Prince and the Revolution
Purple Rain Deluxe Expanded Edition
NPG/Warner Bros
IF the entire back catalogue of Paisley Park's Purple Pixie is to be re-issued as sumptuously as this four-disc set it is time clear some shelf-space and save on the groceries. The 1984 Purple Rain album and movie phenomenon was when many hopped aboard the Prince experience, and the original album, included here in the version re-mastered by himself in 2015, remains a classic. The various version of singles and their b-sides are gathered together on another CD, but it is the collection of rarities from the vaults and previously unreleased versions on the disc sandwiched inbetween that excites more interest. Perhaps Prince would have edited (in duration) tracks like The Dance Electric and We Can F**k before letting them loose, but they are still terrific productions, as are the self-explanatory Wonderful Ass and slightly more coded Velvet Kitty Cat.
The fourth disc is a DVD of the man and his band of the time, with Wendy and Lisa to the fore, in concert at Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York State on March 30, 1985. Over three months before Live Aid, the gig was beamed live to Germany, which was ground-breaking at the time.
Keith Bruce
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here