To be honest I never shared the general high appreciation of "Shhh".

By the way it is a nice track, I like it as it is, but I think that there are many more ballads in Prince songbook deserving more the status of "masterpiece".

On a side note, it didn't help me to go deep in the track the fact that it was an already released tune (at the time it wasn't usual for P to "rehash" something from his back released catalogue).

I also think the lyrics fit more with a young boy like Tevin Campbell than with a near 40 man.

But I repeat myself, I'm not sayin' I dislike the track.
Simply that I can't feel the same of it like many of you.

bonatoc said:

BoraBora said:

To be honest I never shared the general high appreciation of "Shhh".

By the way it is a nice track, I like it as it is, but I think that there are many more ballads in Prince songbook deserving more the status of "masterpiece".

On a side note, it didn't help me to go deep in the track the fact that it was an already released tune (at the time it wasn't usual for P to "rehash" something from his back released catalogue).

I also think the lyrics fit more with a young boy like Tevin Campbell than with a near 40 man.

But I repeat myself, I'm not sayin' I dislike the track.
Simply that I can't feel the same of it like many of you.

Don't you think it's transcended live?

I didn't care for it for years (like C&D), yeah, nice ballad, impressive tom rools, and that's it. Back to the shelf. The kind of initmacy was a bit unnerving, I kinda felt like Prince shared too much...
And the boombastic production, you have to give up and adhere, it's an all or nothing, take it or leave it (which sums up the whole "Slave" era).

But now I think it's a fantastic symphonic build-up, it's kinda "Alexa de Paris back in the U.S.S.A.", the great balance between tension and release, male and female, It's the "Do Me Baby" of the nineties, it's sexuality unabashed, with his axe (ain't nothin like a fresh pair of baggies) as the main err... medium.

Prince sums it up by saying "You make wanna..." and then the wood talks, because obviously words become kinda useless past a certain plateau.

Honestly, live. Paisley Park Celebration has 2, one night kinda crooner with a totally different instruments balance, and the following a more pleading voice, but both have guitar parts extraordinaire.

No band or artist would dare cover "Shhh" with the same all-on-11 approach. Tevin does his R&B stuff, which is nice and proves the song stands without the axe, but it's not SKipper's Love Armaggedon.
Back in Prince's hand, all pumped with audience adrenaline, sometimes the soloes go near Small Club's potency and originality. He tries stuff, and that's All That I Ask.

I mean, "Shhh" in particular, but the whole Canal Plus 2011 appearance beats the RNRHOF. Or rather, it's half an hour on RNRHOF levels, augmented with the intimacy of a good-proportioned television studio. Like 1987 MTV Awards, some audience folks don't know how to react to this, but there are enough of french doggies to bring it home.

I've seen pretty much every TV Shows apperances, and this is among the very best, and includes one of his most stylistically mature takes on "Shhh". They all play like Gods, at moments. This shit is too tite! And love flows. Prince and Andy in Paris, man!

[Edited 11/23/17 8:28am]

BoraBora said:

To be honest I never shared the general high appreciation of "Shhh".

By the way it is a nice track, I like it as it is, but I think that there are many more ballads in Prince songbook deserving more the status of "masterpiece".

On a side note, it didn't help me to go deep in the track the fact that it was an already released tune (at the time it wasn't usual for P to "rehash" something from his back released catalogue).

I also think the lyrics fit more with a young boy like Tevin Campbell than with a near 40 man.

But I repeat myself, I'm not sayin' I dislike the track.
Simply that I can't feel the same of it like many of you.

Ow, c'mon. What about SOTT and GB.
Argument rebuked.

PS: Sorry, I see you mention "released".
Slap me now.

[Edited 11/23/17 8:50am]

Oddly, for me and presumably for others it's the other way around.

I don't wanna enter young Tevin's bedroom with his girl.
That's akward, I'm not sixteen anymore. I'd feel like a teen voyeur.

But SKipper, I've already seen him grabbing Apollonia by the V of Leuuuve, not to say I'm confortable and not a bit hornied to my drawers by the situation, or by "Do Me Baby", à la Jaimie Foxx, but it's Prince, and we have "Hi School", be cool ice cool, so there.
It's not like Prince didn't show me his butt, heck, did I tell you about the time when I was in the first row at a Sign O' The Times show?

