I was watching about an hour ago part of the Oprah interview. In it she obviously asked Prince about the whole "slave" thing. His response was that he was felt in his own life and mind enslaved by the music industry. He also said later on that when you listen to Emancipation the album, you're also hearing a happy, free man playing his guitar tracks.

Right now I'm watching Prince performing Daddy Pop on Arsenio Hall. The thought came to mind as I watched this and a few other older videos that maybe the reason Prince's performances in recent years aren't as "lively" as they used to be had something to do with his freedom during and after Emancipation.

Let's see if I can explain this. You see Prince said to Oprah something like, when he records music it's with lots of limitation and not enough freedom in his artistry. As I watched Daddy Pop I thought to myself, well he must be compensating for his musical freedom by doing elaborate performances unleashing what he would in musically through dance, set design, etc.
Then I thought about this in comparison to his performances in the last few years. How that because of his musical freedom, he is now able to put more of his energy into recording what he has freedom to record. And the reason his latest performances haven't been on the same level as they have been in the past is not because he's old(er). But because he doesn't have to compensate any longer. He can now, sing his little heart out, "jam" the night away, and not really give a care in the world anymore what anyone thinks. Why should he? Dude is Emancipated, "Free to do what he wanna"

Just some random thoughts. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go back to watchin' Daddy Pop (as much of it that I can stomach.)

I've never seen this performance, like many that I would like to see.

I do belive that based on lyrix like, "Judge sentenced me to hard labor with a knife, makin' cutz for Y'all." indicates Prince's enslavement to delivering music well past the necessity to earn an income. Out of Prince's generosity he continued to express himself for those of us that grew attatched to the music.
Prince has however in a sense with his creative ability always been free.

how is Prince free? he lives in a cage.

union119 said:

I have no idea....

his per4mance of daddy pop is wicked!!

and if prince is so "free" 2day, then y is he constantly doing old prince songs?

give me the freedom of during the gold experience..NOW THAT WAS A FREE MAN

L4OATheOriginal said:

Amen! co-sign...

L4OATheOriginal said:

Hey, dude said he was "free" not me. Personally, I don't have too much confidence in anything Prince says. I just listen.

Tame said:

Good point Tame
Prince should have the right to choose how free he wants to be. Like all Catch 22's, there's two sides to every coin and no one can ever really have it both ways.

P.S. DADDY POP

masina79 said:

I don't believe he's really so free these days. He limits his language, he limits his subject matter, he limits his musical stylings. I suppose you could say he's free to stick to one groove, but isn't it funny how the "enslaved" Prince of old produced more variety and experimented more than the supposedly free man roaming about now?

meow85 said:

his fans limit his ability as well

L4OATheOriginal said:

How so? Are we the ones telling him to curb his language, to not sing about certain subjects or to tip-to around them when he does, to only do one or two styles of music when he's great at several? If anything, I see the serious music fans asking for and encouraging him to try more.

Even those fans misguided to accept what he's doing now as a sign of "maturity" aren't asking him not to bust out with something new. Though it could be argued that those willing to accept inferior work might be limiting him in allowing him as an artist to coast.

In the end though, any limits on what he's been doing he's put on himself. I wish I knew why, but I don't. But it's sad to see, to use my analogy from another thread, an A+ student handing in B work. It's still good, but we all know he can do better and be freer.

meow85 said:

my apology up front but ur whole post is xactly what i'm talking about 2 my response u made. ur saying he's a a+ student handing in B work. now is that ur "xpectation" of what he should do or what he is as an artist?

bottom line is, we all want him 2 do this or that and somewhere down the line, his fans will bitch and complain about it. i'm guilty of this as well when it comes 2 his live per4mances which i know are very sub par but u'll have other fans saying it's the greatest thing they have ever seen. some love 3121 and some don't. some of his fans thinks he hasn't done anything great since the 80's. it goes on and on. rock fans salivate when it's announced of a possible rock album while the funk fans roll their eyes.

so in essence we ALL contribute 2 limiting him and boxing him in2 a certain area or time span..xcept fanatics ..they love everything lol
[Edited 10/9/08 7:44am]

fanatic here! I think Prince is as free today as he's ever been to do what he wants to do. It's just that there is so much that he doesn't want to do anymore.

L4OATheOriginal said:

The fanatics are the ones limiting him IMO. Everything he does cannot possibly be pure gold, and giving a pass to less-than-stellar work just allows him as an artist to coast. I know art is subjective and one person's gold could be another's garbage, but it's simply fact that what he's doing now does not stack up in terms of quality to his older work. I don't care if he does rock, funk, soul, pop, country, or even metal -what I want is the quality I know he's capable of.

Prince has talent most artists can only dream of, and it feels like lately he's been reigning himself in. Why that is, I have no idea. But I'd like to know why you think I and others like me are the ones limiting Prince's art when we voice our confusion over what looks like a lessening effort or care on his part. Like I said, I'm not asking for a particular style or sound or subject matter. I wouldn't deign to tell someone else what to create. But some of his current stuff sounds like he's just been phoning it in. That's what's troubling us. He's above this.

