phatphuk said:

ldmendes said:

In an interview that Prince did in 1983 with Rock & Soul magazine he said, "It's just an experience. It should not be taken any other way than that. It's just an incident in my life". Not sure how to interpret that statement.

Personally, I interpret the words you quoted as somebody being intentionally vague and non-committal. Maybe to perpetuate whatever myth they might have some vested interest in persisting? Who knows?

Do you have a link to the actual interview?

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Personally, I can't fathom why anyone would write such a libelous song about someone they had only admiration for.

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If he wrote this song for no reason other than to be edgy, that would make him a prize asshole.

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[Edited 9/8/16 20:26pm]

EnDoRpHn said:

"...One chilly cold afternoon in September, after he was peeping through a window at Mary, Claire, Denise and Belle . . . ."

HaHaHaHaHa!

Yup! And for a little post-coital brekky-wekky, they'd gnosh on starfish and butterscotch clouds and shit.

HaHaHaHaHa!

QueenofCardboard said:

EnDoRpHn said:

Here's his family tree:

https://www.geni.com/peop...7748317716

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This site doesn't say what race his grandparents were so it is not very helpful.

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But I think that the only reason that we are discussing his race in this thread is because someone said that Prince once claimed to be of Italian descent and that that was a lie.

Hence since we know Prince is capable of lying, we should be skeptical about whether the song "Sister"was based on real events.

I find it very easy to believe that the song "Sister" is based on real events, given how common incest is.

And I don't think that it is unlikely that Prince did have some Italian ancestors given how light his skin was.

He may not have been lying, he may have just been misinformed.

In America (because we are a nation of immigrants) people don't always (usually) know what their ancestry is, and sometimes they think they know, only to find out later that what they believed was wrong.

I didn't find out that I was part Scottish until I was 40 years old.

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You know, William Wallace led the Scots in their fight against English tyranny. Remember when Prince was on Jay Leno with Mel Gibson?

QueenofCardboard said:

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"...Personally, I can't fathom why anyone would write such a libelous song about someone they had only admiration for..."

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I guess that's the difference between you and Prince?

phatphuk said:

QueenofCardboard said:

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"...Personally, I can't fathom why anyone would write such a libelous song about someone they had only admiration for..."

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I guess that's the difference between you and Prince?

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No, that is not the difference between me and Prince.

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Because the song "Sister" is about real events, and he wrote it as payback.

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EnDoRpHn said:

QueenofCardboard said:

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This site doesn't say what race his grandparents were so it is not very helpful.

.

But I think that the only reason that we are discussing his race in this thread is because someone said that Prince once claimed to be of Italian descent and that that was a lie.

Hence since we know Prince is capable of lying, we should be skeptical about whether the song "Sister"was based on real events.

I find it very easy to believe that the song "Sister" is based on real events, given how common incest is.

And I don't think that it is unlikely that Prince did have some Italian ancestors given how light his skin was.

He may not have been lying, he may have just been misinformed.

In America (because we are a nation of immigrants) people don't always (usually) know what their ancestry is, and sometimes they think they know, only to find out later that what they believed was wrong.

I didn't find out that I was part Scottish until I was 40 years old.

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You know, William Wallace led the Scots in their fight against English tyranny. Remember when Prince was on Jay Leno with Mel Gibson?

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I never saw that.

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Is this the only song that Prince took the Lord's name in vain in ? Anyone?

In a Dutch interview from the early 80s, P says he's about to turn 21. When asked about his ethnicity he says his father is half Italian and his mother is Italian "mixed with other stuff". On Lopez when George Lopez asks if his mother's Latina, P laughs and says they were never able to find her father.

Carved County, Minnesota documents say both of P's parents are originally from Louisiana and by the looks of them they could very well be Creole, which is a mixture of black, European (usually French or Portuguese) and often Native American. That would account for his skin color and "hairiness".
[Edited 9/8/16 21:45pm]

QueenofCardboard said:

Remember that show where they traced ancestry of celebrities and Brooke Sheilds found out that her dad who is from the largest banking family in Italy wasn't really Italian cuz when they traced back far enough the name did didn't exist?

