Heiress said:

His choice to reveal, or to conceal, his real self is not in question here, Heiress.

Perhaps, I'm less interested in hearing your views about about us necessarily getting to know him, and more interested in exploring your views as to his apparent fear of laying himself bare through his music.

To use your terminology: when Prince chooses to reveal the inner workings of his mind (as he necessarily does through his music), does the focus tend to be on 'happy' mode, as Susan suggests, and if so, why might you think that is?

love

Anji said:

It may be as simple as cheering himself up with his own music. I just know from my personal standpoint, I feel far more upbuilt by writing a happy song than a sad one...

Anx said:

I agree. I busted out The Truth the other day, and it's very personal. Hearing just his voice and acoustic guitar made me feel like I was hearing a bit of the REAL Prince. Or real anyway.

He is insular, those kind of people never let you see the real them. Prince seems to also get a kick out of keeping people confused, exasperated.

The FOCUS should be on the MUSIC.....NOT the man.

The mere fact that he doesnt CLEARLY reveal himself proves ONLY that its not a job for the common man to decipher

UCantHavaDaMango said:

He ain't no muthafunkin' piece o' pie, that's for sure!

You will never know the REAL anyone. People only show you what they want you to see of themselves. People constantly change as they go through different situations in life and they build upon that. Only Prince knows the REAL him.He's the only one that knows were his heart is emotionally when he's singing or writing his lyrics.

I went back to the doctor
To get another shrink.
I sit and tell him
about my weekend,But he never betrays what he thinks.
Can you see the real me, doctor?

I went back to my mother
I said, "I'm crazy ma, help me."
She said, "I know how it feels son
'Cause it runs in the family.

"Can you see the real me, mother?
The cracks between the paving stones
Look like rivers of flowing veins.
Strange people who know me
Peeping from behind every window
I went back to the doctor
To get another shrink.
I sit and tell him about my weekend,
But he never betrays what he thinks.
Can you see the real me, doctor?

I went back to my mother
I said, "I'm crazy ma, help me."
She said, "I know how it feels son,
'Cause it runs in the family."
Can you see the real me, mother?
The cracks between the paving stones
Look like rivers of flowing veins.
Strange people who know me
Peeping from behind every window pane.
The girl I used to love
Lives in this yellow house.
Yesterday she passed me by,
She doesn't want to know me now.
Can you see the real me, can you?

I ended up with the preacher,
Full of lies and hate,
I seemed to scare him a little
So he showed me to the golden gate.
Can you see the real me preacher?
Can you see the real me doctor?
Can you see the real me mother?
Can you see the real me

I think his music helps us see the "real" us.

My guess is that he borrows from various lives and experiences and provides us with an interpretation...almost as a public service. If you need it, he's got it.

He's made music in the '70s/'80s/'90s & '00s, there is bound to be personal information in the music regarding himself as well as information that becomes personal to us (as we relate to it).

I saw him perform I Love U But... during the 2001 celebration at the Excel center. The first time he had ever played that live and I saw tears. He was visibly moved.

Genesia said:

True dat.

"in this bed i scream" is a very personal song, heartbreaking when you consider that he asked wendy,lisa and susannah to be on it.

Graycap23 said:

And if interest is being shown on the man's process for revealing himself through his music, what is the worst consequence of this for you, Graycap23?

love

lizlampkin said:

Nice response, liz.

love

Well,
your Tivo might get a chance to record the real him
if, at the Super Bowl, he has wunna dem "ward-drobe malfunkshuns" that the kids seem to enjoy so much these days.

Is the cover of “Lovesexy” narcissistic or artistic?

I think it’s mostly artistic and exists as a metaphor for the contents within.

But then again, I think the cover of “Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic” rings very false and narcissistic.

So I suspect one could list plenty of examples in both categories.

For every “I Love You, But I Don’t Trust You Anymore”, there’s probably a “Poom Poom”.

But on the whole I think there’s plenty of the real Prince to be dug. He’s just unlikely to ever come out and interpret the songs for us.

For example, right at the core of “Emancipation” sits the very personal musical trilogy “Joint 2 Joint”, “Holy River” and “Let’s Have A Baby”.

This near-operatic three-song romp begins with a person who is merely seeking refuge for his latest “hot sauce” over throbbing funk that feels in retrospect like one of Prince’s last great libidinous, chandelier-swinging one-night stands. After the euphoria subsides we encounter someone who has found the rock at the bottom of another bowl of cereal shared with a stranger.

Later we move on to meditative confessionals, a breaking of the chains of self destruction, and a spiritual reawakening. Finally we arrive at a very changed man down on bended kneed, deeply in love, proposing marriage and bursting with joy at the thought of starting a family and having a little buddy to ride shotgun with him in his car.

From hot sauce to booster seats, it’s a stunningly powerful portrayal of one man’s redemptive journey from the depths of his own self destructive behavior, and it delivers everything from his private life but specific names and dates.

Then there’s “Comeback”, a brief whisper of a song about feeling the presence of a special kind of breeze that visited him just when he needed it the most. Perhaps that “sweet wind” was even his deceased son.

Again, very personal, but he doesn’t start sobbing on record and spell out exactly what he’s writing about for those who want easy answers.

