EmmaMcG said:

My daughter is 6 and she loves that album. There's no set age limit for these things.

guess thats fine because it is such a great album! 1st listened 2 it in kinder!

i was 17, i don't know, if it matters. i was around kids who threw the word "pussy" and others all the time when i was five, different time. Prince, i'm sure, would not want you playing it for a six year old. most of that kind of stuff, i'd already seen worse in movies and life and around my friends by the time i got to prince.

I was 13 in 1981and got both the Dirty Mind and Controversy albums at the same time. It was probably not appropiate. My parents try told me I wasn't allowed to get the 1999 album. I had it on cassette until Purple Rain came out

That was a different world 35 + years ago.

Rev said:

I was 13 in 1981and got both the Dirty Mind and Controversy albums at the same time. It was probably not appropiate. My parents try told me I wasn't allowed to get the 1999 album. I had it on cassette until Purple Rain came out

That was a different world 35 + years ago.

also, the time frame i heard it in, was post-purple rain, when i went back and got his back catalogue, i was only about 12 when DM came in. My parents didn't really have a problem with us listening to that stuff. My best friend/fellow prince fan had an older brother who he laughingly told me would play dirty mind at the time it came out, his dad would come in and tell him to "turn that f!#$#$ off". I could see a lot of black folk thinking about Prince like that at the time, no one really accepted him until Purple Rain, even though his music was undeniably good.

I was 13 when I bought the 2-albums-in-1 cassette of Dirty Mind (Side A) / Controversy (Side B).

If my mom had been aware of the lyrics I would have never heard Prince again. So I made sure she didn't.

Stupid Tipper Gore almost ruined it for me, but by then I was 15 & would have fought tooth & nail to keep my music and I think my mom knew that because she never challenged me on it.

djThunderfunk said:

I was 13 when I bought the 2-albums-in-1 cassette of Dirty Mind (Side A) / Controversy (Side B).

If my mom had been aware of the lyrics I would have never heard Prince again. So I made sure she didn't.

Stupid Tipper Gore almost ruined it for me, but by then I was 15 & would have fought tooth & nail to keep my music and I think my mom knew that because she never challenged me on it.

i had that cassette too, but this was 86, so it wasn't quite the same as when dm came out, i'd read about it, and his further career was also full of sex-shock tactics although not as risque, it was no surprise by that point. I also never, never thought dirty mind was that good of an album, never, no one has ever convinced me that it was the milestone the old hippie reviewers tried to say it was, outside of when u were mine, it's a weak album, not even as good as the surplus time tracks he gave away at least to me.

i think prince himself would probably say 'if you have to ask, you're not old enough'

EmmaMcG said:

IstenSzek said:

i think prince himself would probably say 'if you have to ask, you're not old enough'

I could totally see that happen.

ShaggyDog said:

ShaggyDog said:

EmmaMcG said:

My daughter is 6 and she loves that album. There's no set age limit for these things.

I definitely wouldn't want to play something like Head or Sister around my six year old child. My daughter loves singing and picks up on catchy chorus parts and lines and will repeat them without knowing the meaning of the words. I'd hate for her to be walking around the house or the school playground singing "a blow job doesn't mean blow"' "incest", or "motherf****r" from Sister for example. These aren't songs for kids.

no question about that, some of those songs are bent, sister, and the menage a trois hinted at on when you were mine etc.., etc.., none of it's for kids. most of it they wouldn't even understand until years later as motown is saying. I listened to richard pryor before i knew a lot of what he was saying, it was no big deal for my folks but I wouldn't think it's necessarily a good thing for a kid to hear.

MotownSubdivision said:

I was a 6 year old boy who had no clue who Prince was when I first heard "Head" in 2000. The story behind the song flew 500 ft. over my *ahem* head but the song was so doggone funky I loved it. 14 years later on a transcontinental train ride back home I'm 20 and listen to Dirty Mind on my phone. When Track 6 comes on, I recognize the song immediately and I finally know who sang this funky tune and exactly what it was about

so your only in your twenties? i always assumed you were an old grizzled music vet.

