tricky99 said:

So basically, that's a very long (and I'll add, very well thought-out) way of saying: Ignore the message unless you, yourself, happen to be passionate about it. Respect Prince's right to an opinion, and enjoy the music, provided, or course, you still like the music. If you fall into none of these categories, you're probably not reading this. On the other hand, on the org., you never know!

I agree with you, Tricky. As I said in another thread, Prince is a human being. Not a superman, just a man. He has his own sense of values, and I have mine. They have nothing to do with one another unless I choose to draw parallels, compare or contrast them. I don't choose to, therefore, I've found little that offends me, besides a bad track here or there.

In any case, I don't not fear Prince's recent "conversion". I did not fear his musical allusion to incest either, so apparently not much has changed in 23 years. Still, I do see that most people's attention spans are not what they used to be, and they have difficulty separating Prince, the entertainer, from Prince, the man. As a result, debates like this rage on. People, in general, are insecure about their own beliefs and opinions, and tend to become very defensive when those insecurities are highlighted by someone whose opinion differs from their own.

Bear in mind, in this case, I'm referring only to those who continue to assert that Prince has lost "it" directly because of some recent personal alterations to his system of beliefs. These people have probably never even met Prince, let alone know him well enough to make such an assertion. If he's "lost it", that is, lost whatever elements attracted you personally to his work before "he fell off", he sure as hell didn't lose it because he "changed gods", or "stopped eating eat", or "stopped swearing", or "adopted Larry Graham". If something, in your eyes, is missing from the musical equation, you should be able to identify it as something musical. If you can't, then the problem is yours, not Prince's. Just my opinion, though!

Yet many fans feel the need to claim ownership of him simply because they like "the old stuff". I like "the old stuff" too, as well as the new. And I'll quit when he stops entertaining me, and for no other reason than "I'm bored". Not because of his relationship with Larry Graham, Mayte, God...or anything/one else that has nothing to do with music. I will admit to feeling uneasy about his legal pursuits against fans who, he alledges, "steal his work." But even that won't stop me from enjoying that "work", because after all, that' why we're all here, isn't it?

-SWANGdidn'tmeantowritethismuch
[This message was edited Wed Feb 26 20:06:08 PST 2003 by SWANG]
[This message was edited Wed Feb 26 20:10:04 PST 2003 by SWANG]

somebody spank me

Prince used to be mysterious, and his message seemed to transcend all boundaries of ideology. He lost that. That's all.

tricky99 said:

I didn't mean to reference Michael Jackson's 'Off the Wall' period, which is actually quite raw as well as his boyhood career. What I meant was MJ's trip since at least "Bad" - lyrically. The whole multi-millionaire, Hollywood, rich new-ager, out-of-touch with reality thing; lyrics which reflect the content of his recent interviews, "Oh I'm so repressed, I just wanna be free, fuck you if you don't understand me, Tommy Motola is a racist because he dropped my sorry ass...," etc. The song "Animal Kingdom" ranks with the stupidest songs I've ever heard from anyone... So there

It's fine that u think it [Animal Kingdom] is stupid, but why do u think it is. What's your explanation? Enlighten us with your wisdom.

...where are u getting that bite the cheesecake theory from?