is pearls b4 the swine one of the most beatiful pieces of music prince has ever put down????
regardless of all the nonsensical mischief he gets up 2 my faith with this piece of music AND the rainbow children has been fully restored!(after newpower soul is was a little shaky!!!)

I'm still waiting for my ONA CD arrive!
Very intruiging title though!

Still waiting here in Mpls too-- i signed up just a few weeks ago, so i'll likely need to wait a few days longer than normal.
peace

SURELY YOU COULD JUST POP ALONG TO PP AND ASK FOR A COPY???
YOU NEVER KNOW..U MIGHT GET A CUP OF TEA AS WELL!!

I think it would of been better suited to The Truth than ONA. Perhaps instead of Animal Kingdom ? It sounds like it was written around that time. But who knows ?

Yes

james said:

I also thought it was from the Truth period.
Same kinda musical arrangements.

On ONA it sounds a little bit misplaced, however it is one of my favorite songs.

This album is a sharp peak! the one-two punch of Avalanche followed by Pearls-Swine is an ass kicker.

yes, pearls b4 the swine is one of the most beautiful songs ever written by prince. I thinks it is already a classic and I just love it so much..

I've only got the track from the Ahdio show but I... just... can't connect with the song. No matter how hard I try I just can't see it as anything more than a pleasant yet unremarkable piece...

Funny, eh? How we can find such different reactions to different songs. Almost like how Prince has a little song for all the corners of our individual little hearts...

Note to self: Destroy the Moon. DESTROY THE MOON. Before breakfast.

I have been humming the melody in my head for the past three days. I don't get the lyrics, though.

Does anyone understand the lyrics?

I am guessing that it is about Mayte.



swine [swn ] (plural swine) noun

1. AGRICULTURE hog: a hog, boar, or similar animal

2. offensive term: an offensive term that deliberately insults somebody's manners or behavior (insult)


[Old English swn . Ultimately, from an Indo-European word that is also the ancestor of English hyena and sow "female hog."]

swin·ish adjective
swin·ishly adverb


Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American Edition] © & (P) 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
[This message was edited Fri May 24 22:28:50 PDT 2002 by comeon]

I take the lyrics as a challenge to his fans. In recent years, Prince has done a good job of opening himself up to his fans (opening sounchecks, Celebrations etc.), and I think this song is a reference to a bit of worry he has as a result. Some fans have taken advantage of this openness (particularly at soundchecks), so I think with this song Prince is coming to terms with the ramifications of his attempts to relate to his fans. Of course, these lyrics could also refer to Mayte, but the feeling I get is a much broader one. In particular, lines like "Are the words that I keep writing only pears before the swine?" and "What makes MEN claim that you're a friend when you're not at all? THEY knock you down and then they lift you up again, just to see you fall" seem like references to a group of people to me.

Moonbeam said:

yeah moonbeam that could be what he is trying to say, but you forget to mention the already famous lines:

"Can i offer u baklava
or a bagel with cream cheese?"

Abrazo said:

Hehe, true enough! I don't know how to explain those.

I heard the song once & never yearned to hear it again but will when ONA gets to me. It catches my ear only because it has him playing acousticley on guitar but beyond that has the impression of gum; sweet at first but the flavor quickly fades.

Moonbeam said:

I hope for his sake that he does not have the nerve to refer to his fans as "swine." There's a lot of shit that people will put up with, but being called "swine" by the millionaire whose pocket you're filling with cash is not one of them.

He's already skating on thin ice with plenty of folks as it is.

My guess is that this song was written last summer sometime after the Celebration.

Simply put, Prince was hurt by some of the stuff that went down and he put that pain into song.

He put "TRC" out there truly feeling he had created one of his most special works and there was a rather nasty backlash. Interestingly when the album was finally released commercially in November it turned out to be one of his most critically acclaimed and fan acclaimed releases, many calling it his best in a decade. But it didn’t go down nearly that smoothly at the Celebration.

I happen to believe that he was very naïve (he has too many “yes” people around him) to think that he could open his doors to the public and let them into to group listening sessions and get nothing but praise back. And I also don’t think he understood the environment of the fan community in the summer of 2001, where many believed they were losing one of the greatest musicians of all time to the constraints of religion. But that’s all completely beside the point. The point is, right or wrong, this episode and perhaps many other unfortunate encounters with overzealous fans personally hurt him, and so he wrote a song to express that pain.

