Prince of 'P-I-E-C-E"

freemindfade

Now I have always kept to myself discussing and speculating about this with any witness. I am speaking of the very talented musician Prince. I remember watching the NAACP awards one year ages ago and hearing him thank the one true god Jehovah and falling off my couch. However all the urban legend stuff witnesses talk about I don't contribute to. I know he was baptized, i know he studied and so forth and was known as a JW. However this recent article I found his language interesting, take a look.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/live-reviews/prince-promotes-peace-at-baltimore-show-the-system-is-broken-20150511

Now this is no knock to Prince whatsoever, he is a musical genius and I think generally has good intentions whether he worships YHWH or the flying spaghetti monster, but these particular words, sound to me he is not drinking the WTBTS koolaid any longer.

"The system is broken," he said. "It's going to take young people to fix it. We need new ideas, new life. Most of all, we need new piece. And the kind of piece I'm talking about is spelled 'P-I-E-C-E.' Next time I come to Baltimore, I want to stay in a hotel owned by one of you. I want to play in a building owned and operated by one of you – I'm talking to the young people now."

Kudos to Prince for his positive efforts and using his talent to inspire, I really think its genuine and awesome. I just don't think he's really a witness [any longer].

LoveUniHateExams

I agree with the OP.

I think Prince is a very talented man. I hope that he's sussed out the WTS and that the JW religion for him is just a passing phase.

If the quote is accurate, then I agree with it. I don't know the demographics of Baltimore but black people living there should own hotels, businesses, etc.

paulmolark

Maybe Prince saw thew magazine that says some people wasted their time fighting for equal rights when they could have been doing more field service.

steve2

Prince is very much an acquired taste. I have never got into his music or understood the rave reviews. Yet I acknowledge he has inspired generations of younger performers and has helped wider society become more accepting of the healthy empowerment of expressive sexuality. The fly in the ointment, of couse, is his "belief system".

I have always wondered how this fits in with his claimed status as a Jehovah's Witness. As with many well known Witnesses, he seems to take an unconcerned pick-and-choose approach to his claimed faith. He gets away with public statements and actions that would have your average JW booted out. What gives??

In terms of Prince's intellectual heft, he has always struck me as an effete thinker with his head loosely in the clouds and his connection with the world, slight and airy-fairy. He has never come across as a logical or deep thinker, more a mystical, waffly one. Little wonder he exhibits a reduced ability to talk publicly about his faith. I saw an interview some years ago in which his minder answered "Bible" questions for Prince - as Prince simply sat there wordless and waiting for an opportunity to talk about more comfortable topics. What a Witness. Not!

When Prince speaks, don't expect hard-nosed thinking that stops you in your tracks. Expect a man whose existence specializes in orchestrated contradictions with a light smattering of 101 Biblical verse.

LoveUniHateExams

As with many well known Witnesses, he seems to take an unconcerned pick-and-choose approach to his claimed faith. He gets away with public statements and actions that would have your average JW booted out. What gives?? - like the Williams sisters, he's a millionaire, many, many times over. That's it.

I agree with you in that I don't regard Prince as an intellectual heavyweight. But IMO he is a supremely talented writer of lyrics and music, plays multiple instruments, etc.

I hope he gets his own mind back and leaves the WTS.

freemindfade

William's sisters always get mentioned as witnesses but to my knowledge they never signed the billion year contract... So they can do what they want. Prince signed up if I am not mistaken and got dipped.

And steve2, overall I am not a huge fan of his music, a few songs are very good, as a musician myself I have great respect for him as an entertainer, and a musician who taught himself to play all those instruments and cannot read a note of music. But his musical abandon is admirable

GodZoo

Prince is sometimes a great and proficient musician, but not quite a musical genius. The world is full of people who are prolific multi instrumentalists and what with music itself being a singular subject once you conquer one instrument others surrender far more readily.

What he does have a knack for is gathering around himself a very large pool of diverse and highly talented individuals and if you can do that then interesting things are always bound to happen.

I find these definitions appropriate:

Talent is the ability to do easily what others find difficult.

Genius is the ability to do effortlessly what others find impossible.

freemindfade: a day ago Can't charisma be a kind of genius?

I've met Prince.. he had no 'glow' about him. Surprisingly ordinary in fact.

Prince of 'P-I-E-C-E"

freemindfade

LoveUniHateExams

paulmolark

steve2

LoveUniHateExams

freemindfade

GodZoo

freemindfade

apostrate

GodZoo

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