My Sweet Prince

Album: Without You I'm Nothing (1998)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is about heroin. References to the drug can be found in some of the lyrics, such as "Me and the dragon can chase all the pain away." When this was released, the members of Placebo were going through drug addiction, which they later successfully kicked. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Krie - Ft. Drum, NY
  • Placebo frontman Brian Molko said this tune is about "a romance with a substance and a romance with a person and they both ended very, very tragically." He continued in a 1999 interview with Rock Sound: "One day somebody wrote a message on the wall of my room: 'My gentle prince, you are the only.' The relationship ended disastrously because the person in question is almost dead."
  • Molko doesn't like when his lyrics get censored and is very happy when he slips some naughty words past the censors. He told interviewer Sally Stratton in 1998: "I'm very proud of 'My Sweet Prince' because I managed to get... I've never used the word baby in a song before and I managed to get f--k and baby in the same verse and I'm very, very proud of that. You know, it's kind of funny you know we can sort of like follow a song called 'Pure Morning' on our album with 'Brick S--thouse' you know so it seems to me it's not a desire to shock, it's a desire to get a point across basically you know, and to not mince words really, you know."
  • This also marks a sonic departure for the alt-rock power trio, who experiment with a three-part harmony for the first time.
  • This appears on Placebo's second studio album, Without You I'm Nothing, which boasts a collaboration with David Bowie on its title track. The album debuted at #7 in their native UK and garnered some attention in the US, where it landed at #20 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart.

Comments: 10

  • Sabrina from Louisville, KyErm NO.

    'Chasing the Dragon' is in reference to smoking opium.

    'Me and My Valuable Friend, can fix all the pain away.' is about heroin.

    For crying out loud, bloody munchkins.
  • Evan from Portland, OrRian said:

    "And,actually, none of Placebo hav ever been drug addicts. Brian didnt write the song from experience (well, the heroin bit anyway). The band never denied taking drugs but they wernt addicts..."

    All of them at one point were addicted to drugs, and they admit to it openly. Steph's meaning is 100% correct.
  • José from Ciudad De México, MexicoIt's about making a pact with evil that allows one to brandish evil's powers to comfortably protect oneself on exchange of one's subjection after being too wrongly proud and sure about oneself's unweavery righteousness. It's an expanded "Blue American"'s "I don't care for myself". It's not cinical though because it also declares oneself's previously unknown helplessness, disabledness.

    Also, Vivian's "In the end it helps just to know there is still someone who has sufferd just as you who has loved and who has seen life through your eyes.", thats totally what Placebo is about, curiously, it's also a very Christian thing from Molko to do, to let us see him so helplessly saying "remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom" (Luke 23:42), explicitly so as in "Special Needs".
  • Lizza from Mexicali, Mexicothis song comes out in a french movie named Mauvaises Fréquentations. along with Pure MOrning
  • Vivian from Bucharest, Romaniathe song is clearly about heroin use and i should know since i was a heroin junky for 6 years.if brian is gay or not is not impotant since the music they're making has touched me, a lesbian junky, and help me take the trip to hell and back and they are still with me every day of my life and it has reach you and you don't have to be me to love them you can be as staight as it gets and not an addict as long as you have lived and loved you cannot say you as a fan and as a inteligent human that you don't get what they're about.and in the end it helps just to know there is still someone who has sufferd just as you who has loved and who has seen life through your eyes.
  • Chas from Webster, NyBrian's Bisexual, and also, I saw him do a live version and he was obviously coming off of a coke buzz. he became really irritated and couldnt stand being still. I think it really added to the performance, but I wanted to bring that up
  • Joshua from Jacksonville, FlUmmm....isn't Brian Moloko gay? Maybe I'm just an ignorant metalhead, as I mostly listen to Black Metal...but I can really groove on some Placebo. It's beautiful music.
  • Rian from London, United StatesAnd,actually, none of Placebo hav ever been drug addicts. Brian didnt write the song from experience (well, the heroin bit anyway). The band never denied taking drugs but they wernt addicts
  • Rian from London, United StatesThis is the most beautiful song ive ever heard. The emotion Brian puts into singing it is so incredible. I cry whenever i hear it.
  • Steph from Melbourne, AustraliaThis song has two meanings. Brian Molko wrote this song when his girlfried tried to kill herself when he broke up with her. On the bathroom wall in lipstick she had written 'my sweet prince, you are the one'. The song is also about a heroin addiction.
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