Prince. Rest in Peace. A Prince song was always there when I had the very best moments of my life. This blog article is a love song to How Prince loved - it is set to 118 beats per minute, imagine this blog performed as a dance on a hot fully packed night club floor on any Saturday night.
I don’t want to die /
I want to dance my life away /
..to dance my life away. Today I don’t want to talk about death, I don’t want to talk about loss. I want to talk about love. Prince loved life. Prince loved people. Prince loved happiness and laughter. Prince was shy but on stage he came alive. Prince loved music (of every kind, consider how different a song Manic Monday the pop song by The Bangles is from Stand Back the rock anthem by Stevie Nicks formerly of Fleetwood Mac - both songs written by Prince). Prince loved women. Prince loved dancing (essentially all his great loves were great dancers). And Prince clearly loved to be in love, he would go through women in rather quick succession. But what is obvious is the love, including the love of love.
For Prince love was inseparable from music and never far from the dance floor. He wrote beautiful love ballads like the The Most Beautiful Girl (which he wrote for Mayte Garcia his first wife who also was a dancer and backup singer on his band) or tear-out-your-ears awefully heartbreaking crushing suicidally horrible love songs of loss, like Nothing Compares to You (I hate that song so much with a passion, only a suicidal Finn living in Lapland could possibly identify with that song, and even then only on the last of the sunless nights of the arctic North; yet its one of the bestselling songs in the world and obviously Sinead O’Connor’s biggest hit - by a mile). Yes, Prince was a master song writer of true iconic hits of any genre.
But HIS genre was dance music. MOST of his love songs - to his women he most loved - they were DANCE songs. Not ballads, slow songs, his love songs were uptempo ‘fast songs’ for the dance floor. They were songs of raw energy and raw emotion, often of erotic, hungry, passionate love. That is what Prince was. And while so many of his hit DANCE tunes indeed epic dance anthems were like that, they would be lost in the shuffle, behind the biggest iconic Prince classics like When Doves Cry and Purple Rain and Little Red Corvette etc. If most fans of Prince’s music were asked to list 10 best Prince songs, they would be almost certain not to include something like Erotic City or Dirty Mind. Yet these are in every DJ’s collection as tunes that will always work, any audience.
And here we have the particular purple lining to Prince’s legacy, as fans of music. He wrote some of his most sold biggest monster-hit songs - when he himself was in love (how surprising is that) as songs he GAVE to his loves of his life. THEY - the women- then went on to record those songs, which almost invariably became also the biggest hits of that woman’s career. And for most of us, we have no idea we are enjoying a Prince invention, when we listen to those songs and like them. Its like a magical purple echo bouncing off other great (usually female) singers. So I wanted to write this blog, with my heavy heart mourning his death, by celebrating how he loved. Not who he loved (there were others too) or celebrating Prince himself although that invariably comes through. This blog article is a love letter to HOW he loved. Because Prince was first and foremost a dancer - the Fred Astaire of our generation, a mile stronger than say Michael Jackson or James Brown or Justin Bieberlake. Yes, he mastered 27 musical instruments and was arguably the best living guitarist etc, but first and foremost he was a DANCER. Prince didn’t sing, "I don’t want to die, I want to sing my life away." He didn’t sing, "I don’t want to die, I want to play guitar my life away." It was "to dance my life away." He was a dancer first. Its obvious from every song, from every video, and gosh, from every stage performance he ever did. But more than that, it was his loves, his women, THEY were all dancers. An it was how Prince was with them. It was how Prince loved. Dance. And songs of dance. Songs to dance to. Love songs to dance to. This is a love letter to HOW he loved. A very uniquely purple way to love. This is such a quintessentially Princely way to live, how he loved. So consider this blog as a dance. First positions please. Maestro, can we have some music...
PATRICE RUSHEN
So lets start with his early crush. Prince was smitten by the pianist R&B star and songwriter Patrice Rushen. That name probably means nothing to you if you weren’t deeply into 1970s and 1980s ‘black’ music but please just trust me, she was and still is a highly rated musician who played with tons of big names and had R&B hits. The one cross-over Top 40 hit of hers was called ‘Forget Me Nots’ which wasn’t in any way a massive hit that everybody would recognize - as sung by Patrice. That song then became Will Smith’s global monster hit Men In Black (and the movie theme song). THAT song was written by Patrice Rushen yes. Same song also became George Michael’s comeback’s biggest global smash, Fast Love. THAT song yes, written by Patrice Rushen. Ok, a VERY legitimate 1970s star of the R&B music scene and obviously a woman who wrote amazing dance music - like straight aimed at Prince’s heart. But Prince was 4 years younger than Patrice, and at that age around age with him age 20 and her age 24 if the woman is so much older, yeah, it often is that she may look at the young whippersnapper as not mature enough for her, and even as Prince tried very hard to make the passes at her, she rejected him. Prince wrote one of his early hits, I Want To Be Your Lover as a love song to Patrice Rushen and says so in the liner notes of the album. It was written for her. That's where our journey starts. But lets continue with Patrice as this then takes a bizarre wonderfully purple turn.
