Since Prince has been preaching 2 the fans for almost 25 years, how many of u that did not "believe" in God or Jesus the christ now believes as a result from listening 2 Prince? If the answer shows that it is not many, that means that not many of u are listening 2 his words. On the other hand, I would be pleased 2 find out that millions have seen the light of the dawn...have u? Prince is the most outspoken minister on the planet. 4 those that will hear...let him/her hear...peace

Wrong Forum

Hey, why turn away a potential listener for wandering into the wrong forum. Heaven knows that you need more peeps than the tight knit group that you have here to listen and review NFO. Welcome Talmusic.

Tal, why not listen to some of the fine talent the NFO has and give a review.

As for your question - YES, from the very first hint of P in my life (Controversy), he had me thinking...and I haven't stopped since.

Peace

Tal is a good friend of mine, I was giving him a hard time...
Tal, post some of your muzic.

I think Prince's fans must be like Moths to flames.

To me, the religious stuff is overbearing. I loved the cross, but there's other tunes that are way too heavy handed. So much so, that I lost interest in Prince, but I keep returning to see if he's found the filthy funk again.

And, conversely, I would bet that most folks that love his spiritual messages tend to shake their heads when he throws out a filthy tune, to the point of running THEM off, but THEY TOO continue to return for more spiritual messages.

So, there he is, in a kitchen trying to bake two cakes at once, wanting both to please everyone.

I think that people can be a little "dirty" (as the critics would say) and be spiritual at the same time. There is nothing wrong with being peculiar, God says that His own people are that way.


Tal, since I was 2 in 1978, I have always had a sense of God in my life- I always knew there was something bigger even at that young age. I started attending a United Methodist Christian church with my mom at age 6 until I was about 14, then I didn't go to church too often until I was about 20. I started doing some songs with spiritual messages in 1998, and continued in 99 and 2000 on some. In 2001, I got involved in a church nearly full time and I was baptized that year and did my first mainly spiritual funk CD called "The New Egypt Crusade". I have continued to do spiritual songs on CD's, but I do the "what they call worldly oriented" type funk and r&b every now and then also. As long as I know who my God and Savior is, then that's all that matters, and I feel the same about Prince. I wouldn't care if Prince did a song like "Let's Pretend Were Married" again, because I know he believes in God, and he knows that Jesus Christ is his Savior, so that is all that matters- God wants us to have fun (limited within reason and moderation). I have good parents that believe in Christ as their Savior as I do, and they don't and didn't go to church "religiously" or regularly, but I know that they are very good people, believers, and did right by me.


So that's where I am. I love God, I love Jesus Christ, and I love their Holy Spirit. I respect them, I worship God (the unseen God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), and I believe in Jesus as my Savior, and I call upon the Holy Spirit for guidance.


Peace,
JD

Hi again my friends, I would like to say I'm sorry for putting the "wrong" subject on the musician's forum. I am a musician and this is the only forum I participate in and am drawn 2 the people that come here. Thanks Jason for your personal story and affirmation for exactly how I feel about religion and how I view my music and what it means. As soon as I can get web savvy enough I will upload some of my jams. Again , I will keep it real and limit my posts to topic that pertain to this forum...peace

No man - we're musicians, but we can talk about whatever. I don't think it's the wrong post.

I'm far from Jason on the christian-o-meter. I believe in God and that's about it. I was very involved in the church when I was a teenager - president of the youth group even.

Looked into going into Missionary School.

And then people started dying.

My girlfriend died of leukemia, my chorus teacher (a HUGE influence in my life from 1st grade on up to senior in high school) died of AIDS, my scout master died, my YOUTH minister died from suicide, my english teacher that encouraged my creative writing was stabbed to death... on up to my son dying earlier this year. Basically, ALL my heroes, except for my father, have died.

So, you'll forgive me if the "part of God's big plan" line doesn't float so well with me after all that.

At this point, I believe in God. That's it. You're born, you do your thing, you die, you go to heaven. Don't matter what you do here, we all end up at the same place in the end. It troubles my son (the 15 yr old) who is VERY baptist, he worries that he won't see me after we die; that we'll be going to different places. But I don't think that's going to happen.

But - to those that DO believe in Jesus and all that stuff, I think it's great that you have something so wonderful to comfort you like that - I wish I still had that.

But I don't.

Like I said - I dig some of Prince's christian-tailored songs despite the "join-or-burn" message, but for the most part, they do nothing for me.
[This message was edited Fri Jul 18 21:03:12 PDT 2003 by otan]

Otan, whoa. Damn, that sucks.

I'm glad you're still being creative, despite those major influences being taken from you. Thank God you kept on keepin' on. Whatever it was the made you strong enough to weather the storm, that is love and that is God. If you didn't have something to hold on to, you wouldn't be here to make us laugh, teach us about the business and recording and give us awesome feedback on our tracks.


Peace.

Damn, otan, I'm sorry to hear about all the people you've lost. I can understand the way you feel about God, especially after losing a child. I have a little daughter myself and I can't even start to imagine how it would be to loose her.

I'm glad you still have the strenght to go on with your life and do your thing the best you can. You really are a positive, funny, witty and talented guy! Your posts never fail to make me smile. I like your style, dude, you are one of the truly cool! Keep on doing what you are doing, one day the sun is gonna shine for you...

talmuzic said:

Sorry, but I disagree. I can tell you any prince lyric, been a huge fan for years and often sing along to his most spiritual lines, but I remain a non believer.

The best line prince ever wrote (IMHO) concerning religion is on the album "The Truth", song 4 "Third Eye":

Ultimately the only one
that can save you is you
your god is inside
and for that god you will do
what ever it takes
if nothing else is true
the only one that can save you is you.

theSpark said:

My spiritual beliefs are mine, and Prince has nothing to do with what I believe in. I pretty much gave up on Catholicism before I became a Prince fan. Yes, I listen to the words, and I'm glad he's happy with what he believes, but he is ambiguous about it.

Until recently, I always thought he sang about Jesus because it was the most PC way to talk about the higher power. Personally, I believe the higher power is one source of energy and we call it whatever name we feel most attracted too.

I've never read the Power of Myth, but I think Joseph Campbell says something like that. Every religion really is a myth, and we believe it so strongly that it becomes real and a souce or power in our lives. I'm not putting anyone's religion down by saying it's just a myth, I'm saying that is the power of our minds. You can make anything real, whatever form you believe God comes in. There is God, but it is just energy.

If you really listen to Prince's lyrics, there is a lot of mixed messages. A third eye is a chakra, or energy center, right between your eyes and this is a Hindu belief. There are other examples, but its way too early right now. Come Back, that is a song about reincarnation, another hindu belief. Then he wore the mendhi on his hands for that Vh1 performance. I'm not going to say he's a Hindu or I should be a Hindu because of that. What I will say is that Prince has traveled the world and seen a lot and met a lot of people. When you are exposed to many cultures, I think you come to the realization that there are many ways to believe in the higher power and they are all ok.

Anyway the only thing I agree with 100% is that he is a musical genius. I do not agree 100% with what he says or does.