Be human, leave the dead alone.

TBH I've always been wary of theories about song X being about person X. It's OK to play guessing games, but if we don't know, we don't know, and most of the times —I'm not saying here, because yeah OK why not, but quite often—, people come up with absurd theories (I remember reading Strange But True was about Vanity, which seems extraordinarily unlikely).

.

Another thing is even if Prince put a lot of himself into his songs —there's no questioning this—, some are just works of fiction. That's what songwriters do, they have "an idea for a song", an idea for a story, or a point to make in general about people or society. It doesn't always have to be autobiographical, sometimes it's just a story told from a character's perspective (which is also why I think those 2 unreleased songs with the "r" word aren't as much of an issue as some people want to make them).

.

So back to topic: is Cara Tyka? Did this happen for example?

"Her papa caught her for the first time
And put her out on the street
Cara told me to remind him
That she was only seventeen"

or

"Her father cried when I told him that Cara twice got knocked up"

IDK, but I'd start there.

TrivialPursuit said:

databank said:

databank said:

So back to topic: is Cara Tyka? Did this happen for example?

"Her papa caught her for the first time
And put her out on the street
Cara told me to remind him
That she was only seventeen"

or

"Her father cried when I told him that Cara twice got knocked up"

IDK, but I'd start there.

I'm not a native english speaker, but doesn't "knocked up" means she got (irresposibly, unwillingly) pregnant?

laytonian said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Be human, leave the dead alone.

Doesn't that mean we should shut this entire site down?

Ben tried this for a couple of months this year. Some people were not happy.

Vannormal said:

databank said:

So back to topic: is Cara Tyka? Did this happen for example?

"Her papa caught her for the first time
And put her out on the street
Cara told me to remind him
That she was only seventeen"

or

"Her father cried when I told him that Cara twice got knocked up"

IDK, but I'd start there.

I'm not a native english speaker, but doesn't "knocked up" means she got (irresposibly, unwillingly) pregnant?

I think it just means "pregnant" regardless of circumstances, but I'm no native either.

databank said:

TBH I've always been wary of theories about song X being about person X. It's OK to play guessing games, but if we don't know, we don't know, and most of the times —I'm not saying here, because yeah OK why not, but quite often—, people come up with absurd theories (I remember reading Strange But True was about Vanity, which seems extraordinarily unlikely).

.

Another thing is even if Prince put a lot of himself into his songs —there's no questioning this—, some are just works of fiction. That's what songwriters do, they have "an idea for a song", an idea for a story, or a point to make in general about people or society. It doesn't always have to be autobiographical, sometimes it's just a story told from a character's perspective (which is also why I think those 2 unreleased songs with the "r" word aren't as much of an issue as some people want to make them).

.

So back to topic: is Cara Tyka? Did this happen for example?

"Her papa caught her for the first time
And put her out on the street
Cara told me to remind him
That she was only seventeen"

or

"Her father cried when I told him that Cara twice got knocked up"

IDK, but I'd start there.

Didn't his father put him on the streets and he said that he was only 12 ? Maybe he's talking about himself but embellishing the story and making it about a daughter and her father to throw people off.

olb99 said:

laytonian said:

TrivialPursuit said: Doesn't that mean we should shut this entire site down?

Ben tried this for a couple of months this year. Some people were not happy.

Exactly, so weird when idiots bring up the whole "leave the dead alone", then in this case, you should not be talking about, nor listening to music by artists that are DEAD.

olb99 said:

laytonian said:

TrivialPursuit said: Doesn't that mean we should shut this entire site down?

Ben tried this for a couple of months this year. Some people were not happy.

Exactly, so weird when idiots bring up the whole "leave the dead alone", then in this case, you should not be talking about, nor listening to music by artists that are DEAD.

paisleyparkgirl said:

databank said:

TBH I've always been wary of theories about song X being about person X. It's OK to play guessing games, but if we don't know, we don't know, and most of the times —I'm not saying here, because yeah OK why not, but quite often—, people come up with absurd theories (I remember reading Strange But True was about Vanity, which seems extraordinarily unlikely).

.

Another thing is even if Prince put a lot of himself into his songs —there's no questioning this—, some are just works of fiction. That's what songwriters do, they have "an idea for a song", an idea for a story, or a point to make in general about people or society. It doesn't always have to be autobiographical, sometimes it's just a story told from a character's perspective (which is also why I think those 2 unreleased songs with the "r" word aren't as much of an issue as some people want to make them).

.

So back to topic: is Cara Tyka? Did this happen for example?

"Her papa caught her for the first time
And put her out on the street
Cara told me to remind him
That she was only seventeen"

or

"Her father cried when I told him that Cara twice got knocked up"

IDK, but I'd start there.

Didn't his father put him on the streets and he said that he was only 12 ? Maybe he's talking about himself but embellishing the story and making it about a daughter and her father to throw people off.

This is getting far fetched IMHO.

laytonian said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Be human, leave the dead alone.

Doesn't that mean we should shut this entire site down?

It means you lack humanity.

olb99 said:

laytonian said:

TrivialPursuit said: Doesn't that mean we should shut this entire site down?

Ben tried this for a couple of months this year. Some people were not happy.

Ben did that because they were moving across the states to a new home.

paisleyparkgirl said:

olb99 said:

Ben tried this for a couple of months this year. Some people were not happy.

Exactly, so weird when idiots bring up the whole "leave the dead alone", then in this case, you should not be talking about, nor listening to music by artists that are DEAD.

Now you wanna name call because someone disagrees with you? You dragged all Tyka's past out and tried to frame it into one song written a gazillion years ago. It's not about discussing dead folks, it's about lacking a bit of compassion. But hey, maybe that's not your thing. I get it now.

TrivialPursuit said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

Exactly, so weird when idiots bring up the whole "leave the dead alone", then in this case, you should not be talking about, nor listening to music by artists that are DEAD.

Now you wanna name call because someone disagrees with you? You dragged all Tyka's past out and tried to frame it into one song written a gazillion years ago. It's not about discussing dead folks, it's about lacking a bit of compassion. But hey, maybe that's not your thing. I get it now.

Yeah you get it no what ?

[Edited 10/8/25 22:47pm]