Prince was brilliant in imagining how another musician might play a song, and tailored music to the others. So his first attempt at this was a song he wrote for and offered to Patrice Rushen (she turned it down, with hindsight, its no doubt like that record producer who turned down the Beatles because guitar music was not going to last or that movie producer who turned down George Lucas on that silly space cowboy movie idea Star Wars). Prince wrote the song, put it on his album and sang it himself. Later a great woman singer who was not Prince’s girlfriend decided to do a cover version of THAT song, recognizing how much its a clear hit - for a female singer - waiting to be released. That woman was Chaka Khan and her biggest hit is the remake of Prince’s song written for Patrice Rushen to record. The song is I Feel For You. This song:
Chaka Khan music video of I Feel For You (written by Prince)
Baby, baby when I lay with you /
There's no place I'd rather be /
Can't believe, can't believe it's true /
The things that you do to me /
I Feel For You is not just the the biggest hit of Chaka Khan’s long musical career, it was a chart-topper on the R&B and dance music charts of the year, a worldwide hit and reached number 3 on the Billboard main Top 100 chart. It won a Grammy award as the best R&B song of the year and has been done by several artists since then. It is Chaka Khan’s signature song. (It was kicked off the number 1 position on the dance & R&B charts by Prince’s own monster hit 1999). Its music video was highly popular. And the lasting life of that song attests to it, any club any disco can play it today and it will fill the floor. Everybody who dances knows this song. Its an icon of its era. Prince wrote it for Patrice Rushen to record (and she turned it down..). Prince then recorded it himself onto his album but knew its a woman’s song, so Prince never released the single himself. A monster world-wide dance anthem sitting essentially as ‘filler’ on an early Prince album. This is how Prince loved. He wrote love songs to his loves. I didn't say about his loves or for his loves. Prince wrote loves songs to his loves (for them to record). So now we, as his audience, can still enjoy and share in the loves of Prince and his amazing creativity. .
VANITY
Then his first and perhaps biggest love. Vanity. Denise Matthews a singer, songwriter, actress, model and yes of course, dancer, was the first big love in Prince’s life. He convinced her to go by the name of Vanity. Her biggest absolute monster dance anthem was Nasty Girl. On any day, If I was to pick only one song as the best dance song ever, I could pick Nasty Girl. It topped the dance and R&B charts of course and has been done by other artists many times since. It was Vanity’s signature song. I saw a recent video of Beyonce doing Nasty Girl in her stage show. Its one of the most iconic songs in dance and disco music history. It also had a music video so steamy, hot, sexy, erotic, suggestive - for its time in early 1980s - that EVERYBODY banned it. It wasn’t played on MTV. And she was a monster hit inspite of that fact just as it was emerging the new truth that you had to have a hit music video in MTV heavy rotation else you could not have a hit song. She’s one of the last to do it without a video to help - not because she didn’t have a video but because the TV stations refused to play it for being too raunchy. Now, for us in the 21st century this is lame and mild and borderline corny with not a hint of anything to worry anybody. But here is Vanity 6 doing Nasty Girl:
Vanity 6 music video to Nasty Girl (written by Prince)
That's right, it's been a long time /
Since I had a man that did it real good /
If you ain't scared, take it out /
I'll do it like a real live nasty girl should /
This is Prince in love. Its an erotic love song and dance song, for the woman. Prince could not sing that song himself (he’s written hundreds of erotic songs from a man’s point of view). Its a woman’s song, to her man. Prince loved Vanity so much, he not just gave her the song, he said she should claim to have written it herself (to help her with her musician career). But Prince was not done. He dated Vanity for several years and Prince wrote tons of music - and a big role in his first movie script - Purple Rain - for Vanity. He produced her first album and built a girl band for her (Vanity 6, which obviously only had 3 girls, typical Prince goofiness and unlimited sense of humor). I could write a book about their love affair and its end. Vanity left Prince and went onto a solo career which fizzled but she acted in some movies, eventually did a Playboy shoot, and had several modest hits in her musical career. She later abandoned the stage name of Vanity. But going back to their time together, back then they were working on Vanity’s second album and Prince wanted another monster hit for her on that album. So Prince wrote Sex Shooter.
APOLLONIA
Sex Shooter, gosh, that is another absolute total tear-the-house-down monster anthem on dance floors, which will pack the floor every time still now, 30 years later. If I was asked to pick the best dance song of all time, on any given day, I would be so torn, but I could easily pick... Sex Shooter. Its that massive. It is EXACTLY as good as the incomparably good Nasty Girl. But it was not released by Vanity, it was released by Prince’s next protege and at least briefly a love interest, Patricia Apollonia Kotero. Prince shortened her name to Apollonia and replaced Vanity in the band which now became Apollonia 6. Here is the video to Apollonia 6 doing Sex Shooter.
