A lot of Princes songs (some hot hits) are sung from th e girls perspective imho. Nothing wrong with that Im just pointing it out. Do Me Baby---now come on. That song is sung from a womans perspective. "..waiting for you to lay me down" and the coda etc. Not to sound misogynistic etc but those and more Do Me Baby lyrics are words typically and in general from a females perspective. To cop that upside down he gave Sex Shooter to Apollonia 6 to sing which is a guys song..from a mans perspective. "Sex shooter..shooting in your direction..come on kiss the gun"...etc. That's a guy saying his dick is a sex shooter, come kiss it and more. But 17 Days (another song intended for App6, Brenda, a woman) is another one from the female perspective. "Been gone 17 days..here I sit in my lonely room.." etc. Go get her then. You the man, go get whom you love. This suffers from the Blue Limosuine syndrome..the lonely woman alone wanting her man ..Prince liked to play the lonmely woamn part.. Prince had nobody to sing all the songs at these times etc. How Come You Dont Call Me etc. You call her. He is lamenting alone waitng for his woman to call him after the break up etc. Insatiable is another.His whole schtick came off as Gyspy Rose Lee stripper etc. He was so fabulous and freaky he played the womans part in song and on stage etc.

You do know this isn't exactly exclusive to Prince, don'tcha, RD?

Supernova said:

ya cause Phil S and everyone else did it too when they didnt have girl groups etc.

rdhull said:

Who's Phil S?

So sexy...Astonishing...

Supernova said:

Phil Spectre but I was thining of "writing" from the girls perspective

Saffireseven said:

I was only trying to write about a Prince observation Ive always had in the Prince forum..I didnt mean it was like, late breaking news.

Prince could remake Romeo & Juliet
and sing both male and female parts!

rdhull said:

That's what I'm talking about. Curtis Mayfield did it for Aretha Franklin, The Staple Singers...

Eddie Vedder did it at least once with "Daughter." There are more that I can't think of right now.

Babyface has made a Living at it.Prince did it though too mix his Vibe&He pulled it off.lot of Cats have done a Good job over the years.

Yes, isn't it Wonderful when Prince sings from a Female Perspective? I love his Lyrics for Vanity6 and Appolonia6. Yes,I always felt Apples singing Come On Kiss The Gun was Weird since she was talking about a Penis you know. Phallic Symbol and all. Love when Prince puts on the Falsetto voice in Do Me Baby. He says it hurts his voice less. Drink that Aloe Vera Juice Prince. But, nothing was better than the Lyrics Vanity sings in Nasty Girl"I Need 7" Or More." Or when he sings Vibrator as the Gay Sex Shop Operator. When Prince is Comical or Smiles that's so Unexpected and I just Love seeing his Fun Side which is much more relaxed and Probly much more Prince.

Supernova said:

Lots of others too..but Prince sang from the dejected or "come hither female vamp". That kind of female perspective.

I dunno RD, on the one hand I agree with you that P definitely made gender specific songs and then flipped them by either singing them himself or having someone else sing them that didn't match the gender.

Sex Shooter, Nasty Girl, etc. are great examples of that. (Giving a male song to a woman to sing, or writing in the voice of a woman for a woman's song.)

On the other hand, I'm not so convinced that songs like "17 Days" and "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore" are that gender specific, not as much as they exhibited the vulnerability lurking beneath the machismo of male identity. I guess some would say "the feminine side" but one of the things P did that was so crucial was showing how those categorizations didn't work for describing emotions.

I mean if you really want to get into it... in the European cultural context, the "singer" with a high voice was almost always a female, pre-pubescent boy, or effeminate man. To this date, when people steeped in that tradition hear a man singing in falsetto, it's "gay."

Not so in the African cultural context, and by extension the African-American cultural context. There are, as you know, quite a few blues songs sung in high registers from the perspective of men pining away after a love, just like a woman would. The blues showcased men hurt by love, lonesome, and in need.

So I would say that P reclaimed what was conventionally considered the woman's voice (both in sound, style, and content)--reclaimed it to present a more holistic portrait of male identified emotion.

rdhull said:

"Something He Can Feel" - Aretha Franklin (songwriter Curtis Mayfield)

"Let's Do It Again" - The Staple Singers (songwriter Curtis Mayfield)

NuPwrSoul said:

Yes - being the man & making the call has nothing to do with asking the question, "why don't you call me?" aka "why aren't you thinking about me too? Why don't you love me anymore?" Those thoughts aren't feminine, they're honest... then again, maybe honesty is feminine, LOL...

Also, with Do Me Baby, why can't his woman lay him down & do him? Am I nuts or is he just talking about a nice, thorough fuck?? What's so masculine about that? I don't think it's necessarily from a woman's perspective, but maybe I'm giving P more credit than I should, LOL...

