...It is simply magic.

I was having a bit of a drive home and out of the glove compartment fell a copy of Planet Earth I was unaware I was in possession of. I slipped it on and listened. I listened first to that Barry Manilow classic, Could It Be Magic; then a fuzzy nonsense about playing guitars; and then a lovely song about someone being somewhere on earth and then I began to skip and to skip. I kept skipping until I hit All the Midnights in the World, which is a fabulous song, and then skipped again until I hit Lion of Judah. There, I heard a couple of voices that made the bilge of the lyrics momentarily unimportant.

I'm sat here now, a few moments after having stumbled across the extended version of Computer Blue and I have a huge smile on my face and an ever-growing appreciation for Prince's musical talent. Underlying that talent, however, were supremely talented musicians... Dr Fink, Brown Mark, Wendy and Lisa are all majestic. Bobby Z was a lovely drummer, but, as I'm sure he'll agree, at least the third best drummer in The Revolution, possibly the fourth... or fifth, after the Linn Drum Machine.

The influence that W&L had on Prince has been much argued and discussed. When you listen to this extended piece, however, you can only embrace the magic they had when they loved each other, tested each other, and encouraged each other.

I cannot think of any other collaborator in Prince's world, other than Susannah and Mayte as their roles as muse, that have prompted better compositions that Wendy and Lisa.

Ok, so you don't agree, and you, obviously, think the topic/suggestion lame/trite/cliched... whatever... but you cannot actually put your argument into words, you can only resort to an animated face. Fine. Name a collaborator that has gottenmore out of Prince. Not only that, explain your own cliche ridden, eyes-raised reaction to someone suggetsing Prince and Wendy and Lisa were actually very good.

Now, look. You've gone and got me all batey... but, I cannot describe the laziness of your response and the 'expected' tone of your response. Just because what I suggest is cliched doesn't mean it's not right.

Ok, so you don't agree, and you, obviously, think the topic/suggestion lame/trite/cliched... whatever... but you cannot actually put your argument into words, you can only resort to an animated face. Fine. Name a collaborator that has gotten more out of Prince. Not only that, explain your own cliche ridden, eyes-raised reaction to someone suggesting Prince and Wendy and Lisa were actually very good.

Now, look. You've gone and got me all batey... but, I simply cannot describe the laziness of your response and the 'expected' tone of your response. Just because what I suggest is cliched doesn't mean it's not right.

The extended version of Computer Blue is, in my opinion, absolute genius. Words can not express how I felt when I first heard it.

And you're right, BoySimon: The Revolution was a majestic band because they fed off each other's ideas and really had input into the music. Prince might have had the final say, sure, but the band was A LOT more than just his backup musicians, which is something that can't exactly be said of P's bands since then (with the exception of maybe the Lovesexy band, although to a lesser degree).

BoySimon said:

Ok, so you don't agree, and you, obviously, think the topic/suggestion lame/trite/cliched... whatever... but you cannot actually put your argument into words, you can only resort to an animated face. Fine. Name a collaborator that has gotten more out of Prince. Not only that, explain your own cliche ridden, eyes-raised reaction to someone suggesting Prince and Wendy and Lisa were actually very good.

Now, look. You've gone and got me all batey... but, I simply cannot describe the laziness of your response and the 'expected' tone of your response. Just because what I suggest is cliched doesn't mean it's not right.

Settle Down, Beavis.

I think the rolleyes were at the -gasp- mention of those that shall not be named

"I think the rolleyes were at the -gasp- mention of those that shall not be named "

I know... and it's such a terrible shame that they should not be named because they are nothing but good and radiant, as far as Prince is concerned... but then, there you are...

...what I thought was odd was the sort of low-key criticism of Planet Earth and, possibly by inference, lots of Prince's recent music. Hey ho.

What is it that y'all call 'the extended version' of Computer Blue?

There are at least four different extended versions featuring different parts...

The version caused the start of this thread came from typing 'Wendy and Lisa' into myspace.

That's the version I'm referring to... it's not quite the done thing... from memory... but it's pretty bloody lovely!

Ah, Jeeves, would that your sarcasm was matched by your grammar... pip pip.

And now, do you think you could actually argue on this point rather than try to trade 'class' points?