Apollonia 6 video of Sex Shooter (written by Prince)
Sex Shooter is the biggest hit of Apollonia’s modest music career and her signature song. It only reached number 7 on the Billboard dance chart and also number 7 on the R&B chart. It only briefly visited the bottom of the main Top 100 chart. Sex Shooter was one of the many songs to be on Prince’s movie Purple Rain and had obviously also a music video to it. The song has far outlasted its modest commercial success since, and has had several cover versions done by many artists since. Now while we are on the subject, Sex Shooter is a MAN’s erotic song, but sung by a woman.
I’m a sex shooter /
Shootin’ love in your direction /
I’m a sex shooter /
Come on, play with my affection /
Come on, kiss the gun /
Yes its kinky isn’t it? Thats Prince and his erotic imagination, easily placing his mind inside that of a woman or using a song to help the woman get into his mind. His way of loving gives us all this legacy of magnificent dance music that also helped society see more of the hang-ups it had with sex. While Apollonia had the love interest role also in the movie, she wasn’t actually in any real way Prince’s longer-lasting flames and this song was indeed not written for her, it was written for Vanity when Prince still deeply loved her. And as luck would have it, the internet is a wonderful thing and I was able to find a demo recording of the original Vanity version of the song. (I personally hate the production version in this, the musical production on the Apollonia version is far better - BUT in terms of the singing voice, gosh this Vanity version is even better than Apollonia’s classic). Enjoy:
Vanity 6 original demo recording of Sex Shooter (written by Prince)
Now, sadly Denise Matthews aka Vanity died a few weeks before Prince did. What a sad coincidence. They were both 57 years of age. But they were the first real love for both, they both loved music and dance and in heaven they are now united once again. And in Vanity’s death we discovered another part of Prince’s way of writing love songs to his women. When Prince heard Vanity had died, in his next concert he dedicated a song to her. No he didn’t play Nasty Girl or Sex Shooter. We didn’t know there is a third MASSIVE Prince tune that he clearly wrote for her, and the one Prince obviously most associated with Vanity - and now when we consider the three songs as a love song trilogy, it tells us so much about what attracted Prince to Denise Matthews. The song is one of Prince’s first massive hits, Dirty Mind from 1980. And I am certain most who like Prince’s music over the years will not remember Dirty Mind because it was so far into his early career. It was well before Purple Rain, two whole years before even 1999. Let me first show you the video to Dirty Mind then lets talk about this song and its meaning to me.
Prince video of Dirty Mind
Dirty Mind was not a monster hit even in R&B and dance charts, it peaked at number 5 and didn’t enter the main Billboard 100. For me as a dancing DJ young 20 year old nightcrawler clubhopper, I already liked that young American artist known as Prince. I had liked his previous hit Uptown, but up to this song, Prince to me was just one of many great funk dance music artits like say Rick James or One Way or Hot Chocolate. Then I heard Dirty Mind and I knew Prince was a genius and this was literally the first of so many Prince hits that to me were literally the ‘best song ever’ for many weeks in a row, while rushing to the dance floor. This song, Dirty Mind, convinced me to become a life-long Prince fan. His previous dance tracks were good. This was brilliant. Maybe it was the dancer in me, or the DJ in me, why I saw it from this song but go back and ask my friends who knew me in 1981 to name the best dance music artists, I would from that point on, whatever two or three I’d name Prince was one, often the first. It was due to Dirty Mind. How amazing now to find out, one of my all time fave Prince tunes sung by him himself, was a love song written for Vanity, a woman singer I also loved..
In my daddy's car /
It's you I really want to drive /
Underneath the stars /
I really get a dirty mind /
Whenever you're around /
The song arrived in Finland very late in 1980 or early 1981, that was how music spread back then before the internet or even digital music on CDs. I heard it at the night clubs/discos first. And those few who might read this blog who knew me in 1980 or 1981 will also identify with this next part. Like Prince with his Vanity, so too me and that one same girl in my life those years 1980 and 1981 - we both loved this song. She too, my ‘Vanity’ was an amazing dancer and gosh, now as I think back, she looked a lot like Vanity too haha. Meanwhile, lets say enough time has passed that I am not spilling any sensitive secrets, lets say Dirty Mind connected for her and me in many subtle ways too. I bet Prince thought back many times to those early days with Vanity that perhaps he should have married her. Like how someone else as he slowly matured, thought back to that one girl of the early 1980s. What I didn’t ever know until now and now am so happy to know, is that it too was a love song. Yes, exactly that raw, youthful passionate erotic love bubbling over.. It forms the perfect third piece of a trilogy. Nasty Girl is the Sex Shooter with the Dirty Mind. Dirty Mind, a love song about Vanity by Prince. How fiftting. They are singing it together now in Heaven’s biggest stage.
SUSANNA HOFF
But while Apollonia was not a big love of Prince, he did clearly find her attractive and appealing at least initially. So yes, he wrote a love song for her too. Not as deep, hard-hitting erotic - and not even particularly danceable. A pop tune. Once that now with hindsight clearly conveys also the level of their intimacy. They were not much deeper than close friends, there was no Nasty Girl Sex Shooter Dirty Mind games in this relationship, which rather consisted of.. Manic Mondays.
