Thrifty Tunes 02.07.09: Prince
Posted by Paul Hollingsworth on 02.07.2009

Prince's third studio album, Dirty Mind, was a departure from the more traditional R&B sounds of his first two albums. Everything he accomplished in later album releases started here, including some influences you wouldn't normally associate with his Royal Badness. Was Prince a punk wearing the clothing of a pop star?



Growing up in the 80's, you had several important decisions to make about musicians, celebrities, television shows and athletes. Usually the decision involved a choice between two or more people over who was 'the best.' These decisions said more about your character and personality than almost anything else. As Rob says in the movie High Fidelty, '"A while back... [we] agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like. books, records, films -- these things matter! Call me shallow, it's the fucking truth." Some of the most major of these decisions included: Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone; Batman or Spiderman; Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair; Elle McPherson or Cindy Crawford; Magnum P.I. or Hunter; and the Lakers or the Celtics. (The correct choices, by the way, were Schwarzenegger, Batman, Flair, McPherson, Magnum, and the Lakers.) However, no choice mattered quite as much as your choice between the trinity of pop music singers. The trinity was, of course, Madonna , Michael Jackson and Prince . Occasionally a singer might come close to being considered on equal footing with one of the three, for instance, Rick Springfield in the early 80's and Whitney Houston toward the middle of the decade, but the trinity retained its appeal and domination throughout the 80's. My choice, and again, the correct one, was Prince.

In 1980, when Dirty Mind was released, Disco as a musical genre was finished. Funk went underground and eventually reemerged as rap and hip-hop several years later. R&B was at a historic low point, with many talented musicians failing to progress with the times. The punk scenes in New York and London and the synthesized pop of New Wave bands from Europe were the new sounds of pop music, and most of the established artists of the time had no idea how to incorporate these elements into their existing sound. Prince, however, saw the musical writing on the wall and crafted an album filled with a stripped down punk aesthetic which he mixed, seamlessly, with New Wave sensibilities.

When You Were Mine (LP Version) - Prince

The album kicks off with "Dirty Mind", which resembles nothing of Prince's work from his first two albums. It immediately sets the stage for the rest of the album as a trend setter. It's the blueprint of many other songs which followed, some by Prince himself, but mostly by others musicians trying to keep up with what he had already done. The lyrics, as are most on the album, are full of sex and sexual innuendo, which eventually became a Prince trademark. Rock and roll has always been about sex and rebellion, and those who say different have never bothered to listen to the lyrics of "Great Balls of Fire" or "Tutti Fruitti," Prince simply returned the sex to the forefront of the music, which had spent the better part of the 70's lost in coy and heavy-handed metaphors which often failed to work.

"When You Were Mine" follows the lead of the opening track, offering more of the same, unencumbered production of punk music and some of Prince's best guitar licks this side of "Purple Rain." It's not too many steps from songs like this to what Duran Duran would be doing in the next year or two. Again, the lyrics are Prince at his most sexually charged, in particular the lines, 'I never was the kind to make a fuss/When he was there/Sleeping in between the two of us.' Does he really mean he had the 'other kind' of threesome? Is it only metaphorical? Was the line of public decency crossed? Is there anything more punk than crossing lines of public decency? I don't know the answers to the first three questions, but the answer to the last question is "yes, yes, YES!"

Side one ends with the most traditional R&B song on the album, "Gotta Broken Heart Again." However, despite the usual trappings of an R&B ballad being present, it still pushes the sound forward in a way it had yet to go. It also foretells future Prince ballads as "Damn U" and "The Beautiful Ones." Prince, who is often overlooked as a guitarist, finds a nice flowing rhythm for his guitar, which follows the song faithfully, but never reaches the point of distraction. Prince learned the value of restraint, and uses it with precision on this track.

Uptown (LP Version) - Prince

"Uptown," which begins side two is one of the highlights of the album. Prince combines so many different musical elements into five and a half minutes of pure musical greatness. Funk hovers over the whole of the song, but there's also heapings of punk guitars and drums, as well as extra saucy doses of synthesizers and organs. In the hands of a lesser musician, this could just be a messy hodgepodge of musical influences with no defining center. Prince creates something new but also timeless. It's also a sound he will return to many times in the future.

The next two songs are two of the more notorious songs on the album. Both "Head" and "Sister" concern unusual sexual escapades. "Head" is about seducing a bride-to-be while "Sister" may or may not be about incest. Personally, I think Prince was just pushing buttons to generate a reaction. (Again, a very punk thing to do.) Prince didn't want to be held down by boundaries of any kind, and writing a song like "Sister" didn't mean he was endorsing incest nor that the song was in any way autobiographical. He demanded attention and was obviously willing to do whatever it took to get and hold onto it.

Prince-PARTY UP Live-SNL -

The album ends with "Party Up" which foreshadows "1999" among other, later Prince songs. I found this video from a Saturday Night Live performance which shows one other aspect of Prince, that of a performer. Much like his idol, James Brown , Prince works hard during his concerts to entertain the people who pay to see him. He doesn't take nights off, and it's always possible that the next Prince show you go to will be the best concert you've ever seen. I know that of all the shows I've been to over the years, one of the most memorable was at the Omni in Atlanta in 1988, during Prince's Lovesexy tour. It was the second night in the same town in the middle of a long tour, but Prince played each song with as much passion and desire as I've ever seen from any band or musician. It's the sort of musical experience that rarely happens and for which I am thankful to have experienced.

Complete Track Listing: (1980 on Warner Brothers Records)

Side One:
1. Dirty Mind
2. When You Were Mine
3. Do It All Night
4. Gotta Broken Heart Again

Side Two:
5. Uptown
6. Head
7. Sister
8. Party Up

Prince kicked off the eighties with a modern pop masterpiece of an album. While not as well known as Purple Rain or Sign of the Times , this album is, in every respect, equal to his more famous work. Prince gave pop music a much needed kick in the ass when it needed it most. His combination of punk, funk, soul, new wave and rock and roll gave shape to the sounds which dominated the decade. Not bad for a twenty-two year old musician from what was hardly a rock and roll Mecca: Minnesota.

Pickett Stars: Five out of five

http://www.411mania.com/m...Prince.htm
(Check the video of Party Up on SNL)

I love that album

Around that time is when he recorded that 50's blues style song Broken, that he ocassionally played on the Dirty Mind club tour.

dothejump said:

Nice read. But I think he meant to write "no, no, NO!" here.

luv4u said:

me too!!!!

Nice read.