There's a very interesting article on the '79-'80 period here: http://citinite.wordpress...he-rebels/

Sounds like Prince was prepared to record the follow-up to "For You" with his newly formed band, but the lukewarm reception to the live show for the Warner execs made him rethink the idea, and with a lot of capital invested in a debut album that only sold moderately, the story was that Prince needed to write a hit. That meant his new wave/rock/funk project would have to wait.

The fact that he pushed for The Rebels album and shot two videos for the "Prince" album with the full band shows he may have been really into the idea of fronting a band over selling himself as a solo artist (kinda goes against his total control-freak image). So 1980 he starts jamming with the band, creating what would eventually be Dirty Mind. We all know the story that he demos these songs solo and is convinced to release them as-is (for the most part), but I wonder if he planned to have the band re-record the tracks for the final release? Would've been curious to hear, certainly after listening to the tapes like the 1981 Sam's Club show...

There's a lot of good stuff in the article including a funny little snippet on why Prince wore the bikini briefs (hint: if you ever saw the unreleased video of IWBYL, you'll totally understand...)

Very cool article. I'm assuming the thing at the end is about First Avenue though and not "Fifth Avenue"

Great article, although the peach font on a black background is a bit painful on the eyes...

Love this quote:

“‘Dirty Mind’ is like a major Warner underground release that they pressed up in the middle of the night on coke, laughing, because there was no-one around to stop them; then sunrise came and they started packing that shit on the truck and it was too late. Then ‘Controversy’ came out… mega star!”

When Prince released ‘For You’, his self-performed, slickly produced R&B debut in April ’78, he was heralded as the new Stevie Wonder. But as that album’s guitar-crunching cut ‘I’m Yours’ suggested, Prince was on a mission to mix not just soul and funk, but also new wave and rock into one explosive cocktail. Up until this point, his main partner in crime had been his homeboy André Cymone, but Prince wanted his musical ambitions to be reflected by a racially and gender democratic band and his “rainbow coalition” concept began to take shape with the recruitment of drummer Bobby Rivkin and keyboardists Matt Fink and Gayle Chapman, all white. Prince recalled, “There was a lot of pressure from my ex-buddies not to have white members in the band. But half the black musicians I knew only listened to one type of music. That wasn’t good enough for me.”

After a dazzling audition, vital rock stimuli arrived in the form of ax-man, Dez Dickerson.

This motley crew of musicians began rehearsals that November, feeling each other out and vibing. Writing in his autobiography, Dickerson remembers, “there was this explosive spark when we jammed – something about our collective styles and influences.” But these sessions had not yet yielded a cohesive or polished set by the time of their stage debut at the Capri Theatre in Minneapolis in January ’79. A mix of nerves and equipment failure meant that onlooking Warner executives were left feeling the band needed more time and they put the breaks on a planned tour. Suddenly left with a lot of free time, the band members began developing more material, but Prince withdrew to Los Angeles to record his sophomore album, ‘Prince’, which saw a return to his more controllable one-man-band approach. Aware of the disgruntlement this caused amongst his band members, and by way of appeasement, Prince announced his plan to record a side project called The Rebels, an album that would bring everyone’s ideas to the fore.

The concept was that all the band members, including Prince, would remain anonymous (and be represented as silhouettes on the cover) and Prince hoped that The Rebels project would allow him to explore punk rock and new wave without confusing his R&B “Prince” persona. The 12-day recording sessions began on July 10th in Boulder, Colorado and Prince’s management intended to bankroll the project and have Warner reimburse them upon delivery of the tapes. Prince wrote four songs for the album, whilst Cymone contributed two and Dickerson three. Refusing to rely on black music clichés, the material ranged from bluesy Stone-esque romps (‘Hard To Get’ and ‘You’), nasty slices of Minneapolis funk (‘Thrill You Or Kill You’) to Moroder-infused machine rock (‘Disco Away’). The Rebels made a conscious decision to destroy preconceptions of how black artists should sound, but whilst Prince, Cymone and Dickerson were excited about the project, the other members weren’t so enthusiastic and questioned its validity. By the end, Dickerson had also begun to have doubts, asking, “what are we doing? Where are we going with this?” Eventually, the album and tapes were never presented to Warner; it seemed that a collective band effort had again faltered.

After the summer, the band performed another showcase for the label executives in Los Angeles and this time the band was focused and ready. They revamped the electro boogie hits from Prince’s self-titled second album with crunching lead guitars; “after the first song, I could see that we had them. They had bought into Prince and his band big time and left the place absolutely buzzing,” recalls Dickerson. Warner’s faith in the band was renewed and it inspired them to push the ‘Prince’ album hard. Whilst in LA, Prince and the band shot two videos, including ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’, and an effort was made to present them as more of a group rather than a Prince solo project.

By the time of their promotional tour, the band had also stepped things up with regards to their image, with Prince, Cymone and Dickerson wearing brightly coloured spandex and see-through plastic pants, knee-high boots and suspenders. But critics were baffled by the band’s mix of funk, rock and new wave, and their manager insisted that Prince wear underwear underneath the tight spandex. Prince replied by wearing only bikini briefs for the remainder of the tour! Prince later reflected that “we all felt that we wanted to dress this way, talk this way, and play this way. When we first started out it was like shock treatment,” and for the band, breaking down barriers was key.

I love it! Great article.