WhisperingDandelions said:

Yeah I feel you. I love Emancipation, in part, because of the sincerity.

The problem is that you can't heal addiction's core wounds with good feels. It's a man who sits at the lap of luxury promising he will be a good boy and not being particularly desperate about it because the rest of his life is pretty lush. The question is not if he will relapse, because the precedent is there, the question is when and what will be the antecedents.

Well we know now what those antecedents were and they seem, in my unprofessional opinion, to be in the wheelhouse of unhealed core wounds. Yes he lost his son and that cripples many marriages. But he also had access and resources that most other marriages never see and if he wanted to fix things he could have.

Instead, he made a series of bizarre and destructive choices and started sleeping with his wife's assistant. Now if that ain't the kind of wild and cruel shit addicts do....

We only know what we know. But from what we do know, Prince was driving the end of that marriage like a little red Corvette. Had he sought serious and vetted medical help (physical and mental) I believe they could've pulled through. I believe he loved her with the entirety of his capabilities. And we expect a person who is so capable in other areas of his life to be capable here too. But he really wasn't. He was not good at relationships at all and had been an abusive partner to many starstruck women before Mayte (who you could argue was groomed by this older man and didn't know shit and still barely knows shit beyond their time together).

LoveGalore said:

WhisperingDandelions said:

whoah with the earnest sentiment, no "thing" in a bad way or castigation of said honesty, just a difference in takes. Your perspective is good to have and much appreciated in these type of discussions.

It's absolutely something interesting to me in the context of Prince. Because you know, discuss all we may technically yeah we don't "know" the guy know the guy obviously, but I always prefer to emphasize the fact that we do know the art... The art will tell you everything, and not even talking lyrics or words, just human emotion and sentiment. Even he said "my music speaks for me" or whatever, probably butchering the quote.

Like I'm an R. Kelly fan, and that stuff oozes more than a tinge of depraved debauchery at many times without need of lyric book or Netflix documentary. Woody Allen fan as well, he's always ultimately questioning the concept of a lack of mediator or judge in a Godless universe, whether you personally atone for any cosmic sins or are sins just figments of our own creation that if you get away with you get away with no sweat...

Anyway point is, so many Prince songs in the Emancipation era exude such, like.. If commitment could be transcribed to music notes. If devotion had an album. If fidelity wrote/produced/arranged/recorded. Like beyond simple romance ballads, love songs, whatever, it just oozes a feeling and sentiment that I've honestly never had the pleasure of witnessing so earnest in a Prince album before or since.

Like he always had his "Do Me, Baby"s, "Shhh"s, "International Lover"s etc. every album right on cue--that stuff never exuded anything more than he was trying to get in some draweyrz, "My Drawers" I think as he once so aptly put it, don't care what the lyrics said, barely even noticed. Even "Adore", probably the closest he came to hitting that kind of energy pre-Emancipation but even then not quite a ceegar in the Emancipation ballpark feeling or sentiment even if it is obviously of course a better song than anything on Emancipation.

Maybe I'm a delusional stan buying into him merely honing his loverman abilities, but I dunno. I believe in the art, and the art of Emancipation shows something in him his stuff never had before or since. And reading Mayte's book she seems to imply the same of their personal life in that moment until the birth of their son. She also flexes on the songs he wrote for her in this era for similar reasons I'm trying to articulate why they're so fantastic and unique in his catalogue.

Loong story short maybe you're right he would have relapsed, then again maybe he wouldn't.

[Edited 2/21/23 20:31pm]

Yeah I feel you. I love Emancipation, in part, because of the sincerity. The problem is that you can't heal addiction's core wounds with good feels. It's a man who sits at the lap of luxury promising he will be a good boy and not being particularly desperate about it because the rest of his life is pretty lush. The question is not if he will relapse, because the precedent is there, the question is when and what will be the antecedents. Well we know now what those antecedents were and they seem, in my unprofessional opinion, to be in the wheelhouse of unhealed core wounds. Yes he lost his son and that cripples many marriages. But he also had access and resources that most other marriages never see and if he wanted to fix things he could have.

True. He didn't have a solid psychological foundation to begin with so even though he might have had good intentions while embarking on the marriage and kids journey, the minute something went wrong, he went back to old habits to cope. It doesn't help that he was surrounded by yes people and was estranged from his own family.

Regular couples who go through such traumatic events usually go to therapy and explore other avenues to have children. The wife doesn't get replaced by someone else, and has her belongings burned like she never existed.

Cmon yall...how can anyone psychoanalyze the thoughts and motives of a man who has been dead for 7 years?...a man that very few, if any of us, even knew personally...just because we know his diverse and ever evolving song lyrics, and heard interviews from he and his disgruntled, dismissed and heartbroken associates, that doesnt give us the ability or rights to definitively diagnose and explain his motives and beliefs about his sexuality, marriages, dating practices or even his career decisions.

RJOrion said:

Opinions aren't facts and forums are places where people share opinions. It doesn't change anything one way or another. Who cares?

And how many times do I have to preface my shit with "in my opinion" to satisfy people's fragility? It doesn't matter. Share your own opinion if you disagree.
[Edited 2/22/23 9:11am]

This is a real hodge podge of a thread

RJOrion said:

Cmon yall...how can anyone psychoanalyze the thoughts and motives of a man who has been dead for 7 years?...a man that very few, if any of us, even knew personally...just because we know his diverse and ever evolving song lyrics, and heard interviews from he and his disgruntled, dismissed and heartbroken associates, that doesnt give us the ability or rights to definitively diagnose and explain his motives and beliefs about his sexuality, marriages, dating practices or even his career decisions.

It's called speculating and we're allowed to do that on a forum.

paisleyparkgirl said:

Nah...some of yall have gone well past "speculating"...some of yall are arguing and making declarations as if yall have some of Prince's HIPAA protected doctors' or therapists' documentation, if there even is any...but its ok...keep going.

RJOrion said:

What's more interesting to me is that your objections reveal what you think of people who do suffer from the issues I mentioned. That's on you, not anyone else. I speak from a compassionate perspective.

LoveGalore said:

I dont have any "objections" to any of the issues you personally mentioned...as i never mentioned your name or referred to the specific issues you mentioned...no need for you in particular, to take this personal.

I think he wanted to avoid the mistake he made with Mayte, where the public was able to follow the relationship with its ups and downs. He chose to keep it private with her, focus on their faith and leave the music biz out of it

http://princevault.com/in...Children_2

Not much known about supposed unreleased 2004 album, The Rainbow Children 2, except information from Sam Jennings that an illustration of Manuela Testolini from the artist Pablo Lobato, served as the basis for the design of the album cover. Maybe Manuela was meant to appear on songs for that, may be not. Would be interesting to know more.