On episode 171 of the Press Rewind – Prince Lyrics Podcast, Leslie Ballard and I divide and conquer this medley from the Purple Rain Deluxe. “Our Destiny/Roadhouse Garden” has a storied past, having come from an infamous birthday show at First Ave in 1984 and likely recorded for other projects but never released as standalone songs.
“It’s written in the sky above. Our destiny is 2 fall in love.”
“This is the house where we used 2 play.”
A fun little medley with Lisa Coleman on lead vocals for the first half (“Our Destiny”) and Prince taking over the lead for the second half (“Roadhouse Garden”). These tracks were premiered by Prince & the Revolution in June of ’84 at his First Ave birthday show, but I believe they were intended separately for something greater. Like many great Prince songs, they got left behind for other material that ultimately did something similar but better. Also, I had a brain fart and forgot about “1999” when discussing officially released Prince songs that did not include Prince on lead vocals. Of course, that track includes multiple lead vocals, Prince’s being one of them. “Our Destiny” would have been a song that included vocals other than Prince’s as lead for the entire song, not just a portion.
The goal of each episode of Press Rewind is to:
- Take a track by track look at the lyrical content of Prince’s discography
- Discuss my own interpretation of each song’s lyrics along with any guest I may have
- If submitted, discuss listener’s interpretations of each song’s lyrics
Thank you for joining me on this journey through Prince’s catalog!
