You can find Prince’s Purple Rain here.
I’m not a critic but decided this morning I would put my two cents out there. I’m going to tell you what I think about Dwight Yoakam covering Purple Rain. What, you say. That’s what I said. Dwight Yoakam released a new album on Friday and a cover of Purple Rain is on that album. I have started listening to public radio and I came into the middle of this song. It was bluegrass. That I recognized right away. Then I recognized the lyrics. I about jumped up and down in the seat of the car. I had to hear more.
When I got back to work I googled it and found out that it was a part of the new release. I would have to wait until Friday to buy it. I made a note on my calendar.
I am a fan of Prince. I saw him in concert when I was in my mid-20’s. I wasn’t a fan until then. I came to realize that you couldn’t pass judgement on someone until you had seen them live. That man was a showman. From the word go. Yes, he was weird, but so was almost everyone else in the 80’s. He had more talent in that little body than he knew what to do with. I would always stay up late when I heard that he was going to be on late night TV. I wouldn’t act like a fan because my allegiance was to country music but I found myself singing along to his R&B/Rock genre. Really, no one could even compete with his style.
Click here to buy Dwight Yoakam’s version of Purple Rain
I am a fan of Dwight Yoakam. This one was easier. Yes he was more Bakersfield than Nashville but I just love how he can take a one syllable word and hold it over so many notes. And he could twang anything. He took Buck Owens and Merle Haggard and merge it into his very own unique style. Plus, he was pretty to look at, a lot like that unique look that Prince had.
I know when Prince died that there were many who sang his songs in tribute. But that’s what they were, tribute songs. So it caught me completely by surprise when Yoakam took this signature song of Prince’s and turned it into his own. The piece he did for NPR says that he and the band recorded the song as an emotional tribute. It was a release, an emotional release. It makes a pretty good Bluegrass piece though.