Dirty Mind

Dirty Mind
Studio album by Prince
Released	October 8, 1980
Recorded	May–June 1980
Genre	Pop, rock, dance, funk, Urban, New Wave, post-disco
Length	30:14
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Prince
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Blender link Robert Christgau (A) link Entertainment Weekly (A) link PopMatters (favorable) link Q link Rolling Stone 1981 1999 Rolling Stone 2004 [1] Yahoo! Music (favorable) link
Prince chronology
Prince (1979) Dirty Mind (1980) Controversy (1981)

Dirty Mind is the third album by Prince, released October 8, 1980. According to the New Rolling Stone Album Guide, "Dirty Mind remains one of the most radical 180-degree turns in pop history."^[2] With this album, Prince makes a decisive change from his preceding more commercial album Prince. He seems keen to change his style from the disco-ish light soul of "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and experiments with a New Wave-influenced, rock and roll sound. The title track, complete with a demo-like organ, is rich with punk sensibilities. The track "When You Were Mine" has many guitar tunes. However, it is the LP's second side (tracks 5-8) which gives the album its unique "fusion" sound and contains the tracks which were most controversial at the time, namely "Head" (a bawdy tale of Prince seducing a bride-to-be with oral sex) and "Sister" (a hyperdriven, punk-ish ode to incest clocking in at just 90 seconds). "Uptown" is the album's high point, with Prince singing about a utopian paradise where everyone is free to express themselves regardless of age, gender and skin color. This album was to set the scene emphatically for Prince's chart domination later in the 1980s. It fused black and White musical styles in a seamless fashion and showed that Prince was not afraid to push boundaries. Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times described the music from the album as confident and higly danceable blend of post-disco funk and tasty, hard-line rock^[3] In 2003, the album was ranked number 204 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.^[4] On its list of Top 100 Albums of the 1980s, Pitchfork Media had Dirty Mind at 87.^[5]

Track listing

All tracks composed and arranged by Prince; except where noted.

Side one

1. "Dirty Mind" (Prince, Dr. Fink) – 4:14
2. "When You Were Mine" – 3:47
3. "Do It All Night" – 3:42
4. "Gotta Broken Heart Again" – 2:16

Side two

1. "Uptown" – 5:32
2. "Head" – 4:44
3. "Sister" – 1:31
4. "Partyup" (Prince, Morris Day) – 4:24

Personnel

• Prince - vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums
• Dr. Fink - synthesizer, keyboards
• Lisa Coleman - vocals

Singles and Hot 100 chart placings

• "Dirty Mind" (U.S.) (#65 R&B)

1. "Dirty Mind"
2. "When We're Dancing Close and Slow"

• "Do It All Night" (UK)

1. "Do It All Night"
2. "Head"

• "Uptown" (U.S.) (#5 R&B and #101 Pop)

1. "Uptown"
2. "Crazy You"

Notes

References

• Nathan Brackett, Christian Hoard (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-74320-169-8.