'Purple Rain'

Monday 3 November 2008

Jessy was over her friend's house watching 'HSM' 1 and 2 tonight, in preparation for taking this friend and like two others who have never seen either of them to the 3rd movie in VB this coming weekend. When Roger, our driver, brought her home, I had been paging through channels and stopped on the rock movie 'Purple Rain' with Prince. Jessy came in then, rolled her eyes, and went out. Next I heard some whining voice attempting to sing the notes of the song and called out, 'Hang it up!' --you know, like she could give it over now and spare us all. But it wasn't Jessy. Next I knew my dad came in, still whining through the notes of the song, really just to mimic it as he sings much better than this! 'Oh sheesh,' I said, pretending to complain more, and when I turned round I realised he had the unplugged Stratocaster on his knee, standing in the back of our TV room with the guitar, going almost not-for-note with Prince. I laughed.

'Hey,' he said, in between notes. 'This stuff is legendary.'

I laughed again. The thing I do not often enough say about my dad is that he's actually been there, you know-- there was a time he was up on the stage playing to packed houses, some a lot larger than I'd care to say. And the 'legend' of our own family is that Daddy actually met Prince, in New York, in about 1985, before he had even met Mommy. But then he's met a lot of people, and I'm sure a lot of people can say they've met him. Nowadays he never drops names-- you'd really have to prise it out of him, but during his heyday he was pretty influential and is able to rely on that now when he selects a new artiste to work with.

He sat down with me to watch the end of the movie, when the character played by Prince finds his confidence and performs the show of his career. The stage antics of this guy are amazing. He does a thing with the microphone stand where he lets it come falling back at him, lifts his leg and throws his whole foot over it, and catches it again as it rocks up again. I don't know how he does it.

Daddy commented that no Rickenbacker guitar actually sounds like the soundtrack where Wendy is playing. And you can't hear the bass at all, but it looks like the guy in the picture isn't really playing anyway. And the drums sound more like a machine than the live drums in the movie. And where are all the vocals coming from? And would that punk-rock-looking guy in the audience really clap so enthusiastically like that for an act like Prince in real life?

Then over the end credits he started picking away at the guitar so much that I got up and left the room. I'm not sure but I think he is still down there!

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