Kiss is a perfect song.
In the early 2000s I went to California to visit my friend Dave. Driving through the streets of downtown LA, we stopped at a red light when another car pulled up next to us. Windows down, we could hear Kiss coming from it.
Dave and I both knew that Kiss was much better than whatever song we were listening to. Obviously. I leaned out the passenger window to ask the driver if she was listening to a CD.
“No,” she said. She seemed surprised that someone could see into her car. “It’s the radio.”
“What station?” Dave asked.
And just like that, the three of us sat in our 2 different cars, singing Kiss at a red light on the way to Beverly Hills.Kiss is a song that makes you talk to strangers in cars. Because we heard it fine from her car, but second-hand Kiss is not enough; we needed it in our car too.
The first time I heard Kiss, I didn’t even believe it was Prince. Which was especially strange, because I was watching the music video and I could see him there, dancing around with a woman on guitar I knew was either Wendy or Lisa but I didn’t know which one. His voice was so much higher than it usually was. I thought he was lip-syncing. Maybe, I thought to my 7th grade self, Prince needed someone else to hit the high notes; seventh grade me was a fucking idiot. Prince, I would realize, could do it all. Because of this:
“Act your age, mama
Not your shoe size”
Yes. That is a schoolyard taunt, but from Prince, it is valuable life advice. It is a celebration of maturity, rather than the reproach it would be from a child. Prince isn’t interested in wasting time to make fun of you; he’s letting you know the two of you could totally hang – or, in this case, do the twirl- as long as you act like a fucking grown-up.
So much of Prince’s music explores adult themes. It’s weird to think of singing along with Darling Nicky as a 10 year-old; sure, that’s shockingly inappropriate for a child, but as a grown-up I understand that the song had no more meaning to me at the time than the bible does for a parrot. They were just words I could say, a parlor trick my friends and I could all do. We were funny little parrots, squawking dirty words, not recognizing that Kiss, deceptively simple Kiss, was the most brazen song we knew.
Because in Kiss? Whatever you think you need to be, you don’t. Astrology doesn’t count for shit in Prince’s world. Women – not girls – rule his world. And in case you didn’t get that, he’ll repeat it for you:
“I said they rule my world.”
In 1986 he said this. That was the revolution he was leading.
What Prince wants in Kiss is not ephemeral qualities, it is not the trappings of womanhood. It isn’t youth or trying hard to prove you’re experienced. You don’t need to be rich. You don’t need to be cool. (God, that was so reassuring to me). All you need is to spend a little time together, and you kiss. If you can handle getting that personal, the rest will work itself out.
Fun With Song Lyrics 