"Let's Go Crazy"

“Dearly beloved we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life…”

Intoning those words like a preacher addressing his congregation while a wavering organ plays in the background, Prince introduced one of the most memorable songs of his unforgettable career.

And those religious touches that set the stage for “Let’s Go Crazy” aren’t an afterthought.  They’re the remnants of the song as he originally conceived it.

“My original draft of ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ was much different from the version that wound up being released,” Prince told Musician magazine in 1997.

“As I wrote it, ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ was about God and the de-elevation of sin. But the problem was that religion as a subject is taboo in pop music.”

As Prince explained to Chris Rock in a VH-1 interview that same year, “I had to change the words up because you couldn’t say God on the radio.  The elevator was Satan.  And ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ was God to me.  It was:  stay happy, stay focused, and you can beat the elevator.”

The song was certainly a defining moment in Prince’s career.  In 2016, after the artist was found unresponsive in an elevator in his Paisley Park compound and later pronounced dead, the members of his Purple Rain era backing band reconvened for a handful of concerts to pay tribute.

According to bassist Brown Mark, “If you remember, in the song it asks 'Are we going to let the elevator bring us down?’’  And the ironic thing is that he died in an elevator.  We needed to [start our set] with 'Let's Go Crazy,' because Prince lived and breathed what he was.  He loved life, and he loved music so much.  That was his happy song.”