Listening to it now. It's holding up really well!

I first heard the Black Album early 1987

In was in an eclectic shop one Saturday browsing.
I heard that the Black album was not going to be released, so I was in limbo at the time.
So I'm walking around the store, and I hear this music playing that turned out to be Le Grind.
But I could not tell who this was, I thought maybe it was a new Prince protege group. Or maybe a bside I never heard before etc

The music continued playing song to song.
I had to hang around to hear who this was.
And then right before Bob George came on the 'owner' announced on the pa that we were listening to the infamous unreleased Black album by Prince.

I almost wet myself. I did not know what to do with myself but hang around to hear everything.

I was so disturbed that I did not have this music. Then after the album was done. I took off, rememering that a friend of mine was friends with the owner.

After I got home I called him and told him what was up. He was a Prince fan too. He got back to me and told me he could get copies. I bought 2 Gold Maxwell tapes. And 2 days later I had my copy of the Black album.

OldFriends4Sale said:

I first heard the Black Album early 1987

In was in an eclectic shop one Saturday browsing.
I heard that the Black album was not going to be released, so I was in limbo at the time.
So I'm walking around the store, and I hear this music playing that turned out to be Le Grind.
But I could not tell who this was, I thought maybe it was a new Prince protege group. Or maybe a bside I never heard before etc

The music continued playing song to song.
I had to hang around to hear who this was.
And then right before Bob George came on the 'owner' announced on the pa that we were listening to the infamous unreleased Black album by Prince.

I almost wet myself. I did not know what to do with myself but hang around to hear everything.

I was so disturbed that I did not have this music. Then after the album was done. I took off, rememering that a friend of mine was friends with the owner.

After I got home I called him and told him what was up. He was a Prince fan too. He got back to me and told me he could get copies. I bought 2 Gold Maxell tapes. And 2 days later I had my copy of the Black album.

Aaah, the Maxells...

I put black marker all over mine, and the jacket too.
It stained my fingers for months.

OldFriends4Sale said:

I first heard the Black Album early 1987

In was in an eclectic shop one Saturday browsing.
I heard that the Black album was not going to be released, so I was in limbo at the time.
So I'm walking around the store, and I hear this music playing that turned out to be Le Grind.
But I could not tell who this was, I thought maybe it was a new Prince protege group. Or maybe a bside I never heard before etc

The music continued playing song to song.
I had to hang around to hear who this was.
And then right before Bob George came on the 'owner' announced on the pa that we were listening to the infamous unreleased Black album by Prince.

I almost wet myself. I did not know what to do with myself but hang around to hear everything.

I was so disturbed that I did not have this music. Then after the album was done. I took off, rememering that a friend of mine was friends with the owner.

After I got home I called him and told him what was up. He was a Prince fan too. He got back to me and told me he could get copies. I bought 2 Gold Maxell tapes. And 2 days later I had my copy of the Black album.

So U found me Good, I'm glad

paulludvig said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I first heard the Black Album early 1987

In was in an eclectic shop one Saturday browsing.
I heard that the Black album was not going to be released, so I was in limbo at the time.
So I'm walking around the store, and I hear this music playing that turned out to be Le Grind.
But I could not tell who this was, I thought maybe it was a new Prince protege group. Or maybe a bside I never heard before etc

The music continued playing song to song.
I had to hang around to hear who this was.
And then right before Bob George came on the 'owner' announced on the pa that we were listening to the infamous unreleased Black album by Prince.

I almost wet myself. I did not know what to do with myself but hang around to hear everything.

I was so disturbed that I did not have this music. Then after the album was done. I took off, rememering that a friend of mine was friends with the owner.

After I got home I called him and told him what was up. He was a Prince fan too. He got back to me and told me he could get copies. I bought 2 Gold Maxell tapes. And 2 days later I had my copy of the Black album.

So U found me Good, I'm glad

LOL I'm glad too lol

SimonCharles said:

214 said:

The myth surrounding the album is greater than the album itself, which is not very good.

Controversial!

Explain yourself!

No much to be explained, as an artistic statement is great, a great story behind it, however, in my opinion the lyrics and music are not up to the previous album, they are not strong enough except for Bob George and Rock Hard. Having being recorded right before Lovesexy makes it a great artistic move, indeed but that alone doesn't make it a great album music and lyric wise.

