wasitgood4u said:

Read it listen to the lyrics. A lot of his early songs and some later were intentionally ambiguous about whether the lover was male or female, but here the song has so much more meaning if it's to a guy (fictional or real).

Some fresh air is in order here. That is such a bizarre statement. You're literally suggesting Prince had a gay lover and was left flying solo on Christmas.

Prince said it was a total work of fiction. End of story.

TrivialPursuit said:

huh... what?

What in the lyrics makes you ask? The "Boy, he was upset that night, but, boy, was that ever cool?" I'm pretty sure those are just interjections. The word is often used this way, the same as man, as just an indication of some sort of intense feeling, like "man, that's terrible" or "man, that was great!" Without anything else in the song, there is no reason that I see to take it as a reference to the "you" of the song.

the lack of a gender-specific pronoun for the subject is not evidence or even an indication that it could be male. Now maybe he wrote it so it could be sung by a male or female...but then again some of his songs were sung by both with a change to a lyric here or there.

and some of the demos he sang for females do have some odd lines here and there... but so what?

The BIGGEST hint that it was about a woman was the fact that Prince was heterosexual. I do not get the obsession some have of projecting that Prince was gay or even bisexual...but whatever... it would make zero difference to me...

and HUH even if it was about a guy it would not change the meaning at all... not one bit.

I'm sure he was bicurious

wasitgood4u said:

Read it listen to the lyrics. A lot of his early songs and some later were intentionally ambiguous about whether the lover was male or female, but here the song has so much more meaning if it's to a guy (fictional or real).

I am not sure what songs you are listen to. He made himself very clear.

wasitgood4u said:

The lyrics are obviously intentionally ambiguous. I'm sure it's fictional but it seems to at least raise the possibility that it is a story about two guys. Why else would he say "of all your father's children" and not "daughters"? The main thing though is that in the context of '84, the verse about how the person died seems to imply AIDS. At the time the epidemic was at its height but most people who died from AIDS were said to have died of other things, often pneumonia but usually it wasn't completely clear. This song seems to me to be clearly a response to the AIDS epidemic, and a really sensitive one. I think that's why the gender is left ambiguous and even hinted that it's a guy. [Edited 12/23/17 7:58am]

"all your fathers children"....maybe God the father

luvsexy4all said:

Not at all, not even a bit

The father is upset because of swimming naked in the pool, because of the stereotypical patriarchal overprotection of a daughters' honor by a father.

The line about her "being so tall, that you scare the boys at school" (did not quote exactly but it is the line before I saw your sister skating on the lake) is because as Prince well knew it can be intimidaing to date a taller woman (old gender roles, the phenomena of a woman wanting a tall dark and handsome guy not a shorter man). I do not think that Prince is singing about a gay guy that is so tall at school that he scares the boys because he would be so b.... (not even going to finish this line of reasoning)

The girl screams when they gamble (play porqita? for money) because you hated the number nine. Once again a female (stereotypical quality of screaming out rather than the male stereotype of shouting or cursing Prince out)

Sure the lover in this story could be a giant screeching gay stereotype but I doubt Prince would write like this if he wanted to reveal something like this.

It is all Controversy. And to answer the questions, he was black not white, straight not gay, he did believe in God, he did not get high (not counting self-medication, his daddy did cry, and it was all just a game, and he did believe in peace.

robertgeorge said:

the AIDS thing in interesting but it would be a death of 1976 and that is pretty early for AIDS....

What if the song was about a guy. So what? Sometimes it snows in April is about a guy that died of AIDS..Have you ever wanted to play with someone so much
You'd take any one boy or girl? lyrics to Anastasia.

Are you a bunch of Homophobes?

[Edited 12/23/17 15:34pm]

[Edited 12/23/17 15:40pm]

OnlyNDaUsa said:

the lack of a gender-specific pronoun for the subject is not evidence or even an indication that it could be male. Now maybe he wrote it so it could be sung by a male or female...but then again some of his songs were sung by both with a change to a lyric here or there.

and some of the demos he sang for females do have some odd lines here and there... but so what?

The BIGGEST hint that it was about a woman was the fact that Prince was heterosexual. I do not get the obsession some have of projecting that Prince was gay or even bisexual...but whatever... it would make zero difference to me...

and HUH even if it was about a guy it would not change the meaning at all... not one bit.

I also doubt the OP's theory, but I'm pretty sure Prince never cared much if his lyrics suited the people he was giving the song.

For example:

Data Bank had an entire verse about Prince's height and ended with a roll call of his band members and sound engineer. Despite these very Prince-specific lyrics - the song was given to The Time.

In a more extreme case, Prince offered Lust U Always to someone, they turned it down. This was not surprising, given the lyrics referenced rape of all things.

_

So, I don't think he wrote it so it could be sung by a male or female, it's probably more down to his writing habits of the time or coincidence. Prince doesn't seem to consider this aspect much.

[Edited 12/23/17 16:16pm]

ufoclub said:

people tend to hear what they wanna hear. so if u "hear" him singing about a boy in that song it says much more about u than about prince ... that's what great lyrics are about ... u can interpret them as u like and others do as they like. it's as simple as that.

Revolution81 said:

wasitgood4u said:

robertgeorge said:

The line about her "being so tall, that you scare the boys at school"

There's no line like that. It's: "She swoons the boy skaters, she is so tall" Talking about the sister. Kinda strengthens my point in a way. Doesn't weaken it anyway. Never thought of the scream as a feminine thing. "Remember the night we played pokeno for money And you robbed me blind Remember how you used to scream so loud 'Cause you hated the number nine" Could be, though. Anyway, all just food for thought. He doesn't need to have been gay to write a song from a gay perspective or that could be read that way. I think the AIDS reference is clear and a major part of the song's topic. It could still be a girl but in '84 there was less awareness of straight people dying of AIDS except from needles (as in SOTT).

Sorry for not having rechecked the lyrics, I was being lazy and trying to cut corners.

My first view of the song remains my current view. I see it as the fictional account of tragic loss of an early if not first love. While Raspberry Beret is a free spirit who takes his virginity this is a more developed but earlier relationship.

To me the song strikes me as quite female male. The fathers overprotectiveness of his daughter, the younger sister growing up being an echo of the beautiful lady Prince has lost, (the skating on the lake also reminds me of the image of Joni Mitchell's river but is unrelated theme wise) and the screaming, swimming naked in the lake ties in with a girl next door with a wild side.

As for the death being AIDs, I would have thought the time frame was quite early, with sign of the times being quite pioneering and prescient three years later. While I always imagined the death to be sudden and unjust (I personally always imagined leukemia) with examples such as cancer, a car accident, a drowning, AIDS could actually fit, but it seems to be adding another string to a story of adolescent or near adolescent loss.

I would say I do not think it is about a gay lover, but as songs have a universal quality and it is about love then hey why not, whatever floats your boat. But I feel a little too much is being read into this.

"Hot Thing" about a George Foreman grill?

ufoclub said:

"Hot Thing" about a George Foreman grill?

who cares?