planned or unplanned?

I'm sure it was planned, he would have redone it if it was flawed.

I heard he coughed on purpose to b different...i believe he said sic.

Dayclear said:

i was thinking that maybe it was accidental in the recording, and he just kinda worked it into the video

supposed to be there

Yep, intentional.

He said in an interview that he coughed just to 'do something no one else would do', and that he thinks it's funny when people try to figure out a deeper meaning for it.

I also once read that he'd done it as a kind of private joke because he'd read an article or something which had stated that he was so popular that he could record an album of himself coughing and people would buy it. I'd love it if that was true, and that IS the reason...

All of these guesses are good. I thought "National Enquirer" or other tabloid claimed he had some mysterious illness which caused him to cough excessively. Don't know if that's right or not....that WAS 24 years ago!!!

shh66 said:

<----- feels old now

at which part of the song does he cough?i heard the song millions of times and i never heard a cough.

StephaniePlum said:

me too, times 2!!!!

lladygold said:

the 12" single, at the beginning of the song.

I like when he does the unexpected. He has and always will set the tone The Prince Way" not to be confused with Sinatra.

Prince always likes to put his own little sounds in his music, it's usually sexual, but there are others.

I thought it was widely accepted that he coughed to cover up a loud fart.

Cute video.

Funny coincidence: I JUST read the 1985 Rolling Stone interview today, and Prince said it was on purpose. Here's the quote:

A few hours later, Prince is kneeling in front of the VCR, showing his "Raspberry Beret" video. He explains why he started the clip with a prolonged clearing of the throat. "I just did it to be sick, to do something no one else would do." He pauses and contemplates. "I turned on MTV to see the premiere of 'Raspberry Beret' and Mark Goodman was talking to the guy who discovered the backward message on 'Darling Nikki.' They were trying to figure out what the cough meant too, and it was sort of funny." He pauses again. "But I'm not getting down on him for trying. I like that. I've always had little hidden messages, and I always will."
[Edited 5/29/09 18:17pm]

Fury said:

Nope.

squirrelgrease said:

Prince does not Fart! But if he did, it would smell like Flowers

Wasn't it an inside joke with Prince and crew that signified the tune was so 'sick' and funky? The cough being an expression of that?

I thought I read that somewhere.

Aight purple hippies...
before we go off into "I'm right!"..."No! I'm right!" rants...
ernestsewell posted Prince's quote on this (reply #3)
ok.....

He wanted to do something no one else could do?

I don;t know what you'd call it, but I think I cough when my allergies flare up.

GASP! And I even sneeze sometimes too!

Holy crap I just realized that.


I'm almost as old as this album. I'll be 24 in August. I figured the cough was intentional. Just him being silly. I wonder if there's a prolonged version with him coughing some more for an overdone effect. That would be classic.

Okay...i got a question.

Was it Prince's intention to look like Liza Minelli in the video for Raspberry Beret?

Everytime I watch it, I wanna break out into a song from Cabaret.

Definitly Liza Minelli.

One of my favourite looks of his.
And I'd die for a 'cloud suit'

mostbeautifulboy said:

Love the suit. Back in high school, although I suspected I was gay with my overt masturbation to Soloflex ads with a palm full of Avon's Skin So Soft, I still wanted to doink the hell out of Wendy. She was SO damn cute/hot/spunky in that video. I really think she was always my favorite band member ever.

ernestsewell said:

TMI, dude!

bluefish said:

Can't unring a bell. LOL

ernestsewell said:

True!

ernestsewell said:

Skin so soft???? My brother used Jergens, or so I, unfortunately, discovered years ago.

He jerked off to the Cyndi Crawford Pepsi commercial, thogh....sorry, my f'n cat popped the "u" off my keyboard.