I like it but I really have to be in the mood to listen to it.

viewaskew said:

Woopedy doo. Really. You're writing about Prince for your homework.

People have done the same for many pop culture figures & events. Doesn't make them experts. Just gets them a grade.

Here's a question for you. What's the most negative thing you can say about Prince?
[Edited 1/11/08 10:24am]

viewaskew said:

I am preparing these articles for possible publication in scholarly journals (with the backing of my advisor), just so you know...

In any case, what I personally dislike most about Prince is his emphasis on materialism - I know where it comes from, this old "pimp" image with the clothes, cars, fancy house, etc... I just personally dislike all that flash.

I've always liked it when he did the hippy thing; with white clothes and some of the folkier, more organic things he's done. But that's just me.

Of all of his studio albums, b-sides, maxi-singles, live stuff, and boots, TRC is the only Prince CD that I just cannot get in to. I have tried and tried, but it is just too empty. I would rather listen to Graffiti Bridge, Rave, For You, or NPS than TRC. That being said, I still value it and all other Prince CD's more than any other artist.

DarkKnight1 said:

You need to explore other artists work. Zeppelin,stevie, funkadelic, zappa, the who, deep purple

fcukthepolice said:

.....Ludwig van Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Miles Davis, The Beatles, The Kinks, James Brown,Depeche Mode, Bruce Springsreen, U2, Irvin Berlin, Philip Glass, Bjork...tooooo many great artistis at you fingertips

Heck.....Janet jackson Milli Vanilli.....expand your horizons.....

PeaceandLoveCowgirl said:

lol, i hope you get a good grade on your homework.

Thanks PeaceandLoveCowgirl. That was an excellent article -- interesting and well written. TRC is definitely one of my favorites and I don't like it because I necessarily think Prince is right on everything but that he's exploring with such effort and putting it to such incredible music. Concept albums are very much hit or miss, but this one definitely worked for me.

Maybe one should listen 2 the Rainbow Children with these topics in mind:
The Indigo Children
The Rainbow Conspiracy or
The Star Children.

Whitnail said:

You think? I could never bop my head as easily to "There's a new theocratic order" then I could to "If we cannot make babies, maybe we can make some time" somehow. Dunno what it is. Maybe cuz the entire focus of the album is one that curses non-jehova witnesses to hell and it seems that along the way they seem to re-write their god's holy word to suit their own purpose, which seems to be not to administer logic to their lives.

But hey, if you're into that, be my guest; bop your head to

"Holocaust aside, many lived and died
But when all truth is told, would U rather be dead or be sold?
Sold 2 the one who can now mate
The displaced bloodline with the white jailbait
Thinkin' like the keys on Prince's piano will be just fine"



"Totally tripping."

Hearing those lyrics for the first time angered me. And they still do. What a load of bullshit. It totally taints the 'musical' experience of it all. Probably something to do with my interferons.
If I wanna hear some ignorant git preach dumb-ass 'wisdom', I would just refert back to christianity, thank you.

Weird American cults.

It seems to me that alot of people miss the point of that lyric. Prince has been writing songs for 30 yrs. After accumulating 30 years of evidence on Prince's outlook on life I would think that Prince would get the benefit of the doubt on ambiguous lyrics. I wonder about fans who jump to negative conclusions when most of the evidence about Prince's outlook on life has always pointed toward the positive. I think it say much more about u that u interpret those lyrics negatively than Prince.

All he is doing is presenting a rhetorical question, a question about life that we all must answer. Are some things (values, principles) more valuable then life itself? I believe folks like Patrick Henry and MLK Jr. felt that freedom was more important than life. We are all going to die. The question Prince poses is how will we live?

L4OATheOriginal said:

Prince is black? No kidding!?

Prior to his "conversion" that was rarely an issue. The lyrics are obviously anti-Semitic & if that's part of being a JW, & you still celebrate that as a black man, you're just as misguided as he is.

First of all, the term "black and white" is a fallacy.
It simply is another way of saying "this or that".
Let's examine the term "this or that" in its ultimate form
which is: "this" means the truth or "that" which is resistant 2 it.

When a minority realizes its similarities on a higher level
not just "black", but "people of color", and higher still "indigenous", and even higher still, "from the tribe of", and yet higher:
"The Rainbow Children".
When this understanding comes, the so-called minority becomes a majority in the wink of an eye.
This action will cause a reaction or resistance.
The source of this resistance must be banished as it is in direct conflict with the initial action.
It cannot be assimilated, 4 its very nature is resistance.
In other words, one cannot serve 2 masters.
U are either "this" or "that which is not this".

Digressing a tad, but one of the other lyrics (of many) I find of interest is the rather specific defination of who the Rainbow Children are:




It's more often that people bring up claims of pseudo anti-Jewish sentiments in the lyrics, but don't often look at this portion which also pertains to an opinion on race.

I wouldn't want to put any words into Prince's mouth - but it does seem quite a divisive and confrontational lyric.

Hearing those lyrics for the first time angered me. And they still do. What a load of bullshit. It totally taints the 'musical' experience of it all. Probably something to do with my interferons.

i've always liked that passage of family name which 4 me paints a picture of us all being all of the human race instead of class, creed, rich or poor etc. it is sort of like a utopian imagery than the world we currently all live in with such division and hatred due 2 many different factors of bigotry

tricky99 said:

I have always understood "holocaust aside" as meaning, "there was nothing worse than the holocaust, that's a given, but that subject aside..."

What people forget here (or simply do not know - or do not care?) is that Jehovah's Witnesses were a special target of Hitler. Unlike Jews, however, they could sign a paper pledging their allegiance to Hitler and be set free from the camps. Almost none did (if any). So how in the world could these lyrics be anti-Semetic and pro-JW? Ridiculous; we were in exactly the same boat RE in those days.

As for analysing the ambiguity in Prince's lyrics, the difference, I find, is purely in the way people think.

Those who see the world in black and white see either "good" or "evil" wherever they go. Others may see the same things and say, "hmm, might be something more to it" and give the subject or statement in question some additional thought.

L4OATheOriginal said:

I think I just had a light bulb moment there. Like I said I didn't want to put words into Prince's mouth, but I'd always viewed as initially a very negative passage.

There are (at least) two ways of looking at it.

I didn't even think about how JW's were treated during the holocaust. That's even more evidence that Prince was not being anti-semetic. Some people just like to believe the worst in Prince for some reason. Also I notice a lot of people with religious hang-ups thrust them onto Prince. I'm not religious at all but Prince being so doesn't effect how I feel about him or the music at all.

NouveauDance said:

basically Prince is saying with all our differences.. on the highest level we can become one community (with god).

tricky99 said:

The world around us suggests otherwise.

true but if u live ur life accepting everyone as equal then ur part of the solution 2 changing the worlds outlook

basically Prince is saying with all our differences.. on the highest level we can become one community (with god).

It's a turd.