Time upon a once there was a boy named Camille
Now this boy named Camille didn't know how 2 feel.
Sometimes he was lonely, sometimes he was sad
but most times he just took 4 granted
all the nice things that he had.

Some people said they loved him
but Camille said
“Contempt! Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall,
love is no good unless it's felt by all.”

So, naive & terrifically in need
Camille started looking for answers
His paintbrush the questioner,
his canvas the arena,
Camille set out to silence his critics.
“No longer daring” - his enemies laughed.
“No longer glam, his funk is half-assed...
one leg is much shorter than the other one is weak.
His strokes are tepid, his colors are meek.”

So Camille found a new color.
The color black: strongest hue of them all.
He painted a picture called Le Grind - hittin' so tall.
And then Cindy C - THE vogue fantasy.
Horns & vocals 2 die 4.
Lollipops - in yours!

Stroke after stroke callin' all others a joke.
Superfunkycalifragisexi.

Camille rocked hard in a funky place.
Stuck his long funk in competition's face.
Tuesday came. Blue Tuesday.
His canvas full, and lying on the table,
Camille mustered all the hate that he was able.
Hate 4 the ones who ever doubted his game.
Hate 4 the ones who ever doubted his name.
“Tis nobody funkier - let the Black Album fly.”

Spooky Electric was talking, Camille started 2 cry.
Tricked. A fool he had been. In the lowest utmostest.
He had allowed the dark side of him 2 create something evil.
2 Nigs United 4 West Compton. Camille and his ego. Bob George.
Why? Spooky Electric must die.
Die in the hearts of all who want love.
Die in the hearts of men who want change.
Die in the bodies of women who want babies
that will grow up with a New Power Soul.

Love Life, Lovesexy - the feeling u get when u fall in love,
not with a girl or boy but with the heavens above.
Lovesexy -- endorphin.
Camille figured out what 2 feel.
Glam Slam Escape - the Sexuality Real.

2nite we make love with only words. Girls first.
This feeling's so good in every single way.
God is alive! Let Him touch u and He will quench every thirst.
Let him touch u and an aura of peace will adorn u.

God is alive! Let Him touch u and your own Lovesexy will be born.
Let Him touch u, let Him touch u, and Heaven is yours.
Welcome 2 the New Power Generation.

Camille is a transgender Satanic guardian angel.

It has a huge vagina - a nappy dugout vortex, if you will - and an equally huge penis.

Camille is not only responsible for some of his darker music, he/she is also responsible for some of Prince's pictorial endeavers (The versace pictures, the LoveSexy pictures, etc.) The worst example is his Camille Toe pictures. Or is that Camel Toe?

Camille is a transgender Satanic guardian angel.

It has a huge vagina - a nappy dugout vortex, if you will - and an equally huge penis.

Camille is not only responsible for some of his darker music, he/she is also responsible for some of Prince's pictorial endeavers (The versace pictures, the LoveSexy pictures, etc.) The worst example is his Camille Toe pictures. Or is that Camel Toe?

Imago777 said:

What the fuck is this Camel toe stuff I keep hearing about? Are there any pics? I have no idea what this is

Sorry, but I don't see how Camille is so 'androgynous'. I think IIWYGF is often misinterpreted. And where else can there be found feminine references to him? Bob George and Rockhard don't seem feminine at all.

doctamario said:

The vocals are androgynous (hence the confusion on whether Camille is a boy or a girl), Prince dresses androgynousness, or at least camply (Fur coats, crop-tops, high heels, skin-tght body stockings, bikini briefs, make-up, curls and ruffles.....).

The theme of IIWYG is often misinterpreted, but the meaning behind the song still puts the heterosexual man in an unusually (for pop music) vulnerable position, where he is asking his girlfriend for more intimacy, the kind of intimacy she expresses with her girl friends. It's this vulnerability that exemplifies the blurring of sexual identities of the Camille 'idea'.

Androgynous doesn't necessarily mean hermaphrodidic, hence the constant references to strictly heterosexual relationships and sex in the lyrics. Camille isn't a hermaphrodite, just androgynous.