The Bangles video of Manic Monday (written by Prince)
He tells me in his bedroom voice /
"C'mon honey, let's go make some noise" /
Manic Monday was the first big hit for the upcoming girl band The Bangles, who would go onto even bigger fame but it hit number 2 on the main US Billboard chart and number 2 also in the UK (Manic Monday was blocked from taking the number 1 position by... Prince’s own massive hit Kiss). I don’t want to dwell on this song as its not core Prince style love song of erotic dance passion, its a goofy light pop song. BUT it was intended for Apollonia, to be a duet together with Prince onto her second album but Prince decided that her voice didn’t work for the song (or perhaps, just perhaps Prince had grown tired of Apollonia by now). But also we need to note.. Prince dated Susanna Hoffs the singer-guitarist of The Bangles (that's why they were given the song). And obviously, she’s not the greatests dancer.. that was not meant to be. Because Prince did have his eyes on someone who really was a magnificent dancer and musician.
But let me still stay a moment on Apollonia Kotero. Prince’s Raspberry Beret (that some count as his best song, eternally in my Top 5 best Prince tunes) might also be a hidden love song but about Apollonia, not too bright but she knew how to get her kicks, went riding on the back of his bike, and that raspberry beret from a second-hand-store. This is not Vanity by any stretch and its definitely not Patrice Rushen. Also the video's animation parts feature a woman who is very much like Apollonia. I think the song is about Apollonia and there is some gossip suggesting that too but I haven't seen anything solid. Walking in through the out-door, out-door. I remember the first time I heard the song I thought of one of my early flames who was like that, a total ditzy airhead but sexy hot as anything you could imagine. I think Raspberry Beret is also a love song written to or about an actual Prince love interest when he was still in love or infatuated with her, written about Apollonia.
Prince video Raspberry Beret
That's when I saw her, Ooh, I saw her /
She walked in through the out door, out door /
She wore a raspberry beret /
The kind you find in a second hand store /
SHEILA E
Then came the long relationship for Prince, Sheila Escovedo remarkably talented drummer going by the name of Sheila E and also singer-songwriter-dancer. Virtuoso drummer. And a great great great dancer. A year older than Prince, Prince was her fan from long before they met. And they had a tumultous in-and-out affair that lasted many years and had them engaged at one point. She often toured with him on his band or as a guest.
With Sheila E, Prince had a genuine writing partner by someone who was already an established songwriter before Prince. So Prince didn’t have to give his writing credits to her for helping her build a reputation. It also produced songs that were not as tightly ‘hit songs’ how Prince created them, very tightly packed and with a clear end. Instead, they were invariably songs for the drummer, so she could improvize and jam on the song, with versions that were long, too long, even longer and painstakingly long please stop already boring jazz odysseys - at the end. Because Sheila E wanted to do her drumming (Prince himself is also a virtuoso drummer but hey, Prince had mastered 27 musical instruments so of course he was) They would often take turns on the drums on stage. The first of Prince’s songs for and with Sheila E was The Glamorous Life
Sheila E video of The Glamorous Life (written by Sheila E and Prince)
Boys with small talk and small minds /
Really don't impress me in bed /
She said, I need a man's man, baby, diamonds and furs /
Love would only conquer my head /
She wants to lead a glamorous life /
She don't need a man's touch /
She wants to lead a glamorous life /
Without love, it ain't much /
The Glamorous Life is Sheila E’s long career’s biggest hit and her signature song. topped the Billboard dance charts and reached number 7 on the Billboard main Top 100 chart. It was nominated for a Grammy. Now for me personally, I liked the song but its not one of my all time favorites, not even close. I think she’s hot. I like her drumming and dancing but this song, it doesn’t get deep into my soul. Its not one I’d spin if I was DJ’ing and needed to set the dance floor on fire. Its not one I’d play if I was in a bad mood and wanted to hear something great. Its a nice dance song yes, nothing more to me. One of thousands of other ‘generic’ dance songs. The song has huge following however, and talks to many people; just not me. Too jazzy, to pop not anywhere near enough funky. But she is gosh sexy and on-stage live performances of this always blow the roof off the place.
ADDENDUM 22 Sept 2016 - Note this item added. The internet is yes a wonderful thing. Gosh, there is an early demo Prince recording of the Glamorous Life (without Sheila E) two years earlier. Gosh. Its the SAME song. But the ending is a saxophone solo by Prince rather than the drum solo in the recording by Sheila E. Wow this is weird to hear, especially knowing that Prince is now dead. Enjoy. Prince demo of The Glamorous Life.
But Prince loved Sheila E for a long time and they wrote together and for the 1985 movie Krush Groove, where Sheila E made her movie debut (Prince is not in the movie) she needed a hit song to play. Here we get Prince doing a typical Prince love song, a love duet, the way he always wanted to do it. With a collaborating partner. We get A Love Bizarre.
