I agree, both are campy, trashy and great.

honestly, i am a prince fan, so its fair to say i am quite into campiness and trashiness, so im not turning my nose up at anything that falls under those terms

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

honestly, i am a prince fan, so its fair to say i am quite into campiness and trashiness, so im not turning my nose up at anything that falls under those terms

S'all good, I do not believe you are obliged to like P Control. I feel the same way about My Name is Prince and, although I really like Sexy MF, some of the shouting in it is a bit much.

jaawwnn said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

honestly, i am a prince fan, so its fair to say i am quite into campiness and trashiness, so im not turning my nose up at anything that falls under those terms

S'all good, I do not believe you are obliged to like P Control. I feel the same way about My Name is Prince and, although I really like Sexy MF, some of the shouting in it is a bit much.

My favorite of all those songs is My Name is Prince. LOL. At least all of these campy songs have quarters where they're loved. I do take the My Name Is Prince lyrics as totally campy, with the "object" of the camp being Prince himself. Or Bart Simpson. : )

jaawwnn (or anyone else -- don't want to put you on the spot if you don't want to reply on this one, jaawwnn)...

People have mentioned that Prince connected this song to feminism. How does the following Pussy Control part go with feminism? How does the logic of this part of Prince's feminist exemplar work to support women...or men for that matter? I'm asking mainly because Prince and many others explicitly associate the song with feminism. I do get that the song is campy. : )

"Pussy got bank in her pockets
Before she got dick in her drawers
If brother didn't have good and plenty of his own
In love Pussy never did fall"

[Edited 12/15/20 6:06am]

I mean, pretty much, the story says Ms. Control puts her career above falling in love, and chooses her partners based on more then pure lust. For a certain brand of conservative (like Prince!) that's very feminist. He says himself in the song that that's the kind of girl he would want, if she would let him. You could draw it further and talk about how Prince has found a new way of making himself the passive object in a relationship, as he always did in his songs.

So, "the moral of the story" is only a high-net worth guy like Prince can qualify to be with a successful

woman like Pussy...

Margot said:

Did anyone figure out why the OP thought she was a stripper?

Personally I like the lyrics/delivery of the vocals, but not really into the beat and arrangment of this track. I wish there were more alternate remixes. Or even a leaked, less layered demo.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Margot said:

So, "the moral of the story" is only a high-net worth guy like Prince can qualify to be with a successful

woman like Pussy...

It's an advert for a man to complete a power couple Except prince didnt like women he was with to be on his level

I bet he secretly admired those types.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

That's bull. Everyone knows prince preferred women who weren't big career women. There is too much romanticism of choosing partners purely on emotion in pop culture so nothing wrong with pussy expecting a man to be solvent but she sounds like shed be high maintenance. Or the kind of person who was very transactional. Kind of what I imagine beyonce to be. It does have the ring of destiny's child style feminism. Prince is using a binary, of the woman who is either a career woman or a family woman. He doesnt think there could be a balance in this song. It's just about control. No wonder he likes her.

Eh ok, I don't really care what he wanted in real life but in the lyrics he says he's a person who respects her name,wouldn't call her a ho, and that he would like to be a person who doesn't care if she has a powerful reputation. I mean, maybe i'm misreading it, I don't exactly rate them as his greatest lyrics or anything, it's all a bit silly and just an excuse to be allowed say Pussy Control but actually it's a good thing.

It is so kind of all of you to respond this way. I was ready for jeers from all, and honestly, I would have in a way deserved it. After all, I'm trying to pick apart why Prince thinks this is a feminist exemplar song, while at the same time saying I love the music AND campiness of this and some other songs.

I can see the practical, transactional, not-getting-overly-romantic-or-sensual-in-choosing-a-partner points, for sure.

It's just that this is a little hard to take from Prince, of all people.

Also, there's an implication that high earning = quality, worthy person doing work of great benefit to the world. But (of course) both high and low earners, and all in between, do quality work of benefit to the world.

Is it feminist to rule out a quality, worthy man for Pussy who is, say, a preschool teacher like my friend?

Teaching very young children, as well as older children and young adults, is notorious for often being low paying. Adjunct professors here in the U.S. (who VERY often have education above and beyond a master's degree), often work hard in situations involving low pay and difficult logistics (e.g. significant commute to multiple places).

