Did any of you folks out there ever hear the Dirty Mind album right about the time it came out? If so, what was your initial reaction to it?

I didn't discover Prince's music until MTV came around, and I was only about 8 years old then. I didn't get Dirty Mind until a few years later--after the big controversy over Darling Nikki and after having already been exposed to Prince's raunchiness. I think Prince opened the bedroom door for sexiness in music--more so than Barry White and Marvin Gaye.

Dirty Mind doesn't sound as shocking now as I'm sure it must have in the early '80s when that kind of subject matter in music was almost unheard of. So if any of you heard Dirty Mind when it first came out, I'd be interested in knowing what you thought and how you felt about it. Was it as shocking and groundbreaking because of its subject matter as I imagine it might have been?

I absolutely loved it -- especially the title track. I was only nine or ten, but I had already been a Prince fan for a year or so. I remember receiving the album as a X-Mas present from my parents.

I hated "Dirty Mind" with the exception of Uptown and Do it all Night. I had been not only listening to but studying Prince's prior two albums because as a musician, I really dug how talented he was. When Dirty Mind came out, I was convienced that Prince really didn't do those first two albums by himself. The songs on Dirty Mind were so basic and sparse and I really didn't know much about songwriting back then so the arrogant sort of "I told you so" attitude I had was on high when I heard Dirty Mind. I got a lesson in being humble when I went to see that tour. I was shocked because I had never seen a concert that good (including Prince's first tour). He actually sold me and everyone else Dirty Mind at those shows. It says something about an entertainer when they can make you love their music or whatever they do by presenting it in such a way that it is so compelling and powerful that you can't deny it. After the concert Dirty Mind was and still is one of my favorite all time albums.

The album had a sticker that read "This album may be unsuitable for young listeners" and this was long before the famous "warning stickers" were placed on albums.

Being in the eighth grade at the time and having seen the sticker, I was listening and trying to hear cuss words but the only ones I heard were "damn" in "Partyup" and "goddamn" in "Sister". The song "Sister" contained the word "motherfucker" but Prince was singing it so fast I couldn't make the word out at the time.

As far as the song "Head" and the word "blowjob" in "Sister", I didn't know what these things meant at the time. I kept listening as hard as I could for words like "bitch, fuck, dick, pussy, shit, ass", etc. and when I didn't hear those words, I couldn't understand why the sticker was on the album.

Actually, I learned about sex through Prince. I used to hear these sexual terms like "Head" and later sneak and find my uncle's "Penthouse" magazines and read the forums. After seeing these words in a story and how they were used and described in graphic detail, I figured out the rest. It wasn't until then, that I actually realized that "Dirty Mind" actually was dirty.

I remember when this album came out in the fall of 1980.I was 11 years old.There was an incredible buzz surrounding it,and all of my friends were talking about the lyrics.Songs like "Head" and "Sister" were the talk of the town among R&B fans (Prince hadn't crossed over at this point,and only black stations played his music).I still remember Right On magazine's review of this album,where they noted that "Prince didn't dare supply a lyric sheet for this album".They also advised listeners to listen closely to the "juicy meaning" of the song "Head"