Sheila E video of A Love Bizarre (written by Sheila E and Prince)
The moon up above, it shines down upon our skin /
Whispering words that scream of outrageous sin /
We all want the stuff that's found in our wildest dreams /
It gets kinda rough in the back of our limousine /
First a joke here. I always like to think of the song as A Love Bazaar and the lyric in the song where they make love on a bed of flowers. I always heard that lyric to say ‘make love on a pedestal’ Pedestal like you might put a statue on a pedestal, not hearing ‘bed of flowers’ until at some point in the internet era, I finally saw the lyrics and laughed myself silly. Making love on a bed of flowers makes total sense where making love on a pedestal was too weird even for Prince’s wicked wacky sense of humor (it was after all, a song about bizarre love where the back of the limousine was not too rough).
A Love Bizarre is Sheila E’s concert song where she jams and dances and sings but does not drum. Its a love duet - uptempo obviously - and she usually will flirt with someone from the band or the audience during this song - or of course its a mad erotic dance extravaganza whenever they do it as a pair with Prince.
A Love Bizarre reached number 1 on the Dance chart and number 11 on the main Billboard Top 100 chart. It is - honestly - if I had to pick one all-time greatest dance song ever made - gosh, on any good day, A Love Bizarre would be it. Its as perfect as Nasty Girl. Its as perfect as Sex Shooter. Its gosh, its a perfect amazing astonishing dance-floor-scorching dance anthem. (I have the videos of all of these on my phone and I think in all fairness, of the perhaps a dozen songs that I might think of as the best dance song ever, A Love Bizarre is probably tied for Jody Watley’s Looking For A New Love - as the song I most seek from my phone on any random moment - that is what I want to hear now). Incidentially on the song Prince sings credited backups but on the music video the parts that Prince sings are mouthed by a band member so most people didn’t notice that A Love Bizarre is, as originally released in 1985 - a duet between PRINCE and Sheila E.. if it was billed as a genuine duo it would have hit number 1 and if they’d done the video together, it would have been a global massive monster. But obviously, Sheila E wanted to have it on her terms, Prince didn’t want to steal her thunder as we saw so many times before, he often didn’t even credit his own writing under his own name, often his writing was under some obscure name just to hide his role initially. Later it of course came out that ‘Christopher’ who wrote Manic Monday was actually Prince etc (Christopher was the name of Prince’s character in his movie Under the Cherry Moon). And back to Sheila E, she also performed A Love Bizarre coutless times with Ringo Starr when she toured with him for many years.
SHEENA EASTON
But as the love affair between Sheila E and Prince went hot and cold, Prince had eyes wandering to other hot babes and up about next came British popstar Sheena Easton (best known for singing the title song to the 007 James Bond move For Your Eyes Only). Sheena had a great voice and was also - duh - a great dancer. So they got romantically involved and Prince wrote her a song that was pure Prince erotic fantasies, Sugar Walls.
Sheena Easton video Sugar Walls (written by Prince)
Blood races to your private spots /
Let me know there's a fire /
You can't fight passion when passion is hot /
Temperatures rise inside my sugar walls /
Sugar Walls topped the US Dance charts and reached number 9 on the Billboard Top 100. It was her biggest dance hit while most of her previous career was light and slower tempo pop songs by which she had topped the main charts in the USA and Britain and around the world. For me Sugar Walls was a good dance tune, not the best of that time and not the best of her career - I preferred her previous dance song Strut. But technically again, as to her dance music part of her long prolific and successful music career, her bestselling dance song among a dozen hit dance tracks written by many writers including partly herself, this Prince tune was (of course) her pinnacle. But this was a Prince style love song. So of course Sugar Walls shocked America. Sweet little British pop princess Sheena Easton who sang mindless drivel silly pop about how her man takes the morning train - suddenly turned into the vicious sex priestess preying on the minds of young America. Her song was listed as one of the 15 most corruptive songs in popular culture in the Reagan era when Republicans in Congress wanted to bring about some puritanical values of just say no to drugs and no more pornography and rap artists should go to jail and... Sheena Easton in her song was openly inviting her lover to come spend the night inside my sugar walls. But Prince was not done with Sheena Easton. Prince wrote a song for them to sing as a duet which was You Got the Look
Prince (and Sheena Easton) video of You Got the Look
Well here we are, ladies and gentlemen /
The dream we all dream of /
Boy versus girl in the world series of love /
You Got the Look reached number 2 on the main Billboard Top 100 chart and number 11 on the R&B chart (but didn’t hit the dance chart). The song to me is perfection again in dance music. I do not say this often (but have said repeatedly in this article). And to be clear, while I love so many of Prince’s songs that he himself sang, say Raspberry Beret is one of my absolute fave songs of all time - that is not perfection in a dance tune. While it IS a GREAT dance song but 1999 is clearly better. As a dance song, Raspberry Beret is too ‘pop-musicy’ Lets Go Crazy is to rock-musicy, Mountains is too mellow, while yes they all work very well as dance tunes - they are Prince songs so of course they do - yet they don't grab you like say Get Off or Kiss. So understand what I mean. As a DJ in the booth - or me, as a dancer on the floor - what is a song that just grabs you and kicks you into another gear and sets the floor on fire. Yes, thats 1999 obviously. Or its Cream. Think now purely about the packed dance floor. The most pure dance songs at their best. What is the best Prince dance song. To me if really really really forced to pick of his own-released songs, there are three between which I can no longer decide. It started with Controversy in 1981, then its Erotic City from 1984 (not released on its own, it is on the B side of Lets Go Crazy) and then its You Got the Look.
