A great song with Prince viewing late 80s society as nearing the apocalypse. But the song is unfortunately still relevant (maybe even more so) today. The entire album is in my opinion a concept about late-80s life, when the good times died, finances hurt, people feared world war, and retreated into meaningless sex and drugs to try to escape. So, yeah, pretty much it's not that much different than 2007.
The "big disease with a little name" is obviously AIDS, which at the time the song was written (1986) was still somewhat of a mystery due to it being so unexpected and people having problems distinguishing reality from myth on it. Must have been especially scary for our favorite sex addict Prince.
The teenage Disciples gang refers to the Chicago-based Gangster Disciples gang, which reeked havoc on the city in the 80s and 90s, making Chicago the murder capitol of the US for a lot of years.
The Rocket Ship exploding refers to the Challenger explosion where a schoolteacher who trained to be an astronaut died along with several others.
"Baby make a speech, Star Wars fly" is talking about then-President Ronald Reagan and his Star Wars missile defense shield in outer space during the Cold War. It turned out to be a huge bluff, but possibly prevented nuclear war with Russia.
The ending verse is just a wish to try to enjoy life while you can, and just ignore the bad times. A definite late-80s sign o' the times. Prince is a great lyricist when he wants to be. Unfortunately he spends most of his songs obsessing about sex. That's fine once in a while, but songs like this show he is way too talented to be so low brow all of the time.
@cmp744 I think the last line "We'll call him Nate, if it's a boy." Might reference the Chinese killing their daughters. I just felt that way when I first heard, like they wouldn't keep the maybe unless it was a boy.
@cmp744 I think the last line "We'll call him Nate, if it's a boy." Might reference the Chinese killing their daughters. I just felt that way when I first heard, like they wouldn't keep the maybe unless it was a boy.
@cmp744 I really like your analysis. I agree that Prince did have the talent to write well, but he did write a lot of stupid songs that were radio friendly because he always gives us great production.
@cmp744 I really like your analysis. I agree that Prince did have the talent to write well, but he did write a lot of stupid songs that were radio friendly because he always gives us great production.
A great song with Prince viewing late 80s society as nearing the apocalypse. But the song is unfortunately still relevant (maybe even more so) today. The entire album is in my opinion a concept about late-80s life, when the good times died, finances hurt, people feared world war, and retreated into meaningless sex and drugs to try to escape. So, yeah, pretty much it's not that much different than 2007.
The "big disease with a little name" is obviously AIDS, which at the time the song was written (1986) was still somewhat of a mystery due to it being so unexpected and people having problems distinguishing reality from myth on it. Must have been especially scary for our favorite sex addict Prince.
The teenage Disciples gang refers to the Chicago-based Gangster Disciples gang, which reeked havoc on the city in the 80s and 90s, making Chicago the murder capitol of the US for a lot of years.
The Rocket Ship exploding refers to the Challenger explosion where a schoolteacher who trained to be an astronaut died along with several others.
"Baby make a speech, Star Wars fly" is talking about then-President Ronald Reagan and his Star Wars missile defense shield in outer space during the Cold War. It turned out to be a huge bluff, but possibly prevented nuclear war with Russia.
The ending verse is just a wish to try to enjoy life while you can, and just ignore the bad times. A definite late-80s sign o' the times. Prince is a great lyricist when he wants to be. Unfortunately he spends most of his songs obsessing about sex. That's fine once in a while, but songs like this show he is way too talented to be so low brow all of the time.
@cmp744 I think the last line "We'll call him Nate, if it's a boy." Might reference the Chinese killing their daughters. I just felt that way when I first heard, like they wouldn't keep the maybe unless it was a boy.
@cmp744 I think the last line "We'll call him Nate, if it's a boy." Might reference the Chinese killing their daughters. I just felt that way when I first heard, like they wouldn't keep the maybe unless it was a boy.
@cmp744 I really like your analysis. I agree that Prince did have the talent to write well, but he did write a lot of stupid songs that were radio friendly because he always gives us great production.
@cmp744 I really like your analysis. I agree that Prince did have the talent to write well, but he did write a lot of stupid songs that were radio friendly because he always gives us great production.