I think about this song sometimes. Some nights I lay in bed wondering why the girl would choose the guy who doesn't have any diamonds, and her dad hates, over the other prince, the one who might be Prince, I don't know, the song isn't super clear on that. It's like not even a question for the girl really, this whole song is basically about how the singer is pretty crappy compared to this other guy. My man, you're never going to get the girl with that attitude. My man, seduction is like 95% confidence.
Do you know what else is at least 95% confidence? Scat.
No, not poop. I'm talking about the improvised sort of singing that you get in like jazz, usually by a soulful black guy with sunglasses, maybe he's blind, or one foot, I don't know. Anyways, 'Two Princes' features the lead singer, the extremely white Chris Barron busting out a short and very telling scat interlude between the first and second stanza's.
This is the only time in the song where scat is used:
“Di bi bi bip, di bi bi bi di
Bi di-di-le-di ba da ba da ba da ba
Da ba da ba da ba da ba”
This marks an important shift both musically and tonally for the rest of the song. In the first verse, the singer (Prince 1) is able to trade blows with his rival, Prince 2. There is a more direct and equal back and forth . While Prince 1 is not as moneyed as Prince 2, he makes up for it in other ways. In the second stanza Prince 1 has fallen down a spiral of depression and self pity, where he is clearly conceding Prince 2 as the better man, he tries to guilt her into loving him. Not a very princely thing to do if you ask me, but what do I know.
What happens in these three lines of scat that completely destroy the first Prince's confidence? Can we read into it and come to a better understanding of what happens to Prince 1 between verses 1 and 2? No, probably not, because it's most likely its nonsense syllables. Scat in this song can almost be interpreted like a fencing match, lunging attacking motions exemplified by the opening line of 'Di bi bi bip di bi bi bi di' show that Prince 1 is out for blood, a swift if not safe attack on his opponent.
I really would have liked it if he had gone straight for the jugular, but he let his opponent linger long enough to parry his next move, as seen in the second line, specifically during 'di-di-le-di' that can be interpreted as another attacking motion, but this one has been deflected and parried by his adversary. He is then overwhelmed with 'ba da ba da ba da ba', a relentless and unflinching attack that Prince 1 doesn't have either the skill or strength to defend against, at least not in any effective way. He is finished off fairly easily and the final line is just the second Prince asserting his dominance over Prince 1 with a final, and crushing 'Da ba da ba da ba da ba'. In the end it was a massacre.
That merciless beating of the first prince is reflected in the defeated nature of the next two verses before the song is reset back to verse one. Prince 1 is now forced to accept that he is indeed the lesser of the two princes, princes who adore you.