By now, everyone with a guitar has tried his or her hand at covering “Purple Rain”. But since Prince’s sudden death last week at the age of 57, a pair of Boston musicians have gone just a bit deeper into the vault, churning out two distinct covers of the late icon’s “I Would Die 4 U”.
Will Dailey’s arrived first, last Friday, a result of fast-tracking a song long in his live arsenal to give it a proper recording. About 10 months ago I recorded this track for you as a way to say, ‘thank you'”, Dailey writes on Soundcloud. “My intention was to share this track in May. Yesterday changed that… I’ve been performing this song for a number of years and this morning we rushed the final mix out to you. I hope you can put on real headphones, turn up really loud and stand up while you listen. In an age of division Prince, like Bowie, was a unifier. I have yet to find someone who couldn’t get into a Prince track, performance or point of view. In our present moment, the grief carries a heavier weight but there is no darkness in his wake, only light.”
Following the Dailey effort comes a stripped down piano and vocal cut from Amy Douglas, known around Boston and New York circles as the powerhouse voice of bands like Feints, SPF 5000, and Sunrise HWY.
“I can’t handle how much it hurts that Prince is gone, so I just went downstairs to my studio and did something about it,” Douglass writes. “I hope everyone does something that makes them feel good during such a time of utter loss. This is my fave Prince song.”