he also had this painted on the wall in his rainbow 'bedroom'

It's pretty straightforward, to me. (I'm typing this before I read Van's statement). It's about perception. Even Dr. Phil says, "there is no reality, only perception" (with more broad strokes).

Remember that Prince really liked The Matrix and the idea that our 'reality' isn't so real. We are programmed by television, social constructs, and opinion into believing whatever is true. Prince even referenced that it could be 1492, not 1999 on the Rave DVD. We don't know. We have a construct of time but is an hour really an hour? What if a day was actually 17.56 hours? Or 76? We have constructed an idea of what time is but, in reality, time doesn't exist. It is man's way to divide up a day and explain earth's rotation around a star. Prince seemed to watch TV of course, but also criticized news outlets, and advertising outlets creating an idea of beauty, or wealth, or health. We are easily distracted by the latest and greatest device, gadget, car, or whatever totally forgetting the simple interaction between a husband and wife, the children, a neighbor, a sibling, or one's best friend.

Coupled with that, I think he also believed in the idea that "you create your own reality". I am a staunch believer in this concept. What we believe is our reality. It's how we interact with the world and, in turn, it's how the world reacts to us. People that always have a streak of bad luck, are usually ones who think they have the worst luck, everything is bad, and nothing works in their favor. They grumble at everything, and people will often stay away from them not wanting to be around a negative energy. (The exception being misery loves company.)

On the opposite side, people who go out into the world with a better attitude and a good disposition will often have people react to them similarly. if that person walks into a coffee shop, smiles, says please and thank you is likely to have the same returned to them rather than grumpy reactions.

So, what you think, is true. Good or bad. Prince also talked about this in "The One" preamble.

To me it was just a good joke.

He entered the stage in his superstar manner.

I guess some people just thought "wow", and some might have thought "who does he think he is"?

So, it was his humorous way of saying "whatever you think about me: I'm fine".

It's a statement that sounds all mysterious and profound until you start to think about it. It's just silly. Nah, sorry Prince - I can think all I want that I will give birth to the Titanic tomorrow morning, but it ain't gonna happen! These empty statements which were a regularity from Prince were an aspect of him that I found increasingly annoying as time went on. Still miss that skinny mofo though

BlueShakooo said:

To me it was just a good joke.

So, it was his humorous way of saying "whatever you think about me: I'm fine".

So much he had it painted in his old office/spare bedroom at Paisley Park.

i think he meant..if u believe it its true....whether its true or not

IstenSzek said:

knowing prince he probably meant that you shouldn't dwell on negative shit
or engage in hate toward people or be bitter, since if you dwell on that stuff
it becomes a part of you. so you have to be mindful of the stuff you think or
speak about.

seems more likely than simply 'if you think it you can do it'

so instead of a positive mantra i see it more like a reminder/warning.

TrivialPursuit said:

BlueShakooo said:

To me it was just a good joke.

So, it was his humorous way of saying "whatever you think about me: I'm fine".

So much he had it painted in his old office/spare bedroom at Paisley Park.

On another note, I can see 5 records there, the first one is Bitches Brew and the third ons is LotusFlower but what are the other three albums? Any one know?

TrivialPursuit said:

It's pretty straightforward, to me. (I'm typing this before I read Van's statement). It's about perception. Even Dr. Phil says, "there is no reality, only perception" (with more broad strokes).

Remember that Prince really liked The Matrix and the idea that our 'reality' isn't so real. We are programmed by television, social constructs, and opinion into believing whatever is true. Prince even referenced that it could be 1492, not 1999 on the Rave DVD. We don't know. We have a construct of time but is an hour really an hour? What if a day was actually 17.56 hours? Or 76? We have constructed an idea of what time is but, in reality, time doesn't exist. It is man's way to divide up a day and explain earth's rotation around a star. Prince seemed to watch TV of course, but also criticized news outlets, and advertising outlets creating an idea of beauty, or wealth, or health. We are easily distracted by the latest and greatest device, gadget, car, or whatever totally forgetting the simple interaction between a husband and wife, the children, a neighbor, a sibling, or one's best friend.

Coupled with that, I think he also believed in the idea that "you create your own reality". I am a staunch believer in this concept. What we believe is our reality. It's how we interact with the world and, in turn, it's how the world reacts to us. People that always have a streak of bad luck, are usually ones who think they have the worst luck, everything is bad, and nothing works in their favor. They grumble at everything, and people will often stay away from them not wanting to be around a negative energy. (The exception being misery loves company.)

