On Episode 106 of the Press Rewind – Prince Lyrics Podcast, Leslie Ballard joins me to talk about the witchy, raunchy, female empowerment anthem, “Shockadelica,” the B-side to “If I Was Your Girlfriend.” We spend time trying to decipher if Shockadelica is Camille, someone wholly unique, or even human. There’s a lot of pronoun confusion going on in this song, but maybe you just need to lay back and let Shockadelica do her thing.
“She never wears a stitch, so you can’t take her home.”
When she says “dance,” you dance! Shockadelica (the song’s subject) is vague enough to open up the debate on whom or what Prince is talking about in this track. I like that it could be a person, place, or thing or that it could be any combination of those or maybe even something else, for example, a mental state—a brilliant concept for a song and a stellar B-side.
The goal of each episode of Press Rewind is to:
- Take a track by track look at the lyrical content of Prince’s discography
- Discuss my own interpretation of each song’s lyrics along with any guest I may have
- If submitted, discuss listener’s interpretations of each song’s lyrics
Thank you for joining me on this journey through Prince’s catalog!
