Another Lonely Christmas by Prince: Great B-Sides

The b-side is often a British commodity, but one American artist was the equal of any British artist with the quantity and quality of his outtakes. Prince was so prolific that he released 70 official non-album b-sides, as well as reportedly leaving vast amounts of unreleased material in the vault.

Prince has a bunch of celebrated b-sides, including ‘Erotic City’, ‘Shockadelica’, and ‘She’s Always In My Hair’. ‘Another Lonely Christmas’ came from the sessions for Purple Rain – it was credited to the Revolution, but performed solely by Prince. Prince only performed it once live, on 26 December 1984, but it was issued as the b-side as ‘I Would Die 4 U’.

‘Another Lonely Christmas’ is a melodramatic ballad, about the death of a loved one on the 25th day of Christmas. It sounds distressingly like the premise for a Hallmark movie, but Prince’s arrangement is off-kilter enough to make the song fascinating. His vocal performance is committed -despite his later assertion that the “song is a work of fiction”, there’s still some emotional resonance for Prince. If it’s not to the specific circumstances of the song (“Your father said it was pneumonia/Your mother said it was stress/But the doctor said you were dead and I/I say it’s senseless”), it’s at least a connection to the feelings of isolation from his recent rise to mega-stardom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1yFp9P-5Wg

Another Lonely Christmas Lyrics

Last night I spent another lonely Christmas
Darling, darling, you should’ve been there
‘Cause all the ones I dream about
You are the one that makes my love shout, you see
You are the only one I care for

Remember the time we swam naked
In your father’s pool?
Boy, he was upset that night
But boy, was that ever cool

Remember the night we played Pokeno for money
And you robbed me blind
Remember how you used to scream so loud
‘Cause you hated that number nine

Hey, I saw your sister skating on the lake
This afternoon
Good heaven, how she’s grown
She swoons the boy skaters she’s so tall

But of all your father’s children
All your father’s children, baby, you know
You are the finest of them all
You are brighter than the northern star and I

Last night I spent another lonely Christmas
Darling, darling, you, you should’ve been there
You see, of all the ones I dream about
You are the one that makes my love shout
You see, you are the only one I care for, yeah

My momma used to say “always trust your lover”
Well, now I guess that only applies to her
‘Cause baby, you promised me
Baby you promised me you’d never leave
Then you died on the twenty-fifth day of December
Oh, baby

Last night I spent another lonely, lonely Christmas
Darling, baby, you, you should’ve been there, now
‘Cause all the ones I dream about
You are the one that makes my love shout, you see
You are the only one I care for

Your father said it was pneumonia
Your mother said it was stress
But the doctor said you were dead and I
I say it’s senseless

Every Christmas night for seven years now
I drink banana daquaris ’til I’m blind
As long as I can hear you smilin’ baby
You won’t hear my tears
Another lonely Christmas is mine
Yeah, mine
Yeah
Another lonely Christmas is mine

Last night, yeah, I spent another lonely, lonely Christmas
Darling, darling, you should’ve been there, yeah
‘Cause all the ones I dream about
You are the one that makes my love shout, you see
You are the only one I care for

Another-other, hee, hee

Read More

• Great B-Sides
• 1980s Album Reviews