I'm not exactly brand new to this board and I have been a fan of prince for quite some time, and I think I know quite a bit about him and his history. However, I'm still unclear about the whole contract/name change story. How did changing his name work towards getting out of his contract if he still had to release a number of albums under the symbol name? Furthermore, if he was free to release music independantly with "Emancipation" why didn't he just change his name back right then and there, why did he have to wait until his contract "expired" if he was already an independant artist? Someone please explain.

u (warner bros) own the prince name...so im not prince anymore...im a symbol...and as a symbol i dont have to follow your orders...when the contract expires i will be prince again, free do do what the symbol did...release what i want when i want...!

prettymansson said:

very well put

that is precisely what happened

I doubt he originally intended to revert back to being called just Prince again. Remember, he was stressing in the beginning of that era that Prince and were even two different people altogether. It was a "spiritual rebirth", then I'd figure he'd just get tired of it. Really.

And if the Raven Un2 The Joy Fantastic -album had been a hit? Do you think he would have changed his name back in the following spring...

Novabreaker said:

Interesting point. Rave was always doomed to failure in my opinion. Not even all the big name collaborations could save it. Prince (and the public) just weren't ready for a "Comeback". Still, I think he was hinting that he was beginning to have second thoughts about the name change when he listed the album as being produced by Prince.

I think it has something to do with his relationship with Mayte and her (that became his) beliefs at that time. He change his name in 1993 when he started dating her and went back to Prince after their divorce. It seems like she had a very strong spiritual influence on him (reincarnation...).It certainly has to do with his contract with WB, but i'm conviced that Mayte was THE pivotal point.

Novabreaker said:

I think he would have. He said a lot of mumbo jumbo back then to "explain" himself. I think he intended to change it back the whole time. I don't hink that the Rave flopping had anything to do with him going back to Prince.
[Edited 11/24/04 12:43pm]

toejam said:

Do you think anyone cared?
Everyone knew who the album came from--I'm not convinced they cared what he called himself, he was and always would be: Prince.