On the opposite side, people who go out into the world with a better attitude and a good disposition will often have people react to them similarly. if that person walks into a coffee shop, smiles, says please and thank you is likely to have the same returned to them rather than grumpy reactions.

So, what you think, is true. Good or bad. Prince also talked about this in "The One" preamble.

Attitude does matter, both one's own and even other people's attitudes towards you. I always have been amazed by that classic research that randomly put children who were good, average, and poor students into groups in which their next teacher was told that they were either good or poor students regardless of their prior academic performance. They found that the teacher's attitude towards them based on this initial information (misinformation) predicted how well they did in the class rather than how well they had done previously. The historically good students started thinking of themselves negatively if the teachers were misinformed that they were poor students and ultimately did poorly and vice versa for the poor students who the teachers were informed were good students. In this case, Prince was right. Perception is everything. You could imagine how this phenomena plays into racism and other isms.

TrivialPursuit said:

It's pretty straightforward, to me. (I'm typing this before I read Van's statement). It's about perception. Even Dr. Phil says, "there is no reality, only perception" (with more broad strokes).

Remember that Prince really liked The Matrix and the idea that our 'reality' isn't so real. We are programmed by television, social constructs, and opinion into believing whatever is true. Prince even referenced that it could be 1492, not 1999 on the Rave DVD. We don't know. We have a construct of time but is an hour really an hour? What if a day was actually 17.56 hours? Or 76? We have constructed an idea of what time is but, in reality, time doesn't exist. It is man's way to divide up a day and explain earth's rotation around a star. Prince seemed to watch TV of course, but also criticized news outlets, and advertising outlets creating an idea of beauty, or wealth, or health. We are easily distracted by the latest and greatest device, gadget, car, or whatever totally forgetting the simple interaction between a husband and wife, the children, a neighbor, a sibling, or one's best friend.

Coupled with that, I think he also believed in the idea that "you create your own reality". I am a staunch believer in this concept. What we believe is our reality. It's how we interact with the world and, in turn, it's how the world reacts to us. People that always have a streak of bad luck, are usually ones who think they have the worst luck, everything is bad, and nothing works in their favor. They grumble at everything, and people will often stay away from them not wanting to be around a negative energy. (The exception being misery loves company.)

On the opposite side, people who go out into the world with a better attitude and a good disposition will often have people react to them similarly. if that person walks into a coffee shop, smiles, says please and thank you is likely to have the same returned to them rather than grumpy reactions.

So, what you think, is true. Good or bad. Prince also talked about this in "The One" preamble.

mcslomo said:

On another note, I can see 5 records there, the first one is Bitches Brew and the third ons is LotusFlower but what are the other three albums? Any one know?

There are endless threads about these investigation pictures and stickies. People are literally detailing what's in every room, including those records.

Descartes "I think therefore I am" came from him exploring if life was all a dream or life was real. He would sit around in places in isolation thinking. He came to the conclusion that life was real that the evidence was he could think. With that said all thoughts are true. One only needs isolation and thinking to solve complex issues or create. Thoughts are real/true.

You create your own reality. I think he was very skilled at manifesting.

donnyenglish said:

Very profound statement that moves me. I compare it to “all of it ... is U” from affirmation iii. It is about our fate/destiny, our connection to all things, ournconnection to our creator and our love for one another.

Don't forget moving your ass when it's time to collectively garbage clean the woods nearby.
I'm all for spiritual shit and stuff, but there are times when you heed a certain call,
and we have no time for Aquarius age and all that shit. We'll celebrate after, once Big Blue is safe.

You have to be very careful with this kind of philosophy. You could go through years all self-convinced everything is fine, because your personal experience is. It's all very around the navel, all this. Matrix is all about getting out of Plato's cave, not indulging in it, or marveling at your own shadow.

I take it more like a warning: "you can fool yourself so easily". The first degree interpretation development leads inevitably to "everyone thinks, therefore everything that everyone ever thinks is true", which doesn't make sense and smells like an alibi in advance for any behaviour. Could what a nazi thinks true, be actually true? It's intellectually sterile.

The only "true" premice seems to be: The nature of truth is the most difficult to define for humanity, because it tries to universally reconcile experiences that greatly vary from human being to human being.

He seemed to crave all this "chosen one", paranoid christic shit (hence the JW, probably).
Typical rock star syndrome, no big deal.

