I like the song, but what is that end of the letter part about?

"We want to end this letter with 3 words"
"We tired of y'all"

Isn't that 4 words? In fact it is nearly five with you all blended into, y'all. Surely he must have noticed this glaring error when he wrote the lyrics or listened to the song.

TheEnglishGent said:

Maybe it was
Fuck all y'all

npgee said:

Yeah it was actually. But then Larry heard the song and last-minute changes were made. Prince got some serious ass-spanking that night.

TheEnglishGent said:

Maybe it's a dig at Bush and his remedial oratory skills.
[This message was edited Fri Apr 2 1:15:24 2004 by funkyfine]

Too funny.

Xpertlover said:

TheEnglishGent said:

i did recognize this too - but by listening to it a few more times i think he sings first
we tired of y'all and then he repeats loud by just saying "tired or y'all!

greats
netzverwalter

btw. it just became one of my favourites!!!

AndGodCreatedMe said:

that was cheap honey !

"We tie'da y'all."

I'm pretty sure that's not the right spelling of the contraction of "tired of", but 'dere it is. Y'alls 3 woids.

Discuss.

TheBoostress said:

Yeah. It would have to be ti'eda or ti'da or ti'edo' if one went down that route, in order for it to make sense i believe.

Musically, it's just about the best thing on the album. From the moment the beat comes in till the moment the singing begins is pure bliss. Sadly though, it then becomes more lyrical vomit from a man completely out of touch with the world he lives in, much like most of The Rainbow Children. For someone who has quite possibly blown $100m on extravagance alone, I don't want to hear him blabber on about welfare injustice. Clearly, he isn't heeding the words of his paedo peer Mr Jackson and starting with the man in the mirror. And until he does, I'd rather he just wrote songs about shagging!

McD said:

According to your thought process, we should discredit every socially aware song written by Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, U2, Michael Jackson,Marvin Gaye etc. because they happen to be rich. All of the aforementioned artists have used their art to express their beliefs. They happen to be in a medium where they get compensated very well for their work. Moreover all of the aforementioned artists have wasted money, but who hasn't? Most importantly the majority of them donate money to charities and fund various causes outside of the public eye, ie. they are doing so because they care, not for media attention. That is an ignorant statement u made. You cannot say that a person has no social conciousness simply becuase they happen to be rich now. Ironically, the majority of music acts come from the same situations that Prince described in Dear Mr. Man, they were just fortunate enough to get out.

McD said:

I was thinking the same thing lastnight. I listened CAREFULLY and analyzed the album, and I found it hilarious that he was talking about being poor. When was the last time he was poor? HAHAHAHA Like over 20 years ago? Why doesn't Prince fork some of his money over to the downtrodden and suffering? I found this song to be kinda dumb because of that. Sorry everyone.

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

No, my 'thought process' on the issue referred to Prince and Prince alone. His income (or, more accurately, his disposal of it) was just a small part of it, and not the problem I had with the The Rainbow Children - he has other issues to address there not relating to how anyone (including himself) spend their money. The point is that he sings about nonsense a lot of the time, and in recent years when he pretends to be socially or religiously aware I can't take him seriously. He might seem like a good guy to you based on some cute tunes, but accounts of his business practices leave a lot of unsatisfied customers / disgruntled clients, etc. He doesn't come across as a caring human being when his music is taken away from him. His business relationships alone do not paint him as a good member of the community. People's livelihoods have gone down the crapper because of him!

I certainly don't have the same problems with Musicology that I had with the Rainbow Children - a musically interesting album wasted by lyrical nonsense. However, the potentially standout track on his latest album, the one currently in discussion, is guilty of much the same thing. A nice idea musically, ruined by wishy-washy preachy lyrics about modern society. It's catchy as hell, and I really want to sing a long... but then I listen to it and realise that he's talking out of his ass after seeing a bunch of dysfunctional families on Springer or something. I can't imagine him actually writing that letter (per the song). Can you? Or does he feel so strongly on the issue that he'll write it in blood? Not if Larry is shouting 'Leave that blood alone!' in his ear. Prince may or may not be part of the problem he sings about. But he certainly isn't part of the solution!

Gutted. Absolutely gutted. EnglishGent, you totally stole my thread idea.

I was listening to this last night and thought, now where I went to school, that's four words. 'Course I went to school in the dumb racist south, where we all talk like that asshat in "Black MF in the House" and reparations are widely held by folks of all color to be a dumb idea, so I could be wrong.

It's obvious that many of you are unaware that what happens to one of us happens to all.

Prince is in a position to highlight problems that exists in America .Many artists are afraid to do so because as you know being poor in America is a sin. No media with the exceptions of late night cable channels will even touch topics like this.

