What a fantastic song. Absolutely love it always have.
When Prince decided 2 p4m it with altered lyrics.. it really cheesed me off.
Doesn't quite cut it in my opinion. It follows 1999 remaster closely as a huge let down.
Should have left it as it was originally inspired or not p4med it all.
What do u think?

Great song.

The altered lyrics didn't bother me at all since I don't have any emotional investment in Prince's previous Christian views nor any of his current quasi-Jehova views.

I listen to it for the emotional vibe, and the passion. Many of the live versions of it that Prince has performed, to include the version on the Sign 'o' The Times concert movie, are better than what is on the actual album.

What cheesed me was hearing Larry Graham's nasty ass on one of his live performances.

I agree. The 1st time I heard it with the altered lyrics was at the "Essence Awards" back in '98. I sat thru the taping of that whole boring show, and then he came out with some junk like that...
The ladies in front of us were there for Patti Labelle (I think?), and one of them turned around and said,"U like that, huh?" My friend and I were so annoyed!

I love the song, tho, and still play it...

Yeah my own personal religious views have changed somewhat since then, but I still prefer 2 hear it as it was originally intended.
I just don't quite understand why he'd do something like that.

Manipulation's a drag.

Prince never needed to use such a huge hammer to drive his point home. He's at odds with his beliefs and his art. The art seems to be lagging behind.

Yeah agreed, somewhat.
Rehashing the lyrics 2 suit a certain agenda is far from creative, or a divine inspiration.
Guess the muse took a back seat on that 1. :eyeroll:

Prince regularly changes the lyrics to all of his songs onstage; I never understood why "The Cross" gets discussed so much. Heck,in the last few years, for some songs, he completely changes the music and leaves the words intact!

I love the live version on the Livesexy DVD. So much emotion.

I prefer the original lyrics.

I like the original too, it's agreat song tho

chocolate1 said:

I just found a VHS with this awards show on it!!!!! I thought it was a great awards show...better than most today...I guess sitting thru a taping can be taxing though....

I loved the Patti tribute with SWV, Mariah, um Michael Bolton (who was not horrible) and (gasp) good ol' Luther Vandross

Prince and Mayte all in red...Whitney acting a little erratic...

I loved this performance and the 'Starous' thing did not bother me...I just thought 'there will be some offended Christians/Baptists in the audience'...

peace

VANITYSprisonBYTCH said:

Yeah, sitting thru it was the worst part. They kept redoing things, and stopping and starting... it wasn't live. It was looooong.

Prince was last. I think his performfance seemed anti-climactic.

The aftershow was all that!!!