# Dance / Music / Sex / Romance

> Prince's pop life, song by song, in chronological order.


## Posts

- [D / M / S / R Subscriber Dispatch #9: December 24, 2025](https://princesongs.org/2025/12/24/d-m-s-r-subscriber-dispatch-9-december-24-2025/): These are dark and challenging times; and if writing in excruciating detail about 40-year old pop songs is the way I've found to bring an iota of positivity into some small corner of the larger world, then I will forever be thankful for finding it.
- [The Belle of St. Mark](https://princesongs.org/2025/10/14/the-belle-of-st-mark/): While "Glamorous" sounded tailor-made for Sheila's particular talents (even if it wasn't), "Belle" is well-crafted but faceless, embodying the essentialist cynicism of the publishing imprint Prince used for his female side projects: "Girlsongs."
- [Oliver's House](https://princesongs.org/2025/09/09/olivers-house/): A “weird” guitarist with multiple girlfriends, a piano in his bathroom, and an Oedipal complex? They may as well have called the song “Prince’s House.”
- [D / M / S / R Subscriber Dispatch #8: September 1, 2025](https://princesongs.org/2025/09/01/d-m-s-r-subscriber-dispatch-8-september-1-2025/): The sheer celebration of life visible in every frame of Sign “O” the Times was a balm for the soul, an antidote to fascism’s anti-life equation.
- [The Glamorous Life](https://princesongs.org/2025/08/26/the-glamorous-life/): Prince had tried before with his protégées, most notably Vanity, to Pygmalion a female version of himself; but while a few of these femme-Princes (Princesses?) could emulate him as a sex symbol, none before Sheila had the stage presence or musicianship.
- [Erotic City](https://princesongs.org/2025/08/04/erotic-city/): Here, Prince seems to hearken back to his electro-funk epics of the 1999 era; but rather than retreading past glories, he does so with a sense of tacit self-one-upsmanship, showing just how far he’d come as a musician and producer in the past two years.
- [D / M / S / R Subscriber Dispatch #7: July 18, 2025](https://princesongs.org/2025/07/18/d-m-s-r-subscriber-dispatch-7-july-18-2025/): Well, folks, I finally did it: I finished my “17 Days” post. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I hope you do soon–and while I would never presume that anything is worth the 307-day wait since my last proper entry (yes, I counted), I hope it’s at least up to snuff. I won’t dance around and make excuses about my productivity, except to say that I’m finally feeling engaged and inspired, and I look forward to things being as “back to normal” as one can reasonably expect. A few quick housekeeping notes: You’ll probably notice that a lot of […]
- [17 Days](https://princesongs.org/2025/07/17/17-days/): With "Doves” now on deck for his next single, Prince was in the market for a suitably killer B-side--a role "17 Days" would fill with aplomb.
- [D / M / S / R Subscriber Dispatch #6: April 1, 2025](https://princesongs.org/2025/04/01/d-m-s-r-subscriber-dispatch-6-april-1-2025/): I'm pleased to share that in just under two weeks, I will be crawling back out from under my rock to participate in the #PopLife40 virtual symposium celebrating 40 years of Prince and the Revolution’s Around the World in a Day, Sheila E.’s Romance 1600, and the self-titled album by the Family
- [D / M / S / R Subscriber Dispatch #5: December 3, 2024](https://princesongs.org/2024/12/04/d-m-s-r-subscriber-dispatch-5-december-3-2024/): Guess it’s high time I did another one of these, huh? I had intended to hold off on another newsletter update until I finished my post on “17 Days”–but, well, I’d also planned on having that post finished by the end of October. The good news is, I’d say I’m about halfway through writing the post in question (and last night I got through a part that was giving me particular trouble), so the wait shouldn’t be too much longer; in the meantime, this is me checking in and assuring you that I’m not dead. So what have I been […]
- [D / M / S / R Subscriber Dispatch #4: September 27, 2024](https://princesongs.org/2024/09/27/d-m-s-r-subscriber-dispatch-4-september-27-2024/): Hi, everyone! I had hoped to have my next post (“17 Days”!) finished by today, but decided to prioritize other projects (not least my mental health) instead. This means we won’t be seeing it until October, because tomorrow my wife and I are flying out for a two-week sabbatical trip/second honeymoon to Ireland and England, with a stopover in Iceland on the way back. The good news is, when I come back on October 13, I should be feeling refreshed–and I’ll have a whole additional week off work to finish that post. In the meantime, please check out “Possessed” if […]
- [Possessed](https://princesongs.org/2024/09/13/possessed/): Like many of Prince’s songs from this period, "Possessed" is the musical monologue of a man afflicted with chronic horniness. The unique selling proposition, in this case, is a dash of Christian demonology, as Prince’s narrator attributes the stirring in his loins to nothing short of infernal influence.
- [D / M / S / R Subscriber Dispatch #3: September 9, 2024](https://princesongs.org/2024/09/09/d-m-s-r-subscriber-dispatch-3-september-9-2024/): This weekend, something finally happened (or perhaps more accurately, didn't happen/isn't happening) in the Prince world that I feel compelled to comment on.
- [D / M / S / R Subscriber Dispatch #2: August 12, 2024](https://princesongs.org/2024/08/12/d-m-s-r-subscriber-dispatch-2-august-12-2024/): I did not expect to be sending out another newsletter so soon after the first one, but there's a compelling reason for it: Recordings of this past weekend's #Come30 virtual symposium are available to watch on Zoom Events until this Sunday, August 18 at 11:59 pm ET. 
- [D / M / S / R Subscriber Dispatch #1: August 2, 2024](https://princesongs.org/2024/08/02/d-m-s-r-subscriber-dispatch-1-august-2-2024/): Hello again! After almost a year and a half of radio silence, it now seems I can't shut up.
- [Roundup: Purple Rain, 1984](https://princesongs.org/2024/08/01/roundup-purple-rain-1984/): This past Saturday--the 40th anniversary of the film's theatrical release--I watched Purple Rain for the first time in about two years.
- [When Doves Cry (Why the Butterflies)](https://princesongs.org/2024/07/29/when-doves-cry-why-the-butterflies/): More perhaps than anything else, "When Doves Cry" existed for Prince as a symbol of what he was capable of when he pushed his artistry to its absolute limits.
- [Love and Sex (1984)](https://princesongs.org/2022/11/23/love-and-sex-1984/): When Prince mentions "the upper room," he seems to be literally referencing Heaven; and when he sings, "Will He let you hurt me in the upper room?", he's asking if God will allow him to fuck there.
- [Another Lonely Christmas](https://princesongs.org/2022/09/29/another-lonely-christmas/): It's tempting to assume that its weird, maudlin narrative is what's kept "Another Lonely Christmas" from becoming a seasonal radio staple.
- [Podcast: 41 Years of Controversy - A Conversation with Harold Pride and De Angela Duff](https://princesongs.org/2022/09/16/podcast-41-years-of-controversy-a-conversation-with-harold-pride-and-de-angela-duff/): Here we are again, my first podcast in more than a year, and I couldn't have asked for better guests than Harold Pride and De Angela Duff to discuss Prince's fourth and quite possibly most underrated album, 1981’s Controversy.
- [Coming Soon: 41 Years of Controversy](https://princesongs.org/2022/09/15/coming-soon-41-years-of-controversy/): Last October, I had every intention to mark the 40th anniversary of Controversy with another installment of our in-depth album retrospective podcast series, but life (i.e., my increasingly-predictable end-of-year burnout) intervened. Now, having finally gotten my shit together, I’m putting the finishing touches on the episode, and it will be dropping next Friday! I’m joined as always by Harold Pride and, for the first time, by longtime friend of the show De Angela Duff, who was actually the one to get my butt in gear because she’s just that passionate about the album! Very excited for you to hear it […]
- [Ooo She She Wa Wa](https://princesongs.org/2022/08/26/ooo-she-she-wa-wa/): Cheap, exploitative trash; but, as in all things Vanity/Apollonia 6, that's a feature, not a bug.
