Prince's Purple Rain Focus of New Book

The opening scene of Oscar-winning Purple Rain marks the exact moment movie and music fans first encountered and likely fell in love with the inscrutable, ultimately unknowable Prince.

This low-budget film unexpectedly debuted at the number-one slot in the box office and went on to win multiple awards. Now, 25 years after this beginning of the "Purple Age of Prince" (as Tavis Smiley put it), Prince remains that same inscrutable Kid standing semi-obscured in the mist, and Purple Rain is still recognized prominently on critical top-ten lists.

In Purple Rain: Music on Film (April 2012, Limelight Editions), John Kenneth Muir explores in detail the behind-the-scenes struggles and triumphs of the film's making, from the trouble casting a female lead to star opposite Prince, to concerns that the movie's urban vibe and sound wouldn't play in Peoria. Featuring extensive new interviews with the film's director, producer, and assistant editor, Purple Rain: Music on Film reveals a 1980s cult-classic as you've never seen, heard, or experienced it before.