"Computer Blue" was originally recorded at The Warehouse in Minneapolis with The Revolution a day after "Let's Go Crazy", and was later overdubbed at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles in August 1983.
Prince, along with Wendy & Lisa and sound engineer Susan Rogers, set about doing further work on what would later end up being placed on the album Purple Rain, albeit in a very heavily edited form.
[3] The song then explodes into an experimental rock number with screaming, heavy synths, distorted guitars, and lyrics about the relationship between humans and computers.
The synth part, without the vocals, made it into the film Purple Rain during a scene in which the Revolution rehearses while waiting for Prince to arrive.
During the Purple Rain performance, at the end of the song before "Darling Nikki" begins, the "Righteous 1" speech spoken by Wendy & Lisa cut from the final version of the track is played.