There are certainly a lot of similarities.

The defence of Islam

The Condemnation of the world around him

The clothing changes

Saying he is not releasing music.

Do you think its only a matter of time before Prince changes his name yet again?

He already is like Cat Stevens but in the Jehovah's Witness direction.

ufoclub said:

He already is like Cat Stevens but in the Jehovah's Witness direction.

I can see him converting to Islam.

Supa ALI calafragasexi

Kareem, get on top!

What effectively ended Yusuf's career was not his conversion to Islam but his comments supporting the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, which he later claimed were misconstrued or taken out of context. This seems very similar to me, except that Prince is talking about a religion that he doesn't even adhere to himself (and making wildly inaccurate generalizations about it). I can picture Prince running off to some rich Gulf state for a while to escape the noise of Western society, and coming back a Muslim. I suspect he will be attracted to Wahhabism because he likes his religion as extreme as possible.

electricberet said:

What effectively ended Yusuf's career was not his conversion to Islam but his comments supporting the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, which he later claimed were misconstrued or taken out of context. This seems very similar to me, except that Prince is talking about a religion that he doesn't even adhere to himself (and making wildly inaccurate generalizations about it). I can picture Prince running off to some rich Gulf state for a while to escape the noise of Western society, and coming back a Muslim. I suspect he will be attracted to Wahhabism because he likes his religion as extreme as possible.

I though his career ended when he said he was giving up recording!

Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meowmeow meow meow meowmeow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow

SquirrelMeat said:

electricberet said:

What effectively ended Yusuf's career was not his conversion to Islam but his comments supporting the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, which he later claimed were misconstrued or taken out of context. This seems very similar to me, except that Prince is talking about a religion that he doesn't even adhere to himself (and making wildly inaccurate generalizations about it). I can picture Prince running off to some rich Gulf state for a while to escape the noise of Western society, and coming back a Muslim. I suspect he will be attracted to Wahhabism because he likes his religion as extreme as possible.

I though his career ended when he said he was giving up recording!

Well, he (Yusuf) later tried to get back into the game but he is still haunted by the Salman Rushdie thing. Jon Stewart was criticized for inviting Yusuf to perform "Peace Train" at Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" last year, for example.

I don't think Prince's burqa comments will hurt him that much in the long run because he isn't talking about killing anyone and everyone already thinks Prince is a nut. But it's just one more straw on the camel's back, so to speak.

Catweasel.

TheDigitalGardener said:

Catweasel.

That's awesome!

SquirrelMeat said:

Supa ALI calafragasexi

electricberet said:

SquirrelMeat said:

I though his career ended when he said he was giving up recording!

Well, he (Yusuf) later tried to get back into the game but he is still haunted by the Salman Rushdie thing. Jon Stewart was criticized for inviting Yusuf to perform "Peace Train" at Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" last year, for example.

Well Yusuf Islam just finished a tour 02 June, the idea that he's 'haunted' by the Salman Rushdie incident more than 20 years later is absurd.

mynameisnotsusan said:

electricberet said:

Well, he (Yusuf) later tried to get back into the game but he is still haunted by the Salman Rushdie thing. Jon Stewart was criticized for inviting Yusuf to perform "Peace Train" at Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" last year, for example.

Well Yusuf Islam just finished a tour 02 June, the idea that he's 'haunted' by the Salman Rushdie incident more than 20 years later is absurd.

I didn't mean that he's personally haunted by it, just that it's still impacting the way people view him and thus affecting his career. Don't you think he would have more fans now if he hadn't made that comment?

I can see how one would make that comparison because once upon a time Cat, for a time like Prince, was considered a sex symbol for his clean shaven looks (pre-Peace Train days, he was a heartthrob in the UK), then when he got the beard and did all those peace-loving songs, people here in America gravitated to him until he got tired of it and found religion. But as long as Prince didn't say anything too extreme - like advocating someone who murdered folks like Rushdie (or being misquoted as advocating), Prince will be alright. Hell people think Prince was misquoted in his burqa (sp?) statement.

electricberet said:

mynameisnotsusan said:

Well Yusuf Islam just finished a tour 02 June, the idea that he's 'haunted' by the Salman Rushdie incident more than 20 years later is absurd.

I didn't mean that he's personally haunted by it, just that it's still impacting the way people view him and thus affecting his career. Don't you think he would have more fans now if he hadn't made that comment?

While I'll concede the point that some extremely slow people may still be impacted by a skewed media beat up more than 20 years ago, anyone playing the slightest attention to his intervening work would see that he has tirelessly worked towards peaceful means and childhood education and is a widely respected individual throughout the Islamic world.

