Neneh Cherry

Released: August 30, 2018

Songwriter: Four Tet Booga Bear Neneh Cherry

Producer: Four Tet

[Verse 1]
Just some fun and games
Took my name in vain
Nothing is the same
Just another day now
Fun and playgrounds
Bend the rules now
Know the rules now
Play the rules now
It's institutional resolutions
Lack of direction intersections

[Refrain]
Pick up a gun, you know you gonna use it
Know that gun, it's gonna get loaded
Say my name before you pull it
Too late, you know, just took that bullet

[Verse 2]
Looking front to back
Through the shotgun shack
You reside too slow to run fast, run fast
Catching up with you
Too slow to move
It's gonna get you
The playground rules

[Chorus]
You can't cry now
Don't even try
Nowhere you can turn
You can't even run away
Two can cry now
Don't even try to ride
You can hide now
You can even turn away

[Bridge]
The shotgun, living in a shotgun shack
In the back, living in a shotgun shack
In the back, living with a shotgun
Living in a shotgun shack, living in a shotgun
Shack, living in the back, living with a shotgun
Living with a gun, living with your back to the wall

[Pre-Chorus]
Pick up a gun, you know you gonna use it
Know that gun, it's gonna get loaded
Say my name before you pull it
Too late, you know, just took that bullet

[Chorus]
You can't cry now
Don't even try
Nowhere you can turn
You can't even run away
Two can cry now
Don't even try to ride
You can hide now
You can even turn away

[Chorus]
You can't cry now
Don't even try
Nowhere you can turn
You can't even run away
Two can cry now
Don't even try to ride
You can hide now
You can even turn away

Neneh Mariann Karlsson was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and a father from Sierra Leone. Her mother raised her in a commune with her stepfather, jazz musician Don Cherry (father of Eagle Eye Cherry).

She moved to London in the 1980s and immersed herself in the Bristol music scene (where Massive Attack and Portishead would form), getting involved with bands such as The Cherries, The Slits, New Age Steppers, Rip Rig + Panic and Float Up CP.

But it was her collaboration with the duo Morgan-McVey, who released only the one single “Looking Good Diving”, that would be the springboard to launch her into international stardom. The single’s B-side featured Cherry rapping over the A-side’s instrumental tracks with what later became the lyrics to her 1988 debut breakout single “Buffalo Stance” (its music reworked by Bomb The Bass' Tim Simenon) – which reached the top 10 in eleven countries.

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