Dance / Music / Sex / Romance

Here we are again, my first podcast in more than a year, and I couldn't have asked for better guests than Harold Pride and De Angela Duff to discuss Prince's fourth and quite possibly most underrated album, 1981’s Controversy.

Last October, I had every intention to mark the 40th anniversary of Controversy with another installment of our in-depth album retrospective podcast series, but life (i.e., my increasingly-predictable end-of-year burnout) intervened. Now, having finally gotten my shit together, I'm putting the finishing touches on the episode, and it will be dropping next Friday!

For this month's episode, it was my pleasure to speak to music writer Jack Riedy (Pitchfork, GQ, VIBE) about his new book Electric Word Life: Writing on Prince 2016-2021. It was a really fun conversation, running through each of the pieces collected in his book and covering everything from Prince’s influence on Chicago house to the degree to which the Batman album goes (spoiler: it’s hard). Check it out, and if you're so inclined, get yourself a copy of Jack’s book! It's a great read and highly recommended.

This month, it was my pleasure to speak to music writer Jack Riedy (Pitchfork, GQ, VIBE) about his new book Electric Word Life: Writing on Prince 2016-2021. It was a fun conversation, running through each of the pieces collected in his book and covering everything from Prince’s influence on Chicago house to the degree to which the Batman album goes (spoiler: it’s hard). The full episode will be out in a week–unless, of course, you’re a patron, in which case you’ll be able to hear it later today. In the meantime, you can check out this trailer–and consider buying Jack’s book, which is available now!

July 2021 marks the 40th anniversary of the self-titled debut album by the Time; so, I decided to commemorate the occasion by bringing back Darling Nisi and Harold Pride for one of our trademark track-by-track deep dives. As always, the conversation left me thinking about the album in new ways: from KaNisa's interpretation of it as Prince's tribute to the funk music of his youth, to Harold's insight on its significance to the development of electronic dance music. I remain grateful to be able to talk about music with these two brilliant people.

Friday, July 16 marks the 40th anniversary of the self-titled debut album by the Time; so, I decided to commemorate the occasion by bringing back Darling Nisi and Harold Pride for one of our trademark track-by-track deep dives. The episode will be available next week; in the meantime, here's a short preview.

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. 00:01:38 “Do It All Night” (Live in Paris, 1981) 00:02:58 Harold’s Presentation at De Angela’s Lovesexy 30 Symposium, 2018 00:03:55 KaNisa’s Muse 2 the Pharaoh Podcast 00:05:20 “Dirty Mind” (Live in Paris, 1981) 00:07:00 The DM40GB30 Symposium Dirty Mind Rountable, featuring Cynthia Horner 00:11:43 “You” by the Rebels (1979 Recording) 00:19:57 Let’s Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute to Prince 00:22:44 “Gotta Stop (Messin’ About)” (Live at the Ritz, 1981) 00:26:15 “Dirty Mind” (from Dirty Mind, 1980) 00:33:00 “Contort Yourself (August Darnell Remix)” by James White and the Blacks (from Off White, 1979) 00:35:35 “Dirty Mind” (Live at Paisley Park, 2016) 00:37:38 “LITTLE RED CORVETTE/DIRTY MIND” (available on TIDAL) 00:40:44 “When You Were Mine” (from Dirty Mind) 00:45:01 “When U Were Mine” (from One Nite Alone… Live!, 2002) 00:49:33 “When You Were Mine” (Live at the Worcester Centrum, 1985) 00:53:55 Dirty Mind Aesthetic Influence #1: Tim Curry © 20th Century Fox 00:53:58 Dirty Mind Aesthetic Influence #2: Freddie Mercury Photo stolen from Twitter 00:55:19 “Do It All Night” (from Dirty Mind) 00:59:53 “Do It All Night” (Live at the Ritz, 1981) 01:03:37 “Gotta Broken Heart Again” (from Dirty Mind) 01:08:11 “Gotta Broken Heart Again” (from Live at the Aladdin Las Vegas, 2003) 01:10:06 “Gotta Broken Heart Again” (Live at the Ritz, 1981) 01:15:34 “Uptown” (from Dirty Mind) 01:23:36 “Funkytown” by Lipps, Inc. (from Mouth to Mouth, 1979) 01:29:06 “Uptown” (Live in Paris, 1981) 01:30:48 Prince’s Racially Ambiguous Presentation on the Dirty Mind Album Cover Photo by Allen Beaulieu, © Warner Bros. 01:31:51 Prince’s Obscured Face on the Back Cover of Dirty Mind Photo by Allen Beaulieu, © Warner Bros. 01:33:48 Prince’s “Kardashian” Look on the Prince Album Cover Photo by Jurgen Reisch, © Warner Bros. 01:34:02 Prince’s Darker Complexion on the Controversy Album Cover Photo by Allen Beaulieu, © Warner Bros. 01:35:58 “Head” (from Dirty Mind) 01:37:10 Dirty Mind’s Infamous “Please Audition Prior to Airing” Sticker Photo by Allen Beaulieu, © Warner Bros. 01:44:03 “Super Freak” by Rick James (from Street Songs, 1981) 01:44:18 “Head” (Live in Atlanta, 1988) 01:49:23 “Head” (Live at the Ritz, 1981) 01:53:02 “Sister” (from Dirty Mind) 01:55:37 “Sister” (Live in Dortmund, 1988) 01:57:18 Michael Dean’s Interview with Tyka Nelson 01:58:56 Zach Talks “Sister” on the Press Rewind Podcast 02:00:27 “Sister” (1980 Demo Recording) 02:04:23 “Partyup” (from Dirty Mind) 02:11:08 “Partyup” (Live in Paris, 1981) 02:21:23 “Head” by Ice-T featuring Brother Marquis (from Party O’ the Times: A Tribute to Prince, 1999)

Well, folks, after a six-month delay (and what felt like six years of editing), the next episode of the D / M / S / R podcast is finally finished. It will be available to the public in a week; in the meantime, here’s a short preview. To subscribe to the podcast, use the links above or just search “dance music sex romance” on your provider of choice… we are almost definitely already on there, and if we aren’t, just let me know and I will do my best to remedy that!

October 19, 2018 marks the 39th anniversary of Prince's self-titled second album--not the most glamorous occasion, perhaps, but reason enough to reassemble the review panel from our For You podcast for a reappraisal. Once again, Zach is joined by Harold and KaNisa for a track-by-track discussion of this underappreciated album, its resonances throughout Prince's career, and why it still matters. Show notes: https://princesongs.org/2018/10/19/podcast-prince-1979-revisited/

We're back with guest Takuya Futaesaku, author of the book Words of Prince. Takki and I talk about his book and his experiences as a Prince fan in Japan; it was a pleasure to speak with him, so hopefully it will be a pleasure to listen, too! Show notes: https://princesongs.org/2018/07/20/a-conversation-with-takuya-futaesaku-author-of-words-of-prince/