Anniversary Albums: Edition Eleven - Prince "Dirty Mind"

This week on Anniversary Albums we took a look at Prince's third studio release, 1980's Dirty Mind. This is a special edition of anniversary albums honoring this great artist. 

Tracks played 

- Dirty Mind

- When You Were Mine 

- Do It All night 

- Uptown 

http://95bfm.com/bcasts/anniversary-albums-prince-dirty-mind/

- Sam 

Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching for the Young Soul Rebels (1980)

Searching for the Young Soul Rebels was the 1980 debut album by Birmingham pop-soul band Dexys Midnight Runners. Dexys Midnight Runners, or Dexys for short, on first glance were quite an interesting group and not really a typical 80s band. For starters, they only released three albums during the first half of the decade before separating and then returning again in 2003. Secondly, they played an unusually quirky variant of soul music which in itself was quite unusual for the time in a period dominated by synth pop and new wave acts. And finally their original eight year existence included a revolving door of musicians coming and going like flies in what was seemingly a real life Spinal Tap situation. On paper their line-up appears like that of a philharmonic orchestra with the bands overall membership during this time aside from constant feature and band leader singer-songwriter Kevin Rowland coming to a grand total of thirty-seven members in eight years. Although the lifespan of a Dexys member wasn’t long, especially if you were a trumpeter or saxophonist, the constant line-up changes didn’t prevent them from making quality music and in particular a smashing debut album.

Searching for the Young Soul Rebels would be one of the more distinctive sounding albums of the 80s, a sound which I would describe as pop-soul. This sound is centred on a full horn section which forms the base of most of the tracks on the album and drives these songs along at full tilt. The soulfulness of the horns and organ combine nicely with the pop-punk aggression in Kevin Rowland’s vocals and the backing rhythm section which gives the overall album an intense edge much like that of punk rock. Rowland is clearly the creative force in the band, hence his survival while others have perished, and it is his slightly campish extravagant pop vocals which amazingly fit right in with this massive horn sound. His voice is not your typical soothing soul voice full of range and power think Aretha, think Otis, his style is more quirky and playful and certainly not conventional in a soul sense, which in many respects is the perfect fit for the bands quite extravagant and may I say loud sound. This combination just shouldn’t work, a kind of British brass band horn sound with soul undertones and a quirky pop singer, but it does somehow and it works very well. One influence that can definitely be heard on here is that of Northern soul – a music and dance movement that came out of the north of England in the late-60s, and although this movement isn’t directly aligned to the Dexys, it does share the soul influence of Stax and Motown and an overall ethos that involves producing music that you can dance to.

Throughout the album the music tends to stick to an up-tempo horn driven Motown style of pop-soul with songs like “Tell Me When My Light Turns Green” and “Seven Days Too Long”, the pop song on the album with a very catchy chorus. The band also indulge in what sounds like reggae on “Geno” especially with its bass line and horn parts, a great song which to me even sounds like a pre-curser to the likes of New Zealand’s own Fat Freddy’s Drop and the Black Seeds. Although most of the tracks have an up-tempo feel, there are occasional moments which contain a more down-beat jazz soul vibe, notably during “I’m Just Looking” and “Keep It”. These songs do a good job in just breaking up the intensity of the horn-infused dance tracks and allow the listener to sit and take a breather for a moment, that is if they have been up and dancing as expected.

Searching for the Young Soul Rebels although not a big hit was very well received by critics and many still consider it to be one of the best debuts album of all time. Allmusic described Rowland as having “the unexpected but perfect voice to capture a time and moment in the UK, the return of soul to English rock music at the dawn of Thatcherism”, heavy praise indeed. This sort of sentiment I feel fits perfectly with this album as it was unusual to see a band playing this kind of music, not to mention it was their own personal take on soul and not just a copy of music which had for a while till that point gone out of fashion in England. This album to me is a very interesting and distinctive album and stands apart from other albums of the time as a musical avenue of quirkiness and eccentricity within what was a growing conservatism in the music industry. I can think of only people like Ian Dury who were doing things of a similar ilk at the time in the UK, in an industry which in the past was full of eccentric songwriters such as Lennon, Davies, Bowie and Mercury.  Although it wasn’t a revolutionary album musically and didn’t contribute to any musical movement as such, it achieved what it set out at the time and that was to bring soul back to British music and attract new young soul rebels to welcome in the new soul vision as Rowland boldly proclaims on the albums closing track “There, There, My Dear”. In a decade full of inconsistent returns album wise, this one stands out as one of the best, proving also that there was a lot more musically to this thirty-seven strong band than just Eileen (referring to their hit single “Come on Eileen”). 

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- Sam 

The Jam - Sound Affects (1980)

Sound Affects was the fifth studio album by British mod-revival group The Jam. Released during 1980 at the height of the band’s career, a career that would include a run of eighteen consecutive top 40 singles in the UK charts, many deem Sound Affects to be The Jam’s best album and at the very least their most musically interesting. With an overall sound that stuck to their traditional 60s beat influences, but that also branched out to include splashes of R&B and psychedelic rock, this is probably an accurate assessment of one of the 80s most underrated albums but best surprises.