- [Manic Monday](https://princesongs.org/2022/08/15/manic-monday/): "Manic Monday" has the hazy feel of a half-remembered dream--not least because its main melody directly echoes that of another dream song, "1999."
- [In a Spanish Villa](https://princesongs.org/2022/07/28/in-a-spanish-villa/): Yet another example of how Prince’s musical palette had broadened--and of how Apollonia 6 just may be one of the brightest hidden gems in his catalogue.
- [A Million Miles (I Love You)](https://princesongs.org/2022/07/13/a-million-miles-i-love-you/): A definitive move into a new, baroque phase of Prince's musical evolution.
- [Some Kind of Lover](https://princesongs.org/2022/07/08/some-kind-of-lover/): An underexposed minor classic from Prince's most overexposed period.
- [Take Me with U](https://princesongs.org/2022/06/30/take-me-with-u/): “Take Me with U” has to do a lot of heavy lifting to make its part of the movie work, and it’s a testament to its sturdy construction that it works as well as it does.
- [Sugar Walls](https://princesongs.org/2022/05/23/sugar-walls/): "Sugar Walls" isn't just risqué for Sheena Easton; it's risqué even for Prince, delving with near-gynecological intimacy into the mechanics of female arousal.
- [Roundup: Ice Cream Castle, 1984](https://princesongs.org/2022/04/22/roundup-ice-cream-castle-1984/): Can you believe that the last time we had a proper album roundup it was for 1999, way back in March of 2020? On second thought, don’t answer that. I know my snail’s pace as a writer is a recurring theme in these updates, and at this point, I’m not even apologizing for it; you know what you signed up for. Still, it feels good to have another milestone in the rearview mirror, even if there’s still an awful lot of road ahead of us. It may or may not have been evident from my individual posts, but Ice Cream […]
- [Ice Cream Castles (Old and Ignant)](https://princesongs.org/2022/04/14/ice-cream-castles-old-and-ignant/): The Time (or at least two of them) temper their trademark funk into a more laid-back form.
- [My Drawers](https://princesongs.org/2022/03/16/my-drawers/): If the whole thing smacks of sexism–staking a claim on a human being, while reducing her to her undergarments–well, at least he isn’t throwing the poor lady in a dumpster (this time).
- [Lacuna: The Dawn](https://princesongs.org/2022/02/07/lacuna-the-dawn/): Underlying the mystery is the unshakeable sense that “The Dawn” holds the key to the next 15 years of Prince’s artistic development.
- [Sex Shooter](https://princesongs.org/2022/01/28/sex-shooter/): Prince had just a few weeks to mold Apollonia into the persona he and Vanity had taken months to create. He had his work cut out for him.
- [Roundup: Ephemera, 1983](https://princesongs.org/2022/01/19/roundup-ephemera-1983/): I know I say this every time, but hoo boy, has it ever been a while since I wrote one of these: one year, four months, and 30 days, to be precise. In my defense, though, the sprawl of the Purple Rain era has meant that I’ve been concurrently working on two albums (soon to be four!), all of which were completed within a few months of each other–so, when it finally (purple) rains later this year, expect it to pour. In the meantime, we’ve officially reached the end of 1983 in our chronology, and I’d say that calls for […]
- [Father's Song](https://princesongs.org/2022/01/11/fathers-song/): Prince conceptualized Purple Rain during a period of estrangement from his father; yet the specter of John L. Nelson haunted the project from the beginning.
- [Wednesday](https://princesongs.org/2021/12/09/wednesday/): “Wednesday” is over so quickly that it may take a few listens for the grim desperation of its lyrics to register.
- [The Bird](https://princesongs.org/2021/12/03/the-bird/): A suitably ironic epitaph for the Time, Prince's self-created rivals turned attempted usurpers.
- [The Beautiful Ones](https://princesongs.org/2021/11/05/the-beautiful-ones/): So intense is Prince’s performance that it has, quite understandably, fueled a decades-long debate over what–or who–might have inspired it.
- [Irresistible Bitch](https://princesongs.org/2021/09/30/irresistible-bitch/): Whether or not Prince intended "Irresistible" as his tip of the hat to the burgeoning rap scene, he was happy to take credit for it in retrospect.
- [Computer Blue](https://princesongs.org/2021/09/17/computer-blue/): Prince’s portrayal of a sentient, lovelorn CPU tapped into contemporary anxieties that society’s dependence on computers would have a dehumanizing effect, with cold logic taking the place of feelings and empathy.
- [Podcast: All the Critics Love U - A Conversation with Jack Riedy, Author of Electric Word Life](https://princesongs.org/2021/08/13/podcast-all-the-critics-love-u-a-conversation-with-jack-riedy-author-of-electric-word-life/): For this month's episode, it was my pleasure to speak to music writer Jack Riedy (Pitchfork, GQ, VIBE) about his new book Electric Word Life: Writing on Prince 2016-2021.
- [Coming Soon: All the Critics Love U - A Conversation with Jack Riedy, Author of Electric Word Life](https://princesongs.org/2021/08/13/coming-soon-all-the-critics-love-u-a-conversation-with-jack-riedy-author-of-electric-word-life/): This month, it was my pleasure to speak to music writer Jack Riedy (Pitchfork, GQ, VIBE) about his new book Electric Word Life: Writing on Prince 2016-2021.
- [Purple Rain (Verse 3)](https://princesongs.org/2021/07/30/purple-rain-verse-3/): It's Prince's contribution to the Great American Songbook, a modern-day standard that transcends (almost) all categories of generation, genre, and taste.
- [Podcast: 40 Years of The Time - A Conversation with Darling Nisi and Harold Pride](https://princesongs.org/2021/07/16/podcast-40-years-of-the-time-a-conversation-with-darling-nisi-and-harold-pride/): Darling Nisi and Harold Pride return for another in-depth retrospective on the 1981 debut album by the Time.
- [Coming Soon: 40 Years of The Time](https://princesongs.org/2021/07/15/coming-soon-40-years-of-the-time/): This month marks the 40th anniversary of the self-titled debut album by the Time; so, I decided to commemorate the occasion by bringing back Darling Nisi and Harold Pride for one of our trademark track-by-track deep dives. The episode will be available on your podcast service of choice next week; in the meantime, here’s a short preview.
- [Purple Rain (Verse 2)](https://princesongs.org/2021/07/09/purple-rain-verse-2/): Listening to the recording today, almost 40 years after it was captured from a mobile unit parked outside First Avenue, is an almost eerie experience.
- [Purple Rain (Verse 1)](https://princesongs.org/2021/07/01/purple-rain-verse-1/): The origins of “Purple Rain” are murkier than the rest of the album that shares its title: No one seems to recall from where, precisely, the song emerged–even as everyone seems to have played a role in its conception.
- [Darling Nikki](https://princesongs.org/2021/06/18/darling-nikki/): "Darling Nikki” would become Purple Rain’s standard-bearer for the "danger" of Prince albums past.
- [I Would Die 4 U](https://princesongs.org/2021/05/07/i-would-die-4-u/): More, perhaps, than any other song in Prince's catalogue, "I Would Die 4 U" has transcended its original meaning to become something bigger than all of us.
- [Let's Go Crazy](https://princesongs.org/2021/04/09/lets-go-crazy/): There are plenty of legitimate claims to make for the precise moment when Prince became a superstar; but by any metric, "Let's Go Crazy" is close to the top.
- [Modernaire](https://princesongs.org/2021/02/18/modernaire/): The Modernaires’ screen time in Purple Rain adds up to only about 15 seconds, but it’s a memorable 15 seconds.
- [Vibrator](https://princesongs.org/2021/02/12/vibrator/): A bold demand for a woman's right to sexual pleasure, filtered through the distinctly 20th-century male anxiety of being replaced in the bedroom by a machine.
