The 500 - #163 - 1999 - Prince

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by New York-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #163
Album Title: 1999

Artist: Prince

Genre: Dance Pop, Art Pop, Minneapolis Sound, R&B, Funk

Recorded: Kiowa Trail (Prince's Home Studio), Chanhassan, Minnesota; and Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California

Released: October, 1982

My age at release: 17
How familiar was I with it before this week: Fairly

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #130, elevating 33 spots
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: 1999

"You know that feeling you get on a roller coaster, when you are slowly climbing to the top...and it seems to take forever? That's turning 30. You'd better look around...because the rest of the ride is damn quick."

Those astute words by my pal, Paul Dawson, were uttered at the time we were entering our thirties. Paul has always been a clever wordsmith and I laughed off his amusing hyperbole. However, as I prepare to turn 60 this summer, I'll admit that the last 30 years came and went with alarming speed.

Paul Dawson, at his 30th birthday party.

The first time I heard the debut single 1999 from Prince's album of the same name, was in late autumn, 1982. I was a passenger in the car of another pal, Rob Cummings, when it came on the radio. Oddly, I can even remember the road we were on. The music wasn't my cup of tea at the time, but the lyrics sure got me doing some mental math:  "How old will I be in 1999...and what will I be doing? Will I be married? Have kids? What job will pay my bills?"

The idea of being 34 seemed like the stuff of science-fiction to my 17-year-old brain. Besides, as Paul later put it, I was still slowly climbing the first hill on the roller coaster. Now, with that birthday a full 26 years behind me, it feels like contemporary history. Such is our strange perception of time, a topic I tackled in my January, 2025 blog post about The Definitive Collection, from ABBA.

However, the wonderful thing about revisiting music from my youth, especially after a long hiatus, is that it can rekindle some of those vibrant, emotional feelings. There is something about the sound of 1999 that evokes such powerful nostalgia for me. It is likely the distinctively ‘80s "synth and electronic drum" sound that permeates so many of the tracks. That sound reminds me of how much I loved being 17. It was a time of great freedom and discovery. I had money, limited responsibility and incredible health. I didn't know how lucky I was. The curmudgeonly man on the porch in It's A Wonderful Life was right when he lamented to George Bailey and Mary Hatch. "Youth is wasted on the wrong people".

My friendships were also fantastic, including the time I spent with Rob and Paul. I am still in contact with Paul...we've actually been texting about the NFL draft as I write this piece. However, Rob and I drifted apart after high school. After listening to this record, I decided to try to find him through social media. He worked in construction, as a bricklayer, in the early ‘90s, and I found a website for Rob Cummings Contracting Company. I sent a message...we'll see what comes of that.

The album 1999 was the fifth studio production from the multi-talented and influential musician/songwriter Prince. On the strength of three hit singles, it propelled the flamboyant, androgynous entertainer to stardom. Consequently, it is not surprising that 1999 was the first song of his I heard.  In fact, for many years, I assumed this was his debut record and that he was an overnight sensation.

Prince, in his video for Little Red Corvette, the second single from 1999.

Released as a double record on vinyl in 1982, 1999 set the stage for Prince's meteoric rise to superstardom. Two years later, The High Priest of Pop released the landmark record Purple Rain, which also served as the soundtrack to his 1984 film of the same name, at which point he  became one of the biggest artists in the world – rivalled only by The King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Purple Rain appears at #76 on The 500 list. That is 87 weeks away...but on this roller coaster ride that will be here, in the words of Paul Dawson, "damn quick".

The 500 - #206 - Dirty Mind - Prince

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #206
Album Title: Dirty Mind
Artist: Prince

Genre: Funk, Post Disco, Pop, Rock, R&B
Recorded: Prince's Basement Studio near Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.

Released: October, 1980
My age at release: 15
How familiar was I with it before this week: One song

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #326, dropping 120 spots
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: When You Were Mine

Every so often while perusing social media I will see a post bemoaning the state of modern music. These digital missives, typically generated by people of my vintage (Generation X) will state boldly that "there is no good music these days".

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An example of a social media meme bemoaning the state of popular
music today.

