No-one did it quite like Prince. The Purple One was an unrelenting force of nature and to be in his crew, you had to try and hoist yourself up to his skyscraper-y high standards. There is a strong case that his OG band The Revolution – keyboardists Matt Fink and Lisa Coleman, drummer Bobby Z., bassist Brown Mark and guitarist Wendy Melvoin – got closer than anyone else. One jaw-dropping example of the group’s colossal alchemy is the thrilling opening to their Purple Rain tour, which bursted into action with a scintillating version of Let’s Go Crazy.
It's 40 years this week since Let’s Go Crazy was released as a single, becoming Prince’s second US Number One. A few years ago, Bobby Z. and Brown told this writer about what it was like opening the show with it.
“I was one of the guys in the front row so we had a different kind of energy we had to generate before [the band went on] - we had to get our psyche together before we walked out on a stage because the power that was coming from audience, the roar, the excitement, that’ll put you in a state of shock if you don’t prepare yourself for it,” recalled Brown Mark. “We were so amped up that you walked out there like a gladiator, like a ‘Yeah, I’m gonna conquer’ kind of mentality. Prince taught that very well. I don’t know where he got it from. I always say, he’s from outer space somewhere.”
“He had a seriousness to it that other musicians didn’t have, it was like life and death up there,” added Bobby Z.
Brown Mark said Prince helped instil a cocky swagger in his group so that everyone felt like they were on top of their game. “He taught me how to have that same attitude, ‘You walk out there, you own this, this is yours, you take charge’,” he said. “Prince and I both used to have this energy with each other where we would compete. He liked that, because he would drive that, he did the same thing with Wendy.
"And that’s what made us all look so cohesive and so powerful and in tune because he connected with each one of us, and gave us all a little bit of his power. We were able to stand on that stage and just really create some visual effects that were amazing, even when I look back at it now.”
Witness the power of Prince And The Revolution playing Let’s Go Crazy at the height of their powers at a show in Syracuse in 1985:
