JDIZZY's 365 # 182: Darling Nikki

Darling Nikki - Prince (1984)

I'm going to say something controversial here: Mr Nelson has never bettered the 1984 smash Purple Rain.....there, I said it. Although Sign O' The Times is epic in scope and content, Around The World In A Day is an extremely underrated follow-up and The Gold Experience is a latter day classic, there is simply nothing in his catalog that matches this film soundtrack. In fairness, there is not much in anyone's body of work that matches it. Purple Rain is all over the map, from the perfect pop of "Take Me With You" past the twin towers of funk majesty in "Baby I'm A Star and the power ballad perfection of the title track. Nestled smack dab in the middle of the record is today's track, a story song of twisted sexual adventure, more powerful than "Little Red Corvette" and "Head" combined. It also set off a political backlash that resolved itself with the invention of the parental advisory sticker on record albums. Listening to it today is to hear a restless genius at the peak of his powers. In the age of Reagan, Prince's music inadvertently raged against the moral majority like it was his job. For a time, I think it was.



Prince wouldn't let the Foos release this as a single, but I can't see why. It is a faithful and rocking tribute to the original.