I've always said Camille is simply Prince.

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth" -- Oscar Wilde.

//
[Edited 8/10/05 1:49am]

doctamario said:

The vocals are androgynous (hence the confusion on whether Camille is a boy or a girl), Prince dresses androgynousness, or at least camply (Fur coats, crop-tops, high heels, skin-tght body stockings, bikini briefs, make-up, curls and ruffles.....).

The theme of IIWYG is often misinterpreted, but the meaning behind the song still puts the heterosexual man in an unusually (for pop music) vulnerable position, where he is asking his girlfriend for more intimacy, the kind of intimacy she expresses with her girl friends. It's this vulnerability that exemplifies the blurring of sexual identities of the Camille 'idea'.

Androgynous doesn't necessarily mean hermaphrodidic, hence the constant references to strictly heterosexual relationships and sex in the lyrics. Camille isn't a hermaphrodite, just androgynous.

I've always said Camille is simply Prince.

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth" -- Oscar Wilde.

//
[Edited 8/10/05 1:49am]

NouveauDance said:

Nouveau is my new Prince resource book.

Good shit! Very astute.

this is something interesting I saw in an old interview by Prince (at the time, being refered to as "The Artist") about "Camille". Maybe it's nothing, but just thought I'd share...

YAHOO INTERNET LIFE * October 1997


YIL: This may sound nuts, but does the Camille alter ego, which you used on Sign O' the Times, have anything to do with the famous nineteenth-century hermaphrodite Herculine Barbin, who was nicknamed Camille? If so, my younger brother will be very, very happy, since he has spent roughly a decade trying to convince me of this.

TA (Prince): Your brother is very wise.

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth" -- Oscar Wilde.

this is something interesting I saw in an old interview by Prince (at the time, being refered to as "The Artist") about "Camille". Maybe it's nothing, but just thought I'd share...

YAHOO INTERNET LIFE * October 1997


YIL: This may sound nuts, but does the Camille alter ego, which you used on Sign O' the Times, have anything to do with the famous nineteenth-century hermaphrodite Herculine Barbin, who was nicknamed Camille? If so, my younger brother will be very, very happy, since he has spent roughly a decade trying to convince me of this.

TA (Prince): Your brother is very wise.

doctamario said:

would you really want to see that?

weepingwall said:

Actually yes. I have no idea what it is. I mean all this time I thought camel toes were a camel's toes, but now I'm hearing differently. Does anyone have a pic or few?

doctamario said:

its called camel toe cuz if u wear tight pants the u can see the crotch outline and it resembles a camels toe (thats 4 girls tho on guys its just a big ass bulge)
i would hook u up with some pics but i'm feeling a bit lazy at the moment, lol.
stroll the org gal and keep ur eyes open 4 a bulge

doctamario said:

The vocals are androgynous (hence the confusion on whether Camille is a boy or a girl), Prince dresses androgynousness, or at least camply (Fur coats, crop-tops, high heels, skin-tght body stockings, bikini briefs, make-up, curls and ruffles.....).

The theme of IIWYG is often misinterpreted, but the meaning behind the song still puts the heterosexual man in an unusually (for pop music) vulnerable position, where he is asking his girlfriend for more intimacy, the kind of intimacy she expresses with her girl friends. It's this vulnerability that exemplifies the blurring of sexual identities of the Camille 'idea'.

Androgynous doesn't necessarily mean hermaphrodidic, hence the constant references to strictly heterosexual relationships and sex in the lyrics. Camille isn't a hermaphrodite, just androgynous.

I've always said Camille is simply Prince.

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth" -- Oscar Wilde.

//
[Edited 8/10/05 1:49am]

NouveauDance said:

Don't agree, for a couple of reasons. You seem to be missing the reference to Camille in "Shockadelica" where s/he is referred to in the feminine:

"The lights go out
The smell of doom
Is creeping in2 your lonely room
The beds on fire
Your fate is sealed
And your so tired
And the Reason is Camille

Shockadelica!
The Girl must be a witch..."



