As has been mentioned, he's done a fair few 'christian' (or at least religiously inclined) songs in the past, 'The Ladder' springs to mind immediately and you could make a case for 'Lovesexy' being a 'Christian' album. But while they often seem very 'heartfelt' and 'personal', they're also, usually, not my favourite things of his.

I think a lot of his best stuff is done at a remove. His soundtrack albums (though not 'Grafitti Bride) or the 'protege' stuff for instance. They're still 'personal'- in fact, they have a lot of his supposedly more autobiographical stuff on - but writing 'in character' or for someone else...I dunno, maybe it focuses his thoughts more or something.

I'd also suggest - 'The Rainbow Children' aside - his 'religious' material, whilst I've no doubt he believes every word, is often his most cliched. Lyrically at least - and often musically.

'The Rainbow Children' suggests that he can be inspired to do something sustained and complex under the religious influence (I don't really like it much, but I admire it's ambition) but it's worth bearing in mind that he was a fairly recent JW convert at that time, with all the new doctrines and dogma to take on board and fire his imagination. I suspect a similar offering now would be substancially more bland.
Although, given some of 'TRC's lyrics, that mightn't be a wholly bad thing.

I think he should do a soundtrack album. To something set in Victorian times. With a Garage Punk band. Shake him up a bit.

mzsadii said:

Why would he be making a mockery of it?

Thing is, prince has learned that when he does something like that (Rainbow Children) that it goes down in history as his worst selling & most mocked album of all time. Unfortunately, the people who mock it only take issue with the lyrics & narration, not the music.

But what prince gleans from that is we want watered down music, as well as meaningless lyrics, hence Musicology, 3121, Planet Earth...

I think he also has a lot of trouble keeping focused on a single subject for very long. All of his concept albums--Lovesexy, , TRC--are scattered and unclear as to their ultimate message.

mzsadii said:

That doesn't make sense. Does every Christian artist, or secular artist who does a gospel album, make a mockery of their faith for the simple idea of doing the album? Of course not.

jobyjayy said:

Great question.
I would def. buy it.
my mom would def. be glad about this album lol

Bohemian67 said:

In every album, one can find messages about God, Love, Truth. There have also been times when Prince has sang about "sex" in which he has also stated he was singing about Divine Union, though others will interpret it as they see fit. He did say (I believe) in an interview once when asked about the meaning of a certain song, that he prefers to leave it up to the listeners own interpretation, but in another interview he mentioned Divine Union. Actually "sex" is an excellent metaphor for the experience of Divine Union, the two becoming one.

But people will see what they want to see, hear what they want to hear. It just shocks me that people can't see that Prince's music has always had a very "spiritual" twist to it.

handcuffs - totally a brilliant answer.. i think i love you

Handcuffs said:

jobyjayy said:

Hnadcuffs here. He needs to attract the younger audience which would make the youths of today to pick up instruments. singing about christianity isn't going to attract them. a christian album would alieniate his fans who don't share his belief. It would annoy some as well. books music etc have been written about sex
love, violence, science, relegion etc. I know he can write some more about sex
if he wants to.
Now you tell me is prince a hippocrite for his actions now that he has found jehova. jesus would have given his money away if he had made money like prince has. I love prince he has provided me with some brilliant music but to much relegion is bad for the brain.That larry graham the prophet of prince has been a bad influence on prince. He should hang out with George Clinton and crew for somethin wild. hang out with sly stone instead at last his crazy.
[Edited 10/15/09 6:14am]

itsjustaroundthecorner said:[quote]handcuffs - totally a brilliant answer.. i think i love you




I appreciate your comments thanx man!
[Edited 10/15/09 6:17am]

erik319 said:

y'all not alone.....same here

Darwintheorgangrinder said:

Hello my dear friend Darwin - have I told you lately that God loves you?

There are only two types of people in the world - Christians and non-Christians.
There is no middle ground. Everyone must make a choice. Prince is in the process of making his choice. I think a full out Christ centered album would be awesome because it would be a return of the gifts to the Giver.

sgmusic said:

well said sgmusic

NouveauDance said:

Not subservient but submissive. There is a difference.

When men submit to God then women can feel safe to submit to their husbands because they will go where God leads them.

You can't have two leaders. The leader is not the master, God is the Master. In a fight, the leader steps up and takes the first blows.

Just a gentle note to Imago saying Prince has never 100% confirmed he's a JW: Read the 3rd to last question about "freedom having a price" http://prince.org/msg/7/321407

Yah, The Rainbow Children (gag, gag) was enough. No more!!!!!

lovesexy

sgmusic said:

That is debatable, and from a tunnel-vision mentality. To Muslims, there are Muslims and non-Muslims. To the Jews, there are Jews and Gentiles. To "Christians", there are christians and non-christians. There is no absolute, only perspective.

kenlacam said:

not to mention there are those who like Family Guy & those who don't, those who eat grapefruit & those who don't, those who had Barbies, those who didn't...

sgmusic said:

Wow - that's some scary shit right there!!

jobyjayy said:

I don't feel he'll ever go the Christian Album route. Any album after Lotusflow3r and MPLSoUND will have "sprinkles" of so said JW or New World Translation elements but I do not think FULL album.

If that's what makes Prince happy and it's funky I can dig it

PurpleLove7 said:

never say never...

sgmusic said:

Wow...that was very nicely stated. I love how you put it "a return of the gifts to the Giver" I think we all will give an account one day for how we used our gifts...something to think about for sure.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed about a classic Christmas album.

Imago said:

Now here's a topic that I would gladly discuss more !

Not sure I agree on the quasi-Christian idea, Prince's mother was a 7th Day Adventist and we can safely assume he was raised with those religious views.
In early adulthood he was obviously introduced to occult, eastern, New Age, whatever you want to call them, ideas and integrated them in his work.

Now I know for sure that Prince reads a lot (not only the bible), he has often alluded to it in interviews and he loves pondering on unusual ideas.

On the Love Symbol album we see a lot of Egyptian symbolism appearing and from small snippets of interviews he and Mayté gave, I became aware that he believed in reincarnation and somehow got persuaded that he was the incarnation of a farao...

It was a big surprise to me that Prince converted to JW, it would never have imagined that he would adopt such a dogmatic belief.

But I have respect for his beliefs. As a buddhist, I believe religions are the one of the paths to developing kindness and compassion which is what we need to become a loving person.

I see many of the ideas I dedicate myself to appear in his work : love, unity, kindness.
Although I do not believe in a personal God myself, I would not oppose a(nother) religious album because I'm convinced it will contain many of the concepts that are now so important to me.

Absolutely. I'll buy it. I rather he take the God approach than do anything beneath him. Which I know Prince won't do.

Hell naw. If anything, he needs to be nastier.

NONSENSE said:

U all can take a listen to his Sister's album..Tyka Nelson via CDBaby..A Brand New Me.. it's a really good find!! Love

jobyjayy said:

I can see what you are saying and you may have a point. I think you could even argue a harsher point on this train of thought. Prince pushes God in every interview he has so if he wanted full integrity maybe he should ONLY do Christian themed music. I'm not saying I want that but....