Some of the people who, IMO, do work of great value to the world...some of these people often hold multiple jobs at low pay rate and, as such, still aren't anywhere near "rich," despite the multiple jobs and long hours.

Sorry to mention again, but I used to work (just as a research assistant) in a university medical school clinic that studied schizophrenia. There were social workers, nurses, scientists in medical research there that didn't make all that much money in salary, especially considering the education and/or long hours required.

I don't see how it's so clearly feminist or of benefit to Pussy or other women to eliminate potential quality, worthy partners (male or female -- I don't want to make what I'm tossing in here only hetero- oriented)...potential quality partners that work hard to do what are, IMO, some of the jobs that give the most to the world.

Most people who give great art to the world are also not compensated at a high rate financially.

Plus, regarding sensual activities in general, if Prince doesn't encourage himself and other men to follow this exemplar, and Prince doesn't in fact follow this exemplar...then I got to say, "Dude...really?" Is this the way young (teenage, 20's, 30's) Prince would handle life, even if he was doing life "over again"? For the first years of this period, Prince's financial means were modest at best. Anyway, would Prince really follow this exemplar? Prince with all those those (human, like the rest of us) hormones? Prince, the sensual sensation himself?

Plus, it's not like Prince pays no mind to some of the possible practical consequences and concerns (concerns that should weigh on both women and men, according to P) of sensual joys. He tells us this way back on his first album. : )

"Baby, what are we going to do?
I barely have enough money for two
Baby, what are we going to do?
I don't want to regret what I've done to you

I never would've thought that this would happen
To a very careful man like me
But baby, pretty baby, we're gonna work it out, yeah
I love you, I love you, can't you see?"

So this brings me back to what I wrote above: "There is a suggestion in Pussy Control that a hard-working woman should deny herself certain pleasures of the flesh until (at minimum) the time when she has completed years of graduate school and is pulling in quite a bit of money.

Would Prince have suggested to himself that he shouldn't experience certain spiritual joys of the flesh until he was a highly credentialed and quite wealthy musician?

If not, then why is he implying that women should limit their experience that way?"

Anyway, thanks again to everyone who responded. You guys are truly kind, and I will keep an open mind and let your responses sink in more as I do my many meditative Prince-music boogies around my living room. : )

[Edited 12/15/20 11:01am]

jaawwnn said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

That's bull. Everyone knows prince preferred women who weren't big career women. There is too much romanticism of choosing partners purely on emotion in pop culture so nothing wrong with pussy expecting a man to be solvent but she sounds like shed be high maintenance. Or the kind of person who was very transactional. Kind of what I imagine beyonce to be. It does have the ring of destiny's child style feminism. Prince is using a binary, of the woman who is either a career woman or a family woman. He doesnt think there could be a balance in this song. It's just about control. No wonder he likes her.

Eh ok, I don't really care what he wanted in real life but in the lyrics he says he's a person who respects her name,wouldn't call her a ho, and that he would like to be a person who doesn't care if she has a powerful reputation. I mean, maybe i'm misreading it, I don't exactly rate them as his greatest lyrics or anything, it's all a bit silly and just an excuse to be allowed say Pussy Control but actually it's a good thing.

Will always be PRO any excuse for saying any and all of that!

I also did love seeing "Only Prince has Pussy Control" signs when at the women's march in Washington, DC...at that march with a massive crowd that was nonetheless, according to Trump, exceeded by the Trump inauguration crowd.

[Edited 12/15/20 9:52am]

jaawwnn said:

I mean, pretty much, the story says Ms. Control puts her career above falling in love, and chooses her partners based on more then pure lust. For a certain brand of conservative (like Prince!) that's very feminist. He says himself in the song that that's the kind of girl he would want, if she would let him. You could draw it further and talk about how Prince has found a new way of making himself the passive object in a relationship, as he always did in his songs.

Thank you, jaawwnn!

Those are great points that my closed (or at least distracted-by-throwing-a-dismayed-fit) mind was missing.

Regarding the first bolded part, and his lyrical exemplar of getting some things before other things...I just want to see where Prince counseled this conservative view (to himself and other men), and also where P lived by his counsel.

