One of my (many) cultural blind spots is that I never really got into Prince. I know all the hits, of course, and I’ve been trying to get caught up in my adult years. But back in the 80s, I categorized Prince and the Revolution as being decidedly not for me.
I remember opening the LP of 1999 and being immediately scandalized at the huge centerfold of nude Prince lying there. Oh no, I am not supposed to be seeing this! I closed it and from then on tried to ensure that my parents never witnessed what I’d bought with their money.
So I didn’t fully appreciate the video for “Kiss” until several years ago, when I finally clued into how it’s so simultaneously corny and drily funny. I never thought of Prince as having much of a sense of humor — especially since Purple Rain never struck me as anything but painfully earnest — but here he’s clearly making fun of himself and his image.
Key to all of that is stripping it down to just him and Wendy Melvoin on guitar. For those of us who only knew of Prince as being on stages surrounded by meticulously art-directed and choreographed musicians and supermodels, it was a huge change to see such a relatively spare video. If the point of the video had been simply “I write music and play a ton of instruments and am super sexy,” then it could’ve just been Prince and the veiled dancer. But since the point was to have fun and poke fun at his own image, he needed to play off one of the most talented members of his band.
And she’s always come across as so cool in that video. Absolutely part of the whole showmanship and schtick of being in The Revolution, but also grimacing when he gets uncomfortably close. “Prince is gonna Prince! Gotta love ‘im!”1I am vaguely aware that Wendy and Lisa were seriously on the outs with Prince for some time, but I thought it was heartwarming to hear Melvoin talk after his death about her experiences working with him.
Melvoin has done a lot outside of her work with Prince, as part of Wendy and Lisa and other collaborations both with and without Lisa Coleman, so I don’t want to diminish that. But I’m fascinated by this specific moment, when a superstar chose to be goofy and take the piss out of himself, so instead of “Waterfall” or “Computer Blue,” I’ll be corny and pair it with my favorite song by The Association. Who makes “Kiss” work? Everyone knows it’s Wendy.