Dance On

Grenade Launcher roars in a television sky
Tell me how many young brothers must die

Dance on, dance on
Dance on, dance on

Little Talk Johnny blew the big score
The gang nailed his feet 2 a wooden floor
Nuclear Ban never stays in tune
They all know the words but the music is doomed

Everybody
Dance on, dance on
Dance on, dance on
Pick it up
Dance on, dance on

Dance on, dance on
Dance on, dance on

A bass guitar in spider webs, longing 4 the funk
Uzi gun takes his place in a wagon trunk
(get off me, punk, U ain't sexy)
Stealin' ladies purses then settin' them a'flame
M&M killers playin' Mickey Mouse games

Lord have mercy
Dance on, dance on (Dance on)
Dance on, dance on (Dance on)

It's time 4 new education
The former rules don't apply
We need a power structure that breeds production
Instead of jacks who vandalize
Detroit - what's happenin'?

What color is your money today?
Get your money straight
Everybody dance on

---

My commentary...
This song I feel really fits these troubled times we are having in the world. It's my take on how a song from 1988 can be as relevent today as it was then and even more so NOW.

I think the parts of the song touch on a few things troubling world peace and even the music industry.

I bolded the parts which I will fit into current events...

"Grenade Launcher roars in a television sky
Tell me how many young brothers must die":
Media. The corporate news stations, local and nationwide, cable...their itching for a war. They seem like they cannot wait for a war to start to televise it. They're almost if not complete war mongers. Just for ratings. Yet there are brothers of all ethnicities in the front lines. The poor who were recruited or who signed up for hopes for a better life...tragic.


"Nuclear Ban never stays in tune
They all know the words but the music is doomed":

This ones a tough one, but let me do my best here to match it to current events...North Korea...and most other countries who hold on to those nuclear bomb threats from the Cold War era, disarmament.

You'd think the threat of such weapons would have ended when the cold war ended, yet a government resurrects the fear of such weapons to manipulate the masses through fear and use it as a pretext for "pre-emtive" strikes...scary. They all say the words of liberating the world from fear, yet the same old song is doomed.


Okay now on to the Music Industry...

"A bass guitar in spider webs, longing 4 the funk
Uzi gun takes his place in a wagon trunk
(get off me, punk, U ain't sexy)..."

This ones almost prophetic! Camille really was looking at the future with his Crystal Ball, ya'll!!!

Let me Xplain...

In the current music industry, Hip Hop specifically, it's influence and attitude and idealogy have burrowed itself so deeply into the popular culture that it's negativity has almost but ruined most popular music.

The lack of musicianship in Hip Hop is sad. The Funk is FAKED. It's not Funk...REAL FUNK, the bass guitars aren't being picked up by kids anymore, musicianship isn't revered, taking time and dedication to learn ANY instrument in RnB, or even the concept of a band is not respected anymore.

Old Funkateers like George and Bootsy are looked as clowns of "Old School" Funk. That's sad. I mean us that know, respect them, but those that don't understand Funk, do not. They say they do...but do they really?

Current bands like The Roots are okay. But they STILL have to have that macho, "street", "urban", Hip Hop style to appeal and gain "much respect". It's also NOT SEXY! Which is a foundation of Funk. The Heat.

Which reminds me of another truthful verse from Days Of Wild:
"Tennis shoes and caps, now that's phat, up until the day another wanna laugh behind your back, sayin' we all look the same, huh. God bless America, home of the brave! I'd rather dress 2 make a woman stare, I'm puttin' on somethin' that another won't dare! It's a freezer burn compared 2 cool, and if U still got loot, then who's the fool?

Ride around in your Escalante pumping THAT jam! I dare ya!

Then there's the line:

"...Stealin' ladies purses then settin' them a'flame
M&M killers playin' Mickey Mouse games!":

Man! If that's not Eminem (the M&M) and the glorification of violence and hatred! Messing around and exploiting the controversy...all a game.


It's time 4 new education
The former rules don't apply
We need a power structure that breeds production
Instead of jacks who vandalize

Right! We need a New Power Generation, literally, to make things better. Brave ones who aren't afraid of leading, making a change, saying it how it is and changing it, no matter if they, the "cool", "hip", "tight" ones laugh and scoff at them.

They push creativity and peace, love, forward, and "will smoke them all with an intellect and a savoir-faire! No one in the whole universe will ever compare!"


So what's to do if a war starts for your viewing TV pleasure...just Dance On! Just like the theme of partying in the face of nuclear threat in songs like 1999 and Crystal Ball (Expert Lover), just don't let the elevator bring U down, just punch a higher floor!

And make your voice heard.

So please, fellow orgers, share YOUR translations of "Dance On" or other anti-depressant/inspirational Prince songs!