Sorry, this is so rude, but oh my fuck... I cannot believe "Jakeasaurus" cannot 'read' irony. His response drips of it, but it must be ironic, because he doesn't appear to appreciate the irony of the original thread... Is that ironic? Perhaps it is... who can say, "Jakeasaurus" (a play on some sort of dinosaur name which, perhaps indicates the longevity of 'Jake's' appreciation of Prince, who can say?).

Fuck. At which point did you appreciate my 'Britishness'? Oh my Lord... I feel so overwhelmed with stereotypi-cese!

'Appreciate'? Identify would be a better word, wouldn't it. My Apologies.

BoySimon said:

Ah, Jeeves, would that your sarcasm was matched by your grammar... pip pip.

And now, do you think you could actually argue on this point rather than try to trade 'class' points?

When your enjoying good music just ignore the people so bored that they just have to try to bring it down.

extended Computer Blue is Rock Majesty... There are few versions I love

I have 2 on my computer at work and I can literally listen to them every day

So RAW music one of my favorites actually as not much singing, it feels very much like hard rock

that opening guitar screaching is Wendy Melvoin. Each one is a full band recording. Prince must have really been into Computer Blue because there are so many different recordings.

Computer Blue falls into a similar vein of Something In the Water Does Not Compute

Oh Jake... you are a delicious lump of chumping. I do hope you are able to adore the fact I've called you 'chumping', can define this adjective and can demonstrate a feeling of engagement with my typings.

BoySimon said:

...It is simply magic.

I was having a bit of a drive home and out of the glove compartment fell a copy of Planet Earth I was unaware I was in possession of. I slipped it on and listened. I listened first to that Barry Manilow classic, Could It Be Magic; then a fuzzy nonsense about playing guitars; and then a lovely song about someone being somewhere on earth and then I began to skip and to skip. I kept skipping until I hit All the Midnights in the World, which is a fabulous song, and then skipped again until I hit Lion of Judah. There, I heard a couple of voices that made the bilge of the lyrics momentarily unimportant.

I'm sat here now, a few moments after having stumbled across the extended version of Computer Blue and I have a huge smile on my face and an ever-growing appreciation for Prince's musical talent. Underlying that talent, however, were supremely talented musicians... Dr Fink, Brown Mark, Wendy and Lisa are all majestic. Bobby Z was a lovely drummer, but, as I'm sure he'll agree, at least the third best drummer in The Revolution, possibly the fourth... or fifth, after the Linn Drum Machine.

The influence that W&L had on Prince has been much argued and discussed. When you listen to this extended piece, however, you can only embrace the magic they had when they loved each other, tested each other, and encouraged each other.

I cannot think of any other collaborator in Prince's world, other than Susannah and Mayte as their roles as muse, that have prompted better compositions that Wendy and Lisa.

I disagree with that. By the time Purple Rain hit. Prince was HEAVILY using the linn drum and wanted that incorporated in the live shows. It wasn't used as much during the Parade era. As spectacular as Sheila E is the Linn drum was used heavily during the SOTT/Lovesexy shows as well. Sometimes Sheila was on percussion while the linn/electronic drums were programmed.

Prince had Bobby Z playing behind him since pre For U, Bobby Z replaced a drummer(I forget the name) for the 94 East band

a song like Computer Blue linn heavy, but other songs like Purple Rain is live Bobby and he executes he song well.

If you have it listen to the 1st Avenue show 3.8.1982 (pre 1999) from hard rock to funk to ballads Bobby Z executes the songs on drum very well and that's a diverse set list.

1.Bambi
2.All The Critics Love U In New York
3.Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
4.Sexy Dancer
5.Head
6.Sexuality
7.Partyup(Morris Day on drums)

Remember this guy was playing with Prince since 1976/77 - 1986 He had to have been good

I love the Purple Rain script description behind the song

82) INT. CLUB -- NIGHT

The CLUB is THROBBING. Prince is
onstage, stripped to the waist, SWEAT
seeping from his pores in torrents.
He's deep into the pit of "Computer
Blue, " locked into a provocative,
obscene graphic with Wendy. She's on her
knees in front of him, his crotch moving
directly in front of her lips. She's
made up fiercely, looks like Prince
himself. The total effect is unnerving
-- Prince is going down on himself.

