What do you want me to talk about today P? #PrinceTwitterThread #3121Album
songlink : song.link/us/i/1421416321
songlink : song.link/us/i/1421416321
So most of you know the plot of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. If you don’t I’ll leave this here to help you do your googles.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita
Prince's Lolita is an interesting song, one where once again we’re like this when you actually listen to the lyrics...
I mean…sir…is the highlighted a tease for her or a reminder for you?
Also, the fact that Prince had the testicular fortitude to do this song ON AMERICAN IDOL FAMILY TELEVISION AS WELL.
(More about how that went here) yahoo.com/entertainment/…
But again when paying attention to the lyrics of this song, it sets off a curious internal dialog (and room for self reflection) on how we feel about the lore of P’s shenanigans regarding…
We actually did a deep dive on this topic on #Muse2thePharaoh. It deserves a nuanced conversation and not just knee jerk reactions. A good discussion was had from different perspectives!
The man never backed away from pushing the boundaries into uncomfortable spaces…what you see in those spaces is based on what colors how you see as I always say!
So let's push some buttons tonight to see what we feel!
Who is this song likely about?
Me!
(Just kidding, 21 year old me pretended it was me in my head at the time tho, lol)
This song is more likely regarding a very legal at the time young woman named Miss “Liza Lena” Hernandez.
We’d seen Liza before! She stars in the video for Musicology’s A Million Days.
(And again Natalya plays her young doppelganger…)
(Natalya is still in the music game by the way!)
Liza lived the dream we all dream of, she got swooped by Prince while she was up front at a Musicology show.
Again she’s gorgeous! Can’t blame him!
He took a liking to her, tapping her to be in the oft mentioned but never released 3121 movie as well (or Lotusflow3er video depending on who you ask)
He also produced a few songs for her, one of which he financed a video for...Panamaniac.
You can see the rest here :
You can see the rest here :
There were big plans for Liza Lena!
A domain was registered under her name by Paisley Park… domain registration for paisley via prince.org/msg/5/179801
A domain was registered under her name by Paisley Park… domain registration for paisley via prince.org/msg/5/179801
And she had a featured spot over the bridge of the song Lolita itself to say the things that needed to be said :
(A video was also shot for this song which Liza stars in).
How y’all feeling? Y’all alright? Thinking thoughts about Miss Hernandez? Thinking about whatever rumors you heard? Thinking about his other proteges from the past?
Let her live! She lived the life! Fun times with Prince? You did what you needed to do girl! For all of us!
Now let’s turn our attention to what the media thought about this song at the time…
From the Hartford Courant March 23, 2006
The Honolulu Advertiser April 2, 2006
The Modesto Bee April 7, 2006
The Santa Fe New Mexican June 16, 2006
This song was also a staple during P’s residency at the Rio in Vegas as well as the Planet Earth stop across the pond
A bit of trivia about the song itself…
The male voices here? Prince and Morris Hayes!
The chorus of “Lolitas?” includes a one Ashley Tamar!
And finally to close us out (for the cleaned up in the later years when he converted to JW folks in the back of which the entire 3121 album pretty much disproves as does every other album he’s ever done after his conversion lol)…
A meditation.
But he’s a changed man now…kind of. A lyric that’s noted in the liner notes of 3121 that closes this song but isn’t in the version on the album...
And that’s it! Stay tuned tomorrow for the next entry for the #PrinceTwitterThread #3121Album with @DeeJayUMB’s Te Amo Corazón!
Catch up on the threads you missed here!