Come to find out her ancestor was a Frenchman who left France on the run, went to Italy, changed the family name to the Italian version and they started the first bank in Italy which became a banking dynasty.

oliviacamron said:

Is this the only song that Prince took the Lord's name in vain in ? Anyone?

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"My sister didn't give a goddamn"

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Maybe

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LBrent said:

Lbrent, I have to bring up the excessive amount of body hair and thick brows again. Indians tend to have smooth skin, less hair like African descent. I do believe Prince may have been right about having some Italian or Mediterranean. And I was thinking Creole too be used I thought both parents were from Louisiana.

LBrent said:

QueenofCardboard said:

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I didn't find out that I was part Scottish until I was 40 years old.

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Remember that show where they traced ancestry of celebrities and Brooke Sheilds found out that her dad who is from the largest banking family in Italy wasn't really Italian cuz when they traced back far enough the name did didn't exist? Come to find out her ancestor was a Frenchman who left France on the run, went to Italy, changed the family name to the Italian version and they started the first bank in Italy which became a banking dynasty.

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I don't remember that show.

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But Prince is a very light skinned black.

For all we know, he may have more white ancestors than black ancestors.

But that isn't the point.

The point is that just because he told someone he had Italian ancestors and someone else disagrees with that and says that Prince is black,

That doesn't mean Prince was lying or that he is a liar, or that he makes stuff up.

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oliviacamron said:

Is this the only song that Prince took the Lord's name in vain in ? Anyone?

I can't think of any specific song title off the top of my head. But I'm pretty sure I recall him firing off a blasphemous "Good Gawd, Yall!" in fine James Brownian style in more than one tune.

oliviacamron said:

QueenofCardboard said:

Um. Yeah.

Here's the thing...I'm not disagreeing with either of you.

I'm Louisiana Creole mixed with French on my mother's side. P is about the complexion of my most of my cousins. I took after my father and look more Portuguese.

We all have long dark hair, pronounced eyebrows and the men have lightly hairy chests and moustaches.

Thankfully, I don't have the body hair. Ew. Lol
[Edited 9/8/16 21:44pm]

phatphuk said:

"... in fine James Brownian style..."

Speaking of which...

Ol' JB wasn't lacking in the chest hair and eyebrow department himself.

QueenofCardboard said:

oliviacamron said:

Is this the only song that Prince took the Lord's name in vain in ? Anyone?

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"My sister didn't give a goddamn"

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Maybe

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I think Mel Gibson swore quite a bit in Braveheart too.

QueenofCardboard said:

LBrent said:

QueenofCardboard said: Remember that show where they traced ancestry of celebrities and Brooke Sheilds found out that her dad who is from the largest banking family in Italy wasn't really Italian cuz when they traced back far enough the name did didn't exist? Come to find out her ancestor was a Frenchman who left France on the run, went to Italy, changed the family name to the Italian version and they started the first bank in Italy which became a banking dynasty.

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I don't remember that show.

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But Prince is a very light skinned black.

For all we know, he may have more white ancestors than black ancestors.

But that isn't the point.

The point is that just because he told someone he had Italian ancestors and someone else disagrees with that and says that Prince is black,

That doesn't mean Prince was lying or that he is a liar, or that he makes stuff up.

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He did give clues, though -- remember, Elisa Fiorello sang the line "I know you're a liar" in "Love Machine".

I think it's a combination of P being young and doing the same thing Vin Diesel did earlier in his career,being inexperienced and young they both were uncomfortable and unprepared for racial questions and other prying questions.

They tried to be vague, but if pushed against the wall the were less than forthcoming.

QueenofCardboard said:

LBrent said:

QueenofCardboard said: Remember that show where they traced ancestry of celebrities and Brooke Sheilds found out that her dad who is from the largest banking family in Italy wasn't really Italian cuz when they traced back far enough the name did didn't exist? Come to find out her ancestor was a Frenchman who left France on the run, went to Italy, changed the family name to the Italian version and they started the first bank in Italy which became a banking dynasty.

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I don't remember that show.

