One of my Prince faves and I have many.....

Who inspired this song and why?? (I know someone knows the answer out there!)

Oh I place $50 bucks on Vanity....

ejnbmore said:

Yeah, I think it was Vanity. That's what the general fanbase thinks, anyway.

Quite an interesting story behind it.
Prince fell asleep in Lisa's car after a show and he came up with the idea. Then he wrote the rest after a series of catnaps.

But I LOVE this song.
It's one of my "firsts", so I'll always have a certain appreciation for it.

When I stumbled across a site of Prince videos when I was looking for SuperBowl commericals (yeah, silly me ;roll: ), I decided to pick this video first because I've heard of the song. They mentioned it on the VH1 special "100 greatest songs of the 80's"... it was 74/75, I forget.

So I watched the video and was completely in awe of him. The song was very catchy, it made me smile and I got to see Prince dance for the first time since the last 10 minutes of Purple Rain. I enjoyed that part the most.

This song will always be one of my all-time favorites no matter how much time passes

Great song choice

one of the greatest pop songs ever made

I dont know again to this one pplrain..but I would have to go with Vanity too

I had NO idea it was about a womans until VH1 did Ilovethe80's and they covered the song! Oh I felt so stupid!

Prince is always gonna play this song no matter what. He's always gonna have LRC somewhere in the mix at a show.
[Edited 11/14/07 16:03pm]

It's a great song to drive to. But it makes me drive to fast.

It's a great song live, too,

Gives me goose bumps.

There was a rumor that the song was written about Prince's former girlfriend and protégé, Vanity. In interviews, Vanity has discussed getting out of a speeding ticket by flirting and commented that she was driving a "little red Corvette".

- Wikipedia

One of the best pop songs ever

he looks so fresh & naive in the footage. unaffected.
mastering his footwork & microphone movees!
so nostalgic.
'move over baby, gimme the keys'.... every line is pure magic!

thankyu prince 4 this wonderful gem!
[Edited 11/14/07 16:06pm]

lottielooloo1968 said:

See, that's why I fell in love with the video.
The way he appeared and pretty much everything he did in it.
It's nostaglic and pretty much confirmed the impression I got from him during the end of the movie I happened to catch that day.
It just added to many things I liked about him as a performer.

1KissAtATyme said:

well i thought it was about a car !!!!

Rinluv said:

yeah, this songs is a must live...unless he does it with horns

ritaw said:

My husband who is NOT a Prince fan, told me it was about a woman's nether regions... I said "whaaat??" and then listened to the lyrics carefully Prince sure is sneaky...

ritaw said:

So did I!

But READ the lyrics again and youll get it

pplrain said:

He suuure is

1KissAtATyme said:

yup - READ TOO MUCH into the lyrics and you'll get it

apart from the bit about taming her little red love machine - which is one line...

to say the entire song is about pussy is a pretty far stretch

1KissAtATyme said:

He was VERY clever in this song... you know what its about because... people have said "things" ...that's how I found out and it was b4 I even heard the song itself.

The lyrics are very clever in this song and that adds to its charm

Surprisingly, he does the same clever lyrics in "Delirious" which follows this on the album, but it's not nearly as catchy as this gem

1KissAtATyme said:

oh i got it alright sometime back (felt a right idiot when i found out it wasn't about a car) - its a great song though

what's amazing is how I didn't figure out what the song was about until I was older, after singing it for so long.

Did anyone see the acoustic version opening night at the Staples Center of Musicology? OMG that was so sweet, he literally had me in the palm of his hands.
[Edited 11/14/07 16:32pm]

pplrain said:

love the title of this thread -

pplrain said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...d_Corvette


Excert from page:(scroll down to Trivia)

"Prince got the idea for the song when he dozed off in Lisa Coleman's pink Edsel after an exhausting all-night recording session. The lyrics came to him in bits and pieces during this and other catnaps. Eventually he was able to finish it without sleeping. "

So that is that!
[Edited 11/14/07 17:07pm]

toots said:

so he dozed off in a car....probably wishing it was as racy as a corvette...equating all his thoughts about a gal...SHIT! he must have had sex on the brain 'during this & other catnaps'
bet writing lyrics wasn't all he was doing. (omg! i'm out of controll )

lottielooloo1968 said:

Easy there lol.

I've ran a few threads on this very song awhile back. But mine of course, was dealing with the 12' version. The "MAYDAY" version. Or more specific, the "Black" version. Which DESTROYS the album version. The other thread dealt with Bebe Buell, the famous 70's model, who's the mother of Liv Tyler. Who's dad is Steven. Anyway, in her book, she swears that LRC is about her. Saying that P actually says her name in the song. On the line "baby, you're much too fast." She and her friend Elvis Costello both swear that P is singing "Bebe, you're much to fast.". Costello, who was dating Bebe, accussed her of dating P, because why else would he say her name? True story. It's all in her book that came out a couple of years ago. This song was heavily discussed on my thread that's been up for awhile now, about the singles that were released from the 1999 album.

blackguitaristz said:

IMHO, it could relate to anyone or he just had sex on the brain, and back in those days (the early 80's) it was probably just that!
(Im also going with the 80's 1999 on this opinion)

i've heard him sing 'bebe' instead of baby in other songs of live footage, so i think it's just tongue slippage

if he is singing about bebe, lucky gal is all i say!

blackguitaristz said:

U always go the juice.

I was just looking at that video, he was so damn cool in that Purple coat! Go Prince