Decades ago, I still believed that every lyric Prince wrote was semi-autobiographical -- yes, the "Purple Rain" marketers' line about his living the music seemed to have worked.

Here are but a few of the lyrics I recall actually believing or taking literally, until I discovered the phenomenon of creative license... Feel free to share your own.


"Last September, my cousin tried reefer for the very first time/Now he's doing horse, it's June"

"... then left him for a real Prince from Arabia/Now isn't it a shame that sometimes money buys u everything and nothing?"

Rats. It's late. I'll have to add the others later. ..

The one about Raisinets.

I know the songs in Emancipation we're true, especially 'Face Down'.

'Race, in the space I mark human': I don't think he does, if he ever did. He seems obsessed with racial identity and differences these days (not that this makes him 'racist').

'There's a lady, 99 years old. If she lead a good life, heaven takes her soul': No, no, no. He never believed that for two minutes, and he surely doesn't at the present time. As the Bible readings have certainly shown him, the lady is facing an eternity burning in hell. Unless of course she had the wisdom to accept Jesus Christ as her personal saviour before she passed on.

McD said:

It's Mach human, as in spaceships.