I was so happy to hear that we didn't have to refer to Prince as the symbol anymore. At first I didn't understand, then I began to. It took a lot of courage for him to do what he did, but he seemed very depressed during that time and he had lost weight to me, he looked like a little stick at one point, I felt bad for him. Hell, I couldn't even spell the symbol correctly a lot of the time. Most of all, I was happy for Prince that he got his name back.

May of 2000.

I think the really skinny phase was a result of the early 90's "Heroin Chic" look. All the supermodels were doing it, and Prince was very much part of the fashion scene.
You can see it in his versace photo shoot and some of the other apprearences. he's always been skinny, but during 1993/1994 he seemed more so.


I always thought his versace pix looked cool though, if a bit strange.

2 b honest, NO!! Since he has reverted back 2 being Prince, his music has deteriorated rapidly!!

Some of his best funked-up music came out of the Symbol era!! Give me Days Of Wild, The Ride, Pussy Control, 18 & Over, Gold, The Max, The Continental, Hide the Bone, etc. any day than the junk hes putting out now!!!

Plus, there was a sort of mysticism and mystique as well as controversey around the Symbol!!
[Edited 12/4/06 0:07am]
[Edited 12/4/06 0:09am]

yes, the general public had a good laugh with it and still do
hardly anyone knows why he changed his name in the first place
it made him appear almost as weird as that other guy
overshadowing his musical talent/output

No.

When the real reason for the name change came out I felt slightly betrayed and Prince appeared to justify all those who made a mockery of, what I thought at the time, was a genuine 'dark night of the soul'.

BoySimon said:

Also meant you had to re-title all those moody videos of yours Simon

Moody videos? Hmmm... Now I wonder where that came from?

I was referring to P ones, not that other "incident" that occurred on amp

Fair enough.

Yes I was! Though I understood his reasons for the name change and all. He was still Prince to me though I'd have respected his wishes and not called him that in public but his Mama named him Prince and he was gonna always be Prince in my book.

Yes, indeed!

I´m one of the few people who think that the name change was really cool....nobody had ever done anything similar before, I mean Carlos Santana was Devadip for a while, Cat Stevens became Yusuf Islam, but Prince´s move was one of the boldest and most daring in showbiz...changing your name to an unpronouncable symbol that had been a part of your music and character since the 1999 album.

I also liked the alchemistic/magic approach behind it, the symbolism, the gold and perfection metaphor the symbol stands for, ying-yang, male/female, oneness, etc.etc.

Was I glad when he changed back to Prince ?

Well, it was inevitable....the seven years of being <+o were over.

Sure , he also had his contractual reasons for becoming a symbol ( though that didn´t really work out in the end) but I think it is a bit shortsighted to say he did it for business reasons only since the whole numerological aspects behind it are too brilliant and deep to reduce it to something as mundane as a business contract.

Think about it, he´d been Prince for how long ? What does it say in the Three Chains of Gold video ? Something about seven cycles ( he became the symbol after his seventh cycle as Prince...7 X 5 = 35 ) and stayed <+o for exactly seven years after that....seven is a reoccuring number in his body of work.

I´m not that deep into all this, but most of us know that Prince obviously is or at least was into numerology and other esoteric stuff...and I think it´s quite fascinating when you think about it.

It made perfect sense that he became Prince again...it would have been more foolish to go back to using the Prince name at an earlier stage in his career or not changing his name at all...

Those who laugh about it are simply not familiar with certain aspects of his art and his little games.
[Edited 12/4/06 8:04am]

i didn't really care, i still called him by his birth name during that whole time.

I thought the whole name change thing was moronic. All that "his spirit told him to," folks calling him "The Artist," and other nonsense. What a pile of crap.

Anyone who didn't know he was doing it solely because of his contract dispute with WB (which was his own damn fault for not reading the contracts to begin with) was a chump. He played a lot of folks and deserved to lose fans during that time.

I actually contemplated suing him for the eye strain I suffered from for six years.

I was sooooo glad. I feel so silly now, but I defended his name change to anyone who made fun of it. If I heard someone call him Prince I would say, "He's not Prince!!! He's the Artist! Prince is DEAD! Get it right!" I made such a fool of myself.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Colin ?

christ almighty do you really think he had his driver licence changed to 0(+>?

IAintTheOne said:

cats at the DMV looking at 'im like he was outta his ever-loving gourd n'chit...

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Prince at the DMV...turnin' purple waitin' on 'em to call his number...

I was happy, because changing his name back was kinda like finding peace after a war.

Plus it was one less thing for people to hassle me about!

Genesia said:

*number on "now serving" box changes to 68*

prince (looks at his ticket...32): ain't this nothin'! *stamps foot to punctuate the word "nothin'"*

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I can always count on u for a laugh

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Explains why the shows don't start 'til after midnight.

Genesia said:

Hell no, that's when the music starting reeking. Give me the crazy symbol guy with eye liner gone crazy anytime. to my symbol, come back to us.

It didn't matter to me, What ever the guy wanted to do was good enough for me. In fact during the symbol years I developed a wierd sound to go along with my hand drawing of the symbol when a friend would bring him up. So no it just didn't matter to me.

vinaysfunk said:

I had a sound for it too! I would think it to myself anytime I saw the symbol printed in a magazine, or on tv.

I was glad.

Put it this way: his music on my iPod is all listed as "Prince". Not the Revolution, not the NPG, not . Prince.

Might be inaccurate, but that's the way I like it.

2freaky4church1 said:

The symbol era was only good in the beginning - 1993 thru about 1996, but there is plenty of filler and subpar music if you look at the entire 7 years.

The return of "Prince" has brought us The Rainbow Children - an instant classic.

thekidsgirl said:

I was happy when her reclaimed his name. I felt that the symbol phase was a phase that was necessary for his journey to self, but I never felt he was Prince during those years. When I watch stuff from that period, I don't recognize Prince, but I have to remind myself that he wasn't Prince then. That is my problem I was looking for Prince, but he wasn't there. Of course, I am speaking philosophically here about his spirit and energy, not his physical being.

As a fellow Gemini, I understand that we have multiple energies living inside us, and we have to find a way to release them. I can't even imagine what it is like on his level. That is why I think he needed that period.

However, as thekidsgirl said, when he returned to Prince, I felt like he'd found a new peace within. As I said, I really didn't recognize him at times during those symbol years. There was a lot of sadness, anger, confusion and turmoil in his spirit during those years (mid to late 1990s). It manifest itself in his physical appearance as well. When he reclaimed Prince it was like the dawning of a new day. He'd come full circle.

We all need sunshine and rain for our roses to grow, so I understand that the symbol years were necessary for us to view the beautiful garden that we see today.