Spin offers Purplish Rain, a Prince tribute featuring Riverboat Gamblers, for (almost) free download

Starting yesterday, Spin Magazine is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Prince’s Purple Rain with an issue of the magazine devoted to the film and the album, and Purplish Rain, an exclusive song-for-song tribute to the album available for (almost) free download.

Here’s the catch: in order to download the (almost) free album, you have to answer a trivia question. In order to know the answer to the question, you have to buy the issue, or least read some of it.

Personally, not having heard it yet, I can’t tell you if the Riverboat Gamblers cover of “Let’s Go Crazy” is worth the cost of a magazine you may not otherwise read, but I’m going to hazard a yes, especially with the addition of the title track being performed by Lavender Diamond. Those two alone make the album worth the whatever Spin goes for these days.

Once you’ve bought (or read) the issue, you can answer your question and download Purplish Rain here.

Track list and artists:

1. "Let's Go Crazy" RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS
2. "Take Me With U" SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS
3. "The Beautiful Ones" FOL CHEN
4. "Computer Blue" OF MONTREAL
5. "Darling Nikki" CHAIRLIFT
6. "When Doves Cry" THE TWILIGHT SINGERS
7. "I Would Die 4 U" MARIACHI EL BRONX
8. "Baby I'm a Star" CRAIG WEDREN
9. "Purple Rain" LAVENDER DIAMOND

Photo © Nicole Lucas