i want to know the richie havens song.

and, a quick search tells me he was the first performer at woodstock, so

The lyrics are probably the best thing about the song. It reminds me of Breathe and Madrid 2 Chicago, it has that same ethereal sound to the backing tracks with confusing, whimsical lyrics that seem to speak of an underlying sadness without directly addressing it or owning up to the emotion. If I had to guess, I would say this one was done by Prince alone.

Having typed out the lyrics, they seem a lot more heart breaking written down as opposed to heard. He sounds so lonely and distraught cooking pasta on his birthday with no one to celebrate it with him. His last lover having quit on him and having a life elsewhere without him.

As hyperpessismist said, the pasta is a nice metaphor but also really conjures a strong and tragic image of Prince sat alone in his kitchen trying to cook himself something - probably in the middle of the night (all I saw was a full moon) when all his staff have gone home and he's been working on this track to give himself something to do to take his mind off his birthday. But for all his "time is a trick" rhetoric his mind can't help but turn to failed relationships, his place in the musical culture and his loneliness.

Musically it is pretty slight and lifeless, but this works well with the subject matter and mood. It certainly seems to be an honest insight in to his emotional state, and I wouldn't be surprised if this track was written and recorded in a matter of hours as a diary snapshot of his mind space on his 57th birthday. Maybe he was workingon something else, broke off to make the pasta then lost himself in a day dream and came back to create this, before going back to the original track.

A real peak behind the curtains, wizard of oz style.

Having said all of that, I'm not sure I will come back to this track much in the future, it doesn't really do much as a song to warrant repeated listens, although the synth solo is nice.

Just speculating as well, who do we think he was addressing in this song? The line "how can you be everybody's dream and still be somebody's wife?" at first suggested he was having an affair with someone, especially with all the references to this person being out there living their own life.

However, I don't think this is right. It also reads as if he's having a relationship with someone who is busy and trying to get their career off in their own right, which maybe Rita Orr? Or Andy Allo? And maybe one of the crunch points was down to image and Prince wanting them to tone down the sexy if they wanted to stay with him, and them saying no.

MinorG said:

The line "how can you be everybody's dream and still be somebody's wife?" at first suggested he was having an affair with someone, especially with all the references to this person being out there living their own life.

[Edited 9/22/15 14:39pm]

I like the lyrics, isn't in the same vein of Reflection, kind of reflective, personal and sad lyrics?

'

MinorG said:

Just speculating as well, who do we think he was addressing in this song? The line "how can you be everybody's dream and still be somebody's wife?" at first suggested he was having an affair with someone, especially with all the references to this person being out there living their own life.

However, I don't think this is right. It also reads as if he's having a relationship with someone who is busy and trying to get their career off in their own right, which maybe Rita Orr? Or Andy Allo? And maybe one of the crunch points was down to image and Prince wanting them to tone down the sexy if they wanted to stay with him, and them saying no.

There's so much goin on in this track....but that lyric says alot.....I don't think it's an affair though...maybe an offhand comment about a kim kardashian type? I can see him not understanding 'that' (as in 'kim') and trying to reconcile that with 'wife'. I bet she makes his head explode.

Prince always picks the dream doesn't he? She's never realllly wifey, is she? No matter what he does.

He has certain ideas about women that conflict....the woman who attracts his attention, mostly, well ya can't turn them into a wifey.

Prince keeps barking up the wrong tree thinking he's going to find a fox, and all he keeps getting are squirrels.

He thinks once he marries the dream girl, she'll change and act like a wifey...that she'll tone it down and only serve it to him. The second she does that, he's bored and he is looking at another dream.

Must be the pasta, burned again.

starkitty said:

and why did the pasta burn?

cuz he was staring at the moon

starkitty said:

nope

starkitty said:

nope

then, why

MinorG said:

214 said:

starkitty said:

nope

then, why

you'll get there

starkitty said:

"our bodies got used to each other"

starkitty said:

214 said:

then, why

you'll get there

Take me there please

his lady, or former lady, came for a visit. he put on pasta. their bodies got used to each other, as they had in the past, while the vinyl spun round. you're alien beautiful, he said. why did you come here, he said. why can't you stay forever, he said.

the pasta began to burn.

BECAUSE THEY WERE BUSY STEADY FUCKING

starkitty said:

his lady, or former lady, came for a visit. he put on pasta. their bodies got used to each other, as they had in the past, while the vinyl spun round. you're alien beautiful, he said. why did you come here, he said. why can't you stay forever, he said.

the pasta began to burn.

