I´ve always wondered what the referencing of tourists meant in the following two songs.

Sexuality

´We live in a world overrun by tourists
Tourists -- 89 flowers on their back...inventors of the Accu-jack
They look at life through a pocket camera... What? No flash again?
They're all a bunch of double drags who teach their kids that Love is bad´

Who is he calling tourists and why? And what´s up with the 89 flowers?

Lady Cab Driver

´This 1's 4 Yosemite Sam and the tourists at Disneyland
And this 1-- ooh! Yeah -- That's the 1.
That's 4-- that's 4 the-- the creator of man
This is 4 the sun, the moon, the stars, the tourists at Disneyland´

Tourists at disneyland?! LOL how random......or am I missing something?

The fact he mentions them twice, the first time angry, second time more lovingly makes me even more confused.

Anyway, hope someone can enlighten me.

[Edited 4/14/13 17:01pm]

in lady cab driver he dedicates his thrusts to bad things at the start

and to good things at the end.

so 'the tourists at disneyland' represent the bad things about society

as well as the good things.

I think he is using "tourists" in both songs as shorthand for people with a traditional outlook who accept the status quo without questioning it.

Or maybe he just had to deal with a lot of annoying tourists when whe worked part time for Mr. McGee at the five-and-dime.

[Edited 4/14/13 19:07pm]

Very interesting thread. I guess Prince's lyrics have much more to them than the "sex and party" mantra.

[Edited 4/15/13 2:34am]

IstenSzek said:

in lady cab driver he dedicates his thrusts to bad things at the start

and to good things at the end.

so 'the tourists at disneyland' represent the bad things about society

as well as the good things.

I see, thanks! I wonder in what way though?

Like why do they represent both the good and the bad?

electricberet said:

I think he is using "tourists" in both songs as shorthand for people with a traditional outlook who accept the status quo without questioning it.

Or maybe he just had to deal with a lot of annoying tourists when whe worked part time for Mr. McGee at the five-and-dime.

[Edited 4/14/13 19:07pm]

So to link it to IstenSzek´s explanation of the LCD lyrics, he feels that these traditional people are a bad as well as a good thing?

SuperSoulFighter said:

That's what tourists do, right? Looking at life through their pocket camera, in other words, not really living, not getting involved, not thinking. Plus, the eary 80s was when Prince first started to become famous, so maybe he felt he was becoming a tourist attraction himself! That's also what Controversy is about. [Edited 4/15/13 1:10am]

Wow, that makes a lot of sense.

I never thought about it that way!

Thanks for your input!

Nientje said:

SuperSoulFighter said:

That's what tourists do, right? Looking at life through their pocket camera, in other words, not really living, not getting involved, not thinking. Plus, the eary 80s was when Prince first started to become famous, so maybe he felt he was becoming a tourist attraction himself! That's also what Controversy is about. [Edited 4/15/13 1:10am]

Wow, that makes a lot of sense.

I never thought about it that way!

Thanks for your input!

it's a sort of rebirth i guess, first the 'love making' is rough

and the thrusting is dedicated to bad stuff,

then it reaches a climax and the badd stuff is let go off in

favor of good things.

kinda lovesexy in under 30 seconds

plus the tourists at disney land are made up 50/50 adults and children.

could be that the adult tourists are 'bad' and the children are 'good'.

"they're all a bunch of double drags who teach their kids that love is bad"

-sexuality