I think of Dirty Mind in the same vein as Plastic Ono Band and Pet Sounds: An established artist, in peak form, on a major label, with something to prove/lose, bearing the darker aspects of his psyche in a very personal, compelling, ground-breaking way----navigating new territory-----with, not their best-selling work, but arguably their most honest-----also completely unbound by any second-guessing from the label execs (to my knowledge). Maybe add Hitchcock's Vertigo to that list! (and Bernard Herrmann's score!)
Hitchcock, though, had long established himself by the time he made Vertigo. If you ask me some of his best stuff has already been made. You may have a point about the Hermann tandem, however. (Got me in the mood for an old Hitch classic, at any rate!) Prince had only a couple of studio albums out before Dirty Mind. I think he had far more to lose than Hitch in terms of reputation. Can you even say Prince had solidified his image or rep by Dirty Mind? Seems 1999 changed his fortunes considerably. And I don't believe he was ever bound to any music formula from day one, which is what makes his emerge fairly unique. Dirty Mind is deliberately provocative. He really worked on creating the sex freak persona - as well as enforcing definite personas on the band members around him. Looking back it really does seem more like calculation than artistic conviction but Prince was a talented and unstoppable force of nature so he was bound to click with something.
True about Hitch----I meant more in terms of Vertigo being a personal statement for him----than he having something to lose.
Here are (all?) three videos from Lovesexy – likely my favorite Prince era. (Loving the album, seeing him live for the first time, etc. etc. etc.) Up first is "Alphabet Street" (It stinks they only made a video for the single edit. They really should have done the whole song.)
so is he lying down on the bed, the photo taken from above.....? or standing in front of the mattress on its side? I always thought the latter, but I read its the former
My favorite Prince album of all time is his Batman soundtrack from 1989. I've actually gotten more enjoyment from it than even Purple Rain. Such exciting stuff!
The first time I ever heard of Prince was when my sister told me about this funky song called “Uptown.” But it was this track that really caught my attention. I Wanna Be Your Lover. What a great falsetto. One of my biggest musical regrets is that I never saw him perform live. He was one of a kind.
I'll always salute an unconventional opinion! Had Prince just been able to make an album without having to accommodate the needs of Tim Burton and Warner Bros (and the tremendous commercial pressures this project brought with it), this album probably would have been a dark, funk/rock masterpiece. Instead, it's somewhat compromised, because of the need to recreate a couple of older Prince tracks. Director TIm Burton wanted something along the lines of "Baby I'm A Star" for the Joker's parade sequence, hence we get the (somewhat weak) "Trust". Likewise, the director used "1999" when he did a rough cut of the scene where Joker destroys the art pieces in the museum, thus Prince comes up with "Partyman" (which, admittedly, is a pretty cool track). And "The Arms Of Orion" was a rather transparent attempt to have a mainstream, commercial ballad, geared to satisfy the record label. My personal version of an album based on this material would have "The Future", "Electric Chair", "Partyman", "Vicki Waiting" and "Batdance", along with other tracks from this period, such as "200 Balloons", "Dance With The Devil", "God Is Alive" and "Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic". That would have been an epic! (Although not as commercially successful as the album that was released). BTW, "Vicki Waiting" is on the list of most underappreciated Prince tunes.
Any news on the rereleases? Just placed an order for the original copies of Lovesexy through Graffiti Bridge. As much as I love Love Symbol and Diamonds and Pearls, I dont know if I want to pay the bucks for one album alone.
I've read that Prince had originally written "200 Balloons" for the parade sequence, but Tim Burton rejected it. Prince then wrote "Trust" for the scene instead, regulating the earlier track to B-side status. But, whatever the case may be, Batman dropped at the absolute peak of my Prince infatuation. I had loved Lovesexy, had seen Prince live for the first time (from the front row as an extra show was added the instant I got to the Ticketmaster machine! ), and was in the process of tracking down all his B-sides in those pre-internet, pre-eBay days. And truth be told, Batman kind of cooled me off just a bit... You could just tell the whole album was a compromise. It wasn't quite a soundtrack LP (as Danny Elfman did the actual film score), and it wasn't an artistic statement as Lovesexy had been. Sure, I rationalized things at the time – trying desperately to like Batman as much as SOTT and Lovesexy. But, that wasn't to be. However, looking back now, Batman might be the final Prince LP of the "classic" era. The Batman LP was the last Prince album with a manageable running time (likely programmed with vinyl in mind, as opposed to CDs). After this, Prince LPs got incredibly long (and long-winded). The album's singles had proper B-sides. Later, singles would tend to feature remixes, as Prince found he could fill up his full-length CDs with everything else. After Batman, I stop thinking about his albums as cohesive wholes, but more of a collection of random songs that could go anywhere. The sheer length of everything from Graffiti Bridge on was overkill (IMO). Below is a video of Prince laying down the bass to "Partyman". (I love watching Prince as he focusses on the music itself as opposed to being a "performer". I wish more of these kinds of videos would surface.)
