Prince

Released: July 17, 1990

Songwriter: Prince

Producer: Prince

Love come quick
Love come in a hurry
There's thieves in the temple tonight
They don't care where they kick
Just as long as they hurt you
They're thieves in the temple tonight

Love, if you're there come save me
From all this cold despair
I can hang when you're around
But I should die if you're not there

Love come quick
Love come in a hurry
They're thieves in the temple tonight

Feel like I'm looking for my soul
Like a poor man looking for gold
They're thieves in the temple tonight

Voices from the sky say
Rely on your best friend to pull you through
Even if I wanted to
I couldn't really truly
Because my only friend is you

Ooh ooh ooh ooohh
Come on

They're thieves in the temple tonight
Kicking me in my heart
Tearing me, tearing me, tearing me, tearing me all apart
Because me and you could've been a work of art
Thieves in the temple

Baby don't you know I'm holding on the best that I can
Love please help me be a better man
Better than the thieves in the temple tonight, in the temple tonight
Thieves in the temple tonight (hurt me)

Love come quick
Love come in a hurry
They're thieves in the temple tonight
Thieves in the temple ohhh
"You said you loved me!"
(Thieves in the temple)
"You said I was your man!"
(Thieves in the temple)
(Love come quick)
"But they were lies! Lies!"
(Love come in a hurry)
Thieves in the temple tonight
"Ahhhh!"

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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