Monday, November 17, 2008

Et Tu, Purple One?

 
I am not wholly surprised by it, but it still hurts me a little to read that Prince, the freakiest freak that ever freaked, the man responsible for my losing my virginity and much of my sex life in the late 80s to early 90s, has become the kind of prude his early critics would be proud of. Much worse, he's coming out and spouting the sort of homophobic rhetoric that Jehova's Witnessess, the religion he recently converted to, are known for (via Gawker).

When asked about his perspective on social issues—gay marriage, abortion—Prince tapped his Bible and said, “God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was, like, ‘Enough.’ ”


Simply cutting and pasting that into this entry makes me want to sigh heavily, and there's a part of me that wishes that I could give some leeway to the man responsible for writing such ridiculous-libidinous-over-the-top lyrics as those found in Pussy Control. There's a part of me that understands the only reason he went looking for religion is the pain he went through after losing his son to a rare disease about 11 years ago. There's a part of me that believes that when he talks about "people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever" he is likely referring to himself, and that he sees the death of his son as "God's punishment."

But none of that can wash. Intolerance is intolerance, and Prince has now officially lost me. To think, I even made it past Emancipation.
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On a related topic, the next planned major protest against Prop 8 and similar measures is on Wednesday, December 10th (coinciding with International Human Rights Day), in what is being called A Day Without A Gay. Please do what you can to support our LGBT brothers and sisters.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

He lost me a long time ago...with Lovesexy. This is sad. As with all artists, I will stay with him through "the good years" in my listening habits and memory, and render this "new" Prince and his Jaja views irrelevant. Organized religion turns brains to mush and people into closed minded simpletons--no matter how great they ever were.

anna said...

Before you pile all your Prince LP's into a burn pile, Perez Hilton sez our Purple one was misquoted. And you know you can trust Perez, right?

At the very least, such "news" items bring out the best in blog posters. Example: Prince said that? Hey, I also just heard from John Cafferty, Rick Astley, Adam Ant and Tommy Tutone, too. They said that Prince escaped from the "Home for Eighties Has Beens" and the men with the nets have been looking for him.

Deni said...

What Swine said...

the beige one said...

Anna, considering I just used Gawker as a source for an entry, I can't necessarily go scoffing at La Hilton, no matter how obnoxious I find her. (Yes, yes, I know, going for the "meow" factor.) In this instance I do hope she is right, however.

Deni and Swine, as JJ can attest, I have a pretty heavy anti-Western religion bias (something that garbage like this does little to alleviate), but I've come to hate the dogma, primarily.

I can't hate on Prince for the pain he felt after losing his son, and I can't hate on him for searching for answers. And that's where I draw the line. Had he continued putting out decent music (which he has been of late) and kept the intolerant messages mum (which is possible, per Anna's note), I would be fine with the man.

JJisafool said...

I come from a very different musical background than you, TBO, but went through this pain a long while back with, wait for it, The Charlie Daniels Band.

Sadly, it wasn't until their homophobic, brawl-in-a-gay-bar remake of Uneasy Rider that I even gave a moment of thought to CD politics, but I had to give up Devil Went Down to Georgia and Stroker Ace as a result.

I still'll sing a little Long-Haired Country Boy every once in a while, though.

Anonymous said...

I'm not even touching that, JJ.