After recording their debut single "Ode to a Forgetful Mind" in 1988, P.M. Dawn released their first album Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience in 1991 to critical acclaim. It achieved immediate commercial success because of its single "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss". Their 1993 follow-up The Bliss Album...? was also praised by critics and featured the hit singles "I'd Die Without You" and "Looking Through Patient Eyes". P.M. Dawn continued to receive strong reviews, but sold poorly with their subsequent albums Jesus Wept (1995) and Dearest Christian, I'm So Very Sorry for Bringing You Here. Love, Dad (1998).
The Cordes brothers' father died of pneumonia when they were children. Further family tragedy occurred when their baby brother, Duncan, drowned at the age of two. The two elder brothers were raised by their mother and their stepfather George Brown, a founding member of Kool & the Gang.
Prince Be began DJing parties and composing songs in ninth grade. Within a few years, he had determined to make a demo tape of some of those pieces with the $600 he had set aside from his after school job as a security guard at a homeless shelter. By then, he and his brother were putting in studio time as P.M. Dawn.
They first approached Tommy Boy Records, the rap music subsidiary of Warner Brothers, with their demo, but they were told that they were too much like alternative hip-hoppers De La Soul, and not hardcore or ghetto, and were turned away. Eventually, Warlock, an independent record label, issued a debut single, "Ode to a Forgetful Mind", in 1989, but it went unnoticed.
The record label that released the single in the United Kingdom, Gee Street Records, found greater success. Gee Street mixed and marketed the song so that it earned considerable attention from music reviewers, and P.M. Dawn found themselves courted not just by Gee Street's head, Jon Baker, but also by most of the major UK record labels. Gee Street brought the brothers to London in 1990 to record tracks for an album; however, the label found itself facing bankruptcy during the recording. The entire Gee Street operation, along with P.M. Dawn's recording contract, was sold to the highest bidder, Island Records. Island issued a few more singles in the United Kingdom before releasing their debut album, Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience.
Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross featured the international hit "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss", which sampled the Spandau Ballet song "True", and featured a cameo by Spandau Ballet singer Tony Hadley in the music video of the song. "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" hit #1 the week of November 30, 1991, and holds the distinction of being the first #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart following the introduction of Nielsen SoundScan to the chart. The song also reached #3 in the United Kingdom. "Paper Doll", which was one of the early singles Island released in the United Kingdom, was released in the US as a follow-up to "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss", and peaked at #28 in early 1992. "Paper Doll" is said well over 100 times in the song, which makes it second only to MC Hammer's "Pray", which holds the record for the most times a title is repeated in a US Top 40 hit (147).
With the success of their debut album, the band parted company with their manager Nick Hemmings and embarked on a world tour. During this world tour, a statement Prince Be made in Details magazine led Boogie Down Productions' KRS-One and his crew to storm the stage during a P.M. Dawn concert, forcing the group off the stage and performing three BDP classics. To warrant this reaction from KRS-One, Prince B had asked, "KRS-One wants to be a teacher, but a teacher of what?" Defending his motives to USA Today's James T. Jones IV, KRS-One remarked, "I answered his question. 'A teacher of what?' I'm a teacher of respect."
In 1992, P.M. Dawn appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD Red Hot + Dance, contributing the Richie Rich Mix of "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss". The album, featuring George Michael and Madonna among others, was meant to raise money and awareness in support of the AIDS epidemic.
Before releasing their follow-up album, The Bliss Album…? (Vibrations of Love and Anger and the Ponderance of Life and Existence), P.M. Dawn contributed the single "I'd Die Without You" to the 1992 Eddie Murphy comedy Boomerang and its soundtrack. This #2 pop hit was also included on The Bliss Album…?, as was the Billboard #2 pop hit "Looking Through Patient Eyes".
