"What Do U Want Me 2 Do" contains the couplet "You'd be beheaded in other lands / if I were in your arms tonight."

Ugh! Somebody explain to me the point of Prince singing this. Is he saying beheading is appropriate for an adulteress? Inappropriate? Is this just some bit of morbid trivia in case we were wondering?

I wish he'd remove the lines or leave the track off the album. There seems to be an element of misogyny and religious zealotry at play that bothers me. I can see folks getting home from the concert and playing this song for the first time like, "WTF!!!" I'm also not sure how it will sit with critics/reviewers.

If I'm missing something and this is actually a great bit of songwriting or some super clever turn of phrase please enlighten me. I want to be cool with this, but right now I'm just not.

Peace, David

livewire said:

Isn't in reference to adultery?? There are countries that are very strict regarding adultery.

I don't know what "beheaded" means at all, so I cannot comment on what kind of incredibly racy, selfish, arrogant, women-bashing lyrics he came up this time.

NEFRETIRI said:

Yes, it is. And again I ask, why does he mention it? Most here (hopefully) consider chopping off a person's head as a punishment for committing adultery to be an atrocity -- so what is Prince's point in bringing it up?

Peace, David

here

Yes it is an atrocity, but I dont take offense to him using it as an exmaple in the song. I just feel that he is trying to strongly tell this other chick that he is taken and she ought to stop trying.

livewire said:

I've only heard this song once, so I'm not entirely sure of the context, but I don't think Prince is condoning the act of beheading women. Sounds more like commentary on the treatment of women in countries like Afgahnistan, where things we think nothing of women doing are punishible by death. The simple act of two people holding each other is considered "adultery", and would cause the death of the woman. Maybe its more a matter of appreciating the freedom we have to engage in such wonderful, simple pleasures.

Prince's JW beliefs are NOT in line with things like this being punished through the death penalty (Prince is on record as stating he is anti-death penalty). JWs are peaceful, on the whole, and would condemn treating women in such a way. So no, I don't think this is a mysogonistic statement. I think, perhaps, you are misunderstanding what he is trying to say here.

JediMaster said:

Prince said he was anti-death penalty? Cool - where? So what was that chit on Annie Christian all about?

Certainly on this line, i think it's probably not the most well-chosen line he's ever made, but he's just trying to give the situation he's describing a bit of imagery. Like his "body that'd make every rich man want to steal".

Although in this case the imagery is pretty grim.

TheFrog said:

He stated, in a speech he made during the "Hit & Run" tour of 2000, that he was anti death penalty. He was talking about Al Gore and George W, and how both supported the same things. He used the death penalty as an example, and then stated his beliefs that it was wrong. I think he also made some comment about it during the "Emacipation" era, but I don't recall the specifics.

JediMaster said:

cool - thanks for the info. He's a good lad, Prince.

calldapplwondery83 said:

In some countries if you commet a crime of any kind any you are caught, you will face punishment by being "Beheaded". Simple explanation..."to get your head cut off" literally

livewire said:

I don't think there's anything to freak out about here. For me, he's simply saying that both he and the woman in the song are in relationships (the reference to the ring most likely suggests that he is married), and that for them to commit adultery would be wrong ("so we got to do what's right"). Indeed, under law in other countries, adultery might even result in the woman being beheaded.

There's nothing to infer that Prince is condoning either the possible punishment under law for committing adultery in other countries nor that he considers it just that the woman might be punished but not the man.

I think it's simply a clumsy or lazy way of expressing that for Prince - or the lead character in the song - adultery is wrong. So, 'morbid trivia' - yes. 'Misogyny and religious zealotry'? - no, or no more than we've encountered in the past. As for the critcs and the reviewers, who knows? For me the song is very ordinary, and if school's in session, it teaches nothing new.

.

Anyone have the lyrics? Can we get them posted here? I'd like to make a more informed critique about it.

Langebleu, you once again talk a whole lotta sense! You make some of the smartest observations on this site!

langebleu said:

Thanks for the thoughtful responses.

I'm really not trying to start some big drama about this, but it does bug me -- whether it should or not.

I mean, if Prince was singing a song about God and dropped in -- without any other comment -- an aside that non-Christians were once burned at the stake for the sin of non-belief, I would be just as confused about his intentions.

