i've noticed when i'm listening to a prince i find that he conveys almost no emotional depth in his songs and that he's joking or hardly feels what he's singing about. I know you can't expect any emotion in a fun cheesy song like raspberry beret or something, but i'm talking even from more serious songs like the dance, gotta broken heart again, another lonely christmas, the one, colonized mind, how come you don't call me anymore etc. does anyone else feel the same? i know susan rodgers agrees with me to an extent i recall her calling 'wally' the first time prince had showed his emotions or something. Of course, I find their are some exceptions like I hate u extended version etc but there isn't much.

I guess i just find this so strange and that im making a thread about it because i've noticed singers like MJ and GM never fail to show so much soul in almost every song they sing no matter how cheesy and it's something i don't hear in prince. what do you thinK?

2020 said:

You are kidding right?

yeah bro im just kidding!

Dilan said:

2020 said:

You are kidding right?

yeah bro im just kidding!

Maybe this should be part 2 of my open letter

SeventeenDayze said:

Dilan said:

yeah bro im just kidding!

Maybe this should be part 2 of my open letter

i was being sarcastic lol

Actually that's an astute and deep observation. I'm thinking I agree. But then I fight back: surely that can't be right!

There's many layers to it:

(1) isn't it crazy to say he doesn't express his emotions in his music - I mean, it's like the difference between googoo-eyed "in love", which passes, and loving, over years, with much effort, persisting in spite of setbacks and heartbreak. There's no way you can pour so much effort into perfecting a work of art without love.

(2) why should he express his emotions? It's about us - his music elicits our emotions. What do I care about Tolstoy's emotions? I enjoy the way his art elicits my emotions. If I read about Tolstoy's life, then, through the art of the biographer, yet more emotions are elicited in me - I don't care about the biographer's emotions.

(3) Artists have to hold something back. If they didn't, they'd be eaten alive by their creations (as Bill Murray said about having children).

(4) I remember being struck by a phrase a reviewer said of Prince after his show at the Montreal Forum in 1993 or so - that he - Prince - had decided to bypass emotion, and to go straight for sensation. I'm not going to dissect the words, but Prince does express emotions - maybe not the ones we associate with music. For me, "musicians expressing emotion" conjures up a dreary troubadour plucking away at a guitar singing about having no friends under a dim streetlamp somewhere. Bo-ring! Pathetic! The emotions Prince has expressed in his music tend to be more primal - anger (the guitar at the end of the Scandalous Sex Suite); hope (the end of Free); abounding love ("no sea... no shore" in Adore); childlike joy "I don't understand - it means I love you" in Glam Slam). When I listen to "Glam Slam", when I even THINK of listening to Glam Slam, I feel afizzy sensation coursing through my cerebral cortex. I find a smile coming to my face, even though I was feeling and looking very serious a second before. That's, what? An emotion of fizzy joy? A sensation caused by clever chords juxtapositioned just so by a musical genius? Come to think of it, this song alone, for me, proves that Prince does express his emotions through his music. Not always. But in songs such as "Glam Slam" there's evident care in its construction. Prince ultimately wants US to have the emotions, and to know him only through his music. The kind of work it takes to do that can only be fueled by love. Not puppy love, not passing love, and not very "personal", "me, myself and I" love. A mature love, I guess. Does that count as an emotion? Something to ponder over while listening to "8" - the final chords of which express the emotion of quiet but deeply felt religious ecstasy. Or possibly a Karezza-induced backflow of spunk lighting up the higher chakras. Either way, I feel, and get, plenty of emotion.

[Edited 8/11/14 17:28pm]

[Edited 8/11/14 17:32pm]

[Edited 8/11/14 17:34pm]

Its seems like he hardly ever uses his songs to really express his bare emotions. He likes to play a character, Prince the pop artist, and put on a different theme show with each song.

But there are some... like "I love U But I Don't Trust U Anymore" that seem emotional.

Actually even "Adore" seems sincere until he puts in the joke line to difuse it about "the ride".

Actually "Had U" seems really honest, bitter, hateful.

I feel nothing but pure emotion in most of Prince's work, actually.

You feel no emotion in How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore? Do Me, Baby? The Beautiful Ones? Sometimes It Snows in April?

How about anger?

My Name Is Prince, I Hate U, PFunk ...

Dumbest topic ever

Anna Stesia, Sometimes it Snows in April, Adore, If I Was Your Girlfriend, Something in the Water (Does Not Compute), Strange Relationship, and so on and so on. There a whole lot of emotional Prince songs.

thebanishedone said:

hopefularranger said:

thebanishedone said:

Dumbest topic ever

That's no way to spark healthy conversation. At least the OP was being honest and didn't just drop a vague half-sentence knocking anyone else and then leave. You've been a fan for a long time; offer an intellectual counterpoint. Perhaps you might get the OP to re-listen to something from an alternate perspective. For my part, hearing a grown man audibly choke back tears during the 2nd verse of "Condition of the Heart" sold me. Done and done...

iIf the OP said that he feels lack of emotion or passion in the recent output i would maybe contribute ,but to say that Prince dont >conveys almost no emotional depth in his songs and that he's joking or hardly feels what he's singing about< is crazy.