“Reflection” seems to be a real stream of consciousness from his youth, perhaps inspired by the loss of one or both of his parents. In a similar vein there’s “Circle of Amour”, only this one might be real memories from his partially fantasized pubescent past. Revealing a masturbatory standby scenario from his teen years based on a real group of girlfriends from his school would be pretty real.

A silver-lining thread is something he also weaves through a lot of his work, turning even his most melancholic of music into something that ultimately rings with hope.

The song “Papa” is a perfect example of such a technique.

And yet it’s probably another example of why people don’t think he gets real enough. He’s speaking of child abuse, perhaps even his own, but even in this darkly cramped closet he manages to drum up a rainbow for himself, and perhaps for others.

How can he do that? Must be more fantastical invention to keep his true nature hidden.

Brendan said:

So, depending on your perspective, you can, and most likely, will find evidence to support such a perspective; self-confirmatory bias, if you will. In a sense, does self-confirmatory bias indicate for those of us finding more of the real Prince to dig through his music, only that we are simply wanting to find more of the real him?

love

Brendan said:

I just knew you had it in you to wax lyrical about Emancipation.
Now where's that comprehensive review waiting to be written by you?

His sad and angry songs normally come off sounding very personal.


His happy and uplifting songs always come off sounding a bit contrived and mechanical, except for a few.

Brendan said:

This comment of yours has made me wonder what feelings the ending to N.E.W.S. now leaves you with? After all, it was not a Graffiti Bridge or Gold style ending.

Interestingly, the time period for N.E.W.S was before the now seemingly widely held media view of him as being this celebrated elder statesman of music. Such recognition and in-vogue celebrity status was simply not there. Rather, the emotional landscape was that following the furore caused by the The Rainbow Children release. The absence of lyrics to be (mis)interpreted in both Xpectation and N.E.W.S did not go unnoticed.

In retrospect, where do you think he was at the time with these new directions - still that lone wolf in the wilderness?

love

Brendan said:

I know you didn't just end with that. That cuts right to the core.
Perhaps, fantastical invention to leave himself with the inner (and outer) worlds he'd prefer to reside in. Painting with brighter colors might serve the function of hiding from the fragility of those parts of his most vulnerable self. After all, considering oneself fragile is often viewed of as weakness, especially by men, and we wouldn't want that now, would we?

love

I'm not even Prince knows the real him. When I see him in old interviews there always seems to be something about him that's afraid but what is he afraid of?

Anji said:

That’s the never-ending struggle in coming to any kind of conclusion, right? It’s all too easy for us to make our findings fit our feelings and/or hopes.

How many people think his angry songs, or sad songs, or happy songs are more the real him merely because that’s the type of music that holds a greater interest and/or connection for them?

This is the impossible nature of such a discussion. Even if we could agree to the level that Prince -- or anyone else for that matter -- must arrive at to achieve a label of “experiencing the real person”, we’d still have all these vastly different personality types relating to the music through their own complex prism of experience.

I think the more biases you can shed the quicker you can learn and the more greatness you’ll have opening up to you. But that’s neither here no there, because if “Poom Poom” inspired a person into a crazed epiphany of sweaty dancing, does it really matter that a more objective view almost certainly would not include it on the box set?

It surely isn’t going to change their original joy.

Anji said:

You just never forget, do you?

Anji said:

You make some interesting points here to think about. He certainly may have been less inspired than ever to open up lyrically after “Rainbow”.

Perhaps I’d explain “South” as sounding like a more mature Prince. Burnt, depressed, trying to fly again with partially broken wings, yet still boldly determined to go his own way. Just perhaps this time with more humility, reticence and bittersweet resolve. But still hopeful…always hopeful.

Anji said:

His music to me seems a dichotomy between the hidden/elusive and the uncensored to the point of easy ridicule (“Race cars burn rubber in my pants / Come a butterfly straight on your skin / Save me Jesus, I’ve been a fool! / The opposite of NATO is OTAN.”)

But even if Prince had never written once from direct experience, in the end he still isn’t hiding much of anything but the day-to-day minutiae of his life.

Because, to get stupidly philosophical for just a second, even so-called pure fiction is not created in a vacuum, so there’s no possible way to avoid leaving trails of insight behind.

And as such the attentive reader might be able to discern some of my real person pertaining to things I’m not even directly expressing here. For example, that I have somewhat of a preference or bias towards artists who, for the most part, let their art do the talking for them.

I think it’s often more powerful that way. As in doing so, people can and will find things, perhaps even some important things within themselves that the artist never even considered.

So in conclusion, whether Prince has ever participated in the identification of the shapes his ejaculate makes on the skin of another or not isn’t what’s ultimately important to me. Because, either way, I’m getting a great deal of insight into how his mind works; be it the real games he plays or the real fantasies he has.

Most importantly it would be hard to miss the passion he has here about sex rising to the level of spiritual rapture that is not only anything but dirty and nasty, but that is holy and godly.

So with regards to insight into the real him, does it really matter that much from which it came?
[Edited 1/28/07 17:30pm]

wlcm2thdwn said:

AMEN! AND AMEN!