So I've natually been listening to Prince nonstop lately and also have been re-examining lyrics. If you listen to the lyrics of "Breakdown" and think of it in the sense that he could have been talking about a "disease" breaking his body down, slowly but surely, the song takes on a whole new meaning. Really, there isn't much in the song that doesnt make sense if you look at it this way. Not saying he had a disease or even what the disease might have been, but to me, once I look at it this way, I can't hear it any other way. Yes, it could still be about a relationship, etc, but it makes more sense to me that he is talking about his body being broken down. Also there a so much emotion in his voice towards the end (although tht is not uncommon for Prince, so...)

Just humor me for a sec and read:

BREAKDOWN:

Listen to me closely as the story unfolds (the story has been unfolding as of late, and the disease may have been unfolding through the years)
This could be the saddest story even been told (and yes, it is the saddest story...maybe he's trying to tell us that) Saddest story that he's ever told because it's his life and a song about his life ending)
I used to want the house with the biggest pool
I've been missing out I just feel like a fool (he realizes that life is getting shorter and wishes he would have done more to live the life he wanted while he still could)

Keep breaking me down, down, down
Keep breaking me down, down, down
Keep breaking me down, down, down (to me he is talking about the disease breaking him down...littery, like breaking down cells in his body or whatever)
Keep breaking me down, down, down

I used to throw the party every New Year's Eve
First one intoxicated, last one to leave
Waking up in places that you would never believe
Give me back the time, you can keep the memories (asking to give him back that time he wasted because maybe he knows time is what he needs most now)

Keep breaking me down, down, down
Keep breaking me down, down, down
Keep breaking me down, down, down
Keep breaking me down, down, down

Every book I've read said that I would meet somebody like you (i dont know if he's talking about medical books he's read or if he's talking about the bible? and maybe he is refering to meeting God? not positve on this one)
Whenever I was sorry, so sorry for the things I used to do (maybe confessing sins at the end of life and going with God?)
A journal full of numbers that I used to go through
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) all behind me now, all because of you (Could be just talking about how his life is shortened and all the chasing woman and superficial things are behind him and dont matter any more..as in use the time you have left for things that matter most) OR HE COULD BE TALKING ABOUT A JOURNAL OF NUMBERS (AS IN HIS SONGBOOKS) AND THAT HIS SONGS ARE NUMBERED NOW BECAUSE HIS LIFE IS ENDING) To me YOU refers to the disease or ailment.)

Keep breaking me down, down, down
Keep breaking me down, down, down
Keep breaking me down, down, down
Keep breaking me down, down, down

You keep breaking me, you keep breaking me down
I don't wanna walk out (dont wanna walk out of life? of this world yet?)
Don't wanna go down, down, down (as in being taken "down" by a disease)

See there's a door that you can walk through (door to the otherside, as in Heaven or the afterword)
Where there used to be a wall (there is a wall until you pass over)
I don't care, it's cool as long as you catch me baby
(Catch me when I fall) If there's ever a fall (asking God to catch him when he leaves the earth)
Closer to the breakdown, the closer we get (the closer we get to Heaven?)

So that is my interperation to that song. Who the hell knows if it's close or not. Just a very interested take on the song after his death. What do you guys think?

Also, no video ever showed up....maybe that's because it was too real/close to him and how do you make a video that shows this without coming out and telling people what it's about. Just another thought.

ashleypaisley said:

No, I think the song is about being afraid to get to close to someone yet its deemed inevitable and the reflection its taken to get there. During the Piano and Mic tour he did it in Sydney and after the "You keep breaking me down, down, down, down" lyrics he said "she really does"

hmmmm interesting. yeah, who knows.

me thinks it's just a song... a beautiful song, but just another song about love...

not "Missing out", "reminiscing now" = thinking back

that was my interpretation the last time i heard it. but, when i first heard it, I thought it was about having regrets about horrible things we do and not being able to do anything about it but feel bad. I could relate immediately. What Prince felt bad bout and what i felt bad about are likely vastly different but the guilt's the same. I think on the same album, which song was it? the line about being in a party "with drunken fools", he seems to regret socializing in meaningless settings.

also, i recall how people snarkily responded on here to the line "the saddest story that's ever been told" we see it in a different light now.

thequeenofthekings said:

I avoided that song for the longest time, just behind the little guy laying down in a puddle of tears. When I finally listened I assumed it was a song to God, but the whole "I don't wanna go" part confused me, but I'm kind of used to parts in Prince's songs throwing me off so I ignored it until I got further information. But I sure wanted to know what the hell was breaking him down at this point in his life. I was feeling bad.

