I gave HitNRun Phase One a blast earlier today, and June hit like a thunderbolt. I think he's singing directly about his deteriorating circumstances, although exactly what those circumstances are isn't 100% clear, except that they aint good.... It's open to two completely different interpretations (well, two that I'm going to mention). One that he was dealing with a terminal illness (June is a month he will never reach, never reach beyond, or a JW reference to death, it being his birth month), and another where he is dealing with an escalating dependence on medication ('June' could be a direct reference to heroin).

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'Pasta simmers on the stove in June

It makes no sense yet, but it will soon.'

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'Soon' is either by the end of the song/album (the same thing in this instance) or at a future date when 'news' will become known. I'm thinking either it's a cryptic reference to his cremation (pasta = prince), in which case he was given an estimate at one point of how long he had left, and believed this to be 'June' (or just figuratively, JW style), I'd guess either this year or 2017. The fact he talks about him having months (full moons), not years (birthdays) would indicate 2016. Although the book announcement throws open 2017 as well.

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Or... it's even way simpler than that, and it's a reference to heroin. No, he may not have been taking it as a street drug necessarily, but that's the imagery he may have been capturing in a much less blatant way than he did on The Love We Make. It's still a bit of a stretch to go from pasta simmering on a stove as a reference to someone cooking up heroin... until he returns to it later on, and now, in a resigned voice, he quotes from Sign O' The Times. '...It's June'.

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'In September my cousin tried reefer for the very first time. Now he's doing horse. It's June.'

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Either the cooking or the June lyric would mean little on their own. But together like that?

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The rest of it is open to interpreting however you see fit. Some of it is Prince giving us his Princely religion / philosophy (Why did you come to this Planet?) that I don't think is part of the particular theme of the song. The 'what did you have for lunch?' could be throwaway, or by telling us he doesn't know what we're ingesting, he's really saying what don't know what HE'S ingesting! The imagery that follows rather unhelpfully suggests burial.

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The Richie Havens reference may mean he's about to join him in the musical afterlife, living on in his records alone. Although the Woodstock mention doesn't help. Then he's just waiting... and waiting. Clearly not for anything good. Somebody famous had a birthday, but all he had was a full moon - could this mean he doesn't believe he has another year left in him? Or just, you know, ragging on celebrities and birthdays, before perhaps a reference to the fact that The Waterboys' Whole of the Moon was written about him? (The writer has since retracted, maybe after Crystal Ball, but that was the party line in the '80's)

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Then he remembers the pasta cooking away, and the Sign O' The Times heroin quote. If that's what it is. And it's a stretch, but even if this is the case, he's not saying he's taking serious drugs... yet. Just that they are on the cards. It's still September after all (the record was released Sep 2015), when he's still just on reefer. But he knows what's down the road.

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But, you know, perhaps it was just a song about pasta.

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[Since I mentioned Bowie's Blackstar in the thread title, it's worth noting a few things about that 'last word', and how Prince may have independently done similar. Bowie made his final goodbye record, as June may have been intended to be. But Prince returned. As, it seems, Bowie later planned to also. Only he didn't live long enough to record Phase Two, just hire a producer. And Bowie may have timed his release for a date around when doctors told him he would likely die. Prince may have done the same, but with his book, not the record.]

disagree completely....

there's nothing more to JUNE than just a nice ending song on PHASE 1. i feel you are over analyzing this, just like the majority of the fans and world are over analyzing everything. at this point it's just our natural thought process right now since we really don't know what went down as a fact, other than we know prince is gone.

feeluupp said:

disagree completely....

there's nothing more to JUNE than just a nice ending song on PHASE 1. i feel you are over analyzing this, just like the majority of the fans and world are over analyzing everything. at this point it's just our natural thought process right now since we really don't know what went down as a fact, other than we know prince is gone.

Maybe, of course.

But in this case he is literally telling us interpretation will become obvious 'soon' in the opening line.

No one, as far as I know, mentioned June and heroin when the record came out. In the same way that (again, as far as I know) no one suggested Bowie was on his death bed when Blackstar came out. Even if it was beyond obvious it was the last musical testament of a dying man just 48 hours later.

I agree and have been saying so for months that he didn't have much time left. It just shows that there are very few ppl in the org now that really listen to the music.

The song is haunting.

You hit the bullseye McD

I think McD may be reading a little too much into the lyrics, as some of the interpretations are a stretch... but it's clear that there's SOMETHING going on in those lyrics, what exactly we may never know... but there are certainly references to the past and an unknown future, and possibly to his life winding down.... it's definitely more than 'a nice ending song on PHASE 1'. You only have to listen to it to know that.

McD said:

feeluupp said:

disagree completely....

there's nothing more to JUNE than just a nice ending song on PHASE 1. i feel you are over analyzing this, just like the majority of the fans and world are over analyzing everything. at this point it's just our natural thought process right now since we really don't know what went down as a fact, other than we know prince is gone.

Maybe, of course.

But in this case he is literally telling us interpretation will become obvious 'soon' in the opening line.

No one, as far as I know, mentioned June and heroin when the record came out. In the same way that (again, as far as I know) no one suggested Bowie was on his death bed when Blackstar came out. Even if it was beyond obvious it was the last musical testament of a dying man just 48 hours later.

When June first came out, there was a lot of love for the song here and on other forums. I've always found it very hard to listen to because it seemed so bleak and sad. Definite foreboding.

feeluupp said:

disagree completely....

there's nothing more to JUNE than just a nice ending song on PHASE 1. i feel you are over analyzing this, just like the majority of the fans and world are over analyzing everything. at this point it's just our natural thought process right now since we really don't know what went down as a fact, other than we know prince is gone.

Thanks for that common sense response x People would go nuts if the lyric read 'pasta simmers on the stove in April' and it that case it would still be a line about pasta. Who equates their funeral ceremony to pasta on the stove? The fact that the same word was used in a song 30 years previously also is completely random. Songs are not put together like puzzles.

[Edited 5/3/16 10:59am]

[Edited 5/3/16 11:00am]

gerardv said:

kapo74 said:

Actually, I took it that he was cooking pasta on the stove and was saying, it doesn't make sense why I'm telling you this, but it will soon. He then goes off into memories of a relationship that ended, becomes focused on those memories, lost in them. Time passed thinking about his lost love and the only thing that brought him back from those memories, back to the present, was the pasta was now burning on the stove. He had spent that whole time remembering someone, remembering the pain, that he forgot the pasta. I felt the whole point of this song is that if we let ourselves get lost in the past, we forget the present, we forget where we are and miss out on what is going on now. Until something finally pulls back to the now "pasta burning on the stove".

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Sometimes when we get lost in our thoughts, we don't give time a thought, place a thought, or anything else, except for what we are remembering. What happens when that happens? The pasta burns.

It's an introspective song about an ex. That's it. Great song.

The concept behind AOA is his "Blackstar" in my opinion, I thought that back when David Bowie passed and "Blackstar" was framed that way.

The day I first listened to AOA, I was moved deeply by that last affirmation and the female voice. It felt like an epic conclusion in a profound completely altering way to his vibe, I felt he was painting a mature take on "the afterworld" but within his scififunk ways that I love so much. I was moved to tears.

Is June on all of the CD retail version copies? It's not on mine that I purchased from Target.

June is a brilliant song and I love hearing how others interpret it. It is a bit of a heavy interpretation. Prince's Breakdown was also a sad sad song. I am sure he had moments when he didn't feel his perky self that he put out to the world. MJ wrote a song long before his death which was a pure give away that there was trouble 'Demoral, my god he's taking demoral'. No one noticed anything until it was way too late years later.

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June's lyrics are very interesting to say the least. Very deep.

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What's freaking me out is a song he (or his team) I wish I knew by whom. It was Secret Machines - No where again . It was so uncharacteristic of the smooth female vocal links we'd been receiving. The lyrics in there are weird...just a few of them...

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filling my time share, covering nowhere

sleeping the day off

...oh you'd be surprised... how we race

while our lives.... erased....

another alone on an everyday night I think in the morning

I am looking for alright, warming the blood flow with poison I don't why...

maybe the rain will stop following me, dripping the colours

right before my eyes... our lives ... erased

we know we're lost we're lost we're no where now......

don't look surprised...our lives erased...

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Not exactly a cheerful song, although it's a powerful one. I just want those toxicology reports this speculation is awful and even though it won't change anything in this nightmare it will bring some kind of clarity. Understanding is far more peaceful than not knowing how something so shocking can happen.

AhPook said:

It's an introspective song about an ex. That's it. Great song.

Yes, that's what I thought too.

Actually...Prince could write lyrics in a way that was almost like a puzzle, on occasion. With all due respect to the OP, the song "June" never struck me as being about drugs or making reference to narcotics or meds in any way, shape or form. I fully agree it's up for interpretation of course, as is the case with most artistic expression. But it seemed to me your analysis was constructed around the recent rumours and reports of drugs, percocets, whatever else is in the news, as opposed to developing it organically from the information intentionally written into these two pieces by Prince himself. I had a very different, and much simpler take on both tracks.

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In SOTT, Prince makes mention of a woman dying from handling a drug "needle", young boys getting "high on crack", "reefer", "horse". These terms are all (except for maybe "horse") clear drug references, not coded or camoflaged. So unless "June" is a known slang term for an illicit drug (my Google search didn't turn up any such slang term in top results), it seems inconsistent and out of place as he was pretty open in calling out other drugs--and thereby not likely to be a drug reference. "June", considered in the full context of the SOTT, and that line or two of lyrics it is foun in, clearly refers to time as it relates to "September", and paints picture of a nine-month-long addiction to heroin:

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In September my cousin tried refer 4 the very first time,

now he's doing horse, it's June.

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In the HnR Phase I song, "June" is just referring to a month, particularly as it appears it is mentioned as a reference to June 7, Prince's birthday. So comparing SOTT with June and getting a drug reference out of it seems to be a major stretch, though I do applaud the effort you put into your analysis. I really think Prince was just talking rigatoni here. Rigatoni with a story, that is.

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The first line: "Pasta simmers on the stove in June..." It's like a cinematic smash-cut into a scene, and without the preceeding storyline, without the who, the where and the WHY, it leaves questions and we don't understand what is taking place or the meaning of it and why it's on Prince's mind.

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Second line: "Makes no sense yet, but it will soon." More information to come, that will explain what is happening.

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Conversationally, he shares details of meeting, and later developing a relationship with a woman whom he is falling in love with. At first he is sharing his thoughts on this love affair with us, the listener, but then his attention shifts and focuses on his paramour, at which point he seems to be speaking to her directly, almost in a daydreaming kind of way. Possibly a conversation taking place all in his head, as she is not around. He is lonely, waiting for her to stop by and spend time with him.

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Something pulls him out of his reverie: "what's that?"

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But I'm just here, waitin', and waitin', and waitin'

Somebody famous had a birthday today

All I saw was another full moon

What's that?

Something's burning on the stove

must be the pasta

Must be the pasta

Oh yeah, it's June.

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He is so preoccupied thinking about this absent lover, that he forgot the pasta, now neglected and burning on the stove. He forgot it's some celebrity's birthday (just another day, unremarkable but for the full moon in the sky). Forgot what month it was (June, which would imply it was his own birthday he was oblivious to, feeling too lovesick and alone to care.)

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So once you get through the whole song, you realize Prince wasn't just heating up some Ramen noodles for dinner in front of the TV. The pasta simmering on the stove is associated with this whole personal story of falling deeply in love with someone--someone special enough to cook for (he had a chef, but opted for a more personal touch) and to be the only one you choose to spend your birthday with--only to be left waiting for a love that hasn't shown up and probably will not, being that she is married and has a life of her own.

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The burning pasta is passion put on perpetual hold, like a candle burning down to the plate.

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Prince was such an adept storyteller and really knew how to finesse language to create a particular experience for the listener. He knew how to layer meanings into sometimes just a small amount of text, giving volume and dimension to his stories. His lyric writing doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves.

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I really miss him.

Bluu said:

NoDefense3 said:

Is June on all of the CD retail version copies? It's not on mine that I purchased from Target.

It should be there, track 11.

prittypriss said:

Actually, I took it that he was cooking pasta on the stove and was saying, it doesn't make sense why I'm telling you this, but it will soon. He then goes off into memories of a relationship that ended, becomes focused on those memories, lost in them. Time passed thinking about his lost love and the only thing that brought him back from those memories, back to the present, was the pasta was now burning on the stove. He had spent that whole time remembering someone, remembering the pain, that he forgot the pasta. I felt the whole point of this song is that if we let ourselves get lost in the past, we forget the present, we forget where we are and miss out on what is going on now. Until something finally pulls back to the now "pasta burning on the stove".

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Sometimes when we get lost in our thoughts, we don't give time a thought, place a thought, or anything else, except for what we are remembering. What happens when that happens? The pasta burns.

Well done.

prittypriss said:

McD said:

The Richie Havens reference may mean he's about to join him in the musical afterlife, living on in his records alone.

I think that line is in reference to Motherless Child, which he's been known to cover. Since the line comes after a reveal that a relationship has ended, maybe he's saying that the rejection he feels from the woman brings him back to the rejection he felt from his own mother as a child.

Time is such a better track

berlinas2k said:

the june heroin thing makes sense

I hear more emotion in his voice than usual...and not about spaghetti and lunch.

It almost seems like parts of the song make sense backwards:

You are off somewhere, being free while I starve in the lonesome cold.

How would I know?

That's right, how would i know?

Tell me, what did you have for lunch today?

As far as the June reference to SOTT, that is a little strange, but it may just be because it's his birthday month, or it may just be because that is the word that rhymed with soon. This song is one of my favorites.