Im often asked by non Prince fans what the song Purple rain is about and I can never give an answer. Ive always presumed its partly about his father. Any ideas?

matrixrox said:

Im often asked by non Prince fans what the song Purple rain is about and I can never give an answer. Ive always presumed its partly about his father. Any ideas?

When they ask you, just reply "You look nice tonight."

or you can say its about spiritual/relationship renewal

Only he knows. The song compliments the theme of the movie( you have to watch the movie to know what the theme is). It may or may not be related to a personal experience from his life. I love that movie! I will watch it this weekend.

[Edited 11/4/11 10:58am]

Dalia11 said:

Only he knows. The song compliments the theme of the movie. It may or may not be related to a personal experience from his life. I love that movie! I will watch it this weekend.

If we dont' know what the song is about, how can we know what it compliments?

As for, "Only he knows"... he probably DOESN'T know. He was asked about the meaning of Computer Blue and he responded that the meaning hasn't revealed itself to him yet. Translation: I thought those particular words sounded good together, but they didn't really mean anything. If I feel the need to explain them, I'll have to sit around and think about it for a while until I can devise some meaning from what was a stream-of-consciousness word purge. Thank you.

His Princely orgasm!

He said in an interview (from around 98/99 or something - I'm sure someone will post correct info), that 'when the sky is full of blood you get purple' or something kooky like that, paraphrasing here. Red/Blue = purple, see. This could be something he thought of much later of course, but I doubt it, given the context.

Going with the general theme of some of the other material on the album and over the years, it's another of Prince's apocalyptic babble songs. Second coming, may U live 2 see the Dawn, etc, etc. 1999, Let's Go Crazy, Crystal Ball, Dance Electric - have party/fun/sex during/until the coming "Dawn". Purple is also the colour of royalty (genius marketing touch).

Purple Rain is the apocalypse of '1999' ("sky was so purple there were people running everywhere" - again great marketing and continuity in creating an image/pop mythos here), and all the 'let me guide you' stuff, is similar to 'I Would Die 4 U', where it's Prince singing from the POV of Jesus - or just his own preaching, whatever, take it how you like.

You know it's all part of that Prince sex/god thing - either you dig his little self-created mythos, or just enjoy the fun pop songs on the more surface level, that's why they're great songs because you don't have to see that continuity in Prince's gobbledegook - they work as great classic songs in spite of, or because of, it.

2 me it is about:

dreams

visions

& psychic phenomena

Well, all right now. You know those are some of my favorite subjects.

[Edited 11/4/11 11:02am]

Dalia11 said:

Well, all right now. You know those are some of my favorite subjects.

[Edited 11/4/11 11:02am]

I like those subjects 2, among others.

We'll have to wait for the sequel.