ThatWhiteDude said:

IstenSzek said:

i think prince himself would probably say 'if you have to ask, you're not old enough'

I could totally see that happen.

and then he'd give you one of them looks

MotownSubdivision said:

I was a 6 year old boy who had no clue who Prince was when I first heard "Head" in 2000. The story behind the song flew 500 ft. over my *ahem* head but the song was so doggone funky I loved it. 14 years later on a transcontinental train ride back home I'm 20 and listen to Dirty Mind on my phone. When Track 6 comes on, I recognize the song immediately and I finally know who sang this funky tune and exactly what it was about

Thats such a cool story

I agree the lyrical meanings would fly right over the heads of minors..

its the groove that will catch them

Learning what the lyrics are about at an age appropriate time

I imagine

would be a thrilling way to get "an Education"

I was only 16 so i guess that's no excuse

[Edited 6/20/18 7:08am]

PeteSilas said:

Lovejunky said:

I think at 6, most/all of the subject matter will go over a child's head. It's swear words I'd want to avoid. My 5 year nephew (now 19), overheard P Control, and he immediately picked out m**********r and called me on it. To be sure, he'd heard the word before, but you don't want to be normalising it.

leecaldon said:

PeteSilas said:

i had that cassette too, but this was 86, so it wasn't quite the same as when dm came out, i'd read about it, and his further career was also full of sex-shock tactics although not as risque, it was no surprise by that point. I also never, never thought dirty mind was that good of an album, never, no one has ever convinced me that it was the milestone the old hippie reviewers tried to say it was, outside of when u were mine, it's a weak album, not even as good as the surplus time tracks he gave away at least to me.

.

Wait, wut??

.

I remember hearing bits of it when I was 6, along with Bad Case of Loving You, by Robert Palmer.

I'm marginally unscathed.

the very first time i was 'exposed to' prince was probably when i was, i think, 10 years old?

a friend of mine who i used to play games with after school was always talking about prince
since his older brother was a big fan.

one afternoon he put on the tape of the 1999 album and i just didn't understand it. but my
english wasn't good at all back then so i didn't understand most of it anyway. i just thought
it was stupid music.




after that, to try and convince me of the awesome powers of prince, he took me to his
brothers room to show me the LP covers and i just remember one sort of traumatic thing
from that which was that when he handed me the cover of the "prince" album, i sat down
on the bed with it and put my hand in a pool of sticky white stuff

i mean, wtf!

a year or two later when i rediscovered prince on my own and fell in love with his music
forever, i thought it funny that my first introduction to prince should have included jizz
from a stranger on my hand as i held the prince lp with the other

*shudder*

TheLotus said:

PeteSilas said:

i had that cassette too, but this was 86, so it wasn't quite the same as when dm came out, i'd read about it, and his further career was also full of sex-shock tactics although not as risque, it was no surprise by that point. I also never, never thought dirty mind was that good of an album, never, no one has ever convinced me that it was the milestone the old hippie reviewers tried to say it was, outside of when u were mine, it's a weak album, not even as good as the surplus time tracks he gave away at least to me.

.

Wait, wut??

.

my opinion, never thought the music was good, nevermind the lyrics. i know how some people think of it, makes no difference.

djThunderfunk said:

I was 13 when I bought the 2-albums-in-1 cassette of Dirty Mind (Side A) / Controversy (Side B).

If my mom had been aware of the lyrics I would have never heard Prince again. So I made sure she didn't.

Stupid Tipper Gore almost ruined it for me, but by then I was 15 & would have fought tooth & nail to keep my music and I think my mom knew that because she never challenged me on it.

I remember that 2 in 1 tape! I was 12 and I went to the record store and bought Dirty mind and Controversy at the same time and the store clerk tried to talk me in to buying the 2 in 1 cassette but I wanted to buy them seperate so they would feel like their own album,the store clerk shrugged and said whatever it's your money but I didn't care

pcowley said:

How old do you think you should be to listen to dirty mind? want to show my 10 year old son Dirty Mind, but a lot of the songs are about sex and making love. What age should show him?

I started listening to that album at 14 but wasnt that much dirtier than several moments of Purple Rain lol.