Tag: dr fink

Dirty Mind, 1980 Podcast

Podcast: 40 Years of Dirty Mind

Post author By Zach
Post date September 11, 2020
2 Comments on Podcast: 40 Years of Dirty Mind

Way back in February of 2020, I asked Darling Nisi and Harold Pride to record 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. The podcast was intended to predate De Angela Duff’s DM40GB30 symposium, which in those simpler times was still scheduled to be held in-person at New York University.

Well, you know what happened next: DM40GB30 was delayed, then went virtual, while I slipped into a pandemic-related depression fog that only lifted, appropriately enough, after I participated in the virtual symposium back in June. Meanwhile, the podcast continued to lavish in the D / M / S / R Vault (a.k.a. the “Documents” folder on my computer) until the end of last month, when I was promptly reminded of just how laborious a task editing a three-hour podcast recording can be.

Now, the wait is finally over: the D / M / S / R podcast is back, in all its wildly self-indulgent glory. I want to thank everyone for their patience, and assure you that there won’t be a two-year wait before the next episode; in fact, I’d recommend you go ahead and use one of the links above to subscribe on your podcast service of choice using one of the links above, because I’m aiming to put out one of these bad boys (i.e., podcasts, not necessarily review episodes) per month. As always, let me know what you think, and feel free to leave a review on your podcast provider if you’re so inclined.

Tags 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1993, 1999, 2003, 2016, adore, allen beaulieu, american bandstand, andre cymone, andrea swensson, atlanta, august darnell, baby i'm a star, bambi, beatles, beautiful ones book, beauty school dropout, bernie worrell, bobby z, brother marquis, cc club, chanhassen, contort yourself, controversy tour, cynthia horner, darling nisi, david bowie, de angela duff, detroit, devo, dez dickerson, different world, dirty mind, dirty mind tour, dm40gb30 symposium, dmsr, do it all night, do me baby, dortmund, dr fink, elvis costello, enterprize, fire it up tour, first avenue, freddie mercury, funkytown, game of thrones, got to be something here book, gotta broken heart again, grand funk railroad, grease, harold pride, have a heart, head, how come u don't call me anymore, i feel for you, i wanna be your lover, i'm yours, ice-t, international male, james chance, joe jackson, john lennon, joni mitchell, jurgen reisch, let's pretend we're married, let's go crazy grammy salute to prince, lipps inc, little red corvette, lovesexy 30, lovesexy tour, madonna, mary tyler moore show, michael dean, michael jackson, minneapolis, morning papers, morris day, motown records, mtv, musician magazine, musician magazione, neil young, new york city, nwa, oar folk, on time, one nite alone tour, parade tour, paris, parliament, partyup, press rewind, prince, prince from minneapolis, prince from minneapolis conference, prince podcast, prince tour, public enemy, purple rain, purple rain film, purple rain tour, purple reign conference, rebels, revolution, rick james, right on magazine, ritz, sharon nelson, sheila e, sister, sister sledge, so blue, sometimes it snows in april, still waiting, super freak, tim curry, time, twin tone records, tyka nelson, university of salford, uptown, uptown neighborhood, uptown theatre, warner bros records, wembley arena, when we're dancing close and slow, when you were mine, worcester centrum, you, ze records

Purple Rain, 1984

Baby I’m a Star

1999 tour, circa 1983; photo stolen from Prince Off the Record.

“The MUSIC segues into a fierce BEAT.
The CROWD lets out a ROAR! Prince
strips off his guitar, streaks center-
stage. The Band launches into ‘Baby,
I’m A Star.’
“…And the CROWD laughing, dancing,
shouting and loving. The CLUB is ALIVE!
“And the MUSIC continues…forever…”
Draft screenplay for Purple Rain by Albert Magnoli, 1983

In the spring of 1983, Prince’s contract with managers Cavallo, Ruffalo, and Fargnoli was up for renewal. They had, on the face of it, little reason to worry: the 1999 tour was selling out arenas, “Little Red Corvette” was in the Top 10 of the pop charts, and 1999 was well on its way to Platinum certification by the RIAA. By the end of April, Prince would make the cover of Rolling Stone: a coveted opportunity for which his managers had netted a Richard Avedon photo shoot without granting an interview. “I thought we did an incredible job, we had a creative relationship, I’m sure he’s gonna sign another contract,” Bob Cavallo later told music journalist Alan Light. But Prince sent his main handler, Steve Fargnoli, back to Cavallo with a surprising ultimatum: “he won’t sign with us again unless we get him a movie” (Light 51).

Tags 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1999 tour, 2004, 2016, 2020, alan leeds, albert magnoli, apollonia 6, baby i'm a star, beautiful ones book, beyonce, bird, bloomington, bob cavallo, bobby z, bodyheat, brown mark, bruce springsteen, can't stop this feeling i got, capital centre, cary grant, cbs, chanhassen, chocolate, chuck statler, clarence williams iii, controversy, dan piepenbring, dance electric, david coleman, david lynch, david z, dez dickerson, dirty mind tour, don batts, dr fink, duane tudahl, elvis presley, eraserhead, eric leeds, fame tv series, first avenue, forum, francis ford coppola, free, gary l coleman, grammy awards, greg brooks, highway 7, i just wanna be rich, i wanna be your lover, i would die 4 u, inglewood, james brown, jerome benton, jill jones, joe ruffalo, john l nelson, jonathan melvoin, jungle love, keith murphy, kiowa trail, kurt loder, lake minnetonka, landover, let's go crazy, linn lm-1, lisa coleman, little red corvette, los angeles, louis b mayer, love me tender film, lovin spoonful, madonna, mattie shaw, met center, mia bocca, miami, mike melvoin, minneapolis, minnesota dance theatre, modernaire, moonbeam levels, morris day, motown records, new power generation, piano & a microphone tour, prince, promise to be true, purple rain, purple rain film, purple rain tour, radio city music hall, revolution, richard avedon, rolling stone, roots tv series, second coming film, sexuality, sheila e, simmons sds-v, soft and wet, st louis park, starr company, starwood, steve fargnoli, stevie wonder, sunset sound, susan rogers, susannah melvoin, swept away, teena marie, texas chainsaw massacre, time, too tough, under the cherry moon film, uptown, vanity, waldorf salad, wally safford, warehouse, warner bros records, we can work it out, wendy melvoin, west hollywood, william blinn, woody allen, wouldn't you love to love me, wrecking crew

1999, 1982

1999

Post author By Zach
Post date March 16, 2020
2 Comments on 1999

By mid-July of 1982, Prince had completed work on the album that would become 1999, with just one significant exception: “1999,” the song, was nowhere to be seen. When Prince played a rough mix of the album for his manager Bob Cavallo that month, he got a cooler reception than he anticipated.

“‘This is a great album, but we don’t have a first single,’” Cavallo recalled telling Prince. “‘We have singles that’ll be hits, but we don’t have a thematic, important thing that can be embraced by everybody, different countries, et cetera.’” In response, Prince “cursed me, and he went away–but he didn’t force me to put it out. Two weeks later, he came back and he played ‘1999,’ and that became the title of the album” (Light 43).

Tags 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1999, 1999 new master, 1999 song, 1999 tour, alan leeds, all the critics love u in new york, allen beaulieu, andrea swensson, annie christian, armory, arp omni 2, atlanta, automatic, blade runner, bloomington, bob cavallo, bobby z, brown mark, bruce gowers, chattanooga, controversy, controversy tour, dance to the music, dc armory, delirious, dez dickerson, dmsr, do me baby, dr fink, dr funkenberry, feel u up, fixx, free, head, houston, how come u don't call me anymore, irresistible bitch, jill jones, jimmy jam, joe ruffalo, john lennon, ken tucker, lady cab driver, let's pretend we're married, let's work, lisa coleman, little red corvette, lust u always, man who saw tomorrow, marylou badeaux, met center, michael jackson, minneapolis, murielle hamilton, nostradamus, nothing to fear, npg, orson welles, per nilsen, plastic ono band, prince, purple rain, purple rain film, queen, red skies, revolution, rock with you, roy bennett, san antonio, second coming, seventh-day adventist church, sexuality, sly and the family stone, steve fargnoli, summit, susan moonsie, terry lewis, time, toure, turn it up, vangelis, vanity, vanity 6, warner bros records, washington dc, with you, yoko ono

1999, 1982

Lady Cab Driver (Rearrange)

Post author By Zach
Post date January 23, 2020
No Comments on Lady Cab Driver (Rearrange)

A real-life "Lady Cab Driver," circa 1919; photo stolen from pastpictures.org.