- [Velvet Kitty Cat](https://princesongs.org/2021/02/04/velvet-kitty-cat/): A mildly naughty bit of fun, its lyrics loaded with winking references to “man’s best friend[,] furry, cuddly & fat.”
- [If the Kid Can't Make You Come](https://princesongs.org/2021/01/29/if-the-kid-cant-make-you-come/): So sumptuous is “Kid” on a purely musical level that its more front-and-center narrative elements feel crass and unsophisticated by comparison.
- [Chili Sauce](https://princesongs.org/2021/01/22/chili-sauce/): Whatever "Chili Sauce" might say about Prince's instincts as an editor (let alone his questionable accent choices), his work ethic remained beyond reproach.
- [Cloreen Bacon Skin (Tricky)](https://princesongs.org/2021/01/08/cloreen-bacon-skin-tricky/): An unfiltered masterclass in groove by one of Prince’s most underrated rhythm sections.
- [Jungle Love](https://princesongs.org/2020/10/26/jungle-love/): Long after the audience for a long-winded unpacking of the musical and cultural significance of “Jungle Love” has dried up, its value as a kitsch object will endure.
- [Katrina's Paper Dolls](https://princesongs.org/2020/10/16/katrinas-paper-dolls/): Like many of Prince’s songs about women, “Katrina” feels like textbook projection: What else, after all, were Vanity 6, Jill Jones, or even the Time, if not “paper dolls” for him to play with and discard once he grew bored?
- [Podcast: 40 Years of Dirty Mind](https://princesongs.org/2020/09/11/podcast-40-years-of-dirty-mind/): Darling Nisi and Harold Pride return for a third episode in our series of in-depth retrospectives on Prince's albums, this one for the 40th anniversary of 1980’s Dirty Mind. 
- [Coming Soon: 40 Years of Dirty Mind](https://princesongs.org/2020/09/11/coming-soon-40-years-of-dirty-mind/): Well, folks, after a six-month delay (and what felt like six years of editing), the next episode of the D / M / S / R podcast is finally finished. It will be available to the public in a week; in the meantime, here’s a short preview. To subscribe to the podcast, use the links above or just search “dance music sex romance” on your provider of choice… we are almost definitely already on there, and if we aren’t, just let me know and I will do my best to remedy that!
- [Electric Intercourse](https://princesongs.org/2020/09/04/electric-intercourse-the-new-master/): Musically, “Electric Intercourse” is assembled from the same basic components as the songs from 1999... But this new track has a warmer, more organic feel–an apparently purposeful step away from the cold, mechanical textures of the previous album.
- [Roundup: Ephemera, 1981-1982](https://princesongs.org/2020/08/20/roundup-ephemera-1981-1982/): Like the last roundup post for the 1999 album, this one has been an especially long time coming: I wrote my first “in-sequence” post on 1999-era ephemera way back in November of 2018, when we were all about 50 years younger. It didn’t help, of course, that last fall’s Super Deluxe Edition of 1999 dropped a bunch of new recordings into our collective laps (not that I’m complaining, of course!). With this post, though, I’m finally putting 1999 behind me (at least until a Super Super Deluxe Edition makes the current one obsolete). Purple Rain awaits. But first, my ranking […]
- [Baby I'm a Star](https://princesongs.org/2020/07/24/baby-im-a-star/): "Baby I'm a Star" has the familiar air of Prince self-actualizing through music: projecting himself toward a celebrity status he was still years away from achieving.
- [Roundup: 1999, 1982](https://princesongs.org/2020/03/17/roundup-1999-1982/): In case you missed it, yesterday I finally closed the book on the 1999 era for dance / music / sex / romance (well, almost… I still plan to write “bonus tracks” posts on “Vagina,” “Colleen,” “You’re All I Want,” and “Money Don’t Grow on Trees” for Patreon readers in the near future). This was the blog’s biggest undertaking to date: comprising 33 track posts and three albums, and taking almost 16 months from the first post (“International Lover,” way back in November of 2018!) and the last. As you know, I can be pretty tough on myself; but right […]
- [1999](https://princesongs.org/2020/03/16/1999-2/): What set Prince apart from his early-'80s peers was his insistence on greeting Judgment Day, not with solemn gravity or mordant gallows humor, but with a seemingly irony-free display of millenarian ecstasy. 
- [No Call U](https://princesongs.org/2020/02/05/no-call-u/): It isn’t entirely clear whether “No Call U,” recorded toward the end of the 1999 sessions on July 23, was intended for Jill Jones, another side project, or Prince himself; more likely than not, given the “crazy blur” of recording sessions during this period, it wasn’t even clear to the participants at the time.
- [Lady Cab Driver (Rearrange)](https://princesongs.org/2020/01/23/lady-cab-driver-rearrange/): What keeps "Lady Cab Driver" distinct from 1999's other transportation-themed erotic fantasies, “Little Red Corvette” and "International Lover," is its pervasive sense of angst.
- [Moonbeam Levels (The New Master)](https://princesongs.org/2019/12/13/moonbeam-levels-the-new-master/): If the 1999 album sounds like dance music from a cyberpunk future, then “Moonbeam Levels” sounds as if it’s been beamed in from an entirely different solar system: had David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust character been a product of the early ‘80s instead of the early ‘70s, this is exactly the kind of song I’d imagine him singing while he waited for us in the sky.
- [Don't Let Him Fool Ya](https://princesongs.org/2019/11/27/dont-let-him-fool-ya/): While it’s clearly a throwaway, I defy anyone to get through "Don't Let Him Fool Ya" without at least a head bob and a smile.
- [Lust U Always ("Divinity")](https://princesongs.org/2019/11/21/lust-u-always/): Had “Lust U Always” come out on 1999, Prince may have forced the issue of music industry self-censorship two years early.
- [Horny Toad](https://princesongs.org/2019/11/14/horny-toad/): “Horny Toad” works as a self-aware riff on Prince’s carefully-cultivated reputation as a pervert.
- [Purple Music (Welcome 2 the Freedom Galaxy)](https://princesongs.org/2019/11/01/purple-music-welcome-2-the-freedom-galaxy/): "Purple Music" feels like the private tinkering of an unhinged genius: a funky Aleister Crowley drawing ritual circles in his suburban Boleskine House; a post-disco Dr. Frankenstein cackling over his Tesla coil-powered drum machine.
- [Roundup: What Time is It?, 1982](https://princesongs.org/2019/10/11/roundup-what-time-is-it-1982/): It’s been a much shorter time than usual since the last roundup post; I won’t pat myself on the back too hard, though, because this one has been a long time coming. Fortunately, the Time’s second album happens to be my favorite of their slender catalogue by a long shot: the perfect crystallization of the project’s lean, mean brand of Minneapolis funk, before the battle of wills between Prince and his reluctant protégés scuttled the whole enterprise. Here’s how I rank the tracks: 6. “Onedayi’mgonnabesomebody” A trifle best remembered for its closing “We Don’t Like New Wave” chant (a raspberry […]
- [I Don't Wanna Leave You](https://princesongs.org/2019/10/10/i-dont-wanna-leave-you/): It’s hard to hear this closing track without imagining a stronger alternative in its place: something that would end the album with a bang, rather than a whimper. 
- [Onedayi'mgonnabesomebody](https://princesongs.org/2019/09/27/onedayimgonnabesomebody/): Recorded around the same time as “777-9311” in late Spring 1982, “Onedayi’mgonnabesomebody” was a slight, palate-cleansing trifle to fill out the first side of the album.
- [777-9311 (Grace)](https://princesongs.org/2019/09/20/777-9311/): One of the best grooves Prince ever gave away.
- [Little Red Corvette](https://princesongs.org/2019/09/09/little-red-corvette/): “Little Red Corvette” seemed to emerge with almost supernatural ease, as if Prince had merely plucked it from the ether fully-formed.
- [Delirious](https://princesongs.org/2019/08/23/delirious/): “Delirious” is arguably the pinnacle of Prince’s brief, but intense infatuation with 1950s rock ‘n’ roll.
- [Automatic](https://princesongs.org/2019/08/09/automatic/): On “Automatic,” Prince distills the intricacies of romantic and sexual connection into a clean, simple cause-and-effect relationship: love and lust as a computer programmer’s conditional expressions.
- [Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)](https://princesongs.org/2019/08/02/something-in-the-water-does-not-compute/): If "Something in the Water”’s music wasn't so beautiful, the self-pity and solipsism of its lyrics would begin to feel ugly: an adolescent projection of self-loathing into a spitefully generic female tormenter. 
- [How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?](https://princesongs.org/2019/07/26/how-come-u-dont-call-me-anymore/): "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?" feels in many ways like Prince's Ur-song: a pure expression of the carnal and emotional longing at his core, drawn from the deep well of the African American musical tradition.
- [Free](https://princesongs.org/2019/07/19/free/): For all its apparent conservatism, "Free" still carries a mild undercurrent of subversiveness. 
- [D.M.S.R.](https://princesongs.org/2019/07/12/d-m-s-r/): "D.M.S.R." was Prince's calling card--a four-word (four-letter!) summation of everything he and his music were about.
- [If It'll Make U Happy](https://princesongs.org/2019/07/03/if-itll-make-u-happy/): What “If It’ll Make U Happy” lacks in polish, it makes up for in potential: with a little more gloss, its sunny harmonies and glistening arrangement could have been a hit for someone.
- [Roundup: Vanity 6, 1982](https://princesongs.org/2019/07/01/roundup-vanity-6-1982/): It’s been about nine months since the last time we completed an album around here–which, if nothing else, means that we’re just about keeping pace with Prince himself, who released Vanity 6 just under 10 months after his own Controversy. Let’s see if we can finish 1999 by October! In the meantime, here’s how I rank the songs on Vanity 6: 7. “3 x 2 = 6” For the record, I don’t think this is a bad song; but I understand why a lot of Prince fans do. As I noted in my post last week, the arrangement is a […]
- [3 x 2 = 6](https://princesongs.org/2019/06/28/3-x-2-6/): Just as he’d done for his own Controversy, Prince put the finishing touches on the Vanity 6 album at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. The last song he recorded for the album, on April 5, 1982, was also the last song on the track list: a gauzy synthpop ballad arithmetically titled “3 x 2 = 6.” More than any other song on the album, “3 x 2 = 6” reflects the personal relationship between Prince and Vanity (née Denise Matthews), which had blossomed in the months since their first meeting. “Prince became like a father to me,” Matthews later recalled. […]
- [Let's Pretend We're Married](https://princesongs.org/2019/06/05/lets-pretend-were-married/): Against the mechanized backdrop of "Let's Pretend We're Married," Prince delivers a vocal performance that is pure flesh, utilizing every gasp, pant, slurp, and scream in his ever-expanding repertoire.
- [If a Girl Answers (Don't Hang Up)](https://princesongs.org/2019/05/13/if-a-girl-answers-dont-hang-up/): "If a Girl Answers" brings to mind the sense of queer kinship, recalled by author Hilton Als, among "the colored queens I had known growing up, who called Prince ‘Miss.’”
- [Bite the Beat](https://princesongs.org/2019/05/03/bite-the-beat/): Prince's main contribution was the lyrics: Vanity 6’s most sexually aggressive this side of "Nasty Girl."
- [Wet Dream (Wet Dream Cousin)](https://princesongs.org/2019/04/19/wet-dream-wet-dream-cousin/): Vanity was chosen to lead the group for her firecracker personality, bedroom eyes, and ability to fill out a lace camisole, not for her powerhouse pipes. The trouble is that Prince wasn't always good at selecting material that played to her strengths.
