While Prince did indeed become a massive star, starting with 1982's 1999, he was no overnight success. In fact, 1999 was his fifth studio album; two of which were released in the late 1970s!! And as would be expected from a prolific, slightly insane musician who later became an unpronounceable symbol, there is some really good stuff on his early albums that did not receive the airplay that it deserved. Although it took us a while to warm up to Prince, we have to say that he produced one of the broadest and most interesting bodies of work of any artist of the past few decades. In particular, his ability to fuse rock, pop, R&B and funk was unparalleled.
"Controversy," the title cut from his 1981 album is a great case in point. This is the album that immediately preceded 1999, and it shows an artist at the top of his game. The song itself is a catchy new wave funk song that was ahead of its time. One interesting point: the video is the edited single version of the song. The album version is almost twice as long, and contains the Lord's Prayer (in full), which went over with religious conservatives about as well as you would think. To be fair, Prince and his band also went over with religious conservatives ... well, you get the idea.
Ladies and gentlemen, for your audio and video pleasure ... His Purpleness.
Note that Prince's "Dirty Mind" was also featured on ERV, in March 2012, and "Uptown" was posted on ERV in January, 2015.
Big G. to everyone that's one of the best bands ever. should've stayed together. Prince & the Revolution always.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for posting. So hard to find this video. Again Thanks.
ReplyDeleteOur pleasure and glad that you liked it. As you can tell from the multiple posts on ERV, we believe that early 1980's Prince (pre-1999) is somewhat underappreciated by many 1980's music fans.
DeleteThank you for posting! I'm having a Prince moment this morning : )
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome; glad that you liked it.
DeleteThank you for posting this video. My nephew,who is Trans, had a post about about controversies THESE days...I had to show him that Prince was WAY ahead of his time where controversy/sexuality, etc. is concerned...This was 1981 and Prince was speaking truths back then! I still have this as a cassette...Funny thing is...the reason I bought this cassette was for a DIFFERENT Prince song that was getting a lot of airplay at the time and I fell in love with it..."Do Me, Baby" was getting a lot of play on the soul/R & B stations and I just loved it; never heard anything like him before. This was my first Prince cassette...WoW...did I learn a LOT from Him ! Thanks for the video ! Signed -"Anonymous Susan"
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by, "Anonymous Susan" and hope that your nephew liked the song and vid. Prince was definitely a hyper-sexual kind of guy (in the 1980's, at least) and is a really talented musician too. BTW, if you haven't seen the vids for "Dirty Mind" and "Uptown" (both linked above), I would say definitely check those out too.
DeleteThanks for posting these rare videos. Any chance you have a copy of "I wanna be your lover" which is also a great early track from Prince, especially the instrumental at the end of the song!
ReplyDeleteso sad...fantastic version
ReplyDeleteDanny, I don't have "I Wanna Be Your Lover" but I agree, that's another great song. And thanks to everyone for checking in on this sad day.
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