Let Prince write me some lyrics from a woman's perspective ..I'll sing whatever he wants and let him tell me Sexually his Fantasies so I can Oblige Him. Boy,but I hope I'm not too late because of his newfound JW stance. But I'm sure he still has Sex and Gets excited with things so doesn't he Fantasize? I will gladly let him dictate his fantasies and oblige him . Anything for the Music. Everybody knows I would do amything for him,but he has to ask. Yes,whatever he wants to See. Or whatever he wants me to Say or do. I hope he decides he wants to have Fun Again and get out of his Funk. That's no way to live . He needs to getsome Wildness back in his Life.

Natasha said:

Shaddup!!!

rdhull said:

Of course! Not only that, in others he sounds like a woman (the longing on If I was your Girlfriend. I think this is because he is aware of the gender dichotomy in himself--more than most people.

Check:

Female perspective "I'm not afraid to let my feelings show"

Male perspective "Don't try and clock 'em, they're much too fast, you try and stop 'em, they kick that ass"

Male/Female combo "I'm not a woman, I'm not a man"


And surely that is what his original symbol alludes to--a combination of male and female, transcending both and become an androgyne in the truest possible sense.




andyf

james taylor's "millworker" is sung from a female perspective... bob dylan's version of "house of the rising sun" is sung from the female perspective...

and the leadbelly song "in the pines (where did you sleep last night" has verses that are sung from the female point of view...

LaVisHh said:

mawnin, lav!

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

mawnin, han!

Actually, I remember reading some interview with Eddie Vedder in which he explained that "Daughter" WAS written from a male perspective... It was actually written about a young gay male dealing with oppression from his family because of his newly-discovered sexuality... Which makes sense if you listen to the lyrics.

Neither here nor there, or terribly relevant to the discussion, but just thought I'd throw that tidbit in.

"..waiting for you to lay me down" and the coda etc. Not But 17 Days (another song intended for App6, Brenda, a woman) is another one from the female perspective. "Been gone 17 days..here I sit in my lonely room.." etc. Go get her then. You the man, go get whom you love. This suffers from the Blue Limosuine syndrome..the lonely woman alone wanting her man ..Prince liked to play the lonmely woamn part.. Prince had nobody to sing all the songs at these times etc. How Come You Dont Call Me etc. You call her. He is lamenting alone waitng for his woman to call him after the break up etc. Insatiable is another.His whole schtick came off as Gyspy Rose Lee stripper etc. He was so fabulous and freaky he played the womans part in song and on stage etc.[/quote]

Do u think that waiting by the phone and feeling lonely is a typical female thing?
Guys dont do that? Guys dont feel lonely? Guys dont wait on phonecalls? I think thats on old fashion point of few. Woman are not that passive anymore. When they want something they go 4 it.
Dont underastemate woman!! lol.
Woman are not poor little girls who are waiting for a man.
But i agree, lot of prince songs are from a woman perspective. Maybe thats y lot of woman love his lyrics.

rdhull said:

LOL

NuPwrSoul said:

I wasn't talking about pitch and yeah, falsetto in the black community has always been accepted. Hell, Princes' falsetto was said to harken back as a tribute to Marvyn Gayes style of the high register song i.e. Got To Give It Up etc. Butr I was mainly talking about being the ex[posed wound generic hurt female generalization where he was coming from.

Supernova said:

Yeah I agree with those and there are many others..but Im saying Prince actually sang his songs that he wrote from the other perspective, not being satisfied to just pen them.

andyf said:

Funny..I don't think he sounds like a woman in this one in voice or subject matter. Well I guess I do think he sounds liek a woman only with the first time he says "girlfriend"..that sounds like anothers voice mixed in at that part.




I agree on this..I was going to put ina check that he did switch it back and forth with the Gett Off one and others where he went straigth and full to the mans perspective such as Something In The Water and others.








andyf[/quote]

CalhounSq said:

Honesty is not feminine but lets be honest here..you dont really se guys ingeneral doing the pleading thig..of course theres the Marvyn and others way etc but come on now...Im not trying to be misogynistic or chauvanistic, Im just saying Prince comes off as female vamp and female dejected lover etc many times.




If you really think about it it seems like a gender specific way of seduction etc. or at least ambiguous at times.

Janeau said:

yeah thats exactly what I think because I think Prince sometimes writes from a woman perspective etc. thats exactly what I think because he made certain songs yes, in that perspective of a female waitng by the phone who is lonely.




Well these songs were written a ways back and men and women will stil be hurt and have their own way of licking wounds which are both semingly(note the word semingly) gender specific, not so gender specific, and ambiguous.




man..thank you for that--I just dont know how I would have bneen able to continue with the other species without this groundbreaking albeit ultimatelycondenscending views.