The BEAT is SAVAGE. Prince is in his
own world, living his own private hell.
Suddenly the MUSIC crescendos, then
winds down like a roller coaster
sweeping everyone along. The BEAT
changes radically. He turns his back to
the audience and plays ...

...and we suddenly recognize the MUSIC
as his Father's -- the song he played on
the piano the night before. But it's
Prince's now, stamped with his own
signature. He's bent at the waist, his
back to the audience, alone with his
father's, and his, pain.

As I say, Bobby Z was a lovely drummer, but Prince, Wendy, Lisa (Alright stretching it here) AND the Linn could have reproduced the noises he made. Dr Fink and Morris Day could also have kept the tempo, too.

I haven't even mentioned Sheila E!

Bobby Z is a genius - River Run Dry - BUT he was, by no manner of means, the best drummer in The Revolution. Not at all.

bluefish said:

The extended version of Computer Blue is, in my opinion, absolute genius. Words can not express how I felt when I first heard it.

And you're right, BoySimon: The Revolution was a majestic band because they fed off each other's ideas and really had input into the music. Prince might have had the final say, sure, but the band was A LOT more than just his backup musicians, which is something that can't exactly be said of P's bands since then (with the exception of maybe the Lovesexy band, although to a lesser degree).

Completely agree Simon & Blue. Computer Blue is true brilliance.

Back around 1993/94 I was seriously losing interest with Prince's music...I HATED the Symbol album, didn't get the name change, and at the time didn't dig Come (do now tho), I was about to give up. Then a friend gave me a copy of the extended Computer Blue...the awe feeling I used to get back in the 80s when I would get that first listen was back. The world of unreleased Prince music soon followed and sure enough I was interested again. Soon after someone gave me a taped copy of Gold Experience and all was forgiven.

Totally get what you are saying about the bands as well.

BoySimon said:

As I say, Bobby Z was a lovely drummer, but Prince, Wendy, Lisa (Alright stretching it here) AND the Linn could have reproduced the noises he made. Dr Fink and Morris Day could also have kept the tempo, too.

I haven't even mentioned Sheila E!

Bobby Z is a genius - River Run Dry - BUT he was, by no manner of means, the best drummer in The Revolution. Not at all.

Again you really should hear his pre Purple Rain live stuff

I mentioned Sheila E (is that alright?) in reference to house Prince was using the linn drum

Bobby Z was the ONLY drummer in the Revolution

"Computer Blue" is the fourth track on Prince and the Revolution's soundtrack album Purple Rain. In the film, the song represents Prince's angst at the budding relationship between the characters played by Morris Day and Apollonia Kotero. The song was composed by Prince, with credit to his father, John L. Nelson for the guitar solo based on an untitled piano piece by Nelson. Prince titled the piece "Father's Song" and recorded it on piano for the film, though on screen it was portrayed as being played by Prince's on-screen father, actor Clarence Williams III.

"Computer Blue" was originally recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles in early September 1983. Prince along with Wendy and Lisa and sound engineer Susan Rogers set about recording what would later end up being placed on the album Purple Rain, albeit in a very heavily edited form.

The song begins with spoken lyrics by Wendy and Lisa which suggest a dominatrix-type relationship. The song then becomes a very guitar-oriented number with rock music screams. The released version only has one verse. The version of the song that debuted at the First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis, Minnesota had a second verse, as did the song as it was originally recorded.


Outtake
Originally conceived as a 14-minute opus, "Computer Blue" would later be edited down several times for inclusion on Purple Rain; the song was edited from a fully mastered 7:30 down to its current length when "Take Me With U" was added to the album at the last minute.

The full-length version of the song contains extended instrumental solos and additional lyrics. Also present is a repeated synthesizer segment with a sing-a-long phrase "nah nah nah nah nah", which was often often played in live versions of the song. The synth part, without the vocals, even made it into the film Purple Rain as The Revolution was rehearsing while waiting on Prince to arrive. The track ends with a full minute of screeching feedback, some of which formed the segue to "Darling Nikki" on the album version. Widely regarded by the hardcore fan base as a musical masterpiece, the original unedited recording features the infamous "Hallway Speech" (as termed by fans) about emotions likened to different rooms. The "Hallway Speech" contains the following lyrics:

He didn't like living 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 dropped 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"

When the whole “Revolution era” started up, it opened up a lot of possibilities for Prince’s sound. 

