Watch Two US Congressmen Battle Each Other With Prince Songs


Wednesday marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Prince and The Revolution’s album Purple Rain, the soundtrack to the 1984 film of the same name. So, obviously, at least a couple lawmakers were going to mark the occasion by singing and strumming Prince music.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), a congressman from Prince’s home state, picked up an acoustic guitar and sang a cover of “Purple Rain” (he got the lyrics wrong, but still). Here’s a Vine of his Prince tribute:

Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) responded with his own acoustic Prince cover of “Raspberry Beret”—which isn’t from Purple Rain, but whatever:

The two Democrats later expressed a desire to jam, possibly to Bruce Springsteen. Perhaps Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) can weigh in next with “Let’s Go Crazy.”

Prince did not respond to Mother Jones‘ request for comment on what he thought about the elected representatives doing battle with his songs as glorious weaponry.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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