Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

boys and mutherallergator girls.

This is your op with little question known

to merely rock your world

about a song that is lovely and classic

about a musician you already know

Give me true insight of this song "Cream"

before I go

daKotaGeNesis said:

daKotaGeNesis said:

raspberryberet3121 said:

I can only go by what he said during the Musicology concert at Webster Hall and that was that he had written it while looking in a mirror .

Yes he did indeed say that and in response to the audience reaction, followed up with "I'm serious".

As in many other (maybe all) Prince songs there are many ways to interpret this one. Many layers of meaning are possible. To me, this is Prince working up mojo. This is him saying, yeah I have moments when I don't feel equal to what is being asked of me or what I'm asking of myself and I need to build up my confidence. This is huge, to me. I mean, he's Prince! So even musical geniuses need to work on their confidence from time to time?!?

He wrote it for us Prince identified with every other flawed and sometimes insecure human being and said "look up in the air, it's your guitar!". Very inspirational song for me. When I get very frustrated or feel defeated I tell myself that same phrase.

As any good dairy farmer knows, cream rises to the top. He always said to listen to his music and you will know who he is. Reading the lyrics it's about being the best, breaking the rules, being confident in your skills and rising to the top in your field.

Cream is about Prince tooting his own horn. I used to think it was about woman and he wanted her to get on top, but he cleared that up for me when on MTV Unplugged, he said that he wrote the song while looking in the mirror. After that, the song made so much more sense.

daKotaGeNesis said:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

boys and mutherallergator girls.

This is your op with little question known

to merely rock your world

about a song that is lovely and classic

about a musician you already know

Give me true insight of this song "Cream"

before I go

.

You claim to be eager for information, and yet you couldn't be arsed to read the liner notes to The Hits/The B-Sides.

Although many people think the song is sexual (because of its' title),I always assumed it was some kind of 'self-esteem/think positive' type of song.He's encouraging a woman to strive to be her best and she will succeed.Y'all know the old saying "the cream always rises to the top".However,he uses sexual metaphors in the song to make it seem provocative and dirty "You got the horn so why don't you blow it",lol

I had always assumed the song was about himself, and he indeed confirmed it in 2004. Daddy Pop is also about himself, even more obviously.

margi said:

I feel as Prince talks of a mirror,that he is 'talking' to Vanity and telling her it is her time to shine. He says that she has the talent and to go for it. I feel he writes to her through his songs when he references mirrors.

Nonsense. People have to stop with this Vanity obsession, she'd been gone for years when Cream was composed. Do not try to force your fantasies over reality.

databank said:

margi said:

I feel as Prince talks of a mirror,that he is 'talking' to Vanity and telling her it is her time to shine. He says that she has the talent and to go for it. I feel he writes to her through his songs when he references mirrors.

Nonsense. People have to stop with this Vanity obsession, she'd been gone for years when Cream was composed. Do not try to force your fantasies over reality.

Co-Sign and if some of you think the song had no sexual connotation whatsoever well you guys need to get out more

BartVanHemelen said:

databank said:

anangellooksdown said:

databank said:

Nonsense. People have to stop with this Vanity obsession, she'd been gone for years when Cream was composed. Do not try to force your fantasies over reality.

Exactly. We all know why he wrote it; for himself - and to tell himself "go for it" musically. This was his time. Regarding the Vanity thing, was just looking at a 2014 RS interview (I think it was the lost one they didn't publish til after his passing), where he clearly says that when you're young, you think one woman is the finest of all, and then comes along "Saturday". He then laughs hard. Prince was just like the rest of us. He didn't stay in love with the same girl he was with at 25.

Thing is, for the 15 years I've been on this board, I've read on a regular basis that such or such song composed at any point between 1985 and 2015 was about Vanity. Each and every time, it came out of the blue, it was unsopported by neither evidence or common sense: one could have said Prince had written those songs about my mom or Hilary Clinton just the same. IDK why certain fans have this fixation on Vanity, because I only read this about her, not other Prince women, but it's ridiculous to make such unsupported, irrational statements.

The title "Cream" leaves something to the imagination, like most of P's songs. I never really "got" what the song was about, until I read the lyrics.

.

Basically, "cream" is the GOOD STUFF, that always rises to the top!! Kinda like having a 'cherry' on top of a sundae, so-to-speak. A metaphor.

.

It's an inspirational song; I think and he's saying to "follow your dream, don't ever stop", until you achieve your greatness!!

.

.

[Edited 10/4/16 13:51pm]

Sometimes the easy answer is the right one

He has said it was written whilst looking in the mirror, and seems that I've read before that it was a bit of a cocky response to a critic's claim that he was "done" after Graffiti Bridge flopped.

yeah,that's how I interpret the lyrics too I think he throws in a few sexual metaphors just to make it provocative (lol) but the song actually has a positive message

cloveringold85 said:

It's an inspirational song; I think and he's saying to "follow your dream, don't ever stop", until you achieve your greatness!!

SoulAlive said:

yeah,that's how I interpret the lyrics too I think he throws in a few sexual metaphors just to make it provocative (lol) but the song actually has a positive message

cloveringold85 said:

It's an inspirational song; I think and he's saying to "follow your dream, don't ever stop", until you achieve your greatness!!

.

Uh-huh.....you know Prince be throwin' in some seduction somewhere in his lyrics (just a little), LOL

I thought he dedicated this song to one of his female associates? Like Vanity or Kim Basinger? I believe his 1989-1990 association with Ms Basinger influenced a changing tone in his music from then on.

I thought it was common knowledge this song was about orgasm.

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I always thought it odd this was such a massive hit in America as they can be so conservative particularly with sexual references in radio tunes.

.

I remember at the time thinking it was funny that no one got it and it was being played everywhere!

.

darkroman said:

I always thought it odd this was such a massive hit in America as they can be so conservative particularly with sexual references in radio tunes.

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Ah, good ol' fashioned stereotyping of Americans. 330 million strong - and yet frequently referred to collectively as "they."

.

If "they" were as sexually conservative as some seem to believe, Prince would've never become a superstar in the first place.

Eh, the whole "use whipped cream during sex" craze was happening at the time. It's just a bunch of double-entendres and him banking on the fad of using cream during sex. Some of the lyrics seem to be simply nonsense that he probably thought sounded cool and worked in the context of the music ("look up in the air, it's your guitar", which is followed by the playful guitar line).

Thanks everyone for your reply!

BartVanHemelen said:

daKotaGeNesis said:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

boys and mutherallergator girls.

This is your op with little question known

to merely rock your world

about a song that is lovely and classic

about a musician you already know

Give me true insight of this song "Cream"

before I go

.

You claim to be eager for information, and yet you couldn't be arsed to read the liner notes to The Hits/The B-Sides.

Yeah B,

Was busy trying to "Gett Off" to the lyrics of "Donald Trump (black version LOL) (just playing)

But no,

It's because I was asking for YOUR interpretation of the meaning!

daKotaGeNesis said:

BartVanHemelen said:

daKotaGeNesis said:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

boys and mutherallergator girls.

This is your op with little question known

to merely rock your world

about a song that is lovely and classic

about a musician you already know

Give me true insight of this song "Cream"

before I go

.

You claim to be eager for information, and yet you couldn't be arsed to read the liner notes to The Hits/The B-Sides.

Apparently you can't be arsed to read the liner notes because if you had read them, you would know the liner notes do not answer the questions posed in the OP:

Reputedly written while standing in front of a mirror, the next release, CREAM, falls into that highly exclusive category of classic singles. As with WHEN DOVES CRY or LITTLE RED CORVETTE, one listen and you knew you were going to hear it everywhere you went.

http://albumlinernotes.co...Sides.html