I've been thinking recently that Prince's lyrics are far from being simple and one-dimensional as some people think. Even the purely sexual ones are sometimes interesting, with clever and effective images. Sometimes his religious lyrics are also fascinating.

Prince didn't make socio-political lyrics frequently, but I also think one can find quite interesting examples of that. Three of them come to my mind now:

1. Of course, Sign O' The Times, which was hailed at the time as the "What's Going On" of the 80's by some critics. It's full of strange and disturbing images of that decade, and I think it's Prince best accomplished effort in socio-political commentary.

2. Uptown. His way of putting the individual ahead of society. "She's just a victim of society and all its games", "Where I come from we don't let society tell us how it's supposed to be".

3. The last part of Money Don't Matter 2night is very sad and beautiful in my opinion, with the sentences "So what if we're controllin' all the oil, is it worth a child dying 4?" and "Anything is better than the picture of the child in the cloud of gas". The Gulf War inspired these verses.

Of course, that these three examples are also top tunes helps a lot... But I think Prince could have made more successful efforts with these kind of lyrics had he been more interested in these issues...

He's had a lot of great lyrics over the years that make you sit back and think. Being honest, like I always am, the music is what brings me to the party. If you ask me about the sublties of the music I can give you a break-down of all my favorites. I've been a fan since Emacipation Era and there are things about P's lyrics that still suprise me.

The lyric where Prince sings 'wet circles around the toy, til you bring yourself to joy' still blows my mind ... LoL

'Sexuality' lyrics ring true to this day, at the time they were a bit off-center but, that song is timeless ...