That is, counseling and living by a rule to become fairly well educated, established and monied before ever getting any pussy in pants, box in briefs, etc.

[Edited 12/15/20 11:17am]

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

That's bull. Everyone knows prince preferred women who weren't big career women. There is too much romanticism of choosing partners purely on emotion in pop culture so nothing wrong with pussy expecting a man to be solvent but she sounds like shed be high maintenance. Or the kind of person who was very transactional. Kind of what I imagine beyonce to be. It does have the ring of destiny's child style feminism. Prince is using a binary, of the woman who is either a career woman or a family woman. He doesnt think there could be a balance in this song. It's just about control. No wonder he likes her.

As Jaawwnn points out, her name is Ms. Control. If Prince married her and took her name, they'd both be P. Control.

rednblue said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

That's bull. Everyone knows prince preferred women who weren't big career women. There is too much romanticism of choosing partners purely on emotion in pop culture so nothing wrong with pussy expecting a man to be solvent but she sounds like shed be high maintenance. Or the kind of person who was very transactional. Kind of what I imagine beyonce to be. It does have the ring of destiny's child style feminism. Prince is using a binary, of the woman who is either a career woman or a family woman. He doesnt think there could be a balance in this song. It's just about control. No wonder he likes her.

As Jaawwnn points out, her name is Ms. Control. If Prince married her and took her name, they'd both be P. Control.

ultimately i am not sure any of the details of this song matter.

its basically just saying vagina rules the world.

Cuz it's a great jam.

Next.

If you think Pussy Control is a stripper, then I think you're projecting. Nothing in the song indicates she's a stripper.

jasopig said:

If you think Pussy Control is a stripper, then I think you're projecting. Nothing in the song indicates she's a stripper.

I met this girl named Pussy
At the Club International Balls

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

yeah i find the lyrics somewhat contradictory, or just a bit messy at least, which is why i dont really care to examine them that closely, as i dont think they add up to much.

Nice touch of meta and ironic.

"I refuse to examine the lyrics closely becuase they don't add up to much. Except, how would I know what they add up to unless I examined them closely, as others have clearly done and are trying to explain to me."

Brilliant.

jasopig said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

yeah i find the lyrics somewhat contradictory, or just a bit messy at least, which is why i dont really care to examine them that closely, as i dont think they add up to much.

Nice touch of meta and ironic.

"I refuse to examine the lyrics closely becuase they don't add up to much. Except, how would I know what they add up to unless I examined them closely, as others have clearly done and are trying to explain to me."

Brilliant.

When asked, funk also did discuss with me particular issues/questions I had with a section of the lyrics.

I do agree that if a person is going to take a full listen/look at such a song, it's not reasonable to say that it's ONLY a poem or ONLY an instrumental. This work of Prince's is, to state the obvious, lyrics with music.

A person could say they'd prefer to have it as only a "poem," only sung as a vocal, only an instrumental, an instrumental including "voice as instrument" but without sung words, etc....BUT any comments or preferences start from acknowledging what Prince created: lyrics with music.

[Edited 12/15/20 11:29am]

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Margot said:

So, "the moral of the story" is only a high-net worth guy like Prince can qualify to be with a successful

woman like Pussy...

It's an advert for a man to complete a power couple Except prince didnt like women he was with to be on his level

M.& Mme. P(s) Control-Nelson

jasopig said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

yeah i find the lyrics somewhat contradictory, or just a bit messy at least, which is why i dont really care to examine them that closely, as i dont think they add up to much.

Nice touch of meta and ironic.

"I refuse to examine the lyrics closely becuase they don't add up to much. Except, how would I know what they add up to unless I examined them closely, as others have clearly done and are trying to explain to me."

Brilliant.

and yet, the best response you could find was picking holes in my reading of the lyrics, rather than actually mounting a support for the song. not so brilliant. knowing that there is no stripper element to the story has hardly ruined my (or anyones) understanding of the song. i have examined the bigger themes of the song, regardless. the only person who has actually engaged with the song beyond 'well uh yunnno i just like it' is redandblue.

ufoclub said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

I imagine pussy would look like a female prince

Well Nona plays the "Pussy" character in the P CONTROL video so I always imagine her

LILpoundCAKE said: