Prince was abandoned by his mother and then his father (age 12 ?)

How do you think this affected his music ?? Some of his songs are very sad !

Did it affect his personality or his relationships with women?

Is this why he dedicates himself to music.. he feels it will never abandon him?

Your thoughts...

Prince wasn't abandoned by his parents. He clearly loved them both very much, btw.

I certainly don't take that into account when I listen to his music. I think he once said that he doesn't want people to focus on the fact he comes from a broken home.
Even before I heard him say that, I didn't really care. It didn't change the way I felt about him and his work.

I've just heard that he ran away from home and lived with his cousin for a while.
Then during the time he wrote the "Dirty Mind" album, that was when his dad kicked him out of the house and he was going through trouble with his sister as well.
I believe I found the transcript for the interview here. The Rolling Stone interview

http://www.princelyrics.co.uk

I haven't listened to Dirty Mind since I read the interview transcript... so I might keep that in mind. But it might be hard to because the album, except for maybe 'When u were mine' and 'Gotta broken heart again,' is very funky and happy...

I don't think it affected the way he turned out at all. Although some of his songs might not have been written if he hadn't gone thru all this with his parents.

I never knew of this. I just thought that he ran away from home when he was 14ish?

ToraToraDreams said:

Read the Rolling Stone review on the site link I posted. It's under the "Articles" section. I learned a lot about Prince by reading through it. It's so long I had to save it on my hard drive to get thru it (11 pages on Word)... but its worth it if you're thirsty for more knowledge about His Greatness
... hmm... getting used to saying that again. Why not?

mplsmike said:

yeah, when I heard those lyrics, I was thinking about what I read in that interview... quite a song, though.

In a 1999 interview with Larry King, Prince said he feels his upbringing does not play a part in his song writing. Whether that is true or not probably depends on what day you ask the man the question as his answer changes quite frequently.

I'm not Dr Phil, but I'm inclined to think his past experiences would have had to effect his personality and his relationships with women. And I would think some of that would seep into his music.

so much that could be said . . .

i recommend anyone interested in this enroll in a Developmental Psych class,
and you'd have a definitive answer, no discussion.

personally, i HEAR abandonment themes in all his music from start to finish.
coming from a broken home, generally creates "ABANDONMENT"
as a core issue in 'therapy-speak'

trivia-wise, i thought his dad left them when he was 7 years old.

thanks for the topic very much. it is of interest to me.

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[Edited 10/16/07 1:10am]

I do believe that he was scarred by the experiences of abandonement, I think it made him very distrusting of anything other than himself. It worked well for him in that he became hyper competent in many areas and super driven. I believe that he is generally distrustful to this day, given many of the statements he has made. However, that is not unlike any great rock musician, they are all afflicted with abnormal personality traits regarding their relationships with their fellow man.

mozfonky said:

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[Edited 10/16/07 1:10am]

theres an interview from like 80' he says somethin' like "if i had somebody to take care of me i might have become a writer instead"

pplrain said:

Whilst prince's upbringing appears to have been neither conventional nor free of difficulties, it's worth bearing in mind that Prince himself has provided conflicting details about his own background.

There's no evidence that he was abandoned at the age of 12 by both of his parents.

That said, of course a person's past is likely to shape their future, whether it leads them down one route or they choose an alternative. Speculating on the degree to which Prince's background has impacted on his future, with the information available isn't going to produce any great revelations.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

It shows, for instance, that Prince used to make things up about his background.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

DIRTY MIND was released in 1980, making him 22 at the time. Prince tends to write his music in a chronological way. I really doubt that he wrote this album years & years before the release date. He was definitely out of the house before the age of 22. He was scrambled about at a young age and I think it has effected his music and his self, although he may not want to say. Even though you prefer not to live your life thinking about the past but prefer focusing on the present now, life situations shape you into the person you are. He is far removed from those days at this point and he produces music based on his current, but it all makes you who you are, the sum of things.

JuliePurplehead said:

Perhaps he meant he is not aware of the influence. As he knows no other life, how could he know how it influences his art?

langebleu said:

cha know, i've always gotten the impression that prince was a spoiled child who probably didn't get his way an in response his parents declared, "you don't like it then get out of our house" to which prince left and went to live with andre. i don't buy any of this abandonment bs.

sosgemini said:

Yeah, good point.
I mean, considering his name is PRINCE... heh, Princes are known for being a little spoiled. Maybe that's why the media protrays him as arrogant when he does something that seems selfish. In interviews, he seems so humble.

Yeah, I've heard the story. I don't think I'd have called it "abandonment," though. He made that choice to run away. But the thing with his father... possibly... I'm not sure. All I have to go on was on that link I provided.

Prince was not abandoned by anyone.

The facts are that he was shuffled around from his mother and father and eventually ended up in Bernadette Andersons basement as a teen. The kind of parents who would allow that to happen would have scarred him even before the actual abandonements. Read the bios, if you don't believe P's statements there are plenty of others to choose from.

mozfonky said:

but why is it always the parents fault? i know some rotten arse kids who play their parents and become big ole babies whenever they don't get their way. Some of them even run away...I got one niece who moved to live with her aunt...So, while I concede your theory could be true, based on prince's past patterns I tend to disagree with you.

sosgemini said:

I know Prince was not spoiled. Spoiled kids can be brats but Prince had few alternatives. I say this with sympathy and understanding because I've known and am myself someone who had crazy parents. The feeling of being a throwaway never goes away and I am familiar with the actual paranoia that it creates. Trust is impossible and those feelings flow out to society in general. That you are a throwaway. I really am not making judgements and I like the way I turned out and Prince has been and become a great artist largely because of the passion his life has created and his don't give a fuck attitude and his propensity to take major chances come from having nothing to lose. Now, on the other hand, I think he has become spoiled as an adult as a result. He's been basically taken care of and shielded from day to day adult responsibilities since he was 18 or so. Never had a real job, doesn't really handle many of his own personal affairs and day to day needs. Still, old scars never really go away.

The facts are that his father did kick him out after finding him with a girl. He cried and declared "nothing was happening but I can't tell him that". He lived with his mom for a while who had another man who treated Prince badly. I believe he lived with some other relatives before finally settling in Bernadette Anderson's basement. Although Mrs. Anderson seems to have been a better mother than his own, she was still not his mother and I'm sure that the realization that he was not really part of the family and that he had to be very careful not screw up and end up on the streets.

mozfonky said:

how do you know prince wasn't spoiled? and i don't mean materially. there are multitude of ways one can be spoiled. help me understand where you are coming from on this. thanks.

mozfonky said:

very interesting... I did not know that.
I did know that his step-dad treated him pretty bad... that's probably where they got that idea 4 PR... aww... makes me wanna give him a hug

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

not me...sounds to me like the dude was a spoiled brat. dad set a rule, prince broke it and instead of following dads rules he moved out.