"Let's Go Crazy" is a 1984 song by Prince and The Revolution, from the album Purple Rain. It was the opening track on both the album and the film Purple Rain.

The beginning of this song is one of the most famous spoken intros in pop history, opening with a funeral-like organ solo with Prince giving the "eulogy" for "this thing called life." He’s reminding us that we should enjoy this life, knowing that we can look forward to a world of never-ending happiness when we die.  Credit this to George Clinton, who did many similar bits ("free your mind, and your ass will follow...") with Parliament Funkadelic.

As private as he was artistic, Prince would sometimes grant interviews and wasn’t shy talking about his creative process and at times, his faith.  In a 1997 interview with Musician Magazine, he described how “Let’s Go Crazy” was a metaphor for God and Satan.  “Are we gonna let the elevator bring us down? Oh no let’s go!”

When writing, he said there were times he sought to fill in gaps on an album with songs that would please fans, musicians, and writers alike.  Additionally, being on a major label like Warner Brothers meant tempering his work to fit certain standards.

“This means that you think about singles: time constraints, for example, and the subject matter.  [For that reason] My original draft of ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ was much different from the version that wound up being released,” said Prince.

“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.  People think that the records they release have got to be hip, but what I need to do is to tell the truth,” He explained.

That same year, Prince talked to Chris Rock for an interview with VH1 and brought up the lyrics to “Let’s Go Crazy.”  He broke down his references to the elevator in the song and its hidden meaning.

“I had to change those words up, but the elevator was Satan.  I had to change the words up because you couldn’t say God on the radio.  And ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ was God to me.  It was: Stay happy, stay focused, and you can beat the elevator,” Prince revealed.

The Purple Rain album helped land Prince and the Revolution their first Grammy and “Let’s Go Crazy” was one of the songs that earned the film’s soundtrack an Oscar for Best Original Song Score.

Various Sources