Of the 11 songs that would eventually make their way onto Prince’s fifth album, “Lady Cab Driver” appears to have had the longest gestation period. The song was completed at Sunset Sound on July 7, 1982, the day after “Moonbeam Levels”; but, as the recent Super Deluxe Edition of 1999 revealed, its seeds had been planted during a break in the Controversy tour over half a year earlier on December 8, 1981, in the form of a different song called “Rearrange.”

According to an interview with sessionographer Duane Tudahl for the Minneapolis Public Radio podcast The Story of 1999, “Rearrange” was long known to researchers by its title alone: “it was one of those songs that we’d heard existed, but I didn’t think it was actually a song,” Tudahl told host Andrea Swensson. “I thought it was just some shuffling of his stuff”–a studio note indicating a literal rearrangement of tapes. As it turned out, of course, it was real–though it was also little more than an admittedly funky sketch: a stark, mid-paced groove with a slick rhythm guitar hook similar to the Time track “The Stick.”

Given this similarity–not to mention Prince’s guitar solo, which plays neatly to Jesse Johnson’s combustive style–it seems likely that “Rearrange” was at least provisionally mooted for that group. But this is just speculation; ultimately, says Tudahl, we “don’t know whether it was intended for 1999, whether he was searching for a voice for 1999, or whether he was saying, ‘I gotta record another Time album soon.’ But either way it was something that was not planned. He just thought, ‘I’m in the studio, I gotta record… This is what I’m gonna do’” (Swensson 2019 Episode 2).

Ephemera, 1981-1982

Moonbeam Levels (The New Master)

Post author By Zach
Post date December 13, 2019
1 Comment on Moonbeam Levels (The New Master)

Outtake from the 1999 photo sessions, by Allen Beaulieu; © the Prince Estate.

Note: Incredibly, it’s been just over three years since I first wrote about “Moonbeam Levels” for dance / music / sex / romance. That post focused on the song’s status as the first posthumously-released track from Prince’s Vault, and was colored by the then-recent passings of both Prince and David Bowie, who I still consider to be an unsung source of inspiration for the song. You can still read that version if you want; but here is what I now consider to be the official d / m / s / r take on “Moonbeam Levels.”

In early July 1982, after spending the latter half of the spring back home in Minnesota, Prince returned to Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. His goal, almost certainly, was to finish the album that would become 1999. But in typical fashion, he overshot that goal: instead, launching himself into the stratosphere with the fittingly extraterrestrial outtake “Moonbeam Levels.”

In some ways, “Moonbeam Levels” feels very much of a piece with the other songs Prince was recording in mid-1982. Like many of the tracks that would end up on 1999, it opens with a prominent Linn LM-1 beat: in this case, the mechanical pulse of a bass drum, punctuated by a hiss of synthesized exhaust. To this futuristic foundation, Prince adds Blade Runner synth pads and lyrics evoking space travel: his narrator fantasizes about “a nice condo overlookin’ the rings of Saturn” and asks for the titular “moonbeam levels,” a poetic turn of phrase that conjures up images of interplanetary transmissions and cosmic rays. Meanwhile, the ever-present threat of annihilation looms: Prince imagines a never-written novel with the capsule summary, “Boy loses girl in a rainstorm, nuclear World War III,” his pet themes of personal and global apocalypse summed up in a single, devastating line. The whole package feels custom-built for precisely the kind of science-fiction pop-funk epic Prince had spent the past six months assembling piece by piece.