When Purple Rain came out, I was approaching my eleventh birthday. I wasn’t allowed to go see it but I did have the album. I also saw the videos, though I’m not sure how, as I don’t think we had a TV yet.

Forty years have somehow gone by since I didn’t see Purple Rain so I went to an anniversary screening in Brooklyn Bridge Park. I found myself both moved and troubled by the experience. The crowd was amazing. From the opening number of the film, almost everyone was up on their feet, ready to go crazy. About half the crowd could not resist doing “The Bird” even as they remained seated on their blankets. Lighters and cell phones were raised during “Purple Rain.” And when Prince hit Apollonia in the face so hard she spun and fell into a dresser, the crowd made an audible sound of disapproval.

The violence was what I was not prepared for. Having spent my youth in a kind of complicated double bind of being both a feminist and a fan of Prince’s music, I was familiar with the confusion of all the objectifying images of women, coupled with sex positive grooves. 

To keep reading I Finally Saw Purple Rain, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.

This is Episode 412

Song: Purple Rain

Image from a video by Brooklyn Magazine.

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Emily Rainbow Davis