Paul Weller, the band’s front man described Sound Affects as a cross between Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall and The Beatles Revolver, a description that certainly holds true on listening. The sound on the album combines a strong emphasis on rhythm and a prominent rhythm section with pop melodies and the occasional punk rage. The Off the Wall influence comes in the form of the excellent rhythm playing of Bruce Foxton on bass and Rick Buckler on drums, whose pounding bass and drum lines dominates across the album. Their playing is very much a Motown-inspired style and both the drums and bass sound so good on here (a very clean sound) to the point that they often take centre stage as lead instruments, whilst also being an essential part of the overall Jam sound. Paul Weller’s guitar playing, vocals and compositional skills bring in the 60s Beatles influences, punk, as well as a hint of psychedelia. His vocals flow between punk aggression and a mellower pop style similar to mid-60s Beatles, while his guitar playing is a mix of jangly chimes and a heavy distorted drive. On some of the tracks Weller also experiments both with guitar distortion and feedback, as well as the odd sound affect here and there, including a fly buzzing at the beginning of “Music for the Last Couple” and some French audio on the outro of “Scrape Away”.

The tracks on Sound Affects are generally of a high standard all and all, and despite a couple of somewhat lesser tracks most of the material is interesting and diverse. There is melody driven Beatles-like pop in the form of “Monday” and “Man in the Corner Shop”, while “That’s Entertainment”, probably the band’s most well known song is an acoustic mod anthem that forms the basis of a commentary on the drudgery and dreariness of English working class life. The Beatles influence becomes remarkably close on “Start” which includes an exact copy of the bass line and guitar riff from classic Revolver track “Taxman”, while also incorporating subtle R&B influences with a great rhythm track and a backing horn section. Then there are the more up-tempo ferocious punk anthems such as opening track “Pretty Green” with its pounding bass line and “But I’m Different Now with its heavily charged punk guitar. Experimental psychedelic rock also appears with the anthemic distortion driven “Set the House Ablaze” and album closer “Scrape Away”. On this note I would say that psychedelia was just a slight influence on the material here and was more used in an experimental capacity without playing a central role. With this in mind the influence of psychedelic rock and in particular The Beatles Revolver came mainly in the use of studio affects and heavy guitar distortion and echo. Finally, there are also hints at The Jam’s and Weller’s future direction with subtle splashes of R&B here and there. This is evident especially in the rhythm playing right across the album as I have already mentioned, but also on particular songs such as “Boy About Town” and “Start”, of which both contain horn parts and heavy funk-inspired bass and drum fills.

Overall, Sound Affects is a fantastic collection of infectious early-80s pop songs that are dotted with little bits and pieces from all sorts of different musical areas, which although feature do not compromise The Jam’s 60’s pop sound and overall punk ethos. Apart from the general catchiness of the songs and their cleverly crafted pop nature, as well as the interesting experimentation with different sounds and textures, the definite standout of Sound Affects is the rhythm section of Buckler and Foxton, who’s playing make these songs that extra special. Their playing to me is made even more remarkable considering the 80s would become dominated by drum machines and synths, and how also technology often came to overshadow the musical abilities of the people making the music. On listening to this album it is just nice to hear a proper rhythm section made up of proper players playing an essential part to the overall sound on display, of which without whose input the music would be half as good. Weller’s song-writing craft, aggressive vocals, and lead rhythm playing is simply the icing on the cake in what is overall a great 80s album, all be it an overlooked and underrated one at that.

 

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- Sam

Prince - Dirty Mind (1980)

Before strutting around on a purple motorcycle, flamboyantly wearing frilly shirts and challenging Charlie Murphy to hilarious games of basketball, Prince Rogers Nelson once was, believe it or not, a fairly normal and modest guy, if a little eccentric. Nearing the end of his three-record contract with Warner Bros. in 1980, the ambitious young musician from Minneapolis released his first significant effort, Dirty Mind.

After dropping two commercially successful albums that confirmed his talent but not quite his ability, Prince assembled the core of what would eventually become his backup band The Revolution, with fellow Minneapolitans Dr. Fink (keyboards, synthesiser) and Lisa Coleman (keyboards, vocals, sitar) having their first feature credits on Dirty Mind. Combining spritely, overhead synth riffs with bass-heavy, underground funk rhythms, Dirty Mind is arguably one of the first, if not the first truly consistent ‘synth funk’ release, despite previous artists such as Stevie Wonder, Kool & the Gang and Parliament initiating the stylistic fusion earlier in the 1970s.

A fairly budgeted album in terms of production, the sounds in Dirty Mind may not be terribly complex or as lavish as in Purple Rain, yet it was undoubtedly the correct approach, accommodating Prince’s developing capabilities as a songwriter at this point in his career. However Dirty Mind’s simplicity is more than matched by its substance, with near-perfect displays of the burgeoning synth-funk style as in “Do It All Night”, which immediately kicks off with an energetic glissando by Dr. Fink that transitions into unrelentingly incessant keyboard chords, and only continues to build with Prince continually feeding thick, heavy funky bass lines throughout, culminating with a superb synth solo. Yet the album breaks from that particular mold on the very next track “Gotta Broken Heart Again”, a soulful ballad that strips away Dr. Fink’s synthesisers in order for Prince to brandish his undeniably impressive guitar skills, even managing to slot in a solo despite its brief 2 minute duration.

