On the Lotus album track Feel Better Feel Good Feel
wonderful Prince says:
What the fuck was i thinking when i through you the ball.
When he says word fuck you hear some kind
of slap but he clearly said Fuck.
Strange?

It was more a bleep than the actual word. Could be what the hell, sh_t. and what u said.

It's a sound effect that bleeps it out.

Now if you're looking for a good smoothly slipped in F bomb then check out Mariah Carey's "Say Something".



"I'm over here, looking at you
You're over there, watching me too
Both painting pictures of how we'll kiss and fuck
So what you wanna do?"

Very smooth!

HonestMan13 said:

I think the point thebanishedone was trying to make is that even though the album is clean, Prince appears to actually be cursing and not just pretending to curse for effect.

Slaps? Bleeps? What the ****?

He doesn't say anything at all - at the point where he should say "fuck" it is replaced with the sort of sound you get from stopping a tape (like a reel to reel) whilst audio is playing.

Mindflux said:

Don't remember the f word at all on this song--maybe I can't hear right?!

Prince, " wanna say FUCK but Jehovah won't let me say the effin' word! Shit!!!"

poetcorner61 said:

hey poetcorner - did you misread what I wrote (or am I misinterpreting yours?!).....because I just said he DOESN'T say "fuck" in that track
[Edited 4/18/10 19:22pm]

HonestMan13 said:

that was slid in there real nice like...

Another example of why it's ridiculous for him not to curse. If you're just substituting a sound effect or another word (duck?), then it's the same intent.

I think he wants to be the dirty Prince of old sometimes. He gives us just enough to let us know that.

Just Like "On the couch"...he says "I wanna go down south"..I mean come on! Prince is clearly talking about oral sex.

Lolita.." long time ago, we'd be the Sh__, uh oh"

And so on and so on.

Prince made a good living off being the "rude boy" for many many years. I imagine its hard to quit cold turkey.

ronnwinter said:

"wet circles round the toy...while you bring yourself to joy"

and that was off his "conceptual" album inspired by his conversion to jehovas witness

we all know hes still bad...

It's just evidence that support my belief that Prince is no different than he ever was. He has just cleaned up his stuff so that it may be played anywhere & be more universally accepted.

I personally have no problem with him NOT cussing.

billymeade said:

Exactly! He's done this several times since becoming a JW. I know there are a couple of examples on Rainbow Children, on one he uses the word "Duck", if I remember correctly.

The thing is, if he plays these tricks to get around using the word, he still puts the word in my brain, so what's the FUCKing difference?!?

It seems disingenuous to me.

djThunderfunk said:

but why does anyone not curse? Shoot!

It's just to make your stuff decent for mainstream consumption--or specifically, not to offend your grandma as he said in concert in 2001.

I don't think cursing is where creativity or expression lies. Why should he curse specifically?

NDRU said:

A) When Prince was "mainstream", he cursed. A decade of not cursing has not returned him to the "mainstream".

2) I don't care if he curses or not. I was discussing Prince's habit of IMPLYING curse words without actually saying them and how that has the effect of placing the curse word in the listener's head and how that is no different than actually cursing and how it would be more honest to his listeners and to himself to just go ahead and say it already.

C) My grandmother doesn't listen to Prince

djThunderfunk said:

That's all true, but some grandmas go to his shows, and perhaps when he's dead people will listen to The Rainbow Children & Musicology, and he has been not cursing for just as long, even on Purple Rain.

Though I do get your point. Why is a word offensive at all? And if a word is offensive because of it's meaning, then a substitute word has the same offensive meaning.

That's why I think he really hasn't changed. He still means those words, just as you're saying.

NDRU said:

True, like who the Hell thinks that in "Erotic City" that what he Means by "We can FUNK until the dawn, makin' love 'til Cherrys gone" Is that he wants to play funky music with her until they fall asleep at dawn? HELL NO! he wants to FUCK her all damned night. It puts the right word in your mind without technically, LEGALLY saying it.

-like "FRAK" in BSG, did you ever need it defined for you, or did you just get that it means FUCK?

EML3 said:

Except that, in Erotic City he actually does say fuck! Its quite clear.

maybe we should check for backmasking in the last few albums, you know, just in case he put some rude words in for the org to tear apart however if I hear the words 'turn me on, dead man' I think I will have to start listening to instrumental music...
---
implied words and innuendo all have the same intention of meaning,,,I mean who ever says things like 'we don't give a DUCK what u got on...' ?

thebanishedone said:

Just one more reason I think so little of the song. It's bad enough that he's yelling instead of singing, but he had to curse to make his point, which is lame and not very creative and even worse than that edits the curse word like he's going to be overheard by a teacher or something. For me there's a very uncool vibe on the song.

funksterr said:

But the point is that he DIDN'T curse - he doesn't say anything where the apparent curse should be. Which means, the listener makes up their mind what word should go in there. Some will think "fuck" fits. Others might think "hell" (is that a "curse word"?). And if you think using what is common language to most is "lame and not very creative" then you must hold the same opinion of about 60% of his output over the years!

There's a very positive message about the song - just look at the title! If the overall message is lost on you over such a tiny detail (one word that isn't even said, but implied) then perhaps you should try and take a broader view?

Mindflux said:

The need to imply the curse word in the first place is a cop out and it feels wrong in the greater context of the song. The songs is supposed to be about the joy of having a higher mindset yet in expressing the idea here comes a lower mindset, The juxtaposition doesn't work for me. I don't like it. I don't get a positive vibe from the track at all. He comes off like his 'poistive' message is disingenuous. Like the old SNL skit where the stewardesses would smile and wave 'ba-bye' to the passengers as they exited the plane and then dog their asses out after they were out of earshot. That nice-nasty vibe is all over recent Prince lyrics and it just ends up sounding fake and pretentious. All the while though screaming about how positive and happy he is. It sucks.

Mindflux said:

yer he does that, infact i had my first mis-heard prince lyric to this song, i always thought the line went "thoughts so pretty, you and me, Erotic City come alive". Then I sang it on Kareoke on new year and pow its "fuck so pretty,you and me, Erotic City come alive".

funksterr said:

I hear what you are saying and respect your opinion.

My opinion is that "cussing" is not a "lower mindset" - its just language, just another word - ok, some people find it offensive, but that's their problem. Words like "fuck" are so common in usage nowadays, its just another form of expression. On another thread, someone got offended because someone used the term "gay" - wtf? (oops, sorry!)

I don't get that nice/nasty vibe that your talking about, but if that's how you view it, that's fine mate. Just a shame that it ruins a perfectly decent song for you, but its no biggie.

PSYMUN said:

Yes, in fact, the whole "fuck" instead of "funk" thing came about because Erotic City was getting serious airplay. The stations were told that the lyric was "funk" in order to keep it on the radio. How on earth they were fooled by that, I'll never know.

Me, I like my funk and fuck in equal measures

Prince does a similar thing in Batdance, but does actually substitute "Fuck" with "funk".....as in, "Get the funk up!"
[Edited 4/21/10 8:41am]

NDRU said:

Yes, that is my point. I'm not insisting he return to cursing. I only suggest that the substitute words defeat the purpose of not using the actual words.