But hey, I love the guy, of course I would need some self-coaching too ("proeminently displayed", cf. TTDA), I guess, given the "mission" Prince felt like having. Except I'm tired out of slogans, meme lines, all this "let's condense a complex subject in 140 characters" shit. Everyone wants to sound self-improving yet nothing improves. Less criminality in evolving countries? When you're sedated with drugs, sex and internet, you're not stealing. Doesn't look like much improvement, unless the human being defines itself as something higher than an economical agent. When all truths are the same ("Everything I think is true. Everyone thinks, therefore everything that everyone ever thinks is true. Therefore all truths are true. Yay!"), like the Buddhists and others would like to be, good luck with that. Accept the chaos my ass. This is not a divine doom, this is our intelligences and energies daily wasted on our navels, or someone else's navel. We've been kept in perpetual adolescence. Paying your bills doesn't make you an adult. It takes an adult to know.

If Prince can have it because he's at peace with himself and rightly so, "Everything is you"’s meaning, to me, to you, should scare the beejeezus out of all of us regular human beings, because we certainly ain't making a big success out of dealing with a now ineluctabily interconnected world. If we all are one, as Jimmy Cliff sings, then we're some undecided, spoiled rotten, violent or lazy body, depending on the weather and the latest flavour. Until now, the best we can do seems to have a Big Baby in the White House who thinks women words (or testimonies) are disposable in a five days recycle bin, and women bodies can be grabbed, who finds an army of female slaves in WASPitude no better than the female muslims who defend the veil, and quite a bunch of other ego-inflated sociopaths put in place by powers above them, eating the planet, green-washing, teaching commerce, or business, or marketing.

Prince tries to sing "Everything is you" and tries to find a place where it rings true, except it leaves the line to a woman's voice in the end. That says something about what he ultimately thinks of the male. His limits. Prince is all for Dogma, he hopes God is a Woman who's gonna jump on him and make love to him (like nobody can) the second he crosses the Pearly Gates.

— Time for a trivia, kids!
— Yeahhhh, trivia! Trivia!
— Here it comes: a spotlight is placed so its light bounces
on the small mirror table and highlights, eye-shaped, "Eve",
thus rewriting the phrase: "Eve, (Eve)rything U think Is True".
Note how the table reads "Eve" only. Can this mean Prince only trusts his feminine side to get to the truth?
Or mere coincidence? We'll be right back after a message from our sponsor Squirells'n'Ribs®.
('— what fucking lame trivia shit iz diss?' — B.G.)

If "everything is you" can truly mean anything, it's only to persons like Prince, because he's one who lived a life accordingly. Not all of it, but that's the journey, the whole point.
By AOA, He can enjoy the buddhist shit of it, he can relax (if only the physical pain would go oh away),
the Max is in control, he doesn't have to brag anymore about anything. He can go for a ride and breathe some fresh air, no more monk "no-sunshine" lifestyle. One of the (probable) resasons he starts to look like a vampire in the nineties is that he spends his whole life in a studio. OK, maybe you get some UV when you cross PP's hall, but they ain't worth a dime.

Don't put "Affirmation pt. III" in the discussion, please. AOA and his narrative comes from a man who has dreams of peaceful transcendance, who experiences terrible daily pain, it's not your layman's usual self-improvement doctrine in a few words, it's not the same as a self-coaching Helvetica meme text you glued on the wall (and now the same shit repeatedly read on a wall again and again doesn't make a truth more truthful, does it? Doesn't it turn into brainwashing yourself?).

Nothing that is true is worth repeating like a mantra.
It just is. Sadly, when it comes to the world not much can be considered as "true" except that fire burns, you know, monkey stuff, just like in "2001", right before the apes enlightenment. A woman's testimony, hopefully?


P.S. : "Nothing that is true is worth repeating like a mantra." — and yet, when I think about the many times before the grave we'll have to repeat listening to Prince is good for the Soul to unenlightened folks around us, I would take your usual Bonnie's loghorrea with a grain of salt, should I must eat it (just eat it! Eat it! Just eat it! Have some more chicken, etc.).

[Edited 10/13/18 9:21am]

I think he meant it in the broader sense that what you think and believe informs your worldview and guides your decision making and outlook. Not "if I believe the earth is flat then it is".

herb4 said:

I think he meant it in the broader sense that what you think and believe informs your worldview and guides your decision making and outlook. Not "if I believe the earth is flat then it is".

