Raze said:

Considering the previous two lines of:

"Living in a 1-room jungle-monkey cage"

-not just a studio apartment here but living in squalor.

"Can't get over, she's almost dead"

-she's worked herself to death and still can 'get over' the hump to where things get better/easier for her... then I tend to think your reading of it says something rather negative about the frame of mind of the girl in question or something rather naive about Prince's view of that situation.

One can read "happy she ain't in the red" as a communist statement here, given the mention of it in the first verse but when taking everything else into account in the second verse, I think it just points to a financial situation and serves as a counter-point to the first verse - Fat cats getting fatter while minorities are left to work themselves to death.

adorable2 said:

I think the mushroom cloud is an obvious reference to someone 'dropping the bomb' and the Cold War. The system failed him, unable to make anything of himself - anything to be proud of, and nothing to fight for/nothing to save... BOOM.

jtfolden said:

i think its a drug reference. dropping out of school and becoming a drug addict.

adorable2 said:

I've only ever heard the phrase 'mushroom cloud' in reference to bombs (atomic or otherwise).

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...room_cloud

jtfolden said:

that what kinda thought...the lyrics go.....the bomb's go boom
[Edited 6/2/07 18:13pm]

jtfolden said:

working hard and being free is better than having things given to you but having no freedom is the moral of this story.

the point is that despite the personal difficulty individuals may experience in a capitalistic system, it's still worth it. the American dream is not necessarily that you're going to be a self-made millionaire. it's the opportunity for it.

to quote Winston Churchill: "Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

Replace democracy with capitalism and you have the meaning of this song.

Raze said:

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree and be happy with our own interpretations.

he was happy america would pay him millions for being an average musician

Any1 ever heard of DOUBLE meanings.

The song is clever because it plays with various images and assumptions and undermines them. In the 80s everything was portrayed as black&white. Communism v capitalism, them v us, bad v good. The song plays around with these images and subverts them. He's being ironic, but not sarcastic. It's like raising one eyebrow, or ending a statement with a question mark?
I think it was mainly inspired by Hendrix' Star-Spangled Banner, plus things like Chocolate City.

That being said, Prince uses this technique to make poignant and effective thought-provoking songs but which lack ideological depth on closer examination. Even Sign O The Times has no clear commentary other than a string of images. I think America and SOTT are much closer than it is to RTTR or Free (which are simplistic and straightforward).