Episode 42: Meshell Ndgeocello on Prince’s “Purple Rain”

Episode 42

12th July 2018

I was dreaming when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray. But when I woke up this morning and realized that Oliver and I spent an hour or so talking with Meshell N’degecello about Prince’s seminal “Purple Rain” album, I was beside myself with hype.
We spoke about the album’s forward thinking musicianship and arrangements, Prince as a visionary, his Messiah-like presence and the extended version of Computer Blue. She told us about keeping “I Would Die 4 U” on elevated decibels and repeat and the pure dopeness of “When Doves Cry”.
We all revisited the moment we first experience Purple Rain.
Simply put, we talked to one genius guitar hero about another. It gets no better than that. Throw on your best purple garments and get up on this.

Episode notes

The Album: Prince: Purple Rain (1984)

I was dreaming when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray. But when I woke up this morning and realized that Oliver and I spent an hour or so talking with Meshell N’degecello about Prince’s seminal “Purple Rain” album, I was beside myself with hype.

We spoke about the album’s forward thinking musicianship and arrangements, Prince as a visionary, his Messiah-like presence and the extended version of Computer Blue. She told us about keeping “I Would Die 4 U” on elevated decibels and repeat and the pure dopeness of “When Doves Cry”.

We all revisited the moment we first experience Purple Rain.

Simply put, we talked to one genius guitar hero about another. It gets no better than that. Throw on your best purple garments and get up on this.

“Hey, take a listen. Tell me do you like what you hear…” -Prince

More on Prince and Purple Rain:

More on Meshell Ndegeocello:

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Purple Rain unless indicated otherwise):

  • Purple Rain
  • Prince: For You
  • Purple Rain
  • When Doves Cry
  • I Would Die 4 U
  • Let’s Go Crazy
  • Take Me With U
  • Prince: I Wanna Be Your Lover
  • Computer Blue
  • I Would Die 4 U
  • The Beautiful Ones
  • When Doves Cry
  • D’Angelo: Alright
  • J Dilla: Bye.
  • Alice Smith: Fool For You
  • Flying Lotus: All the Secrets
  • Purple Rain
  • When Doves Cry
  • Take Me With U
  • Prince: Erotic City
  • The Ronettes: Be My Baby

Here’s the Spotify playlist of as many of the songs above as we can find on there.

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In this episode...

Oliver Wang

Oliver Wang

Host
Morgan Rhodes

Morgan Rhodes

Host

Christian Dueñas

Producer

Guests

  • Meshell Ndegeocello

About the show

Hosted by Oliver Wang and Morgan Rhodes, every episode of Heat Rocks invites a special guest to talk about a heat rock – a hot album, a scorching record. These are in-depth conversations about the albums that shape our lives.

Our guests include musicians, writers, and scholars and though we don’t exclusively focus on any one genre, expect to hear about albums from the worlds of soul, hip-hop, funk, jazz, Latin, and more.

New episodes every Thursday on Apple Podcasts or whatever you get your podcasts.

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