sosgemini said:

Totally. Off the top o' my head, I might say that these are P's worst lyrics ever. And combined with that cutesy melody? God, it's like, "okay, let's all join hands and listen to Prince tell us why war is bad!"

txladykat said:

that's what I think Prince was trying to say...the others missed the point.

wars make the world evolve. war in in humans beings nature. its something innate on us since always. wars reactive and stimulate the economies.

sad but true

electrorock said:

oh what motivation to go and kill some more people...lets praise the dogs of war

Prince...keep preaching love!

ZFunc said:

I NEVER SAID TO SUPPORT WARS, DONT BE SO SIMPLISTIC AND DEMAGOGIC!!!
[Edited 10/6/07 10:50am]

electrorock said:

put the mirror down chile, and show some mo' understanding towards Prince's lyrics. just coz war is an industry doesn't make it humane.

I never understood the fuzz about that line on the org.

I mean, who really wins with fighting a war? The 'defeated' country suffers from pain, deaths and a destroyed infrastructure and economy.

The 'winning' country suffers from a false sense of pride, because they feel they had to kill people and destroy a society to gain 'something'. In essence they failed to use diplomacy to change things.

I mean, look at the Iraq situation: who is winning there? Of course, Saddam was a cruel dictator, and its good he is away. But on the otherhand, the country is a mess at this time, The US are pumping billions of dollars in the war, while the american economy is very vulnerable at this moment (understatement).
The idea that you can 'force' freedom and democracy unto other people by using violence is very naive IMO. Its a process that takes time and intelligence.
Both parties here are suffering: Iraq, falling apart, several parties fighting eachother, bastards abusing the chaos by pledging suicide-attacks. The US, fighting a war that isnt to win, leading to unncessary deaths among the US soldiers, The US trying to control a situation they are not able to control.

The sour reality is that the only ones benefitting from this war are the producers of weapons, and Haliburton, the facilitating company of the US army, and by that...Dick Cheney, stockholder in Haliburton.
So, it are companies and individuals who are furfilling their greed and 'marketposition' with the deaths of mostly innocent people, who wish the best for their country.

Wherever people are, there is and will be conflict. Unfortunately we have proven time and time again, that we can't get along with each other.
(Just look at the war, that's going on in our on-line fan community sometimes! I'm sure, we would have had quite a few casualties here, if people would have been able to attack each other physically)
I am not a violent person and don't like the concept of war. But if war helped to stop holocaust, slavery, and genocide, I'm all for it!
Key is, to do and fight for, what's morally right!
The sad thing is, there are casualties on both sides. That's what I think, Prince meant by "nobody really wins the war"

sosgemini said:

i strongly disagree with you...in fact all the dissers are making me wanna go and play it now. prince is using his music to make the world a better and more peaceful place...it's sad that some refuse to overstand.

other than that, i love the harmonies he does with his voice in the song.

'how many people really want resolution...PREACH!

My take on it is that I'm not considering whether it's right or wrong, I'm saying that prince uses it as a posture pure and simple, always has. if you are a peaceful person then it shows by your actions, prince has always been like a quasi-general. I'm not knocking him at all for that. I'm just saying that there is a breach between what he says and what he does, like most people..

mozfonky said:

it's important to separate (at times) the art from the artist. the art stands on its own and should be judged by its own merit. all of our interpretations of it are subjective. for example, some 1 who digs calhoun square might not dig mr. goodnite. prince's lyrics may be analysed like texts from a book.

ZFunc said:

that's true, most artists can't live up to the ideals they create in their art. Bob Dylan was a true asshole and never meant a word he said. Bruce Springsteen has had his ups and downs with his fans because of his actions. Elvis was supposed to be the rebel, totally free from anything yet he ended up a puppet to the colonel,hollywood and vegas. I still feel that Prince only used the peace thing as a hook to get more audience, nothing more. Not that he's the only one.

ZFunc said:

here we go again...

i never said anything about prince lyrics.
what i said its a true fact like it or not. i havent given my opinion yet but obviously im against any kind of violence or war.

electrorock said:

ain't nuthin' but a muffin'...
let's let Prince's lyrics/music speak for itself...

"the only love there is, is the love we make"




pic found http://www.saveoursoul.nl...ince01.jpg

Heiress said:

yep i'm feeling the trickle of apathy, heiress, but i think u needed 2 highlight the "everyone" so that u can start 2 get the point across,
so i did it 4 ya.

its a long struggle.... some people will never get it unfortunately.

i'm listening to Planet Earth now. love the song, which includes more on the topic at hand:



go 'head Prince Nelson Rogers



pic retrieved @ www.musictrendsetters.com

BoySimon said:

well said Boy simon... i was scrolling along and wanted 2 back up ur earlier clever reply which later got misjudged. Very well explained.

