Berlyant kindly sent me a copy of Prince’s Dirty Mind album, an album I thought I’d heard and liked a bit in college years ago when, in fact, it was Controversy I’d remembered hearing and liking as much as any Prince album I would hear in ensuing years. I surely did not forget the cover shot of Prince in his state of semi-undressed Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Pole Dancer Look. Thanks, Berlyant! Thanks, too, for the other goodies in my care package!
Dirty Mind is interesting. I’m getting a sense of why Prince is such a darling with so many music nerds. This album, with its stripped down, minimalistic sound and insular world view, has all the earmarks of a great bedroom power pop album made by a guy who’s in love with both Earth, Wind & Fire and The Rolling Stones. Dirty Mind may be the Black Vinyl Shoes of post-funk. Do you know that weird, little gem of the Shoes first album, recorded on a 4-track in the brothers’ parents’ living room, or something to that effect? I’m not saying that Prince’s Dirty Mind sounds anything like Shoes, but he shares a similar, almost unhealthy dedication to some special world in which The Artist is both king and his court. Creepy, yet familiar to the Mother’s Basement side in so many of us.
Dirty Mind even has the power pop classic When You Were Mine. That was certainly a music nerd revelation, a song like that in the middle of all that electro funk. Were you familiar with that from cover versions? My favorites are Cristina and Bette Bright, but in checking just now I was reminded that it was also on Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual. That must have made the diminutive purple dude some serious green.
I know what you mean about the insularity of the sound, which sounds very strange on ‘come on everybody let’s party’ songs like Uptown.
Yes, I think I only knew “When U Worm Eye n” from cover versions – Costello’s live covers, I believe.
I didn’t know Borat played bass for Foxy.
I like Prince, but am I the only person who thinks Dirty Mind hasn’t aged well?
I think that overall it’s a great album, but its main problem (for me, at least) is that its more well-known songs are some of the best songs he’s ever recorded (esp. “When You Were Mine” and “Uptown” but also the title track) and there’s a quality disparity between those songs and the rest of the record. It’s OK, though, because it flows well and generally sounds good. I love the electro funk and new wave combo, though, so no I think it’s aged OK.
Now you’re getting it!
That’s been my deal with ’70s and ’80s Prince all along. The insularity is part of the appeal, and as we age the identification with that impulse becomes more and more sporadic. But as a misfit teenager it was a funky, loopy world view that was obviously different from, but filled the same niche as, I dunno, D&D or something like that.
Couldn’t have said it any better myself, Mr. Mod. Thanks.
Thanks for accepting my thoughts in the spirit in which they were mean, Rick. I can only hope that the likes of Geo and Hrrundi will do likewise. It’s not my cup of tea, but at least I now see that it is a cup of tea.
mod, you’ve identified a previously unexpressed aspect of prince’s music – how it reveals his shut-in / reclusive tendencies – with great clarity. it’s a hard aspect of prince to discover because his music and image are so ostensibly about *the party* that we may miss it.
well done!
Word to all the bands in today’s musical universe: I *strongly* recommend you bring back curvy chicks in skin-tight leotards as backup singers!
Thank for the Foxy clip; that was awesome. And, like Townsman Rick, I gotta give you mad props for hitting on some key Prince issues in your thoughtful mini-essay. Now you should send *me* something in the hopes that my eyes might be opened, at least a little bit. Then I’ll send something along to, I dunno, Velv or somebody. It’ll be like an RTH Chain Letter or something. Anyhow, great thoughts. Well done.
I also meant to say that the Foxy clip was amazing. I didn’t know bands had rookie-hazing rituals just like baseball teams! (That IS the only explanation for the lead singer’s outfit, right?)