Hey all, this is the Purple One writing to U under one of my many pseudonyms. You may also know me as the leader of the Revolution and that symbol that’s not on a keyboard. I need U 2 hear what I’m about 2 say about my best physician friend, Dr. Fink.
The keyboard player in the Revolution didn’t stop when I changed the band. Even though I don’t still perform with everyone I’ve played with, Dr. Fink is 2 good not 2 love. And as a doctor, he knows all about women’s health. Just look at what insights he has in my movie Purple Rain, when diagnosing my band members Wendy and Lisa.
Speaking of Purple Rain, the album turned 30 years old last month. It was born on June 25, 1984, making it just old enough to look older than me. (U know I stopped aging just before that album came out.) It was a big deal for the music world, because nobody had done music like this before. Rock, funk, a little country, even, all wrapped up on the dance floor. And the movie made it so much bigger; nobody expected it 2 be as big as it was—except me, of course.
Dr. Fink helped write some of those songs, like “Computer Blue,” and it was his idea to do the weird piano banging in “Let’s Go Crazy,” which is so much fun to do live. We had a good time playing those songs.
I know we’ve all purified ourselves in the waters of Lake Minnetonka, but it can’t hurt to do it again. That’s why Dr. Fink is still doing his funky thing with the Purple Xperience, in his scrubs and everything, to make sure U don’t lose Ur mind over not seeing all that sweet, sticky, funky, nasty music performed live. He even pulls off the crazy solos in “The Beautiful Ones” and “When Doves Cry”—after I taught him, of course.
I recently had Bobby Z onstage to play drums with me again, and who knows, I might reach out to Dr. Fink one of these days too. I like what he said about Purple Rain in his recent Vibe interview: “We really did make history. Thirty years later, Purple Rain is still a very highly influential piece of work. It feels good to be a part of something so important.”
