For years I've been unable to find the footage of the performance of 'Purple Rain' that was used in the film... As a result, I've only ever seen it a handful of times. In a way I'm glad. I don't think the hairs on the back of my neck could have coped with more frequent exposure. The faces in the crowd looking up as all that passion and sincerity and melody flow out of him... Omg. Years ago, Buff Club played the whole of 'Cream,' unabridged and untainted. It was a quiet night, but an unforgettable moment. The unadulterated sex appeal of that introduction moved everyone in a rare, magical way that I have rarely seen before or since. It did what music should do: it shook everyone to the core, I could see it happening, and I felt it happening within myself. I only wished it was live, that we were transported to a place where all the sultry promise of that song could be a reality, and where our personalities could inherit a sliver of its strut and silk and glitter. From that, to the 'beautiful... earnest... brutal' (Dylan Matthews) account of a love triangle in 'When You Were Mine,' and the cinematic drama of 'I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man,' I'll always look to his music for its emotional authenticity and plain gale-force brilliance. Goodbye, Prince! Nothing compares.
