Excuse my only just hearing this song this weekend, I just got into Prince relatively recently...

But I heard this song and considering it came out about a year after the Revolution broke up, I can't help but think this song is defintely written about Prince. I looked it up to see if anyone agreed but I saw no discussion on it. Does anyone else interpret this song this way?

I never though of Waterfall being about Prince, but the song called "Song About"...definitely.

Wendy & Lisa comfirmed that almost the entire recod is about the breakup between Prince & The Revolution.

Wendy & Lisa weren’t allowed to use any of the unreleased material they had worked on with Prince, so they created a batch of new songs, often working with their Revolution bandmate Bobby Z. – who co-wrote five songs and co-produced the new album. But just because they couldn’t use their songs written with Prince didn’t mean that they couldn’t write about Prince. Poppy lead single “Waterfall” appeared to express cautious optimism about the separation (“People may come / People may go…”) and “Sideshow” seemed to hint at how it was to share a stage with Prince. Meanwhile, “Song About” took on the Purple One more directly.

“Wendy and I were sitting around talking about our memories of him in certain situations. We just translated them into song form,” Coleman revealed, then Melvoin added, “It’s a sad song because it’s sad thinking about what happened and realizing all that is gone for good. We wrote that song to let him know we’re never going to let go of the memories.”

http://diffuser.fm/wendy-...isa-debut/

fruitcocktail said:

Excuse my only just hearing this song this weekend, I just got into Prince relatively recently...

But I heard this song and considering it came out about a year after the Revolution broke up, I can't help but think this song is defintely written about Prince. I looked it up to see if anyone agreed but I saw no discussion on it. Does anyone else interpret this song this way?

Prince said in a 1990 interview he told Wendy he thought the kids would have prefered to see her jump off of something in the video lol

Move slow
Now your time's at hand
Take heed
'Cause our love has passed
Hot fuse
Can be short or long
The time bomb
Of your life has come
People may come, people may go
Just as long as the water's slow
But watch out when you're
Headed for the waterfall
Dry land is just a love away
Warm sun and a place to lay
I see your future
The water above you calm and clear
People may come, people may go
Just as long as the water's slow
But watch out when you're
Headed for the waterfall
Love lost always makes one sad
You seem
You seem to rise instead
Feel the water, ice cool water
People may come, people may go
Just as long as the water's slow
But watch out when you're
Headed for the waterfall
People may come, people may go
Just as long as the water's slow
But watch…

Wendy and Lisa was primarily written, arranged, produced and played by the two women themselves. Guitar, bass guitar, organ, drums and percussion were all steered by Melvoin; Coleman helmed piano, keyboards and synthesizers. The LP featured supplementary input from a few select friends and family. Former Revolution drummer Robert Rivkin (Bobby Z.) co-wrote five songs with Melvoin and Coleman. Various friends, siblings and one parent of the two ladies provided peripheral instrumentation, but Wendy and Lisa’s autonomy was maintained by its titular heroines.

The album is an incredibly attractive mix of breezy pop melodies (“Honeymoon Express”), cerebral jazz improvisation (“White”), shapely funk (“Blues Away”) and rock (“Waterfall”). Their handsome, inimitable harmonies hadn’t lost their gorgeousness. However, they appealed individually too, as heard on the radio primed ballad “Stay” or the sophisti-pop pose of “Everything But You.” The former composition was an autobiographical declaration of love and devotion to one another, its lyrics hidden in plain sight. Further real life experiences powered the pointed “Song About,” addressing their split with Prince: “So strange that no one stayed at the end of the parade.”

motherfunka said:

I never though of Waterfall being about Prince, but the song called "Song About"...definitely.

It makes me want to cry
Thinking about you (about Prince, obvi)
“Beautiful” you said
The way you shook your head (he did this at their last show in Yokohama on the Parade tour when they sung "Sometimes It Snows In April")
So strange, that no one stayed
At the end of the parade (end of the Parade album and tour; Brownmark had wanted to leave as did W&L but were coaxed back in for the tour; Prince had told Dez he needed him for 3-4 years, and if he wanted to leave, then 1983 was the time to do it. I think Prince knew he sort of wanted to do a trio of albums or something starting with PR)

This is just another song about it
This is just another song about

Standing next to me (they were just feet apart on stage of course)
Imagine that it's true
You where singing songs
About life or doom
I was singing songs to you (she's directly talking to Prince and her love of him and his love for her in tihs section)

This is just another song about it
This is just another song about

I gave colors to you (I believe this sort of hints at how people have said W&L added color to his music; he also thanked W&L for "making brighter the colors black and white" on the Parade linernotes)
You washed my heart
With many dreams
Dreams I'd never seen
The pain of my spirit
The pain of my heart
Don't ever tell me
To let it all go

This is just another song about it
This is just another song about…

Definitely the most pointed song about Prince and the Revolution breaking up.

To the OP, I've added a couple of notes in the lyrics above so you have a better look at what they're talking about. Them singing "just another song about it" does sort of lend to the idea that the whole record, at least in large part, is about their relationship in the band and such. Hell, Boy George is probably still writing songs about Jon Moss 30+ years later.

That whole debut album from them is still the best one, but Eroica and Fruit at the Bottom are not to be dismissed. GirlBros is very different and moodier (it was recorded during or after Jonathan's death), but still worth a listen. Dig around on YouTube. They did a lot of videos for stuff. I had such a crush on Wendy back in the day, and she was so adorable and grown up in the "Waterfall" video.

