I was working away, last night, and listening to a compilation and on comes Joy In Repetition. Initially, it was the drum intro that made me stop what I was doing and just enjoy listening for a moment and then the lyrics start and I start singing along - as you do - and it struck me: what a beautifully composed and structured series of words these are.

The lyrical content of this song must be one of the highlighs of Prince's career.

My question is - is Joy In Repetition the best lyric Prince has written? It's a story, it's complex in its telling of the story, it's rhymically hypnotising and it's heartbreaking in the doublethink of requited and unrequited love. (I reckon.)

What do you lot think?

SimonCharles said:

I was working away, last night, and listening to a compilation and on comes Joy In Repetition. Initially, it was the drum intro that made me stop what I was doing and just enjoy listening for a moment and then the lyrics start and I start singing along - as you do - and it struck me: what a beautifully composed and structured series of words these are.

The lyrical content of this song must be one of the highlighs of Prince's career.

My question is - is Joy In Repetition the best lyric Prince has written? It's a story, it's complex in its telling of the story, it's rhymically hypnotising and it's heartbreaking in the doublethink of requited and unrequited love. (I reckon.)

What do you lot think?

Just had the song playing in my head this morning. I agree, it's so special. And even more so when he played it on the piano. I love the lyrics, Prince putting in song what he was never able to do without music - asking for love.

CatB said:

SimonCharles said:

I was working away, last night, and listening to a compilation and on comes Joy In Repetition. Initially, it was the drum intro that made me stop what I was doing and just enjoy listening for a moment and then the lyrics start and I start singing along - as you do - and it struck me: what a beautifully composed and structured series of words these are.

The lyrical content of this song must be one of the highlighs of Prince's career.

My question is - is Joy In Repetition the best lyric Prince has written? It's a story, it's complex in its telling of the story, it's rhymically hypnotising and it's heartbreaking in the doublethink of requited and unrequited love. (I reckon.)

What do you lot think?

Just had the song playing in my head this morning. I agree, it's so special. And even more so when he played it on the piano. I love the lyrics, Prince putting in song what he was never able to do without music - asking for love.

It's just wonderfully constructed and, as you say, eloquently puts the desire to be loved into words.

I wish I could be so fastidious with my proofreading! What's highlighs and rhymically? rhymically I like - a cross between rhyme and rhythmic...but highlighs? Oh dear.

206Michelle said:

JIR is an absolute gem of a song. The album version is wonderful, but Prince really made JIR shine during live performances, particularly with the solos.

The guitar solo is a gorgeous thing, yes but, it's words and the manner of their composition that makes this song fly, I reckon. The storytelling set up, such beautiful imagery and then the intense push and pull of the phrase "love me". It's one of Prince's finest pieces of work, period, but arguably his best lyric ever.

Silvertongue7 said:

Amazing song, of course. I love the way the guitar drives it. One thing that really annoys me, though, is how the album version segues from We Can Funk. I know it will be very low in the estate’s list of priorities, but I hope we get one day the full intro with perfect sound. Then that sound will be just perfection...

This is a sound suggestion. It was the drum inro that caused me pause, the other day. It brings something to the song that's quite indescribable...but brillient. It sets the tone of the song wonderfully - just like the intros to ICNTTPOYM or SOTT or Sexuality or...well quite a few actually...who knew, Prince: the master of the intro!

Is beautiful, those haunting lyrics, the longing, the loneliness of the main characters. Someone said in some appreciation thread long ago that this song was like a voodoo chant or something like that, and it's so very true.

Another amazing gem of his and the guitar solo live just takes you on another planet.

214 said:

Is beautiful, those haunting lyrics, the longing, the loneliness of the main characters. Someone said in some appreciation thread long ago that this song was like a voodoo chant or something like that, and it's so very true.

That's a great way of describing it, yes. A yearning demand seated in a vague faith that repetition will bring joy.

ufoclub said:

One of the coolest Prince fanatic moments for me was when I had the vinyl bootleg “Chocolate Box” back in 1988(‘89?) and kept listening to this track and trying to transcribe the lyrics. As I figured it out, I realized how incredible the song was.

A beautifully personal way to experience a beautiful song.

SimonCharles said:

214 said:

Is beautiful, those haunting lyrics, the longing, the loneliness of the main characters. Someone said in some appreciation thread long ago that this song was like a voodoo chant or something like that, and it's so very true.

That's a great way of describing it, yes. A yearning demand seated in a vague faith that repetition will bring joy.

Thanks, and you completed the description in a beautiful way.

214 said:

SimonCharles said:

That's a great way of describing it, yes. A yearning demand seated in a vague faith that repetition will bring joy.

Thanks, and you completed the description in a beautiful way.

Thank you. There's something so poignant and melancholic about the way in which he paints this picture of desperate and unrequited desire.

I also love how the song, in the GB context, works with Elephants & Flowers with both songs describing this young man wandering alone in a city at night, looking for someone to share something with. That "character" (or theme) was revisited a few years later in Shy.

databank said:

I also love how the song, in the GB context, works with Elephants & Flowers with both songs describing this young man wandering alone in a city at night, looking for someone to share something with. That "character" (or theme) was revisited a few years later in Shy.

That hadn't occurred to me. Great post.