Sheet Music: Purple Rain
| Purple Rain |
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Sheet music details | ||||
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| Type | Album Sheet Music | [[file:|200px|border]] | [[file:|200px|border]] | |
| For | Piano, Guitar, Vocals | |||
| Publisher | Warner Bros Publishing Inc (Rights Administrator) & Warner Bros (Distributor) | |||
| Pages | 68 | |||
| Dimensions | 23 x 30.6 cm | |||
| Catalog Number | VF1179 | |||
| Other Reference | ISBN-13: 978-1-4234-3022-3 | |||
| Price | $10.95 (original) | |||
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Description | ||||
| A softcover songbook compilation of sheet music for the 9 songs featured on Prince’s sixth full-length studio album, Purple Rain, together with two instrumental pieces that featured in the film, Purple Rain.
The front cover seeks to replicate the look of the album cover artwork, including titles. However, whilst the same iconic photograph (credited to Ed Thrasher and Associates/Slenzak) of Prince as The Kid astride his motorbike takes centre stage, the floral photography (credited to Larry Williams) used for the front cover left and right-hand margins that featured on the original LP front cover is replaced by the similar floral photography background images cut from sections of the original album back cover. The back cover uses a central section of the floral photography on the rear LP cover, with the song titles listed using the same typography chosen by Prince for the album. The titles (in combinations of purple, yellow and white) are listed in the album's running order but, unlike the LP listing on the rear album cover, exclude reference to LP sides 1 and 2. Beneath the listing is added "Plus 2 Instrumentals from the film" above "Father's Song . God". The entirety of the Prince-penned message ("Dig if u will the picture...." etc.) is replicated from the LP back cover. Underneath this, between the film credits and PRODUCED, ARRANGED COMPOSED AND PERFORMED BY PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION are details for Warner Bros. Publications Inc. (left side) and Warner Bros (central), with the price and product code in the bottom right corner. The book's white spine displays, in purple lettering, the book title towards the top next to Prince and the Revolution and Printed in the USA with the catalog code at the bottom. The inside cover and title page (page 1) has more of the floral photography, with general copyright warnings for photography, art and music at the foot of the first page. The same background is used for pages 2 and 3, but with text boxes (purple frames and text with a cream yellow background). The text, entitled Purple Rain, gives details of Prince's recording career to date (but overlooking his first album), provides a 6-paragraph summary of the film and its soundtrack, and praises Prince's genius. Pages 4 and 5 are taken up by the group photograph of the Revolution with Prince (whose image has been enlarged), on the set used for the video of When Doves Cry. Band credits are given in the bottom left corner of page 4. The photography is credited (page 9) to Larry Willians and Ron Slenzak. Pages 6 and 7 repeat the double page spread of floral background with the purple and cream text boxes presenting the lyrics for each album song, with greater prominence given to those for the song, Purple Rain. A small additional text box at the foot of page 7 provides song writing credits and a further copyright notice. Page 8 is taken up with the photograph portrait of Prince featured on the front of the original sleeve for the single of When Doves Cry, with a photo credit in the footer (center). Page 9 is the Contents page. It repeats the front cover promotional shot of Prince, but in black and white. The songs are listed in the album running order (as presented in the book) with the page number referenced to the right of each title. Beneath Purple Rain it states: "Plus 2 instrumentals from the film". However, unlike the listing on the book's back cover, it lists the additional songs as they appear in the book, with God followed by Father's Song. The music scores start on page 9, with each song's title in its individual typeface from the album. Beneath each title it states 'Words and Music by PRINCE' except for 'The Beautiful Ones' (co-credited to Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman and John L. Nelson) and 'Father's Song' (here solely credited to John L. Nelson). Each title page also has a copyright notice: 'Copyright (C) CONTROVERSY MUSIC 1984 All Rights ALL Rights Reserved' in the page footer (center).
For each song (with lyrics), chord diagrams for six-string guitar are published above the musical staff, which comprises a top stave for the vocal melody and the main lyric running beneath (with spoken words in italics). Under these are the complementary treble and bass staves for piano, all in standard musical notation. Instrumental songs display the chord diagrams above the treble and bass staves. In common with many songbooks for popular artists, the music and lyrics are not provided as accurate transcriptions of the original album recording. In particular, passages of some songs and Prince's lead vocal (including spoken words as a song fades) are often not included. As with the lyrics printed on the original album inner sleeve and later the CD booklet, and replicated in the song book on page 6-7, the lyrics for Computer Blue include some of the lyrics from longer a longer version included on an earlier configuration of the album. The lyrics are attributed 'The Righteous 1' and were also included in part of Computer Blue ('Hallway Speech Version') subsequently released in 2017 on Purple Rain Deluxe Expanded Edition. These lyrics are published on page 34 at the end of the music score. The arrangement for each song is presented in the same key as the original recording. | ||||
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