Vachon Imagined

I had never seen Purple Rain until a friend of mine looked at me like I had personally confessed to never eating food.

Not just surprised — offended. Like Purple Rain had turned into acid rain and I had been standing in line for years refusing to taste it.

So fine. I watched it.

The movie was good.

But that’s not really what I mean.

Because Purple Rain — the song — is not something you “watch” or “consume” or even “understand.” It’s something that happens to you, like weather you didn’t consent to emotionally preparing for.

For the guy in the back glued to his phone, already reverse-engineering the next AI-powered game engine — yes, hello, future coder, my son thanks you in advance — have you actually heard Prince sing Purple Rain?

Not as background noise. Not as nostalgia. I mean heard it.

That guitar. That voice. That strange contradiction of tenderness and damage, like someone trying not to hurt you while still somehow showing you exactly where it hurts.

And suddenly it’s not just a song anymore. It’s a feeling with structure. It’s a performance that doesn’t feel like performance. It’s a controlled unraveling. A death by a thousand emotional cuts that somehow still feels like love.

That’s the power of it — of music, of intelligence, of whatever it is that moves through a person when they stop trying to be impressive and just become honest.

What comes out is everything at once: longing, ego, humor, grief, desire, and yes — let’s not pretend otherwise — a little bit of perversion too (hello, Darling Nikki, is it hot in here or is it just history).

And somehow it all resolves into this strange, overwhelming thing we agree to call humanity.

All wrapped inside one short man who could stand at a piano like he was flipping a personal switch to the sun.

That’s what gets me.

Not just talent — but permission. The permission to feel that much and still stand there, completely unembarrassed by it.

And yes, coder, I see you. AI is learning to generate emotion, to simulate cadence, to predict what might move a person.

But Purple Rain doesn’t simulate anything.

It insists.

Prince could’ve said it was green and I would’ve believed him.

Green it is.

Green it is.