Things I just always wanted to know about some Prince songs.


1. Who is "The Flow" from the album written about?
2. What are those people saying in the background at the beginning of "I Wonder U"?
3. Is the song "Sister" based on any real life experience with his half sister?
4. What does "3121" stand for?
5. Did Prince write the song "Purple Rain" for Vanity?
6. Is "Another Lonely Christmas" about a real woman who died on our boy?
7. Did Bobby Z actually play any drums on the 1999 album or is it all drum machine?

I just always wanted to know. Can ya help a brother out?

mano said:

prince himself answered this question back in 1998 or 1999 on the
love4oneanother.com questionair.

he said it was a complete work of fiction, not about anyone real.

IstenSzek said:

Thanks. Just 6 more to go.

Question 4 - see the Forum FAQ section 2.4

http://www.prince.org/msg/7/145050

mano said:

According to The Vault:

The album is essentially a one-man effort by Prince, but Dez Dickerson contributes a guitar solo to Little Red Corvette and no less than seven of the 11 songs feature backing vocals by different guests.

Most songs on 1999 feature the synth (mostly the Oberheim as the primary instrument) providing backdrops, lead lines, fills, and many of the bass lines. Prince creates thick synth textures by recording layer upon layer of synths, using different voicings. The Linn LM-1 drum machine is used on most tracks and the drums are more prominent than on any of his previous albums. Additionally, some tracks feature electronic drums, but mostly in combination with the drum machine.

No mention of Bobby Z, then.

mano said:

Ok, 6 & 7 have been answered.

What about the rest? I know you know!

mano said:[quote]

mano said:

3121 is just a numeric progression in reverse. Y'know, like a countdown. A progression to "11". Nothing to do with biblical numerology, thank goodness.

It denotes a trilogy of similarly sounding albums. Nothing more.

Expect some NEWS like shit next time round...

.

I think it is relatively rare that Prince writes specifically about a single person in his life, and when he does it is even rarer he confirms it. More often the songs are just an accumulation of inspirations from his life together with pure invention. You can speculate that a song is about the girlfriend Prince had at the time of writing, but there's no way to be certain that was the direct influence, so was Purple Rain about Vanity? We don't know. Sister is more than likely a work of fiction with Prince trying to be deliberately nasty. The Flow seems to be about 2 people, a journalist writing about Prince (possibly a dig at gossip columnist CJ) and a woman who claimed to go to school with Prince and was going to write a book about him (who knows if it was a real incident or not, possibly just a fictional episode like the answer to 6).

I don't think the crowd noise at the beginning of I Wonder U is clear enough to be made out. Only Prince knows. Same with 3121, he simply hasn't revealed what it means to him.

So to sum up - we don't know.
[Edited 11/30/06 11:43am]