Reconciling with Prince's The Rainbow Children

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Reply #30 posted 05/09/16 1:54pm

Superconductor

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SchlomoThaHomo said:

I love this fucking record. I hadn't listened to it for many years, and recently played during a road trip back to Minne. It's absolutely brilliant. It hits me in the same place that albums like Lovesexy and Parade hit me. Totally free.

I got to hear this at a listening session at The Rainbow Children celebration, back in 2001. They gave us lyric books, briefly introduced it, and we heard it front to back in Prince's game room.

Since we had lyric books, there was a lot of focus on the lryics, and I didn't love them at the time. I thought much of it was divisive, which in my heart felt wrong, as my view of religion and spirituality are that they should always be inclusive. I felt very conflicted that Prince was writing lryics about being "banished" for not blindly following a specific translation of the Bible, and saying things in concerts like, "If you don't know Jesus Christ, I ain't got nothin' to say to ya."

Lyrics aside, I was absolutely blown away by the music, and I really felt it was something special and new that Prince had stumbled upon. Inspired! But those lyics.

After the album played, Prince came in, and we got to chat with him about the album, and many other things, for four hours. It was exilharating, at first, to be in the same room as my hero, and even getting a few questions in to get "my moment." But when Larry came in, and the conversation turned to God, I started to find both of them slightly repellent.

They started playing little games like, "Is it better to be a leader or a follower? If you think it's better to be a leader, go to this side of the room. If you think it's better to be leader, you're wrong. The Bible says it's better to be a follower." In one of the NPGMC Ahdio shows that followed, this discussion was referenced as the "Tornado Divide...how many of you were scared when you found yourself opposite the right side?" More division, and now fear mongering.

Larry told a story, when someone asked about being gay. He mentioned how he used to be a cokehead, and that one day he really had to take a look at himself in the mirror, and examine. He likened someone being gay to him being a cokehead. I was feeling sick.

Then, a young woman raised her hand, and mentioned she was a Muslim. She said she took offense to some of the comments being made, especially the bit about "If you don't know Jesus...I ain't got nothin' to say to ya." Prince offered to take her personally into a private studio to play the album to her, and explain it. She declined and looked a little creeped out by invitation. Prince was very direct and seemed anxious to prove.

I left the room feeling like Prince wasn't the man I thought he was, and that he and Larry were trying really hard to convert us to JW's. And I wondered, "If you are so convinced that what you believe is the truth, why do you need to impose your beliefs on other people?" Can you not just feel confident with the belief, and know it in your heart? It's like people who have a disagreement with someone, and feel the need to tell the story to a hundred different people in an effort to get them on their side of the disagreement. If you know you're right, why do you need everyone else to agree with you?

Prince eased up on the proselytizing, as the years passed. But this album was a definite departure for him, in ways both good and bad.

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Fascinating story, thanks for sharing. Is this the same time as the Kevin Smith documentary? I have always imagined that Prince had a different side(s) to the stage persona. Like we all do in different settings.
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I have met people who discovered religion and religious observance and they can become quite a zealot for their new found meaning of life. The absolutism, the insistence that their interpretation is the only true one can be really grating.
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The Rainbow Children is musically an unbelievably beautiful album and I try not to listen to the lyrics too closely in order to enjoy it. It is one of my favorite Prince albums.
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That era, the early 2000's I only discovered in the last few years including the jazzy albums and the ONA concerts and I find it superb. Hitnrun Phase 2 has a bit of that flair, with the horns etc. but without the religious zealotry.
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If he had kept the religious imagery/storytelling a little bit more universal, this album would have been recognised more broadly a masterpiece imo.

...every night another symphony...

BanishedBrian	Musically, this was IMO the best album he did since disbanding the NPG in 1995, and the tour that followed was even better (best tour since Lovesexy). Lyrically, it's not any worse than what he was saying in interviews starting in 1998. It was at this point that I realized that I'd always admire his musical talent, but that he's simply not very smart intellectually. No Candy 4 Me
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Strive	I pretty much groove up until Family Name, Everlasting Now and Last December which seem like the perfect past, present, future of what Prince was struggling with. Never cared about the JW nature of it all.
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manci	maleeboo said: I listened to it and cried. I was so disconnected from it that I felt like that was it, I had to move on. Weirdest reaction to an album ever. Wow...I did the same! Can't believe how many felt like this...
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