CapedCrusader said:

It wasn't to Oprah, it was in the interview he did with Chris Rock

MartyMcFly said:

It's "count" not curse.
He's saying that if you don't associate age with a number you don't get "old". People are hung up about reaching a certain number of years as being old.

Most of TRC- No matter how often it has been dissected on here, some of the lyrics of that album are still confounding...

But at least we aren't discussing Elvis Costello lyrics, we'd be here until the end of time trying to figure out what his lyrics mean.

jtgillia said:

Costello is a genius. I understand all his work.

Anyways, what the hell is "ABSCAM"? And why did Prince want us all to say it? For the record, that line is from "Annie Christian".

Also, from Ronnie, Talk to Russia, "go to the zoo but they can't feed gorillas". What's that about?

Also, what the hell is an Endorphin Machine anyway?

GARYMF
How about the song "Mountains"?

What are the mountains?? I know the "devil told you that another mountain would appear everytime somebody broke your heart". "But I say it's only mountains and the sea..."

Is Prince saying the mountains really don't mean anything???

New member of the Gay Org Mafia
--
Well Mountains is one I actually uinderstand - the mountains are a metaphor for the obstacles we have in life - and he's sayin to just get over it! -- I think I don't fuckin know - I tried!
[This message was edited Wed Sep 17 12:25:28 PDT 2003 by SweetKreme]

>Costello is a genius. I understand all his work.<

Certainly not debating that! I love his stuff, and I'm really looking forward to his new album "North" which is like "One Nite Alone- piano" for Costello fans. But I don't think I'm alone in finding his lyrics to be really confusing (though brilliant). Even some of his bandmembers have said that they have no idea what some of his songs are supposed to be about.

Yeah, I hear you. I'm still trying to figure out "Luxembourg" and "Watch Your Step".

NWF said:

ABSCAM was the code name of some FBI sting to catch crooked politicians in the early '80s.

In "Ronnie Talk To Russia," it's a play on words: guerillas/gorillas. "Guerillas who want to blow up the world." Another example of Prince's less-than-rock-solid grasp on world affairs. Guerrilla soldiers are usually ill-equipped rebel fighters. The ones who wanted to blow up the world were usually those above-referenced crooked politicians.

What about Face Down? - cf "Him and her meaning who I'm singing about and his psychoanalyst kinda saw the catalyst as the devil with the blue jeans on, ain't it kinda funny when u see the dawn?"

I mean, wtf?

In 'Positivity'...

Do U dream straight up, or do U dream in "W"s...

I always thought that it meant like if you see a comic-strip and somebody's asleep, they always have a row of "Z"s coming off them like: "zzz".

If you were to turn this on it's side, the "Z"s would look like "W"s: "www" but really, I have no idea...

What does it mean?

Actually I don't understand quit a lot of his lyrics. Some examples:

Seven (wtf is this one about?)

Three chains o gold...

Purple rain...

Jimmy Nothing never went to school...now Jimmy lives on a mushroomcloud (wtf?)

Starfish and coffee...

phunkadelic said:[quote]Actually I don't understand quit a lot of his lyrics. Some examples:

Seven (wtf is this one about?)



Something to do with the book of Revelations right?

phunkadelic said:

i always thought that had to do with Jimmy Carter (an american president right, hey i am dutch...) and the a-bomb on hiroshima/nagasaki... but i don't know the connection between the two

dawntreader said:

I took it to mean that Jimmy never went to school = now he is in a drug induced haze, and his drug of choice is psychedelic mushrooms.

I always took the metaphore to be a comarisson between world leaders (russians) and terrorist guerillas (for those that remember this is how they were presented to us by the media and politicians) he then makes the gorillas guerillas pun.

Lawd, I'd be here forever asking what lyrics mean what. I need to listen and then make some notes and come back.

This is an excellent, excellent thread.

This thread is so cool needs its own forum...

Admins???
[This message was edited Sat Sep 20 0:24:15 PDT 2003 by headhunter]

MartyMcFly said:[quote]

phunkadelic said:

seven is a holy number according to the bible. the song is about the book of revelations.

dawntreader said:

i always thought it meant that u should always b careful about who u vote 4 because u just might elect some lunatic who wants to blow up the world, but who knows?

inventers of the accujack? (wtf)?

Lemme try,
Jimmy didnt care about school, he was uneducated...never pledged allegiance...wasnt patriotic

if every student carried on that way, America would be kaput, hence living on a Mushroom Cloud?

Im -ian so what do I know :p

IMMYNUTHIN said:

from Christopher Tracy's Parade:

"A chord strikes, The Devil no like, so he runs to his evil car!"

the words are straightforward...but what a dumb image! the devil has an evil car!

I think there could've been a better metaphor...like the devil melting, shrinking or poofing in a black cloud of smoke!

Ok. Don't throw stuff at me .org'ers, and yes, this may be a stupid question , but why is 'Purple Rain' called 'Purple Rain'? Is that just a fave color or something? Or is this one of the many times I should read into it? (So sue me. I had to ask. Maybe I'm dense.)
(Even Erica Badu said at the Soul Train Lady Of Soul Awards that her headwraps did't have any significance to them. She simply liked the way they looked. She went further to say that, "It's not that deep, ya'll.")

CapedCrusader said:

I always thought it meant that Jimmy never made anything of himself and he exsisted primarily to smoke weed. (Hence, the 'mushroom' cloud.) Kinda like that commercial where the kid finds his brother's wallet and goes to the basement to give it to him, and when we see his brother, he's this 20-something, 5 o'clock shadow-wearin', triflin' weedhead.
BTW, this is a great thread!!!

JIMMYNUTHIN said:

It's a mechanical jacker-offer. Mindless, Hawaiian-shirt-wearing, mechanical-jacker-offer-makers who teach the kids that love is bad.

GAWD, I love this song! Half'a the staff'a their brain is on vacation!

FunkMistress said:

I love it too. One of his many manifestos.

BinaryJustin said:

Just a guess, but I always thought it had something to do with REM or EG readout patterns (rwhatever the fuck the graph is that measures sleep in a way similar to a heartbeat). Like a heartbeat goes up and down for each beat, I think the "sleep-measuring device" gradually and smoothly ("straight Up") rises as you approach sounder sleep, while a restless sleeper would be up and down ("W's").

...?

Okay then , somebody try and figure this baby out :

From Play in The Sunshine-
Pop goes the music until the big white rabbit begins to talk
And the color green will make your best friend leave you , it will make them do the walk
But that's cool cuz one day everyday will be a yellow day so let's play ???

FunkMistress said:

I have always felt this to mean that the tourists are looking at life rather than actually living it, even their sex has become mechanical and unemotional.

Reminds me very much of T.S. Ellits The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

A great little segment which forshadows his vision in the 1999 album.

Marilyn Manson might have based his entire carreer around theese few lines

NWF said: