Baby I'm a Star: The Once and Future Prince

[Trollheart]

Chapter VIII: Baby I'm a Star: This is What it Looks Like

Almost forgotten in the hubbub as Purple Rain flew off the shelves, and preparations intensified for the official release of the movie to accompany it, The Time unleashed their third, and final album on the world. It would be their biggest hit to date, but by the time (sorry) it began its inexorable climb up the charts tensions within the group would lead to Prince disbanding it, and reforming it under a new name, with some old faces and some new.

Album title Ice Cream Castle
Released as: The Time
Label: Warner Bros
Recorded: March 26 1983 - January 1984
Release Date: July 5 1984
Producer: Prince (The Starr Company)
Studio(s): Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA
Chart Position* 24
Singles Released: "Ice Cream Castles", "Jungle Love", "The Bird"
Singles Chart Performance: ICC: 11@BHR&BC, 106@BH100; JL: 6@BHR&BC, 20@BH100; TB: 33@BHR&BC, 36@BH100
Sales: 1,000,000

How very original to start the album off with the sound of an ice cream van! Ho ho Prince, yes we get it. Bright keyboards and bouncing drums, funky guitar, you know by now how it goes. I've found much of The Time's music quite similar and hard to distinguish one track from another so far, but then I'm no fan of soul/r&b so maybe it's just me. The Prince touch is evident here of course, a slightly more restrained number to open, with a sort of new-wave sense in the synths, but where it builds up to what sounds like it would be a frenzied guitar solo on one of Prince's own albums, it just sort of carries on. Bit banal to be honest. This song at least lacks the unfettered exuberance of much of the first two albums, to my mind anyway. Kind of yawn. And again far, far too long at over seven and a half minutes.

The provocatively-titled "My Drawers" has more energy about it, though I find the vocal a bit weaker here, the music more or less drowning Morris out at points, with a good guitar solo cutting through the song and at least it doesn't overstay its welcome like the previous one. Still nothing special though, and I get the feeling Prince is having fun with, and almost making fun of, The Time, giving them such risque and frankly ridiculous songs. Taking us halfway through the album then is "Chili Sauce", which I feel may be the ballad, with its hollow, echoing drum hits and slow synth and lazy guitar, although it opens with another of those stupid voiceovers, which I personally feel ruin the songs, or would ruin them if I didn't already dislike them. I mean, it's not like he's rapping, or attempting to, or even doing spoken word: he's just simply blabbering through the track, not even in rhythm with the music. Meh.

It's a pity, really, because the music - this time very much relegated to the background - is quite lovely, with what sounds like a violin, and yes, I see there is one being played making very soulful sounds which are essentially wasted as Morris rambles on. Very annoying. Worst track yet, and that's saying something. "Jungle Love" is, to be fair, a whole lot better (though that would not be hard) and breaks out at last the infectious spirit of The Time (tempted to say spirit of the age but I won't) with lots of handclapping and calls out to the audience. Just a fun song really. I mean, not great, but certainly more memorable and enjoyable than just about anything that has gone before.

Given the name of the main character in the movie of Purple Rain, Prince's character, I'm not certain if the kid in the title of the next track is meant to refer to him, but "If the Kid Can't Make You Come" is another ballad, smouldering with straight sexuality, with some nice vocal harmonies on it. That leaves "The Bird", which is taken from the live sessions where The Time performed in the movie, recorded at the First Avenue. I didn't like it then and I don't like it now, but I guess it's not without its charm. Has a sort of "1999" feel blended with some "Living in America" or something. Whatever. Maybe it's as well they broke up after this.

TRACK LISTING

Ice Cream Castles
My Drawers
Chili Sauce (for the music ONLY)
Jungle Love
If the Kid Can't Make You Come
The Bird

July 26 was D-Day, or if you prefer, P-Day, as the movie was to get its proper premiere, and as Prince nervously waited in the last of a line of limos to make his grand entrance, word came down that there was trouble. Well, the best sort of trouble. Chick, his bodyguard, took a message over the two-way and declared "there are fans lined down the street, more than the cops can handle, and a ton of photographers! There's a traffic jam backed up for two blocks!" So at worst, there was certainly interest in his film. People wanted to see it, had actually queued to see it.

