The one who wasn't afraid to sing explicitly and honestly about sex. Yes, he's 51 but I disagree with the idea that if you're old that you're a dirty old man if you sing that way. Sexual expression doesn't have an age limit and it doesn't have to mean that you're singing about 18 year-olds, there are a lot of milfs out there. A lot of Prince's most inspired work, like Dirty Mind, was made when he was sexually free. Sex frees you up and inspires you beyond the obvious. Prince is a very religious man, but back in the day he realized that religion and sexual candor are not at opposite ends.

Prince used to say SEX is a spiritual union and brings you closer to God. Light and shade, black and white. He was in touch with his shadow side. He was playful with sex and I agree with you he has lost his honesty.

Prince has not lost his honesty...Prince has broadened his musical Horizon's and Narrowed his point of view in his lyrics, in my opinion.

Tame said:

Prince has broadened his music in many ways and has become even more skilled at writing to the point lyrics, but he has lost his sexual candor. Listening to his earlier records makes this evident, in my opinion.

peter430044 said:

Well keep wishing because it's NOT gonna happen.

Well, Prince is still Prince but if you want him to turn into the 20 year old singing songs about incest and oral sex. Ask yourself this would you want your uncle singing those songs in front of children???

jimmyrogertodd said:

Sexual songs are not for children, just as working is not for 7 year-olds.

It's not so much that I miss the cursing and sexuality, I miss the freedom, the wild boy. I've accepted that he has grown and moved on, but I do not have to like it.

I've been a Prince fan since the early 80's, and Prince and I are about the same age. I have followed his career and life and kind of grown at the same time and matured in the same way that he has. Now it bothers me in ways I can't express why people won't respect the man that he has become, and are disrespectful of his religious choices and care more about what they want him to be, that for who he really is. I guess most of them just are too young to realize that as you grow you leave a lot of foolishness behind you. Prince has paid his dues in ways that many can't even begin to imagine and he's not going backwards for anybody. So to cut this sermon short with a line from the man himself. Letitgo.
Mind your own motherfucker, let a man be a man.

prince's foolishness is not behind him. He's 51 and still playing games.

I'm happy we had dirty Prince for a while and I'm also glad he evolved into the mature, still handsome, genius of a man he is today.

Dayclear said:

To quit being sexually explicit is not to grow. Unfortuntately it's common for people to reach 40-ish and become sexually narrow-minded.
[Edited 7/21/09 19:32pm]

peter430044 said:

And how old are you?

Trust me - people who get to be 40 and don't treat sex in at least a slightly more circumspect manner are an embarrassment.

I'm 41 and my wife still calls me a hornbucket.....

I believe SEXY never left.

Elixir.... check

Chocolate box ..... check

Wall of Berlin .... check

AVENUEMAN said:

My man is over 50 and still a hornbucket, too. But he wouldn't climb up on a stage, sing Head and hump a mic stand if his life depended on it.

what, is he gone?

ME! ME! ME!

prince has said it many times, this hope of a return to raunch says more about the hoper than he.

pplrain said:

3121

sexy never left, it just dont get put out there too often, on the new album i forget which song - he even blasphemes which is even more surprising.

Im a bit younger than prince, people dont change not really not deep down! the stage antics may have gone but thats maturity, the sensual side to his personality is still there, he just lost his way in figuring out how best to express it alongside his faith, the two seemed to jar but I think hes now got it figured, hes grown back to realising sexuality and godliness can work together as its part of being human and spiritual.

Lets face it the monk image doesnt sit well with prince.

Genesia said:

Watch out! The age police is here.

I'm 29 and being right doesn't have a 40-year-old age limit. Sex is central to the human condition and is to be celebrated, that includes being free-spoken, otherwise you're holding back. Subtle and explicit singing about sex are not enemies of one another, it's variation, one should use all the tools, not throw some of the tools away and become prude.

jimmyrogertodd said:

that's whe whole thing
people don't stop having sex at 50
they are supposed to get better at it too

And the thing I've always loved about Prince is that it was sooooo underground and off limits to kids, it was dangerous sex

Sad thing about too much today is we allow children into everything and don't have boundaries

I couldn't see any Eddie Murphy or any dirty comedian stand up shows until I was 17. Some things just should be off limits

Prince should have his adult shows, where he can be more risque, sexy and bad and then shows were it just fun music, the safe stuff

peter430044 said:

lol he wants to do all his songs, he's having a struggle

he's played Erotic City, messed around with Sexuality performed Do Me Baby

Dayclear said:

The funny thing about your post, is you seem to equate the sexual and curse words ith the foolishness left behind and that your about the same age ... then you say MF, is that foolishness or youthful foolishness? I don't care one way or the other about cursing, but SEX is not something that people stop doing or talking about because they turn 50...

A lot of denominations of christian form can be very repressive as far as sex is concerned, you just don't talk about it even in the bounds of marriage: Erotic, Sexuality, Sex, Lust, Desire etc etc are very human experiences

pplrain said:

Yes, he'll always be sexy, just not as explicit as he was. That's cool. If people want that why can't they just go back and watch his old vids ad listen to his old music? He doesn't wanna do that anymore. JEEZ!

His Royal Badness never left. He might not be what YOU want him to be, but he's still kicking ass and taking names his way as he's been doing for the last 31 years. This past Saturday was a clear example of that. Accept this fact or move on to someone else. Simple as that.
[Edited 7/22/09 6:20am]

peter430044 said:

Why does it matter to you that he sings about sex all the time? What if he wasn't a JW and still decided not to sing songs like Gett Off or Darling Nikki? Would you still be going crazy over that? If growing up means putting that kind of thing to the side or away altogether, then it's his or anyone else's right to do so. If I was a player sleeping with everything that walks and talks and I wanted to stop living that way, I would hate to have people try and stop me from changing my life because it didn't fit their way of living. And let me say, I do wish I could hear him play those songs again but I accept where he is in his life. And who's to say that he won't ever do "Erotic City" again? We don't know but that's part of the journey with Prince, we don't know what's coming next.

Also for all of you who don't think he's being honest in his work, do you guys know Prince at all to know how honest he really is in his work? What if the stuff he did in the 80's was a front and he's really a prude? It's all hypothetical but none of us can say we "know" the dude to come up with stuff like that. Personally, I don't think it's that serious? It either hits you the right way or it doesn't. I'm not trying to be mean in saying this but that's just me with this.

no!, he's too old, the Royal badass I wnat back is the bold , free thinking freak that rocked the world with musical innovation until the $ got in the way.

I'd like to see the royal hypocrite go.

Genesia said:

I bet the same folks that want the open off the charts sexuality of what he was doing in his 20's and 30's would be mortified if Prince turned up in some Cialis commercial or did a commercial for male enhancement.