There seems to be an anti-drug song on almost every album. So many, it's hard to think of them all at once. Anyone got others than those listed below?

• Purple Music

• Something in the Water

• Sign O the Times

• Clouds

For a musician of his calibre, Prince certainly wrote a lot of songs laced with anti-drug messages eschewing and expressing an apprarent distate for chemical use as a means to find freedom from trauma. He’s unlike nearly every other musician in this vein from his contemporairies like Rick James, Coltrane to Cobain, Hendrix to George Michael, and Lennon to Whitney whose passion for making music seemed to have been tragically exlipsed by substance abuse. He’d have made far more money and likely topped more charts if he took a less hard stance against drugs in his most public artistic statements. It makes it even more strange that someone who espoused the physical and moral virtues of healthy vegetarian/vegan diets to give up the ghost the way he reportedly did.

[Edited 11/30/19 19:53pm]

Eye No

The Love We Make

My little pill?

Dream Factory

appleseed said:

There seems to be an anti-drug song on almost every album. So many, it's hard to think of them all at once. Anyone got others than those listed below?

• Purple Music

• Something in the Water

• Sign O the Times

• Clouds

For a musician of his calibre, Prince certainly wrote a lot of songs laced with anti-drug messages eschewing and expressing an apprarent distate for chemical use as a means to find freedom from trauma. He’s unlike nearly every other musician in this vein from his contemporairies like Rick James, Coltrane to Cobain, Hendrix to George Michael, and Lennon to Whitney whose passion for making music seemed to have been tragically exlipsed by substance abuse. He’d have made far more money and likely topped more charts if he took a less hard stance against drugs in his most public artistic statements. It makes it even more strange that someone who espoused the physical and moral virtues of healthy vegetarian/vegan diets to give up the ghost the way he reportedly did.

[Edited 11/30/19 19:53pm]

Pop Life? What are you putting in your nose?

Anyway, kudos to Prince for having given anyone food for thought on drugs in the cocaine-investet 80's. Here's another aspect of his personal stance he had in common with Frank Zappa. I very much doubt that he would have made „far more money“ if he wouldn't have been speaking his mind on drugs. That is a strange assumption. How would it have worked? Please elaborate.

appleseed said:

nextedition said:

appleseed said:

There seems to be an anti-drug song on almost every album. So many, it's hard to think of them all at once. Anyone got others than those listed below?

• Purple Music

• Something in the Water

• Sign O the Times

• Clouds

For a musician of his calibre, Prince certainly wrote a lot of songs laced with anti-drug messages eschewing and expressing an apprarent distate for chemical use as a means to find freedom from trauma. He’s unlike nearly every other musician in this vein from his contemporairies like Rick James, Coltrane to Cobain, Hendrix to George Michael, and Lennon to Whitney whose passion for making music seemed to have been tragically exlipsed by substance abuse. He’d have made far more money and likely topped more charts if he took a less hard stance against drugs in his most public artistic statements. It makes it even more strange that someone who espoused the physical and moral virtues of healthy vegetarian/vegan diets to give up the ghost the way he reportedly did.

[Edited 11/30/19 19:53pm]

I dont see how his point of view made an impact on his sales. He is not known for his anti-drug message. Purple music wasnt even releasef and SITW is not even about drugs. He hardly had songs about drugs. The opposite, I actually think a lot of people in the 80s thought he was on drugs lol

Only those who didn't listen.

nonesuch said:

nextedition said:

appleseed said: I dont see how his point of view made an impact on his sales. He is not known for his anti-drug message. Purple music wasnt even releasef and SITW is not even about drugs. He hardly had songs about drugs. The opposite, I actually think a lot of people in the 80s thought he was on drugs lol

Only those who didn't listen.

I just don't think Prince was known for his anti-drugssongs.

The op says there were so many, but than names 4 of which 1 wasnt released and 1 isn't about drugs.

Does Purple Rain has an anti-drugs song? Parade? Dirty mind? Batman?

nextedition said:

nonesuch said:

Only those who didn't listen.

I just don't think Prince was known for his anti-drugssongs.

The op says there were so many, but than names 4 of which 1 wasnt released and 1 isn't about drugs.

Does Purple Rain has an anti-drugs song? Parade? Dirty mind? Batman?

The term „anti-drug-song" really isn't chosen appropriately, when it comes to Prince. Nevertheless, he undisputably wrote quite a number of songs featuring anti-drug-messages (a term you used correctly). There may have been such messages on any of the records you have mentioned, because we can not possibly know every meaning of words correctly.

The Future
Play in the Sunshine

herb4 said:

The Future
Play in the Sunshine

Right, thanks for the reminder, I'd almost forgotten the line about Ecstasy in PITS.

nextedition said:

Does Purple Rain have an anti-drugs song?

the only thing I can think of is that one line in "Let's Go Crazy"....pills and thrills and daffodils will kill

maybe not anti-drug songs ..but tons of references to drugs

nextedition said:

nonesuch said:

Only those who didn't listen.