So much effort in a thread and no responses. Life's a bitch...

ChocolateInvasion said:

ROFLMFAO

***

I appreciate the effort, FCP I just can't stand the song

CalhounSq said:

Now, you're not being nice!
Read his post please...! Maybe he's making sense.

I'll tell you what I think.

Machine Gun by Hendrix. War by Eddie Kendricks. Mother Mother by Marvin Gaye.

Everybody that's done a war song could easily be talking about today, except for the fact that the songs were written long ago.

Prince ain't Nostradamus. When everybody was going on about the "Silly No? When a rocket ship explodes" line seemed to apply to the Columbia Shuttle accident, folks just don't stop to think that MAYBE he was writing about CURRENT EVENTS.

Oh, sure, he HAS said "I've seen the future". But that's a SONG. A tiny work of fiction.

I'm jaded. Sorry. You wanted a response. Very nice essay an all that, but, just, waaay off.

what? no mention of "partyup"?

I agree with this song and your statements about it 'Flying Cloud', Prince is a musical visionary and has sang about so much in my lifetime that has come to pass...

Lovesexy the album is not over-rated, but only few could get into the funk of it.
Here I am 24 years old and was 8 or 9 when I first heard the entire record for the first time, and it was the most awesome sounds I had ever heard, it caught my attention and helped me alot during my last years in elementary school...I til this day still listen to this record in its entirety...this record means alot to the few that gave it a chance, lyrically and musically...I have a cousin whose 13 and thinks it sux...but that just goes to show what society is breeding in our children, they can't understand the truth and M&M Killers...anyone hear about the Eminem look-a-like going around robbing banks?

Thats such the truth spoken...when ppl think prince just through this record together, its really Prince observing the life we live in and thinking about the future and really putting it to the funk!!!

This song and record is great and is my favorite prince album to date, because its not commercially viable and its really a reality check, I learned all about me at an early age and it helped shaped me and my way of writing, thinking and living!

PRINCE YOU DA MAN!!!

I think "Last December" is the best song for these times and when all the drama is almost done suddenly u hear SHUTUP! ALREADY, DAMN!
cue "HouseQuake"

ChocolateInvasion said:

I don't mind making such an effort for a thread. I like to put the effort into it! Even if no one responds. Even if one responds, that's cool.

I wrote this with a slight flu and late at night, so my words may be a little abstract.

But the song certainly fits the crap we have today. And when you want to cope with it, at least you know Prince's got our spiritual back in someway.

Funk is dead on radio. Replaced by M&M killers, bling-bling emptyness, gang banging cancers, and the kids love it. These same kids want war...that's the sad part of it. But we're all distracted by the eye candy.

It's a hope that the kids will see the light. Learn to want peace, love one another, and play an instrument which I think is the gateway to a better, higher self.

So this song, it's about celebrating your health, your family, the good things in life when all around it seems like it's horrible. At least that's what the media loves to inject into society.

But you can get back at them, by just Dancing On!

Remember, "Don't let nobody, bring ya's down!"

I always did think that the m&M killers line was ironic. If not a bit prophetic. So you are not the only one.

Meloh9 said:

PROPHETIC? you're shitting me, right? Were you people ALIVE in 1987? You think he wrote this song about the future?

PLEASE pull your heads out of your... oh, what's the use...

otan said:

Dude, chill man. It's all just for fun. I don't mean prophetic literally. It's just cool that Dance On fits what's happening TODAY.

It's a songs for the times. Coincidence may be the better word. But Meloh9 was just reflecting on how it was prophetic almost in a way.

I wish people would just add to the thread OTHER Prince songs that fit these days and that maybe help one cope through his music.

I was partly inpired by Prince.org's homepage Visitor Poll on "With the latest world events, Prince music to me is...".

CherrieMoonKisses said:

Thanks for another coping song CherrieMoonKisses!

er, what are M&M killers, anyway?

great commentary, flying cloud. And yes, interesting how well the song describes what's going on today. When written, all these issues were a mere seed compared to the kudzu they've become now.

now wouldn't it be cool if some dj had the guts to play songs of social relevance and buck the system and play songs like Dance On today? Not just dance on, but any number of tunes by Sly, Marvin, Al.. u know the ones.

dance on!

TheExtraTerrestrial said:

I'm probably off base but my impression of the lines:

"Stealin' ladies purses then settin' them a'flame
M&M killers playin' Mickey Mouse games"

has been that of an allusion to how young kids in this day and age lose their innocence so much earlier, and get involved with gangs, drugs, crime, etc.

So - to me - M&M killers means children who have grown up too fast and are commiting acts of crime, instead of being the innocent children they should be for awhile longer.

FlyingCloudPassenger said:

In Holland, one of the big radiostations play at least one Prince song every day!