Very soon in America you will experence poverty because the bottom is about to fall out .No patriotic lies will be able to blind your ass when you are paying $5 dollars for a gallon of gas and you dont have a job anymore.

Bush,Clinton ,and the like have sold us down the river.

Kudos to Prince for having the guts to say "something". The only thing I am afraid of is being targeted like Bob Marley and marked for political assassination.

Dear Mr. Man, give me my Princey back..

Afraid he is talking about white people.

gemini13 said:

Prince does donate lots of money to charitable orginizations. I don't understand why someone who is rich has to donate so much money that they're poor again for it to be considered donating. And I know the bible story about the rich man who donated 1 dollar but had like 100 or 1000 or something, and the old lady donated her last cent...so please don't tell it too me. He cent was much appriciated, but his dollar got A LOT more done. How much money do U donate to charity?....probably a lesser percent of your total income than Prince.

I see it as someone who has the ability to create a fourm on subject like this, voicing his LOUD opinion, when a lot of us with quieter voices can't always get our opinions heard. I appreciate he wrote the song, regardless of how rich he is. He voiced an opinion I wanted heard.


I'd like to make one concession...there's no damn hole in the O-zone. GIVE IT UP. The global temp is going up. It's been going up for the last 5 thousand years. It's not cuz of hairspray and shit.
[This message was edited Fri Apr 2 11:38:27 2004 by BobGeorge999]

McD said:

See, this is some of the silliest shit I've ever read. Heeding the words of Mr. Jackson? If Mr. Jackson took a good look at the man in the mirror without seeing the reflections of an adolescent boy he probably wouldn't be in the shit he's in right now (not necessarily saying he's guilty, but if he had analyzed the situation a little more carefully he wouldn't be in this predicament). You don't know what really happened to Prince in the homes of Mattie Shaw, John L. Nelson or Bernadette Anderson before be became a successful star, other than what a biographer or former bandmate might say. So really who are you to judge? For someone who thinks Prince is so "out of touch with the world" lyrically, I think you need to get out more. You probably wouldn't say the same shit about Eminem.

I encourage you to re-read the replies by DorothyParkerWasCool and Mulefunk. I don't think I can engage in this discussion without getting ign't.

Prince has every right to speak out on behalf of the poor. It's where you're from not where you're at. Plus he's been very generous over the years to numerous charities.

Some of y'all are just plain foolish.

First - I like the song musically. It is great. But lyrically, c'mon. I've never heard such shallow opinons that don't make any sense. I think people are reading too much into the lyrics anyway. Here are some of my alternate takes and comments.


"Said Dear Mr. Man, we don’t understand
Why poor people keep struggling but U don’t lend a helping hand
Matthew 5:5 say “The meek shall inherit the earth”
We wanna b down that way
but U been trippin since the day of your birth"

Ok, the meek shall inherit the earth and all that. Meek means mild of temper, patient, not vain. It doesn't mean a damn thing about being poor. So I don't believe this verse makes a bit of sense.

"Who said that 2 kill is a sin
Then started every single war that Ur people been in?"

Who is he talking about here? Certainly not the US government. Name a war started by the US in the 20th Century.


"Who said that water is a precious commodity
Then dropped a big old black oil slick in the deep blue sea?"

Well, Exxon, among others, so blame them. Damn shame, but I'm sure Prince still likes to heat his home and drive his car with the fuel they transport.

"Who told me, Mr. Man, that working round the clock
would buy me a big house in the hood
Cigarette ads on every block"

????? - I really don't understand what he's saying here.

"Who told me, Mr. Man, that Eye got a right 2 moan?
How about this big old hole in the ozone?"

Oh, God. The big bad ozone hole. I suppose that is somehow "the man's" fault - millions of years of atmospheric evolution.


"Listen, Ain’t no sense in voting – same song with a different name"

A restating of the old phrase "There's not a dime's worth of difference between the two parties."

Might not b in the back of the bus but it sure feel just the same

If he's trying to claim that minorities are basically no better off than they were pre-Rosa Parks, then I just have to believe he's totally ignorant.

Ain’t nothing fair about welfare

Perhaps he realizes that welfare is evil. It is intended to keep people dependent and subservient to the government. Bravo if this is his meaning.

Ain’t no assistance in AIDS

We already give more money than the rest of the free world to aids research. Personnally, I'd rather see more money go to some disease I can't prevent myself from getting.

We ain’t that affirmative about your actions until the people get paid

Oh, well. Cancel the welfare hope from above. Clearly he believes we should redistribute wealth.

