The Prophet

Album: Any Day Now (1962)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is based on the classic 1923 book The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, which is filled with bits of wisdom that help send sinners on a righteous path. The song is addressed to a girl who is very loose with her love. She's introduced in the opening lines:

    Do you love with all your heart, just for a day
    Do you steal kisses just for a thrill, then run away


    And then, with Chuck Jackson assuming the voice of The Prophet, he passes judgment:

    Then you've done a terrible thing

    This is not at all a typical pop song - it's more of a sermon, with lots of spoken-word warnings from Jackson, who repeats the line, "Heed the word of The Prophet."

    Here's more:

    Live for today and love for tomorrow is the wisdom of a fool
    yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream


    And then:

    And when he assigns you to his secret files
    Fear not, for you shall not be burned
    Love is like a rippling brook
    You shall know love


    At the end of the song, it all comes together with this moral:

    So be good little children
    Give all your love faithfully
    And you'll be blessed, little children
    By The Prophet eternally


    This all happens in the song's 2:29 runtime.
  • The words of "The Prophet" were written by Luther Dixon, a writer/producer at Chuck Jackson's record label, Wand. According to Jackson, Dixon started the song with a variation on this passage from the book:

    When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart"
    But rather, "I am in the heart of God"


    In the song, this appears as:

    And when you love you shall not say "the lord is in thy heart"
    You shall say, "I am in the heart of the lord"
  • "The Prophet" was released as the B-side of "Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird)," Chuck Jackson's biggest hit. Jackson was an acclaimed R&B singer who wasn't able to cross over to a wider audience. His other popular songs include "I Don't Want to Cry" and "I Keep Forgettin'" (which became the basis for the Michael McDonald song.
  • Van McCoy, a prolific songwriter who had a #1 hit in 1975 with "The Hustle," wrote this song with Luther Dixon.

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