Princes starts to shred! Prince does a backwards trust-fall from the stage into the arms of a waiting security guard – all the time still playing! He gets back up, grins at Petty and Winwood, winks at Dhani and raises his game even further. And at the end of the song, in one of the most fabulous moves on stage, he casually tosses his guitar in the air and walks off the stage. No one knows where the guitar went – rumour is that guitar is half-way to next galaxy now! The urban legend is that the performance was a direct “in-your-face” response to Rolling Stone, who had recently forgotten to list Prince in their list of “100 Greatest Guitarists” of all time 🙄 They rectified that oversight pdq and he is now listed at #14!! Prince fused rock, funk, and soul in a way that no one ever could. He could play a screaming rock solo that would make the hair on your neck stand up, then pivot to a delicate, soul-deep melody. Absolute Legend!

Ok, on to Part II then. We will dive into all the amazing music by Prince that is not on the Purple rain album – there’s a lot of it!!  See you shortly !