Ok…
Listening to this song the other day an I noticed something strange about the chorus.
he sings
“2000 zero zero party’s over we’re out of time, tonight I’m going to party like it’s 1999”
what I’m wondering is,
Did TAFKAP (or Prince as he was then)
Know about the millenium bug before Anyone else???
he uses the words “zero, zero” or “00” followed by “Party’s Over”
the “00” in the date that all the worry is about?
Have I discovered something or should I up my medication??
I’d go with the medication one.
-John
Miskch’s Law- It’s better to have a horrible ending than horrors without end.
The song itself is about nuclear war. The “2000 Zero Zero” just probably scanned better while trying to sing.
I thought the somg was about all of those people who believe that the world’s going to end in the year 2000.
“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island
I though Prince was the Millenium Bug. 
I thought it meant we had another 198,001 years. (“Two Thousand Zero Zero” = 200,000)
It’s “Two thousand, '00, party’s over” etc. The song is about partying hardy on the eve of the new millenium.
He’s a visionary in many ways but I doubt he was clued in to the Y2K bug, seeing as how he wrote that material long before personal computers really became common.
So yes, up the meds.
No, the song is about nuclear war. Well, nuclear war and partying–going out with a bang before we go out with a bang, as it were. Listen to the lyrics:
" . . . When I woke up this morning could’ve sworn it was Judgement Day/The sky was all purple, there were people running everywhere/trying to run from the destruction, you know I didn’t even care."
“Everybody’s got a bomb, we could all die any day/but before I let that happen, I’ll dance my life away.”
“War is all around us, my mind says prepare to fight/but if I gotta die I’m going to listen to my body tonight.”
And the lengthy rideout of the album version includes the phrase, repeated several times, “Mommy? Why does everybody have a bomb?”
Never much to interpret his lyrics. Not one person I asked was able to give me a single explanation of ‘purple rain’ that made any sense.
Plus, millennium isn’t till 2001…then it would be two thousand zero one.
Purple rain is the song he wrote to/for Appelonia.
We live in an age that reads to much to be wise, and thinks too much to be beautiful–Oscar Wilde
Is “Purple Rain” really all that complex, lyrically speaking?
“I never meant to cause you any problems,
I never meant to cause you any pain,
I only wanted to one time see you laughing,
Only wanted to see you laughing in the purple rain.”
Aside from the usual TAFKAP obsession with purple, that’s about as simple and straightforward as one can get.
pldennison, not the song. The words. Likeif you could look up the words ‘purple rain’ in a dictionary what would it say?
Precipitation falling as water, of a colour similar to that obtained by mixing red and blue pigments.
ben
Cute, but I think its a much more abstract concept.
It’s Not about purple rain…
I know the song is about Nuclear war.
But the chorus had a strange relevance, (well, it did to me and my medication)
Ah, sweet Alcohol, eases the pain -
Troy McLure
I’m confused. metroshane wrote:
Far be it from me to expect consistency from TAFKAP, but I though he claimed that Purple Rain was written in tribute to his father.
And not that I’m an expert, but I would’ve sworn the film said it was Wendy and/or Lisa that wrote “Purple Rain”.
And the problem with small furry animals
in corners is that, just occasionally,
one of them’s a mongoose.
Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad
I should probably point out that, while it is doubtfull that Prince knew about the forthcoming Y2K problem, it is not impossible. One of the co-creators of COBOL wrote about the date problem in the mid-to-late sixties, well before 1999 was written.
>>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.<<
—The dragon observes
Flypsyde wrote:
You’re confusing plotline with reality. In the plotline, Wendy & Lisa wrote the music and Prince wrote the lyrics. In real life, I think Prince was credited with both. It seems reasonable to assume that the other members of “The Revolution” had their creative influences in the entire score, though.