He was thinking of fucking his sister.Kidding.
Punk rock shock effect influence.
He went from disco dandy to off the deep end..."yes this is Prince..and he's really different now"-Right On magazine cover.
Just like the Stones and Led Zep before him (see Shattered and Wearin n Tearin) he was taken by some of the punk scene of the times and didn't want his music to seem irrelevant to youth culture. Punk added that vogor and added umphh to some artists repetoire.

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[This message was edited Mon Mar 31 9:02:48 PST 2003 by rdhull]

oh puhleeze, like some of YOU people didn't experiment or think about experimenting with your cousins, brothers and sisters...

It's clear that he's saying "My sister never made love to anyone else but me...she's the reason for my,[b]uh[b],sexuality".

It's not:
Bi-sexuality
or
Fucking sexuality

GO BACK AND LISTEN!!!

It's clear that he's saying "My sister never made love to anyone else but me...she's the reason for my,uh sexuality".

It's not:
Bi-sexuality
or
Fucking sexuality

GO BACK AND LISTEN!!!

CalhounSq said:

not always&Hardly ever but something about "Papa" made me think of MJ back when i first heard it.

CalhounSq said:

Some Songs make you can think of other people like for instance"I hate U" made me think of OJ&Nicole Simpson.A Really Good to Great Songwriter can do that for you.

dodger said:

That's the exact response the younger Prince wanted out of people. The entire DM album is supposed to shake people out of a potential let's just dance atmosphere at the tail end of the disco era. I don't know about it being autobiographical, and I tend to doubt that it is, but I could be completely wrong. If it's real all the right people know about it, because Prince and nobody else in his family has let the cat out of the bag. But you have to realize; no matter how shocking it is to some, a song's author, or a writer in general doesn't always write from personal experience.

Back then, outside of Funk the only people in music who were trying to dethrone the common mindset of the status quo (i.e. DISCO) were Punk rockers; "Sister" is punk in spirit, with sped-up, Johnny Ramone-ish guitar riffs thru and thru. Prince wanted a different kind of attention than everyone else was getting, because he knew that he was different than everybody else. And eventually he got what he wanted.

I don't know if I would necessarily defend "Sister"...but the content could have been different with everything else about the song being the same, and I'd still like it. Especially the way it flows into "Partyup"...

"Sister" is actually one of my favorite Prince songs. It's punk in spirit AND sound, and is just plain BLATANT!

For a thorough explanation of the song's meaning, check out "The Lyrics of Prince." I can't remember the author's, name, but it's a wonderful, well-researched book.

dodger said:

Isn't this when queen627 comes in with a "hint"...

gypsyfire said:

supernova

Essence said:

I always thought it was "She's the reason for my sexuality".

DavidEye said:

Very punkish indeed, when he played it in the lovesexy concert the drum playing reminded me of punk music...

CalhounSq said:

Right.

NWF said:

that's it!!! like i said earlier, some of u gotta clean out your ears...

I thought it was about his step-sister. I believe he had a step-sister whom he lived with at some point.

And yes, I think that he was talking of her "fucking him over" rather than fucking him.

If anything, I think the song is about how family and sexuality should be separated.

I'm assuming that he saw his step-sister's home as a place of refuge but she possibly confused his needs with her misplaced affection.

The lyrics are really ambiguous but it seems certain that when Prince expressed distaste for whatever she did to him, she would threaten with throwing him out: Don't put me on the streets again...

I've always heard the scream as a plea to his mother: "Oh, Mother - fuck her, She's just a motherfucker, can't you understand?" - even if the lyrics aren't printed that way, it seems to be what he's saying.

And yes, he does say "Incest is everything it's said to be" but what is incest said to be? Bad... He's saying it was a bad situation - not good.

Its a brilliant song.

p.s. I always heard the line in contention as "She's the reason for my odd sexuality.

You either go with the flow or don't go at all ...

BinaryJustin said:

I don't think him saying she was 32 lovely and loose meant she fucked him over...I still think this song is about P's BIG BLACK SUGA MOMMA...heard she a black and decka pecka wrecka...

pejman said:

mistermaxxx said:

---
Prince said on Oprah that his father was abusive towards him. I don 't think that Papa has anything to do with Mike.
I just think he wrote a song about it to get it off of his chest.

The whole album was suppose to stir up some type of controversy, according the the press I read years ago. Something on the lines that this was the last album on the first contract that Prince signed with Warner Bros., so I would just say he was going for whatever...letting it fly.
Obviously it worked!!!

All these years I thought he said that..."she was too busy worrying about my sexuality." How many interpetation can there be out there? Isn't there a lyric sheet out there somewhere?

Harlequin said:

Um, I have that clip... its from Kazaa

Does the title of the album itself reveal the answer(s) about the song, Sister?
It's called: Dirty Mind
Dirty thoughts, fantasies, ideas, etc.
Not that he actually experienced a sexual relationship with his sister??? But that he lyrically expressed something that has certainly crossed everyone's mind- a taboo thought???
I don't know if this is what Prince meant, but it's just another possibility and I raise the question.
The subject matter would certainly stir up a hornet's nest.

If'n she ain't good enough fer her dad 'n brothers, she ain't good enough fer nobody.
The old Tennessee, Kentucky, W. Virginia, back in the hollers, hillbilly, mountain men stereotype. Wonder why this song was never marketed to and never caught on on the country charts???

mistermaxxx said:...speaking about "papa"

i'm speechless

MrBliss said:

rdhull said:

okay, I'ma break it down:

"incest is everything it's said to be"-incest is said to be bad, so he's saying it's bad.

His sister teaches him and then fucks him-she teahces him and then fucks him over

And i hate to burst your bubble, purple kool-aid drinkers, but this song in purely tongue-in-cheek. He never fanticized about his sister or anything like that. He did it to get people's attention to piss people off.


And the actual line is:"she's the reason for my, uh, sexuality. TOP TRYIN' TO HEAR THINGS THAT AIN'T THERE, PEOPLES.

lovebizzare said:

lovebizzare said:

studded trenchcoat flappin in the breeze...so there!!!

laurarichardson said:

MJ's Pop's was Abusive towards Him as well&If MJ let His Guard down He might very well echo the same Sentiments but never mind folks just don't get it.