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Prince · S6 E2
Raspberry Beret
A pop song about young love, a secondhand store, and a rainstorm. Effortless perfection disguised as simplicity
May 1985. After months of psychedelic confusion, Prince drops "Raspberry Beret" as a single, and it's a love song so purely joyful that even the people who hated Around the World in a Day have to admit he's still the best pop songwriter alive.
"Cream" (Prince, 1991). Prince at his most shamelessly pop, proving that the man who made Around the World in a Day could always write a hit when he wanted to. "Raspberry Beret" opened that door in 1985. Six years later, "Cream" walks through it and never looks back.
Simple Is the Hardest Thing to Do
"Raspberry Beret" is Prince at his most accessible, and that's exactly what makes it subversive. The song sounds like a sunny AM radio single from the 1960s, all strumming guitars and strings, but underneath it there's a Linn drum machine and layers of synthesizer that give it an uncanny, not-quite-real quality. It's a song that tricks you into thinking it's simple.
Sources
Per Nilsen, "DanceMusicSexRomance"
Rolling Stone
Pitchfork
TAP TO REVEAL: What made the Raspberry Beret music video so unusual for 1985?
“I always knew I could write a hit. I just didn't always want to.”
— Prince
Cream, Prince (1991)
One of the simplest Prince songs ever made, built on a strutting guitar riff and a bass line that walks like it's got nowhere to be. Prince strips away the layers of production he's famous for and lets the groove do all the work. Listen for how the vocals are drenched in reverb but the guitar stays bone dry, creating a contrast between the wet voice and the crisp instrumentation. It's a song about confidence, and the production is confident enough to leave space empty.
Sources
Pitchfork
Rolling Stone
Raspberry Beret: The Facts
Tamborine, Prince and the Revolution
From Around the World in a Day (1985). The deep cut that Raspberry Beret fans usually miss. Where the single is sunny and bright, "Tamborine" is loose and funky, built around a groove so slippery it barely holds together. This is the ATWIAD sound at its most playful, the side of the album that gets lost in the shadow of its biggest hit.
Tamborine, Prince and the Revolution (1985)
"If a man is considered guilty for what goes on in his mind, then give me the electric chair for all my future crimes." One of the sharpest lyrics on ATWIAD, buried in a song most casual fans have never heard. Prince hides his best writing in the deep cuts.
Where does the narrator of "Raspberry Beret" meet the girl in the song?
Raspberry Beret has proved Prince can be weird and accessible at the same time. Next: he builds his own recording studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, a 65,000-square-foot complex called Paisley Park, and the most prolific era in pop music history begins.
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