Questions about Purple Rain (the movie and the album)

The movie:
What was the deal with the teary-eyed blond waitress who popped into Prince’s dressing room after he finished performing the title song? She was hanging out there with the whole group earlier in the movie, too. Was she just a fan (who happened to also work at First Avenue), or did she have the hots for Prince, or was there some deeper relationship that I missed?

The album:
On “When Doves Cry,” after the opening guitar solo and before the keyboards come in there’s a…sound. Like a scooter with an ignition problem. What the heck is that?

On “Computer Blue,” during the opening dialog, there’s an odd warbling sound. It’s there again at the end of the song, just before the fade into Darling Nikki. What’s that sound? Is that a guitar, or something else?

Her role in the film I can’t quite decipher other than a hanger-on ( maybe ex-girlfriend? ), but the person is Jill Jones, frequent background vocalist in this period and and occasional girlfriend of Prince.

On “Dove’s Cry” the scooter sound is Prince’s voice. Sort of a “yeahhh, yeahhh, yeahh”.
On “Computer Blue” the sound is from the electric guitar.

When Doves Cry - you mean that sound almost like a digeridoo? I assumed it was a vocal going through a vocal processor/squawk box, kinda like Peter Frampton on his live album…

Sounds more like he’s speaking through a resonant filter to me, like he’s plugged a mic into the audio input of a Minimoog or similar synthesizer.

The guitar on “Computer Blue” sounds like he’s getting some real high-pitched feedback while working the whammy bar.