Agree. I really doubt that it was a jab at journalists. I don't think he was having problems with the press at the time this album was released- all of that trouble came later on. He was the music critics darling back then so he was getting good press. This type of thinking is the same as saying Prince didn't like tourists either- 'Tourists. 89 flowers on their back. Inventors of the Acu-Jack.'

Weird question... the whole song is a jab at journalists, music journalists to be exact. The kind of warmed over semi-hippies that were discussing everything on the basis of Dylan, Hendrix, the Beatles and the Beach Boys. There still are a few left of those, but in the early 80s, they were the norm.

.

And that line.. it is similar to "get a job, hippies" or "get a haircut!" which were (are?) very common expressions. I do believe that it is a jab towards journalists, but only in somuch as the song is. At that point, Prince considered himself more avantgarde, closer to Devo and Gary Numann than to "the old school", being bands like EWF, GCS, Sly, P-Funk... you know, bands he held up as shining examples later in his career.

.

During musicology and later era, I always wanted to play him New Power Generation (or even Bold Generation) as a joke, to see if he could take it as such as well.

Hmm. It could be. Rock n' Roll journalism started in the 60's and the crowd from Rolling Stone and Creem and so on had a certain look by the 80's where they were trapped in 1975. Writers in general looked like that with the oversized wire glasses and shaggy dandruff hair.

Hippie was just a good pejorative in he early 80's, it wasn't like people meant it literally.

mediumdry said:

Weird question... the whole song is a jab at journalists, music journalists to be exact. The kind of warmed over semi-hippies that were discussing everything on the basis of Dylan, Hendrix, the Beatles and the Beach Boys. There still are a few left of those, but in the early 80s, they were the norm.

.

And that line.. it is similar to "get a job, hippies" or "get a haircut!" which were (are?) very common expressions. I do believe that it is a jab towards journalists, but only in somuch as the song is. At that point, Prince considered himself more avantgarde, closer to Devo and Gary Numann than to "the old school", being bands like EWF, GCS, Sly, P-Funk... you know, bands he held up as shining examples later in his career.

.

During musicology and later era, I always wanted to play him New Power Generation (or even Bold Generation) as a joke, to see if he could take it as such as well.

And you know this how??? Sounds more like what you think than how Prince actually "considered himself". I don't think Prince pegged himself much. And you left out Stevie Wonder.

poppys said:

mediumdry said:

Prince considered himself more avantgarde, closer to Devo and Gary Numann than to "the old school", being bands like EWF, GCS, Sly, P-Funk... you know, bands he held up as shining examples later in his career.

And you know this how??? Sounds more like what you think than how Prince actually "considered himself". I don't think Prince pegged himself much. And you left out Stevie Wonder.

.

Plenty others I didn't name. Anyway, who do I know this? In part in the way that Rick James, who looked back quite blatantly, was described. But I think if you listen to the "song" Grace, by The Time, it is blatantly obvious. The reporter asks about their "funky" sound and Morris (so Prince..) goes off on how they are not funk artists.

.

He wanted to be on the vanguard and be something new. By the way, I do not mean to imply he forgot about the funk in his music, just that he felt he was part of the "new thing" more than that he was old school. The lyrics to Bold Generation and New Power Generation are quite clear on that as well.

mediumdry said:

mediumdry said:

Weird question... the whole song is a jab at journalists, music journalists to be exact. The kind of warmed over semi-hippies that were discussing everything on the basis of Dylan, Hendrix, the Beatles and the Beach Boys. There still are a few left of those, but in the early 80s, they were the norm.

.

And that line.. it is similar to "get a job, hippies" or "get a haircut!" which were (are?) very common expressions. I do believe that it is a jab towards journalists, but only in somuch as the song is. At that point, Prince considered himself more avantgarde, closer to Devo and Gary Numann than to "the old school", being bands like EWF, GCS, Sly, P-Funk... you know, bands he held up as shining examples later in his career.

.

During musicology and later era, I always wanted to play him New Power Generation (or even Bold Generation) as a joke, to see if he could take it as such as well.

poppys said

And you know this how??? Sounds more like what you think than how Prince actually "considered himself". I don't think Prince pegged himself much. And you left out Stevie Wonder.

.

Plenty others I didn't name. Anyway, who do I know this? In part in the way that Rick James, who looked back quite blatantly, was described. But I think if you listen to the "song" Grace, by The Time, it is blatantly obvious. The reporter asks about their "funky" sound and Morris (so Prince..) goes off on how they are not funk artists.

.

He wanted to be on the vanguard and be something new. By the way, I do not mean to imply he forgot about the funk in his music, just that he felt he was part of the "new thing" more than that he was old school. The lyrics to Bold Generation and New Power Generation are quite clear on that as well.

All this sounds exactly like the critics Prince was making fun of in this song. Cracks me up when people want to tell him stuff to his face too (as a joke, hilarious). I'm sure he would have seen the error of his ways and thanked you.

[Edited 6/1/20 4:34am]

poppys, I'm not sure I follow your logic? How is what I said like the critics Prince was making fun of? Also.. what did he do wrong according to me? Let's not play strawman here. Are you saying ATCLYINY is to be considered a joke?

.

Are you saying it is impossible to know what Prince wanted or how he considered himself in the music pantheon? If so, I guess we have different opinions. If you are saying you can't have a good picture of what he was thinking, to me that's like saying the success of Purple Rain was a lucky coincidence instead of Prince working extremely hard to finetune his music, image and band to achieve it (and then getting bored with it quickly after he got there, although seemingly unwilling to let go of his new status...)