Worse still, they will critique a current pop star as banal or formulaic by making a comparison to a legendary performer from their youth. Current chart toppers, including Post Malone, Billie Eilish, Drake, and The Weeknd, seem to be the target of much of this animus. However, it is mega-star Taylor Swift who seems to bear the brunt of the vitriol, often from people who can't name three of her songs or recognize her talent, let alone her well documented history of generosity, philanthropy and kindness

A common complaint is that she only writes songs about her break-ups. Given that she has been in the public eye for more than 15 years and many of her former beaus are celebrities, their stories easily become the stuff of tabloid fodder. And sure, she has written some songs about heartache and loss, but aren’t writers always told to write about what they know?

The same angry 50-somethings who lambaste Swift simultaneously glorify bands from their generation who committed the same "offence". To name a few, nearly every track on Led Zeppelin's debut record (#29 on The 500) is about losing love -- Good Times, Bad Times, Babe I'm Going to Leave You, You Shook Me, Dazed and Confused, Communication Breakdown, and I Can't Quit You Baby.

Perhaps more of these memes should be posted by Gen X 
social media users.

In my role as a middle school teacher, my students tipped me to Swift's talent many years ago. In 2011, a Grade 8 girl named Lexi played the song Mean for our class as part of her presentation on metaphoric language and I was duly impressed -- by both the presentation and the song. The central tenet of Mean encourages proudly and bravely navigating a world rife with critics and bullies. Since 2010, I have used it annually as part of my Health unit and our school's anti-bullying campaign. It's terrifically catchy and continues to be a hit with adolescents with each passing year. It also uses similes, metaphors and idioms that are perfect for young minds to process and understand.

In a round-about way, the comparisons bring me to Dirty Mind, the third studio release from Minnesota-born superstar Prince. Hitting shelves in 1980, the album features a fusion of genres, including new wave, rock, disco, funk and R&B. It also contains sexually explicit lyrical themes, highlighting Prince's fascination with open relationships, lust, romance and gender-bending androgyny. Fans of Prince will easily recognize how this record laid the groundwork for the music on his follow-up releases throughout the 1980s, notably three that are on The 500 list -- 1999 (at #163), Purple Rain (#76), and Sign O' The Times (#93).

Prince in 1980.

Over the years, I became a Prince fan. However, in my youth, much like the Gen Xers who angrily rage-post about Taylor Swift, I made judgments about him without truly appreciating his talent and genius. I did not hear the Dirty Mind record in 1980 and, until discovering it on The 500 list, had never listened to it. I was surprised to recognize When You Were Mine, which I knew as a Cyndi Lauper song, appearing on her 1983 album She's So Unusual (#487).

Certainly, I would not have liked this Prince record when it was released four decades ago. In my youngish years, I was stuck in my ways. Since then, my understanding of life's rich tapestry and appreciation of music in its many varied forms has grown exponentially. Looking back, I suspect there was a little homophobia wrapped into my disdain for an artist like Prince. His comfort with his sexuality and his freedom to embrace his feminine side was not something 15-year-old me was ready to accept. Ironically, Prince  became a legendary lady-killer who dated beautiful celebrities, many of whom my friends and I held a torch for – Kim Basinger, Madonna, Sheila E., Carmen Electra, Vanity and Sherilyn Fenn.

Prince with some of his romantic partners in the 80s.

Much like Taylor Swift, these liaisons became material for his lyrics and music. However, unlike Swift, he is not criticized for his reputation as a Lothario nor his penchant for lyrical inspiration following these romantic trysts. I suspect that is a commentary on  society's penchant for misogyny. The truism remains that a man who has many partners is considered virile and called a stud. By contrast, a woman who plays the field is regarded as "fallen" and worse – saddled with horrible labels including whore, slut, harlot and tramp. It is among the many double-standards women, including Swift, must learn to navigate.

Forty-three years after its release, I listened to Dirty Mind with a more mature perspective on the world. The sound is a bit dated and the sexual themes excessive. However, that is a product of my age as this isn't a record written for a man nearing 60. Prince was writing pop music and it was meant for young people at a given time. So, too, is the music of Taylor Swift in the 2010s. Angry Gen Xers fail to understand they don't have to like it. Her music isn't being written for them. So get over it, stop posting angry memes and put on another Zeppelin record.