On Episode 107 of the Press Rewind – Prince Lyrics Podcast, Micah Simpson from the Purple Underground YouTube channel is back to help me talk about this nouveau dance called “Le Grind,” which served as the opening track on Prince’s legendary Black Album aka The Funk Bible. While the Black Album has its dark moments, there is also a lot of fun as well, and this song is a funk and sweat-drenched good time.
“Welcome to the Funk Bible. The New Testament.”
You may consider The Black Album a proper album in the sense that Prince created all of these songs with a single theme in mind, to funk your socks off. You might have the opinion that it’s simply a collection of raw, dirty dance tracks Prince was working on in late ’86/early ’87 that had the same general theme, with the obvious exception of “When 2 R In Love.” Whichever camp you belong to, I don’t think anyone can deny that “Le Grind” is a great opener. It has a nearly hidden message in the intro, and it demands that you learn yet another new dance to participate in the party atmosphere the song creates. All indicators that you are listening to something nouveau. There are many lyrics here to parse through, so people get ready!
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!
