** I decided that Listening Back as a title for this series made it feel like it was a bit of an obituary to a career rather than a celebration of it, so I have renamed all posts as they were originally intended A CELEBRATION **

DIRTY MIND

By the time I picked up Dirty Mind I was already a Prince fan. I had discovered him through Controversy, and enjoyed the ride through 1999 and Purple Rain. So listening to Dirty Mind at that time the album seemed less appealing that it would for me in later life.

I can still remember listening to this with my headphones on cause I didn’t want my parents knowing I was listening to something called “Dirty Mind”. So sliding the cassette into my tape deck, I pressed play to be greeted by the pulsating beat of DIRTY MIND. The extended intro seems to tease with a “where am I going to take you now?” vibe. Heavily influenced by the new wave sounds that were emerging at the time, the album starts with a harder expression of what Prince had been doing to date. I listened as Prince sang in falsetto that seemed to make the song seem even higher in its arrangement. The whole song seemed dirtier than it was, and the breakdown at the 2 minute mark hinted at going someplace but it never eventuated. Though when Prince begins to scream I was transported into the cries from the 1999 album and the song seemed to hint at what would come years later in Something in the Water and Automatic.

WHEN YOU WERE MINE was a track I loved from first listen. The pop rock feel, almost sweet bubblegum belied the darker lyrical content, and the backing vocals started to exhibit some of Prince’s classic structuring of picking out certain phrases or words to accent. It always surprises me how a catchy tune can get you singing lines like “you didn’t have the decency to change the sheets” with a smile on your face. To this day I can’t help but tap my foot along to this.

Prince seemed to have this way of blowing my mind and then losing my interest in a matter of minutes. Following WWYM with DO IT ALL NIGHT just made me start to fidget and want to press fast forward. It’s ok as a song, but just didn’t seem to have the grip on me that WWYM had.

And is if that wasn’t bad enough Prince then throws in GOTTA BROKEN HEART AGAIN. A song so pure and sweet in it’s production that would seem more at home on a Donna Summer or Dr Hook album than on an album called Dirty Mind.

So where was all this filth I had put my headphones on for? UPTOWN didn’t really do it for me. The structure was ok and the only part that really hooked me in was the “where I come from we don’t care about that” breakdown.

Just when I thought the album was totally misleading me, HEAD came blasting through the headphones. With that beat, that funk laden synth line that attacks and seduces in equal measures. The lyrics just made me listen more intently. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing or how genius it was to have such seemingly offensive lyrics with a song that was hard to resits. I love the synth horn arrangement of the main melody stabs, and maybe the synth climax sounds were a bit much but as soon as the song ended, I pressed rewind to make sure I had heard everything in the track.

If Head shocked me, I have to be honest and say SISTER had me intrigued in the first verse, and almost repulsed by the second. The whole incest vibe didn’t sit well with me (and still creeps me out a little) but it was like Prince tried to just shock us all in as short about of time as possible. At 1:32 long he manages to discuss sex incest, and say motherfucker twice, lol – all while still having a lyrical hook of “oooooh Sister” that is hard not to want to sing along to.

Rumour has long held that PARTYUP was a Morris Day written song that Prince acquired for the album thinking that it needed a good jam track. While there is no denying it does the job, one wonders how much of it is Prince and how much is Morris. Of course, while not getting song writing credits Morris did get a healthy career for a while as pay back. Wonder if the guys call it even. The song itself is a good lead into where 1999 would blast off years later. In fact if you play both tracks back to back you’ll enjoy 10+ minutes of funk. And is the first real time Prince started to voice a political concern that would be more targeted and focused on the next album.

On all an enjoyable album with the customary peeks and valleys that were evident in Prince’s early work. And although some songs haven’t held up too well with time, you can’t dismiss the ambition and brilliance under the boil that was due to bubble over on Prince’s next release – and the album that introduced me to him “Controversy”.

Swa

Your stuff would be great if you added it to Princepedia

luv4u said:

I thought Principedia was meant to be more factual based, these are really just my own reflections.

