Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings “Take Me With U (Prince Cover)”
It’s been twenty-five years since we were first introduced to the greatness that is Prince’s film and album Purple Rain, and in honor of this event, the folks over at Spin Magazine have cooked up an entire track-by-track cover set of the classic album (entitled Purplish Rain) and are offering it for free (well, almost free, as you must deal with answering a trivia question correctly in order to receive the download).
But as much as we dig “The Kid”, it was a little hard trying to muster up much excitement over this thing, given that tribute records rarely ever sustain much interest beyond a single curious listen and we’ve probably heard each of Rain‘s nine entries covered over a million times over the years (with some being amazing, but most being…well, yeah).
To our non-surprise, Purplish Rain lands as a decent listen that’ll mostly leave you with a desire to re-check out the original; but if you do snatch up the free-load, the tracks you should most look out for include The Twilight Singers somber “When Doves Cry” (featuring the one and only Apollonia), a festive mariachi-styled run-through of “I Would Die 4 U” by Cali punk force The Bronx‘ alter ego Mariachi El Bronx, and the always-impressive Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings doing “Take Me With U”.
The final single stripped from Rain, the original “Take Me With U” paired Prince and Apollonia for a breezy duet celebrating their unbridled devotion to each other (“I dont care where we go/ I dont care what we do/ I dont care pretty baby/ Just take me with u”). Jones and the Kings relieve it of any pop stateliness (and, in a sense, familiarity) in their sassy rendition though, constructing this big band soul tour-de-force that sits comfortably in unison with the rest of their spirited old school-soaked output.
DL: “Take Me With U (Prince Cover)” (alt)
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