...when prior records had themes that just as explicit, if not much more? Was it just the use of the word "masturbating"? For example, I was listening to "Automatic" and saw the video - come on! Just as suggestive as "Darling Nikki"! Any thoughts?

Thanks.

But Purple Rain never got the Parental Advisory label, so Tipper's move was all in vain. I hope she apologized.

More importantly, I'd like to know why Graffiti Bridge received that label if there were no explicit lyrics(and how did the Black Album not get the label). He was, after all, going through this phase when he didn't believe in cussing. I think there's a line in Joy in Repetition when he implies that cussing sounds cool, but it's really stupid.

doctamario said:

Cuz, it was 1984, and the world wasn't used to that shit!

doctamario said:

No, but they did single that tune's lyrics out when they were attempting to show the world what they were talking about with suggestive or obscene lyrics.

June7 said:

Cuz, Prince was a new Superstar in 1984/85 and Michael Jackson wasnt singing about girls masturbating with magazines.

crackiswhack said:

Because Purple Rain with Darling Nikki sold over 10 million copys in the U.S.. The other Prince albums didnt.

I remember the song by Prince that was pointed out was "Let's Pretend We're Married", although Darling Nikki was thrown in the list of songs later.

Apparently LPWM was one of the first songs to spark the concern.

June7 said:

well @least they werent smart enough to figure out what computer blue was about then the whole situation would jus blow right up

SammiJ said:

I couldn't figure out if it was about him wanting a sex change to become a lesbian or one of the girls in his band feeling uncomfortable being gay. Whatever it's about, I fail to see what "Computer Blue" has to do with it. But then I've been told I wasn't too smart.

doctamario said:

if im not mistaken i think that song too was about masturbation...well not really...but computer blue..blue balls...until he find the right one he'll never be satisfied sexually...
dont quote me on it until a real prince fan can correct me lol
im still a n00b too.

Wow, I'm a guy and i never thought of it like that. Good work.

rudeboynpg said:

1983 in Cincinnati after Rick Alley got the Prince album 1999 because he liked the song Little Red Corvette on the radio, "We were in the family room with the kids, I put the album on and than another song came on called Lets Pretend Were Married and the lyrics were pretty graphic. I didnt want the kids hearing it, then I got angry, that this shouldnt happen." Rick Alley said "I'd just like to see the albums labled. I'd like to know what I'm geting when I go to the record store." This was before Tipper Gore and the PMRC were against "Porn Rock" in 1985 over Darling Nikki on Purple Rain, Sheen Easton's Suger Walls, Cyndi Lauper's She Bop, Madonna's Dress You Up, and Metal bands.

I always figure the stuff that someone's finds so obscene is what they're masturbating to behind close doors.

SammiJ said:

Yeah, that's a good thought - that and the one about sexual orientation. I always just thought it meant that until he found someone who was righteous and true, he would "shut himself down emotionally" like a blank computer screen... ???

purplesmoke said:

That's interesting, I've never heard that before.

I guess the fact that Purple Rain was so big that year didn't help - there were more explicit songs released by Prince before 1984, but what with the movie and the promotional wheels in full turn that year, it didn't need much to Tipper's panties in a twist.

SammiJ said:

That's until he finds his ideal woman, the "Righteous One", he is the "poor lonely computer". In Wendy's the Righteous One speech, which is printed on the album sleeve, she says, "Poor lonely computer, do u really know what love is? Poor lonely computer, it's time someone programmed u, its time u learned that love and lust are different words."
[Edited 6/26/15 11:53am]

doctamario said:

If you used the word "fuck" back then, it was automatically considered explicit. We Can Funk was the offending track.

By the time the Black album came out in 94, words like fuck and shit seemed to be more acceptable.

Rap seemed to play a big part in the redefinition of "swear" words in music. "Shit" moved from being a major swear word to general slang. "Fuck" soon followed. "Cunt" seems to be the only offender left at the moment. When 2 live crew released there first album, it was a BIG offender. Its probably considered tame now.

.

SquirrelMeat said:

There ARE curse words on the Graffiti Bridge album. Listen to "Release It": Three Times, the word "Ass" is used, and the word "Motherfucker" is used once at the end. Not to mention, the song "Love Machine" is pretty dirty. -Explicit Lyrics- does not exclusively mean curse words specifically.

