Maps of Music

Dirty Mind (1980)

Where the lyrics of Dirty Mind take you, and where it was really made.

Prince recorded and engineered Dirty Mind in his own basement under the pseudonym Jamie Starr, yet the album peaked only at number 45 on the Billboard 200.

Key places

Recorded in Prince's basement studio (1980)

Recording site Prince's home on Lake Minnetonka — The album was recorded in a makeshift 16-track studio in the basement of Prince's home on Lake Minnetonka. Prince engineered it himself under the pseudonym Jamie Starr. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Dirty Mind: third studio album by Prince
• Released 8 October 1980 by Warner Bros. Records
• Notable for increasing use of rock elements, high-register vocals, sexually explicit lyrics and an androgynous image
• Critics say its fusion of genres influenced urban black music of the early 1980s

Background

• Fusion of funk, new wave, R&B and dance
• More rock-oriented beats than Prince's previous albums, with punk rock elements on "Sister"
• Half of the songs were written on tour, while Prince and his band opened for Rick James
• Raw, unpolished production; several tracks are essentially demos

Recording

• Recorded in a makeshift 16-track studio in the basement of Prince's home on Lake Minnetonka
• Prince engineered the album himself under the pseudonym Jamie Starr
• Sessions took place in May and June 1980
• Prince played nearly all of the instruments himself
• Several songs were recorded in one night
• Clean sound with minimal distortion or reverb, closer to power pop or punk rock

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Prince Rogers Nelson, born June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota; died April 21, 2016 at Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
• Signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1977 at age 18; first album For You released April 7, 1978.
• Career spanned funk, rock, R&B and pop, with estimated sales over 100 million records.

Career

• Breakthrough with Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981) and 1999 (1982).
• Purple Rain (1984) made him the first singer to hold the number-one film, album and single in the US at the same time.
• Sign o' the Times (1987) is widely considered his greatest work.
• Changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in 1993, becoming known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince; reverted to Prince in 2000.
• Won seven Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Dirty Mind earned widespread acclaim from music critics.
• Rolling Stone's Ken Tucker heard Prince moving from the romantic tone of his first two records to a bold, liberating lewdness.
• Tucker praised the record's mix of complex erotic wordplay with clean, simple melodies and called it cool music dealing with hot emotions.
• The Village Voice's Robert Christgau compared its metallic textures and simple drum patterns to Funkadelic and the Rolling Stones.
• Trouser Press writer Jim Green called the catchy tunes, sly lyrics, strong production and falsetto a winning combination.

Reappraisal

• Retrospective reviews were also positive.
• Pitchfork placed the album at number 87 on a list of the 100 best albums from the 1980s, while Slant Magazine ranked it 53rd on a similar list.
• Michaelangelo Matos, writing in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), called it one of the most radical 180-degree turns in pop history.
• Rolling Stone ranked it 326th on its 500 greatest albums of all time (2020) and 18th among 1980s albums.

Records

• Dirty Mind peaked at number 45 on the Billboard 200 and number 7 on the Billboard Top Black Albums chart.
• The lead single "Uptown" reached number five on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles and Dance Club Songs charts.
• On June 6, 1984, the album was certified Gold by the RIAA.
• After Prince's death in 2016, the album re-entered the Billboard 200.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album is the only Prince album without a slow jam.
• The core riff of the title track began as a jam by keyboardist Doctor Fink for Prince's band; Prince and Fink recorded it in one evening and Prince finished it the next morning.
• "When You Were Mine" was written in a Florida hotel room.
• The Cyndi Lauper cover of "When You Were Mine" appeared on her 1983 album She's So Unusual.
• Half of the songs were composed on tour while Prince's band opened for Rick James.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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