I always sort of felt, with the texture and production on it, that Wendy & Lisa record was the Dream Factory-esque album that never happened. It was their own sound, but still reached back to Parade a little bit, and the b-sides to ATWIAD (some of which were recorded during the Purple Rain era).

On the liner notes to the reissue Lisa says Bobby Z already had the chorus to the song written by the time they started on the whole Wendy & Lisa project, the implication being that it had been around before the Revolution split up. Doesn't mean it's not about Prince but I wouldn't personally think it's as straight forward as that, but then again I don't think any of those Prince songs are only about specific women so what do I know.

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Don't forget, many have said The Beautiful Ones was written abotu Susannah, Wendy's twin, so this could be referencing that song (since they look identical)

GaryMF said:

Thinking about you (about Prince, obvi)
“Beautiful” you said

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Don't forget, many have said The Beautiful Ones was written abotu Susannah, Wendy's twin, so this could be referencing that song (since they look identical)

No. W&L have pointedly said that Yokohama show is the reference. The show was on YouTube, and you could hear them say "beautiful" after "SISIA". That was also the show where he broke one of his white cloud guitars (mostly because the sound wasn't working and the tech brought another right out).

TrivialPursuit said:

GaryMF said:

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Don't forget, many have said The Beautiful Ones was written abotu Susannah, Wendy's twin, so this could be referencing that song (since they look identical)

No. W&L have pointedly said that Yokohama show is the reference. The show was on YouTube, and you could hear them say "beautiful" after "SISIA". That was also the show where he broke one of his white cloud guitars (mostly because the sound wasn't working and the tech brought another right out).

Yes, definitely referring to SISIA, and possibly other tracks they wrote and recorded together like Power Fantastic.

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I always thought Mother Of Pearl was about their conflicts with Prince too, but awhile back Lisa wrote online that it was related to bigotry toward the Gay community. These lyrics made me think it was directed at Prince:

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Who knows....guess he could be part of the inspiration for the song, but they're keeping that quiet.

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I had read or heard somewhere that their song Invisible was directed at Prince, because of his stance on homosexuality at that time.

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Man, I really do love their music though. To the OP: you HAVE to go to YT and listen to Eroica and White Flags Of Winter Chimneys. All great songs on those!!

OldFriends4Sale said:

fruitcocktail said:

Excuse my only just hearing this song this weekend, I just got into Prince relatively recently...

But I heard this song and considering it came out about a year after the Revolution broke up, I can't help but think this song is defintely written about Prince. I looked it up to see if anyone agreed but I saw no discussion on it. Does anyone else interpret this song this way?

Prince said in a 1990 interview he told Wendy he thought the kids would have prefered to see her jump off of something in the video lol

Here's the part of that 1990 interview with RS talking about Wendy & Lisa :

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"The breakup of the Revolution apparently didn’t go down easy. Today, Prince’s relationship with his onetime best friends Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman is somewhere between uncomfortable and estranged. “I talk to Wendy and Lisa, but it’s like this,” Prince says, moving his hands in opposite directions. “I still hear a lot of hurt from them, and that bothers me. When I knew them, they were two spunky, wonderful human beings. I honestly don’t know what they’re hurt about.”

So far, Prince says, the two women haven’t listened to the few tidbits of advice he has offered. For their first video, Prince recommended that they try to announce themselves by making a splash, by “doing something like jumping off a speaker with smoke pouring out everywhere. Something.” When he saw the video, however, Wendy was sitting in a chair, playing her guitar. “You can’t do that when you’re just getting established—kids watching MTV see that and they go click,” Prince says, miming a channel being changed. “They’d rather watch a commercial.”

Still, Prince’s pronouncements seem proffered more in mourning than in malice. “Wendy and Lisa are going to have to do some more serious soul-searching and decide what they want to write about,” he says sadly and shakes his head. “I don’t know what Wendy and Lisa are so hurt about. I wish I did, but I don’t.” "

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It's a shame their music didn't really take off back then, because it still holds up today. They had some great songs. I just think they were not marketed the right way. Many of their songs had a more alternative sound - like Stay, Mother Of Pearl, Song About, etc. If the labels would have focused on that genre instead of the "pop" side I think they would have sold more records.

TrivialPursuit said:

GaryMF said:

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Don't forget, many have said The Beautiful Ones was written abotu Susannah, Wendy's twin, so this could be referencing that song (since they look identical)

No. W&L have pointedly said that Yokohama show is the reference. The show was on YouTube, and you could hear them say "beautiful" after "SISIA". That was also the show where he broke one of his white cloud guitars (mostly because the sound wasn't working and the tech brought another right out).

WHat do you mean hear THEN say it? aren't they referring ot Prince saying "Beautiful?"

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I still think it can have more than 1 meaning, that show plus the song TBOs

GaryMF said:

TrivialPursuit said:

No. W&L have pointedly said that Yokohama show is the reference. The show was on YouTube, and you could hear them say "beautiful" after "SISIA". That was also the show where he broke one of his white cloud guitars (mostly because the sound wasn't working and the tech brought another right out).

WHat do you mean hear THEN say it? aren't they referring ot Prince saying "Beautiful?"

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I still think it can have more than 1 meaning, that show plus the song TBOs

:::: Prince said it.

#NitPicking