And he also said I know you can't expect any emotion in a fun cheesy song like raspberry beret or something, but i'm talking even from more serious songs like the dance, gotta broken heart again, another lonely christmas, the one, colonized mind, how come you don't call me anymore etc

Chicken pie.

[Edited 8/12/14 19:26pm]

thebanishedone said:

thisisreece said:

Anna Stesia, Sometimes it Snows in April, Adore, If I Was Your Girlfriend, Something in the Water (Does Not Compute), Strange Relationship, and so on and so on. There a whole lot of emotional Prince songs.

Sure, a lot of the old songs had such emotion. His later material seems to lack emotion - it's the main reason his new music fails to connect with people these days.

fbueller said:

thisisreece said:

Anna Stesia, Sometimes it Snows in April, Adore, If I Was Your Girlfriend, Something in the Water (Does Not Compute), Strange Relationship, and so on and so on. There a whole lot of emotional Prince songs.

Sure, a lot of the old songs had such emotion. His later material seems to lack emotion - it's the main reason his new music fails to connect with people these days.

I agree. I think these days the only thing he gets emotional about is his love for Jehova and the cult he is embroiled with. It has meant a lot more empty songs without feeling. And what on earth has happened to his ability to write intelligent lyrics, emotional or not? Sometimes I think that the Prince or old secretly had someone write his lyrics for him and that person isnt around anymore which is why, these days, a lot of the time the words and tempo of their delivery just dont mesh with the music at all. Maybe his dad was his secret lyric writer.

This thread is the weirdest statement i've read on this forum in 13 years, and God knows I've read weird things.

Unless the OP is a non-fan trying to figure out why WE love 's music, I don't really c how one could enjoy 's music without being able to catch the emotional aspects of it, therefore why would this person be here in the first place?

Some of Prince's supposedly emotional songs like "Another Lonely Christmas" are complete fiction, as Prince himself admitted in an online interview. Even Susan Rogers has said that he rarely was honestly emotional and personal in his songs ("Wally" was an exception).

Something like "Old Friends For Sale" reveals how he originally had a version with lyrics that were more about truthful events in his experience, and then it appears he changed them to be more fictional, less personal upon release.

Maybe this headline means that the listener doesn't feel like Prince is using songs to express personal emotions or experience.

ufoclub said:

Some of Prince's supposedly emotional songs like "Another Lonely Christmas" are complete fiction, as Prince himself admitted in an online interview. Even Susan Rogers has said that he rarely was honestly emotional and personal in his songs ("Wally" was an exception).

Something like "Old Friends For Sale" reveals how he originally had a version with lyrics that were more about truthful events in his experience, and then it appears he changed them to be more fictional, less personal upon release.

Maybe this headline means that the listener doesn't feel like Prince is using songs to express personal emotions or experience.

Even though one can and will often express personal feelings and thoughts thru their works, the very basics of our line of work is to be able to express fictional feelings and thoughts thru a work of art, and make it sound "real", I really don't see no contradiction in that.

I think Prince is very emotional when he wants to. But he is kinda playing a role instead of being honest about a true happening. Do me baby is a song where he truly BECOMES his character and makes it live in a bit excaggerated way. He know drama and theatre, but it doesn't get ironic or comical like I personally think Rick James can be. Rick James is the musical opera way of theatre, why Prince is more of a Jonny Depp character, but just more sex, more intense, and at times even funnier. So no, it's emotions. It's just a bit animated to fit the atmosphere of the production, song etc.

Dilan said:

i've noticed when i'm listening to a prince i find that he conveys almost no emotional depth in his songs and that he's joking or hardly feels what he's singing about. I know you can't expect any emotion in a fun cheesy song like raspberry beret or something, but i'm talking even from more serious songs like the dance, gotta broken heart again, another lonely christmas, the one, colonized mind, how come you don't call me anymore etc. does anyone else feel the same? i know susan rodgers agrees with me to an extent i recall her calling 'wally' the first time prince had showed his emotions or something. Of course, I find their are some exceptions like I hate u extended version etc but there isn't much.

I guess i just find this so strange and that im making a thread about it because i've noticed singers like MJ and GM never fail to show so much soul in almost every song they sing no matter how cheesy and it's something i don't hear in prince. what do you thinK?

he's sarcastic, witty with a touch of asshole in interviews, I would think if he comes off as callous in his music, he's being true to himself, and that's why we love him He knows he's a talented musician, so much that he makes a mockery of it, not taking himself too seriously

[Edited 8/13/14 23:38pm]