The music of my freshman year at Ricks College was dominated by the soundtrack to Purple Rain. At the time I was NOT a fan of Prince. I thought the music to the movie was good, but I'm the kind of guy that thinks when a movie starts setting college fashion trends, it's time to actively resist. And Purple Rain definitely stirred up a fashion storm, even in the protective enclave of Ricks College.
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| Stop dressing like me! You're ruining this movie for everyone! |
One day while my roommate, Jeff, and I were talking (more accurately, he was talking while I was bashing) about Prince and Purple Rain, he mentioned a song off the album that I hadn't heard before--Computer Blue. He said he liked how it started with the dialogue between two women:
Wendy?
Yes, Lisa.
Is the water warm enough?
Yes, Lisa.
Shall we begin?
Yes, Lisa.
Then he busted up laughing at the dialogue he had just repeated. Huh?! What's so funny?
I remember after that chat he would sometimes just out of nowhere for no reason at all repeat this dialogue and then laugh. For the life of me, I don't know what he thought was so funny about these lines. First of all, it's obvious that there's oodles of sexual innuendo in the way the women say the lines. But sexual innuendo in a Prince song is nothing that surprising or entertaining or funny. So why did he keep laughing at these lines?!
Later in life, I was listening to the Purple Rain album because...um...I don't know. I must have been really bored, because like I said, I thought the songs were okay, but nothing that I'd want to listen to over and over. But I happen to be listening to the soundtrack when the song came up with that dialogue again, and I was instantly transported back to my dorm room and that conversation I'd had with my roommate Jeff. To my surprise, it turned out to be a very fond memory. And after I heard the guitar solo in the last 90 seconds of the song, I realized I liked it a lot for musical reasons too. For a Prince song, it rocked pretty hard! What's even more surprising is that when I saw the song being played in the movie, I didn't immediately dislike it because of the ridiculousness of the scene. Come on, Prince! Put a shirt on! Or at least towel off!
I still have no idea why Jeff got such a big kick out of the dialogue. When the dialogue is spoken in the movie, all it shows is a teary-eyed Prince and his drunken, abusive father smoking and standing in the hallway. So the movie is ZERO help in figuring out why Jeff thought it was so damn funny!
Nevertheless, even though I'm still annoyed by the opening dialogue in this song, because of its emotional connection to a period in my life that I now enjoy remembering, I have developed an affinity for this particular song. But I still refuse to think it's cool to dress like Prince!
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