Pretty Baby is a song about the mistakes we make in life, and the resulting changes we make in ourselves as a consequence. We all make mistakes in life, it’s part of living and being human – for to not make mistakes would mean that we’re not participating in the world around us.  The essence of our humanity isn’t that we make mistakes, but that we have the ability to make changes in ourselves that limit the chances of making those same mistakes twice.  I didn’t write this song from an autobiographical perspective, although I could have – because I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life.

Although I wrote this song as a single, straight through verse, I’ll present it below in individual verses so you can see how each part relates to the whole.  Pretty Baby is a fast paced, earnest, remorseful and bluesy song, that reflects the urgency of the singer to find his love and tell her that he’s very sorry for what he’s said and done.  The singer’s also eager to show her the changes he’s made in his life, to prevent him from being who he once was.  He wants a second chance to demonstrate that these changes are the real deal – and to ask her to come back to him because his love for her is true. “I’ve made some changes in my life for you, I never ever meant to ever hurt you, I know those things that I said were wrong, So I sat down to write you this song…”

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I recorded my original song “Pretty Baby” in two takes as demos on Set 12 in 1997, and it speaks of mistakes, apologies, changes and love, “I’ve made some changes in my life for you, I never ever meant to ever hurt you, I know those those things that I said were wrong, So I sat down to write you this song…” Enjoy! ♡ 🙂 Mark

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(Emailed versions of these songs lose their chord alignment and formatting, so refer to the original post and/or the scanned lyric sheet as your guide!)

Pretty Baby

“Turn Up The Volume”, Collected Works Volume V, Copyright 1991, Mark D. Jones, All Rights Reserved

Verse One:

  B

I went downtown just the other day

E

Lookin’ for my baby ’cause I had to say

B

Please pretty baby come home to me

          E

‘Cause I’ve got something that I want you to see

      A

I’ve made some changes in my life for you

  E

I never ever meant to ever hurt you

  A

I know those things that I said were wrong

E

So I sat down to write you this song

Verse Two:

        B

And I hope you can see that my love is true

            E

‘Cause I never ever meant to ever hurt you

        B

And I hope you can see that my love for you

    E

Is all that I ever ever wanted to do

             A

‘Cause I never ever meant to do you wrong

E

So I sat down to write you this song

        A

And I had to tell you that my love is true

            E

And I’m sorry for all the things that I do

Verse Three:

       B

So I made some changes in my life for you

        E

And I want to give all my love to you

            B

Will you please pretty baby come home to me

             E

‘Cause I miss you so and I want you to see

      A

The changes in my life that I’ve made for you

             E

‘Cause I never ever meant to ever hurt you

        A

And I want you please to come home to me

        E

And I want you to see the changes in me

Verse Four:

            B

‘Cause I want you to know that I love you so

        E

And I never ever wanted for you to go

        B

And I want you to know that I love you so

        E

And I never ever wanted to see you go

     A

So please pretty baby come home to me

E

Please pretty baby come back to me

     A

So please pretty baby come home to me

E

Please pretty baby come back to me

Ending:

            B

‘Cause I love you and I miss you so

        E

And I never ever wanted to see you go

            B

‘Cause I love you and I miss you so

        E

And I wrote this song so that you would know

            B

That my love for you is always true

            A                                        E

That my love for you is always true