I used to think the same thing. Like, why does this song change like this.

I think the horns symbolize the changes that life can take... the turning points. If you recall in UTCM, that's what Prince and Mary ran off to and made love to.

It's a masterpiece!

... and the B-side... Alexa de Paris... another masterpiece... is something beyond special. I think it's his best intrumental released cut.

Yeah!, people are making mountains out of molehills.

ya'll are reading too much into this. the horns and drums don't line up. WHY? Every little thing in a Prince song isn't symbolism for "life". Goodness.

Where i come from we call it "arrangement".
You leave out one quarter note for one instrument and later add it, so everything is back in place where it was before. In this case, i am pretty sure he did that by accident. It might sound freaky to you, but it flows nicely.

Remember the song "Forever in my life" ? You do? Okay, cool.
What do you think about the rhythm and the placement of the backing vocals?
That, for example, sounds very cool of course, but it was an accident. Susan Rogers did a tiny little mistake with the tape. She put the whole track with the backing vocals to a false spot on the tape, and he liked it. Sometimes, so- called mistakes can be really cool.

TonyWilliams said:

Actually, I've never heard the song. But thanks for answering my question with some sense.

[starvation]

What version of Mountains are you talking about? I've heard a lot of fucked up shit in my day but I don't hear it in this one. Do I need to go smoke something 1st?

TonyWilliams said:

Actually, I've never heard the song. But thanks for answering my question with some sense.

So, we know Wendy & Lisa composed the music for this track... but what of the lyrics is Prince and what is W&L? Something about the second verse always struck me as not being quite so much Prince.

I woldn't call it f&cked up... it's an arranged thing as someone said.

I think what happens is about 3:05 in the song are two things:

1. 1 or 2 beats are skipped.... in other words there's a measure right when he's saying "whoaoh" that only has 2 or 3 beats instead of 4 (haven't figured out yet how many beats are missing). That is not uncommon in pop or R&B. Sometimes due to the lyrics, the time signature switches to 2/4 instead of 4/4 for like just 1 measure; i think it's usually cuz the lyrics need some extra time but not a full measure.

2. the thing that you are probably referring to as being "out of sync" though, is that for the next few measures, the typical drum pattern of bass drum on the 1 and 3 and snare drum on the 2 and 4, switches.

The drums are going doing something like 1(bass), 2(bass) 3(bass or low snare) & (higher pitch snare) 4(bass).

Basically, the higher pitch snare is hitting on the "and of 3" rather than on the actual beat, and it's not on either the 2 or 4 like it is throughout the song.

Because that sound is so noticable, it sounds like the beat is an 8th note "early" cuz it comes before the 4. but actually it's just a different pattern, but the rhythm really is the same. if you count to the bass drums, the horns are matching up to the drums... it's just the snare comes in at an unexpected place which makes it sound different.

A kind of similar thing happens throughout Sexy MF where the snare drum hits "late" (on the "and of 2" if i remember correclty) instead of on the 2 itself. but the entire song has that pattern,and horns stab with it so it doesn't sound "un matched" but it actualy is very syncopated.
[Edited 1/15/06 22:07pm]

pepper7 said:

I used to think the word being said here was "Salvation", like that was the final answer to the troubles in the song. Starvation is just random and weird.

So, we know Wendy & Lisa composed the music for this track... but what of the lyrics is Prince and what is W&L? Something about the second verse always struck me as not being quite so much Prince.