The “vulgar” Prince song that pushed Tipper Gore over the edge
Releasing daring musical material in the mid-1980s was a risky move. During the height of the satanic panic, artists who touched on themes of the occult or sexual deviance risked damaging their entire reputations, forever associated with attempting to corrupt the youth. Prince was no stranger to these controversies, but what’s perhaps most interesting is that he didn’t really care.
World leaders and well-to-do adults (parents) condemning the actions and words of commercial musicians and entertainment figures wasn’t new by the time the 1980s satanic panic exploded. In fact, control over young people consuming potentially detrimental content had been rife since as early as the 1950s when acts like Little Richard seemed to threaten the purity of the younger generation.
However, Prince’s arrival meant two things for the music industry—first, the role of the musician would be redefined, and he would obtain complete control over his approach and output. Second, boundaries would continue to be pushed, and the music would often be explicit and provocative, no matter who gets offended in the process.
When Prince entered the scene, he was immediately viewed as a challenger of societal norms; his lyrics, stage performances, and music videos paraded sexuality and eroticism in ways that daylight broadcasting was far from accustomed to. Many of his lyrics and themes were shocking to the unsuspecting listener, who failed to understand the blurred lines between masculinity and femininity.
Tipper Gore thought Prince was so filthy that she openly condemned his song ‘Darling Nikki’, the song that depicts the singer meeting a “sex fiend” he meets in a hotel “masturbating with a magazine”. To top things off, the song also ends with a typical not-so-subtle blasphemy, the kind that was sure to provide the proverbial icing on the cake for the moralist, religious listeners.
Gore had bought Prince’s record for her 11-year-old daughter, and she was so disgusted when ‘Darling Nikki’ came on that she made it her mission to prevent any more young ears from ever hearing it. “I couldn’t believe my ears,” Gore explained in her 1987 book Raising PG Kids in a X Rated Society.
“The vulgar lyrics embarrassed both of us. At first, I was stunned—then I got mad!” she added.
However, a long, ongoing debate about censorship in music followed, with figures like Frank Zappa, Dee Snider and John Denver speaking out against its place in the industry. ‘Darling Nikki’ was as uncompromising as it got, but Prince’s response to criticism often centred around his fearlessness about who he was as a person and how much he shunned living a life of sin. The lyrics would likely shock many pockets of listeners in today’s world, but for daring artists to layer daring content with irresistible instrumentation—that was power in its most darkly compelling form.
