Thread by @Miss_EThompson

I am honored to be in the company of some excellent thinkers creating Twitter threads on #Prince’s "Come" album. Today, we’ll explore the title track. #PrinceTwitterThread

Be sure to check out the other threads by @deejayumb, @CaseyRain, @EdgarKruize, @PrincesFriendYT, @ehphd, @arrthurr, @scottwoodssays, @NightEthereal and @polishedsolid.

First, let’s talk about the music. It’s a jazzy, horn-soaked R&B song of epic proportions by a man who was preoccupied with epic poetry: Homer’s “The Odyssey” and the Bible’s “Song of Songs.”

I love all 11 minutes of the album version.

The version in "Glam Slam Ulysses," Prince's 1993 musical based on "The Odyssey," not so much. Same goes for the version in the 1994 TV special, “The Beautiful Experience.”

And I’m not a fan of “18 & Over,” which will always sound like a “Come” remix to me.

The album version winds through many musical sections, including an interesting, Arabic segment, courtesy of Kathy Jensen’s clarinet. I encourage everyone to pay close attention to all the New Power Generation Hornz on this track.

And I can’t get enough of Prince’s falsetto and underrated vocal arrangements.

(Favorite moment is 10:25)

We can gain perspective from engineers who worked with him prior to “Come.”

“[He] had one lead vocal track and seven or eight background tracks. Every voice that he’s adding is a different character he made up in his head. He wasn’t trying to match his vocal like most 'professionals.’ He gave it personality." – Chuck Zwicky

Each time I talk about “Come,” I have to reference a 1994 interview Prince did with Adrian Deevoy for Q Magazine.

Deevoy: "Come is unarguably about orgasm."

Prince: “That's your interpretation? Come where? Come to whom? Come for what?"

Deevoy: “Oh, come on!”

I just don't understand how a journalist could say "unarguably" about anything when it comes to Prince. Yes, he could be coy and calculating, but after more than 15 years in the game (at that point), his preference for playing with multiple meanings was clear. But I digress...

Don’t get me wrong. “Come” is about sex. And it’s about spiritual transcendence. And it’s about freedom — “arguably.”

To quote @darlingnisi, another Prince scholar, “You see it how you see it based on how you see.” So, let’s look at my three interpretations.

The references to sexual acts, including oral stimulation, are so blatant that I don’t need to repeat them here. Also, there are … sound effects.

I like Prince slightly more subtle.

“I wanna be the only one that makes you come ... running!”

However, I must say I appreciate Prince’s imaginative way of describing lovemaking at times. “Like a strawberry, chocolate Fender jazz, mashed potato, fuzztone--all over your thighs.” 👏🏾👏🏾 Who else would come up with a line like that?

Prince is a master of building fantasies for women to revel in before the act. At the beginning of “Come,” he says, “I’ve got something for your mind.”

This is also the same guy who said, “Foreplay starts in the mind.”

Sometimes, the act isn’t even necessary. We could also get into all of his references to voyeurism, but we will leave that discussion to @CaseyRain, who is covering “Pheromone” in his thread.

“Come” has a lot of positive messages. Prince is careful about obtaining consent: “Can I __ you, baby? “Can I __ you, baby?”

He places the needs of his lover before his own: “If you will, so will I.”

And he doesn’t judge his lover for expressing her sexuality: “It don’t mean your rep 'cause you kiss in a restaurant…”

Love versus lust had been a common theme in Prince’s music since at least the “Purple Rain” and “ATWIAD” days. Can you guess where “Come” fits?

“It's just you and me, baby. Tonight and forevermore…”

Many of Prince’s "sex" songs are about commitment. Take “Sexy MF” for example. Prince once told a journalist that it was about “monogamy and marriage.”

“When it comes to life, to be this man's wife…”

Prince began making that shift (on record, at least) in the late ‘80s, replacing the message of “Uptown” and “Sexuality” with the message of “Adore” and “When 2 R in Love.”

This was a period of spiritual rebirth for him.

Of course, promoting sex within a committed relationship has Biblical roots.

“Because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.”
(1 Corinthians 7:2)

The “Come” album is inspired by the Bible’s “Song of Songs” (“Song of Solomon”), a poetic depiction of romance and sexual yearning and intimacy.

“Lie down beneath my shadow with great delight, and your fruit will be sweet to me..."

But for all its encouragement of female sexuality, it is still upholding the sanctity of marriage. The protagonist is praised for being “undefiled” before marrying Solomon.

“Having the Song of Solomon read & discussed with U by someone who loves U, preferably and elder, would be my choice.” – Prince on having the “sex talk” with young people

With “Come,” Prince is also concerned with his lover’s spiritual well-being.

"Don’t be surprised if I tell you to go bare."

“Long as you wash between your soul and through your hair.”

(What a dope line!💜)

Have we heard something similar before?

"Your soul a bath, what if I gave it?”

To “come” then takes on a new meaning. Let’s let Prince explain it:

“You don’t think God is sexy? When you have faith, serotonin starts pumping in your brain. It’s the same as when you have an orgasm.”

Prince also sings, "The spirit’s calling." Around that time, he'd changed his name to the Love Symbol, both a spiritual transformation and a business decision.

He repeatedly said his “spirit” instructed him, and later attributed the transformation to his higher power/God.

According to Prince, it symbolized not only his connection to God and his higher self, but his detachment from his ego and fame.

“If you had the chance to see the future, would you try?”

In this case, the future that he envisions could be one in union with God, bringing about a state of ecstasy comparable to orgasm.

It also wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for Prince to be expressing how sex brings him closer to God, especially since the Bible sanctions it as a holy act between married people.

“When we be makin' love, I only hear the sounds/Heavenly angels cryin' up above…”

Prince also told Vibe magazine that he was writing “more about freedom and the lack thereof.”

Listening to his higher power put him on a path to artistic freedom, giving him a new purpose to help other Black artists with ownership and economic independence.

To “come” is to become free. Could that also be what he meant by “a chance to see the future?”

God is guiding him toward love, and a spiritual and artistic rebirth.

During this era, he told us, “This is the Dawning of a new Spiritual Revolution.” Will you come?

Thanks for going on this journey with me! And if you enjoyed this thread, please check out my blog: apurpledayindecember.com

And subscribe to my newsletter to keep up with my writing and progress on my book on Prince’s spirituality: eepurl.com/gdTiuL