243: The Marrying Kind

Musicology (2004)
Sandwiched between the two political songs on Musicology lies the infidelity quartet – a suite of songs forming the dark heart of Prince’s marriage breakdown album. The Marrying Kind is the second song in this section and is full of Yeats’ lust and rage. It’s the anger stage that follows the denial stage of What Do U Want Me 2 Do, and precedes the bargaining stage of If Eye Was the Man in Your Life and the begging-for-forgiveness stage of On the Couch. Prince covers a lot of ground in its 2 minutes and 49 seconds – spending the chorus mendaciously buttering up the woman he has this sights on, and the verses firing warning shots at her boyfriend. He also manages to find time to take retaliation at Missy Elliot for her 2002 Work It video that featured an unflattering Prince lookalike. Diamonds and Pearls this ain’t. The guitar adds a menacing undertone and the amount of malice he fits into the phrase “purple satin laces” alone could strip paint. My advice to the unnamed woman can be found in the closing lines: “run away!”