Welcome to my neck of the Prince woods. This time around, we’re showing appreciation for a monumentally impactful song… Papa, from 1994’s Come. It’s an honor to be asked back, and I hope everyone enjoys what I have to say about this. #PrinceTwitterThread

The rest of the Come album is being handled by these other amazing folks, so be sure to check their threads out as well!

@Miss_EThompson
@deejayumb
@CaseyRain
@EdgarKruize
@ehphd
@arrthurr
@scottwoodssays
@NightEthereal
@polishedsolid

Before we jump into it, if you’re interested in checking out my full review of Come, you can find that and many others on my YouTube channel, Prince’s Friend (hence the twitter handle lol)

Papa, in short, is Prince directly addressing and condemning child abuse. So, if you’re here for a fun-filled thread of jokes and laughs, this may not be for you. I’ll try my best, but it’s a serious topic; one I was happy to see Prince approach with integrity and importance.

Let’s talk about the track itself. Facts are fun, right? Let’s keep it light! Papa is the fifth track on Come, but moved around a lot in earlier sequencing until it found just the right home.

Prince even had designs to release a Papa EP, on which this song would be the very first track. It was going to be released on Prince's birthday, 7 June 1993, and include Come, Peach and Race on it as well. This project never saw the light of day, though.

The song is also a wonderful showing of the NPG Trio, otherwise known as Prince, Sonny T. and Michael B. They are responsible for the groove on many other great songs, like 3121 and The Undertaker.

Papa signifies a stark shift on Come. After 3 tracks of unadulterated sex and Loose! Making you shake your MFing doo, Prince realizes he’s done all that before. It was time to tackle some serious topics, ones he had never really sung about before.

I feel it’s important to note that the song begins with the sounds of a thunderstorm approaching. It certainly sets the mood as depressing, where nothing good can come of this day. The music is minimal, to highlight the words being spoken.

The story starts from the POV of a child, but Prince remains the semi-objective storyteller.
“There was one September day that Papa worked too hard”
This setup, in one sentence, creates the incredible tension of a child living in an abusive home.

“First he crucified every dandelion out in the yard”
Papa has already shown the child his mood and intent by crushing the beauty flowers represent. The child sees it and knows what’s next, especially since he’s not been following the rules.

“Then he screamed at baby twice for throwing rocks at passing cars”
Okay, this is pretty bad and as a father, I might have screamed as well. Throwing rocks into traffic can cause thousands of $$ in property damage and could cost people their lives. Definitely no joke.

In the United States, more than 4 children die from child abuse and neglect on a daily basis. Over 70% of these children are below the age of 3. So, it’s appropriate for Prince to refer to the kid as “baby”, because in most cases… that’s exactly what he’d be.

“Baby didn't listen, so like a priceless work of art
He got snatched by his Papa...”
Papa grabbed the kid hastily, like the rich often snatch up art at auctions, but Prince’s statement here is… children are fragile and priceless themselves.

I believe that Prince made the child here a boy in order to more closely relate to the events in the story, but statistically, Boys (48.5%) and girls (51.2%) become victims at nearly the same rate.

“He got snatched by his Papa who then opened up the closet door
And pushed the four-year-old down, onto the closet floor”
This line implies that not only does Papa physically abuse Baby, but also locks him in a closet, which equates to emotional and psychological damage as well.

Abuse is definitely not all physical. If you’re interested in breakdown of the types of Child Abuse, here is a helpful chart.

“Baby cried ‘I'm sorry, I won't do it no more’
Papa said ‘Yeah, I know, that's what this here's for’”
Baby pleads for mercy, but Papa’s worked too hard and had reached his end, feeling the only way to teach Baby is with violence. One of the darkest lines Prince has ever written.

To get personal for a moment, growing up, my household used corporal punishment. As a child, I never thought it reached the level of “abuse” but living in fear that if you took the wrong action, you ran the risk of physical punishment is scarring for a child.

It’s sad that one of my childhood memories are of my dad’s two belts, Blacky and Browny. Brownie was a thick, brown belt that stung on impact with a wide coverage. Blackie was a thin leather belt that felt like a whip and lasted for hours.

“Smack
Ooh Papa
Smack! Smack!”
But Papa doesn’t use a belt (or it might be “Spank!” instead of “Smack”, he just uses his hands while Baby screams for his Papa to stop.

Okay… let’s take a deep breath and compose ourselves. We’ve halfway through the song, but it’s already very heavy.

As a palate cleanser, here’s Prince doing the Detroit crawl into the splits! That’s fun right?

I’m hoping you’re a bit calmer and ready to tackle the rest of this. Papa is hard to get through, and it’s a tough song to listen to for many friends (fans), especially if your level of empathy is high. But we can do this together.

