One of my all time favorite films is The Mack from 1973. There is a line from the character Goldie that I've always believed Prince got inspiration from for his song "I Wanna Be Your Lover".. It happens when Goldie, who is a pimp, is trying to "wrap up" this rich white girl who is seriously digging Goldie and who says she wants to be with him. Goldie, who has on this black hat and shirt that is straight out of the Jackson Five's world tour wardrobe department tells this girl "I'm going to be everything to you...I'm going to be your father, I'm going to be your friend, I'm going to be your lover." I don't know how many in this forum is even familair with this film but to me, definately ever since I was in high school, I always thought Prince not only dug this film (along with Super Fly) but I think he took the line from this film and threw it in "I Wanna Be Your Lover". Just the context of the scene where Goldie says it, what's happening in the scene, I think P dug it and was like "Yeah....I like that right there. Let me put a pen to that." Who else has seen this film The Mack? I know everybody on here is going to say "Yeah,..I've seen the film but I don't see the connection!". Just humor me anyway.

i haven't seen the film, but i see your point and i always thought that was kinda controlling of him to wanna be so much to the girl . similar lines in adore as well.

This is my absolute favorite "blaxploitation" movie! I've watched it a million times....lol...there are some truly outrageous,funny moments in this film!! But it's serious too.My mother loves this film too.She has borrowed my DVD dozens of times!

I haven't seen the film but last night I was trying to think of a favorite Prince song if I could only pick one, and "I wanna Be Your Lover," was the song I chose for all reasons.

Nostalgia
Music
Lyrics
Appeal

It's one of those songs that will live forever.

Hmmm... Looks like I'll need to get the film What's "wrap up" mean?! Well, it's got to be good if Richard Pryor's in it anyway...

Jeffiner said:

Richard Pyror is VERY good in it. He and Max Julien are very good together. They had great chemistry. Their interaction was smooth and natural. "Wrap up" was a phrase that Goldie used in the film. It was a slang word used in the 60's and 70's which meant when somebody is pouring on the compliments to a woman, telling her things they think she wants to hear to get her to do what they want her to do. So their "wrapping her up" to belong to them and no one else. Basically to control her mind.

I never heard of or seen this movie. I might have to add this to my Netflix list.

I've seen "The Mack" but I never associated it with Prince.

I always pictured Prince being more into Sue Ellen Ewing on "Dallas" since they had the same eyes, gestures, and bitchy attitude.

vainandy said:

U need to link the line from the movie to the lyric in the song.

EmeraldSkies said:

You should get it,..I think YOU especially will dig it AND definately see what I'm refering to.

vainandy said:

Hence his appearance as Sue Ellen in the Raspberry Beret Video!!!

blackguitaristz said:

He probably was inspired by that scene. I Wanna Be Your Lover is Prince laying down his mack game proper so I don't doubt it at all. I've seen the movie, it's pretty funny especially nearthe end when The Mack tells that dude "stick yourself, stick yourself!" Hilarious!

Whazzup Brutha B? One of my all time fave soul cinema flicks. Yeah I think P (at a young age) ripped the title of his jam from this flick. I think P was heavy into "Superfly" also. He started looking like 'Priest' in 88.

"The Mack" DVD commentary and extras are great and informative. A great rags to riches to rags story.

SPYZFAN1 said:

Yeah, I have that. P patterned his acting and facial expressions from Ron O'Neil's character Priest in Purple Rain!

pynkcashmere said:

Oh hell yeah...All kinds of lines are great in this film. "See, they want the honey...We just want the money!" "But see there's something that bothers me, man." "And what bothers YOU, nigga?!" "I'm going to give you a chance but next time I hear you trying to set me up, I'm going to kill your momma, your 2 kids and that fat ugly bitch of yours.....And then I'm coming after you and I'm going to blow your heart out of your body SUCKA!" Then one of the best scens of all time is when they put the Gambler in Goldie's trunk and then the Gambler says "Hey man,...hey man,...what kind of shit? " Then Goldie holds up a bag filled with white mice and when homeboy sees that bag...my man was hollering like a motherfucker! "Aaaaah naw...naw...ohhhhh nawww....Oooooh naw...nawwwww." Goldie drove around a little bit and u could STILL hear that cat hollering in the trunk. Goldie pulled up in front of the hospital and him and Richard pulled his ass out and dumped him there. Homeboy had a rat in his hand cuz he had squeezed him to death. The Gambler was all scratched up and shit from all of them mice fucking him up while he was in the trunk...Damn!
[Edited 9/25/08 0:50am]
[Edited 9/25/08 0:52am]

It's not more "important" than SuperFly but I know I laugh waaaay more when I'm watching this film. That had a lot to do with my man Richard Pyror. But it's a good movie and it sends a good message at the end of the film. And when Pretty Tony send some cats to attack Goldie's mom...when she's laying in the hospital, because she's been beat up and then she dies right after Goldie comes to see her...man, that shit breaks my heart. My eyes water up every time I see that scene.
[Edited 9/25/08 0:59am]

Hi Sweetie -- I think it's a stretch that a pimp movie as female predatory as The Mack (which I confess I haven't seen ) would inspire a song that is female worshipping. I mean Prince is positively supine in this song...the wounded, the hurt one, the submissive one.

Very anti-Mack. How do you account for the contrast in tone. Evil inspiring good? Alpha inspiring Beta?

Plus, The Mack doesn't introduce the female personas of mother and sister that Prince uses in the song. That's the daring part. Not that he wants to be everything to her (like the Mack tactically wants) but that he's willing to be the unconventional feminine energy she needs.

It's an emotional honest position PRince uses.
The mack is simply using a fake posturing tactical maneuver!


