Of all Prince's songs Seven has to be one of the hardest to inepret.
There is some weird shit going on in this song. Angels, armies,reincarnation and 7 unknown entities falling.

I don't know if he thinks this is a true event or something mythical. Anyhow too top it off he has humself playing a guitar blindfolded in a city of the future with his egyptian princess and several child duplicatesof her.



Puzzled like me?

the book of revelation.....

fluid said:

Something about him killing 7 different sides of himself. Even Mayte doesn't know what that's about (I read some letter she wrote somewhere on this site about that). But it's also supposed to be part of the 3 Chains o' Gold video collection/story about the Egyptian Princess Mayte's father being killed by the 7 who are looking for the 3 Chains of Gold. Prince saves her. That's all I know. And something about spiritual transformation/rebirth(all those blasted childreN?)

one interpretation - 7 refers to the 7 deadly sins



thus, animosity (i.e. hate) is one of the 7. And the Prince persona's that die in the video are representative of the 7 deadly sins. The one from the my name is prince video is clearly Pride/Arrogance

http://www.whitestonejournal.com/seven/

An alternate interpretations is the 7 seals of the apocalypse and the following 1000 year reign of Christ.



12 souls = 12 lifetimes = approx 1000 years

I heard this song was about 7 men who killed Mayte's father, and then were after her. The video portrays this quite well, as well.

Hence:"All 7 and we'll watch them fall, stand in the way of love and we will smoke them all.."

Heres a proper analysis someone did a few years back on the PPML , thankfully I printed it out at the time as it was quite impressive , I've just retyped it out :

7 : An analysis with direct reference to Revelations

All 7 and we'll watch them fall
They stand in the way of love
And we will smoke them all
With an intellect and a savoir-faire
No one in the whole universe
Will ever compare
I am yours now and u are mine
And together we'll love through
All space and time, so don't cry
One day all 7 will die

All 7 refers to the 7 seperate heads of the dragon (Rev 12.3) symbolising Satan and representing his evil empire on earth .Basically the chorus of the song is an anthem denouncing Satan and alluding to the consummation of heaven and earth (Rev 21.1-3)

And I saw an angel come down unto me
In her hand she holds the very key
Words of compassion, words of peace
And in the distance an army's marching feet (1,2,3,4 - 1,2,3,4)
But behold, we will watch them fall

Here, sees an angel (Rev 1.1-2) holding the key of David (Rev 3.7,9.1) which opens and shuts the very gates of Hell (Rev 20.1) .The next 2 lines combine God's promise (Words Of Compassion ...) with a warning of Satan's approaching hoard.God's promise is the original covenant as established with Abraham (Gen 17.2-8) ,repeated through the entire bible , and continues to echo throughout the verses of the Revelation .Satans hoard (Rev 19.19) is comprised of those numerous cursed people and false angels who follow him in his campaign against God ( Rev 20.7-9).In the final line of the above quote , the angel consoles by revealing that , in the end , God wll triumph and Satan will indeed fall.

And we lay down on the sand of the sea
And before us animosity will stand and decree
That we speak not of love only blasphemy
And in the distance, 6 others will curse me
But that's alright, (that's alright)
4 I will watch them fall

is referring to Satan's final confrontation against God and His Saints (Rev 12.8 - 13.6) .This reference pertains to the relevant episode in which Satan (still portrayed as a dragon with 7 heads ) "...took his stand on the sand of the seashore"(Rev 13.1 ) inciting his followers to forsake love and "..utter blasphemies against God" (Rev 13.6).
even adds to this titanic scene the idea of the dragon rousing its masses (presumably speaking through one head) while its 6 other heads spew curses at its people.The verse closes in the same manner as did the previous verse ...the angel maintains that the faithful will see Satan fall.


And we will see a plague and a river of blood
And every evil soul will surely die in spite of
Their 7 tears, but do not fear
4 in the distance, 12 souls from now
U and me will still be here - we will still be here

Now , brings us to one of the latest stages of the Revelation in which good (God) finally triumphs over evil (Satan) forever . This vision involves 7 plagues (the seven bowls of God's wrath :Rev 15.1) that are successively afflicted upon the world. The "river of blood" refers to the 3rd plague in which all the world's rivers and springs of water become blood (Rev 16.3) .At this point ,every evil soul is doomed to die in spite of thier "weeping and wailing" (Rev 18.9).As for the "7 tears" , theres a rather long passage (Rev 18.9 -19) immediately following the aforementioned plagues in which the defeated kings , merchants , shipmasters , seafarers ,sailors and such cry out against their loss .These cries are their 7 tears ,and while there are 8 distinct cries ,there are only 7 DIFFERENT cries ...because one is repeated.Finally is assured he has nothing to fear in the face of all these calamities and cries of woe , because "12 souls from now " (his expression for a very long time basically) ,God's faithful will remain alive on the earth.

There will be a new city with streets of gold
The young so educated they never grow old
And a, there will be no death 4 with every breath
The voice of many colors sings a song
That's so bold
Sing it while we watch them fall


Finally narrates the final stage of revelation : the birth of a new heaven and a new earth. "The new city" is called the new Jerusalem (or the Holy City , Rev 21.2) which God will present from Heaven to his people . As reiterates , this holy city will have streets paved with gold (Rev 21.21) and its citizens will never die (Rev 21.4).In this new world , even the "young" will have the wisdom that Adam and Eve lacked and that would have prevented the shared path to death (Gen 2.17) ."They will never grow old " as did Eden's children after eating of the fabeld forbidden fruit.
The voice of many colours most likely refers to the many voices of those who will inhabit the new Jerusalem following God's judgement . The Bible says that those chosen will be of every nation , speaking every language and comprised of every tribe .And thier song will be one of praise to God himself.

Retyped from an original PPML post by shay "hamm2107@splava.cc.plattsburgh.edu"
Take a bow wherever you may be sir / madam


P.S.That email address bounces . I checked !
[Edited 4/26/05 20:06pm]

RazzBeret said:

In loose word association speak...
ever heard of the saying-- christ is love?

Stand in the way of love/Jesus?
answer is evil-- seven deadly sins. Seven sides of man-- seven former selves to be killed-- they stand in the way of accepting christ...

new city = Heaven --- perfect world-- maybe this is what Prince deems the perfect world.

Does any of this seem weird to yall?

The number 12 is also biblically significant right? The 12 tribes of Israel the Hebrew God's originally chosen people. Of course interpretation is up to the listener. It's not like Prince is going to show up at your house and tell you that you've got it all wrong. Once you buy it it's yours to interpret, hate, love, criticize, whatever.

fluid said:

For Prince? Nah, we all know he's a religious sycophant.

americanoarrogante said:

12 has roots further back than the Bible. The 12 disciples of Jesus (the Son) for example can be simply viewed as the 12 signs of the Zodiac that interact with the Sun (Son).

One imagines the significance of the number 7 also predates the Bible, since the Bible is entirely a collection and re-interpretation of much, much older legends and myths.



» MetroArea
[Edited 4/28/05 14:28pm]

The use of the number 7, the acopalyps, a new spiritual era indeed go further back then the christian bible. They hark back to Egypt, thousands of years before christ.

Some reseachers see christianity (or judism) as a believe founded by hebreeen slaves who escaped Egypt. These slaves believed in one God, while the Egyptians themselves had a system of different Gods. At a certain time a new Faroah, tried to make this believe in One god, the sungod Ra, the official religion of Egypt, but he was brought down by his priests, and the hebreeen slaves who also believed in one god escaped Egypt to settle themselve in Palestina.

When looking at the lyrics, the symbols and certain religious idea's Prince used on the Symbol album it seemed to me he had done research on both Egyptian history / religion and mixed it with his christian believes. The use of the soap-stone symbol as his new 'name' is also prove of that. Its an old alchemist symbol that goes way back to old egypt and the 'secret knowdlegde of the freemansory.

It seems to me Prince studied subjects like this, trying to connect these things to his (view) of life, and you can see references to it popping up on not only the Symbol album, but also on Exodus (NPG) and the Gold Experience. But because the references are often very cryptical, its not always clear what he's trying to achieve or say with it....