I love opening up a can of worms, it's fun!

Forgive me Jesus I've been a fool how could I forget U R my rule U R my God I am your child from now on 4 U I shall be Wild!

Prince's reliance on redemptive Christian mythology tells us his lyrics are undoubtedly Christian, but it's upto the listener what they take from it.

I have slowly come to realise that Lovesexy is THE definative Prince album.

Without Lovesexy where would we all be?

Spiritual, Christian? I don't even think Princey knows..

WOW...

it's about both, but mostly about love sex & soda fizzin on the lawn

Lovesexy has something spiritual for me

lottielooloo1968 said:

Come a butterfly straight on your skin!

Prince and Jesus...are in my heart when I know that GOD is the envelope enclosing us all as One family...

I am someone that believes that inspiration is from Heaven...so I don't seperate anything that Prince sings as being away from that love...or that surrender of putting Love on the throne of your own body and mind as a vehicle getting you through your destiny.
[Edited 8/12/08 19:39pm]

Thats' a crazy assed question P has this spiritual vein running all
thru his stuff, but if you were to ask is 'Lovesexi' one of my favourite albums'
then I'd truly adore you

NouveauDance said:

Bingo.

pepper7 said:

If you asked folks to identify P's defining album, casual listeners would say 1999 or Purple Rain, P fans and music lovers might throw out SOTT. But in terms of DEFINING Prince's body of work, I'd say that Dirty Mind and Lovesexy define him. Dirty Mind defines him as a provocative, gender-bending, genre-bending, push-the-envelope artist. Lovesexy defines him as a adventurous spiritual gadfly.

It can be argued thatLovesexy has informed most if not all of his work for the last 20 years, perhaps even moreso than his "trademark" albums.

NouveauDance said:

I agree, but I've always been confused about just where he stands with God, because his music says one thing, but his actions (onstage and off) are different. Is it justified because he's an entertainer and he think's God will forgive him because of this reason? Or is it because he believes that God will forgive him no matter what? I know we all are short of perfection, and I also know that Prince's personality is an act, because he's an entertainer.

As far as Lovesexy goes, that album is sort of a combination of things, he's talking about God, but he's also talking about other things too. Lovesexy to me is his darkest album by far. It's almost like reading Genesis and Revelations, because he's telling you through out the whole album that if you don't do this, this will happen and if you go down this road, this will happen. It's a very weird album.

So I'd have to say that it's both.

I think Spiritual. Was he ever into Christianity?

there is nothing in the world that compares to the work of art that is lovesexy, this prince at a crossroads where both sexual desire and spiritual meaning are both strong very strong elements to his existence. this confusion and conflict is the general theme to his early career and feuls the creativity and energy of his earlier work - this power is embodied in Lovesexy. Unfortunately (for his fans and listeners of his music), just like most of us, he grows up and becomes a clearer thinker with age - now his sexual desire is not such a strong influence in his music and for that the inner conflict that once provided his music with so much angst and power is now gone.

Lovesexy is the album that killed a brilliant career.

abigail05 said:

Well you could say that because I feel a lot of people REALLY don't get it.

I didn't for years and was also slightly embarrases about it.

Then one day I sat down and listened to it. I mean really listen.. and to think about what Prince was trying to 'say' with that album.

And then I realised Prince sounded madly confused. Also the album was all over the place lyrically and musically. It seemed to crash and roar everywhere. It seemed to be expressing all the torment and torture that Prince was feeling inside. I don't mean this in a melodramatic way - but we all so feel melodramatic at some point.

And the point was it didn't sound affected. He wasn't making it up. If anything most people would have encouraged him to hide those kind of emotions. It was sloppy in a sense and all over the place. It was like being caught binge eatting by your boyfriend or all the stuff that you try to hide about yourself.

But with Prince I actually suddenly realised how brave, or mad, it was to release this album. There is a kind of discord to it which makes it very difficult to listen too.

Some people may cringe when they listen to it, but I think it brings out the child in all of us. The one that we try to hide when we become and act like an adult. That we should always be mature and know all the answers all the time.

It's like Prince saying; "Fuck that! What is it all about???"...

It was brave and mad and honest, no doubt about that. I guess Prince deserved that much, after having given us what, 9-10 albums before that, 8 of which are mind-blowingly awesome (I'm not gonna count the first 2).

I'm just embarrassed of it though. I don't like the songs, the production, and honestly - his honesty. I appreciated that he wanted to make something positive after the Black Album, but come on - the Black Album is funky as all hell, and Lovesexy is a meek apology record. Ugh. I hate it.

ntpoet said:

i'd say Spiritual leaning 2 Christian ...

i'd say it's a spiritual album for everyone, created by someone of a christian faith.

lovesexy is spiritual? That's the first time I've heard that

alphastreet is one of the best prince songs ever though, so it might be worth getting

in case you all are wondering about me buying all these CD's, I haven't bought anything in ages and am going crazy with buying the CD's I never got around to buying.

Both
Alot of christian value's which in turn i could hear him grow spiritually. Heard he does refer to the album as a gospel album.

Erika2k8 said:

by gospel, do you mean it's filled with slow songs? Cause I prefer his fast stuff and want more funky jams like alphabet street

alphastreet said:

lovesexy is a very uptempo album!

and there's a lot of gospel that's very energetic and uplifting. you don't have to be religious to enjoy the energy of it.

alphastreet said:

Gospel as in the meaning of the songs, gospel songs as shown in this album doesnt necessarily have 2 be slow. Like 'Eye No' its a fast energetic track but its still got a gospel message like encouraging ppl 2 be free from their vices and rejectin Satan..lol atleast thats how i saw it

abigail05 said:

I sort of agree with this... I think Prince getting more dogmatic about his xtian beliefs certainly skewed his creativity. After Lovesexy it's all pretty much downhill. You've got Prince wandering in the wilderness trying to present some 'spiritual' message thinking he talking about the big topics, but mostly what Prince is about is surfaces and Pagan body-primacy.

His 'career' is neither here nor there if we are gonna have a discussion about 'quality' of the work. But yes, Lovesexy Marks the beginning of a real slide from where I'm sitting.

JudasLChrist said:[quote]

abigail05 said:

What are you emplyin thats Prince career is dead..if so thats a whole other discussion.
In any musician's career theres ups and downs. Although it didnt do as well as other albumbs he released in the 80's it did still go #1 in the UK. His medioka albums (even though i dont think it was) are better than most artists of that time and now.

JudasLChrist said:

i think it was a risk, but i don't think it killed his career. 'alphabet st.' was a hit, the album went top ten, and his album after that was a big success. i think prince turned a blind eye to mainstream pop sensibilities and used his clout at the time to release something very personal and idiosynchratic, and it left a lot of people scratching their heads...but at that time, people were used to scratching their heads at prince so it's not like it was some huge scandalous act of crazy that nobody would expect from prince.

Anxiety said:

It was his first album to go in at number one in the UK, so no, it didn't kill his career, at least not in Europe - he became huge on the back of the album and tour.

In the U.S. it was a different story, but Europe loved the wackiness of the whole thing.

Drifted off topic somewhat... A Christian album, entirely... it's full of christian imagery and Prince, apparebtly, doesn't have the education to engage or describe spiritulism (is that a word?) in his work... certainly not at the time of Lovesexy.

BoySimon said:

i don't think education needs to have much to do with it. i think he trusted his intuition a lot when he made lovesexy, and that's why it's such a colorful album, and why the messages about spirituality resonate with so many people who like that album.