"after school" is a metaphor, and actually a funny one.
He really speaks about afterwork. He has the right to joke about it, given his work ethic.
The Man basically doesn't know about our regular lives.
He has to joke about it, otherwise he gets nuts. It's sacrifice, at times I'm pretty sure it was heavy on him not to let go.
And it is by believing he could write about and revive the souvenir of adolescent emotions (a roleplay in the initial writing of the song — or not? Or just given afterwards without Tevin in mind originally?), that it's good songwriting, it's good storytelling.

Keep in mind that if sometimes you don't like the lyrics, Prince was often going for the right syllab for the melody, the sound of Diphthongs and stuff.

If you feel uncomfortable with this line, you have to pass on Jerry Lee Lewis, Nabukov, Led Zep, Chuck Berry, Billy Idol, and many others and you'll miss a lot of the passions of the world, a lot of art.

[Edited 11/23/17 8:48am]

bonatoc said:

BoraBora said:

To be honest I never shared the general high appreciation of "Shhh".

By the way it is a nice track, I like it as it is, but I think that there are many more ballads in Prince songbook deserving more the status of "masterpiece".

On a side note, it didn't help me to go deep in the track the fact that it was an already released tune (at the time it wasn't usual for P to "rehash" something from his back released catalogue).

I also think the lyrics fit more with a young boy like Tevin Campbell than with a near 40 man.

But I repeat myself, I'm not sayin' I dislike the track.
Simply that I can't feel the same of it like many of you.

Ow, c'mon. What about SOTT and GB.
Argument rebuked.

I wrote "His Back Released Catalogue", not his back catalogue.

SOTT and GB contains outtakes from previous years, not new versions of songs already released.

Now if you like to count "When 2 R In Love" ok, but I think it is a very different thing.

Can't you see I'm drowning in a pool of shame!
Quit it, for the love of God!

[Edited 11/23/17 8:53am]

BoraBora, allow me to say that the chronology thing is still a bit stretched, now that we have good knowledge of his typical workflow.

I don't understand why it should be an a priori.
But the song performed live, don't you think it takes off?

bonatoc said:

BoraBora, allow me to say that the chronology thing is still a bit stretched, now that we have good knowledge of his typical workflow.

I don't understand why it should be an a priori.
But the song performed live, don't you think it takes off?

I'm just talkin' from the perspective of a fan who lived directly the release of TGE (I buyed P releases on released day from 1988), no problem at all with different opinions.
It is just my experience of the song according to my P musical journey, feelin' a little strange to see an artist returning on his work, something not common at the time.

Talkin' of "Shhh" live I think he did powerful renditions of it, agree.
But all in all the track doesn't reach the top of my P charts. Simply that.

It's a great track and a highlight on the album; perfectly placed in the track sequence too. reminds me a bit of Joy in Repetition in the way that it showcases Prince's range and its overall sort of mood. It's very haunting and sounds different every time you hear it. The thunderous drum solo intro abruptly that segues into a soft, slow tempo pace is exhilaratingly jarring, allowing for the changes of pace that come later.

Prince was good at this. I think of songs "Boom", Alexa De Paris" and "What's My Name" along these lines where the pacing was expertly timed; bringing you into what was almost a new song entirely but one that wouldn't have worked out of context or islolated.

SHHH was a highlight on the Musicology tour as well. Probably took a lot of people off guard.

'Shhh' got better with time, and it's all in Prince's fingerprints.

3121ver. in Las Vegas is the most furious i ever heard.

Mentioned Canal+ performance it's too much to handle -- Prince who was already living like a celibate in those years, an ascetic teaching us about his enternal topics love&sexy again, balancing between those earthly things & sacred. Candlelight? No, i can be your fire baby... i can be your light. Prince dont talk about profane, he never got twisted in that dualisam - sacred & profane, which is the infamous part of western civilization.

For him - Sex is there, but its not everything he thinks about, he think about U. Sex for him it's not enough, he gotta do it metaphysically. Like in those rare moments in classic ascetic literature where St. John of the Ladder (Climacus) in one letter in his famous 'The Ladder of Divine Ascent' is writing to monks and as an advise he talk to them to look up at passionte love between spouses as an example for them in their love for God.

In Prince's case, Shhh got more sense with time. You can hear it in guitar tone. It's not getting eaiser with Prince...

When he played the song live (I believe even for the first time) at the Palace of Tears, exactly 23 years ago today. I first met him just before that gig and it will always be special to me. I've had the song playing in my head all morning.

like the 6/7/94 version the best

CatB said:

When he played the song live (I believe even for the first time) at the Palace of Tears, exactly 23 years ago today. I first met him just before that gig and it will always be special to me. I've had the song playing in my head all morning.