*sigh*
I've been avoiding that song since...especially after reading someone's hypothosis regarding the use of Edward G. Robinson in the live version of Black Sweat.

Personally, I've been a pendulum between whether there was something terminal versus something chronic, but I believe it was one of the two. I'll probably stay this way until something more official sounding comes forward.

God is breaking him down.....keeps showing him whats important

luvsexy4all said:

Friendlygal said:

CalhounSq said:

me thinks it's just a song... a beautiful song, but just another song about love...

most of his songs are about him or narcissistic but these two lyrics make me think this is one song that isn't.

"I used to throw the party every New Year's Eve
First one intoxicated, last one to leave"

I don't interpret it to be about an illness. To me, it seems he is talking about a woman - THE woman - who finally, at this stage in his life, is the love of his life.

I don't interpret it to be about an illness. To me, it seems he is talking about a woman - THE woman - who finally, at this stage in his life, is the love of his life.

1Sasha said:

I don't interpret it to be about an illness. To me, it seems he is talking about a woman - THE woman - who finally, at this stage in his life, is the love of his life.

Listen to the Sydneyapolis Piano and Mic show on the 20th. The sequence is Little Red Corvette/Dirty Mind then The Breakdown and in between he improvs like he is talking to someone, "Open Relationship are you crazy?! x2" "I think you are a queen, in fact, I know you are" "I. want. you." "That picture over there? Thats not you. That's you over there. I know its old, No I'm not throwing it away" (Denise got rid off all of her Vanity pictures).

avajane said:

I love how every song he wrote goes back to Denise lol.

Well what do you think? Its nice to have a opinion and not just troll.

I don't get from this song that it's about an illness at all, or about anything physical (like a body) literally breaking down.

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To me I hear a song about a man looking back over his life and recognizing how he's evolved from point A to B, and how his attitudes and priorities have changed and grown as a result of various life experiences and relationships and etc 'breaking him down', which has resulted in the aforementioned evolving and maturing. And like most people, when he looks back at how he used to be and examines the things he did in his younger years, he feels regrets for certain things: for hurts he caused, for his actions at times, and for the squandering of precious time and relationships and opportunities while he was focused on stuff that he understands now was only trivial or superficial...all things, and TIME, that he can never get back ("Give me back the time, you can keep the memories"). I take from that that he laments the time wasted and doesn't care to remember the negative or 'bad' parts (memories) but wishes he could have the time back again to focus on what's truly important and meaningful in life vs getting caught up in the material and frivolous and selfish.

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I do also agree, though, that this song is a love song as well, and he's trying to express to the woman that he sees the way he used to be, and an aspect of that is he didn't let himself be vulnerable or open, TRULY open, in love (which sabatoged or destroyed possibly wonderful relationships and he regrets that) but that now, with her, "his walls" are breaking down and that (paraphrased) 'there's now a door where there used to be a wall' and he glad for what's broken him down because now he has the chance for a mature, reciprocal love. He's laying it out that he's ready to be vulnerable and wiling to risk emotions that he used to protect (with "walls") in his younger years and that he's trusting her in a way he's not used to trusting (i.e. the lyric about as long as she catches him if he falls, if there is a fall).

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I think the very last line is especially beautiful and revealing: "Closer to the breakdown, the closer we get". I take that as the more he allows himself to 'break down' and break free from the walls he's always surrounded himself and his heart with, the more able he and she are to get closer and have the kind of trusting, mature love relationship I think he's always yearned for.

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I love this song.

StephanieThePisces said:

thequeenofthekings said:

luvsexy4all said:

God is breaking him down.....keeps showing him whats important

either that or his conscience, that was my interprtetation. I think projecting it on a muse makes the song work better but I think it's his own conscience. But that's just my interpretation, I'm old enough to have huge regrets so that's an influence in how I see it. But after he died, I could see the other interpretation too, like the "Listen to me closely" as if he knew his listeners wouldn't really pay attention otherwise and what he's about to say is serious. As a Mentioned above, people snarkily chided these very lyrics on here at the time, so, his request wasn't recieved.

david bowie once said the artists work is not done until people interpret it.

StephanieThePisces said: