Shannon’s Pick: Purple Rain

“Let me guide you to the Purple Rain."

On this day, in 2016, I finally got to see the movie Purple Rain in the theater for the first time. Larry and I had tickets to see it in April after I got back from my trip with my brothers, but the timing did not work out, so we waited until May 1st when a different theater was playing it.  It was a bittersweet moment for sure, on the one hand I was super excited to finally see it on the big screen and share this moment with Larry but on the other hand the only reason the theaters were playing the movie at this time was because Prince had died. 

But back in July 1984 when the movie originally came out in theaters, I was a few weeks away from my 13th birthday, and I was not allowed to see R rated movies.  When they released it on VHS, and you could rent it, I was able to stay over at a friend’s house whose mom was not as strict as my own and finally get to watch it.  It was everything this 13-year-old in eighth grade could have hoped for and my love for Prince just continued to grow.  In junior high we actually had pretty large lockers, they were large enough a full-size movie poster could fit on the bottom of the back wall, so yeah I had a poster of Prince back there and the inside of both doors covered with pictures of Prince from the teen mags popular in the day.  I was very obsessed, still am.

I previously discussed the day Prince died and the outpouring of love and support I got from friends.  One of those friends, who loved Prince as much as I did, purchased a t-shirt for me and we’ll be including a picture of the shirt with this writeup.

P.S The VHS version was released on November 19,1984…..exactly 8 years before Larry and I started dating.

Larry’s Perspective:

This is just such a great song. And Prince was a marketing genius when it came to the release of "Purple Rain". Both things (the music and the marketing) were so much ahead of their time - and honestly probably set the standard.

I just love that Shannon has her "Rush" and I have my "Prince". We can make fun of each other's musical tastes as much as we want - but these two are off limits. And thank god we both didn't obsess over someone who was a one hit wonder as opposed to absolute legends.