# Prince's1999+millenium Bug
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 11, 1999, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827 "1999-11-11T15:13:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)
#### Post date: [November 11, 1999, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/1 "1999-11-11T15:13:00Z")
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??
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### Author:  [@Yue\_Han](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yue_Han)
#### Post date: [November 11, 1999, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/2 "1999-11-11T16:30:00Z")
I’d go with the medication one.
-John
* * *
Miskch’s Law- It’s better to have a horrible ending than horrors without end.
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### Author:  [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)
#### Post date: [November 11, 1999, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/3 "1999-11-11T17:44:00Z")
The song itself is about nuclear war. The “2000 Zero Zero” just probably scanned better while trying to sing.
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [November 11, 1999, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/4 "1999-11-11T17:51:00Z")
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
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### Author:  [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)
#### Post date: [November 12, 1999, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/5 "1999-11-12T06:33:00Z")
I though Prince was the Millenium Bug. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)
#### Post date: [November 11, 1999, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/6 "1999-11-11T19:21:00Z")
I thought it meant we had another 198,001 years. (“Two Thousand Zero Zero” = 200,000)
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### Author:  [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)
#### Post date: [November 11, 1999, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/7 "1999-11-11T21:08:00Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)
#### Post date: [November 11, 1999, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/8 "1999-11-11T21:52:00Z")
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?”
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [November 11, 1999, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/9 "1999-11-11T23:29:00Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [November 11, 1999, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/10 "1999-11-11T23:30:00Z")
Plus, millennium isn’t till 2001…then it would be two thousand zero one.
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### Author:  [@metroshane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metroshane)
#### Post date: [November 11, 1999, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/11 "1999-11-11T23:34:00Z")
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
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### Author:  [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)
#### Post date: [November 12, 1999, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/12 "1999-11-12T15:12:00Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [November 12, 1999, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/13 "1999-11-12T15:50:00Z")
pldennison, not the song. The words. Likeif you could look up the words ‘purple rain’ in a dictionary what would it say?
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### Author:  [@heretic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heretic)
#### Post date: [November 13, 1999, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/14 "1999-11-13T06:10:00Z")
Precipitation falling as water, of a colour similar to that obtained by mixing red and blue pigments.
ben
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [November 13, 1999, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/15 "1999-11-13T00:36:00Z")
Cute, but I think its a much more abstract concept.
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### Author:  [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)
#### Post date: [November 16, 1999, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/16 "1999-11-16T08:26:00Z")
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)
## By the way… another thought I had, wouldn’t it be rather ironic to play “1999” after the new year? john
Ah, sweet Alcohol, eases the pain -
Troy McLure
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### Author:  [@JoeyBlades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeyBlades)
#### Post date: [November 16, 1999, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/17 "1999-11-16T14:36:00Z")
I’m confused. metroshane wrote:
> [@](#):
>
> Purple rain is the song he wrote to/for Appelonia.
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.
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### Author:  [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)
#### Post date: [November 16, 1999, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/18 "1999-11-16T16:04:00Z")
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_
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### Author:  [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)
#### Post date: [November 16, 1999, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/19 "1999-11-16T21:15:00Z")
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
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### Author:  [@JoeyBlades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeyBlades)
#### Post date: [November 19, 1999, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/princes1999-millenium-bug/4827/20 "1999-11-19T15:14:00Z")
Flypsyde wrote:
> [@](#):
>
> 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”.
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.