"Looking Through Patient Eyes" featured backing vocals by Cathy Dennis and sampled George Michael's hit "Father Figure". The music video for the song was shot in a church, and featured Christian images throughout — most notably, Prince Be wore a T-shirt with "Thank you, Jesus" written across it in black lettering.
The Bliss Album…? featured the Boy George duet "More Than Likely" and a cover of The Beatles' "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". The album also included "So On and So On," which led to a 1999 sampling lawsuit. In the lawsuit Batiste v. Island Records, Inc., Paul and Michael Batiste claimed that P.M. Dawn's song "So On and So On" used unauthorized samples from David Batiste & The Gladiators' "Funky Soul". The fifth Circuit Federal Appellate Court found that the Batistes point to no evidence in the record demonstrating that consumers were confused or deceived by either the use of a digital sample of "Funky Soul" in "So On and So On", or the attribution to David Batiste as a co-author of the track. The Batistes' claim that Paul and Michael Batiste were improperly excluded from the liner notes accompanying the album also failed to suggest that consumers were confused, especially because the liner notes do credit the name of the band in which both Paul and Michael Batiste performed. Though Island Records won the lawsuit, the song was removed from subsequent releases of The Bliss Album and is no longer available for purchase in their publishing catalog.
P.M. Dawn contributed a cover of "You Got Me Floatin'" to the 1993 compilation album Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Artists ranging from Pat Metheny to Eric Clapton to Ice-T's Body Count were included.
Their 1995 album Jesus Wept was unable to attain the success of their first two albums. The album's highest charting single was "Downtown Venus", which contained a sample of Deep Purple's "Hush", and reached #48 on the Billboard chart. Also, in 1995, P.M. Dawn was credited with the remix of White Zombie's "Blood, Milk and Sky" (Miss September Mix) on the Supersexy Swingin' Sounds compilation album. In 1996, P.M. Dawn contributed "Non-Fiction Burning" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization. In 1998, Prince Be contributed the tracks "Perfect for You" and "Gotta Be...Movin' on Up" to the Marlon Wayans and David Spade comedy Senseless, followed later in the year by P.M. Dawn's fourth album, Dearest Christian, I'm So Very Sorry for Bringing You Here. Love, Dad. It was less successful again, with the album's single, "Being So Not for You (I Had No Right)" being a minor chart hit.
In the same year, Jarret Cordes (DJ Minutemix) was accused of sexually abusing a 14-year old relative and was subsequently arrested in Burlington County. The girl is said to have been a "close relative".
In 2000, they released the compilation, The Best of P.M. Dawn. Through their website, they also began selling a mail-order-only album called Fucked Music on December 1, 2000. This was paired with a bonus CD, Unreleased Vol. 1, and a T-shirt.
Prince Be suffered a massive stroke in early 2005 that left him paralyzed on the left side of his body. Undeterred, P.M. Dawn appeared on NBC's Hit Me, Baby, One More Time, performing "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss", and covered Puddle of Mudd's "Blurry". Despite the fact that Prince Be was still suffering the effects of this stroke, they beat Animotion, Missing Persons, Juice Newton and Shannon to claim the $20,000 charitable prize, which they contributed to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, as Prince Be was a diabetic.
Following their appearance on Hit Me, Baby, One More Time, Minutemix was terminated for misconduct. This led to the introduction of the Cordes brothers' paternal first cousin, Gregory Lewis Carr II, known by his stage name Doc. G (also known as 'Dr. Giggles' or 'Blissboy #2'.)
On May 15, 2010, Prince Be's 40th birthday, Doc. G performed in Manila before an audience of 50,000 people and dedicated the performance to Guru of Gang Starr and Francis M.
On June 17, 2016, Prince Be died of renal disease at the age of 46.
Doc. G continues to perform and record music under the P.M. Dawn name. On April 6, 2018, Doc.G announced K-R.O.K. as a new member of P.M. Dawn.
