How many of you guys dig "Computer Blue"...a masterpiece of a song...especially the First Avenue debut...love the synths during the second verse during the concert...it sounds like the synth is gettin killed or sumthin...the sound it makes...beautiful.Discuss.

Ecnirp84

One of my all time favorite Prince songs especially the 12 minute version, Hearing made me wish that Purple Rain would have been a double album.

my absolute favorite song on PR!! and yes, the 12 min version and the version from First Ave only makes it better!!

and PR SHOULD'VE BEEN A DOUBLE LP!!! (I say that all the time)

Where is my love life...

The 1st avenue's version of "computer blue" is by far the best rendition he ever done!

Easily the best song on a great album. Never heard the 12 minute version and most performances of this were pretty good when I saw it live. The Prince & the Revolution Live performance is a fave.

The only time I did not care for it was with the Hit N' Run tour of April 2001 in Atlanta. About halfway through the song, Najee' started the sax playing(replacing all the guitar work. Killed the song.

By the way, what is the meaning of/to Computer Blue?

Peace

blueangel7 said:

theC
The 11 min studio version is far better.the guitar work on there is some of his best work ever.The live version is nice 2.but automatic is mixed in(which ain't bad).Iwonder which version peeps like best.

theC said:

I also dig the extended bootleg studio version. The guitar is seriously driving that groove all the way home.

I LOVE Computer Blue! The long version and the First Avenue versions are great! The musical twists, voice interactions, guitars, synthesizers and Prince's screams made the song a musical journey. I love different layers in songs, not the same monolithic beats in music. Great Prince song!

what is this song about?

without really checking out the lyrics closely.. I always thought it was about a computer dating service thing?

am I right?.. if not anyone who has caught all the lyrics what do you think it is about?

I don't think Purple Rain should've been a double. It's perfect the way it is, extending it over 2 discs would just water it down.

Having said that though I really love the long version of Computer Blue, it's a shame it never got an official release. Even though it's one of my favorite tracks, I don't think it would've been a good choice for a single. Maybe it could've been a b-side or something, then the long version could've been on the 12", and everyone could have heard it.

I LOVE the poem in the lyrics sheet!

Here's the complete lyrics
for the full length version of
Computer Blue...

Wendy?
Yes Lisa.
Is the water warm enough?
Yes Lisa.
Shall we begin?
Yes Lisa.

Where is my love life?
Where can it be?
There must be something wrong with the machinery
Where is my love life?
Tell me, tell me, where has it gone?
Somebody please, please, tell me what the hell is wrong.
Until I find the righteous 1
Computer Blue.
Until I find the righteous 1
Computer Blue

Where is my baby?
Where can she be?
Somebody please, please, tell me what is wrong with me.
Where is my baby?
Where has she gone?
Somebody please, please. tell me what the hell is wrong.
Until I find the righteous 1
Computer Blue
Until I find the righteous 1
Computer Blue

Poor lonely computer
It’s time someone programmed u
It’s time u learned love and lust
They both have 4 letters
But they r entirely different words
Poor lonely computer
Poor, poor lonely computer
Do u really know what love is?

Na, na, na-na, na
Wave your hands in the air
Now everybody sing
Na, na, na-na, na
Everybody work out!
Work out! Work out!
Na, na, na-na, na
Everybody work out!
Work out! Work out!
Na, na, na-na, na
Everybody work out!

He didn’t like living here alone
The house where he lived had many hallways
It was a long walk 2 his bedroom because 2 him each hallway represented an emotion
Every one vastly different from the next
One day while she was with him he decided 2 name each one
She walked by his side, one hand on his thigh
No - she was sort of half a step behind him
Yeah, the grip on his thigh intensified as they walked slowly through the corridor
He named the hallway "Lust"
And as they passed through the next one he named it "Fear"
The grip she now loosened, so he walked faster
Her hands now trembling, she let drop 2 her side as he wrote the word "Insecurity"
He looked into her eyes and smiled a demon smile and quickly walked onto the next
Corridor after corridor, He named almost all when suddenly… he stopped
He picked up the word "Hate", She was gone.
So he picked up another - "Pain".

On the verge of a breakdown
What is life without love?
It's hell, Computer Blue!

Father, Father, the sun is gone
The Dawn, the Dawn
Father, Father, where is the Dawn?
Na, na, na-na, na
Na, na, na-na, na
Shall I go 2 church on Sundays?
Shall I stay home and pray?
Shall I try 2 make her happy?
Shall I try 2 make her stay?

Where is my love life?
Tell me, where can it be?
Narrow-minded computer
(Somebody please, please tell me…)
It's time someone programmed U
(Somebody please, please tell me what's wrong with me)
It's time U learned women are not butterflies
They're computers 2
Just like U Computer Blue
(Where is my baby?)
Chauvinistic computer
It's time someone programmed U
(Na, na, na-na, na)
U fall in love 2 fast and hate 2 soon
And take 4 granted the feeling's mutual
(The feeling's mutual!)
We're computers 2
Just like U Computer Blue
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Thanks kaylef!
I could never work out what he said in most of the hallway speech.
It was a sad day when dttlyrics.com ceased.

kaylef said:[quote]
He didn’t like living here alone
The house where he lived had many hallways
It was a long walk 2 his bedroom because 2 him each hallway represented an emotion
Every one vastly different from the next
One day while she was with him he decided 2 name each one
She walked by his side, one hand on his thigh
No - she was sort of half a step behind him
Yeah, the grip on his thigh intensified as they walked slowly through the corridor
He named the hallway "Lust"
And as they passed through the next one he named it "Fear"
The grip she now loosened, so he walked faster
Her hands now trembling, she let drop 2 her side as he wrote the word "Insecurity"
He looked into her eyes and smiled a demon smile and quickly walked onto the next
Corridor after corridor, He named almost all when suddenly… he stopped
He picked up the word "Hate", She was gone.
So he picked up another - "Pain".

On the verge of a breakdown
What is life without love?
It's hell, Computer Blue!

Father, Father, the sun is gone
The Dawn, the Dawn
Father, Father, where is the Dawn?
Na, na, na-na, na
Na, na, na-na, na
Shall I go 2 church on Sundays?
Shall I stay home and pray?
Shall I try 2 make her happy?
Shall I try 2 make her stay?


theC
is it me or does the hallway speech seem 2 tie in with darling nikki???
[This message was edited Sun Jul 28 13:46:53 PDT 2002 by theC]

I'm listenin 2 it again...
I could just play this over and over again...
A little story..
This song hit me when i d/l the first avenue version...and later that day i was gonna go down 2 the beach 2 meet my gal...A lot of ppl were there...And she was like ignorin me...This was when the song Computer Blue poured into my head...and been stuck there ever since...

Ecnirp84

There are actually four unreleased versions of "Computer Blue" circulating amongst collectors.

The first one being the St. Louis Warehouse version (the fabulously rough sounding demo, with all that guitar feedback, which clocks in at well over 13 minutes - an epic)

The second one is the Sunset Sound "hallway speech" version, whose lyrics are reproduced above. This one is my personal favourite.

The third one is a more instrumental sounding version, this time without the "hallway" speech, and is well over 12 minutes long.

The third one is about half the length of the previous one and is the "preliminary", more polished version of what ended up on the album.

The long unreleased rough guitar (less synth) version is the best. The hallway speech one is just goddamn stupid.
I wish Prince would have stuck to mixing hard funk and hard rock. He would have never fell from grace if he had kept it up. Around the world in a day was the beginning of the end for Prince.Oh yeah. I think computer blue was made from gotta stop messing about.

Dang...I didnt know there were two other versions...
Oh well...
All hail Computer Blue...
And kinda thinkin bout it...
Gotta Stop sounds like Computer Blue...that lil' synth riff...

Ecnirp84

I love the 4 different versions of "Computer Blue".At an early stage,Prince was planning to put the long version (with the "hallway sppech") on the 'Purple Rain' album.He shortened it to make room for "Take Me With U" on the album.After hearing the long versions,I think the shorter version that appears on the album sounds incomplete.

What the heck have I in my Prince music remembers? There's another computer song, right? How is the name form the one who he sings: he start he's computer... I have no music or cd's yet. I have a salad, with texts and sounds in my brain. Sorry.

Arcamar said:

the computer song I'm talking about I like very much! So blue...

i downloaded the 12min version on the back of u lots recomendations...man alive i cudnt belive that this was never properly released.imagine if prince turned up on top of the pops(UK music show) and belted this out?that would see the back of cunts like robbie williams on the charts.

BONZA!

theC said:

Hmmm... I wonder who it's about then? Perhaps shortcake knows?

Eye got a feelin' that the man wrote these 2 songs to segue them into one another..."Computer" and "Darling"...they are seriously the deadliest package Prince has put 2gether...besides the Black Album of course...

Ecnirp84

One of my favourite Prince guitar solos