‘The Ballad of Dorothy Parker’: The Prince song that references Joni Mitchell
Musical pioneer Prince influenced just about every musician under the sun since he first burst onto the scene in the late 1970s. The virtuoso musician had talent dripping out of every pore and made hit after hit, even for other artists. Yet one musician that Prince looked up to more than others was the folk icon, Joni Mitchell.
In fact, Mitchell once recalled spotting a young Prince at her concerts in Minnesota. She told the New York Times, “I remember seeing him sitting in the front row when he was very young. He must have been about 15. He was in an aisle seat, and he had unusually big eyes. He watched the whole show with his collar up, looking side to side. You couldn’t miss him — he was a little Prince-ling.”
She added, “Prince used to write me fan mail with all of the U’s and hearts that way that he writes. And the office took it as mail from the lunatic fringe and just tossed it!” Evidently, Prince was a Mitchell-mega fan, and The Purple One’s admiration for Mitchell was so devout that he even referenced her in one of his best songs.
‘The Ballad of Dorothy Parker’ from 1987’s excellent album Sign O’ The Times saw Prince detail a fictional occurrence in which the narrator almost cheats on his girlfriend with the titular waitress. During their time together, Prince’s character takes a bubble bath and hears Mitchell’s ‘Help Me’ from 1974’s Court and Spark playing on the radio. Prince sings, “..and it was Joni singing: ‘Help me, I think I’m falling’.”
Just a year prior to ‘The Ballad of Dorothy Parker’ being released, Prince almost collaborated with his hero. He had written ‘Emotional Pump’ and thought Mitchell might like to use it, but she decided it wasn’t suitable for her output. Mitchell said of the potential collaboration, “He implied that something would happen between our two musics. I asked him to explain it, but he said he could not put it into words. The closest he came to articulating it was that it was the open harmonies I got in conjunction with funk into a hybrid that would be fairly fresh.”
She added, “So he sent a song with him singing ‘Emotional pump, you’re my emotional pump, You make my body jump’. I called him back and said that I could not do the song.” Mitchell felt the song was too crass for her usually emotive playing style. “I can’t sing this; I’d have to jump around in a black teddy,” she said.
Unfortunately, mostly for Prince, but for all fans of him and Mitchell too, the collaboration never happened, which is most likely why Prince did the next best thing and paid his respects to Mitchell on the Sign O’ The Times track. It’s simply one of Prince’s best efforts and features a touching tribute to his hero too.
Check it out below.
