Spice It Up
Cinnamon Girl — Prince
Song Lyric Sunday: A Song That Mentions a Spice
Cinnamon Girl — Prince
For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday prompt, we need a song that mentions a spice.
I briefly considered some other songs before discovering one small problem:
Sugar isn’t a spice. 😂
So we’re going with cinnamon.
And if I’m choosing cinnamon, there really could only be one choice for me:
Cinnamon Girl by Prince.
Prince also happens to hold a special little place in my musical history.
He was my first crush on an artist.
Yes, before all the other musicians who would eventually find their way into the soundtrack of my life, there was Prince. 💜
And what a musician to start with.
Singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and performer — Prince never seemed particularly interested in fitting neatly into anyone else’s musical box.
Perhaps that’s one reason I’ve always loved his music.
Cinnamon Girl
Cinnamon Girl appeared on Prince’s 2004 album Musicology, and Prince wrote and produced the song himself.
But despite its sweet-sounding title, this isn’t really a sweet song.
The cinnamon gets us through the door.
Then Prince gives us something much more serious.
The song tells the story of a young woman living in the aftermath of September 11 and experiencing prejudice because people perceive her as being of Middle Eastern descent.
Suddenly the people around her see her differently.
Fear becomes suspicion.
Suspicion becomes prejudice.
And a song with an almost playful title becomes a commentary on discrimination, religion, fear and what can happen when an entire group of people becomes associated with the actions of extremists.
The animated music video took that message even further.
It follows a teenage girl experiencing prejudice and bullying and eventually moves into a deliberately shocking fantasy sequence involving an act of violence. The ending makes clear that what we’ve witnessed was imagined rather than carried out, but the imagery was controversial.
Prince wasn’t exactly known for being afraid of making people uncomfortable.
Sometimes discomfort was the point.
More Than a Spice
That’s what I like about this choice.
I could have found a song that simply mentioned cinnamon somewhere in the lyrics and ticked the box for this week’s challenge.
Instead, Cinnamon Girl gives me something to think about.
More than twenty years after the song was released, its questions about prejudice, fear and judging people because of their background haven’t exactly disappeared.
And underneath all of that is Prince — my first artist crush.
Funny how music works.
A teenage crush becomes a lifelong appreciation of an extraordinary musician, and decades later one of his songs turns up again because somebody asked me to find…
a spice. 😂
Sometimes Song Lyric Sunday takes us to unexpected places.
This week it took me back to Prince.
And I’m certainly not complaining. 💜
🎵 Cinnamon Girl — Prince (2004)
- As war drums beat in Babylon
Cinnamon Girl starts to pray
I never heard a prayer like this one
Never before that dayTearful words of love for people she had never met before
Asking God to grant them mercy in this face of a holy warCinnamon Girl
Cinnamon GirlCinnamon Girl of mixed heritage
Never knew the meaning of color lines
911 turned that all around
When she got accused of this crimeSo began the mass illusion, war on terror alibi
What’s the use when the god of confusion
Keeps on telling the same lie?Cinnamon Girl
Cinnamon GirlDon’t cry, don’t shed no tears
One night won’t make us feel
‘Cause we know how this movie’s endingCinnamon GirlAs war drums beat in Babylon
And scorch the blood red sky
Militants bomb the foreign gun
Both sides, children dieCinnamon Girl opens the book she knows will settle all the scores
Then she prays after the war that there will not be anymoreCinnamon Girl
Cinnamon Girl
Cinnamon Girl
(Don’t worry, baby, it’s gon’ be alright)
Cinnamon GirlWriter/s: Prince Rogers Nelson
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
With love, coffee, poetry, and stardust,
— Maggie The Afterlove Voice 💫
My new album “Beneath The Northern Star ” is out You can play and save the songs on your streaming platforms here:
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