Prince

Released: September 25, 2020

Songwriter: Lisa Coleman Wendy Melvoin Prince

Producer: Prince

[Verse 1]
Lana drew a picture in school today
One that made her mother cry
A picture of a woman with a drink in her hand
Standing by a child with no eyes
Watching her reaction based upon revenge
Babies blown to kingdom come
Damn the logic
Cartoon characters look better when they're on the run
Danny dropped the dime on his girlfriend
He said he didn't wanna go to jail alone
The seed lives in the same mind
With the thought that says we all should be stoned
And people lookin' for angels in the sky
Whenever they're broken-hearted
Love is grown, seeds are sown
A fire don't burn unless it's started

[Refrain]
La la la la la la, tra-la-la-la
Sha-la-la-la

[Chorus]
Did you ever feel that life was like lookin' for a penny
In a large room with no light?
A sophisticated mass-produced cacophony of no-win situations
That aren't right?

[Refrain]
Sha-la la la la la, sha-la-la-la
Sha-la-la-la

[Verse 2]
Every time you wake up there's a little motherfucker
Talkin' big stuff in your face
(Are you happy?)
You only get the kind of people that open their mouth
Just to swap feet
Welcome to the rat race!
Oh, oh, oh oh
Oh, oh, oh oh

[Chorus]
Did you ever feel that life was like lookin' for a penny
In a large room with no light?
A sophisticated mass-produced cacophony of no-win situations
That aren't right?

[Chorus]
Oh, if you could just pass your history class
Maybe life would be alright
Until then you'll be lookin' for a penny
In a large room with no light
Yeah!

[Refrain]
Sha-la la la la la, sha-la-la-la
Sha-la-la-la

[Outro]
No light
No light
No light
No light
No light
No light

An American singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, and actor that produced 22 RIAA-platinum albums during his 40-year career, Prince may be known for one of many different things – his turn as “The Kid” in the iconic film/album/8 ½ minute ballad “Purple Rain”, being the writer behind the acclaimed anthem “Kiss,” rivaling Michael Jackson at the pinnacle of his career, being the inspiration behind censorship laws, or being the artist addressed as an unpronounceable symbol throughout the 1990s—but while many know of Prince, most don’t fully understand the impact his legacy left on this world.

Going by many aliases throughout his life, Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 7, 1958 with his father’s (John L. Nelson) stage name as his own given one. Growing up, Prince suffered from serious epileptic seizures at a very young age, but he had wrote his first composition of many by age seven, and outside of his love for basketball, he wanted music to be his purpose in life. His tumultuous childhood, witnessing alcoholism and abuse, caused him to find refuge in neighbor André Cymone’s home in his teens, where the two competed in local band competitions, leading to Prince’s introduction to Morris Day alongside music with his cousin’s band 94 East, leading him to be courted by record labels and ultimately signed to Warner Bros. Records with complete creative control; at 19, his debut album, For You (1978) was released – Prince played all 19 instruments on the record.

Influenced by the likes of Miles Davis, Rick James, and James Brown, Prince desired to form a music dynasty and after the success of his next albums – the platinum-selling Prince (1979), the sexually-charged Dirty Mind (1980), and politically-motivated Controversy (1981) – he negotiated for the ability to form his own label and manage artists of his own. Prince’s trademark sexual/religious rhetoric within pop-and-dance, funk-rock sound gained him a following, but his opening slates for Rick James and The Rolling Stones were both negatively received and facing bankruptcy, the young artist began to reach for mainstream popularity. Cashing on the drug-influenced doomsday mania of the times, 1982’s 1999 easily achieved that mainstream appeal, landing him on MTV, music charts, and radio stations across the world.

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