.

If you want to discuss it, I'm here. If not, let people respond in the thread about the topic and stay away.

mediumdry said:

poppys, I'm not sure I follow your logic? How is what I said like the critics Prince was making fun of? Also.. what did he do wrong according to me? Let's not play strawman here. Are you saying ATCLYINY is to be considered a joke?

.

Are you saying it is impossible to know what Prince wanted or how he considered himself in the music pantheon? If so, I guess we have different opinions. If you are saying you can't have a good picture of what he was thinking, to me that's like saying the success of Purple Rain was a lucky coincidence instead of Prince working extremely hard to finetune his music, image and band to achieve it (and then getting bored with it quickly after he got there, although seemingly unwilling to let go of his new status...)

.

If you want to discuss it, I'm here. If not, let people respond in the thread about the topic and stay away.

Just because you don't understand my point, doesn't mean I'm not discussing or should "stay away". Critics are very much a breed for the most part, they're either getting paid or have an ego to fill. Art exists without critics, but critics don't exist without Art.

I presume you're painting me a critic then? Your remarks seemed to be mere trolling, but I'm willing to take in it's not, so please elaborate.

mediumdry said:

I presume you're painting me a critic then? Your remarks seemed to be mere trolling, but I'm willing to take in it's not, so please elaborate.

Already asked and answered - you painted yourself a critic below. Nice try on the trolling comment.

mediumdry said:

...And that line.. it is similar to "get a job, hippies" or "get a haircut!" which were (are?) very common expressions. I do believe that it is a jab towards journalists, but only in somuch as the song is. At that point, Prince considered himself more avantgarde, closer to Devo and Gary Numann than to "the old school", being bands like EWF, GCS, Sly, P-Funk... you know, bands he held up as shining examples later in his career.

.

During musicology and later era, I always wanted to play him New Power Generation (or even Bold Generation) as a joke, to see if he could take it as such as well.

oh well, you can't distinguish between critical thinking and being a critic. And Prince was known as a practical joker (see many many interviews with people he worked with) and I wonder if he could take a joke as well as he gave... but nevermind, you don't want to discuss.

mediumdry said:

oh well, you can't distinguish between critical thinking and being a critic. And Prince was known as a practical joker (see many many interviews with people he worked with) and I wonder if he could take a joke as well as he gave... but nevermind, you don't want to discuss.

Oh well, actually I can. Playing a guessing game with clips and journalism to determine what Prince considered himself as an artist (at any time in his career) is not necessarily critical thinking. I don't think he thought of himself as closer to Devo than Stevie - that's my OPINION, you have yours.

I think the man ate other people's Art like salad and moved on. He was multi-talented, not just in music. When I drive by one of these threads with people saying how they would try to gotcha Prince to his face, over things said to critics/journalists, that's what makes me laugh. Carry on.

Hamad said:

I’ve always felt it was a parody directed at both - the rock & roll journalists and audience - seeing that he recorded it right after the infamous concert with RS. White journalists at the time didn’t get him, in all fairness, a lot of white journalists still don’t get him. Great song.

Hamad, good read, as usual.

poppys said:

Playing a guessing game with clips and journalism to determine what Prince considered himself as an artist (at any time in his career) is not necessarily critical thinking. I don't think he thought of himself as closer to Devo than Stevie - that's my OPINION, you have yours.

.

You may be right. Prince wasn't above trying to create an image, wether for himself of anyone around him, which may or may not have reflected reality. So the correct wording should have been that he portrayed himself as being more of the time than bands/artists that came before him, especially artists considered black music artists, as he was, at the time of the release of 1999 still working hard at crossing over and getting as big an audience as he could.

.

Prince definitely changed with regards to what tradition he placed himself in (although the MTV "interview" from the Under The Cherry Moon era did have him say he considered the Around The World In A Day album funky (which I agree with, btw), although he consistently contradicted himself as well, depending on how he felt that day or what he wanted to bring across.

.

And yes, Hamad, you are probably right when you say it's a dig directed at the audience as well.

Hamad said:

I’ve always felt it was a parody directed at both - the rock & roll journalists and audience - seeing that he recorded it right after the infamous concert with RS. White journalists at the time didn’t get him, in all fairness, a lot of white journalists still don’t get him. Great song.

It's funny that, i'm not saying you're wrong but at the time white journalists loved him, look at the review of Dirty Mind in Rolling Stone! He was on the cover of both the NME and Sounds in the UK in 1980/81. Of course that doesn't mean they got him, but it's interesting that they definitely loved what they saw. He was very much a critics darling for a good while before blowing up proper.

One point of note, the track was recorded a good 4 or 5 months after the Rolling Stones shows, at least 2 of which were spent solidly touring Controversy, I don't personally see it as a response to that experience, at least not a direct response. I've always wondered what he was talking about though, was he just saying all you had to do to be liked was play New York? As if it was all far too easy for him... he had his sights set higher...

For what it's worth i've always thought the "take a bath hippies" line was definitely directed solidly at the Rolling Stone journalist crowd who were definitely aging hippies trying to keep up with what was happening (Billy "Hot funk, cool punk, even if it's old junk, it's still rock and roll to me" Joel style )

[Edited 6/5/20 12:16pm]

jaawwnn said:

Hamad said: