Recorded in his home studio, with Prince playing nearly every instrument, Dirty Mind is a stunning, audacious amalgam of funk, new wave, R&B, and pop, fueled by grinningly salacious sex and the desire to shock. Where other pop musicians suggested sex in lewd double-entendres, Prince left nothing to hide -- before its release, no other rock or funk record was ever quite as explicit as Dirty Mind, with its gleeful tales of oral sex, threesomes, and even incest. Certainly, it opened the doors for countless sexually explicit albums, but to reduce its impact to mere profanity is too reductive -- the music of Dirty Mind is as shocking as its graphic language, bending styles and breaking rules with little regard for fixed genres. Basing the album on a harder, rock-oriented beat more than before, Prince tries everything -- there's pure new wave pop ("When You Were Mine"), soulful crooning ("Gotta Broken Heart Again"), robotic funk ("Dirty Mind"), rock & roll ("Sister"), sultry funk ("Head," "Do It All Night"), and relentless dance jams ("Uptown," "Partyup"), all in the space of half an hour. It's a breathtaking, visionary album, and its fusion of synthesizers, rock rhythms, and funk set the style for much of the urban soul and funk of the early '80s.
DIRTY MIND is the most focused and uncompromising of Prince's early albums. In 1980, the Purple one wasn't a superstar, he was an undeniably gifted weirdo, sort of a funk/R&B Todd Rundgren, composing, performing and producing everything himself. His singular vision combined a driving, spare R&B style driven by danceable drum machines, funk guitar and colorful synths, (a palpable new wave influence is also at work here) with a near-scandalous attitude towards sex. The unprecedently graphic lyrics of tunes like "Head" and "Sister" make rock & roll rebels of the past decades look like uptight puritans. Prince hadn't yet developed the panoramic production style that would define his greatest '80s album, but this leaner, more direct sound suits the visceral material well.
Personnel: Prince (vocals, various instruments); Lisa Coleman (vocals); "Dr." Matt Fink (synthesizer); Bobby Z (drums); Dez Dickerson, Andre Cymone.
Rolling Stone (November 1989) - Ranked # 18 in Rolling Stone's "100 Best Albums Of The 80s" survey. Q - 5 Stars - Indispensable Vibe (2/02, p.87) - Included in Vibe's "Essential Black Rock Recordings".
Prince Gets Down With It! Let's face it. Very few male artist, although they've attempted, cannont pull off what Prince has established on his own. That is, being the creative force behind virtually every crucial aspect of his musical endevours: writting all compositions and functioning as a multi-inturmentalist. And in the process, has given us some very memorable music. By 1980, and after two moderately successful albums within the R&B market, Prince delivered an album that put the "Prince Sound" on the map. DIRTY MIND oozes with sexually explicit lyrics, hypnotic beats, and great insturmentation. In essence, the first true "Prince" album. That's not to say that his two previous albums, FOR YOU and PRINCE, were bad. It's just that the musical moments were not as frequent as they are on DIRTY MIND. This record is truly, consistently enjoyable from start to finish!
Prime Cuts: title track, "Head", "Sister", "Uptown". Submitted by Tubeway8080 (FG, Toronto, ON, Canada) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo 3 of 4 found this helpful.
I Was 20... ...still living at home with my parents and my father came charging up the attic stairs to my bedroom, booted open the door, scratched the needle over my Dirty Mind album and broke it (in half) over his knee. However, at that age, I KNEW the great music I was hearing despite what my puritanistic father was feeling at the time. Cut 4 cut, this album is absolutely incredible. I would be a sign of what would come from Prince. I like to think of this particular album as the one that would kick it all off for the direction that he would take for all subsequent releases. It's the crown of all the others. Now all WB has to do is digitally remaster it and maybe even throw in a few lost gems that didn't make the acutal album. Still love it to this day. I'm 44 now. :-) Submitted by whitechocolatebrotha (Portland, ME, USA) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo 1 of 1 found this helpful.
Prince in 1980 Princes "Dirty Mind" record was the one people payed attention to.I recently bought this cd yesterday and love it.This record is classic from start to finish."Uptown","Head","Dirty Mind","Party Up",and "Sister" are noticeable tracks.Highly recomend for anyone intrested in the early records of prince. Submitted by jjgreen30285 (Thomaston, GA) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo 1 of 1 found this helpful.
Dirty Mind got Prince on the Map This is an outstanding album. Every Song on it is good. The first song Dirty Mind is a Prince classic. That song signaled that Prince had arrived.
But it is not just the song Dirty Mind that makes this album a winner. It is the supporting cast of "When You Were Mine", "Do it all Night", "Gotta Broken Heart Again", "Uptown", "Head", "Sister" and "Part Up". Every single song! Each song is great. The messages of these songs are little disturbing but that does not affect the greatness of this album. This is Prince at his best! Submitted by Ben (Mountain View, CA) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo 1 of 1 found this helpful.
The third album is the key to greatness Prince's third album, Dirty Mind, is where the genius was launched. Like many a great artist, his third release is where he found his voice and cemented a style that was to last for more than 10 years. The risque lyrics celebrate sex (with your sister) and other raunchy subjects, but also reflect the torture of a young man forced out of the house and on his own at a young age. Uptown and Partyup reflect a socially challenging vision of politics that is often overlooked in Prince's writing. There is much more politics in his songs than many people would think, especially on on his next two albums, Controversy and 1999 ("Fourth Day of November, we need a Purple high"). When You Were Mine has the most catchy guitar riffs, and if marketed as a pop hit could have been enormous. This is also the last CD where Prince would have few, if any, extended instrumental sections in the songs. At only 31 minutes, it is a very short but totally satisfying disc that still sounds fresh and vibrant today, if only because it is the blueprint for so much of his (and other imitators) later work. Submitted by a reviewer (Ashville, OH) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo 1 of 1 found this helpful.
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