Peace, David

JediMaster said:

If I were at my office computer I could transcribe them. If they haven't been posted by the time I get to work, I'll take a few minutes and do it. I'd definitely like to hear what you and others think.

Peace, David

livewire said:

http://www.dtt-lyrics.com....html#what

What Do U Want Me 2 Do?

I see U picked me out from the crowd
Could it be the way I play guitar?
Master of the soft, not 2 loud
One day, maybe I will be a star
I see U picked me out like U want something
But shame on U, baby, can't U see this ring?

CHORUS:
What do U want me 2 do, girl?
What do U want me 2 do, babe?
What do U want me 2 do, girl?
What do U want me 2 do, babe?

I got a woman, U got a man
So we got 2 do what's right
I said U'd get beheaded in other lands
If I were in your arms 2night
Quit tryin' 2 get me under that icy plunder
Boy, oh boy, what a scare, ooh

CHORUS

U picked me out of the crowd
And ooh, just so bold and so proud
And dressed like U want everybody 2 just say, "Wow!
Didn't her mama teach her better?"
Ow, dressed like that, somebody gon' get her

I see U picked me from the crowd
Could it be the way I play guitar?
Master of the soft, not 2 loud
I don't ever really wanna be where U are, where U are, no

What do U want me 2 do, girl?
Tell me, what do U want me 2 do, babe?
What do U want me 2 do, girl?
Tell me, tell me, what do U want me 2 do, babe?
I ain't tryin' 2 do that
What do U want me 2 do, girl?

livewire said:

I didn't think you were freaking out either.



It bugs me that he can write terrific lyrics sometimes, and at other times he can be so lazy. contrived or unoriginal.

Just how much thought really goes into a line:

'Quit tryin' 2 get me under that icy plunder'

beyond the fact that 'under' rhymes with 'plunder'?

But there you go.

Yeh, when I first heard this tune, I thought what a Lame melody & the lyrics, well even Lamer.

The line that gets me is..


Didn't her mama teach her better?"


Insulting a girl's Mum, think it's so below the belt. If this is the level of competent lyrics that is being written, I'm really relieved he plays instrumentals. Maybe this was written when he first started fancying Mani & Mayte was still in the picture????

OH boy... Are we trying our best to take offense here, or what?

Women do get beheaded for suchlike offenses in other lands, for a fact. So is it wrong for Prince to talk about that, and if he does, is it necessarily an endorsement? It's like telling your child that in some countries, people get their hands cut off for stealing... Just a way of saying "hang on here, this is serious."

As far as her mama teaching her to dress... I take comments like that more to mean, your mama tried, and you obviously weren't paying much attention.

Please.

whilst all of you orgers take the literal, I shall endeavor to point to the subtext:

literally: beheaded::decapitated

figuratively: beheaded::castrated




c?
P always did think below the belt....

some of y'all have me crackin' up!

when prince says "you'd get beheaded in other lands if i was in your arms tonight" he is simply stating that they are married and must treat it as something serious. someone likened it to parents telling their kids that thieves, in some lands, lose their hands for stealing. it's the same thing. as far as the bit about the mama teching her better...come on, are you serious? its obviously a comment about the woman's style of dress and NOT the mother's method of raising her.

It's Prince being a follower of a wacky religion. Monotheism, welcome to the dawn.

livewire said:

I'd hate 2 c what this guy has 2 say about some of the lyrics in Exodus. I mean jeesh. What he said is true. That shit does happen. If anything I think the line comments on how rediculous it is that it's true. In no way does the song reflect that he likes these laws and what-not, just that they're present.


By the way...can anyone translate what is said at the end of the song in whatever language that is. PPPLLLEEEAAASSSEEE!

livewire is a sensitive one. I would have never thought anybody could be offended by that lyric.

pigeontoes said:

Are you serious?

He's not literally insulting the girls mother, it's just a fairly common phrase he's using, at least here in the States. If your "mama taught you better" it just means you are too smart to do something stupid. Has little to do with anything someones mother literally taught them.

SassierBritches said:

Bingo!

Wall said:

You just say things just to say them, don't you?
You and Rick James both. Talkin' just to be talkin'.

pigeontoes said:

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Are your walls padded?

bkw said:

Luckily, there are some people with good sense on the Org. This is the answer you are looking for LIVEWIRE. Right here.

Let's just not get into "you're gonna get raped" line. What a charmer!
Really, I think all he's guilty of here is overstatement...but that's still a crime!