A Train Is Leaving All Day

Prince’s Around The World In A Day Is 35 Years Old

Cassette artwork cover for Around The World In A Day (1985)

After Prince and the Revolution concluded the exhaustive Purple Rain Tour, Prince was already looking toward his next project. Not completing it, but releasing it, because it was completed. Most of the songs from the Purple Rain follow up had been recorded during the same sessions as Purple Rain as well as during the tour itself.

The Purple Rain Tour traveled from November 4, 1984, until April 7, 1985. It served ninety-eight shows and sold over $1.7M tickets. The setlist rarely changed, although the piano segment highlighted different songs. On February 23, 1985, Prince debuted “Raspberry Beret” and “America” during a show at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

But Prince stated later that the tour almost killed him. Fans wanted the movie in concert. So every dance move in a song had to be the same for every show. And for an artist who works off the cuff to be regimented had to feel like a prison sentence. The irony isn’t lost on that. The thing that would arguably give Prince his biggest payday and an unprecedented degree of freedom and clout with the public, radio, and his record company would also weigh the heaviest on his head. While Prince loved to perform, you can almost see how he was walking through the show by the end of it. The VHS release of Prince and the Revolution LIVE recorded on March 30, 198FIVE was an explosive two hours of rock, funk, and soul. It was also a visual aid of Prince being flat out bored with all things Purple Rain. He was itching to do something else.

Once the tour ended, Prince quietly released Around The World In A Day. He specifically told his record company he wanted no lead single release and minimal promotion. It was a good month before any single was released. The idea was to put the album out and let radio stations find their singles. It was a thumbing-of-the-nose because Prince knows how programmed radio networks are in their playlists. Hit songs are rotated every 45 minutes or less, and certain songs may be played at least once an hour or more, there are spoken bumpers on either side of other songs. For a radio station to get a record and a virtual note of “here ya go, you figure it out” had to upset the corporate machine of terrestrial radio. I can only imagine Prince giggling to himself, knowing the white-collar upset he was instigating. He was stirring the pot.

Prince in “Raspberry Beret” video

Around The World In A Day was a vast departure from his previous records, which had set formulas and ideas. 1999 was a colder album, being mostly all drum machine and synths with little band input, whereas albums like Controversy had his one-man show upfront in other ways, mostly without the help of the Linn drum machine. Dirty Mind was mainly a set of well-mastered demo recordings made during a time when Prince’s home studio was being built. (There is no piano on the album.) But before we delve into the “it’s very Sgt. Peppers psychedelic rock-oriented” arguments, let’s not dismiss it as that unusual just yet.

While it first appears ATWIAD is a total left turn for Prince and the Revolution, it’s not. Prince found a winning formula with Purple Rain, and he used it on this album. The title track opens with one note, much like “Let’s Go Crazy.” The drums are layered in, then Prince’s voice, then the band blasts into the track. Lisa Coleman’s brother, David, wrote the title track. Prince had gifted him studio time for his birthday, and this song was the result. Prince added a few things, took out a few things, and it became the title track of the album. It indeed guided the aural aesthetic of the record. It’s a song of hope and community, a pied piper’s call to gather everyone together, with laughter being the admission fee. “Paisley Park” is an ode to his future recording studio and home in Chanhassen, Minnesota. I’ve always enjoyed the fact that Prince takes his idioms and makes them into a song. It’s a move of ownership. Paisley Park, New Power Generation, New Power Soul, Glam Slam, My Name is Prince are all significant words or phrases from the world of Prince, and they’ve all been made into songs. “Paisley Park” is a light-hearted lethargic bop (which feels like an oxymoron) about a mythical place of lost souls and focusing inward to heal one’s self. It’s a metaphorical self-help statement about where we all are in the moment, sitting with our pain or our joy, trying to find our bliss and follow. It compares slightly to a song like “Take Me With U,” where a lighter feeling is offered after a powerhouse opening number.

Next in line is the typical third-track ballad. Controversy had “Do Me, Baby,” Purple Rain had “The Beautiful Ones,” Parade had “I Wonder U,” Batman had “The Arms of Orion,” Diamonds and Pearls had its melodic title track, The Gold Experience had “Shhh,” and so on. ATWIAD’s “Condition of the Heart” opens with a long prelude of piano noodling and ethereal orchestration. It’s a tale of lost love and heartbreak. It feels like a grown-up version of Dirty Mind’s “Gotta Broken Heart Again.” But don’t let the melancholy fool you. This is a deep cut for any fan of music and should be praised accordingly. Where “The Beautiful Ones” demands a choice be made, “Condition of the Heart” seems to be the unwanted answer.

Original artwork for Around The World In A Day

“Raspberry Beret” is a fun bop that dates back to 1982, which makes one wonder how exactly it would have fit on an album like 1999. But it seems it was a song just to be recorded, not a considering for that album. But here, it finds a perfect home on ATWIAD. It’s one of the more radio-friendly sounding songs on the album. It takes on the story of “Take Me With U” and continues the narrative. It almost mirrors the Kid and Apollonia’s relationship from Purple Rain, him taking her for a ride on the back of his motorbike, driving out to the woods, and having some fun. It also speaks to a second love scene filmed for the movie, taking place in a barn loft with purple rain in the background. The scene is also in the trailer for the film, but not the movie itself. Prince’s cheeky side rears its head in lines like, “do you feel like a movie star?” (It’s a theme he would later revisit in a song called — wait for it — “Movie Star.”) The song is comparable in style to “Take Me With U” as well, not just storyline. And while it’s not in the same tracklisting as “Take Me With U”, it certainly fits the motif of a light-hearted ode to young love.

“Tambourine” rounds out side one of ATWAID and is arguable akin to “When Doves Cry.” It’s rhythm-and-drum heavy, lacks excessive production, and finds Prince in the throws of working out a complicated relationship. “When Doves Cry” finds him more reflective, comparing his relationship to his interactions with his father and mother, realizing their shortcomings as his own. “Tamborine” brings up more carnal frustration as he sets aside his emotional baggage and waxes poetic about a girl’s …tambourine; yet another clever-not-so-clever word for a vagina. “What’s it like, what’s it like inside your tambourine?” He’s almost insane with pent up involuntary celibacy, rambling on in a state of delirium, “I don’t care for one night stands with trolly cars that juggle seventeen…” It’s okay to say, “what the ever-living fuck is he talking about?” Because frankly, I’ve never figured that one out. It stands to note that side A of Purple Rain and ATWIAD both have five songs.

Side B has the one-note jam of “America,” a song that barks directly as social and economic discourse. Jimmy Nothing’s adverse reaction to pledging allegiance to the flag and quitting school could very well be mirrored in the classroom-to-prison pipeline that is laid out by institutionalized white supremacy in schools still today. Black men and women are set up to fail, have records, and end up in prison. Nothing in the song states that Jimmy was black, but the while on the album cover and the single is a black child holding an American flag. You do the math. “America” is very much the brother to “Baby I’m A Star,” not just in its lengthy jam band approach (the 12" single clicks at almost twenty-two minutes) but also that both songs are band songs, not Prince alone in the studio. “America” was recorded in the summer of 1984 (as “Baby, I’m A Star” was recorded live at First Avenue in the summer of 1983). The rumor is that the band played until the tape ran out, and the song was faded just before that on record. “America” is “Baby I’m A Star” ‘s sibling because it uses the same Linn drum track for both songs. Go ahead, listen to them. You’ll hear it.

“Pop Life” is a fan favorite for many reasons, not the least of which is its direct call-outs to the people around him. A whole verse is dedicated to friend and The Time frontman Morris Day and his then-cocaine habit. “Whatcha puttin’ in ya nose/is that where all your money goes?/The river of addiction flows.” The track almost comes across as cynical, that “everybody needs a thrill/life is ain’t too funky unless it’s got that pop,” giving leeway to those who would find the pop in their life is less than healthy ways. It could also speak to the Jimmy character, as mentioned above, “Show me a boy who stays in school, and I’ll show U a boy aware.” The most intriguing thing about the track isn’t that he addressed Day or other social imperfections; it’s that the lead vocal track is doubled. Upon first listen, it sounds like a simple echo on Prince’s voice. But if you listen carefully, you can hear that it’s two distinct lead vocal tracks, one placed slightly behind the other to sound like an echo. It’s not a new technique per se but was undoubtedly unique on a Prince record. Even alternative grunge bands like Nirvana would use the same technique on their songs.

Prince in “America” video, filmed in France

The album closes with the yin and yang of Prince’s life — religion and sex. “The Ladder” is “Purple Rain’s stepsister, while “Temptation” takes on “Darling Nikki”‘s verbose exploration of lust and pussy-greed. “The Ladder” was recorded on October 31, 1984, the last day of rehearsals for the Purple Rain Tour. Wendy, Lisa, Taja Sevelle, and Susannah later recorded backing vocals. It’s a one-take performance by Prince and the Revolution, and the song’s live feel stands out as a unique and praise-worthy track on the album. In contract, “Temptation” is Prince, his guitar, and a bluesy dirge dripping with precu — sexuality. I may be one of the only fans who doesn’t enjoy the tag ending Prince later added to the song, which changes the pace and feel of the song and delves into a self-indulgent menagerie of quasi-prayer dialog. Similar moments would happen on the Purple Rain Tour in lengthy segues as Prince talked to fabric being moved by a high-powered fan. The dialog sequences in concert felt clunky, disjointed, and slowed the pace of the show in ways where the audience almost took a bathroom break. For me, the tag ending on “Temptation” feels embarrassing and adds nothing to the song. Prince has spoken about the authenticity of being angry or cynical on record, but bringing full circle by the end of the track and having a resolution. So maybe that’s where his “have a little talk with God” moment comes in for this song. I can do without it. Because no matter how much Prince asks for forgiveness and promises, “I’ll be good,” we know damn well he’s going to be chasing tale in two days.

Ultimately, ATWAID is a fuck-you to the commercialization of Prince’s music. But the marketing is no one’s fault but Prince’s. And it’s not even a fault. Purple Rain was a purposeful act to cross over, even more, riding that “Little Red Corvette” white audience wave, and hit the mainstream in a big way. He accomplished that. But when critics challenged Prince on the strength or power of the album versus his earlier output, Prince said, “You know how easy it would have been to open Around the World in a Day with the guitar solo that’s on the end of ‘Let’s Go Crazy’? You know how easy it would have been to just put it in a different key? That would have shut everybody up who said the album wasn’t half as powerful. I don’t want to make an album like the earlier ones. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to put your albums back to back and not get bored, you dig? I don’t know how many people can play all their albums back to back with each one going to different cities.” He also spoke about how people weren’t writing songs anymore, that there were a lot of sounds and repetition, but no one was writing songs. It would seem he wanted to set an example of songwriting with ATWIAD.

While many fans had an adverse or odd reaction to an otherwise strange album in Prince’s canon (included this writer), the album would grow on critics and fans as one of the most unusual, intelligent, and musically smart moves Prince ever made. His pivot from focusing so much on a larger project like a movie to just returning to make a great album of nine songs probably hurt his career as much as it kept his integrity. Most top-40 fans didn’t know much about Prince before “Little Red Corvette” or “When Doves Cry.” And after, they probably expected “Let’s Go Crazy” part two. Prince knew that. The rigors of the Purple Rain Tour on the heels of the brutal filming schedule, script changes and his general oversight on the film, to continuing his manic recording process which included not only new music like “Pop Life” or “Condition of the Heart” but also mixing and overdubbing songs for the Purple Rain album and even coming off “the tour from hell” (as it was dubbed backstage) which was his Triple Threat tour supporting the 1999 album (with Vanity 6 and The Time in tow on most dates), Prince set himself up over three years to do whatever he wanted on record and say “fuck you” to anyone who disagreed. But the joke was on the critics because “Raspberry Beret,” “Pop Life,” “America,” and “Paisley Park” were all singles and enjoyed good radio play. The album hit number one on Billboard’s Top 200 (and enjoyed a resurgence to number fifty-one in 2016 on the same chart), with the singles hitting number two, seven, forty-six, and seven, respectively. Sure, it wasn’t a slew of #1s like Purple Rain garnered, but if we know anything about Prince, we know his immediate attitude is, “been there, done that.” Charts be damned, Prince was going to take us all on a trip around the world in just over forty-two minutes, and he did. And the naysayer’s laughter seemed to be the only admission fee for all of us to ride. Because Prince got the last laugh. And we’ve been riding that train ever since.

Suggested listening:

“Around The World In A Day” — circulating bootleg with more bass & production
“Paisley Park” (Remix)
“Raspberry Beret” (New Mix) b/w “She’s Always In My Hair” (single, New Mix)`
“America” (unnamed extended)** b/w “Girl” (single, Extended Version)
“Pop Life” (Fresh Dance Mix) & (Extended Version) b/w “Hello” (single, Fresh Dance Mix)*

* “Pop Life” (Fresh Dance Mix) was remixed by Sheila E., “Extended Version” is Prince’s original version
** This is the original jam mentioned above

Ernest Sewell was born & raised in Oklahoma. After living across the U.S. in places like Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis, he’s settled in upstate New York for the past twenty years. He’s authored and published two books and is working on a smattering of new material, including a new horror novel. He shares his home with a friend, three cats, and his vinyl collection, all of whom have the same level of love from him. When he’s not causing an uproar on Prince forums or social media, he enjoys reads (a lot), trying new recipes, and prank calling people.

“Don’t take yourself too seriously. No one else does.”

Sign up to discover human stories that deepen your understanding of the world.

Free

Distraction-free reading. No ads.

Organize your knowledge with lists and highlights.

Tell your story. Find your audience.

Membership

Read member-only stories

Support writers you read most

Earn money for your writing

Listen to audio narrations

Read offline with the Medium app

Published in The Violet Reality

Music, love and funk brought 2U by The Violet Reality — pop culture junkies, artists, and the world’s leading authorities on Prince. Subscribe on YouTube, email for info! We are not affiliated, sponsored or endorsed by The Prince Estate.

No responses yet

What are your thoughts?