I just don't think Prince was known for his anti-drugssongs.

The op says there were so many, but than names 4 of which 1 wasnt released and 1 isn't about drugs.

Does Purple Rain has an anti-drugs song? Parade? Dirty mind? Batman?

The Future has the line "Yellow smiley offers me X" which could be interpreted as being about acid and/or ecstacy.

Pop Life

Temptation (loosely)

Eye No

Positivity

By Alien Means

Yo Mister

New Power Generation (Pt. II)

.

[Edited 12/1/19 13:18pm]

There are a lot of psychedelic songs that get played more often in clubs and parties because of their pro-drug messages. Rihanna is an excellent singer, but her embrace of popular (self-destructive) drug culture espousing it in her lyrics clearly boosts their reception in those circles. One would hope she'd know better being aware of how alcohol and other drugs destroy many communities including AAs and particularly some great AA women musicians.

"Cheers (Drink to That)"

"Pour It Up"

“Higher”

nonesuch said:

How would it have worked? Please elaborate.

JudasSmile said:

The long version of Alphabet St:

This is not music, this is a trip
No it's not a drug, it's something more hip


That's not necessarily anti-drug in that it doesn't explicity say that drugs are bad or should be avoided, but he is saying music is a better way to alter your mood than a chemical.

Drugs you get at a drugstore.

So why be against those?

Please be more specific...

good one. “stuck in the snow”

addiction is slavery.

jdcxc said:

Old Friends 4 Sale “Little did she know, when you're stuck in the snow Nobody gets out alive”

Anna Stesia

It's a bit more clear in the superior — if less elegant — “2002” unreleased version which references “Dr Fink” which is a play on both doctors and street drug dealers — aside from his former keyboardist Matt's stage name. The “Gregory” moment certainly sounds like someone is in or being tempted by a “temporary” (“4 a little while”) chemical haze of some sort and then looks for something higher:

Gregory looks just like a ghost
Then a beautiful girl the most
Wets her lips 2 say
"We could live 4 a little while
If U could just learn 2 smile
U and I could fly away, fly away"
Yeah...

Maybe, maybe, maybe I could learn 2 love
If I was just closer 2 somethin' (closer)
Closer 2 your higher self

“No it's not a drug, it's something more hip”

Seems pretty anti-drug (both Rx and “street”) to me and echoes early philosopher Edgar Cayce:

“The medicine of the future will be music and sound.”

lurker316 said:

The long version of Alphabet St:

This is not music, this is a trip
No it's not a drug, it's something more hip


That's not necessarily anti-drug in that it doesn't explicity say that drugs are bad or should be avoided, but he is saying music is a better way to alter your mood than a chemical.

appleseed said:

“No it's not a drug, it's something more hip”

Seems pretty anti-drug (both Rx and “street”) to me and echoes early philosopher Edgar Cayce:

“The medicine of the future will be music and sound.”

lurker316 said:

The long version of Alphabet St:

This is not music, this is a trip
No it's not a drug, it's something more hip


That's not necessarily anti-drug in that it doesn't explicity say that drugs are bad or should be avoided, but he is saying music is a better way to alter your mood than a chemical.

Yes, I think it's anti-drug too. But it's not *explicitly* anti-drug.

Saying X is hipper than Y doesn't necessarily mean Y is bad. It's just saying X is better.

If I say that I think Sign O The Times is hipper than Controversy, that statment doesn't mean I dislike Controversy. I may think Controversy is a very good album, I just think Sign O The Times is even better.

With that said, ultimately I believe Prince's intent with the line in Alphabet line was anti-drug.

How about "Don't Play Me?"

I know there's more but my memory is failing me. Usually, any "anti drug" message he wrote was a one off line within a larger song.

"My Little Pill" is creepy to contemplate given how shit worked out.

And "Clouds" doesn't seem about drugs to me. I thought he was talking about data storage and that cloud. Everybody getting off on putting everything they do into larger data storage and things like social media. Maybe not but "clouds" is only a "drug reference" for people who vape e-cigs. Could be a weed/THC reference but I never read it that way.

“We’re “bass-in” put the drugs away!”

That Nude Tour concert rehearsal for #Sex that's out there exempliefied how EXPLICIT Prince was and encouraged his bands to be about using using music instead of manufactured chemical drugs. #Clouds was merely one of his more explicit updates:

“We don't need no clouds.”

I've just read Morris Day's book. MD reckons Pop Life was Prince's message to him about going off the rails.

“If you want to escape and truly be
All the crack in Compton won't set you free”

“Escape (Free yo mind from this rat race)”, LoveSexy single