BECAUSE THEY WERE BUSY STEADY FUCKING

Prince REALLY wants someone that can f*ck his brain, or at least keep up with him. That's so obvious here. That he wants to talk about more things of substance, but can't even get an answer about what was for lunch that day lololol He's like a moth to a flame though and keeps banging up on pretty girls who are about as deep as a credit card is thin.

Richie Havens voice on the vinyl, goes round and round ....you're out somewhere being free....may be a reference to this song

starkitty said:

his lady, or former lady, came for a visit. he put on pasta. their bodies got used to each other, as they had in the past, while the vinyl spun round. you're alien beautiful, he said. why did you come here, he said. why can't you stay forever, he said.

the pasta began to burn.

BECAUSE THEY WERE BUSY STEADY FUCKING

That's it, me expected a sort kind of Revelation, you know a big thing coming

The one song that is actually mildly experimental in terms of songwriting. Not exactly my favorite, but it's got a cool sound to it. Prince was actually born before Woodstock; I know someone already had a theory about this, but it made me wonder if maybe someone else, younger, named Andy might have helped with the lyrics--also singing about someone being absent and someone famous who had a birthday in June.

Eh, who knows? All I know is that I actually like this album by the time I get here, and thats a nice feeling.

inspireof said:

terrig said:

On repetaed listens I'm in love with this song. It's got a heartbreaking quality and if you really hear the lyrics, its so self aware....and while its too short, the abrubt ending starts to make sense after awhile....

.

Also I'm not sure why but I feel it is short and a little different than the rest of the album because it will somehow transition into and "make sense soon" when Phase 2 comes around

.

[Edited 9/9/15 21:53pm]

To me this is like "The sixth sense" in song

"soon" is at the end.

R.I.P June

EPIC TRACK......I love 'June'

terrig said:

Richie Havens voice on the vinyl, goes round and round ....you're out somewhere being free....may be a reference to this song

GOOD CATCH! "Shoulda been born on the Woodstock stage"

VelvetKittyKat said:

"No chorus," was the remark when I played "June" to someone else. Then I realized it was in a verse form much like Joni's work (which I love).

Peach & Black Podcast's thoughts on "June"

Full HITNRUN Review Youtube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/w...mp;index=1

ok - only two days count - the birthday and deathday, which is really another birthday. So, only two birthdays...one into this earthplane with a breath and one out of this earthplane with the last breath.

Past(a) could be a methaphor for the word, past. We burn the past like the wick on a candle with the flame and continue to burn the past with each breath.

Each breath is in a new present moment and time does not exist in the higher planes. Still trying to grasp that concept...or give the breath up and then find out what it all means someday, sometime. who knows?

I think the song is about his struggle as a superstar.

-

"Pasta simmers on the stove in June
Makes no sense yet, but it will soon
Conversation starters come way too hard
Nobody wants to be the martyr,
playin' the wrong cards"

-

He's saying: pasta simmers in june, I know that makes no sense but keep listening. I don't really know how to start here. I don't want to be a martyr if what my complaint is falls on deaf ears.

-

"Tell me, what did you have for lunch today?

How would I know?"

-

He's saying: You know everything about me, and you, in some ways, think of me as a God. But I'm not a God. I know nothing about you. How would I know what you had for lunch today?

-

"You are off somewhere, being free
while I starve in the lonesome cold."

-

He's saying: You aren't shackled by superstardom like I am. I can't go to the mall. I can't go to a movie theater. You can do whatever you want.

-

"Sometimes I feel I was born way too late
Shoulda been born on the Woodstock stage"

-

He's saying: If I was born 500 years ago, I'd be immortalized, like Mozart or Beethoven. If I was born on the woodstock stage, it would have been appropriate, born among musical legends.

-

"But I'm just here, waitin', and waitin', and waitin'
Somebody famous had a birthday today
All I saw was another full moon"

-

He's saying: But I was born when I was born, so go on living waiting for the recognition I deserve. Today's my birthday, and I'm sitting here all alone.

-

"What's that?
Something's burning on the stove

Must be the pasta
Oh yeah, it's June"

-

He's saying: I have pasta once a year, on my birthday. All alone. And you don't understand me at all, or what I'm going through.

-

I'm saying: Yes, I've given this song a hundred or more listens, and I absolutely love it. It's so raw and exposing.

[Edited 10/28/15 16:14pm]