So quick pre-rebuttal. The best song Prince ever made that works best on the dance floor to get crowds to go wild is 1999. Its a fantastic dance song that hit number 1 on the dance charts in 1982 and everybody knows it and its as perfect as a dance song can ever possibly be. But for me, its predecessor also number 1 hit dance song, Controversy is that tiniest 0.1% even better. To me, 1999 is a great follow-up single to the masterpiece Controversy where most follow-ups are duds. But while 1999 crossed over massively and is Prince’s signature tune, and it will set the dancefloor on fire, it is not perfection to my taste. And its a tiny variance, but I remember back in 1982 when 1999 was released, even back then, I preferred to hear the older Controversy while I still totally loved 1999. So don’t argue this point with me, I concede that most DJ’s too would probably rank 1999 ahead of Controversy but to me, Controversy was the slightest bit better yet, Am I black or white / Am I straight, or gay / Controversy / Was it good for you / Was I what you wanted me, to be / Controversy / Do I believe in God / Do I believe in me / Controversy. Its perfection in a dance anthem. 1999 is 99.9% of perfection but Controversy is perfection.
Then the second book-end to the ultimate period of where Prince to me, made his best dance music was You Got the Look in 1987. Yes, many more great dance anthems still followed like Alphabet Street, Partyman, Get Off, Cream and Sexy MF - and each of those five could be ranked in any DJ’s top favorites but for me, You Got the Look is the last of the perfect Prince dance anthems. Pure perfection. And between that period, a really amazing period of monster hits including Kiss. Another which most DJs and fans would list, this is his best dance tune (and argue whether Prince’s version is better or Tom Jones’s cover version with The Art of Noise which is yes just about perfect too). So this period is really the golden age of Prince, think about it (as DANCE music) Sexuality, 1999, Little Red Corvette, Delirious, Lets Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, Purple Rain, I Would Die For You, Raspberry Beret, America, Kiss, Mountains, Anotherlover, Girls & Boys, Sign of The Times. Thats a whole night at a disco right there. I can totally accept anyone arguing for any one song from that list, but for me, the third absolute untainted perfection in a dance music song, which I cannot pick which is best, to go with Controversy and You Got the Look - is not on that list. Its Erotic City released in 1984.
Erotic City was never released on its own, it is the B-side to the single Lets Go Crazy. But all DJs knew in 1984 to flip over Letsgo and play this, about the funkiest nastiest greatest dance tune ever made. If we cannot make babies / Maybe we can have some fun..
Yes you can have your own list. But for me, I love about a dozen Prince songs truly massively deeply do. But at my core I am a dancer and I love dance music and that part touches the deepest soul in my heart. It beats in my veins. And Prince knew dance music, Prince lived and breathed dance music. He oozed dance music so much he regularly spilled monster dance music hits to those around him. And of his best, his absolutely best, his very core of his music as dance music, the three I cannot decide among are Controversy, Erotic City and You Got the Look. It truly does not get any better than that. Anyone, any age, any song, any time. Public Enemy Bring the Noise. Cameo Word Up. Donna Summer Hot Stuff. David Guetta and Rihanna Whose That Chic. LL Cool J Mama Said Knock You Out. The Gap Band Burn Rubber. 50 Cent Candy Store. Mary J Blige Family Affair. What is the best dance song ever made, at that level it just peaks and it depends on your mood of the moment. But for just about any other artist, I KNOW which is the best song they made (as a dance song in particular) but not for Prince. I can’t pick between Controversy, Erotic City or You Got the Look. They are perfection - as a dance song. You will not get me off the floor when any of those would play, no matter how near total collapse I might be haha.. They are perfection.
Now lets get back to You Got the Look and Sheena Easton. So lets go to the video then. This is the love song duet between Sheena and Prince. It features the immortal line Boy versus girl, in the World Series of love. A typically passion-packed erotic loves song/duet by Prince for his current flame. So now look at the video. Who is there prominently on drums and not in any subtle ways challenging Sheena? Its Sheila E of course. They essentially fight for Prince in the video but then.. who gets him? Its the best dancer of the three, the backup dancer Cat who was a regular for years on Prince’s tours.