- [Drive Me Wild](https://princesongs.org/2019/04/15/drive-me-wild/): At the core of Susan Moonsie's dirty-schoolgirl persona was "Drive Me Wild," one of the handful of songs originally recorded for the proto-Vanity 6 Hookers project in 1981.
- [Make-Up](https://princesongs.org/2019/04/05/make-up/): "Make-Up" matches its arrangement's ice-cold glamour with a portrait of singer Susan Moonsie as a fembot at her toilette.
- [Nasty Girl](https://princesongs.org/2019/03/29/nasty-girl/): The role that made Denise Matthews a star–even if, as she later admitted, it was one she played reluctantly. 
- [All the Critics Love U in New York](https://princesongs.org/2019/02/26/all-the-critics-love-u-in-new-york/): The title and lyrics of "All the Critics" obviously point to New York, but the music evokes another metropolis that would be even more important to Prince's artistic development: Detroit.
- [Turn It Up](https://princesongs.org/2019/02/05/turn-it-up/): Prince dives into "Turn It Up" with impressive sincerity and single-minded intensity, as if "horny radio" were the role he'd always dreamed of playing. 
- [Wild and Loose](https://princesongs.org/2019/01/31/wild-and-loose/): "Wild and Loose" is centered around one of the most prevalent scenarios in the life of a touring musician: the backstage (and back-of-bus) dalliances between the band and their young, female admirers.
- [Gigolos Get Lonely Too](https://princesongs.org/2019/01/11/gigolos-get-lonely-too/): “Gigolos” plays out like an inverse of “International Lover”: where that song allowed Prince to take his seduction routine less seriously, this one offers his protégé a moment of pathos, all while keeping tongue planted firmly in cheek.
- [The Walk](https://princesongs.org/2018/12/17/the-walk/): "The Walk" is the What Time is It? track that most resembles the style of its predecessor. It's long: nine and a half minutes, to be exact, roughly halfway between the lengths of "Get It Up” and "Cool.” And, like "Get It Up" and "The Stick," it moves at a sauntering pace, driven by an unhurried "walking" bassline and singer Morris Day’s casual, half-spoken vocals.
- [International Lover](https://princesongs.org/2018/11/28/international-lover/): Prince's wheedling, ebb-and-flow delivery is a master class in the art of the tease; drawing out every word with delicious anticipation, only removing his tongue from his own cheek for long enough to slip it in someone else's.
- [Dance to the Beat](https://princesongs.org/2018/11/21/dance-to-the-beat/): "Dance to the Beat" feels tailor-made for live performances, giving Morris plenty of opportunities to exhort the audience with the title phrase while the lively synth and guitar riff provides some additional inducement.

## Pages

- [The Story So Far](https://princesongs.org/the-story-so-far/): A reader asked me for the best way to “binge-read” posts on this blog in chronological order, so I put together this page. If you’re new to the site and want to catch up, this is your best bet: Just start at the top and work your way down. You may notice that the categories are slightly different from the ones on the main page. This is by design: The categories on the main page are meant to space out my writing progress, while these are intended to guide the reader, grouping songs into larger “eras” corresponding to Prince’s albums. I’m […]
- [Bibliography](https://princesongs.org/bibliography/): This bibliography will be updated as the blog expands. Links/page citations are provided wherever possible in the posts. If you have any tips for good sources I’m missing, let me know. Books & Screenplays Azhar, Mobeen. Prince: Chapter and Verse–A Life in Photographs (Sterling, 2016). Beaulieu, Allen. Prince: Before the Rain (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2018). Bream, Jon. Prince: Inside the Purple Reign (Collier Books, 1984). Brown, Jake. Prince ‘In the Studio’: 1975-1995 (Colossus Books, 2010). Brown, James, with Bruce Tucker. James Brown: The Godfather of Soul (Macmillan, 1986). Clerc, Benoît. Prince: All the Songs – The Story Behind Every Track (Mitchell Beazley, 2022). Cateforis, […]
- [About the Blog](https://princesongs.org/about/): This is just a short excerpt for the about page.


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