Prince’s Purple Rain—his colossal creative blockbuster, the apogee of his commercial success—turned 40 this week. Songs from the album Vanity Fair once voted the greatest soundtrack of all time earned Prince two Grammys, an Oscar and tens of millions more fans than he’d generated prior to 1984. The one-two knockout of dropping a movie and its music that summer fixed his album at number one atop the Billboard chart for 24 weeks straight. Aside from the publication of podcaster-journalist Andrea Swensson’s Prince and Purple Rain: 40 Years hardcover, the biggest hat tip to this pop culture milestone took place at Paisley Park last weekend in his native Minnesota, at the venue’s annual Celebration event.
Celebration has united Prince’s sizeable fanbase together at Paisley Park (his recording studio and, in later years, personal residence) in suburban Chanhassen off and on since 2000. The itinerary this year included First Avenue performances by his former backing bands, The Revolution and The New Power Generation, as well as Morris Day; a listening session of some songs from his infamous vault of unreleased material; panel talks with engineer Susan Rogers and promoter Billy Sparks; a sneak preview of the upcoming Purple Rain live musical; a Lake Minnetonka boat ride, dance parties and more.
Many fans—considered “fams” in the Prince universe, for family—were over the (cherry) moon about it all, while others left slightly underwhelmed by exorbitant pricing. A highlight for most involved Prince’s previously unheard music, around 10 songs with titles like “Friction” (a track reportedly culled from a 1985 album for Jamie Starr, a Prince alter ego), “Calabama” (the title track of an aborted album circa 2004) and “First Time I Saw U” (a collaboration with his father, pianist John L. Nelson). Others complained that Morris Day didn’t perform with his own funk band, The Time, instead fronting The NPG—an anachronistic mashup—and that the Prince estate failed to announce a new Purple Rain super deluxe edition box set.
Fam threads on X (the social platform formerly known as Twitter) were insightful, par for the course for Prince’s tightly knit fanbase. “We didn’t need things like the boat cruise… [General admission] didn’t get any vault music, only VIP did. This means we have to pay extra for exclusive content,” wrote @iamslickrick_. “The sista portraying the Apollonia character in today’s sneak preview was RIDICULOUS…she sang her face off,” raved @RhondaNicole_ of singer-actress Rachel Simone Webb, who’s cast in 2025’s Purple Rain musical. “ ‘No Changes’—recorded [in] ’87, sounded like a mashup between Lovesexy title track and ‘Electric Chair’! Aggressively funky,” praised @CaseyRain after the vault listening session.
July 27 will soon mark the 40th anniversary of Purple Rain’s theatrical release. (In 1984, the soundtrack full of “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Take Me With U” and more famously preceded the film.) Summer 2024 may turn a deeper shade of purple as more inevitable celebrations and announcements take place.