On the title track, which begans with a funky beat, he poses such questions as "I can't believe all the things people say/controversy/Am I black or white/am I straight or gay?" "Do I believe in God, or do I believe in me?" Obviously with the release of Dirty Mind, lots of critics and people were really wondering about him and had a few things to say. Well, this is Prince's take on that.

His reciting the Lord's Prayer and his provocative utopian view is also included in the title track, which is the most potent and important track on this album: "People call me rude/I wish we all were nude/I wish there was no black or white/I wish there were no rules." Given the traditional U.S. view of sex which has refused to get out of its Puritan shadow and covert racism, those lines are not to be laughed off lightly. It makes me think, "Well, sure, why not?"

The irresistible "Sexuality", a political disco number of the principles of the new breed leaders: in their regime, one needs no money, clothes, anti-segregation anti-racism, anti-tourists, given that tourists are pocket-camera-visioned idiots, "a bunch of double-drags who tell their kids that loving is bad." He furthers his argument that "no child is bad from the beginning, they only imitate their atmosphere."

"Do Me Baby" is probably one of the damn, hottest and sexiest songs he has ever written. After the singing, he goes into a monologue where he is making love to a woman while the music plays. One biographer described the song as Prince making love on hot dripping wax--wax as in what LPs are made of. And people wonder why the single version clocks in at 3:55?

"Private Joy" is a boppable song with the same organ synthesizer, hand claps, and bass.

The brief adrenalized organ synth dance of "Ronnie Talk To Russia" has a direct and simple message: "Ronnie talk to Russia before it's too late/Before they blow up my world." It has fiery guitar, machine-gun firing, and at the end, the bomb, which segues into the funky "Let's Work".

"Annie Christian", a.k.a. anti-Christ, is a rap song about the Atlanta child murders, shootings of John Lennon, Ronald Reagan, and the ABSCAM scandal. The song is not as effective as political songs done by other groups or artists. He did better on "Ronnie Talk To Russia" and his angry protest song "Partyup" on Dirty Mind. Still, the idea of embodying evil in one entity is a good one.

And need I detail what fun "Jack U Off" is about? I don't? I didn't think so.

Controversy further strengthens the political foundation established in "Partyup" and sets the stage for the next chapter, both a year later, or seventeen years later: namely, 1999.


Sadly in the shadow of what came later for Prince   November 25, 2000
Travis
9 out of 11 found this review helpful

The classic albums in Prince's catalogues, such as Purple Rain and 1999, overshadow this short but underrated album. Sure, Purple Rain and 1999 are good too, but it's time that lesser-remembered Prince albums get some attention, too. Really the only hit single from this album is the title track, Controversy, which peaked at No. 70 on Billboard in 1981. Controversy is a stark and fun song, with the rude refrain at the end "people call me rude/i wish we all were nude". Sexuality is a good one, too, but i'm afraid that it's not the only thing Prince will ever need LOL. Do Me, Baby is a beautifully romantic and sexual ballad, but sounds more like a lullaby than a song for stimulation. The spoken ending with Prince saying "i'm so cold" seems a little stupid, though. i really enjoy the sunny Private Joy, and i think that LaToya Jackson also did a good interpretation of the song in 1984 for her "Heart Don't Lie" album. (Yes-i'm being serious.) Let's Work (which was a single, i think) and Ronnie, Talk To Russia are forgettable, but Annie Christian is though provoking and seems to fit perfectly on an album called Controversy. Jack U Off is too blatant for my tastes. If you're into Prince and you don't have this, get it. For you collectors out there, try to get it on vinyl; it comes with a bonus colour poster of that famous picture of Prince in the shower wearing nothing but a black speedo, with a crucifix hanging nearby on the wall.


REAL PRINCE FANS DIG THIS ONE - DON'T FORGET THE POSTER!   January 27, 2005
G. Mitchell (Los Angeles, CA United States)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

True Prince fans pre-Purple Rain own and love this one - I don't understand the many reviews on this site bagging the CD as "uneven" or "poor" - HELLO?! This was released way back in 1981, post-DIRTY MIND, but pre-1999, before Prince would breakthrough as one of the first artists on MTV (with 1999/Little Red Corvette), but it's on "Controversy" he truly hones his trademark musical style, image, and vision - look at the "cheap" version of the signature purple trenchcoat that would later become glitzy - all the tracks are stripped down and potent blasts of socio-sexual-political electro-funk NO ONE else dared to produce/release at the time - listen to CONTROVERSY (the full version w/ prayer!), SEXUALITY, PRIVATE JOY, JACK U OFF, ANNIE CHRISTIAN, LET'S WORK, and more to know where Prince's head was at during the early 80s - side two (yes, remember LPs) is a bit more experimental and off the mark, but STILL you gotta give it up for the Purple One - hurry up, someone remake PRIVATE JOY today (Gwen? Britney?) and have a #1 hit all over again...and you cannot forgot those like me who bought the original LP when it first came out were treated to a ltd. editon POSTER of PRINCE almost butt-nekkid in the shower with his cross - YOWZAH!!


Prince Exbounds On Where "Dirty Mind" Left Off, Building His Momentum!!   April 10, 2009
MUZIK4THAPEOPLE!! (Orlando, FL)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This album was released in the fall of 1981 and basically
exbounds on where it's predeccessor, the ground-breaking &
career direction-changing "Dirty Mind" left off!
At this time, Prince was still fairly unknown to most of
the pop world but was building quite a cult following between
the lines with a fanbase that was all races, backgrounds and
sexual persuasions. Prince's fans where then ultra-hip blacks,
whites, latinos, gays, bi's, men & women who liked to live
ahead of the curve and longed to break free from what had
been established R&B/Funk as well as Pop/Rock.
Prince moves effortlessly between all 4 of these genres
without being defined by any of them...the sure sign of
a true genius..AN ARTIST WHO DEFIES CATEGORY & CONVENTION!!
Not only was this evident in his music by then, but in his image!
Was he black, white or latino?--Straight, Gay or Bi?
Why did he strut around in black silky bikini-like underwear
with garter-belts, thigh-high leggings and high heeled boots on?
What was his music?--Was it rock, pop, funk or R&B?
Why was this peculiar little 5'5" ambisexual, ambigious,
reclusive musical mastermind from the far off and unlikely
city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who never really bothered
to explain himself to the media, bucking the established way
of being at the time?

(Remember, R&B/Funk was: Earth, Wind & Fire, Parliament/Funkadelic,
The O'Jays, Cameo, Teddy Pendergrass, etc., and Pop/Rock was:
Rod Stewart, Van Halen, The New Wave Movement, etc.)

And why did he possess this dynamic energy and sex appeal
on stage that was selling out mid-sized venues at the time
and had him upstaging people like Rick James, who was so mad
that Prince had outshined him and made him look like an
irrelevant has-been in the middle of what was supposed to
be his "Fire It Up Tour" as a headliner, that he fired Prince
from the tour half way through and harbored a bitter grudge
against him for the next 24 yrs!
Oh yes, this "kid" was swirling with building curiousity
and yes, CONTROVERSY!!--And he knew it!
And what's more important, he had the presence of mind
to work it to his advantage...luring his building cult of
listeners and fans deeper into his music!

Having set it all up like that, Prince appropriately
packaged all of this into 1981's sizzling musical melange entitled "CONTROVERSY"!!
From the pulsing, throbbing opening (no pun intended)
of the title track, which worked his Minneapolis sound
of funky guitar licks & rock power chords against
funky 4/4 beats and pumping basslines accented by then
futuristic-sounding keyboards which he also accented as horns
as well as pads and melody lines!--This was also his first
experiments in what would become a staple in his sound for
the next few years...THE LINN-9000 Drum Machine, Clap Pads
& Syndrums, which he detuned to create all kinds of
weird & disparaging sound textures throughout his work
as well as studio wizardry, all of which created a sound
that was very different then and unique to him!
Then he had the nerve to add THE LORD'S PRAYER in the song
right before a chant of "People Call Me Rude, I Wish We All
Were Nude!--I Wish There Was No Black & White, I Wish There
Were No Rules!" LOL!!--WHAT??--OMG!!
The reactionary religious right and Catholic diocese
went off!---Drawing yet more attention to Prince
and his extraordinary artistry!
This was still 2 or 3 yrs before Madonna would emerge
and make this an artform in itself! (-:

Track 2, "SEXUALITY" was a punk/new wave vibe over a
weird, sparse but funky drum/percussion workout that
was a call to arms to a still pre-aids generation of
20-something baby boomers and "the new breed" as Prince
called it, of young emerging Gen-Xers (my generation!)
who were still caught in the final writhing throws of
the sexual revolution! He told us to "STAND UP, ORGANIZE!!"
And man, did we ever! (-:
It was all about being free then!
Track 3 is one of the first of what would become another
staple of his future albums...The slow, sexy, sinewy,
lush, lude & explicit love ballads!
"DO ME BABY" was an instant classic on black radio
"quiet storms" and still is a true fan favorite to this day!
This song caused a slight swell in minority births of babies
concieved in late 1981 and early 1982, who were born
in '82 and '83!!--(Yep, Prince is kinda your daddy!)
Basically, this track is a sexual interlude set to music!
He even simulates orgasm on this one, which was shocking
& titillating to his listeners back then..
ending with a cryptic interlude that ends in a doomful-sounding
bell toll..maybe saying his own weird but prophetic Prince
way that the loose & free times of the sexual revolution
were about to come to a screeching halt with the sudden
appearance of the spectre of the AIDS PANDEMIC!!
This was 1981, remember?

