I have listened to quite a lot of Prince's songs so far since I became a hardcore fan of his three years ago. Prince is without question my most favorite singer period on a age range from 0 to 100+. He

stretches your imagination to places you could/would not go alone. I know no one is perfect, but is it me or does it seem that in a lot of Prince songs he likes to play a "victim" or "sacrificial lamb" against his protagonist, i.e. the female sex. He rarely admits that he is the one to blame in the situation. It is always the woman's fault! I find that contradictory because he exudes a lot of feminine traits. I secretly think Prince suffers from some Messiah/Holier than thou complex or really he is a bona fide male chauvinist in women's clothing! I am not bashing Prince because at the end of the day I still love his music and think he is a really sweet gentlemen who just happens to have an ego the size of Jupiter.

he is a lonely man

[Edited 6/30/10 15:32pm]

Lawd Have Mercy this question can have infinite answers and speculation.

i dont know, maybe one reason could be his feeling of being misunderstood.

his words and actions dont always add up, but maybe he figures if his intentions are good, that should be all that matters.

when he says "i never meant to cause you any sorrow" i believe him,

but he doesnt seem to understand that what women remember him most for, is how he made them feel, whether he meant to hurt them or not.

maybe its a sophisticated form of juvenile delinquency, he digs his heels in, adamant on principle, but fails to acknowledge the pain his actions cause.

maybe his 'apologies' are defense mechanisms only, designed to save face, while he remains the victim of the consequences of his own actions.

maybe he just lacks empathy and the ability to connect to someone else's point of view.

I've always felt he played the hurt role, the one done wrong in many songs such as HCYDCMA, The Beautiful Ones, 17 Days, etc. Not to be sexist as if all females are in the role of the hurt one, but a lot of the songs I felt were in the roles of a female done wrong but he switched parts. I know some songs may have been written for a female such as 17 Long Assed days, but those ones mentioned and the likes of Got A Lonely Heart Again, When You Were Mine that weren't written (afaik) with a female singer in mind put him as the vulnerbale hurt one. I think that was a way of his sex appeal for women how he flipped the script instaed of being the superstud ala Pendergrass et.al. Just shows how much Prince flipped everything and won:

Backup members (females singers Lisa and Wendy) as integral band members and not just tambourine shakers

Dress adrogynous instead of sex warrior stud abnd still be a sex symbol to females

Instead of using devil imagery in his music as rebellion, he used spirituality, God, religion

yes.