thedoorkeeper said:

Gracielaine said:

3) The second stanza refers I would think clearly to the Black Sweat controversy:

Told 'em he wanted 2 sing a song about a black child goin' buck wild
And they just laughed in his face
Talk 2 your lawyer but U got no case
What U need 2 do is keep your place
Next time U pull a card, it better be a ace motherfucker
Or U can lay face down (Face down!)

This confuses me. What Black Sweat controversy? Face Down was released years before Black Sweat - how are they related?

I was asking...I read somewhere Black Sweat wasn't approved by Warner, is that inaccurate...lots of his songs were written out of order of release, correct?

My Mom liked Elvis and she has a model of Graceland.

I was looking at it in her bedroom the other day.

She was making me look at it for a time from up there in heaven.

Now I know what she was trying to tell me.

That this was ALLLLLLLL Planneddddddd!

He OUTTHOUGHT EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not just them MF'ers!

[Edited 8/26/16 15:38pm]

Gracielaine said:

thedoorkeeper said:

Gracielaine said: This confuses me. What Black Sweat controversy? Face Down was released years before Black Sweat - how are they related?

I was asking...I read somewhere Black Sweat wasn't approved by Warner, is that inaccurate...lots of his songs were written out of order of release, correct?

Many songs were written at one point and recycled later, but to our knowledge, Black Sweat was not one of those. The evidence suggests it was first recorded in 2004, long after Face Down.

thedoorkeeper said:

Gracielaine said:

3) The second stanza refers I would think clearly to the Black Sweat controversy:

Told 'em he wanted 2 sing a song about a black child goin' buck wild
And they just laughed in his face
Talk 2 your lawyer but U got no case
What U need 2 do is keep your place
Next time U pull a card, it better be a ace motherfucker
Or U can lay face down (Face down!)

This confuses me. What Black Sweat controversy? Face Down was released years before Black Sweat - how are they related?

Thanks Brian.

jazzvirtuoso said:

BanishedBrian said:

I might be remembering wrong, but I believe Face Down is the only song ever recorded/sang where he said the name "Prince"... someone will correct me if I'm forgetting one.

The "shot to kill" is just referencing his own killing off of the Prince name - see the Dolphin performance on Letterman for a visual illustration of the point.

As for the part about calling... I believe this is just a kiss off statement to all the "friends" who abandoned him once he ceased having as much commercial popularity during that 93-96 period. He's calling out all the people who only wanted to be friends because of his wealth/polularity/status and turned their back once he was an underground artist singing non-hits and doing sparsely attended weekly shows at Paisley Park.

Check out the lyrics to private joy: "Shoot me up baby, lets take a trip" "strangled Valentino been mine every since if anybody ask you, you belong to PRINCE"

That begs the question...was he singing to himself when he said "put down the needle, put down the spoon"

roverlo said:

Gracielaine said:

So I'm watching tv this morning and I see one of Elvis former long time gfs has published a new book, and she talks about the first time he OD's and how it was reported as the "flu" then, and ever thereafter; course if got me thinking of the plane diversion and the susequent "flu" diagnosis. I had already been liistening a lot to Face Down and trying to think why he would write these lyrics, and make the connection between the OD and his death long before it happened? Why?

[...]

Actually, the plane diversion was not connected to the flu by the Prince-camp. Cancelling the Atlanta shows the week before was alledgedly because of the flu.

Okay, thanks for the timing update; still a diversion to the real truth in all likelihood.

Gracielaine said:

jazzvirtuoso said:

BanishedBrian said: Check out the lyrics to private joy: "Shoot me up baby, lets take a trip" "strangled Valentino been mine every since if anybody ask you, you belong to PRINCE"

That begs the question...was he singing to himself when he said "put down the needle, put down the spoon"

I have also wondered the same over the last few months, but I am doubtful. The song is written about the death of Jonathan Melvoin from a heroin overdose, and given the way Prince seems to cast drug use as unholy in the song ("steal or borrow, from a table God set for his son"), I doubt it's a disguised reference to any self-use.

BanishedBrian said:

I might be remembering wrong, but I believe Face Down is the only song ever recorded/sang where he said the name "Prince"... someone will correct me if I'm forgetting one.

Private Joy, as mentioned.

But also "Temptation".

"Condition Of The Heart" implies it, by opposing himself to "a real Prince from Arabia".

But, Brian, you should be banished from the Org for forgetting the most obvious of them all : "My Name Is..."