Track 4 opens with the electronic fanfare and syndrums
of "PRIVATE JOY", which is an overlooked and underrated
Prince classic from days gone by!
This song basically speaks of obsession/possession
of a young man who will "Strangle Valentino!" to make sure
that the apple of his eye stays his
"Pretty Toy & Private Joy" exclusively!
It's coda fades into what sounds-like the resurrection
of Jimi Hendrix with it's guitar feedback, apocalyptic drones,
rapid-fire snares that sound like machine gunfire,
then Prince lets out a loud bone-chilling scream
and suddenly it's the rock/punk/new wavey "RONNIE TALK 2 RUSSIA"
which captures the times of a then new republican regime
with Ronald Reagan at the helm, bargaining with the still
cold war era communist Russia and China, who were ever solid
in their stand against democracy!
Prince warns "Ronnie" in a prophetic tone
not to "feed the left wing guerillas" who want to
blow up the world!--(Boy, did that one come to pass!)
America would one day be attacked by the very countries
who they stupidly helped to arm with bombs, guns, planes
and other "weapons of mass destruction" back in the
late 70's and early 80's, when the powers that be
thought that it was going to give them leverage
against the enemies of democracy!--DOH!!
After this short but peppy track, comes one of the
funkiest, slamminest, but nearly forgotten today Prince jams...
the rollicking "LET'S WORK", in which Prince mixes his
favorite brew of dance, music, sex & romance!
It is 3 minutes and 57 seconds of pure funky perfection
and was a staple on the turntables of all the hippest
house parties and clubs in the 'hoods and underground
establishments of America at the time!
There was a mean 12" extended version of this too that was hot!
Then abruptly, as to signify that the party was fleeting,
Prince signals the chimes with bizarre synth flourishes
that take us into the spooky mind of an anti-christ
serial-killer spirit-figure who he accredits all the
worlds woes of the time, including the Atlanta Child Murders,
the senseless & cold-blooded murder of much beloved
ex-Beatle & peace activist John Lennon, and the political
double-dealing shenanigans of Oliver North & Company in ABSCAM!!
(look it up, if you ain't hip!)
He calls this spectre "ANNIE CHRISTIAN" and vows to
live his life in taxi cabs until she's crucified!

Nobody got it at the time, but looking back, this was
quite a prophetic album. It ends on a slightly comedic
and naughty rebellious note with the old-school
Elvis-like rock-n-roll-a-billy of Prince's
ode to mutual shall we say, STIMULATION??
"JACK U OFF" which closes the album out with a bang!
He would again use that retro-rock-a-billy style on his
charted pop single "Delirous" from the follow-up to this
album..his pop music breakthrough...
1982's futuristic masterpiece "1999"!
**(Check out my review on that one!)**
It proves just how far out ahead of the pack that
Prince was in terms of music, ideology, style and everything else!
But then, true geniuses always are, right?
This young man, then just 23 yrs old, had already mastered
40 instruments, could run a studio basically by himself,
set a concert arena on fire with his cutting edge performances,
and was the mastermind behind a then burgeoning musical
jugernaut which would dominate the latter part of the 80's
musicscape and inspire us beyond, deserves the title of
innovator and musical genius because quite simply, HE WAS!!
Today, when music is so lacking in conviction, ambition,
creativity or even TALENT for that matter, it makes me
cringe everytime somebody (a so-called artist) is allowed
through the iron curtain of corporate pop BS, who is a
little quirky or doing something a little less mediocre
than the mediocrity that is accepted as music today,
are automatically bestowed with the title of
GENIUS & INSTANT ICON!!--Arrrgh!--I hate that!
Prince (the heir apparent) is the last of a breed of
artistic giants who walked the earth from the mid 50's
to the mid 70's, who basically created the musical pallet
that we know as modern music today!
You can see them all in his body of work...
The flamboyance, flash and sexual ambiguity of
Little Richard, Elvis & David Bowie...
The funky power and stage persona of James Brown,
The free-flowing eclectic funk/rock/pop/soul of Hendrix,
Sly Stone, P-Funk, Larry Graham, Curtis Mayfield,
Stevie Wonder and others, coupled with the
folk/rock sensibilties of Joni Mitchell & Bob Dylan
to the balls out classic rock of Zepplin, Sabbath,
Grand Funk Railroad, etc.!!--Yes, it's all there!
30 yrs of musical history packed in one diminuitive
but powerful and extraordinary human being named
Prince Rogers Nelson!
You cannot go wrong with this guy from his debut
of 1978's "FOR YOU" to 1987's "SIGN 'O THE TIMES"!!
These were the musical bricks in which he built his
reputation and amazing body of work that made him the
last true innovator to come along and change the
game around to HIS DIRECTION and landed him
a much deserved place in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame!!






punk n funk, a new breed of music at the time of its release   March 5, 2004
P. Esq (New York, NY USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This album contains the song that made me notice and respect Prince. I saw the video for Controversy on Casey's Top Ten Countdown video show. I was intrigued by the bikini-clad man of color wearing a raincoat and surrounded by stained glass windows. It was funky. It was punk. I did not buy the album until after 1999 or maybe it was after Purple Rain, but this album rocks. The title track includes the Lord's Prayer, recited as monotone as it is done weekly in churches all over the USA. It is very romantic, Do Me Baby (eventually covered by Mel'issa Morgan), and very political, Annie Christian and Ronnie Talk to Russia. It makes you dance: Let's Work (sounds like it was written for a Time album). It's fun: Jack U Off, Private Joy (didn't LaToya Jackson cover that song?). Parts of "Sexuality" pop up on Rainbow Children. If you like Prince, you have to own this.