I think it was just a big eastern influenced motivation sign.
It borders on "be in the moment, the now". It's also a bit cogito ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am").

I guess Prince used it to clean negative thoughts out of his mind by focusing on the positive ;
the concept of Noosphere, Gaia and stuff.
Assuming all living beings are interconnected, adding bad thoughts
to a hypothetical telepathic network of the souls pollutes it de facto.
Therefore, be careful of what you think (or focus your mind on).

But displayed like that, it's kind of military : "Do not ever let a negative thought stay in your mind for too long, for it may start to take form, even in your mind.".

But maybe again, Prince was an alien in its way to deal with existence (no one on this forum can claim to have produce as much ideas and concepts, let alone giving existence to many of them, from the recorded to the performed). It still sounds like a motivator to me. I sense responsibility in it, but that may just be me.

I kinda like this theory of not polluting the telepathic sphere with thoughts born out of revenge, jealousy, greed, etc.
Just forming them in yo mind makes them true on some level, dig it?
Dude, pass it now. now. now.
Or later, whatever, nevermind.

If this theory has even a little truth in it, keep in mind SKipper was fond of this crossing of the spiritual theories.
It's a bit christian (do not harm the community of souls by adding shit to the mix), a bit JW self-aggrandizing ("Man, I thought so hard about a thing the other day it ended up becoming true! - Big deal, I do it everyday."), a bit eastern philosophies ("you is all, all is you"). For a man with such a lonely lifestyle (by intent: I don't mean "sad and lonely", just that interactions with people were fragmented by the pace of Prince's agenda), it's baffling to witness his constant thirst for a sense of community through all is life.

The best thing about Prince is that he says what he means, and means what he says.
He may have said some bullshit here and there over the years, but Prince was never caught advocating something else than the values he believed very early on. He's been horny, show-off, arrogant, but just for the sake of the play. Underneath, the boy is something else. It's great to aspire to become a philanthropist, it's even greater to actually become one twenty years after the initial thought was formed.

His short nineties "falling in love" with himself, the moment he sensed he was walking into that trap, he wrote EVALS on his cheek, not his notebooks. His cheek, for all to see, himself included. You may say the topic needed publicity, but that's partially true. Prince wanted the world to see he was at conflict, and he had Posted-It® right on his face in case he forgets — or worse, U-turns on — this newfound (born-again) call for artistic (and financial) independance.

Because the first thing we all thought was: "well, is he going through the day with 'slave' on his cheek ALL the time? Does he get up in the morning and rush to the mirror to write EVALS?". Maybe not articulated like this, but it was a big deal. At first and from a distance, most of us thought his ego got the best of him. Nope, he was just being true to himself and bringing everyone's attention on value. Where does it come from? How is it shared? Personal questions to him, yet pretty universal in the big scheme of capitalism. "The Revolution", man. Someone who comes up with such a strong name for a band better not be caught betraying the original spirit of the word. Especially in "career act II". He was that close to become mainstream and a zillionnaire, and then he wakes up, even tries to get Madge on the bus. Probably the other guy, too. Everyone got chicken, except for the fucking Lone Purple Communard, who wouldn't stay put and stormed the Bastille that was the Music Industry all by himself.

He may have been full of shit at his worse (beware the stories about casting stones), but as a fan, I was never betrayed into something it was not. I don't think he ever really parjured himself, he stayed true to what he was feeling on the moment, without much consideration for money (and alas, sometimes for people's feelings). It's all in the 1985 MTV Interview ("can we be frank?"). I don't think it was easy for him to let ideas and people on the floor, but when what you think actually becomes true, meaning when you achieve enough to finance and bring to life your own visions, it bears a great deal of responsibility towards all the folks who depend on you. There is no tour crew member that has come up with something bad to say about the man. All these years. You may love or not some of Prince's incarnations, but he never lied about who he was or what he was experiencing at some point in time. He could have kept his JW belief private and personal, right? Nah, he makes a whole album about it.

Prince clearly states in the MTV interview and others that his main source of inspiration is made of his experiences. When he started to record on a real daily basis in the nineties, thanks to PPS, it became even more true, and that explains why some of the nineties production is at times on repeat and thematically poor: there aren't so many songs you can record with a band whose subject is yourself recording a song with your band. But if the rap form (talking about how great you are) ends to be somewhat sterile in the end (although Prince may be a thousand times entitled to brag about how great his talents are), the style, the personal imprint has always been there. Even when the page turns to blank, he's still digging and challenging himself, trying to come up with something that is sincerely him, even when the basis comes, for lack of inspiration, from other beats and other musical forms than his own. But still, he doesn't copy or repeat himself. He never became his self caricature. He made winks and puns and sonic references about his past carreer. Not the same thing as the winning formula replication most others choose as a career in pop.