The Black Album was a limited release only meant to be on the record store shelves for what, two months? Probably didn't bother, although my official cassette copy does have a sticker, so, I don't know.

Purple Rain was released BEFORE they started stickering albums, so it didn't get one because they didn't exist yet!

I was 12 years old when this came out and I didn't even know what masturbating was. I had to ask somebody.

doeineffect said:

Suuuuurrrreee you didn't!

Another Prince song "Sugar Walls" (which was released as a single and doesn't have a dirty word in it) was also on the PMRC list of 10 or 12 songs, as was "Strap On Robbie Baby" by Vanity.

SquirrelMeat said:

The Black Album was only a limited release in 1994.

smokeverbs said:

I just looked at the lyrics and you're right. They don't stand out, though. But if the label is used for more than just cuss words, and can be used for explicit sexual content, then all of his CD's in the 90's should have gotten it. 311's Soundsystem had a very positive message and only used fuck maybe twice and you wouldn't notice unless you listened closely. Those people are inconsistent with the labels.

NouveauDance said:

I must be getting old.. I remember this . haha

http://www.enquirer.com/e...music.html

BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
VH1 recalls a forgotten piece of Cincinnati music history today, Rick Alley's 1984-85 campaign to put warning labels on record albums with explicit lyrics.

“I've already had my 15 minutes of fame,” laughed Mr. Alley, now a 45-year-old Delhi Township grandfather.

VH1's RockStory documentary series premieres at 10 p.m. today with four 12-minute reports about rock 'n' roll censorship. The first person interviewed is Mr. Alley, who started the effort with a letter to Enquirer columnist Frank Weikel in 1984.

Mr. Alley was embarrassed and angered when his children heard the explicit lyrics of “Let's Pretend We're Married” on Prince's 1999 record album.

“As a parent, it just seemed like a wrong thing,” said Mr. Alley, parts manager for Cincinnati Machine Co.

“After we played the album, I was pretty upset and looking for a vehicle to vent. It snowballed pretty quickly,” he said.

Mr. Alley presented his idea for album warning labels to the Delshire Elementary School Parent Teachers Association in Delhi Township.

A couple of months later, the national Parent-Teacher Association adopted a resolution asking the record industry to place warning labels on albums with “profanity, sex, violence or vulgarity” in song lyrics.

Within a year, the proposal became politicized when it was picked up by Tipper Gore and an organization called the Parents' Music Resource Center (PMRC). Frank Zappa, John Denver and Twisted Sister's Dee Snider criticized the plan at Congressional hearings.

Within 18 months, the PMRC and national PTA had a labeling agreement with the Recording Industry Association of America.

“It kind of took a different slant once the PMRC got involved. They kind of took it over,” said Mr. Alley, whose children were 12 and 6 when he began the campaign.

doctamario said:

Actually i was flipping through my rolling stone last week and saw one of those inserts for a cd club. u know the one where u get 12 cds for the price of one? anyways they had purple rain with a parental advisory sign next to it, I was puzzled cuz i couldn't fathom how that album got that sticker.

But Tipper never really admitted that she picked up someone else's banner (that I recall). She was interviewed several times and stated that she started this because she'd bought her 11 year old daughter a copy of Purple Rain and was offended by Darling Nikki.

In everything I've read, Purple Rain gets the credit for starting the labeling and Two Live Crew's As Nasty As They Wanna Be gets credit for being the first labeled album. (I think Purple Rain got labeled in a re-release.)

Incidentally, Frank Zappa has the distinction of having the first (and possibly still the only) instrumental album required to have the "Explicit Lyrics/Content" label.
[Edited 1/31/05 21:45pm]

"Incidentally, Frank Zappa has the distinction of having the first (and possibly still the only) instrumental album required to have the "Explicit Lyrics/Content" label."

How?

rudeboynpg said:

Still has to follow the regulations of any full release.

She was interviewed several times and stated that she started this because he'd bought her 11 year old daughter a copy of Purple Rain and was offended by Darling Nikki.

Right, "Darling Nikki" just happened to be the song that got Tipper's attention because her daughter was listening to it. It wasn't meant to suggest that it was the first song that warranted the explicit lyrics label.

subhuman09 said:

Most likely they're masturbating about me.