How did the writing process work with him? For example, how did you got about writing a song like “Computer Blue”? 

FINK: Well “Computer Blue” really grew from a seed, so to speak, that took place during a jam session. 

We’d always warm up before rehearsals doing free-form improv rock/jazz music jams, 

and someone would start a chord progression (or Prince would or one of us would) or in this case on that day, 

I started playing that main bass groove which was the main bass part for “Computer Blue” which was later brought into that. 

So the band started grooving on it, next thing you know we’re all sort of joining in, doing some jam on that. 

Prince started coming up with some stuff we recorded a rough version of it and he took it into the studio and just incorporated it all 

and made it fly that way. Lisa & Wendy came in and they did some of the stuff on it. Prince borrowed the bridge/portal section from his own father 

who had given him some music over the years to play around with. So that particular song was a real mixture of different people and influences. 

So that’s how that one came about. So I kind of germinated the beginning of it—the bassline, the main groove, Bobby Z. was there to play the drums, of course—

and that’s how it evolved. Prince, ya know, he really was the main lyricist and melody maker for the songs and I’m pretty sure very rarely took or did not take any lyrical content from people. 

He was really the main guy on that. 

BoySimon said:

...It is simply magic.

I was having a bit of a drive home and out of the glove compartment fell a copy of Planet Earth I was unaware I was in possession of. I slipped it on and listened. I listened first to that Barry Manilow classic, Could It Be Magic; then a fuzzy nonsense about playing guitars; and then a lovely song about someone being somewhere on earth and then I began to skip and to skip. I kept skipping until I hit All the Midnights in the World, which is a fabulous song, and then skipped again until I hit Lion of Judah. There, I heard a couple of voices that made the bilge of the lyrics momentarily unimportant.

I'm sat here now, a few moments after having stumbled across the extended version of Computer Blue and I have a huge smile on my face and an ever-growing appreciation for Prince's musical talent. Underlying that talent, however, were supremely talented musicians... Dr Fink, Brown Mark, Wendy and Lisa are all majestic. Bobby Z was a lovely drummer, but, as I'm sure he'll agree, at least the third best drummer in The Revolution, possibly the fourth... or fifth, after the Linn Drum Machine.

The influence that W&L had on Prince has been much argued and discussed. When you listen to this extended piece, however, you can only embrace the magic they had when they loved each other, tested each other, and encouraged each other.

I cannot think of any other collaborator in Prince's world, other than Susannah and Mayte as their roles as muse, that have prompted better compositions that Wendy and Lisa.

oh different tastes! I don't think Computer Blue was all that great or interesting a song, my first impression was that the tune of Father's song on electric guitar was limp (should have at least tripled it with the bass and keys). But the extended versions with the hallway speech does make it better, and so does the line "Father, where is the sun?" (I think that's how it goes). I like that part because it reminds of "Altered States" the movie.

But I think the first 5 songs on Planet Earth are solidly crafted and interestingly, cleanly, diverse genre aims for Prince. and I really think the title track is uniquely epic. Who the hell else would add Christopher Cross "Sailing"/ Barry Manilow "Could it Be Magic" flavor to title track? Crazy. I see images of nuclear explosions enveloping the Earth combined with religious Revelations imagery when the guitar solo hits. It starts off like its some kind of Earth conservation consience sentiment, but in a dramatic twist, is all about an antique religious apocalypse. Prince is always gonna throw stuff out there that surprises me in ways that are nonconformist to my percieved cliques of music.
And that works to deeply entertain and inspire me once I get over the shock.

But yes, I think the album version of Computer Blue is the lowest point of the Purple Rain album. Just seems like lame music and a lame concept, and a lame performance.

BoySimon said:

Sorry, this is so rude, but oh my fuck... I cannot believe "Jakeasaurus" cannot 'read' irony. His response drips of it, but it must be ironic, because he doesn't appear to appreciate the irony of the original thread... Is that ironic? Perhaps it is... who can say, "Jakeasaurus" (a play on some sort of dinosaur name which, perhaps indicates the longevity of 'Jake's' appreciation of Prince, who can say?).

IIRC, the dude got stomped on for bullshitting about something (20Ten?) a while back, and since then all he's done is gripe about on here by being unnecessarily sardonic with every single reply.

Love the extended version.