Having just turned 22 during the recording of Dirty Mind, Prince flaunts a kind of sexually frustrated exuberance typical of a guy that was yet to “make it” in the music industry, most notably on the title track where he begs a woman to sleep with him, and that just being around her gives him a “dirty mind”. There’s also the sorrowful “Gotta Broken Heart Again” where Prince laments being broke, having spent all of his money on a long-distance call to his ex, as well as the way he kicks off the infectious track “Do It All Night” by politely singing “Pardon me, I wanna talk to you”, not yet having the confidence or brashness he would later be famous for. The track’s refrain, “I wanna do it / Do it all night” again reflects Prince’s desire for sex, as opposed to actually getting it. In a way, these moments help to preserve a humbler time in Prince’s career, when he didn’t have it all.

Dirty Mind would prove to be Prince’s breakthrough release, kicking off a decade where future artists would try to imitate its style. It also saw Prince’s first appearance on Saturday Night Live, and determined to make an impact, rather than promoting one of the album’s singles he played the anti-war, provocative number “Partyup”, which in many ways has the same party-in-the-face-of-adversity message as his later hit “1999”. Wearing a combination of his trademark purple jacket adorned with silver buttons, black stockings and eyeliner (similar to his getup on the album cover), Prince certainly looked like a man set to solidify his identity, however ambiguous. As the song finished with the obstinate line “We don’t wanna fight no more”, Prince threw the microphone stand down and rushed off stage, the tremors already rolling through American audiences. Prince had arrived.

Funky, danceable and timeless, Dirty Mind is ideal for those unfamiliar with Prince, a suitable starting point among his formidably large discography. Just running in at a mere 30 minutes, it’s a quick yet remarkably substantial listen that is essential for anyone interested as to what helped shape the sound of the 80s.

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-Karl

Listen to Dirty Mind on Grooveshark

The Clash - Sandinista (1980)

The Clash’s fourth studio album “Sandinista” (named after the Nicaraguan Marxist rebel group) is by no means a punk album and in fact is about as far away from punk as you could possibly get. Released in 1980, this album saw the band move radically away from the punk movement they helped spearhead, not only in terms of sound, but in size as well. Sandinista is a triple album – a rare thing in itself containing three discs, six sides, thirty-six tracks, and totalling 144 minutes a concept that you would think some progressive rock act would be behind not a so called punk rock band.

The music on this album in many ways spans the history of music to that point, and explores genres ranging from funk, reggae, rockabilly, dub, calypso, rap, and gospel, genres that are stylistically miles away from The Clash’s first album of mainly punk rock songs in fact there is hardly a punk rock song on this album. The band began exploring with different styles of music on their previous release “London Calling” but went even further on Sandinista. The band explores rap on “The Magnificent Seven and “Lightening Strikes” this before the genre was even popular in the mainstream, reggae on “Junco Partner”, rockabilly on “The Leader”, jazz on “Look Here”, gospel on “The Sound of Sinners”, and Celtic folk complete with fiddle on “Lose This Skin”. The massive array of musical styles on show here makes it seems as if with each new track you are also moving to another style of music, that is how varied this album is musically. The band also experimented significantly on “Sandinista”, experimentation that included the appearance of different instruments ranging from violin to harmonica, extra singers including a re-recorded version of “Career Opportunities” being sung by small children, various sampling, and several alternate dub versions of tracks that already appear on the album. Lyrically Joe Strummer is Joe Strummer, with political and social topics appearing throughout the album including themes such as the military draft on “The Call Up” and American imperialism in Latin America on “Washington Bullets”. In fact Alternative Press magazine included “Sandinista” in its 2000 list of the “10 Essential Political-Revolution Albums”.

“Sandinista” is very much a stretch to listen to at 144 minutes and could have done with some trimming in places, but then again the idea of it being a triple album is probably worth a couple of filler tracks here and there. This goes back to the argument of would The Beatles White Album be as good if it was a single album? Just put “Sandinista” on at a party and you won’t notice the lesser moments. For me Sandinista is one of the coolest albums of all time simply because it has everything.  Stylistically the range of genres on here is immense, while the production on the album is first class for its time with the arrangements, sampling, and sound given careful attention to detail by the band. As an album it was definitely ahead of its time especially considering the bands punk background, and could arguably be seen as the first “world music” album to be released by a western act. A radical departure from the bands earlier work and a continuation on from what the band did on “London Calling”, this album is a major artistic statement from a band at the peak of their career, and proved exactly why The Clash was one of the biggest bands in the world at that time. “Sandinista” is well worth a listen that is even if you don’t have 144 minutes to spear.

 

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- Sam