There were stars, both from the music world - John Cougar Mellencamp, Quincy Jones, Stevie Nicks - and the film one - Kevin Bacon, Christopher Reeve, Eddie Murphy - and the opening had all the glitter and glitz of a real red carpet ceremony. Cameras clicked, reporters shouted, fans screamed as Prince arrived, his mother and stepfather also invited, watching her son proudly as he made his triumphant entrance to Grauman's Chinese Theater. However fans were not impressed that the diminutive star swept past them, pausing neither for pictures nor autographs, nor to grant any interviews, as the others excitedly had, this all being new to them. MTV, covering the event live, noted archly that Prince wasn't being especially snobby; he was like this with everyone.



Film title Purple Rain
Studio: Warner Bros
Release Date: July 27 1984
Producer: Robert Cavallo, Joseph Ruffalo and Steven Fargnoli
Director: Albert Magnoli
Writer(s): Albert Magnoli, William Blinn
Starring: Prince, Apollonia Kotero, Morris Day, Olga Karlatos, Clarence William III, Jerome Benton, The Revolution (Jill Jones, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Dez Dickerson), The Time, Apollonia 6
Budget 7.2 million USD
Box Office:  70.3 million USD

The movie opens with Prince (as "The Kid") on stage playing "Let's Go Crazy", the performance interspersed with shots of Apollonia jumping a fare in a taxi, Prince getting ready for the gig, arriving there on his motorbike and Apollonia subsequently slipping into First Avenue to look for a job. The version of "Let's Go Crazy" we get is an extended, improvised one but the twist at the end is that this is not Prince's (the Kid's) gig, he is merely opening for The Time, whose leader, Morris Day, treats him as an inferior upstart and dismisses him with a "Stick around and see how it's done" as he heads for the stage. Technically speaking, he's not opening for The Time - all three are house bands of the First Avenue - but they seem to be the more popular. Day is depicted as so vain in the movie that he even has a flunky carry a large mirror onto the stage so that he can check his look while performing.

Prince crosses paths with Apollonia on his way out, and sparks fly, but Day has his eye on her too. The Kid (I'm going to refer to Prince as The Kid from now on) goes home to find his father beating up his mother, and gets laid out when he tries to intervene. The next morning, Billy Sparks, owner of the First Avenue club, is lamenting the fact that The Kid hasn't turned up for the meeting, and Day pushes his agenda, telling him The Kid is all washed up, and that he, Sparks, needs to replace him. Day is already in the process of putting together a girl band, and he wants Apollonia to be part of it. Quite funny in a chauvinistic way, on the street Day is accosted by a girl who berates him for standing her up, and his minder picks her up and throws her into a dumpster. Lends new meaning to the phrase "dumping your girl"!

Meanwhile, The Kid and Apollonia have hooked up and take off on his motorbike to the strains of "Take Me With U" and we get the first R-rated (or, on this side of the water, X-rated) scene when Apollonia strips off to jump into what she thinks is Lake Minnetonka, until a grinning Prince tells her "that ain't Lake Minnetonka!" and rides off, leaving her there with her, as it were, tits hanging out. Some gentle sexual innuendo and humour as he picks her up again and complains "Don't get my seat all wet". More humour when Day and his minder engage in a clever homage to "Who's Up Next", then there's conflict when Wendy and Lisa accuse Prince of refusing to play the music they're writing, which he does not deny. The band does seem to be on the verge of implosion.

Finally, Prince does listen to the tape they've given  him. Turns out to be a rough mix of "Purple Rain". While Day tries to lure Apollonia away from him, The Kid goes onstage with The Revolution and they play "The Beautiful Ones" then back at his place he and Apollonia get it on, ooh yeah. Later it's back to real life as The Kid experiences more domestic violence at the hands of his father, but things get better when Apollonia appears, having pawned her jewellery to buy him the guitar he had been admiring in the shop window but could not afford. He gives her one of his earrings as a token. It's a touching scene, and well acted, it has to be said. It goes sideways real fast though when she tells him she's going to join Day's group, and he slaps her, knocking her over. He immediately regrets it, no doubt seeing his father in himself. There's also a good line when The Kid's father mutters "I would die for you" to his wife and son.

As The Kid receives the news from Billy that he's to be let go in favour of Day's new group, Apollonia 6, we get "When Doves Cry" over a montage of scenes including Apollonia trying out for the new band, and The Kid remembering the good times with her. He returns home to find his mother again battered and goes looking for his father. Interesting point: he shouts out "Where are you? Answer me, motherfucker!" In this case, that's not an insult: it's the method by which he came into being. It's as natural as anything. Thought that was quite funny, Never heard an insult such as that legitimised and justified before. Doubt if it was deliberate, but quite amusing, though it's a pretty bleak, savage scene in which it's used.

It's completely offset though, in what I have to say is a masterful piece of writing - one of the only ones in the movie - when The Kid finds his father down in the basement playing a piano, and for a moment they bond over a shared love that is actually greater than anger or revenge. His father warns him, in a tone of defeat, never to get married. The Kid is back onstage next, playing "Computer Blue" - Billy doesn't look impressed with the pseudo-sexual antics going on between The Kid and Wendy. Interestingly, The Kid is not playing the new white guitar Apollonia bought for him. Maybe it's too much of a reminder of how he treated her, and how she - as he sees it - has betrayed him. When he sees her enter with Morris Day, he screams and goes into "Darling Nikki", directing the performance at her. It's embarrassing and obvious. When she walks out he leaves the stage in the middle of the song. Billy is not impressed. Nobody digs his music, says he, but The Kid, and to rub further salt into the wounds, he compares him to his father, a comparison The Kid can't deny, even if he refuses to see it.

The next night Apollonia 6 take the stage and are of course a huge hit. I mean, come on: sexy women dancing around in lingerie? What's not to like? Some of the crowd get a bit confused and over-excited and start handing them dollar bills. Hey look dude, they're not fucking strippers okay? Mind you, considering what they're wearing, it would be a very quick strip if they were! They sing - lip-synch to - "Sex Shooter", perhaps the weakest track on the already-reviewed Vanity 6 album, and it's clear they're not singing, as the music and vocals fade down and they're just standing there smiling. Not that anyone cares of course. The Kid watches darkly from the back of the club, his eyes inscrutable behind mirror lenses, but it's not hard to divine his thoughts and feelings. Billy warns him his residency is hanging by a thread.

Outside, The Kid assaults Morris as he tries to woo Apollonia into his car, running him down with his motorbike (though not seriously injuring him; he gets right up again and is more worried about his suit than any broken bones) and she goes off with Prince. Down by the railroad tracks they begin to make out, but The Kid loses it when she tries to drink whisky (no doubt recalling his own father's drunkenness, and tying in with Prince's own sobriety message) and comes close to assaulting her. He stops as the blow is about to descend, realising that Billy is right: like father, like son. Apollonia runs off, throwing his earring at him. He seems devastated at the gesture.

Back home he finds the evidence of more violence and abuse from his father, then he hears a gunshot. It's not, for me, made clear enough what happens. I thought his mother had finally had enough, and had shot her husband with his own gun. But the chalk outline of his father on the floor shows the shape of a gun, and Wiki confirms he's supposed to have shot himself. He's not dead - they take him to hospital where he later recovers, but I have to ask why? Why did he shoot himself? Up to now, his violence and anger has all been directed at his wife, with a little left over for his son. Did he finally realise what a bastard he was and try to take his own life? Doesn't make sense to me. Given his pattern of violent behaviour I would have bet that he would have shot his wife. Or she would have shot him.

The Kid feels almost driven to suicide after the cops leave. He manages to expend his anger though by smashing up the place instead. What stops him, and brings him to his senses, is the discovery of the music his father has written. Earlier, he had claimed he had no need to write anything down, when The Kid had asked him if he could see his other music, but this seems to have been a lie, and now his son has his father's music in his hand. It's almost an epiphanic moment for the boy. Whether it's realising that his father isn't the towering giant he made himself out to be, in that he has to write down his music even if he said he didn't, or just the stark and sudden realisation that music binds the two together, or simply the quiet, calm, methodical staves and notes that calm him down, his rage drains out of him as he looks at the sheets and sheets of music written by his father.

Morris steps over the line, going from comic relief to seriously fucked-up prick when, on passing The Kid's dressing room as The Time leave the stage, he looks in and quips "How's the family?" That's cold, and a moment later it looks as if he regrets it, but he's said it and it's too late to take it back. The Revolution head for the stage, and this time The Kid has the white guitar. He's about to pull out all the stops. He stands on the stage for what seems like hours (but is of course a minute at best, though that's a long time to have, as they say, dead air), saying nothing, watching the expectant faces, then announces "I'd like to dedicate this to my father. It's a song the girls in the band wrote, Lisa and Wendy."

And launches, of course, into "Purple Rain".

Well you can guess the rest really can't you? The song goes down a storm, he's called to the stage for an encore and even has time to make up with Apollonia before a rousing rendition of "I Would Die 4 U" performed in front of what are now not just an audience, but fans of his. The final song is then of course "Baby I'm a Star", which by now he's well on his way to being, the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. Hey, even Morris is rooting for him now, clapping and punching the air excitedly in the crowd, happy to relinquish his crown. The Kid even does the falling-into-the-audience-and-being-caught thing that Peter Gabriel made so popular.