Ur thousand years r up
Now U got 2 share the land
Section 1 – the 14th amendment says “No state shall deprive any person of life,
liberty, or property, without due process of law”
Mr. Man, we want 2 end this letter with 3 words
We tired a-y’all

This passage is so nonsensical, not to mention that musically it interrupts the flow of the song, that I have no words for it.

Maybe he just put a bunch of shallow, nonsensical buzz words together because they sounded cool for the song and would be an opiate for the masses. Have another plate of soylent green, and don't question anything you're told.

Just my $0.02.

McD said:

LIKE SIGN 'O' THE TIMES?????

TampaPurple said:



I thought meek was: humble, obedient, domesticated, humble or DOCILE



Me too, but I also want Oilcompanies to take care of the environment just as much as they take care of there profits



But men is accelerating the atmospheric evolution rapidly



You have to see this as money spend per inhabitant, not as whole sum of money...




Guantanomo Bay.....

funkadelic11 said:

I know...but i can't help it

Reinout said:

Reinout, I'm not really catching your drift.

Yes, your definition of meek is not bad either, they are all synonyms of meek. None of them mean poor. The verse doesn't entitle poor people to anything.

I have no problem with your views on the oil companies protecting the environment. And oil spills suck. But they are simply a fact of life. It certainly doesn't help their profits to dump oil in the ocean.

Your statement on man accelerating atmospheric evolution is not based in fact. We have only been keeping records of atmospheric conditions for less than 100 years. And we've only had satellites to check on ozone holes for about 40. So you have absolutely nowhere near enough data to base your hypothesis on. What causes the "Ice Age?" Certainly not man!

You totally lost me with the Guantanamo Bay comment. Please clarify.

Ain't music fun?

TampaPurple said:

WOW. You couldn't be more right. I thought many of the same things lastnight while listening to it.

TampaPurple said:

The people held in Guantanomo Bay (who are maybe imprisoned for a good reason, they are probably terrorists) should still get a fair and justified process no matter what they have done. You cant held people in captivity for 2 years without a process.

And of course is music fun, but that doesn't mean an artist can't state something serious..

psykosoul said:

I don't know what you're on about in your post. I suggest you go back and read mine, instead of going off about Jacko, Eminem and Prince's childhood.

I was talking about the lyrics in Wacko's song. My post made it crystal clear that Jacko wasn't practicing what he was preaching. As for what Prince went through as a minor? What the fuck has that got to do with the crap he is singing about in Dear Mr Man? He is singing qbout fair play in the world - something which he is not a good practioner of, and never has been. His history since hitting the big time is littered with concert promoters going bust, clothing designers doing the same, shop owners being wiped out, etc - all because of his lack of fair play in business. Not to mention all that shit with Warner Brothers. Was he on pills two years before when he signed a new contract?

Why don't you state your case for why Prince should be singing political songs about fair play, and why we should take him seriously on a lyric like this. I certainly can't. I was going to let a friend hear it, just as a sampler for Prince's new album. But after I actually listened to the lyrics I'm too embarrassed to!

Reinout said:

Not exactly, no. SOTT was far more vague, and less preachy - if still ultimately silly and not insightful. 'You turn on the telly and every other story is tellin' you somebody died.' So what? People fart out lyrics like these all the time - just stating the obvious. MJ and Janet's Scream: 'Last night as I turned on the TV, I was disgusted by all the injustice'. Blah, blah, blah. Dunno whether Janet was referring to the moment when her bro' paid his way out of a series of sexual assaults on children or what?

'Is it silly, no, when a rocket explodes, and everybody still wants to fly.'. If it was silly, we'd still be living in mudhuts and chucking spears!

'Hurricane Annie ripped a celing off a church and killed everyone inside' - not exactly a sign 'o' the times, was it? Hurricanes and churches have been around forever! For a more insightful commentary on that incident, you best listen to that fictional nutbag Hannibal Lecter (see Manhunter/Red Dragon). He might be bonkers, but he can fashion a philosophical argument, unlike Prince.

Great post, TampaPurple. I was thinking of doing the same, going through the song line by line. But you made a better job of it than I would have done.

Personally, I wouldn't read too much significance (as a Christian or otherwise) into the word 'meek'. It's a difficult word that even most knowledgable English speakers wouldn't agree on (as proved here). Remember it's a word used once by a man 2000 years ago, or so the story goes. Then, over thirty years later, it's written down in Aramaic as a memoir by a very elderly gent who claims to remember his youth with Jesus verbatim. Then, the original scripts are lost and only a later transcription into Greek survives. Flash forward a millenium and a half and it's finally translated in English.

Now... a little word like 'meek'... what chance does it have of surviving that ordeal intact? Talk about bleedin' Chinese whispers!

In other words, don't take it too seriously as a philosophical basis to hang your beliefs on. Even if you do believe in the good book!