Lots of good comments and observations here. Thanks for sharing. Regarding Batman specifically, Tim Burton had temp-tracked "1999" and "Baby I'm A Star" into a rough cut of the film, so whether he was specifically asked to or not, Prince obviously felt obligated to deliver something along those lines for those two scenes, so right away the thing is sorta compromised, because the direction of the composition is being dictated ahead of time. The similarities between "1999" and "Partyman", and between "Baby I'm A Star" and "Trust", are unmistakable. As far as it not being a true soundtrack album, Prince surprised everyone by delivering an entire album's worth of material (in only about two weeks time, if memory serves). Burton had just thought he was going to contribute a couple of songs, and it's obvious when you watch the film that they were sorta struggling to find appropriate moments in which to place Prince's music. I remember Burton commenting at the time (with a laugh) that he was blown away by Prince's productivity, and his level of enthusiasm for the project after visiting the movie set. As far as your other comments, I agree it was probably the last time Prince put something together with the LP length in mind. Although I think he always saw Graffiti Bridge as a double album, as opposed to an extra-long CD. Like you, I'm a huge fan of the SOTT/Black Album/Lovesexy period of his career. But for me, I think my absolute favorite period is the mid-90's, when his name was unpronounceable, and he wrote and recorded a head-spinning amount of music, which ended up being farmed out to Come, The Gold Experience, Exodus, Crystal Ball, The Truth, Chaos And Disorder, The Vault - Old Friends 4 Sale, as well as the video projects The Beautiful Experience and Love 4 One Another. And I'm probably forgetting some others! It was just a ridiculously-productive period for him, when he was making music purely for the joy of it, and wasn't concerned with pleasing the label or the general public. And I loved the band that he featured at that time. I saw him play at the club he owned in L.A. for a few years (Glam Slam Los Angeles) a couple of times during this period, and those are amongst the very best shows I've ever seen. (And I agree that the Lovesexy tour, and the aftershow I saw on that tour, were brilliant performances as well).
Judging from the "npg" in your user name, I had figured you were a fan of his 90s band. My favorite band of Prince's was likely the one he used for the Lovesexy tour. Sheila could combine drumming, dancing, singing, as well as playing Prince's foil (along with Cat). Michael B. was a solid drummer, but the stage dynamic was obviously a lot different than it was with Sheila E. I did like the Nude Tour, and seeing the Batman tracks done live was fun. (Didn't care for the "Game Boyz" rappers/dancers though.) But, your favorite era pretty much coincided with my growing disinterest, with the final straw being Emancipation and the online Crystal Ball debacle. (I did continue to see him live though. Saw a few Diamonds and Pearls shows, plus a benefit he did in NYC in 1994. The last time I saw him live was at one of the small shows he did at Paisley Park in 1995.) He definitely was prolific, but maybe too much so. It was hard to keep up. (In addition to your list above add "The Undertaker", "The Sacrifice of Victor", and (IIRC) "Glam Slam Ulysses". Also, "The Black Album" was finally released legitimately, and there was the "Girl 6" soundtrack...) The whole name change and "slave" nonsense was also frustrating. As was his penchant for sending lawyers after fan publications. (His many failed online music selling schemes didn't help either.)
Another one here. Love The Black Album, especially Bob George which starts off Side 2 of the original '87 vinyl release.
Yeah, I've been wondering about these reissues, too. They've been on "preorder" status at Acoustic Sounds for over a year now. First, they were supposed to come out in 2016. Then it was 2017. So, hopefully 2018.... I'd be particularly interested in Love Symbol, D&P, and Come, since those go for a good buck on eBay.
Perfect timing to find this thread. Mega-fan here (can't you tell? ). I've been absorbing the new Eye Records and Sabotage releases as well as a lot of other stuff in the past few days. It's a good time to a be a P collector - let's put it like that, haha.
One thing that always amazed me about Prince was how he would intentionally set out to make a hit - and succeed. This could be seen mainly with both Purple Rain and later on with Diamonds and Pearls. Prince always struck me more as a cult artist who happened to hit it big. He could have released an album every couple of years, save up material that had both commercial and critical appeal, like his contemporaries. He decided to be more of an artist though, and while some of his darts didn't always stick, in his prime a lot did.
