In lyrics, Prince philosophized, theologized and just plain preached

(RNS) A sampling of Prince's more religious songs.

Prince performs on the main stage during Budapest's Sziget music festival on an island in the Danube River on Aug. 9, 2011. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Laszlo Balogh

(RNS) Prince, who died a year ago this week, was a lifelong Christian, raised as a Seventh-day Adventist and later converting to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Throughout his almost 40 years of music, he frequently philosophized, theologized and just plain preached in his songs. Here is a sample of Prince’s more religious lyrics.


READ: No other artist mixed religion and sex like Prince


‘I Would Die 4 U’

(From the album “Purple Rain,” 1984)


This song was a hit as a love song between a man and a woman, but at points, Prince seems to be playing the role of Jesus:

The unpronounceable symbol (later dubbed “Love Symbol #2”). Image courtesy of Creative Commons

I’m not a woman
I’m not a man
I am something that you’ll never understand …

No need to worry
No need to cry
I’m your messiah and you’re the reason why …

I’m not a human
I am a dove
I’m your conscience
I am love
All I really need is to know that
You believe

Yeah, I would die for you, yeah

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‘My Name Is Prince’

(from the album “The Love Symbol,” 1992)

Prince lays out his relationship to God by placing himself directly in the creation story from Genesis:

In the beginning God made the sea
But on the seventh day he made me
He was tryin’ to rest y’all when He heard the sound
Sound like a guitar cold gettin’ down
I tried to bust a high note, but I bust a string
My God was worried ’til he heard me sing
My name is Prince and I am funky
My name is Prince the one and only

Prince performs during the Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 19, 2013. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Steve Marcus

‘7’

(from the album “The Love Symbol,” 1992)

This song has plenty of Book of Revelation references, and Prince fans have had lots of fun parsing what the 7 are. Seven Trumpets of the Apocalypse? The seven deadly sins? 

And we will see a plague and a river of blood
And every evil soul will surely die in spite of
Their 7 tears, but do not fear
4 in the distance, 12 souls from now
U and me will still be here — we will still be here


There will be a new city with streets of gold
The young so educated they never grow old
And, there will be no death 4 with every breath
The voice of many colors sings a song
That’s so bold
Sing it while we watch them fall

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‘The Rainbow Children’

(from the album of the same name, 2001)

The entire album was an exploration of Jehovah’s Witness theology:

Who is ur real father?
The everlasting one
The one who came from nothing
And yet from this one, everything comes

The one who commands ur momma
With the simple phrase “I am”
And every time that she obeys
She gives birth 2 the Son of Man
Who is this?

‘Lion of Judah’

(from the album “Planet Earth,” 2007)

Some of his later songs, like this one, had imagery drawn directly from Witness theology. Here, it is the trumpet, which Witnesses believe will herald the end times:

Like the Lion of Judah (Judah)
I strike my enemies down
As my God is living
Surely the trumpet will sound
There was one who would stand by my side
Through the good and the bad
Let that one stand with pride
The best that I ever had

Like the lion of Judah

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Faithful Viewer logo. Religion News Service graphic by T.J. Thomson

 

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