I consider myself pretty schooled when it comes to useless prince trivia stuff, but one thing I never heard or asked about is- what is that break in Pop Life, it always sounded like a boxing match to me. I heard that is was when he was boo-ed off the stage when he opened up for the stones but someone dismissed that-Anyone?

I always thought it was when he got booed off stage, I'll go listen to it again.

Interesting...and all these years i thought it was a basket ball game...

yep, just listened to it, I'm pretty sure it's when he got booed off stage.

Where do you guys get this from? It's not him being booed from anywhere, you can get crowd noise from somewhere to put on your recording easily.

Wolf said:

I remember reading from a band member that it was a reference to when he got booed off the stage when he opened up for the Rolling Stones. If not an exact recording from that incident, it's a re-enactment.

You can definitely hear someone saying "throw the bum out."

Wolf said:

I meant that it symbolizes that, a renactment.

NuPwrSoul said:

I dont think Prince would put something as humiliating as that on his own record. This is Prince were talking about, his pride and ego will only take so much from other people so I don't think he's going to do that. and that experience for him was still fresh basically 4 or 5 years after that happened. Someone is going to have to prove it for me to believe it's true.

Wolf said:

Yeah, he would, think about it, he was making fun of it, showing that it didn't phase him (though it really did).

Wolf said:

Lovebizzare is right. He would in fact put it on record as a kind of comeuppance. "Yeah yall may have booed me off the stage a few years ago, but look at me now!" It adds an ironic twist to the song which is about the pitfalls of popstardom.

I don't know why, but I always thought it was recorded at a circus, probably the same day they recorded the opening to Merci For The Speed on Shelia E's Romance 1600 album. It sounds like an announcer saying "Roll 'em on out" to me. I can't remember any booing, but I'll go have another listen for yous.

I can remember that someone emailed this question to Prince some time ago, kind of an "Ask Prince" session! Anyway, somebody emailed him that they were wonderind what the noise in Pop Life was or what it meant - Prince's reply was "I have been wondering the same thing!"

Nah. It goes against the very thing Prince will tolerate.

the crowd noise is from the concert prince opened up for the rolling stones and got booed off the stage.i'm lookin for the article that he says why he put that in there. i beleive it was one of the rolling stone interviews. he was describing the situation and how they threw food at him and how upset he was that he couldn't finish his set. i'll find it and post it. it's definitely from that concert.

Funny. I'd never seen anything about this before and never really thought about it. I just thought it was fairground noise or something.

sawatdiikhrap said:

Same here. I just thought it was one of those rides from the front cover of the album.
[This message was edited Mon Jan 27 9:24:04 PST 2003 by Anji]

If it were just generic crowd noise it would still make sense within the context of the song. It doesnt necesarily have to be the time when he got booed off stage.

I've always thought it sounded like a carnival.

Weird. I always thought it was a train station waiting to take people away - you know with the metaphor of "The Ladder" all the way through the album? Well, I thought it was like a Purple Train taking people to Heaven or something. Ugh. I'm so thick.

NuPwrSoul said:

Just double checked this. It's at 3:10 of the album version.

the crowd noise that you hear is called something like "angry crowd" which is generic stock footage from the BBC sound effects library, they have a bunch of cd volumes out there--very very thorough ones i may add. i have one of them called "babies"--nothing but like 50 minutes of babies crying, laughing, cooing, you name it.

i always thought that he inserted the crowd noise into the section of that song in order to delete the lyrics "everybody wants to get high, but you don't see no one standing in line to say bye-bye that's pop life"--maybe he thought it sounded like he was advocating drug use and decided against that, so instead of trying to edit it out, why not just paste something "psychedelic" or odd to cover it up, know what i'm saying? something to make the listener go "what the f**k?"


$.02.

--gm--

GeneMohawk said:

I'd still contend that it's a reference to getting booed off stage, whether at the Rolling Stones gig or not himself personally. Cuz that's what the song is about: when your popularity runs out.

The image that always came to my mind when listening to that crowd noise is of a market ... like the British ones or something.

Interesting too all these comments on the Rolling Stones ... Have any of you checked "She's A Rainbow" ??? There's a noisy interlude on that song too that makes me go mmmh...

With the "Throw the bum out" clocking in at 3:10, I am confused how folks are still saying it's a circus, a fairground, a market, a train station???

It sounds like a Spanish/Brazilian bottle game. It does not sound like being booed off stage as the audience are Spanish/Italian sounding

Freaker said:

so what does the Spanish/Italian phrase "throw the bum out" mean in English?

NuPwrSoul said:

Bingo the same folks who were hatin' just yesterday are calling yoru name in Unison.He is saying it all cracked up too be what everyone thinks it is.two-faced&ugly mask called Superstardom.the price you pay.

it sounds chaotic in the first place
but i don't think it souds like a stadium
but what it is ???
has something to do with a poplife probaly

This was a Beatles-like interlude tribute ala' Sgt Pepper...a crowd excited etc like a circus etc..but in this case it was a "boxing" match (hear the ding too?) and someone says throw the bum out as in "this fighters a bloody bum!' etc. The Rolling Stones fans are not the type to say something as goofy as "throw the bum out" etc lol. This crowd nise etc is simply stock sound effects.

I think it's sound clip from a Roller Derby contest (anybody remember those Saturday afternoon shows?). That explains that rolling sound (skates), the guy yelling "Call a time out!'' (not throw the bum out!) and the crowd cheering in the end (as someone apparently scored).
.02