Nice ! I was there that night,too. Great show.

And many celebrities in the audience.

BoraBora said:

To be honest I never shared the general high appreciation of "Shhh".

By the way it is a nice track, I like it as it is, but I think that there are many more ballads in Prince songbook deserving more the status of "masterpiece".

On a side note, it didn't help me to go deep in the track the fact that it was an already released tune (at the time it wasn't usual for P to "rehash" something from his back released catalogue).

I also think the lyrics fit more with a young boy like Tevin Campbell than with a near 40 man.

But I repeat myself, I'm not sayin' I dislike the track.
Simply that I can't feel the same of it like many of you.

Co-sign on every single thing you said.

bonatoc said:

I wonder how much Shhh is appriciated in general? I lot of songs of this caliber ppl take for granted, like - ok, that's Prince playing his shit etc.

Sometimes musican with guitars outhere are really stubborn and ignorant when it comes to P.

A lot of them are acting like they crack the code for songwriting or something. Let's talk about Shhh, you little pile of manure.

Prince really squeeze the last possible note with 2000s performances of Shhh, but who was doing the same thing around that time? It was still, how one journalist said, a delusional time of authenticity and trible pride that killed Kurt Cobian, 2puc, Biggie smalls, richey edwards... But Shhh stands out, along with I Hate U an instant classic -- and let's just be humble and notice that those classics are on the same album. Who does that?

Jeff Buckley's posthumous song 'Everybody Here Wants You' is a song channeling Prince. Jeff told it was Prince inspired... can't find info when EHWY is recorded (probably 2nd half '96), but i wonder is it Shhh a song tha moved Jeff or something from LoveSymbol album like Damn U...

KoolEaze said:

bonatoc said:

It sounds wrong to your ears.
Do I sense a slight pedophile alert?
I don't think he means it that way.

Don't you think it's a nod to the pure dirty stuff of adolescence?
With their nineties wealth and apogee, MJ went just like the child he never had the time to be, and Prince went just like the adolescent he never had the time to be.
But that's a theory.

No, I don´t.

As I wrote a few posts above, the song was written for Tevin with Tevin in mind as the singer, hence the viewpoint of a teenager (or young adult).

Just like he´d sometimes write songs to be sung by women (and from a female perspective, with according lyrics) this one was basically from Tevin´s perspective in mind.

It´s just that at some point he realized the song is too good to just be a song on a Tevin Campbell album so he reclaimed it and made it his own.

There´s even a recording where he cracks jokes about reclaiming it from Tevin , saying "Fuck yooou !" (literally) to Tevin.

Remember he was already older than 35 when he started singing his own version during concerts.

It´s one thing to be singing about 16 year old Mayté when you´re 33 but a whole different level of creepy when a man older than 35 sings about doing someone after school like some homework. Because at least ONE of the two parties involved is still going to school....and it is for sure not the singer but the person the song is about.

So, in a nutshell, no, I don´t think it is a nod to adolescence.

But hey, I like the song and its lyrics. It´s just that one line that rubs me the wrong way. He could have changed it , just like he changed other lyrics that did not make sense when sung by a man.

.

not everything in a song has to be taken so damn literally. whyt cant it be just about the feeling of freedom and fun you had at that age?

Talking to people, you realize their feeling of freedom and fun actually started after childhood.
There are homes with a prolonged verbal and psychological abuse. School days may not be tied to warm first time souvenirs.
There can be a lot of reasons. Prince certainly was raised with very mixed feelings about sexuality.
With the basement you get the groupies, even if you do it for the music in the first place.
Prince had love affairs pretty early in his life. That's what rock'n'roll's about.
The Beatles amidst the hookers. Jerry Lee and his cousin. Prince and Mayte.
Women take more control in this case than we usually give them credit for.
Love is not unidirectional. It never really is, otherwise it's spelled rape.

But "after school" it still is a metaphor.
"Watcha gonna do after Hi School?"
Like Let's Work. It's about Music (homework) AND Girls, not OR.
Now tell me they don't both require hard work.
Dale Bozzio approves this message.

I think it's like "Guitar".
It's a stupid, cruel song if you don't get that Prince is after the girl's reaction.
"I'm no better than a piece of wood? I'll show you".

What were we missing again? Ah, humour.

NorthC said:

Dammit man, why'd you have to steal my signature?

Wadz diss? U got some copywitz shit goin'on?
Who do I look like Baby? Yesstedayz fool?