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But Prince is a very light skinned black.

For all we know, he may have more white ancestors than black ancestors.

But that isn't the point.

The point is that just because he told someone he had Italian ancestors and someone else disagrees with that and says that Prince is black,

That doesn't mean Prince was lying or that he is a liar, or that he makes stuff up.

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jill jones was half black and half italian, she surmised that that's where prince got the idea of telling journalists that. It sure does persist though. also, he liked toying with jounalists in those days because they were/are so dishonest.

phatphuk said:

ldmendes said:

In an interview that Prince did in 1983 with Rock & Soul magazine he said, "It's just an experience. It should not be taken any other way than that. It's just an incident in my life". Not sure how to interpret that statement.

Personally, I interpret the words you quoted as somebody being intentionally vague and non-committal. Maybe to perpetuate whatever myth they might have some vested interest in persisting? Who knows?

Do you have a link to the actual interview?

Here's the reference

I would Die 4 U, Why Prince Became and Icon, Toure 2013, pp 89-91

QueenofCardboard said:

--- Because people want to believe that he had some sort of perfect life when it is so obvious he did not. Even if he made up "sister" to imply that you slept with your sister is disturbing I don't care if it just a means to get attention. He said he dad was verbal and physically abusive toward him. He got away and went the Anderson house. Look at what his sister went through and look how Duane Sr and Junior turned out.

TrivialPursuit said:

oliviacamron said:

I have a lot of hair. Way more than Prince. My whole family does. I'm not mixed in anyway. Jamaican born and bred. You don't have to be mixed to have a lot of hair...

And so what if Prince's great great great grandfather's mother is Italian? Isn't everyone's?
[Edited 9/9/16 5:08am]

laurarichardson said:

I agree with this. Family dysfunction all around him.

luvgirl said:

Exactly!

Thank you!

I just listened to an interview from May 29, 1981 where he mentions moving to NY at 17 to look for a record deal and staying with his sister, Sharon, who "meant alot to him". The interviewer asks very tentatively, "Is that the sister on the record'"

P just casually answers, "Mm, hmm."

I'm not sure how to interpret that.

ldmendes said:

"...Here's the reference

I would Die 4 U, Why Prince Became and Icon, Toure 2013, pp 89-91..."

Thanks for that. To be honest though. Unless it's available free somewhere, I'll probably never read that particular book.

But for the sake of discussion, let's say Prince did actually say, "It's just an incident in my life" — as his coy explanation of the Sister lyrics.

Going by what I did actually hear his younger sister say in that one podcast interview, I can imagine "the incident" being nothing more than the "worldly" older sister flirting with Prince.

The younger sister is being hella coy in that podcast interview. But I can imagine a hot woman in her sexual prime coming on to her sexually-active half brother — whom she didn't grow up with — in some way that the unworldly 16 year old Mid-Westener might interpret as "inappropriate". It could be that just a flirtatious come-on is "the incident".

I can imagine "the incident" being nothing more than the older sister "giving Prince some sugar" — but using her tongue. Without them never actually going any further.

I can imagine "the incident" being nothing more than the older sister saying — ala Mae West — "Is that a microphone in your pocket little brother, or are you just happy to see me?"

I could also imagine "the incident" that Sister is based on, being something as banal as them having a spat, and the older sister kicking Prince out of her New York apartment because his feet smelled and he left piss on her toilet seat. But if he hadda made Sister be about something like that — with straight-forward, literal, non-fictional lyrics — we probably wouldn't be discussing such a non-controversial version of the song 36 years later.

I can read a boatload of different scenarios in between the lines of all the younger sister's "ums" and "you knows". That's one of the plusses of having a fertive imagination [something quite a few people here seem to lack].

Artistic License really is a thing kids!

LBrent said:

--He is making himself crystal clear. He wrote it to piss her off or because so truth is in it. He may have even inserted himself in the stituation when it could have happened to someone he knew.

Add in the word on the street that Sharon is gay, so how do we reconcile that to the song?

1Sasha said:

Add in the word on the street that Sharon is gay, so how do we reconcile that to the song?

Because that's credible.