Listen to Amanda Palmer and Jherek
Bischoff Cover Prince’s “Purple Rain”
Amanda Palmer:
Jherek and I had already bonded over our deep love of
Prince while were touring together in support of my
kickstarter-ed record; we even decided to learn the
entirety of the Purple Rain album - every strange synth
part on every song - for a New Years Eve show at
Terminal 5 in 2012. Unsurprisingly, there’s no evidence
or footage on youtube…every fan video was wiped by
Prince’s team in the 48 hours after the show.
I respected that. Even though Prince’s attitude towards
the internet frustrated and sometimes baffled me, I
could always see things from his perspective; I found
myself thinking that it must have been so incredibly
frustrating for him to become fluent in a language - the
language of 1908s and 1990s record labels, contracts
and ownership - that was becoming a dead tongue in
his own lifetime. Especially when his knowledge was so
hard-won.
“Purple Rain”, the album/soundtrack, was my first
cassette tape, purchased with allowance money when
I was about ten years old.
It became the sole resident of the book-size silver sony
walkman that I wore around my neck on a nylon strap
(they hadn’t quite figured out the hip-clip method back
in 1985, we all walked around looking really silly with
those neck-walkmen).
“Thank you, Prince. With your music in our ears, we will
hopefully punch a higher floor.”
Jherek Bischoff photo by Allan Amato; Amanda Palmer
photo by Shervin Lainez
Earlier this year, Amanda Palmer teamed up with Jherek
Bischoff for Strung Out in Heaven, a David Bowie covers
EP. Now the two have paired up once more to cover
Prince. The 10-minute string quartet cover begins with
the intro to “Let’s Go Crazy” before Palmer moves into
singing “Purple Rain.”
The Walkman was a life-changing invention for the
young music listener: my entire world became a film to
which Prince was the soundtrack: my walk to school,
my walk home from school, family trips in the car, my
own little universe at night, falling asleep with
headphones on, gazing at the Prince poster above my
bed (this one, to be exact).
He created my universe in song, and mansions full of
doves and computers and Darling Nikkis danced in my
head as I slept.
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The proceeds from the cover will be donated to Elevate
Hope–a charity that provides music therapy for abused
and abandoned children. Stream the song, see the cover
art (by Sarah Beetson), and read Palmer and Bischoff’s
respective statements about the song below.
Lawless Entertainment Magazine – www.llemag.com
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