Camille wasn't referred to as a boy until the Lovesexy tour program, so at the very least this alter-ego is intended to embody both sexes.

Camille is, most definitely, based on Herculine Barbin, by Prince's own admission. Prince's use of alter-eogos wasn't anything new when he dreamed up Camille, but he certainly took it further than most of his other characters. Camille was the embodiment of his stuggle with spirituality and sexuality, as well as his duality of male and female.

During the Lovesexy era, he certainly pointed to Camille as being the dark muse behind the Black Album, a character who was tempted by "Spooky Electric" (Satan) to create "something evil". Ultimately, Camille meets his doom (during the Lovesexy show performance of "Bob George") to be resurrected by God when he discovers the error of his ways (during "Anna Stesia").

Sure, Camille is Prince, but an ultra-sylized version of him that fits into an epic, episodic mythology that Prince was crafting at the time. Prince loves to make stories and myths out of his life experiences, and Camille was yet another example of this. In this regard, P was borrowing a page from Bowie, who himself had created characters such as The Thin White Duke, Ziggy Stardust etc, but he was also adding in a dash of George Clinton's Sir Nose Devoidofunk. Camille was, in many ways, a nemesis to Prince, blamed for his more carnal, less spiritual thoughts and actions. This is why, in the end, Prince had to "kill" him/her off.

It could be Prince just wanting to refer to camille as a female in this instance, and maybe at times he's referred to Camille as male.

Don't agree, for a couple of reasons. You seem to be missing the reference to Camille in "Shockadelica" where s/he is referred to in the feminine:

"The lights go out
The smell of doom
Is creeping in2 your lonely room
The beds on fire
Your fate is sealed
And your so tired
And the Reason is Camille

Shockadelica!
The Girl must be a witch..."

Camille wasn't referred to as a boy until the Lovesexy tour program, so at the very least this alter-ego is intended to embody both sexes.

Camille was, most definitely, based on Herculine Barbin, by Prince's own admission.

Camille wasn't referred to as a boy until the Lovesexy tour program

Prince's use of alter-egos wasn't anything new when he dreamed up Camille, but he certainly took it further than most of his other characters. Camille was the embodiment of his stuggle with spirituality and sexuality, as well as his duality of male and female.

During the Lovesexy era, he certainly pointed to Camille as being the dark muse behind the Black Album, a character who was tempted by "Spooky Electric" (Satan) to create "something evil". Ultimately, Camille meets his doom (during the Lovesexy show performance of "Bob George") to be resurrected by God when he discovers the error of his ways (during "Anna Stesia").

Sure, Camille is Prince, but an ultra-sylized version of him that fits into an epic, episodic mythology that Prince was crafting at the time. Prince loves to make stories and myths out of his life experiences, and Camille was yet another example of this. In this regard, P was borrowing a page from Bowie, who himself had created characters such as The Thin White Duke, Ziggy Stardust etc, but he was also adding in a dash of George Clinton's Sir Nose Devoidofunk. Camille was, in many ways, a nemesis to Prince. S/he blamed for his more carnal, less spiritual thoughts and actions. This is why, in the end, Prince had to "kill" him/her off.

JediMaster said:

The "she" being referred to, is Shockadelica, the name of the girl - Unless people think otherwise, I always took it that way myself.




Yet, he has erections (Rockhard) and is in a heterosexual relationship with a woman (IIWYGF).





Agreed, agreed, agreed - Everything else you said has been pontificated on already.

I will come back to the point (I know we're discussing something so trivial in way more depth that it probably deserves) - Camille is male, physically, with an androgynous soul.

It is the culmination of Prince's spiritual/sexual/relationship musings and themes expressed since way back when, and certainly developed from 1999 - The Dream Factory.

Ultimately, Camille is fabulous, and was one of the most awsome shit-hot projects/eras Prince ever created.


[Edited 8/11/05 12:56pm]

NouveauDance said:

Well Said

Hotlegs said:

Damn, Noveau is on point, ain't he, Legs?

TheCrucialExperience said:

Word is bond Q. Damn, I went old Q with that saying Lawd.

Hotlegs said:

Funky fresh!