Good attempt, but the article had me up until this point: "with a title that recalls the Greek word for resurrection."

As I consider Anna Stesia to be the greatest song ever written by anyone, it amazes me how misunderstood the song is to this day. In the last 29 years since I first dropped the needle on this track, NEVER did the greek word for resurrection, enter my thoughts. He does not use the word Anastacia, in any context during this song.

The meaning is clear in the sense that Prince is in pain and simply wants to be pain free. The same way anesthesia makes a person numb person for medical surgery...he wants to feel no pain. He is clearly singing the word: Anesthesia, throughout the entire song.


Not sure what it will take to make this misperception go away, but for those of us at the concert in 1988, we got it! He explained it during his speech before the Anna Stesia guitar solo. Maybe it was because the tour didn't sell very well in America, that people still don't understand the song... I guess we'll never know.

zenarose said:

One of his best songs!!

Yup!

A great song indeed. This and other 'hidden on album' classics need to be put on some sort of compilation so Joe Public might get to hear them afresh.

Prince: Purple Classics (should include Sometimes it snows, the cross, ballad of dorthy parker, Joy in Repetition (drum intro version), manic monday (prince vocal) etc etc

just release a shotload of lovesexy shows...

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

Good attempt, but the article had me up until this point: "with a title that recalls the Greek word for resurrection."

As I consider Anna Stesia to be the greatest song ever written by anyone, it amazes me how misunderstood the song is to this day. In the last 29 years since I first dropped the needle on this track, NEVER did the greek word for resurrection, enter my thoughts. He does not use the word Anastacia, in any context during this song.

The meaning is clear in the sense that Prince is in pain and simply wants to be pain free. The same way anesthesia makes a person numb person for medical surgery...he wants to feel no pain. He is clearly singing the word: Anesthesia, throughout the entire song.


Not sure what it will take to make this misperception go away, but for those of us at the concert in 1988, we got it! He explained it during his speech before the Anna Stesia guitar solo. Maybe it was because the tour didn't sell very well in America, that people still don't understand the song... I guess we'll never know.

It's meant to suggest both, I'm sure--and for years I never thought of the resurrection pun, just the anesthesia one. But I give him credit for both puns. He probably knew the word-- it's the sort of not particularly useful glossing that happens constantly in mass produced biblical devotional material (I don't know what the fascination is with pointing to the original Greek in New Testament "study guides," since it rarely goes beyond noting that this word is the same as the one used in this context--it often seems to be an attempt to prove the author's authority by appealing to the fact that the writer can drop a few Greek words in--but anyone who does that sort of reading latches onto a few of those Greek terms). Hearing it as only anesthesia is unfair to the song, because he's asking for (and saying he receives) so much more. Because while he desires freedom from pain, it doesn't come from numbing or from being knocked out--but through spiritual rebirth, greater awareness, more sensitivity to what's real (in his mind), and that rebirth, his coming back to life from spiritual death,is definitely the subject of the song and the Lovesexy concerts. So, even on the off chance that Prince didn't intend both meanings, the song uses both. Artists routinely do more than they intend to, and there's nothing wrong with that. Besides, he absolutely does not say "anesthesia", I'm sorry. And if he had, it would have weakened the effect tremendously, because then it would no longer work as a pun on the name.

When I first heard this song I not only thought of Anna Stecia as a play on words for "anastheisa" for medical purposes but I also thought of the woman who supposedly survived the execution of the Russian royal family--Anastacia, the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia. It's been a mystery whether she survived or not. I always thought that this played into the song, too. I might be wrong, of course...

purplethunder3121 said:

zenarose said:

One of his best songs!!

Yup!

My love for this song holds no bounds. It's also one of his songs that gives me goosebumps.

[Edited 5/10/17 3:36am]

Guitarhero said:

EddieC said:

It's meant to suggest both

Agree to disagree. I direct you back to the tour. During the performance of Anna Stesia, he gave a speech at our show, about the dangers of looking to drugs for a high or cure for lonliness. He even opens the album about the subject, the reason his voice is so clear, is because there was no smack in his brain.

He is looking for a drug like anesthesia, to numb the pain of his loneliness and finds God instead.

Maybe you saw him in Europe or Japan where he did not speak about it like he did in the American shows. I don't know... but hey, take what you want from the song. We both love Anna Stesia, so it's all good!

Peace

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

EddieC said:

It's meant to suggest both

Agree to disagree. I direct you back to the tour. During the performance of Anna Stesia, he gave a speech at our show, about the dangers of looking to drugs for a high or cure for lonliness. He even opens the album about the subject, the reason his voice is so clear, is because there was no smack in his brain.

He is looking for a drug like anesthesia, to numb the pain of his loneliness and finds God instead.

Maybe you saw him in Europe or Japan where he did not speak about it like he did in the American shows. I don't know... but hey, take what you want from the song. We both love Anna Stesia, so it's all good!