[Edited 11/26/17 8:35am]

Whose fault it is if we both have taste?

I'll tell you what. I'll stop at "sails him away from his dreams",
but then you have to reply immediately after each one of my reponses,
otherwise it's a sad ending and Lawd I hate sad endings!

What's your timezone?

I never read the "homework" line as anything but a simple metaphor for "doing you". I think an underage tryst is a reach. then again, how old was Mayte then? hmmmm.... Re-reading the lyrics, Prince sounds like he's simply writing about a steamy affair that he wants to keep quiet ("Shhhh").

Like in "One Nite Alone":

"Let it sweeten my tongue and never speak it again. Cause this is our little secret."

herb4 said:

I never read the "homework" line as anything but a simple metaphor for "doing you". I think an underage tryst is a reach. then again, how old was Mayte then? hmmmm.... Re-reading the lyrics, Prince sounds like he's simply writing about a steamy affair that he wants to keep quiet ("Shhhh").

Like in "One Nite Alone":

"Let it sweeten my tongue and never speak it again. Cause this is our little secret."

Of course it´s a metaphor, and of course it is about doing someone (like some homework)....but all I´m saying is that this song was written for Tevin and hence the line about school and homework because back then Tevin was still young. It does sound odd when a 35 year old guy sings it, no matter how folks on this thread try to slice it.

But I´m honestly getting a bit tired of the passive-aggressive responses here who´re telling me to chill or people who are interpreting more into that line than there actually is.

I find it a bit creepy but still love the song, just like I find the Morning Papers or I Wanna Melt With U a bit creepy but still love both songs.

No big deal,really.

herb4 said:

I never read the "homework" line as anything but a simple metaphor for "doing you". I think an underage tryst is a reach. then again, how old was Mayte then? hmmmm.... Re-reading the lyrics, Prince sounds like he's simply writing about a steamy affair that he wants to keep quiet ("Shhhh").

Like in "One Nite Alone":

"Let it sweeten my tongue and never speak it again. Cause this is our little secret."

Exactly. Co-sign !

bonatoc said:

BoraBora said:

To be honest I never shared the general high appreciation of "Shhh".

By the way it is a nice track, I like it as it is, but I think that there are many more ballads in Prince songbook deserving more the status of "masterpiece".

On a side note, it didn't help me to go deep in the track the fact that it was an already released tune (at the time it wasn't usual for P to "rehash" something from his back released catalogue).

I also think the lyrics fit more with a young boy like Tevin Campbell than with a near 40 man.

But I repeat myself, I'm not sayin' I dislike the track.
Simply that I can't feel the same of it like many of you.

Don't you think it's transcended live?

I didn't care for it for years (like C&D), yeah, nice ballad, impressive tom rools, and that's it. Back to the shelf. The kind of initmacy was a bit unnerving, I kinda felt like Prince shared too much...
And the boombastic production, you have to give up and adhere, it's an all or nothing, take it or leave it (which sums up the whole "Slave" era).

But now I think it's a fantastic symphonic build-up, it's kinda "Alexa de Paris back in the U.S.S.A.", the great balance between tension and release, male and female, It's the "Do Me Baby" of the nineties, it's sexuality unabashed, with his axe (ain't nothin like a fresh pair of baggies) as the main err... medium.

Prince sums it up by saying "You make wanna..." and then the wood talks, because obviously words become kinda useless past a certain plateau.

Honestly, live. Paisley Park Celebration has 2, one night kinda crooner with a totally different instruments balance, and the following a more pleading voice, but both have guitar parts extraordinaire.

No band or artist would dare cover "Shhh" with the same all-on-11 approach. Tevin does his R&B stuff, which is nice and proves the song stands without the axe, but it's not SKipper's Love Armaggedon.
Back in Prince's hand, all pumped with audience adrenaline, sometimes the soloes go near Small Club's potency and originality. He tries stuff, and that's All That I Ask.

I mean, "Shhh" in particular, but the whole Canal Plus 2011 appearance beats the RNRHOF. Or rather, it's half an hour on RNRHOF levels, augmented with the intimacy of a good-proportioned television studio. Like 1987 MTV Awards, some audience folks don't know how to react to this, but there are enough of french doggies to bring it home.

I've seen pretty much every TV Shows apperances, and this is among the very best, and includes one of his most stylistically mature takes on "Shhh". They all play like Gods, at moments. This shit is too tite! And love flows. Prince and Andy in Paris, man!

[Edited 11/23/17 8:28am]

I love the chord progression he plays just before going into the solo.