Prince Estate and Warner Bros. unveil “Mary Don’t You Weep” a new music video which opens with a message from Prince, “Nearly 1,300 children die and 5,790 are treated for gunshot wounds each year in the United States. The system is broken. It’s going to take the young people to fix it this time. We need new ideas, new life.”
The visual, directed by filmmaker Salomon Ligthelm, addresses the ongoing and systemic issue of of gun violence which has impacted the young lives of gunshot victims, as well as hundreds of thousands of friends and family members across America today. “Mary Don’t You Weep” is featured on Prince’s recently unearthed live album, A Piano and Microphone: 1983. The album was released on September 21 and Prince used his voice, microphone, and piano to make every track on the album.
The video pulls you into the senseless and tragic world of gun violence and loss. In the opening scene, a group of folks are standing over a teenage boy who has been shot and killed. The video shows the boy alive, standing just a few feet away from the group watching himself lie dead on the floor. While everyone weep and suffer over his death including his mother, we are enveloped into his world of pure innocence even watching him smile for a moment, as a young girl jumps rope.
The scene is heart wrenching and dark, as two stylish guardian angels are ready to transport him into the afterlife, clad in stylish brim hats and perfect gold trim jackets. They escort the young man into his home where he witnesses his mother’s sadness and then into the halls of a glorious church where family and friends attend his funeral.
While we aren’t witness to the shooter we can imagine the countless scenarios which have played out in reality through the years. One tragedy after another, we know more or less who the shooter could have been. The numerous deaths of young, African American teenage boys shot in recent years by white police officers or through senseless gang violence. This video portrays the heartbreak and soft, tender moments we are not witness to on the news. The tears shed, the heartbreak and the comfort family and friends must deal with in the aftermath.
We are mystified by stories like these, along with other tragedies where innocent lives are shattered at the hands of incredulous and foolish people who are typically filled with fear themselves. Most of these shooters should never be carrying a weapon in the first place. From the school shootings to the tragedies like these that occur almost every day, this video is a poetic reminder that we need to heed the call and care for our young people and awaken our hearts to the cry of social injustice that we hope does not fall on deaf ears.
The stripped-down recording is also featured on the soundtrack for Spike Lee’s new film BlacKkKlansman, which is in theaters now; it plays over the movie’s end credits. Lee’s new standalone video for the Prince song consists of footage from BlacKkKlansman—infused with dramatic tableaus, slo-mo, split screen, and other effects—and serves as something of an ad for the film. The final shot of the video is a old photo of Prince and Lee.
In a Rolling Stone interview earlier this month, Lee discussed his use of the song in the film: “I don’t care what nobody says. My brother Prince wanted me to have that song. For this film. There’s no other explanation to me. This cassette is in the back of the vaults. In Paisley Park. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, it’s discovered? Nah-ah. That ain’t an accident.”
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