Peace

He's looking for one meaning, but he finds the other one. But, agreed--the song is perfect.

purplethunder3121 said:

EddieC said:

It's meant to suggest both, I'm sure--and for years I never thought of the resurrection pun, just the anesthesia one. But I give him credit for both puns. He probably knew the word-- it's the sort of not particularly useful glossing that happens constantly in mass produced biblical devotional material (I don't know what the fascination is with pointing to the original Greek in New Testament "study guides," since it rarely goes beyond noting that this word is the same as the one used in this context--it often seems to be an attempt to prove the author's authority by appealing to the fact that the writer can drop a few Greek words in--but anyone who does that sort of reading latches onto a few of those Greek terms). Hearing it as only anesthesia is unfair to the song, because he's asking for (and saying he receives) so much more. Because while he desires freedom from pain, it doesn't come from numbing or from being knocked out--but through spiritual rebirth, greater awareness, more sensitivity to what's real (in his mind), and that rebirth, his coming back to life from spiritual death,is definitely the subject of the song and the Lovesexy concerts. So, even on the off chance that Prince didn't intend both meanings, the song uses both. Artists routinely do more than they intend to, and there's nothing wrong with that. Besides, he absolutely does not say "anesthesia", I'm sorry. And if he had, it would have weakened the effect tremendously, because then it would no longer work as a pun on the name.

.
YES.

zenarose said:

EddieC said:

Besides, he absolutely does not say "anesthesia", I'm sorry. And if he had, it would have weakened the effect tremendously, because then it would no longer work as a pun on the name.

purplethunder3121 said:

When I first heard this song I not only thought of Anna Stecia as a play on words for "anastheisa" for medical purposes but I also thought of the woman who supposedly survived the execution of the Russian royal family--Anastacia

Two entirely different words with two entirely different pronunciations.

At no point in the song does Prince sing "anastAcia." He is clearly singing "Anna StEsia/anesthesia." It's even spelled out as a last name.

Please point out the minute/second mark in the song where you hear him pronounce a long A in the song title.

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

EddieC said:

Besides, he absolutely does not say "anesthesia", I'm sorry. And if he had, it would have weakened the effect tremendously, because then it would no longer work as a pun on the name.

purplethunder3121 said:

When I first heard this song I not only thought of Anna Stecia as a play on words for "anastheisa" for medical purposes but I also thought of the woman who supposedly survived the execution of the Russian royal family--Anastacia

Two entirely different words with two entirely different pronunciations.

At no point in the song does Prince sing "anastAcia." He is clearly singing "Anna StEsia/anesthesia." It's even spelled out as a last name.

Please point out the minute/second mark in the song where you hear him pronounce a long A in the song title.

He says Anna StAYzha--as many people pronounce the name Anastasia. Anasthesia is pronounced rhe way it looks, with the word THE in rhe middle of it. Or, possibly, some might say it without the actual TH and instead use a simple T, but the vowel sound is still EE, which Prince never says in the song. The name derives from the Greek, he's saying the name, he spells it weird so we understand it's not literal, the spelling (more than the pronunciation) strengthens the "anesthesia" connection--but he does not say it.

EddieC said:

He says Anna StAYzha--as many people pronounce the name Anastasia.

Ok, c'mon. The joke is over.

If you seriously think he is saying "StAYzha" insterad of "StEEEsia," after 29 years, I guess I need my hearing checked.

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

Good attempt, but the article had me up until this point: "with a title that recalls the Greek word for resurrection."

As I consider Anna Stesia to be the greatest song ever written by anyone, it amazes me how misunderstood the song is to this day. In the last 29 years since I first dropped the needle on this track, NEVER did the greek word for resurrection, enter my thoughts. He does not use the word Anastacia, in any context during this song.

The meaning is clear in the sense that Prince is in pain and simply wants to be pain free. The same way anesthesia makes a person numb person for medical surgery...he wants to feel no pain. He is clearly singing the word: Anesthesia, throughout the entire song.


Not sure what it will take to make this misperception go away, but for those of us at the concert in 1988, we got it! He explained it during his speech before the Anna Stesia guitar solo. Maybe it was because the tour didn't sell very well in America, that people still don't understand the song... I guess we'll never know.

Some of you folx need a cause in your life! LOL!

The author CLEARLY states the title "RECALLS" the word. It SOUNDS like the word. Nothing more. No need to make a fedreal case about it. Some people's children!

I think I read somewhere that "Anna Stesia" was Prince's mother's favorite of his songs.

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

EddieC said:

He says Anna StAYzha--as many people pronounce the name Anastasia.

Ok, c'mon. The joke is over.

If you seriously think he is saying "StAYzha" insterad of "StEEEsia," after 29 years, I guess I need my hearing checked.

And again, a point of agreement. You definitely do.

But, still a great song, and I'm sure there are other things we can find common ground on. But clearly we hear very different things when this track is playing. I'll see you in a different thread, because I don't mean this to be an argument, or to derail the thread. It was a single aside in the original article, and we've already gone on about the issue long enough.

zenarose said:

anyone not like this song??

Come on, he clearly sings "Anna StEsia"...

Does the syllable in question as Prince sings it rhyme with "tree" or does it rhyme with "tray"? If you honestly believe it rhymes with "tree"--well, that's a different recording of the song than the one I've had all this time, and I need to track that release down.

It also rhymes with "see", "sea", "me", "flea" and "rasberry" among others.

Phishanga said:

It also rhymes with "see", "sea", "me", "flea" and "rasberry" among others.

Got it. You're joking! And I'm bored.

Good, thanks. I love that song the only one masterpiece in that album.