Musical Analysis #1 – Purple Rain by Prince

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Musical Analysis #1 – Purple Rain by Prince

I’ve always been one of Prince’s biggest fans. My all-time favorite song by him is Purple Rain. When I listen to it, the lyrics and him playing the guitar solo at the end is something that has brought tears to my eyes. As I listened to it many times for this assignment, the music and lyrics made me think of people simply loving each other and being cleansed and rejuvenated by the rain.

Purple Rain was written by Prince and Wendy Melvoin who was part of “the Revolution”.  Back then they were called Prince and the Revolution. Its genre falls into three categories: Pop, Rock and R&B. Interesting fact I learned - this was the final song Prince ever performed live.

 

Lyrics

When asked what the song was about, Prince responded “When there’s blood in the sky – red and blue = purple…purple rain pertains to the end of the world and being with the one you love and letting your faith/god guide you through the purple rain.” Although this is how he described the meaning of his song, the lyrics talk about wanting someone to not be hurt but be forever happy standing in the Purple Rain. It makes me to think about unconditional love.

Meter

Purple Rain is played in 4/4 meter. I couldn’t figure that out myself and downloaded the first page of the sheet music to see what it was.  When I listened to it again and was able to identify the meter.

Chords

In Purple Rain, there are four chords played in a 1-6-5-4 or V-VI-V-IV chord progression. Upon further research, this is a popular chord progression for many songs. To familiarize myself a little more with what chords were I watched a YouTube video of a guitar lesson found here. This really helped me understand the chords which were in the song. I got excited when i was able to count the chords played!

Scale

Purple rain is played in B♭ major.

 After listening to this song in a different mindset, I can see how the composition of this song is exquisite. It makes me appreciate it even more. This song is both haunting and inspiring to me.

One thing I’d like is to understand the chord progression more. I looked online for the 1-6-5-4 chord progression but am still not clear on what that is. Thank you for reading my analysis!

 

Eames, Tom. “The Story of... 'Purple Rain' by Prince.” Smooth, Smooth, 7 Sept. 2018, www.smoothradio.com/features/prince-purple-rain-meaning-lyrics-facts/.

Prince. “Prince ‘Purple Rain’ Sheet Music in BB Major (Transposable) - Download & Print.” Musicnotes.com, www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0080409.

“Purple Rain: Rhythm.” Shutup & Play - Guitar Tutorials, www.shutupandplay.ca/purple-rain--rhythm.html.

Comments

  1. JenSeptember 23, 2021 at 6:39 PM

    I remember when Prince died, the Minnesota Twins baseball team played "Purple Rain" on the big screens around the stadium in honor of him. Pretty cool way to honor him and this song!

    ReplyDelete
  2. RonSeptember 26, 2021 at 9:41 PM

    Prince was an amazing musician of many talents. He could play many instruments fluently and he also had an amazing range in his voice. One of my favorites of his is Raspberry beret. When you listen to him, he has a way of sucking you into his music. His music videos were also very active. He passed way before his career was over and I am sure he would still be producing amazing music.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jade ShepardSeptember 26, 2021 at 10:30 PM

    I love all of your information very well thought out and organized. I haven’t listened to much of prince but this is a good song!

    ReplyDelete

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