Dirty Mind is Prince Nelson Rogers third album. It begins with the title track Dirty Mind, a playful tune with a sinister electronic riff, packed with futile attempts to mute his rumbling desires. He’s a typical late teen loaning his dad’s car, and driving his girl somewhere where he can make whatever is rattling about in his post-pubescent dirty mind, cum true. If she allows. But Prince ain’t rapey, he’d rather dress in all her clothes than take her virginity. Which, one could argue is worse than rape. But it feels harmless and playful cause our little pervert is just so wee, he couldn’t hurt a flea. Although Our Sinead O’Connor claims he beat her up, well beat the bipolar out of her anyway.

I mean the quality of the tracks on Dirty Mind is unsurpassed as far as I’m concerned. The album cover has Prince pushing the boat out in terms of aesthetic, an outrageous leap up and out from his first two albums. His first album For You has a young black man on the front, his second album has him bare-chested and innocent looking and by Dirty Mind we have a circus ringleader meets trans girl first time in public. He looks cheap and dangerous, and the synth sounds he cracks out are also cheap and dangerous but on the ears they are fucking delicious. I adore this album. God, a DJ dropped it in a gay club once and I turned my skinny body inside out, think I met my friend Pony this night, he loves Prince so much he literally got a boner watching the Gold Experience Tour on VHS. The sound was muffled and the footage blurry but Pony got a boner at the mere thought of it. The Gold Experience is one of my favourite albums because it kicks off with P. Control. This Prince number works as a misogynist and feminist anthem all at once. You either interpret it as letting someone else have control over your pussy or that you have full control over your pussy. I knew this song had legs when my mate Az who liked his bottoms to exercise full control over their holes would play them P. Control as a sort of musical S&M rule book.

Prince transcends sexuality, gender and musical genre. He knew this too, Prince set out to free himself and us of the shackles that stifle pure creative flow. Only by defying category can true creativity flourish. This was his mantra. If he didn’t think like this we would have never had Kiss, the perfect pop song. Very simple, very catchy, very flirty. The man flirted in his sleep. He loved to make you squirm and shudder with just a riff or a turn of phrase. He flirted with me when he sang Raspberry Beret and acted like he was going to say and ‘she wasn’t too bright but when she kissed me, she knew how to give a kiss RIGHT’ but he didn’t, he just said she knew how to give a kiss and stopped there. This tease used to make me scream. Why didn’t he say RIGHT? It rhymes! Geezus.

In the film clip Raspberry Beret he wears a blue suit covered in clouds playing his guitar on a podium in a psychedelic dream. This is one of the most ethereal and joyous pop moments, ever. The introduction is a demented mix of finger cymbals, synth pop beats and coughing (yes Prince coughing) and then the song cleans itself up and explodes into the most orgasmic strings. The psychedelic army of kids begin to dance and clap in unison and Prince does his thing. At 13 sitting in front of MTV in my y-fronts I knew this man would change lives and underwear. I never felt so alive when I listened to Raspberry Beret. I even bought a red beret from a Charity store in Brisbane and wore it round for a while until I realised I looked like a dickhead. Anyway back to Dirty Mind.

Even through the track Sister is about incest and I never once thought about either of my sisters in that way, I still sang it loud at family gatherings to relieve the heteronormativity. Most of all Dirty Mind made me want to be a deviant on the dancefloor and dance like a monkey. I got into Parliament after listening to Dirty Mind. I wanted to listen to the music that inspired this sound…this sexy arse guitar slappin funk. How does one sound like this, I propositioned? I then heard Mothership Connection and Give Up The Funk and added the growl and squeak of a horny teenager on vocals and got Prince, not to diminish his greatness.

Love Sexy came out in 1988 and surpassed Dirty Mind for me. I couldn’t believe this album was one long 45 minute track, jam packed with more sex sounds than a whore house on pay day. This little fucker made a sexier album than Dirty Mind! He dropped in some squishiness with When 2 R In Love and I Wish U Heaven to make the 45 minutes not just about fluids and holes but I still felt wholly ravished by his sweaty little Svengali hands. For a homosexual with peak pubescent noodle brain the final song on Love Sexy, Positivity is thrilling with “Gregory Looks Just Like a Ghost And Then A Beautiful Girl The Most’ affirming my place in the world desiring boys who look like girls. And finishes with “Wets His Lips To Say” triggering a boner ala Pony gooning out to the Gold Experience.

But as I grew older Love Sexy lost it’s place as my favourite album and Dirty Mind was (eeeer) back on top. Mainly because funk is timeless compared to all the sample sounds and big production of Love Sexy confined to 1980s. Dirty Mind skids into the 80s just (October 1980) but carries with it the effortless paired back sounds of 70s disco, funk, rock and dashes of the emerging new wave. Prince is the epitome of post modern vehicle, in sound and style. The focus was always keep the orifices as wide as they can go to see what comes out. He showed us and encouraged us to mix it up and side step definition, not to be a smart ass lil punk (although he was) but to keep the possibilities of art realising all it’s possibilities. A shame for Prince would be an office worker dying at her desk with a great song in her head, never heard. He could tease the creativity out of anyone, if only she’d drank “the waters of Lake Minnetonka” and sung it down the phone to him one late night, as he ate cake mix with a spoon. Apollonia drank the waters of Lake Minnetonka in the film Purple Rain and she claims that she co-wrote Manic Monday with him. I believe her. Manic Monday has an unprince-like pop melody feel in places that suggests Apollonia added bits, which also made it perfect for the girl group The Bangles. Apollonia replaced Vanity as lead singer for Vanity 6, a band put together by Prince, and they became known as Apollonia 6. I wish they all took this girl group thing more seriously because their 2 hits were so hot, Nasty Girls and Sex Shooter. Prince wanted to call the other 6 (that never made 6 in band members) The Hookers but it was deemed not a very commercial sounding name, I would argue that’s all it had going for it. Prince’s ladies were often demeaned. I suspect Our Sinead called Prince out on this when they hung out. He had a childish approach to women redeemed somewhat with Sign of the Times, when Cat redressed the power imbalance occupying the stage with a command not even equalled by Shelia E going nuts on drums, Prince’s friend and drummer.

My theory is Prince was all about female empowerment up until the moment he fell in love with her. Bob George on his Black Album possibly his darkest song, a jealous man kills his girlfriend, some say is about Prince’s abusive dad, others say it’s about him. It’s distortion puts a patch over a violent monologue. I can worship him and also question his character. And I think Prince was probably wracked with demons. But somehow in 1980 when he pushed out Dirty Mind I have a theory he was a virgin fantasising about sex. He was dating Susan Moonie by the 1981 Dirty Mind tour, who was also in Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6 and only she can testify. One day she might. Dirty Mind the track is definitely the big talking of a virgin boy.

I was naked when I heard the news. I was coming out of a wet sauna at the gym and dropped my towel to pull my undies up and there on the TV in the locker room ‘Prince Found Dead’. I didn’t flinch. I calmly got dressed thinking, ‘if it’s true I’ll need years to deal so I won’t deal now’. I still haven’t. I have a bubble bath every 21 April, the day Prince died, and play Dirty Mind. It’s my favourite Prince album because it was the first time he dedicated an entire album to sex and so unapologetically let us into his dirty mind, something he continued to do right up until his death but not with quite the same slavish devotion as he did with Dirty Mind.