# "Purple Rain" greatest film soundtrack: Vanity Fair



## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

http://www.reuters.com/article/ente...20071024?feedType=nl&feedName=usmorningdigest



> NEW YORK (Reuters) - If you've hummed along, tapped your feet, or even danced in your seat while watching "Purple Rain," "Saturday Night Fever" or "Trainspotting," you're not alone.
> 
> The soundtracks from those movies have been named among the 50 greatest by the editors of Vanity Fair magazine. The full list will be revealed next month in a one-time Conde Nast magazine, Movies Rock, for subscribers of its 14 titles.


More.


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

It certainly was much better than the movie although the concert scenes in the movie all rock. Otherwise the movie was Rocky in a bar band.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

The movie was pretty silly, but the music, I think, was some of the little purple guy's best work. I like the Rocky comparision and had never thought of that. :lol:


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

^ Well, both Stallone and Prince are short.


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## djzack67 (Sep 18, 2007)

Still after all these years, a small theater here in Chicago , Still plays Purple Rain about twice a year as the MIdnight Movie. And sells out everytime.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

We have had a lot of rain here lately, but none of it was purple.

I'm just saying...


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

I agree that Purple rain is at least the best soundtrack of the 80's. I have also always sort of liked the movie for its distinctive narrative style. Prince is a really bad actor, but his stage performances are great in the movie.

I'm not a big Prince fan, but I have always thought that Purple Rain was a much better movie than what the critics said.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

Not being a Prince (a.k.a. "the Artist") fan, I've never seen the movie, and to my knowledge have never heard the sound track.
I'd hope the following appear on VF's best 50: The Sting, Charade, Pink Panther, Fire Down Below (the orignal, not the current one), Singing in The Rain, South Pacific, Oklahoma, Gigi, My Fair Lady, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, West Side Story, Guys and Dolls. Add other soundtracks by John Williams, Henry Mancini and Cole Porter, just to name a few.
Obviously, there are hundreds of movie soundtracks to choose from. Every peer or listener group will come up with a totally different list.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I have great fun watching the movie, not only since I am from Minnesota and very familiar with the areas where it was shot, but I also designed, wired and installed the studio system that he used to record much of the material for the movie. He rented a warehouse in St. Louis Park (a Minneapolis burb) that he used as a rehearsal studio. The last time I drove by the warehouse was being used as a pet supply warehouse. His engineer (Susan Rogers) called me up and said that Prince would like to rent a 24 track package for a few months and would like it installed in the warehouse. I asked how soon and she said next Monday (this was on the preceding Monday). I had to air freight a 24 track Otari MTR90 recorder from California and then spent from Thursday evening to Sunday with soldering iron in hand wiring the recorder and a pile of peripherals to a Soundcraft 2400 mixing console. It was all delivered on Monday morning and by some miracle all worked as planned. I trained him in on the system flow on Monday afternoon and he went from there. I also rented him a bunch of stuff that appears in the movie on stage and in some background shots. It's fun to look for some of those items. Check out those purple (Canare) microphone cables that I ordered in for him on a whim. :lol: These pix are not from the actual installaton, although I wish I had taken some pix at the time.


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

^ Great story. So, did you ever call him Rog?   

First Avenue, where the concert scenes were shot, is still an excellent if somewhat scuzzy place to see a band. I'm about halfway between Minneapolis and Milwaukee and if a touring band is going to be at both First Ave. and The Rave in Milwaukee, I'll choose First Ave. every time.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I'd have to call him Rogs since his real name is Prince Rogers Nelson.  I've seen many great shows at First Avenue, including the above mentioned purple guy. I demoed a DBX digital recording processor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dbx_Model_700_Digital_Audio_Processor) for Prince for his birthday party there a bit before the Purple Rain project. He had brought in the Record Plant mobile truck to record the night and I ended up sitting in the truck taking a stereo feed off the board into the DBX processor and out to my VHS deck for storage. By the time I had finished in the truck the band, and Susan Rogers, had disappeared so I had to take the DBX processor AND the master tape home with me. The next morning I got a call from Susan stating that Prince was not happy that I still had the master.  This was the first night that Wendy played guitar with the band in a concert and he introduced her during the show. She and Lisa are now doing the music for the tv show Heroes and previously did the music for Crossing Jordan.


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