But you know as a writer, I get inspiration from the darnedest places. And if my muse zeros in on some little germ... I endow it with my eccentric thoughts and can grow it into something altogether different. That's the magic of creativity, isn't it?

So, it's possible, I guess, by virtue of PRince simply being a Gemini and in tune with his bi-gender side that he could have softened, refined and finessed a concept first emerging in a hideous movie like The Mack.


[Edited 9/25/08 10:19am]

SynthiaRose said:

Good post and good question...First let me thank u for not being too "bothered" by me to post in the first place. First off, you REALLY need to see the film to truly see where I'm coming from. You have to see it in it's context. As far as the line in the film, sure they would have never wrote Goldie saying to this girl, "I want to be your momma and your sister too." But by Goldie mentioning all of the things that he DID want to be to this girl,...I believe it gave Prince the "idea" to write what he did in the first place. Of course Prince being Prince, he's going to alter it a little bit so it's not a straight bite. Plus Prince being Prince, he has to put that question out there to the listener "Is that motherfucker gay?" by him saying "I'll be your momma and your sister too". He just switched Goldie's phrase "I'm going to be everything to you. I'm going to be your father, I'm going to be your friend, I'm going to be your lover." To me, Goldie's lines are the same sentiment Prince is saying. I don't think it's a "stretch" at all. And Prince is and always has been a true "player". What P is saying in I Wanna Be Your Lover is exactly what Goldie is saying to his girl in the film. P wants to be MORE than just her lover. He wants to be her everything. Which is exactly what Goldie said. P is definately trying to "wrap up" his conquest. P is "pimping" the girl's mind. Pimping is about manipulating and controling, which is what P has always done in his lyrics to a large degree. Sure , he throws in the sensitivity angle but that's only to disguise and to lure his conquest in deeper. Anybody who doesn't think P is a "player", ...

OMG! Prince, the singer, is soo not a player.

Look. A long time ago people would ask me how can you listen to Prince sexualizing women -- isn't it misogynistic? Isn't it just like rappers sexualizing women? I always said No...because PRince worships women, he deifies their sexuality. puts them on pedestal and puts himself beneath women. He celebrates us and our power. He will EMBARRASS himself and GROVEL in a song for a woman.

Players don't do that.

Now, in real life, Prince is a player and a manipulator sure.

But his music persona/character had never had that undertone ...until Sexy MF in 1992.

I remember when I heard that, I was a bit startled. He was barking at the woman with a bunch of men (ok maybe the sott live concert foreshadowed this change) ...in the decades before he'd been seranading women from a pack of other women and femininized men.

Suddenly, he had Tony M and other NPG assholes there creating this macho, mack scene.

I hated that. "Sexy muthafucka shaking that ass.." ugh! The Prince who sang I Wanna Be Your Lover would never sing that ...because he WAS NOT a mack.

Think about it.

SynthiaRose said:

Don't have to think about it. That's your opinion and it's not important to me to try to change your mind. To me, in "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and everything else, P is one of the biggest players in the world. A player will use any game possible to get the drawers. Be it "Hold me, I'm so cold" to "I'll go down on you all night long". That's macking to the 12th degree.

Oh, I'm just indulging in a little friendly riling! (I'm a Scorpio. I can't help it.)

The Mack was just okay to me. I prefer SupaFly and Willie Dynamite among others.

I think the lines Max says in the film are too generic to attribute to Prince's WannaBYoLuva. Guys been saying that shit 4eva in addition to "I- Want 2 B Yo Man Babay, Oh Oh Oh" just mho

SynthiaRose said:

That's cool..I'm an Aries. I think it was sexton who said I was an Alpha Aries at that. So I don't mind any riling. And who are the kisses for if u don't mind my asking?

DesireeNevermind said:

Nah,..what Goldie and P said are totally different from what Jesse sang about. What Jesse sung,..THAT was generic. Nothing generic about "I wanna be your momma and your sister too". Which I feel came directly from "I'm going to be everything to you. I'm going to be your father (where Prince switched to mother), I'm going to be your friend,...I'm going to be your lover. (Which not only P kept but obviously used as his song title). And yeah, I KNOW cats have been saying this since the beginning of time. Pimpin' is old as the hills. But that's not that this thread is about. Where it came from or how many times it has been said before the film The Mack. What this is about is I believe P got inspiration from that line in the film to write that phrase in that song. I'm cool with everybody saying they don't see it. I EXPECTED that...hence my reason on writing the thread in the first place. If I knew it was going to be something everybody jumped on the bandwagon with by saying "Yeah man, you're so right!"...I never would have even bothered with that. Just trying to interject something on here that may give somebody something to look into. I bet many on here have never even heard of the film The Mack. Let alone seen it. So just trying to give something for some folks who are open in checking something out. Just for fun. Like this thread...just for fun. Although I Do believe that's where P got it from. Still nothing deep though. Instead of topics like "What brand of toilet paper do u think Prince uses?".

blackguitaristz said:

U joking right? Seriously are people posting threads like that? Well good thing about this thread is now people who haven't heard of The Mack or cool azz Max Julien will look into the film - maybe even enjoy it.
So if Princey did get inspiration from this movie, I can so see him throwing back popcorn wit Morris, then he be a pimp fo sho. Ok, just on the inside LOL.
I'm still not feeling the connection. You connecting with the FEELING behind the words BGZ? Now in that sense, I would have to watch it again.

DesireeNevermind said:

Yes Desiree N., I am. Very much so. And uh,...I want you to connect with the feeling too.

blackguitaristz said:

Aries and Scorpio are both ruled by Mars, the God of War. Fight! Fight! Fight! (and then have make-up sex!)

EmeraldSkies said:

Tell me when u check it out.

SynthiaRose said:

Uh,...I'm quite innocent up in here!

EmeraldSkies said:

Well?