214 said:

SimonCharles said:

Controversial!

Explain yourself!

No much to be explained, as an artistic statement is great, a great story behind it, however, in my opinion the lyrics and music are not up to the previous album, they are not strong enough except for Bob George and Rock Hard. Having being recorded right before Lovesexy makes it a great artistic move, indeed but that alone doesn't make it a great album music and lyric wise.

It's all subjective of course. I agree that it doesn't have the same vision or scope as SOTT, but it's very lean and focused, and possibly his most consistently funky album. I prefer the harder, darker side of Prince, being the type of listener who tends to skip 'Starfish and Coffee' when listening to SOTT, so The Black Album is right up my alley. There's virtually zero fluff on it - it's like a short, sharp jab to the ribs. It's also quite unique, musically and sonically. Personally, I count TBA and Camille among my favourites from Prince.

OldFriends4Sale said:

PROMOTION

I could see Prince doing shows in a lot of shadow and darker stage settings and clothing. For some reason I always thought of it easily being 'underground' even in black n white sometimes.

Really, great idea, it would have been awesome.

"Le Grind"

Basic tracks were recorded on 10 December 1986 at Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA, USA (the day after 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton).

The track, along with Bob George and 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton, was recorded for a birthday party Prince was hosting for Sheila E. on 11 December 1986.

It is likely that the low voiceover in the song's introduction was added later (starting with "So U found me, good..." and ending with "So come vibe with us / Welcome 2 the Funk Bible / The new testament"), as it clearly serves as an introduction to the album.

It is known that he completed work on the album in early October 1987 at Paisley Park Studios, Chanhassen, MN, USA, which is probably when this part was recorded.

-PrinceVault

When I first got my hands on this album it was on cassette and the dub was just a tad slow. When I got my hands on the real deal everything sounded sped up.

bigd74 said:

the bit that confuses me is why cancel an album due to having a bad feeling, then a year later on tour for the next album playing 3 or 4 songs from it.

Publicity stunt.

TKO said:

One of this worst records. Thank god it was aborted

Youre' excused.

BoraBora said:

databank said:

I beg to disagree, it's a very strong and cohesive artistic statement, with lyrics that were highly provocative for 1987. Musically it's just as daring and sophisticated as SOTT or Lovesexy, I've rediscovered the album and tripped on it a lot 3 years ago: to me it stood the test of time, I find it even more impressive now than when I first heard it circa 1993. And it's bloody hilarious, too, a masterpiece of pop dark humor.

The lyrics are less provocative than "Dirty Mind" that was released 7 years before TBA, so I can't see the point.

I agree with you on the definition "Bloody hilarious" and "Masterpiece of Pop Dark Humor", but it is nowhere the accomplished level of SOTT and Lovesexy.
It's a great sketch-show, and I'm not sayin' this with negative meanings.

There's really nothing that shocking on DM beyond Head (unfaithful blowjob on wedding day) and Sister (incest). Those 2 were the big thing, and they were really provocative for sure, but the rest is your usual nastiness even if I'll admit that it was very nasty for 1980.

.

On TBA we have well... a tourbook of decadence, no less! Sodomy, group sex, S&M, drinking human blood, eating squirrel meat, brothels and prostitution, models acting as escorts, that's for sex only and I'm sure I'm forgetting some. The character of Brother Louis is scary as hell: the visuals suggested in Superfunkycalifragisexy basically merge the Gett Off music video with Texas Chainsaw Massacre (well, technically that's what Soft Cell had done with the banned video for Sex Dwarf, only it's unlikely Prince would have seen it at the time since it was unaired). Then we have frustrated lower class losers torturing, possibly raping and shooting their unfaithful wives before going on a mass shooting; Prince adressing a well known model by name and publicly offering to pay her to fuck her; Prince bashing a whole popular genre of music, bashing managers, bashing arty-farty people, and even actually bashing himself! That's a lot of fucked up things for one album! Tipper Gore would have had a heart attack hearing this!

And of course, the whole thing goes with infectious grooves, unconventional and often hard to grasp musical arrangements and song structures that would have terrified any casual Top 40 listener. It was, for all purpose and intent, a highly experimental record, probably Prince's least radio-friendly project ever by then (with the exception maybe of 16, which came right before TBA, almost as a warning that things would get slightly more agressive in the paisley world).