I think the reason he came up with some many hairstyles during the nineties is mainly a search for himself (for the truth, if we have to aggrandize it to Prince's measures). I mean, Prince's love for his own reflection was never (maybe aside form the Versace incident) gratuitous. His work is his journal, and we, connoisseurs of The Vault since early on, have been knowing that for years : that one (more) thing that distinguishes Prince from the rest of the songwriters is that most of all the hallucinations, visions, cracking laughs contained in his songs are biographic. Most of the songwriters, they come up with universal themes around love, like they aim to please a market share.

Prince goes the other way. His personal experience comes first, then he looks for common ground. The way "Uptown" is written is precisely that: Prince writes his story as he lives it, and he doesn't spare none of the intimacy. He knows, early on, that theatricals are more than just this big industry or his paycheck: they're catharsis. First personal, and then if you're lucky and the stars align (and work your ass off), a common catharsis is achieved with the crowds, be it record buyers or concert goers. Very few pop artists took their job as seriously, without ever be professoral about it. It's usually jazz, classical, they're incredible bo oh boy do they think highly of themselves. Sting, Macca and their classical albums. Elton John singing for Diana. Peh-leaze, Louise. Heads big as balloon indeed. Prince, in comparison, he's a fucking communist, a dangerous stakhanovist that doesn't even put his earnings on Wall Street to feed Spooky Electric's minions, no, he stocks Gold. Have him arrested NOW.

That's what non-fans don't get when we're speaking about Prince's humbleness. There is such a constant work and attention to details in his work throughout, yet he never brags about it. He usually compliments other musicians. If he's cocky, that's on tape and it does not count as serious. Bear in mind, us musicians, we're pretty much all "less gifted" than Prince, wherever we are, whatever we play. Prince is hard on amateurs AND pros. SKipper not only leads the boat, he's the motherfucking admiral of the whole armada. Good luck coming up with such a Royal Flush of abilities in your deck.

He may brag about his Bambi eyes and Wonderful Ass, his wit, his (fantasized) way with the ladies (hum). OK, he bragged a lot. But the work, it's just there, and it has to be judged on its quality, not on the quantity of makeup Prince was wearing that particular year. You do not like a song? Fine. But is the song dishonest? Or is it simply a snapshot of Prince at a specific point in time indulging in big money (or JW religion, or Rap, or preset sounds, what have you)? Simply Prince traversing a life phase, as we all do.

Prince doesn't shy away from documenting himself at any time in his career. Because he has great respect for the role of the representational artist, the comedian blurring lines between the stage and the personal, he documents his whole journey, making the journey itself, the much sought-after connection with the rest of the people. It's already not easy to fit in for the basic John Doe, but how do you fit in the 20st century production chain when all you want to do is sing and play? Sure, you can make a living out of it, but fit in? The job itself sets you apart.

So Prince's storytelling writes himself. As he lives it. "Everything you think is true" is a bizarre way to put it, but Prince accessed a power (I don't like that word) over his environment that few experience. If one can live with WDC, PR and Kiss royalties only for the whole year, the rest is just extra money, say, extra money to make videos, yeah, let's make videos.

The nineties are to some degree disturbing for the level of egocentricity, but it can't be denied it was a very transparent psychoanalysis, a public one, and that it signified that whatever lifestyle Prince would lead, whatever phase he would go through, it would be laid on tape, daily. His mood, his love affairs, his views on society, it's a constant flow, sometimes disguised as a dance track (when one can't help the funk face, what does one do? He plays funk), of Prince's daily life. And the story basically goes: he stayed true to himself, at the risk of not caring for himself or his business or his decade-acquired career.

Note that it is a close cousin to "Everything you know is true".
Whatever it is, it had probably more layers of meaning for Prince's fertile imagination
and quirky intelligence than the single one we try to pin on it. It probably sparked some discussions.
One comes in the room and reads this in Helvetica 192 pt., she has to ask.

From the Mojo interview, Detroit 1986 : "My way is usually the best way".
Close enough.

Wait for it: