What Was Prince Doing: 1980–1984?

In 1980, Prince released Dirty Mind, again entirely self-recorded and released using the demos of the songs. On tour, Lisa Coleman replaced Chapman in the band, who felt the sexually explicit lyrics and stage antics of Prince's concerts conflicted with her religious beliefs. Dirty Mind is particularly notable for its sexually explicit material.

Prince opened for Rick James in a 1980 tour with the label "punk funk" being applied to both artists, although it reportedly didn't sit comfortably with Prince. He released the album Controversy in 1981, with the single of the same name charting internationally for the first time. In February of 1981, Prince performed "Partyup" on the now-infamous season six episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Charlene Tilton that brought Jean Doumanian's lackluster tenure as executive producer down when cast member Charles Rocket uttered the word "fuck" at the end of the program. Starting with the album Controversy, Prince used Controversy Music^[6] – ASCAP for publishing his songs, which he would use for his following sixteen records until Emancipation in 1996.

During this period, Prince began to attract attention for the clothes he wore onstage. He wore high-heeled shoes and boots and tended to flaunt and express an intense sexuality onstage in addition to in his music, using symbols associated with transgenderism and as a result, people began questioning his sexual orientation. His stylistic choices brought him trouble as an opening act for The Rolling Stones' two Los Angeles Coliseum shows in 1981, where he was infamously pelted with garbage while wearing bikini briefs, leg warmers, high-heeled boots, and a trench coat, in addition to being booed off the stage for his wardrobe. These shows occurred just before the release of Controversy and also when he was breaking in his new bassist Mark Brown (later BrownMark), who was then just 18 and out of high school.

In 1981, Prince formed a "side project"(a problematic label given that his band was only used for performance, not recording sessions) band called The Time. Prince was able to do this thanks to a clause in his contract with Warner Bros. The Time released four albums between 1981 and 1990, with Prince writing and performing all instruments and backing vocals throughout. The band's vocals were led by Morris Day.

In the coming decade, Prince would also collaborate with Vanity (of Vanity 6), Apollonia (of Apollonia 6) and Sheila E. He also wrote hits for artists such as Sheena Easton ("Sugar Walls"), Celine Dion (as she talked about in an interview with Arsenio Hall in 1993), and The Bangles ("Manic Monday"). Prince's own recordings would be covered in hit versions by artists as diverse as Chaka Khan ("I Feel For You"), Sheena Easton ("Eternity"), Mariah Carey, Art of Noise with Tom Jones, and Sinéad O'Connor ("Nothing Compares 2 U"). O'Connor's cover, originally written by Prince for The Family, was a huge commercial success in 1990.

Prince's Yellow Cloud Guitar at the Smithsonian Castle

In 1982, Prince released the 1999 double-album which "broke" Prince into the mainstream in the US and internationally, selling over three million copies.^[7] The title track was a protest against nuclear proliferation and became his first top ten hit internationally. With his video for "Little Red Corvette" he joined Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie as part of the first wave of African American artists on MTV. The song "Delirious" also went top ten on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was placed at number six in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1983.

Around this time Prince began crediting his band as The Revolution, which consisted of Dez Dickerson on guitar, Lisa Coleman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, Bobby Z. on drums, and Brown Mark on bass. The band's name was printed in reverse on the cover of 1999; Prince refrained using the name "The Revolution" until Dickerson left the band for personal reasons. Dickerson was replaced by Wendy Melvoin, a childhood friend of Lisa. The band members were known for being solid musicians and a strong live act, but their talents would be used sparsely in the studio. Their presence in Prince's recordings, however, would increase through the mid-1980s.

During this period, Prince recorded many acclaimed b-sides—songs that were previously released on the b-side of a single that were, at times, "throwaway" songs—becoming popular songs in their own right. Some greats and fan favorites include "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore," b-side for "1999"; "Erotic City," b-side for "Let's Go Crazy"; and "17 Days," b-side for "When Doves Cry." Several of these b-sides were covered by mainstream artists, including Alicia Keys and Living Colour.