berniejobs said:

I find that hard to believe. Prince would have to be pretty dumb for that to be true and nothing suggests that he wasn't well-versed in airplane travel.

My guess is that it's a simple verbal slip. Alternatively, he might have started to say something like "a few turbulent moments" and then decided halfway in that that wouldn't work. After saying it the wrong way, maybe he meant to go back and correct it but forgot, or maybe he thought the mistake was funny or interesting so he left it in. That's my take.

It's not exactly Prince being dumb. Haven't you ever heard someone describe a rude person as being "ignorant"? They believe the word "ignorant" means rude or asshole-ish, but it actually means "lack of knowledge".

And people spell "your" when they mean "you're".

Or write "alot" when it is actually TWO separate words - "a lot".

Prince could have easily heard a few people say "turbulence" growing up, got carried away with life, never really thought about flights or turbulence, then wrote the song, went into the studio and took his best guess using context clues.

For example, I never learned the meaning of "pray tell", but I've heard people say it throughout my life, so I just took a guess on it's meaning. I guess I could look it up right now...

Also, I have been told by a few French-speaking friends that the term "savoire-faire" means nothing. Yet, after Prince used it in the song "7", I heard several artists after that use it.

Could Prince have coined a term that means nothing just to have other artists copy it? Could Prince be aware it means nothing and is laughing on the inside that he tricked all these artists into bascially admitting that they copy from him when they try to act like they don't?

Or could it just be American slang for something?

The main flaw I see in your argument is that he had obviously taken many flights by this point. He's using a lot of the sayings and warnings delivered during commercial flights at the time. So he would have known the word "turbulence," I believe.

berniejobs said:

When 1999 came out, I was studying meteorology at a university with one of the best programs in the country. (I actually did weather on TV for several years.) I heard, "a few turbulents" and thought, "The fuck was that...like 'turbulent' is a noun?! "

I wondered if he'd ever been on an airplane before...

berniejobs said:

Sorry, but oh, no. Prince first used this in "Eye No" (off Lovesexy). I don't recall him using it before that, offhand.

Anyway, here's the dictionary definition of "savoir faire": "a polished sureness in social behavior." It's been in use in English since 1815.

I have considered your point since it was already 1983 and his 5th album in by the time he wrote that song.

But also consider that Prince's attention span probably wasn't focused on the word "turbulence" even while getting into and out of planes. He had management that handled all that.

I'm not saying he was oblivious to his surroundings, but honestly, who sits around studying the correct spellings of words and then memorizes definitions from dictionaries? Well, I do, but that's another story. Not to mention he had the whole world of rock stardom surrounding him.

Think about when people mispell simple words like "potato" or "ketchup" when we see them all the time in print at the grocery store. Surely, we see these words more often than a frequent flyer sees the word "turbulence".

And you may say, "but it wasn't just a mispelling"... Well, surely someone can easily mispell "fettucini", but that person could I also sit down in a nice Italian restaurant and say "I expect a few fettucinis" not really knowing that he misused the word.

berniejobs said:

Actually, it is from the French meaning, literally, "know how." It was first used in English by Sir Walter Scott.

A person with savoir faire has the instinctive ability - or know how - to deal with any situation that may arise.

It is a phrase that is frequently misused.

Genesia said:

Exactly. Honest mistake. He is a musician, not a meteorolgist. Had you said "turbulents" then there'd be a problem. But if you, as a meteorologist, said "I expect a few orchestals at tonight's show", we'd forgive you.

optimus said:

He also wrote For the Tears In Your Eyes around that time, and in that song he sings " He made the blind see and the dumb understand". I think back then he confused the meanings of dumb. ( not being able to speak vs. mentally challenged).

berniejobs said:

Honey, I scored in the 99th percentile on my SAT. I would never say anything like that.

KoolEaze said:

Yes, but wouldn't "dumb" have two meanings" One being unable to speak, and the other meaning, well, freaking dumb as a door knob.

You would assume after the usage of "blind" that the useage of "dumb" would be the inability to speak, simply because that is typically how people categorize those specific problems - deaf, dumb and blind.

But why does Prince HAVE to mean inablity to speak after saying inability to see(blind)?

He could be saying, in essence, "He made the people with no vision see and the people who were idiots understand."

He doesn't HAVE to couple "blind" and "dumb" together as if they were "inability to see" and "inability to talk".

stupid

Genesia said:

listen ive never heard that expression before... and im sure neither have many other people...apart from Prince fans obviously If i said 2 sum1 "I heard u smiling"...well id be laughed at im sorry
[Edited 1/8/09 20:15pm]

Genesia said:

It is a term used in French philosophy and psychoanalysis.
[Edited 1/8/09 20:22pm]

novabrkr said:

Ah. Thank you!

optimus said:

It isn't an expression that gains anything from familiarity with it. It's a common sense thing.

Any kind of art is as much about what you bring to it as what the artist had in mind while creating it.

Mars23 said:

optimus said:

I actually think "I heard you smiling" is very beautiful. A song isn't a journalistic article. Its art. And you have to reach far, make shit up and get a little surreal to get a point across sometimes.

ToraToraDreams said:

Yes it is nice now that i understand

Jestyr said:

lol... no, i'm not talking about the quasi-autotune filter effect used in 3121 and Colonized Mind.... that effect is awesome though!!


what i meant was a 'plosive' (look it up if u don't know) from a sibbilance that hit the mic with enough air force to cause a 'popping' sound - think of someone making a speech and talking too close to the mic


you can hear it quite clearly.

ToraToraDreams said:

And as usual there are a few turbulences on the org today!

DIG IF U WILL A PICTURE

is all wrong


how can you dig a picture (u either dig it (you like it) or you dig it (with a shovel), either way it doesnt make sense.

Genesia said:

i've managed to trick my mind into believing he sings "we expect ACUTE turbulence"

it does work tho

how about

wherefore art thou puppy?

though I admit it sounds good.

You know what gets me? "Starfish and coffee"?

C'mon! No one eats starfish! And junior-high school kids don't drink coffee! Also, you can't put a cloud into your lunchkit - everyone knows that! Plus, there aren't any clouds made out of butterscotch. I mean, really!

I just could never buy into that song.

Jakeasaurus said:

Nope. He doesn't use autotune on Colonized Mind, although he does use it on (There'll Never B) Another Like Me (listen to the vocal on each for the difference). It's a result of the envelope filter which causes the same 'plosive effect a close-mic situation would without a windscreen.

Jake... I support people paying attention to production values and learning about such things themselves wholeheartedly, but starting a new thread in order to report on a plosive / compression artefact / etc. is really stretching it.

RodeoSchro said:

Not to take this discussion to a crude level...

(And before anyone here complains like usual when someone gets crude, remember this is a website dedicated to Prince. Prince isn't crude these days lyrically, but he was in the old days. This is a site for old and new Prince. Not just JW Prince. Besides, crudity is an opinion, even though republican, religious-wackos, wal-mart-censorship-friendly, George Bush-supporters would like to be able to define what opinions are good. Remember Prince is the guy with ass-cut-out pants and did songs like Head and Sister.)

Anyway...

Starfish is another term for a butthole. And you can eat a butthole. And coffee is another term for diarrhea in some circles.

Sure, it is crude, but it is very possible that Prince is singing about buttholes and diarrhea.

forkupine said:

Ummmm...that's Scarlet Pussy singing to the neighborhood dogs.

When it comes to imagination, it's really feast or famine in this place.