ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the fundamental tension between live and studio sound shapes the version of Prince's “Purple Rain” that closes the album of the same name, starting with the fact that the track is largely sourced from a live recording made at the First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis. Analysis of the song revolves around three primary features: crowd noise, Prince's lead guitar, and the string section accompaniment. The traces of crowd noise audible in the recording appear as the most explicit index of the performance's liveness but also occupy an ambiguous space because they are often buried in the mix or coexist in a complex relationship with other song elements more identifiably tied to the recording studio. Rather than signifying liveness as such, crowd noise in the song mediates between the live qualities of the lead guitar and the studio crafting of the strings. The interplay between these three elements gives “Purple Rain” much of its dramatic arc and creates a sonic space that is defined by a deliberate blurring of boundaries between racial signifiers of blackness and whiteness; between music genres of rock, jazz, and soul; and between live and studio recorded sound.
