I was listening to Lovesexy the other day, and it reminded me how this album came about essentially because Prince had a frightening drug trip. Then it got me to thinking about all the classic break-up and heartbroken songs he wrote in the 80's that were inspired by Susannah. Say what you want about Emancipation, but you knew from listening to the second disc of that album that this was a man who had fallen head over heels in love.

Now we have a 55 year old man who has lost his child, been divorced twice, and he's singing about...being the Purple Yoda? Having more sex in the morning? WTF? There is no sense of any engagement with the meaningful experiences of his real life in his new music. To me, that is the single biggest change from the older music to today - Prince no longer sounds like he's feeding off his real life, its joys and conflicts, and letting us share in the inner movements of this self-reflection.

The last album that really seemed to openly engage with something meaningful in his life was The Rainbow Children, and as much as I despise this album, I can't deny that it feels sincere and inspired; it has the feel of an album that is responding to a real event in his life. Since then, Prince's music hasn't really been about much of anything, and I think that's largely why it often sounds so shallow and regressive.

Does he really just not have anything to talk about besides self-aggrandizement and party themes?

[Edited 6/20/13 22:26pm]

Maybe by not telling you something through the music, he is telling you something.

Maybe he doesn't have any real lived experiences in his life right now. Maybe the reason people haven't come up with a definitive "inspiration" for "Ain't Gonna Miss U..." is because there isn't one. Do we have any reason to believe anything's going on in his "life" outside of music? Or that there has been since the divorce from Manuela, honestly? I never got any real "they're together" vibe from Bria or Andy, though plenty of others did. He's found his faith, and hasn't seemed to change much on that front for at least 10 years. What do you expect him to write about?

Now, I rarely knew what any of the songs in the 80's were about "in his life" at the time, and even though I now know several were "inspired" by his relationship with Susannah, they don't really strike me as more "real" than those where he's making it up, really. Obviously he was putting his personal life out there in public and in interviews (and naming names in songs) more during the mid-90's, so it's almost impossible not to hear it in Emancipation. At the time, other than "Anna Stesia" I never thought of Lovesexy as particularly drawn "from life"--and even that, other than the use of the name "Gregory" (when you casually use a name, it always makes it feel more like a unique, real situation), I didn't really have a reason to. Yes, later I learned that other details apparently came from reality, but it didn't feel like it then.

I agree that I don't see specific events reflected in the current music, but I have never expected it from Prince. He's never been a routinely personal writer--the mid-90's probably saw more of it, and even then much of what he did was more variations on standard pop music themes, more craft than confession. There were exceptions, but they stand out as exceptions throughout his career. It's not new or unique to now. Many of the songs on Emancipation aren't personal, or at least not clearly so. They're a craftsman working his craft, not a man baring his soul. I believe both things are valid artistically, though I know some might disagree.

He might be doing more personally revealing work and just not releasing it. Or he might be choosing to avoid it. But I suspect that he actually is not currently going through anything, and has either done material reflecting the old events already (though it might sit in the vaults until the end of time) or has reached his peace with those events. His child was born and died in 1996. His marriage probably went off the rails shortly after that. His conversion has been dated to around 2000--and his next project probably said as much as we should expect him to about his new faith beyond standard stuff. And probably he shut the book on his loss at about the same time, whatever his feelings were about it. His second divorce was in 2006--and the subject of a failed relationship has always been one of his fallbacks, so who could tell when it was about something real, anyway?

He's probably never going to be more personal than he is now. It's not his modus operandi.

Oh, and about the drugs and "Anna Stesia"--let's assume that account is true. Is it really in the song? Is he writing about that in a way that someone listening to it would gain insight into his lived experience of a paranoid break inspired by drug use with somebody he'd just met? Something happens, but if you can tell just from the song that it's that, then you're much better at lyric interpretation than I am. Is anything else on Lovesexy about that event--I don't hear it.

[Edited 6/21/13 12:36pm]

On point critique and reflection, EddieC, although the OP makes for an interesting and valid perspective.

Thanks for both your contributions.

Laydown is actually an amazing track.

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It was a direct shot at people who think he's fallen off or can't do hard funk because of his religion or lack of cursing.

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And that's almost always been true with Prince. He brings his A game when he feels like he has something to prove.

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When there's nothing to prove? We get stuff like Planet Earth

[Edited 6/21/13 12:59pm]

Different strokes.

I actually consider Planet Earth to be a great little album. It's fluid and doesn't suffer from groove inertia and melodic block in the same way that Musicology and 3121 appeared to too often on record and in their sonic sequencing.

For the original topic, I also found the following songs to be surprisingly reflective, yearning and sincere: Somewhere Here On Earth, Future Baby Mama, All The Midnights In The World and Lion of Judah.

Prince was great at taking a theme and running with it. Many of his albums have a general theme back in day he would also include the theme in the title, artwork, stage design, clothing designs and videos. Now I also believe people read into those themes a little too much and believe they know more of where he is at but let me run with believing I know more than what I do...

I'm not sure is the 3rdEyeGirl album will have an overall theme but I would not be suprised. Hope that it is Prince looking at the world/mankind and commenting. "Fixurlifeup" and "LOL" sort of have that vibe?

Prince has lost it..



<<< 78 to 95..


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[Edited 6/21/13 14:57pm]