[Trollheart]

I find the dialogue mostly quite stilted in the movie, which perhaps illustrates Prince's lack of input into the writing. I can't imagine a songwriter would not have had the script flowing better, but some of the exchanges are so clunky it's almost embarrassing, especially the scenes between The Kid's mother and father. Apollonia's parts are not so great either, dialogue-wise, and she's no actress it has to be be said. Prince does what he does: moody and silent most of the time, coming across as slightly sulky, impatient, above it all. For me, he evinces far too much arrogance and confidence for someone who is struggling to make it, reflecting perhaps the real-world success of the man with his previous album and the soundtrack to this one, which he must have known was going to be huge. It does however make it hard to believe he's a small-time musician trying to make it, and to be fair, I can kind of see where Jackson was less than impressed with his acting. This would definitely not be the start of a glittering career in Hollywood.

The star for me is Morris Day, whose humour and comic relief really make the movie. From completely failing to get the password in the scene where he and his minder discuss same, to his being unable to open the door of the car because of the child lock, and his casual "keep the change" to the waitress, followed by his urgent whisper to his minder "Go get my change!" The guy's something of an undiscovered comedy genius.

Let's be honest: this movie survives and pulled the audience in on Prince's reputation alone, and I doubt too many who went to see it were blown away on leaving the theatre. It's a decent movie, but just that. It fails to fall flat, as some had surely hoped, but it never rises above the level of ordinary semi-biopic. What saves it is of course the music, and the performance of Prince (when onstage), which can't be questioned. But without his name, without the music, this movie would have sunk without a trace, or more likely never even seen the light of day.

I like the way the scene is handled when he's being quizzed by the cops after his father has been shot. No words, no dialogue, a few gestures all to a backdrop of distorted music  - maybe rimshots or guitar flanges or some damn thing - but it all gives the impression that though The Kid's world is falling apart, the only way he can perceive it, handle it, understand it is through his music, and sort of like in the Peanuts cartoons, where the adults' voices are made by horns and make no sense to the listener, here The Kid seems to hear no real words, only the music in his head. It's like he's watching someone else go through this ordeal, like it's nothing to do with him.

I think the ending ruins it to some degree. The terrible mix of song snippets that accompany the closing credits make it sound like a sampler for an album, when they could have just done, I don't know, maybe a long instrumental version of "Purple Rain"?

Overall, I definitely didn't see anything great in the movie, as I said above, and it's only the music that saves it. But that being the case, it was a huge success. As you can see from the data above, it gave Warner back a ten-fold return on their investment, and even got an Academy Award for, to nobody's surprise, the score. But let's top and consider a moment. This is after all no ordinary movie. First, it's the only one I've ever seen with almost no actors in it. Everyone here - with I think two exceptions, those of the Kid's mother and father - is an amateur, and most are musicians. None of them have acted before; yes, they're essentially mostly playing in the movie the role they do in real life, that of playing in a band, working the crowd and so on, but still, it's impressive how well, as amateurs, they end up acting.

Second, this is a movie whose soundtrack, as it were, was released months before it was. The album isn't even a soundtrack, really, not even a retrospective one. All of the music on it is Prince, nothing from The Time or Apollonia 6 or even the score from Michel Columbier, and more, none of even the incidental music played by Prince. Just the full songs, some of which don't even get a full airing in the film. So it's not a soundtrack, more "music from the motion picture", and more, all of the music was composed for the movie. That happens with scores, sure, but they're always instrumental. This is a somewhat unique situation, I feel, where the songs were written specifically for the movie, but the album on which they appear was released first.

So there needs to be credit given, certainly, for a bunch of newcomers to acting who don't make a total mess of the movie. And yet, this is only the second time I've watched it, and I sincerely doubt there'll be a third.

But who cares what I think? What do I know? Purple Rain was a hit -  a blockbuster, which had knocked summer smash Ghostbusters off the top, grossing over seven million on its opening night, and certainly vindicated Prince's belief in himself. He was finally a true superstar.

He greeted his success with a characteristic shrug and was pessimistic. "We looked around and I knew we were lost," Prince told an interviewer. "There was no place to go but down. You can never satisfy the need after that."

But he was wrong.

He would spend the next twenty years confirming just how wrong he was.