Swa

Your reflections are pretty spot on, I reviewed the first two albums, but so far your reviews are much better, more raw and easier for the average fan to read. Seriously you have a gift with words

Huggiebear said:

So what are your thoughts on Dirty Mind. I know it is one of your faves.

Swa

Dirty Mind... an amazing album - I won't mention my fave songs cuz they are all great,

thedance said:

Lots actually, its one of those few albums where I actually like every single song (Even Controversy has a dud or two). I think comparing their review and mine, I would rank Do It all night and Gotta Broken heart again better, the former has an upbeat funk feel to it, not unlike Uptown and the content is also totally sexual. Gotta Broken Heart again really shows how far hes come with the ballads by this album, it outshines all the ballads on the first two albumsa nd hes got real emotion, its one of the first times he goes beyond lust.
In fact that Song, When U were mine and Uptown show his maturity more on an album you don't expect it. Maybe Do it all night is not as tight as the first two tracks. Dirty Mind (The song) is outstanding, funky, driving and slices into the gut of the whole album. If anyone apart from being funky, I think Head is one of the weaker songs (But still very good) and Sister is a bit bad taste, but enjoyable, the motherfuckers are funny. But the best songs are Uptown and Partyup (His first bop against the bomb), Uptown is his manifesto, Prince as the cocksure rebel who dosen't give a damn.
Why do I love Dirty Mind so much, its funky, innovative, sexual, shockable and just so damn clever!!!!

It's easier to have an album with no duds when it's only a half hour long.

I'm a recent convert to this album. I kind of ignored it for most of my time as a Prince fan, then realised recently how naive I'd been. It was like "Habg on... that's a great track... wait, THAT's a great track too...!".

Yup, awesome. It ain't his funkiest, and he got much more daring, clever etc. but it's raw as f**k and has some timeless tracks. Pretty much all of em...

Easily my favorite Prince album. I can agree with you as a kid I didn't like or appreciate it as much, my favorite as a kid was 1999. Gotta disagree with you though cause Do it all night and Got A Broken Heart Again are cuts and Uptown is the shit.

i love dirty mind, (atwiad, graffiti bridge, sott, (among others) for its musical creativity. during that era, prince introduced layers and layers of experimntal sounds (and lyrics)and seemed to mask the music with the raciest and most honestly provocative lyrics ever sang, especially by someone we weren't intimate with.

He gave us, over and over, individual entrees packaged in one entire album. i still dont know if even his most loyal of fans has ever been able to fully digest, or capture his entire essence. that trend imo, is his trademark and it has stayed with him,whether he realizes it or not. one prince song has the ability to take us around the world, let alone an entire album.

in an album like controversy, prince can wake me up , get me dressed ,take me out ,deal with my issues , bring me back ,then put me away to sleep

what else could ya want in a theatrical literary musical frikkin artist!! bitches!!...

although seemingly found unpopular during the time, princes music retrospectively remains timeless and relevant almost daily, mufukkas!! ,

i love that crazy bitch.

pricy503 said:

Thanks for your thoughts, and also for disagreeing. Hearing someone else's thoughts on the album often makes me revisit songs and to see what i am missing.

Swa

I've said it repeatedly that it was for Dirty Mind, Prince wouldve gone the ways of Switch and all those other groups at that time,,The album was so different from the first two..the direction he decided to take with his career not to mention the lyrics he decided to sing, was the ultimate in freedom of expression..screw u..im going to sing about head and incest going uptown...screw u, im going to wear what i want to wear..thats the prince we all know and love and on this album is where that prince was born...

SavonOsco said:

So true, this is when he rally came into his own as an artist and starting to draw on different influences and meld them and push them as his own.

Swa

Don't have much to add. Dirty Mind is definitely one of my favourites. "Gotta Broken Heart Again" is probably my favourite track on the album. I was ever so slightly disappointed the first time I heard it because half of the album was on the two Hits discs (which I heard first) but I quickly got over that. In some ways this can be viewed as his first album because it is so different than the first two.

