would you rather hear an amended version of say let's pretend we're married or darling nikki in concert , or not hear it at all?

Not...at...all.
Not if he had to entirely butcher the whole thing until it was unrecognizable. I skipped word here and there is fine...but can u imagine what he'd do with Darling Nikki?

First of all, Prince has reached the position of having such a selection to choose from when performing, that 7 percent of songs that have suggestive ideas' can be altered or dropped easily.
As a Prince music lover, it wouldn't matter to me one way or the other, Prince has so many beautiful songs that have love and spiritual theme's...
People overall, regardless of their temptations, are responsible for their bodies. A teenager can be exposed to sexuality in a variety of forms...and music at least has a creative spine...

I'll take the amended versionz.I'd just b thrilled 2 hear those songz again,no matter how he switchez them up.

sexxydancer said:

Like "Princess Control" instead of " Control".

Astasheiks said:

Don't. Bother. At. All.

As much as I'd love to hear songs like Darling Nikki or Housequake or Pussy Control live, it's just not the same when it's cleaned up for our delicate ears. Some of my favourite songs I'll probably never get to hear done live because Prince has decided he's going to play at being a one man FCC.

Prince has a lot of great other songs. I'd rather hear him do something that's maybe not my favourite but more or less intact in its original sentiment, than something that's been butchered to clean it up for the innocent lil' chilluns.

Now, changing lyrics randomly I don't object to, if it doesn't change the meaning of the song. Changing the Dynasty line in Kiss to say Desperate Housewives or Queer as Folk is cute; telling the audience to shake their pants and yelling What the Duck, is not.

meow85 said:

I tihnk the duck thing is the actual lyric...

But changing the lyrics. It's dumb as shit. You can't change art. Leave art in it's state. It's like putting pants on Michealangelo's David, or resculpting the Rape of Persephone. Art is art and it represents someone's feeling at a particular moment.

meow85 said:

Yeah, at the O2 shows he changed it to "You don't have to watch Big Brother, to have an attitude!" which was funny.

In '98 when he did Darling Nikki, He sung the song except the bad words, which we all had great joy in singing for him, and when it ended he said he was gonna tell our Mommies!! Again very funny!!!

What I haven't appreciated so much is his change of lyric for the Cross - to The Christ, and even more recently at the O2 aftershows the song Sexuality (one of my favourites!!!) was changed to Spirituality. Not happy with that at all!!!

I think he should still keep all his songs, and let us keep singing the bad words!!!
[Edited 4/14/08 3:45am]

Volitan said:

You can't change art? I think it's great when a live version of a song is actually different from the studio recording. That way it breathes life! You shouldn't want to recreate that, it's often not even possible. Music isn't like a painting or sculpture. Especially live-music is ever-changing.

Now, with the cross/christ, sex/spirituality, ass/pants, fuck/duck, positions/scriptures, that is something else. If you don't wanna sing about the subject, don't do the song.

I've heard him both ways, the original and in concert with the cleaned up lyrics, trust me It does not matter. Pick your battles.

i dont like words being changed cos theyre being 'cleaned up' if you dont like the original sentiment then dont sing it. I didnt like the big brother thing cos i didnt think it fitted, it was a funny attempt to be contemporary or something but it didnt fit as you dont have attitude to watch big brother - i just didnt get it. whereas dynasty was all about the rich and famous so to speak - anyhow, i think its a shame someone has to be 'embarrassed' by work they have produced in the past so as to actually change original lyric. we all know the real lyric so why change it -thats a farce not fooling anyone.

mentalist said:

I knew about "The Christ", but I didn't know about "Spirituality"! What the fuck, Prince?

See for me, what I dislike about the lyric changes isn't just about taking out the naughty words, but it's changing songs like this too. These two alterations definitely do change the meanings of the song completely. Hey, I get that he has different beliefs these days, and that's his right. But he should write new songs to reflect that and just retire the songs he finds objectionable, not bugger up older songs that we all still love.

I refuse to accept "The Christ" and "Spirituality" as songs.

syble said:

The message is loud and clear; Prince is ashamed of his own work, and thinks we need to be protected from it.

I just can't figure how he got the idea into his head that there was anything wrong or sinful about his past work, but it's pretty clear he sees something bad about it, and that's just sad.


Prince: (because we all know you've got your lackies lurking here) Just be you. This isn't about religion, but it's an awful cute coincidence that when you converted, you learned to be ashamed of yourself, isn't it?

"What the Duck" is absolutely stupid as hell. It sounds like a child that wants to say "fuck" but is scared he is going to get a spanking.

Can you imagine if he tried to do songs like "Head" or "Jack U Off"? Hell, he couldn't change those up so he would just have to drop them. I say, keep the songs and drop the religion instead.

vainandy said:

I don't like "what the duck" either.

sexxydancer said:

The duck was lame.... I tried 2 get past it, but it spoils the track, 4 me Can't quibble, though, as TRC is a fine peice of work in my eyes

Maybe if he didn't actually write every lyric I could accept changes to them, but HE wrote them...all of them. Why change something that was once a part of you just because you don't agree with it anymore. If that's the case, than I'd rather never hear songs like "Pussy Control" or "Darlin' Nikki" ever again over hearing a Disney version of the song. Just ruins the song and I hate dumbed-down lyrics...main reason why I hate the radio. What's wrong with saying, 'Fuck', dammit?

vainandy said:

Here, here!

Not being able to think for yourself is, as far as I can tell, a bigger offence to the Almighty than dropping an F bomb here and there. Words are just words.

estelle81 said:

Hell, even songs I don't care for by artists I don't like I hate to hear censored like that. It's just wrong.

meow85 said:

Exactly. Keep singing the original songs as they still represent a part of his and our history or just let them be.

Write new songs for the now!

mentalist said:

That's funny!

You know what he'd say though? That 'Sexuality' was always about 'Spirituality' anyway - so what's the difference

vainandy said:

i would like to see him try

to be honest i dont think changing the lyrics would help much in the case of 'Darling Nikki' or the more popular songs cos the audience would happily just fill in the blanks but i do think it is a shame that so many songs arent played