I know that Prince has been taking his music in an entirely different direction in the last 10 almost eleven years since he's become JW.I think that he has also been stuggleing with trying satisfy his religious self and still write and perform to satisfy his fans. Perhaps more times than less he's not living up to the expectations of people that want him to go back to the way he use to do things, but that's not gonna happen, and I don't think he cares much about the fans that can't accept that. He's talked about this numerous times in interviews.

union119 said:

The shortest and very sweet poem that I wrote seems appropriate 4 Prince.

A caged bird. A free tear. T

Tame said:

good men find a way out of prison

What does that mean, good men find a way out of prison? Good men don't GO to prison. and what's that got to do with the thread?

union119 said:

I suppose the cage we build around us is for protection. I believe the door will open the time is right, as Love is a guide.

I believe that We stay in a prison of perspective:
possibly~
2 ripen judgement
2 postpone intimacy
2 preserve a point from which to make an angled approach toward loving rightly.

I'm in prison 2. I cry and I trust...what else is there 2 do when u want to be happily married.

Dayclear said:

I'd agree that this is another important factor to the changes in music/performances. I guess after Emancipation he met Larry and that was the end. Nothing against Larry but yeah, he did change Prince. Then he did get married. I guess he just matured...that's all I can make of all of this. He matured. Good for you Princey. Just don't let me see you performing somewhere in Jamaica...in a casino....with drunken old women throwing their unmentionables at you and your band that has different members every three weeks. Let it never be said that my Princey had to stoop this low!!
[Edited 10/9/08 19:27pm]

Tame said:

strange notion

Dayclear said:

If you ask me, he -and most people, really -would be better off without religion. Not without faith or without God -that's not what I'm saying. Without religion. What's the point in stepping willingly into a spiritual straightjacket, especially when it puts a muzzle on creative freedom?

I mean, what if one day inspiration struck, and Prince had this grand idea for a song about ooh, say, BDSM. Or hell, politics. No matter how excellent a song it might turn out to be, he'd stay away from it. That'd be a loss of great art IMO. And for what?

masina79 said:

I am really and genuinely confused by what people mean when they say Prince has "matured"?
[Edited 10/10/08 1:34am]

I thought he just used that "Freedom" excuse for singing a 100million contract with warner bros and just fucking off with the money, using another name instead of prince cuz there was a weakness in the contract were he couldnt use his own name...therefore he created the o(+>

meow85 said:

let's take the approach of one person's gold is another's garbage theory: i personally love the whole 3121 album. 4 me it was a "yes mf's i'm still here kicking killer groove and sticking the funk in ur face" another person says it's pure bullshit. i personally think planet earth is a piece of shit, yet others hail it as a masterpiece and so on.

this inlays the problem of past glory compared 2 current output. i can only speak 4 myself and what i c other fans have been doing 4 years when it comes 2 his current material and what i feel is the solution 2 it all.

stop looking 4 the past glory and just enjoy what's in front of u now. if it's not ur cup of tea, it's okay 2 voice ur opinion but just b honest with it. i'm not calling u out, i hope ur understanding what i'm trying 2 say about it all. if someone keeps sitting "the 80's material" then b honest and say hey this is what his music meant 2 me and this is what i want 2 keep feeling. the industry has so much changed since that time and i'm honest when i hear his linn drum in his music 2day i want 2 slap the hell out of him and say STOP THAT SHIT..get a real drummer and go 4 it.

i'm all 4 calling out prince 4 dogging it, hell he's been dogging it on stage since musicology.

how can we as a fanbase just allow him 2 b without shackles if we r all wanting him 2 go in so many different directions?

meow85 said:

okay perfect xample ...

would the prince of say 1979 write a song called friend lover sister mother wife? or would a prince of 1982 write a song like the grand progression?

with every album prince has matured in his writting, singing and per4ming. just like we all have in our individual lives

Anyone that I have ever talked to or heard that use words such as "free, fantastic, wonderful, fabulous, outstanding, unbelievable, superb.....and on and on.....and use them in general terms (no real back up information as to why). Just makes me question the need to express it so viamently. I feel it's a over correction of a more true emotion or feeling.....
Unless it's that first celibacy thang.....I remember my first time going 4 yrs and 3months being celibate....it trips you out.....

It's sorta like who's he trying to convince???? Him or us????


I'm guessing it's a religious reference "free". I just feel religion is a personal thing and no two people see it the same...or apply it the same way in their lives....maybe close to the same at times but just like snowflakes each of us have our own individual "religion" that's the miracle of it all....we can believe all we want or not at all.....they are all variations of belief.

He sounds sorta like he's at a AA meeting...."Hi, I'm Prince.... and I'm free!"

Hi Prince!
[Edited 10/10/08 21:56pm]

L4OATheOriginal said:

Then how do explain a track like Future Baby Mama, a desperate attempt at "hip" lingo obviously misunderstood. Would a mature person be trying so hard to sound like they're 20? Or 1+1+1=3, where he announces "ain't no room to disagree" ? Someone mature in their spiritual outlook can allow room for dissent from others.

As for whether the Prince of old would have written a song like Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother/Wife, I can't say. Perhaps if he'd been getting married then he might have.