Okay, so...let me preface this by saying that, before discovering Prince's music, I primarily listened to groups like The Cars...The Talking Heads...The Romantics...The Clash...and The Knack. Oh, sure - I listened to dance music and R&B, too. But I was primarily into rock and New Wave.

1999 (which was the first Prince album I heard) had enough of these elements for me to find it appealing. The fact that it went far beyond basic rock, funk, and New Wave to blend all of them made me want to hear more. After discovering that Prince had done not one...not two or three...but four albums prior to 1999, I made a hasty trip to the wrecka stow to buy them all.

Dirty Mind just blew me away from the first listen because it was so totally in line with the kind of music I had been listening to. It has an energy to it - a "strip and go naked" vitality and sexuality just made to drive a college girl insane. From the opening heartbeat of the title track to the raw chant that closes Partyup, your ears and brain are the victims of a feel-up that leaves you breathless, sweaty and begging for more.

But what makes it all unforgettable is that there's so much behind the nasty. And that thing would be songwriting that is nothing short of amazing. Dirty Mind contains my favorite Prince song of all time - When You Were Mine. 27 years after hearing for the first time, that song still rips my heart out and brings a tear to my eye - because it is, in my eyes (and ears) an absolutely perfect song.

And if Dirty Mind isn't my favorite album, it is probably the only Prince album that is always in my top three.

Prince was already my favorite artist when I got this album. And I had heard every song from the album on the radio except for Sister when I bought it. (Fortunate enough to grow up in Detroit with the Electrifying Mojo) It was in 1982, after Prince had released 1999.

I enjoyed every song on this album and still today do not skip any of them. I had heard about Sister, so was only mildly shocked when I heard it. Actually, it's only recently, like within the last two years, that I realized he said "incest is everything it's said to be." I used to think he said "in sisters everything is said to be." Go figure.

I loved the pulsating feel of Dirty Mind, the rebellion of Uptown and Party Up, the funk of Head (had no idea what head was for many years after I bought this album), was enamored with When You Were Mine and Gotta Broken Heart Again (I was perpetually brokenherted as a tween) and Do It All Night really did something for me. I thought the vocal arangements were groundbreaking. It was just totally new to me. And I kind of knew that "Do it" was dirty.
[Edited 6/30/09 16:18pm]

Genesia said:

Beautifully said.

luv4u said:

Love the Album!

Start of the sexy triumvirate of Prince albums, all classics

Dirty Mind - The Shocker (Which was shockingly good)
Controversy - The Sexy Preach One (Also amazing)
1999 - Sexy, Poppy, Funky, Daring and totally experimental one (The best of the 3)

Probably his tightest 3 albums in a row.

Huggiebear said:

Nice observation. I guess for me Controversy - 1999 - Purple Rain were the trio of progression, but when you package the three you mentioned they certainly have more of a synth-funk vibe to them.

Swa

Swa said:

Prince @ his best from the beginning!!

Heavy & Raw funk!! And i'm not talking about the surprising catchy-country song "when you were mine"!

Do it all night is a great song

I just ordered Dirty Mind, Controversy and Diamonds and Pearls.
I recently re-discovered Prince and am now totally hooked.
I've been buying his CD's haphazardly and in no particular order.
Thanks so much for your insightful reviews, Swa.
And everyone else.
I first read your review, Swa, then of course others as I find them.
I then choose the next album, listen to it and don't move on to the next until I know it well.
I then come back to the org, re-read the reviews and decide if I agree or not.
It's been an awesome journey for me.
I cannot WAIT to receive these CD's!
Thanks again!

Genesia said:

You should have wrote the full review instead of Swa. I don't think he appreciates Dirty Mind as much as you and I. And I agree with your top three permanent rating. This album (OMG-7th Grade!) really shaped so much of my future artistic, cultural, sexual and racial influences for life. The songwriting is so simple, perfect, clever and immediate.

I always thought that When You Were Mine was the classic rock cover song, amazingly transferrable for all cool musicians.