Even After I Die
P.M. Dawn Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And insecurities connect my parts
I thought you are me and I am you
So I talk to myself 'til my face turns blue
Ask me if my feet touch the ground
I drift away and explore the profound
A morph to satisfaction is the trip
It's you isn't it?
Please, tell me what you think of me
The pressure and the weight comes in with the tide
I tell you that I love you a thousand times
Someone said a silver course lands my door
Now question marks talk to me even more
I'm tired.. and I wanna come home
But all that pains me is the thought of my own
The thought of you just reeks with divinity
A spark by my heart is the symbol of the trinity
I can understand that the stakes are high
But I'd really like to know what I've done and why
I'm floating in a sea of doubt when it comes to that
It seems as though all of my thoughts are now acrobats
I am you, now that's a thought to renege
But in the thought that stops it seems to get big
I wonder why father why it is what it is
Because I am what I am? What gives?
Alphabet soup brings uncertain T's
A kiss on the cheek is more trouble for me
Is it possible that I might decompose
And reassemble with a spark and a rose
I notice that oblivion follows me around
As ode to forgetful mind is shot down
Eternity is holding a Rubix cube
And everything inside it seems to be nude
I just don't get it sometimes it's weird
It barely shakes but escalates into fear
I'm so distraught that it now makes sense
The perfect pony.. but you'll only get a glimpse
Now someone tried to hit it with a stick of bamboo
I wonder wonder wonder wonder who
I grin as the era of the selfish fades
And I'm looking at the skies through a pair of dark shades
And I'm buggin' I guess cause it makes me feel good
There's so many things that I misunderstood
I guess I'll never know.. it'd probably cut me like a knife
I swore I spent my life trying to be Christ-like
But I love you father so I can't lie
I think I'll still be scared even after I die
The lyrics to P.M. Dawn's song Even After I Die are a deeply introspective and philosophical exploration of the self and one's relationship with the divine. The opening lines "A question mark's on a question mark / And insecurities connect my parts" set the tone for the rest of the song, which is filled with uncertainty and doubt. The singer talks about their struggle to understand their own identity, asking "I thought you are me and I am you / So I talk to myself 'til my face turns blue." They also express a desire for validation from a higher power, asking "Father tell me what you think of me / Please, tell me what you think of me."
The song is filled with vivid imagery and metaphor, such as the line "I'm floating in a sea of doubt," and the reference to a Rubix cube representing eternity. The singer also struggles with the concept of mortality, wondering if they will decompose and reassemble with a "spark and a rose." The repeated line "I think I'll still be scared even after I die" speaks to the universal fear of the unknown and what comes after death.
Overall, these lyrics are a deeply personal and reflective exploration of the self and the human experience, with a focus on the interplay between mortality and divinity.
Line by Line Meaning
A question mark's on a question mark
My life is full of unanswered questions and insecurities
And insecurities connect my parts
My insecurities hold me back and affect every aspect of my life
I thought you are me and I am you
I believed that we are one and connected in a spiritual way
So I talk to myself 'til my face turns blue
I often engage in self-talk and introspection
Ask me if my feet touch the ground
I feel disconnected from reality and often daydream
I drift away and explore the profound
My mind wanders to deep and complicated thoughts
A morph to satisfaction is the trip
I often seek happiness and fulfillment in life
It's you isn't it?
I feel that you hold the answers and solutions to my problems
Father tell me what you think of me
I seek validation and approval from God
Please, tell me what you think of me
I am desperate for reassurance and affirmation from God
The pressure and the weight comes in with the tide
I am often overwhelmed by the challenges and struggles of life
I tell you that I love you a thousand times
I express my love and devotion to God
Someone said a silver course lands my door
I have received a mysterious message that confuses me
Now question marks talk to me even more
My confusion and insecurity has increased and is consuming me
I'm tired.. and I wanna come home
I am exhausted and long to return to God's embrace
But all that pains me is the thought of my own
I am burdened by my own flaws and shortcomings
The thought of you just reeks with divinity
The idea of God fills me with awe and reverence
A spark by my heart is the symbol of the trinity
I feel a connection to the holy trinity
I can understand that the stakes are high
I know that my spiritual journey comes with great responsibility
But I'd really like to know what I've done and why
I crave understanding of my spiritual purpose and meaning
I'm floating in a sea of doubt when it comes to that
I am uncertain and confused about my spiritual journey
It seems as though all of my thoughts are now acrobats
My mind and thoughts are often chaotic and uncontrolled
I am you, now that's a thought to renege
I feel a sense of oneness and connection to God
But in the thought that stops it seems to get big
My doubts and insecurities can sometimes overshadow my faith
I wonder why father why it is what it is
I question the nature of my spiritual journey
Because I am what I am? What gives?
I am confused about the purpose and meaning of my existence
Alphabet soup brings uncertain T's
The randomness of life can be confusing and uncertain
A kiss on the cheek is more trouble for me
Even simple gestures and relationships can be complicated and challenging for me
Is it possible that I might decompose
I am contemplating the nature of mortality and death
And reassemble with a spark and a rose
I wonder if there is an afterlife, and what it might be like
I notice that oblivion follows me around
I am aware of the inevitability of death and the unknown beyond
As ode to forgetful mind is shot down
My anxieties and uncertainties can be overwhelming and debilitating
Eternity is holding a Rubix cube
The concept of eternity is complex and difficult to understand
And everything inside it seems to be nude
The mysteries and secrets of life are laid bare and exposed
I just don't get it sometimes it's weird
My confusion and uncertainty can be overwhelming and frustrating
It barely shakes but escalates into fear
My anxieties and stresses can begin small but grow into larger fears
I'm so distraught that it now makes sense
My anxieties and insecurities have become so overwhelming that they seem logical
The perfect pony.. but you'll only get a glimpse
Perfection is fleeting and elusive, and rarely achieved
Now someone tried to hit it with a stick of bamboo
Even those who seem perfect can be vulnerable and fragile
I wonder wonder wonder wonder who
I am curious and inquisitive about the nature of existence
I grin as the era of the selfish fades
I am optimistic about the future and the possibility of change
And I'm looking at the skies through a pair of dark shades
I am viewing the world and my spiritual journey through a lens of skepticism and pessimism
And I'm buggin' I guess cause it makes me feel good
Even my anxieties and uncertainties can bring comfort and fulfillment
There's so many things that I misunderstood
I have made mistakes and misunderstandings in my spiritual journey
I guess I'll never know.. it'd probably cut me like a knife
There are some mysteries and questions in life that may never be answered, and accepting that can be painful
I swore I spent my life trying to be Christ-like
I have dedicated my life to trying to emulate the qualities of Jesus Christ
But I love you father so I can't lie
Despite my struggles and doubts, I still have love and devotion towards God
I think I'll still be scared even after I die
My anxiety and insecurities will likely follow me beyond death
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, THE ROYALTY NETWORK INC., Royalty Network, Downtown Music Publishing
Written by: ATTRELL STEPHEN JR. CORDES, DENNIS JAMES COFFEY, ATTRELL CORDES
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
lxlandia
Been a fan since this debut....sadly we would only have four official studio releases by PM Dawn. I am Heavy Metal at heart with my music collection, but PM Dawn inspired me that we are more than just flesh & bone: we are spirit, soul, mind....eternal.
RoofLight00
RIP brother, thank you for the music. May your journey be peaceful and the stars light your way....
Rahsaan Brown
RIP Prince B. Even after you die..
emmersom73
Wow I miss these guys!
Timeless style!
jim ford
Always liked PM Dawn
Stuart Flynn
This is amazing, calming as fuck.
kyle witz
It's euphoric.
Maria Pratiwi
RIP Prince Be
1000% BAADDD
very poignant right now! RIPrince Be..
john rowland
awesome.