Prince

Released: March 27, 2004

Songwriter: Prince

Producer: Prince

[Verse 1]
If you leave her now
You are never going to see her again, never
Now she's going to need a shoulder to cry on
She's going to need a friend

She's going to need a pillow case
Something to put those tears on
And I've got some purple satin laces
One second later than the second you're gone

She's going to miss you at first
But then she's gonna buy me things
That's when I'm going to a lay her
'Cross my piano stool and sing to her

[Chorus]
Honey, I tried to tell him
That you were the marrying kind
A faithful one-man woman
The best he would ever find

I guess he wasn't trying to hear that
So there ain't nothin' left to say
I tried too tell him if you run to me I
I won't run away

[Verse 2]
If you leave her now
You'll never get another glimpse
I'm going to lace her with enough ice to recap the polls
There might be another solar eclipse

She's gonna find out what I like on my eggs
My bathwater, how I like to be touched
I'm going to put her on the same diet Missy went on
You know she eat too much

Tonight, she's gonna miss you at first
Then she'll get used to me
All of the tricks I would try
To make her take this ring and make love to me

[Chorus]
I tried, honey, I tried to tell him
That you were the marrying kind
A faithful one-man woman
The best he would ever find

I guess he wasn't trying to hear that
So there ain't nothing left to say
I tried to tell him if you run to me
I won't run away

[Outro]
Run away
Run away, ah ah
Don't run away

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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