The idea that he would've had 'more fans' if he hadn't been erroneously connected to the fatwa on Salman Rushdie is really

He hadn't performed or made any music for 10 years prior and he didn't release another album (An Other Cup) until 2006. I'm certain that having more or less fans is utterly irrelevant to him.

^hmmmm..do we think Prince has the same attitude to his fans too though? he has a love hate relationship with us...he loves our money but he seems to hates us sometimes (PFunk anyone?)

the funny thing is, I envisioned Prince doing his own thing, his own way, forever...especially now that he is 'free' to do whatever he wants....funny thing is he's only recently owning up to his 'realisation' that 'freedom isn't free' and too much freedom can be dangerous...I wonder how long ago he wrote that lyric/song 'freedom isn't free'....surely its an old song out of the vault and he only released it on 2010 cos the 'time was right'....if he genunely thought freedom was 'free' he really must have been naive when he fought the good fight in the 90's with WBs...

I see that Prince laments being famous, which is nice to hear...but if he really didn't want fame he wouldn't be doing big events like '21 Nights in LA' would he? He could go underground...and play small venues....I wish he would do a tour like that - but I don't ever see it happening....

somehow he manages to have huge bills that don't get paid (on time or otherwise) - or he likes to maintain a big bank account, cos he keeps himself in the spotlight as much as necessary so he can still 'turn on a profit' whenever he needs to...

the older he has gotten the more he seems to have conformed (on the surface anyway) with a really 'tight' lifestyle that is the JW religion....and I'm not messing with his religion - if he's happy with it, thats cool....but their 'way of life' allows for little freedom (of expression especially)...

its just very interesting that he really is the yin of the yang he used to be...

sirweasel said:

Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meowmeow meow meow meowmeow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow

I think you may be on to something here... I agree with you, except for the part when you said "meowmeow".. I don't know about that one but everything else makes sense.

paniuroczy said:

sirweasel said:

Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meowmeow meow meow meowmeow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow

I think you may be on to something here... I agree with you, except for the part when you said "meowmeow".. I don't know about that one but everything else makes sense.

my sentiments exactly...

jimino1 said:

^hmmmm..do we think Prince has the same attitude to his fans too though? he has a love hate relationship with us...he loves our money but he seems to hates us sometimes (PFunk anyone?)

the funny thing is, I envisioned Prince doing his own thing, his own way, forever...especially now that he is 'free' to do whatever he wants....funny thing is he's only recently owning up to his 'realisation' that 'freedom isn't free' and too much freedom can be dangerous...I wonder how long ago he wrote that lyric/song 'freedom isn't free'....surely its an old song out of the vault and he only released it on 2010 cos the 'time was right'....if he genunely thought freedom was 'free' he really must have been naive when he fought the good fight in the 90's with WBs...

I see that Prince laments being famous, which is nice to hear...but if he really didn't want fame he wouldn't be doing big events like '21 Nights in LA' would he? He could go underground...and play small venues....I wish he would do a tour like that - but I don't ever see it happening....

somehow he manages to have huge bills that don't get paid (on time or otherwise) - or he likes to maintain a big bank account, cos he keeps himself in the spotlight as much as necessary so he can still 'turn on a profit' whenever he needs to...

the older he has gotten the more he seems to have conformed (on the surface anyway) with a really 'tight' lifestyle that is the JW religion....and I'm not messing with his religion - if he's happy with it, thats cool....but their 'way of life' allows for little freedom (of expression especially)...

its just very interesting that he really is the yin of the yang he used to be...

Good post, I agree with a lot of what you were saying and I as a Sunni Muslim and Hardcore P Enthusiast it kinda contridicts as well. As a Muslim I am not to listen to music or lyrics such as what P sings about but, I do anyway becuz that's my thing and what I like. I love my religion / way of life and I enjoy music / movies and sometimes the company of 'friends' that aren't Muslim as well. I think P is doing the same thing as a JW. The hair, the clothes, I don't think their standards ways of dressing and looking as a JW. Then again, the Kingdom Hall he belongs to or minister or learned man of the JW faith tells him it's 'cool' to still 'do him'.

The Prince of now is a man that's above 50 who has spots of the Dirty Mind Prince or the Purple Rain Prince or even if I dare say the S.O.T.T. Prince. His perfomances are still sexually enticing (for women) and he still funks it up or rocks out for (us men). I've been saying and thinking for the past few years that I thought he was gonna pull a Cat Stevens but, his faith allows him to still write, compose and perform his latest music.

SquirrelMeat said:

There are certainly a lot of similarities.

The defence of Islam

The Condemnation of the world around him

The clothing changes

Saying he is not releasing music.

Do you think its only a matter of time before Prince changes his name yet again?

...Hopefully he won't bore the shit out of us, no.