In the song he's questioning whether the art he's creating is merely "Pearls before the swine?" Notice the question mark. He's searching for an answer in his soul. Don’t take everything so literally. He’s not talking about pearls or hogs.

Prince ended up releasing “TRC” and he’s opening his doors to the public once again this June, so I think it quite obviously how he ultimately answered this question. But sometimes you have to exorcise the pain through your art. That’s a healthy way to deal with it. It also helps you learn about yourself, and if you share your creation, it may even help others.

If you're not one of these ugly fans that every celebrity has plenty of, then you should have nothing to be defensive about. Just like when someone talks about racism, you should have nothing to feel guilty about, unless of course you are a racist.

Have any of you ever created something that you were really proud of and when you shared it with an individual or group you got a very negative reaction? If so, try to connect with that feeling again and then re-listen to this song. It's quite powerful and one of Prince's prettiest uses of melody and harmony ever.

Brendan

Man, Novy, I think you're right on! Exactly what I thought, too.

...and Batdance: "Pearls before the swine" is a proverb (or a saying, don't really know the correct english word, sorry). That's nothing he invented, no offense or anything.

Well said, Novi.

Wonderfully said, Novy. I agree 100%.

Novy said:

Great post!

NOVY sounds pretty much right on point... and just for those who are still puzzled as to the origins of the song title / phrase, I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Book of Matthew 7:6:

"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."

cast your pearls before the swine is a pretty common understood expression in my language too. And it probably comes from that bible verse.
It means giving something beautiful to someone that doesn't deserve it. at the end of the song he quotes the saying as "never cast your pearls before the swine."

I think that Moonbeam and Novy are interpretating the words in the right way. But if you take this interpretation then you need to look at what he is saying exactly right?

After the baklava and the bagle with cream chease he says:
" will we say grace 2 our father (no capital F)
holding hands down on our knees"

so if this is a "letter" to the fans, or some of them, then he says he wants to pray with them, holding hands on their knees. say grace to our father... which father would he mean if it is true that he wrote this after the celebration?

then he goes on and says:

"are we better off just fighting?
U on ur side, me on mine
R the words that I keep writing...
only pearls before the swine?"

so yes it could be that he means the words from TRC and that he feels this way because some fans may have reacted very negatively to them and to prince in person on the Celebration.

Hardcore fans also generally claim to be some sort of friend of Prince. I myself don't do that, because I only know his music, but I can see why others claim that.

so Prnce goes on and says:

"what makes MEN claim that u're a friend
when u're not at all
they knock u down and then
they lift u up again
just to see u fall..."

that sounds truly sad and bitter... I wonder if prince would truly let fans get to him this much... Could it thus not be that he is talking about some other people?

whatever it may be it is very meaningfull that he ends his 'complaint' by accurately saying...:

"but like a bird I keep on singing
a song that never leaves ur mind
if nothing else you taught me one thing
"nevercast ur pearls before the swine" "

he is right on the money with that because the melody of this song is so intoxicating it keeps on playing in my mind all day long!




-
[This message was edited Sun May 26 11:18:56 PDT 2002 by Abrazo]

the reference 2 "pearls before the swine" is biblical, taken from christ's sermon on the mount, recorded in chapters 5 - 7 of the book of matthew.

In matthew 7, verse 6, jesus admonishingly states "give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before the swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."

this verse is commonly held to be a warning to early christians - who were heavily persecuted - to be careful as they went about the work of building the church. they wanted to convert - save- the unclean - swine - not rouse them to anger and violence.

beyond this . . . who knows. the song seems 2 b heavily laced with additional biblical references - an open front door, slander of names, seeds being sown, prayer - but who among us will take the time to figure it all out?

"the front door open would u come and visit me" is being seen as a reference to the celebration open to the fams.maybe that is why the celebration this year is not open to non-members...

"just to slander my name " seems ackwrad to me.. were their fans at last celebration salndering his name? I don't remember reading about it...

"I don't really know why we have to go our seperate ways
whether or not we grow after the seeds r sown
only time can say..."

could again be a reference to the part of the fanbase that couldn't live up to the religiously influenced atmosphere of last celebration...

Mayb he`s just trying to hook up with some pigheaded women ...who knows.