I'm sure there's a few others.

BobGeorge909 said:

U can never cut short the ability of the humans to come up with some shit.

You are so right. This whole thread is a TRIP !

Gracielaine said:

thedoorkeeper said:

Gracielaine said: This confuses me. What Black Sweat controversy? Face Down was released years before Black Sweat - how are they related?

I was asking...I read somewhere Black Sweat wasn't approved by Warner, is that inaccurate...lots of his songs were written out of order of release, correct?

It's "Papa" not "Black Sweat".

The hot mongoloid in the video

I like how in the video he was wearing the spine of The Modern Antiquarian, though I have a feeling the orange on blue chevrons pre-date both artists.

Wlcm2thdwn3 said:

nursev said:

BobGeorge909 said:

nursev said:

yep

Smdh...lol

Yeah, but orange on blue chevrons face down in the coffin - there must be SOME precedent

AlgeriaTouchshreek said:

BanishedBrian said:

was trying to denigrate the value of "Prince"'s catalogue (which WB still controlled) by associating Prince with Elvis <snip etc.>

I suspect he used "Dead like Elvis" for different reasons - a) to emphasize the view he was promoting that "Prince" was really, absolutely dead and b) to emphasize his view that WB had been treating "Prince" like a product, a commodity.

"Dead like Elvis" is literal in the fact that Elvis was found dead in his bathroom face down. Some of y'all really search to try to find meanings other than the obvious, lol.

jsb23nc said:

"Dead like Elvis" is literal in the fact that Elvis was found dead in his bathroom face down. Some of y'all really search to try to find meanings other than the obvious, lol.

Lol. Yeah I could agree with that too.

Who are we supposed to call? "For those of you who know the number and don't call, fuck all y'all"

I've always assumed he meant 1-800-NEW-FUNK was the number. Anyone else agree?

It's a close tie with "Partyman" and "Come On",
but I think it's the funniest Prince video ever.

The shrink couch, the fiddle, that genius comic horns,
audio was already killing me but the fish-eye shots are insane,
the faces he makes... It cracks me up.

Oh heck, was it not for "Sign 'O' The Times", I would say it's the best Prince video ever.

Gracielaine said:

3) The second stanza refers I would think clearly to the Black Sweat controversy:

Told 'em he wanted 2 sing a song about a black child goin' buck wild
And they just laughed in his face

In what will where and who is implied shot to kill? Who are we supposed to call? ..maybe I'm too literal, but he gave warnings and messages, and this song is really bothering me. Anyone else dug into these lyrics and wondered???

AFAIK, this was about them not releasing 'Love Sign' as a commercial single. Love Sign was promo'd as a single after MBGITW, was remixed, sent to radio and the video was played on MTV/VH-1 at the time, but Warners wouldn't let Prince release it the single in the same way they had done with MBGITW - as a one off release outside his WB contract. I guess Prince didn't want to put it on either Come or TGE under Warners, so it was another thorn in Prince's paw with regards to how he wanted to release music (record it and release it quickly soon after) and how that went against the way big record labels work. The video and song was an anti-gun crime message, hence the Face Down lyrics..

.

Who you're supposed to call, is Prince. This was at the time of when in interviews, when asked what to refer to him by, what to call him, he would say "if you're always with me, you never have to call me" - which sounds nice enough, but what he's saying is, if you're on his side and not WB's side, or in the media, i.e. you're a "true" fan, then you don't have to call him anything. Because every interview at the time, half of it was about the name change and how weird it was - I guess he was sick of answering the same questions, and felt disrespected by all the name calling - so if you're on his side, you don't have to "call" him. It's just a play on both means of calling him - calling him names/calling his name. If you're with him, you don't have to call him "Prince" because you're there in the room (from a fan perspective I suppose this means at concerts), you don't have to use his name. This goes with what Mayte said in interviews (like the Oprah) where she says, when asked what she calls him, she just says she never needs to say his name because he's right there (paraphrasing).

.

Aethelherring said:

Who are we supposed to call? "For those of you who know the number and don't call, fuck all y'all"

I've always assumed he meant 1-800-NEW-FUNK was the number. Anyone else agree?

I wouldn't take it quite so literally - I think of it as "for people who know what the deal is, what the facts are, and choose to ignore them - fuck you, I don't have time for you." -- He's already explained his motivations and reasons for why he's doing what he's doing career-wise for the past 3 years 93-96, so if you're still asking "why did you change your name, why are you fighting Warners" - he's done with you. Been there, done that.

.

.

.

[Edited 8/30/16 3:41am]

NouveauDance said:

Gracielaine said:

3) The second stanza refers I would think clearly to the Black Sweat controversy:

Told 'em he wanted 2 sing a song about a black child goin' buck wild
And they just laughed in his face

In what will where and who is implied shot to kill? Who are we supposed to call? ..maybe I'm too literal, but he gave warnings and messages, and this song is really bothering me. Anyone else dug into these lyrics and wondered???

AFAIK, this was about them not releasing 'Love Sign' as a commercial single. Love Sign was promo'd as a single after MBGITW, was remixed, sent to radio and the video was played on MTV/VH-1 at the time, but Warners wouldn't let Prince release it the single in the same way they had done with MBGITW - as a one off release outside his WB contract. I guess Prince didn't want to put it on either Come or TGE under Warners, so it was another thorn in Prince's paw with regards to how he wanted to release music (record it and release it quickly soon after) and how that went against the way big record labels work. The video and song was an anti-gun crime message, hence the Face Down lyrics..

.

Who you're supposed to call, is Prince. This was at the time of when in interviews, when asked what to refer to him by, what to call him, he would say "if you're always with me, you never have to call me" - which sounds nice enough, but what he's saying is, if you're on his side and not WB's side, or in the media, i.e. you're a "true" fan, then you don't have to call him anything. Because every interview at the time, half of it was about the name change and how weird it was - I guess he was sick of answering the same questions, and felt disrespected by all the name calling - so if you're on his side, you don't have to "call" him. It's just a play on both means of calling him - calling him names/calling his name. If you're with him, you don't have to call him "Prince" because you're there in the room (from a fan perspective I suppose this means at concerts), you don't have to use his name. This goes with what Mayte said in interviews (like the Oprah) where she says, when asked what she calls him, she just says she never needs to say his name because he's right there (paraphrasing).

.

Aethelherring said:

Who are we supposed to call? "For those of you who know the number and don't call, fuck all y'all"

I've always assumed he meant 1-800-NEW-FUNK was the number. Anyone else agree?

I wouldn't take it quite so literally - I think of it as "for people who know what the deal is, what the facts are, and choose to ignore them - fuck you, I don't have time for you." -- He's already explained his motivations and reasons for why he's doing what he's doing career-wise for the past 3 years 93-96, so if you're still asking "why did you change your name, why are you fighting Warners" - he's done with you. Been there, done that.

.

.

.

[Edited 8/30/16 3:41am]

I always thought it was more to do with the fact that a lot of people who he thought were 'friends / associates' stopped wanting to have anything to do with him after his name change / fight with Warners.
.

They thought he was weird, bad news, and that 'siding with him' might be bad for their own professional reputations - so they cut off ties. I can imagine that betrayal must have both hurt and angered Prince - so, as far as he was concerned, if they knew his number, and understood his reasons, but still didn't call then they could go to hell.

Dibblekins said:

I always thought it was more to do with the fact that a lot of people who he thought were 'friends / associates' stopped wanting to have anything to do with him after his name change / fight with Warners.

.

They thought he was weird, bad news, and that 'siding with him' might be bad for their own professional reputations - so they cut off ties. I can imagine that betrayal must have both hurt and angered Prince - so, as far as he was concerned, if they knew his number, and understood his reasons, but still didn't call then they could go to hell.

Yeah sure, that too.

.

He was in full victim complex mode at this time, so it's all part and parcel of the same overall outlook he had then.

.

.

[Edited 8/30/16 6:35am]

It's bothering me too. Especially since I read that "thread" out there about how they think prince was the one that wrote that thread on above top secret.

Moving along...Anybody who doesn't know conspiracy theories about elvis and think this might have referred to that and that the guy who is alive after death is prince in disguise, just like that thread says about elvis on above top secret, is idiotic not to see the connection....just do a google search.

the song The love we make is about the melvoin brother who died of an overdose is what I read.

EnDoRpHn said:

Face Down is about the 1993 name change. WBR assumed he was in it for the money, that they could buy him off, and they thought they owned him until he was dead.

So he killed Prince, and told his friends/associates to bury Prince "Face Down" so that the MF'ers (WBR) could kiss his ass.

Ok?

That's it. Nothing else.

This is correct, "Face Down" is not some morbid Prince death prediction to literarly die like Elvis or some warning that an evil illuminati was trying to murder him.

rudeboynpg said: