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greyl

(22,990 posts)
Mon Dec 9, 2019, 01:09 AM Dec 2019

Do Yourself A Favor, Walk on By · Prince · 2019 Re-Release of "1999", from 1982

Last edited Mon Dec 9, 2019, 03:09 AM - Edit history (2)



Prince channel
Provided to YouTube by Warner Records

History:



Do Yourself A Favor (a.k.a. If You See Me) was first released without Prince input by Jesse Johnson (on Shockadelica in 1986), but the first release containing input by Prince, recorded much earlier as If You See Me, was in two versions (instrumental and vocal) on a 1992 reissue of 94 East's first collection of studio recordings Minneapolis Genius, featuring Prince on guitar.

The track has featured on every subsequent collection of 94 East's early recordings. In 1995 both versions were included on Symbolic Beginning (re-released in 1999 as The Legends Collection). In 2000 the vocal version was included as the seventh track on 94 East Featuring Prince.

Also in 2000, both versions of If You See Me were included on One Man Jam. In 2002, both versions were included on If You Feel Like Dancin'. In 2011, a remixed version by Matt "Dr." Fink was included as the second track on the digital collection The Cookhouse Five.

Basic tracking of If You See Me took place on 4 December 1975, at Cookhouse Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota (during the same set of sessions as Games, I'll Always Love You, If We Don't and Better Than You Think), marking the earliest recording sessions featuring Prince to have been released.

Pepé Willie later recounted that Prince was unhappy with his guitar playing at one part of the track and asked the next day if he could re-record a section of his part; Willie arranged with the studio for this to happen while Willie himself played golf. Due to a change in the recording equipment's EQ levels (which had been changed for another artist's recording session), Prince's re-recorded guitar segment is audibly different than his guitar on the rest of the track.

Matt "Dr." Fink remixed the track in June 2010, at StarVu Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota, along with the other Cookhouse Studios tracks from the same session.

Somewhere during the summer of 1982, Prince recorded an entirely new version of the track at his at Kiowa Trail Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, now titled Do Yourself A Favor; according to Pepé Willie, Prince recorded it from memory and had not heard it for years.

Jesse Johnson released a version, clearly inspired by Prince's 1982 take, also titled Do Yourself A Favor, on his album Shockadelica, in 1986, but it misses Prince's own lyrical contribution to the track, a humorous spoken section in his "Jamie Starr" voice, so his version is not considered to have any input by Prince.

Prince's 1982 version of Do Yourself A Favor was released in 2019 as the eighth track on the Vault Tracks part 2 disc of a Deluxe edition of the 1999 album.


https://www.princevault.com/index.php?title=Do_Yourself_A_Favor


[Verse 1]
If you see me walkin' down the street one day
Don't say nothin' to me
No no, nothin'
'Cause you did me wrong when I was doing bad
So bad, I didn't think I was gonna make it
Now I'm alone, feelin' free
Freer than the butterfly flyin' high now, yeah yeah, baby
I don't claim no riches or any miracles
But I'm doin' better on my own

[Chorus]
So if you see me: walk on by, baby
Don't say nothin': walk on by now
Do yourself a favor: walk on by, yeah
Don't say nothin': walk on by, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Oh yeah
Oh yeah

[Verse 2]
You didn't even try to understand
Just where I was comin' from, no no, baby
Instead of understanding, you gave me your demandings
And I couldn't stand it - uh uh, baby
Now it's much to late and there's no time for me to try
Not anymore - uh uh, baby
Listen: say, I don't feel no pain, it doesn't hurt inside
And I'm doin' better on my own

[Chorus]
So if you see me: walk on by, baby
Don't say nothin': walk on by now
Do yourself a favor: walk on by, baby
Don't say nothin': walk on by, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

[Interlude]
Yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah

[Non-lyrical Vocalizing]

[Verse 3]
Now it's much too late and there's no time for me to try
Not anymore, uh uh, baby
I don't feel no pain, it doesn't hurt inside
And I'm doin' better on my own

[Chorus]
So looka here, baby!
If you see me: walk on by now
Don't say nothin': walk on by now
Just do yourself a favor: yeah, walk on by girl
Don't say nothin': walk on by - yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

[Outro]
Looka here, don't... don't... don't try to talk to me now, baby
I'm doin' OK
I'm makin' it on my own, baby
Looka here
Do yourself a favor
You know, honey, you know I ain't rich or nothin'
I ain't claimin' no miracles, but ah...
Do yourself a favor
I'm a bachelor now, baby
You know what I'm sayin'?
Do yourself a favor
Just do yourself a favor, baby, just walk on down the street, huh
Do yourself a favor
I ain't got a damn thing to say to you now, baby - look out!
Do yourself a favor
When we was together, did you try to understand me? No!
Do yourself a favor
So just do yourself a favor and get the hell down the road
Do yourself a favor
Mmmm
Do yourself a favor
Too sexy
Yes, mmmm
Somebody call up the Colonel, I hear some chicken scratchin'
Good God, yes
Too sexy
Somebody else fall in, I don't care who it is
Just come on, keep it goin', come on
Uh, yes
You like that?
Then come here, sit down
Let me talk to you
You hear that?
That's a fifty dollar bill
When's the last time you seen one of them?
That's what I thought
Let me tell you somethin'
When me and you used to be... me and you used to be together
I didn't have no money in my pocket
That's all different now, that's all different
Now you wanna play, now you wanna play crazy
You're not crazy
You're no crazier than I, don't play, don't act like that
You didn't try to understand where I was comin' from back then
Why you tryin' to now?
'Cause you know I got that money, that's why
Uh huh, yeah
Sit down, don't talk, come here, sit down!
I'll kick your ass
What, you think you bad now?
I'll kick your ass
Come here, good God
Mmmm
Oh yes
Somebody call up the Colonel, I hear some chicken scratchin'
Pow!
If you see me walkin' down the street one day, baby
Don't say nothin'
You used to do me wrong, baby
That's back when I was doin' bad
But now, baby, now, baby, I got more money than I ever had
Oh Lord, yes yes
Do yourself a favor, baby
Take it on down the road
Let that sidewalk hit you where the dog should've bit you, yes baby
Oh Lord
Oh Lord, eh
I'll kick your ass
Don't you play crazy with me, I'm...
You... you not crazy, I'm crazy
I'm the one that's crazy
You're not crazy
Come here
Don't you walk away from me
I don't care what I told you, come back here
You hear me talkin' to you, baby?
Come here, come here
I'll kick your ass
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Do Yourself A Favor, Walk on By · Prince · 2019 Re-Release of "1999", from 1982 (Original Post) greyl Dec 2019 OP
KICK greyl Dec 2019 #1
great stuff! BootinUp Dec 2019 #2
Long creative vamps like this, as on his b-sides and 12" versions and bootlegs greyl Dec 2019 #3

greyl

(22,990 posts)
3. Long creative vamps like this, as on his b-sides and 12" versions and bootlegs
Fri Dec 13, 2019, 02:36 AM
Dec 2019

is what vernalized my affection for Prince, and curiosity about wtf he'd come up with next.

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