This tune has always caused me to shiver inwardly. It is Purple Rain by Prince and The Revolution. The lyrics are simple on the surface, but I think it is the image of purple rain and the sweeping, fat and luscious, and sometimes slashing guitar chords that get the job done. For me the song is a deep dive into the unconscious, the realm of feelings that attach and detach from memories, inherently un resolved. On the face of it, this is a love song, a tale of a romance that runs its course, with wistful remembrance. How often and how easily we sabotage our most precious relationships?

I was also reminded of some words recently read from Martin Heidegger’s essay What is Metaphysics. I will add those words here. After the amazing rendition of Purple Rain by Adam Levine, I will append the lyrics for your enjoyment.

In the clear night of the nothing of anxiety
the original openness of beings as such arises:
that they are beings– and not nothing.

…..Being means: being held out into the nothing.
Holding itself out into the nothing,
Being is in each case already beyond beings as a whole.
This being beyond beings
we call “transcendence.”

–excerpt What Is Metaphysics by Martin Heidegger

            PURPLE RAIN
by Prince and The Revolution

I never meant to cause you any sorrow
I never meant to cause you any pain
I only wanted to one time to see you laughing
I only wanted to see you
Laughing in the purple rain

Purple rain, purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
I only wanted to see you
Bathing in the purple rain

I never wanted to be your weekend lover
I only wanted to be some kind of friend
Baby, I could never steal you from another
It’s such a shame our friendship had to end

Purple rain, purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
I only wanted to see you
Underneath the purple rain

Honey, I know, I know
I know times are changing
It’s time we all reach out
For something new, that means you too

You say…
Purple rain, purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
If you know what I’m singing about up here
C’mon, raise your hand
Purple rain, purple rain
I only want to see you
Only want to see you
In the purple rain

Songwriters: Prince Rogers Nelson
Purple Rain lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group