Just wondering.....

Did Prince change his name back from because on the internet and so that people can google "PRINCE" to make his internet pioneering more easily accessible?

Doesn't his name change coincide with the internet?

no. and no.


he threw a fit in 1993 when he was beginning his war on Warner Bros. and for some strange reason thought that if he changed his name to he would be able to release music independently without their permission


in 2000, when all of his conctracts with WB ran out (including publishing), he caught up with the rest of the world and realized that it was a bit silly to be going around reffering to yourself as and he changed it back to gain back some respectability at a point when he really, really needed some and really had nothing else going for his career.

chocolatehandles said:

no.


Despite having an arsenal of lawyers (which he gladly uses to threaten the org and various other fansites) to read over his contract, Prince was unhappy with the terms of this $100+ million dollar contract with Warners, and dressed in Versace couture clothing scribbled "slave" on his face--I wonder what actual slaves would have thought of that silliness

The name change originally was suppose to be a spiritual and musical rebirth for the artist, and The Gold Experience to usher in this new rebirth...but this was all hype and myth building.

I think the Symbol name change was probably just Prince trying to make the dispute with Warners draw even more attention than it was already receiving. I mean, it's received far more press than most other musicans who've had disputes with their record companies. Even MJ's accusations of Sony's CEO being racist didn't generate near the attention the Symbol did.


Personally, I loved the whole "Welcome 2 the Dawn" instead of "May U Live 2 C the Dawn" stuff. I mean, I seriously thought the floodgates were going to open up and Prince was going to shower us with gems from the vault, some of which would blow my fucking mind


But, alas, there may still be some really amazing stuff in the vault. But the Symbol years, obviously weren't the tool for this material being released.

After the name change, the whole Jehova's conversion, not cursing (I don't take issue with him not cursing anymore... I try not to curse so much anymore in real life, but my fear is he'll tamper with old recordings to bleep out the curse words and such...or just not release them), and lack of truly mind blowing material has left me more a realist than truly jaded (contrary to popular belief). But it would have been nice if the symbol years actually symbolized something truly cool---some kind of true artistic rebirth. We saw hints of renewed energy and 'umph' with the Gold Experience, but by the time New Power Soul and Rave Un2/In2 were released, it was apparent, he was just Prince with a silly symbol for his stage name.


Either way, I liked the early Symbol years and not so much the later Symbol years. It appears I may be liking the later part of this first decade and not so much the early part. One can hope.

i still think the name-change to was kinda cool. i mean who else would do that? of course it was really stupid. but it was cool too

errant said:

It would have been VERY cool if he was serious and meant what he said.

I would have thought he was absolutely insane... a mad genius. And that's cool in my book.


Now, I still think he's a musical genius, but that his symbol years was just an embarrassing tantrum.

Imago said:

which years do you think WEREN'T just an embarrassing tantrum?

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that I am more of a fan than I am a Prince fan. was a bad mofo and wasn't afraid 2 show it, the music was dangerous and funky as 4k. Now as Prince, I still think he makes good music (Not on the same level as did though IMHO) but he has become so tame it's just not right. I know he's 51 and can't go around acting the bad boy all his life and I don't want him 2 return 2 that era at all cuz that would just be sad, I'm just saying I preferred it.

Didnt he change his name to to avoid the draft?




No Vietnamese Ever Called Me A Nigger

comegetwild said:

Gosh, that's a weird way of looking at it! Your post suggests he wasn't Prince BEFORE the squiggle....!! Surely that was his best and funkiest era?

clbrooks said:

No I love early Prince but the thread was talking about the name change from back 2 Prince so that's what I was talking about. But still if I compare my fave early Prince songs 2 my fave songs, 4 me, still just about edges it.

I think another reason that he changed his name back to Prince was that as a Jehova's Witness, you can't be called a heathen symbol.

comegetwild said:

Preach!

chocolatehandles said:

Are you serious? The internet was around 5 years-ish before Prince changed his name back to Prince in 2000. Go read. He stated why he changed his name back to Prince permanently.

comegetwild said:

Same here

People often tend to focus on the bizarre and crazy aspects of this and call him lame for changing his name in the first place and even more lame for changing it back to Prince but I think that this was one of the boldest,craziest and most daring moves in showbiz, ever.
It takes some balls to sabotage your well respected career, to give up a lot of what you´ve built up over decades and to stick with your crazy idea for SEVEN years. The whole numerology factor is often forgotten when this issue comes up....people rather call him lame and weak for not staying but we all know how much he is into numerology in general and the number seven in particular.

The timing of the namechange,as mentioned in the credits of the Three Chains of Gold VHS mini movie, and the timing of going back to being Prince were, IMO, sheer genius and most people interpreted it as some sort of giving in to the media pressure.

Not many people have done what Prince did in 1993. There were predecessors like Muhammad Ali and Carlos Santana´s "Devadip" phase, or Cat Stevens becoming Yusuf Islam but he took it to another level by choosing an unpronouncable symbol and giving it all up again after he became "free". So, in a nutshell, the symbol kind of worked as an important tool or key in one of his most unpredictable and adventurous phases.

I have to admit though that around the year 2000 he had become very out of touch and unfocused despite ( or because of ?) using that symbol.

The name change didn't bother me. I was 7 when he did that and I just called him "Prince" the whole time. TI knew they called him "The Artist" but I thought it was like a nickname like when they call Michael Jackson "The Thriller" It wasn't until years later I made the connection of "The Artist" "TAFKAP" yadda yadda yadda.

It didn't matter. I'd still have screamed "PRINCE" at any time between 1993 and 2000 if I'd seen him.

guarinigirl2000 said:

It really did him no gooed. the majority of people stille think he's not Prince anymore. It made a lot of attention back then, but people have lost him out of sight (they think that with his name, he also lost his mind)
[Edited 6/12/09 13:55pm]

comegetwild said:

hell yeah!! especially 94-96 fucking fearless then he started playing that prince music again and lost some of that thunder

Why are ppl still tryin to figure out why Prince changed his name to and changed it back to Prince?
Hasn't he been givin the same reason every time someone asks the question?

JayJai said:

cause some people think it was a stupid move without ever being in the music business themselves..how dare prince complain about being ripped off 4 his art and hard work he's rich!!!

how dare he change his name 2 when u can't pronounce it (the key is understanding what the symbol means in the 1st place but if they knew what it really means, that would lead 2 another topic bashing episode)

so on and so on

Imago said:[quote]

chocolatehandles said:

no.


Despite having an arsenal of lawyers (which he gladly uses to threaten the org and various other fansites) to read over his contract, Prince was unhappy with the terms of this $100+ million dollar contract with Warners, and dressed in Versace couture clothing scribbled "slave" on his face--I wonder what actual slaves would have thought of that silliness


Oh that's easy to answer...

If he's a "slave"....where the fuck is our $100+ million dollars...each!

A rose by any other name would still smell just as sweet
[Edited 6/14/09 0:05am]

JayJai said:

no. actually he kept changing the answer.

When Prince tried to get out of his contract, Warners told him they owned him, even owned his Name. I think he went a little crazy by making it a symbol. But I don't see anything wrong with him changing it. Native people do it all the time throughout their lives.