Also, if you or anyone you know is suffering from Domestic Abuse, here is the national number to call for help. It's 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

Going back into the 2nd verse, we get:
“As the door closes, baby starts to cry
‘Please don't lock me up again, without a reason why’”
But Papa doesn’t respond, simply leaving the child in the closet.

“Papa just went outside and pointed a shotgun up in the sky”
So, Papa had a gun in the house, which means statistically, he’s more likely than not to have used it in threatening his children or intimate partner in the past.

“He said "How come I don't love my woman?"
Then he took aim and died”
In the US, guns are used in only 5% of suicide attempts, but are responsible for over 50% of suicide deaths. Could this family have recovered if they didn’t own a gun?

And then the second chorus is no longer a smack…
“Boom!
Papa
Boom! Boom!”
As Papa takes his own life.

This seems like a good time to share the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline with you as well.

Now let’s take a moment to identify the villain in this story. The knee jerk reaction to this question would be Papa, right? He’s a monster who commits domestic abuse and carries guns.

But take a closer look… Papa works hard for his fam, but has a lot of pain himself. He finds it hard to feel love, is distant and irrationally prone to violence, and all of this drives him to kill himself. All signs point to him being the product of an abusive home as well.

It’s a term called Intergenerational Transmission of Violence, the idea that children of abuse are more likely to replicate that behavior on their own kids and so on and so on. So, the cycle of Abuse itself is the real villain, and even Papa is a victim of it.

We all know that Dandelions are what you make a wish on when you blow away the head. So, another interpretation about Papa is that his last attempt was to wish for a different way out, wishing for love.

And then Prince hits us the biggest, most haunting line of the song.
“Don't abuse children, or else they turn out like me”
I chose this picture because Prince looks so innocent in it, as if he was embodying the idea of Baby.

When I was younger, I’d make jokes. “Oh, if you beat your kids, they’ll all be musical geniuses? HAHAHAHA!” which of course is stupid.

Digging a little deeper, just think about it. Prince was shy and quiet. Prince had trouble connecting with others. Prince put up walls. Prince created a world where he felt safe. This reflects some sort of abuse, and from his own stories, most likely emotional or neglect.

Many have taken this line to assume that the song is somehow autobiographical, but signs don’t really point to that. Prince and his father, John L. Nelson, definitely had a turbulent relationship however.

In 1985, Prince told Rolling Stone that the father in Purple Rain was exaggerated.
"That stuff about my dad was part of [director-co-writer] Al Magnoli's story,"
“...My dad wouldn't have nothing to do with guns. He never swore, still doesn't, and never drinks.”

On the Oprah Winfrey show, he said about his father "He had his moments," which led to them becoming estranged, but also “When I met him again he was a jewel. He was the most beautiful person I knew."

In his own memoir, Prince took the opportunity to go in depth into his feelings on his mother and father and his upbringing.

Prince spoke highly of his father and about the memories he had with him, such as “My father’s piano. That’s the 1st thing (eye) remember hearing.”

All of that is to say that, the autobiographical nature of the song is likely as strong as that which Prince had with Purple Rain. His art was crafted from his own experiences and then embellished to create art.

And that whatever hurt was or was not caused, it did seem like there was forgiveness between Prince and his father.

We’re almost done, I promise. Here’s the Outro.
“Fair to partly crazy, deep down we're all the same
Every single one of us knows some kind of pain”
This I feel is the acknowledgement of Papa and Baby both being in pain, but now extending his message to the listener directly.

This very idea makes it obvious wy Race is the next song! Don’t forget to check out @ehphd tomorrow for an expansive thread on that song. Gonna be a doozie.

”In the middle of all that's crazy, this one fact still remains
If you love somebody, your life won't be in vain”
This is why Love 4 One Another is so important. If Baby and Papa (and presumably Mama) had more love, then this story might have had a happy ending.

And it goes beyond just family members loving each other. It takes love and engagement from teachers, friends, one’s community to make it through the bad times.

And the last line really does a great job wrapping up the song.
“And there's always a rainbow, at the end of every rain”
Even though the times might look rough, there is goodness to be had, tackling both the abuse and suicide angles of the song.

Talking about promotion, since the Papa EP never came to light… Prince did include the song The Beautiful Experience TV movie, starring Nona Gaye. And it’s placement in the movie is similar to how it’s used on Come. Her lures you in with sex, only to drop reality on you.

It was Prince stating outright that you might be here because I used to talk about sex, but now… I’m going to be tackling some real topics in my music. And Come was just the beginning.

I hope you enjoyed my thread here about Papa. It was a huge undertaking, and I hope I made it interesting, engaging, and informational. Papa is a great song, and I hope everyone takes the message to heart and don’t skip it because it’s uncomfortable.

You can check out more Prince awesomeness on my Youtube channel! There, we have deep conversations surrounding Prince, his music, and his messages. I’d love to see you!

http://youtube.com/PrincesFriend 

May U Live 2 See the Dawn #studentofprince