I'm having a blond moment (even though I don't meet the necessary physical requirements) deciphering the meaning of a certain portion of the titled track.

"It's raining
Mad sistas
Why can't they realize
That it won't be long?"

My guess is it has something to do with the texture of African-American hair when it becomes wet, but that would seem a bit silly and out of place even when you take into consideration the overall theme of the song.

Anyone care to fill me in on the true meaning?

It's a song about interracial relationships. Prince thinks some sistas don't like when the brothas date white girls.

sextonseven said:

I get the overall meaning, it's the portion italicized in my original post that I'm having trouble understanding.

edit: Unless you second sentence is the answer to my original question.
[Edited 8/12/08 21:11pm]

IdentityCrisis said:

Black folks hair getting wet? Nah, it has nothing to do with that. That's deep though. Ice Cream Castles is about black and white love. Or more specifically, bruthas dating white girls. The lyric "It's raining....mad sistas, why can't they realize that it won't be long." P is saying that black women are angry because bruthas are dating white girls. And the "that it won't be long" line,..well, no telling what P meant by that. I KNOW what I've always thought he meant but...

blackguitaristz said:

You might as well finish what you started. What do you think he meant by the last line?

Maybe it means that the interracial relationship won´t last long anyway or maybe that with the rain, there comes enlightenment and openness and the sistas will finally understand that it´s all about love and not the color of your skin.
Just a guess. Or maybe the rain stands for something negative and not enlightenment, and the singer is implying that the bad phase/anger won´t last long, maybe due to the fact that the sistas will sooner or later just get used to the singer´s interracial love affairs and feel less mad and just deal with it.
[Edited 8/14/08 8:03am]

I've always interpreted the last line as Prince basically saying that as long as the races keep mixing, we won't be able to differentiatel between black and white anymore anyway. Therefore, "We're all Ice cream castles...."

I might have read this somewhere, but I interpreted that part of the song as meaning that our time on this planet is short. As sort of a companion to Prince's "1999", the apocalypse will be here soon, it will be raining bombs and after the final explosion, we'll all just melt together like ice cream castles in the summertime. Maybe I dreamt reading that.

Ice Cream Castles in the summertime melt real fast, don´t they ?
So, this could mean that the relationship is doomed to end real quick and has no chance , or it could mean that life is so short, why make such a big fuss about racial barriers and just enjoy life while it lasts ?

I think this thread should be in the Prince-Music&More forum...it´s on a Time album but since this is a discussion about Prince penned lyrics, it would be cool if more people joined this discussion.

These are some very interesting interpretations. I share the same sentiments with the overall consensus, but knowing Prince, there's the possibility of it being more than what's on the surface.

Kooleaze, I thought the same thing after I submitted the thread. If a mod would be so kind to find it in his/her heart to give this topic a possible nudge into the PM&M forum, I'd be ever so grateful.

Does he not say "Or-NA-Mentals"????

bobsteezy said:

Yes. People weren't so PC back then.