I haven't really processed Why The Butterflies as an actual song itself until the official release. Now I like to listen to it as it feels like a Purple Rain outtake. What do you think was giving him the butterflies?

We know he was sick that day, was it the DayQuil?

We know he was on the cusp of Purple Rain, was it stress? Was he nervous about what he was about to risk?

Was it a song about his childhood epilepsy?
[Edited 12/10/22 4:19am]

could be the anticipation of the PR film/album release and whether it would all pan out like he was hoping

or could be a woman he met

or it could just be that he thought of writing a song about this subject

prince could write songs about anything really, even when they werent really about something particular or specific in his life

sounds like he might have just been doodling on the piano, its not really a proper song

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

I think it only sounds like a doodle because we listen to the other ones knowing they became full songs, though. Like Purple Rain feels like a doodle. With as good as P was at freestyling lyrics, one could even wager 17 Days was an impromptu moment all to itself.

It's funny to me that the song has never been named until this moment. You'd think it was listed on the tape that this was sourced from (the same tale the bootleg is sourced from). There's tons of examples of cassettes that he wrote on which got out into the wild.