You Got the Look - the music video - describes a love triangle (or quadrangle) and it also mimicked very well how the women were in Prince’s life at that time. How fitting that Prince actually married - yet another backup dancer Mayte Garcia a little before this record this record was released. They were married for four years, and tried to have children. Mayte had one miscarriage and then gave birth to Prince’s son Boy Gregory who died only weeks after birth due to Pfeiffer syndrome. Later Prince married again Manuela Testolini in 2001 and they divorced seven years later. Prince had a tumultuous love life and never stayed with the same woman very long. His many other loves were quite fabulous too including Kim Basinger, Carmen Electra (no surpise that name is a Prince invention for her), Madonna (are we surprised, the best dancer-singer-woman the white race has ever created and only half a step from where best black dance divas are like Beyonce, Rihanna, Jody Watley or Whitney Houston. Madonna sounded so ‘black’ that early on her record label didn’t dare to release her picture fearing black radio stations would stop playing her records), and many others. But that later period also featured a more mellowing, aging Prince with more melodic love songs, no longer the heated passionate dance floor burners - as love songs. Which brings me back to the best Prince dance songs. Yes. For me Controversy is perfection. And so is You Got the Look. And so is, what was that third song?
Sheila E video of live performance of Erotic City (written by Prince)
All of my hang-ups are gone /
How I wish you felt the same /
We could fuck until the dawn /
How I wish you were my dame /
Erotic City did hit number 1 on the dance chart even as it was the ‘flip side’ of the popular pop/rock tune Lets Go Crazy (the Billboard dance chart is not just sales, its also based on what DJs play in the discos and clubs). Its yet another masterpiece in the maestro’s catalogue. I’d venture to guess that most who DJ’d in clubs in the 1980s will say Erotic City is also one of their faves ahead of so many more popular pop oriented but highly danceable Prince tunes. Erotic City is pure dance energy. Pure pure pure dance energy. If we cannot make babies, maybe we can have some fun. Its yes, its on any day, the best dance song ever made, and on any day, its the best song Prince made, but on another day it might be Controversy or You Got the Look. But here’s the catch. This too is a love song for one of Prince’s main loves. Which one do you think? Yeah, the hint was in the fact that Sheila E still performs this tune regularly on her tours. Its a love song for Sheila E and she sings backup on the original song as their love affair had just started. And also note the reality in that song.. Prince was getting older, he wanted children, Sheila E said no, they were still lovers, they had fun - and soon Prince picked one of the backup dancers Mayte and married her and tried twice to have a baby (and had the son who then died). But this is again a love song and so real to his life and moments. If we cannot make babies, maybe we can have some fun / Fuck so pretty you and me, Erotic City come alive. (I apologize for the ‘fuck’ but that is in the lyric. Hey its Prince and an erotic song why do you think DJ’s love that song haha). And in the years of Prince dating Sheila E and even getting engaged with her, he wrote a second trilogy to the second big love of his life. Now its a Glamorous Life in the Erotic City seeking a Love Bizarre. And as a gift to us mere mortals, Prince through his own work and that of Sheila E's music we are left with again a wonderful dance music legacy of monster hits. This ishow Prince loved.
For that life until he finally got maried twice in a row for 11 years, in his bachelor life Prince had five loves so intense he wrote love songs about and for those women. Now while Manic Monday yes is a very popular pop tune and you can dance to it yes, I’d leave it off from a dance floor purple erotic love medley. But if we take the intended song for Patrice Rushen, then the trilogy to Vanity, adding what amounted to a second trilogy to Sheila E with Erotic City, The Glamorous Life and A Love Bizarre, plus what I guess was the romance nearing end song to Apollonia with Raspberry beret, then add the two for Sheena Easton, we get a an amazing colleciton for a DJ mix, with Prince sometimes singing alone, sometimes joining with one of the women and having both women he dated and didn’t date, in this mix of Prince’s love songs at their most pure form. For a DJ the mix goes by beat count, so lets start at the slowest tempo and work it up: this is your ultimate Prince erotic love dance song playlist that were all actual love songs written to actual existing women we all know:
The Ultimate Prince Love Songs for Dance Floor DJ Playlist
Sheila E & Prince - A Love Bizarre (114 bpm)
Chaka Khan & Melle Mel - I Feel For You (118 bpm)
Prince - Raspberry Beret (120 bpm)
Vanity 6 - Nasty Girl (120 bpm)
Prince & Sheena Easton - You Got the Look (122 bpm)
Apollonia 6 - Sex Shooter (124 bpm)
Prince & Sheila E - Erotic City (126 bpm)
Sheena Easton - Sugar Walls (128 bpm)
Sheila E - The Glamorous Life (128 bpm)
Prince - Dirty Mind (130 bpm)
Above playlist by DJ Tommy T
it may be played at any dance venues without any credit needed. All you need is love
Thats a massive dance session for any DJ while obviously all old songs (so almost nobody would play that list now unless its a club only playing old disco music) It would run about 35-40 minutes and each song would blend relatively easily into the next as the biggest jump is 4 bpm, from A Love Bizarre to I Feel for You. The artists are also by coincidence nicely spread apart. (please note, I did not verify those bpm counts, they are taken from online records from misc sources so if anyone is a DJ out there, pls first just check your own bpm counts before attempting that run haha, sometimes I find a random song is massively off in its supposed bpm record, perhaps that the sample was measured from a live version or something like that).