.

Hilarious as it is if one has a sense of dark humor, I would not call it a sketch show either: there's a very dark subtext to it, as with most of P's works it's multidimentional and multilayered. Prince conceived it as an expression of his anger and frustration, and both are there, with a particularly strong sense of desperation in Rock Hard, which happens to be the closer and leaves a bitter impression to the listener. It is humorous and provocative, but it is also dark, angry and disgusting. It would missing a lot to quickly dismiss it as a mere farce.

.

This is what shocked me when I listened to it carefully, over and over, a few years back, with a perspective I didn't have when I was younger: it's a super strong lyrical and musical statement, it's incredibly daring and it's as complex as anything else Prince was doing at the time. It looks somewhat more hastily done on a superficial listen, and maybe also because we have this notion of "an album compiled from outtakes" in our minds, but each and every Prince record from the 80's sounds rushed and sketchy to a certain extent, and that's precisely what makes them so strong, gives them this feeling of urgency. Besides, if you listen to it carefully, TBA really has as many layers in the mix and unusual sound palettes as SOTT or LS. I don't mean to undermine SOTT nor LS, I find both to be extraordinary records, but TBA stands among them as one of Prince's strongest works, if only because of its ambitious concept.

herb4 said:

bigd74 said:

the bit that confuses me is why cancel an album due to having a bad feeling, then a year later on tour for the next album playing 3 or 4 songs from it.

Publicity stunt.

If you imply, as others have done before, that Prince had planned the whole thing in advance as a publicity stunt, this conspiracy theory has been contradicted by each and every statement given by each and every person who was involed, in one way or another, in those specific events or Prince's life at the time. That Prince was smart enough to take advantage of the hype it eventually generated later in 88 is not in question, but claiming he planned the whole operation as a publicity stunt is lying, pure and simple.

partyup77 said:

I first heard about the Black Album from an article in Rolling Stone.

Same here.I then started seeing the album being mentioned in other magazines.Critics were raving about it.I spent the first part of 1988 searching for a bootleg copy.I finally got a cassette copy.That's when I also learned that alot of Prince's unreleased music was being traded among fans.In fact,the lady who made me the cassette put the entire 'Camille' album on the back of it,lol.

214 said:

SimonCharles said:

Controversial!

Explain yourself!

No much to be explained, as an artistic statement is great, a great story behind it, however, in my opinion the lyrics and music are not up to the previous album, they are not strong enough except for Bob George and Rock Hard. Having being recorded right before Lovesexy makes it a great artistic move, indeed but that alone doesn't make it a great album music and lyric wise.

I've been thinking about this since posting my "challenging" response.

I would argue that only Cincy C and Dead On It are questionable in quality, and I love Dead On It, it makes me laugh. Le Grind is a gem and once you get beyond When 2 R In Love - which sounds SO out of place here - the rest of the album is inspired. Bob George - scary genius. Superfunkycalifragisexy - superfunkycalifragisexy genius. 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton - fusion genius. Rock Hard in a Funky Place - coy/lewd genius. It is an album full of humour and glorious noise.

The story that accompanies it helps gild the myth, yes. I would argue, however, that muscially it creates a beautiful trio with SOTT and Lovesexy.

SimonCharles said:

214 said:

No much to be explained, as an artistic statement is great, a great story behind it, however, in my opinion the lyrics and music are not up to the previous album, they are not strong enough except for Bob George and Rock Hard. Having being recorded right before Lovesexy makes it a great artistic move, indeed but that alone doesn't make it a great album music and lyric wise.

I've been thinking about this since posting my "challenging" response.

I would argue that only Cincy C and Dead On It are questionable in quality, and I love Dead On It, it makes me laugh. Le Grind is a gem and once you get beyond When 2 R In Love - which sounds SO out of place here - the rest of the album is inspired. Bob George - scary genius. Superfunkycalifragisexy - superfunkycalifragisexy genius. 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton - fusion genius. Rock Hard in a Funky Place - coy/lewd genius. It is an album full of humour and glorious noise.

The story that accompanies it helps gild the myth, yes. I would argue, however, that muscially it creates a beautiful trio with SOTT and Lovesexy.

Yep - just checked. 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton is still absolutely funky as hell. What a suitably delicious way to finish a day.

My favorite album by Prince, the most listened to by me. I was actually disappointed initially by Lovesexy in comparison to Black Album and SOTT, because despite Lovesexy being Prince's conciously conceptual album, the black album left it in the dust in terms of my facination and its cohesive strong mood created by attitude, sounds, mix, and compositions all working so well together."Bob George" simply showed how different and fearless a calibre of creativity he was than other top 40 superstar peers of the time.


I wish a remaster and collectors edition of this came out.

But isn't that how he always hit the hardest? Things coming together by chance (like the song Kiss) as opposed to his direct planned projects, methodically and strategically enacted.

SimonCharles said:

SimonCharles said:

I've been thinking about this since posting my "challenging" response.

I would argue that only Cincy C and Dead On It are questionable in quality, and I love Dead On It, it makes me laugh. Le Grind is a gem and once you get beyond When 2 R In Love - which sounds SO out of place here - the rest of the album is inspired. Bob George - scary genius. Superfunkycalifragisexy - superfunkycalifragisexy genius. 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton - fusion genius. Rock Hard in a Funky Place - coy/lewd genius. It is an album full of humour and glorious noise.

The story that accompanies it helps gild the myth, yes. I would argue, however, that muscially it creates a beautiful trio with SOTT and Lovesexy.

Yep - just checked. 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton is still absolutely funky as hell. What a suitably delicious way to finish a day.

I've alway enjoyed that one. I love drums and percussions, but there is a part going toward the end where it goes a little to long.

I think Sheila E came up with the title

OldFriends4Sale said:

paulludvig said:

So U found me Good, I'm glad

LOL I'm glad too lol

You got to admit, this opening line is a strong advocate for the cancelled-on-purpose theory.
Very good arguments have been made over the years for the ecstasy incident being the main reason,
but it's not like he didn't woke up sober the following days.

Let's also remember this is a guy frustrated like hell after the Dream Factory / Crystal Ball / Camille debacle.
There is still a possibility that, aside from the main reason, Prince took the bootleg path on purpose, just to see
if there was a demand for his music outside of a record company.

Also, you don't perform Superfunkycalifragisexy and Bob George on every single show
if you don't want people to pay attention to the record.

Maybe when Prince realized there was no way to get any money outside the standard distribution circuits (yet),
he simply changed his message about bootlegs. There were already plenty of reasons to justify his cult artist status,
but the bootlegs engraved it in stone. It's a pity the 1986 production got out this way, but at the same time, for us,
it was like a second revelation : we knew he was a genius, but we weren't even close.

214 said:

SimonCharles said:

Controversial!

Explain yourself!

No much to be explained, as an artistic statement is great, a great story behind it, however, in my opinion the lyrics and music are not up to the previous album, they are not strong enough except for Bob George and Rock Hard. Having being recorded right before Lovesexy makes it a great artistic move, indeed but that alone doesn't make it a great album music and lyric wise.

So you're defending the theory this was all planned from the beginning?
Withdrawal from the shelves and all ?

databank said:

BoraBora said:

The lyrics are less provocative than "Dirty Mind" that was released 7 years before TBA, so I can't see the point.

I agree with you on the definition "Bloody hilarious" and "Masterpiece of Pop Dark Humor", but it is nowhere the accomplished level of SOTT and Lovesexy.
It's a great sketch-show, and I'm not sayin' this with negative meanings.

There's really nothing that shocking on DM beyond Head (unfaithful blowjob on wedding day) and Sister (incest). Those 2 were the big thing, and they were really provocative for sure, but the rest is your usual nastiness even if I'll admit that it was very nasty for 1980.

.

On TBA we have well... a tourbook of decadence, no less! Sodomy, group sex, S&M, drinking human blood, eating squirrel meat, brothels and prostitution, models acting as escorts, that's for sex only and I'm sure I'm forgetting some. The character of Brother Louis is scary as hell: the visuals suggested in Superfunkycalifragisexy basically merge the Gett Off music video with Texas Chainsaw Massacre (well, technically that's what Soft Cell had done with the banned video for Sex Dwarf, only it's unlikely Prince would have seen it at the time since it was unaired). Then we have frustrated lower class losers torturing, possibly raping and shooting their unfaithful wives before going on a mass shooting; Prince adressing a well known model by name and publicly offering to pay her to fuck her; Prince bashing a whole popular genre of music, bashing managers, bashing arty-farty people, and even actually bashing himself! That's a lot of fucked up things for one album! Tipper Gore would have had a heart attack hearing this!