You see folks no one ever REALLY wins.... One arse is licked, u turn around and another one is shitting.
Everyone should stop shitting around, society, politicians, sects,race, religions, different identity groups....
and just concentrate on being together as HUMANS working together .... in love 4 the profit of joy in order 2 overcome natural tragedy and pain (not the destruction we, societies, continue to cause)

I am of course an Utopian idealist, but we should all strive 2 be the best we can be, 4 each other, not so we can overrule one another....

and i say this with out any reference 2 prince...
i've always believed in
"treat others as we would like 2 b treated"
and this would really profit society if EVERYONE followed that. Yeah its difficult 2 do that sometimes, but it is possible, its just we don't have many people prolific enough to look at to "learn from" if one doesn't know how to do so, (if no family member has instilled this philosophy in u).

U never see our so called leaders watching out 4 each other if it doesn't involve greed, or material gain or excess somewhere! Even in so named poorer countries, most of their leaders r living in luxury bought with money from wars...(do ur own news research here, there r many);

And unfortunately I see the same mentality where ever i go, on all levels, most of the time.

But when I see that someone cares and thinks 4 others just because of the warmth that comes back, then i know they understand
that in war ... no one ever really wins!

2 those who do get it and hope 2 those who don't yet... u will

the problem with this lyric is it has no cultural context: All we are saying is Give Peace a Chance or All You Need is Love (or even, cringe, We Are the World or, conversely, What's Going On or Say It Loud) were no less simplistic and superficial but they resonated on a number of levels with things that were happening at the time and with the cultural role of their performers/creators.
The only level that the Prince lyric resonates is with a sneaking suspicion that he's trying to sell u some JW doctrine in an underhand way!

wasitgood4u said:

That's a statement in itself that there is no resonance at a time of war/terrorism/invasion/war crimes. College students today would rather rally around irony, Urban Outfitters and consumerism. This is the reason that Republicans have not brought back the draft. Why give the apolitical and apathetic a cause to rally around.

ZFunc said:

its okay to disagree..and if you enjoy the song more power to you..i don't mind the the song as a whole...its just some of the lyrics that irk...and he has done simplistic topical lyrics that work for me in the past. SOTT being one of the best examples.

Thanks, Genesia, for reducing this to a cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys moment... you're contribution is welcomed.

'you're contribution is welcomed' ... shit, I may as well as be speaking German for all that grammatic correctness! What an awful sentence to type. My apologies to all the English speaking (victorious in war) peoples of the world.

I think its the Sesame Street combo of cutesie melody and the "right on" lyrics combined that annoy the cynic in us here.

Taken in isolation the line can refer to how whenever reduced to violence to make your stand, you have already lost irregardless of the end result.

When lives are lost no one wins. It's so amazing how people are so against same sex marriages because they believe it's against morality. But some of those same people feel it's acceptable to kill each other, despite one of the 10 commandments states thou shall not kill. Very hypocritical.

thomashubler said:[quote]In war nobody wins!It's only suffering. Look at this world:
war in the east, war in the west, war.... What we need is LOVE,said BOB MARLEY
Bob Marley's song "War" has the lyrics derived from a speech made by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I. However - the East West stuff is Bob's.

This world has been playing a "Monopoly game" for far too long...
Imagine if for One Week of observance...All of the Commercial aircraft flew in the same pattern around the world.

How we could deliver to the emptiness and take from the overflow.....

That kind of Unity is worth fighting for, in my heart I fight for it everyday, However, Because of hateful Greedy people, there would be someone in the doorway of a peaceful loop around the world to take care of business. In fact, ths has always been the case....

Look at the past,and all that's in it when it comes to all governments, and just know that "Paradise." is the other way...I know that Prince believes this too. Thank God that there are wealthy people in this world that have generous hearts and minds...cause we'll never get to "Paradise" without them.

jonylawson said:

I think Boy George said it best when he sang (and I quote)
War war is stupid and people are stupid...
Great lyrics (my nan could've written better ones!)

it's out of context, the next line or so helps.

the next generation grows up
And learns how to do it all over again

i think he's going more in depth then a single war (more like war in general throughout history), he doesn't like the concept. neither do i.

electrorock said:

there's no war in me..(maybe the occasional conflict )