I knew that I love Prince’s songs. I especially love his dance songs. I didn’t know how many of his very best up-tempo dance songs were actually LOVE songs in dance tempo, that Prince wrote to the many loves of that time - essentially each of those women ALSO my fave singers and performers. Without a doubt if I had to pick the best dance song ever made, it could be Vanity with Nasty Girl, it could be Apollonia with Sex Shooter, it could be Sheila E on A Love Bizarre (with Prince singing backup), it could be Prince’s Erotic City (with Sheila E singing backup), or it could be Prince’s You Got the Look (with Sheena Easton singing backup and Sheila E on the drums). Yes, it could also be Prince’s Controversy or about a handful or two of songs by other artists. But literally five of the best dance songs ever made of which any would be my number 1 fave of that moment depending on the moment - were not only written by Prince but were LOVE songs he wrote, for women who also loved to dance, so of course they were love songs for the dance floor. Two of the five were written as duets.
I love to dance. Prince songs would make my dancing more fun. Many of the best times I ever had on that place I consider heaven on earth - a dance floor - were powered by Prince and his music. So I will end this essay with one more link but this is amazing. Of the above, the most talented of Prince’s many loves both as singer, song-writer, musician and dancer - and the longest on-and-off lover for him was Sheila E. How fitting, that after I heard of Prince’s passing, and as I was doing my tributes to him on Twitter, I found a video treasure I didn’t know existed. The Love Bazaar, the hit song A Love Bizarre did feature credited Prince singing backup to the song they wrote together with Sheila E. Its official music video is one that I have seen a thousand times and is permanently on all my phones but it does not include Prince appearing on the video, and I didn’t know of any video recording of the two performing their love duet together. And yesterday I discovered this link
Video of Prince joining Sheila E to sing their love duet A Love Bizarre dancing together, in live performance
Its as if Prince, on his way to heaven, decided to make one brief detour to one long-serving fan and DJ, to give one last curtain-call, hey Tomi, just for you, one of your fave songs, now by two of your fave artists doing it as a duet - like you’ve never seen before - as a pas-de-deux erotic love dance - like you’ve never seen before - in extended 10 minute version of the 3 minute song. This was Prince saying thank you and giving us one more spectacular performance with his longest love of his life, Sheila E. If you enjoy dance, if you enjoy Prince style music, this is for you. Enjoy
I was lucky to see Prince in NYC in late 81 or early 82.
Controversy was played 3 times. 3 different tempos.
And he played 3 different instruments.
I didn't know he wrote the Chaka Khan song..
simply amazing composer.
We lost a Mozart.
The James Brown/Bowie/Prince/Hendrix/Michael Jackson/ Maurice White set in heaven should be relatively god pleasing.
Posted by: steve epstein | April 24, 2016 at 03:13 AM
To all
Haha time heals apparently all wounds. On 19 September, 1985, Congress held hearings about the corruptive nature of popular music and published its list of the 'Filthy Fifteen' most objectionable songs. It included Motley Crue, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Twisted Sister, Madonna and Cindy Lauper among the 15. I mentioned that Prince-authored Sheena Easton song Sugar Walls made it to the list (at number TWO) as did one Prince-authored Vanity song (Strap On Robbie Baby at number FOUR of 15 of the most evil songs ever) but on the top of the list of 15 most corruptive undesirable songs Congress had heard, was .. of course .. Prince with his song Darling Nicky about female sexuality and masturbation. The most evil corruptive anti-American pop music artist of 1985 was apparently Prince. So thought the Washington Wives who created the Parents Music Resource Center. And yes, there were Senate Hearings about how evil the music was, where Frank Zappa, John Denver and Dee Snider (of Twisted Sister) testified.
So yes. In 1985 Prince was seen as the very epitome of what was evil and corruptive and filthy in modern pop music. Senate hearings. Prince had written songs at number 1, 2 and 4 of that notorious list of 15 and Prince himself sang the song on the top of the list.
How time flies. Today Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken introduced a Senate resolution honoring Prince recognising his unique contributions to music and Minnesota. It was approved. So apparently you can go from most hated musician to one of those so great you get a Senate Resolution passed in your name, in about 31 years (but you might have to die for it to pass). Nice touch by Klobuchar and Franken, and am stunned the Republicans didn't filibuster it. He WAS a black man who dressed often like a woman, were they not aware of this? If they keep approving of black music artists they might find their approval rising from there below used car salesmen and calling center employees.
Cool touch: Resolution was published in Purple ink
Nice move Minnesotans.. Classy move.
Tomi Ahonen :-)
Posted by: Tomi T Ahonen | April 28, 2016 at 06:25 AM
Ice history lesson, thanks. Betty Candler
Posted by: Betty candler | October 23, 2016 at 11:57 AM