And of course, the whole thing goes with infectious grooves, unconventional and often hard to grasp musical arrangements and song structures that would have terrified any casual Top 40 listener. It was, for all purpose and intent, a highly experimental record, probably Prince's least radio-friendly project ever by then (with the exception maybe of 16, which came right before TBA, almost as a warning that things would get slightly more agressive in the paisley world).

.

Hilarious as it is if one has a sense of dark humor, I would not call it a sketch show either: there's a very dark subtext to it, as with most of P's works it's multidimentional and multilayered. Prince conceived it as an expression of his anger and frustration, and both are there, with a particularly strong sense of desperation in Rock Hard, which happens to be the closer and leaves a bitter impression to the listener. It is humorous and provocative, but it is also dark, angry and disgusting. It would missing a lot to quickly dismiss it as a mere farce.

.

This is what shocked me when I listened to it carefully, over and over, a few years back, with a perspective I didn't have when I was younger: it's a super strong lyrical and musical statement, it's incredibly daring and it's as complex as anything else Prince was doing at the time. It looks somewhat more hastily done on a superficial listen, and maybe also because we have this notion of "an album compiled from outtakes" in our minds, but each and every Prince record from the 80's sounds rushed and sketchy to a certain extent, and that's precisely what makes them so strong, gives them this feeling of urgency. Besides, if you listen to it carefully, TBA really has as many layers in the mix and unusual sound palettes as SOTT or LS. I don't mean to undermine SOTT nor LS, I find both to be extraordinary records, but TBA stands among them as one of Prince's strongest works, if only because of its ambitious concept.

Bravo.
Hope this makes the ones who think this is just a funny little album that can be ignored,
reconsider their point of view.

Oh, and let's forget about "haste" and "too fast" once and for all when it comes to Prince, shall we?
A guy that laids out, say, WDC in under 48 hours (mix included!) should not be judged on these terms.
Especially when the vast majority of his production has followed this same pattern.

bonatoc said:

bboy87 said:

Thank U bboy87 for sharing these clippings.

It is great that we have a printed record of what happened back then.

NorthC said:

bonatoc said:

You got to admit, this opening line is a strong advocate for the cancelled-on-purpose theory.
Very good arguments have been made over the years for the ecstasy incident being the main reason,
but it's not like he didn't woke up sober the following days.

Let's also remember this is a guy frustrated like hell after the Dream Factory / Crystal Ball / Camille debacle.
There is still a possibility that, aside from the main reason, Prince took the bootleg path on purpose, just to see
if there was a demand for his music outside of a record company.

Also, you don't perform Superfunkycalifragisexy and Bob George on every single show
if you don't want people to pay attention to the record.

Maybe when Prince realized there was no way to get any money outside the standard distribution circuits (yet),
he simply changed his message about bootlegs. There were already plenty of reasons to justify his cult artist status,
but the bootlegs engraved it in stone. It's a pity the 1986 production got out this way, but at the same time, for us,
it was like a second revelation : we knew he was a genius, but we weren't even close.

Like I said before, this was supposed to be an anonymous release as "Something" by "Somebody" so then the line "U found me" makes perfect sense and we don't need any conspiracy "canceled on purpose" theories. And I never took XTC, and yes of course, you wake up sober the next day, but I know that there's mind altering experiences that change your way of thinking (to use a Bob Dylan quote) for the rest of your life.

True, true.

Sometime in '88 or '89, one of my wife's high school classmates told her that she had married an artist from Minneapolis and they lived there now. My wife mentioned I was a big Prince fan and her friend said, "My husband sold him some art! We have something you might like."

A few days later, a cassette came in the mail. It was a copy of the Black Album.

OldFriends4Sale said:

"Le Grind"

So U found me
Good, I'm glad
This is Prince
The cool of cools
Some of U may not know this
But some of U may know
Some of U may not want 2 know
We r here 2 do service
Please don't try 2 stop us
4 we come regardless
4 we r strong as we r intelligent

So come vibe with us
Welcome to the Funk Bible
The new testament

Huh? Where do the lyrics (in bold) at the top come from? Is there another version of Le Grind?