Wednesday night on NPR

[bwboy]

I heard on NPR that World Cafe will be airing a story Wednesday night July 24 about how Purple Rain was originally written by Prince as a country song for Stevie Nicks. I have heard that before but always figured it was just a rumor and not necessarily true. Or maybe the show will say that if’s an urban legend, who knows. But if you’re interested, it said it was airing on NPR tonight at 10pm and I’m pretty sure it’s called the World Cafe.

[HomerMcvie]

Per Wiki - he asked her to write lyrics for it, and she couldn't.

"Purple Rain" was originally written as a country song and intended to be a collaboration with Stevie Nicks.[11] According to Nicks, she received a 10-minute instrumental version of the song from Prince with a request to write the lyrics, but felt overwhelmed. She said: "I listened to it and I just got scared. I called him back and said, 'I can't do it. I wish I could. It's too much for me.'"[12] At a rehearsal, Prince then asked his backing band to try the song: "I want to try something before we go home. It's mellow." According to Lisa Coleman, Prince then changed the song after Wendy Melvoin started playing guitar chords to accompany the song: "He was excited to hear it voiced differently. It took it out of that country feeling. Then we all started playing it a bit harder and taking it more seriously. We played it for six hours straight and by the end of that day we had it mostly written and arranged."

[bombaysaffires]

She knew she was in way, way, way over her head in terms of the limits of her talent and songwriting ability. Lots of "well" and repetitions and "dreams" and "and the days go by" "strand in the wind" would NOT cut it and by then she'd gotten too lazy and sloppy in her songwriting.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

She knew she was in way, way, way over her head in terms of the limits of her talent and songwriting ability. Lots of "well" and repetitions and "dreams" and "and the days go by" "strand in the wind" would NOT cut it and by then she'd gotten too lazy and sloppy in her songwriting.

PERFECT response. She did know... that her little ditties weren't up to snuff. I guess her ego was still in check back then.

[bwboy]

Thank you for the story! Although I didn’t listen to ithe show, the commercial sounded like they were going to discuss what it might have been like if Stevie had writtten and sang Purple Rain. Neat premise, but I just don’t see Stevie’s version having the same impact as Prince’s. It would be virtually impossible, especially with his film.

[David]

I don’t know how close Stevie came to doing her own “Purple Rain,” but the fact that it didn’t happen saved that song from disaster. I just listened to the performance of it on the Prince and the Revolution: Live album, recorded in Syracuse in 1985, and it is one of the great rock & roll performances in my listening — one of the rawest, most passionate, most committed performances I think I’ve ever heard: a true, burning, incendiary, fiery, smoky, swampy, sweaty fusion of rock, gospel, R&B, and soul. Given what this song became, all eighteen-and-a-half minutes of it, Stevie didn’t belong anywhere near it. Sorry, folks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm03wqLY3Nc

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by David

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm03wqLY3Nc

It's a beautiful version. A beautiful song.