Kiss – Challenge #175

Mazarati was an American R&B band formed in the mid-1980s by former Prince and The Revolution bassist Mark Brown, better known by the stage name Brown Mark, orBrownmark.  Originally hailing from Minneapolis, they became defunct as a group in 1989. The band’s sole hit was a song called ‘100 MPH’, which was written and co-produced by Prince Rogers Nelson.  Mazarati asked Prince for a song for their debut album, so he took a break from his Parade sessions, the soundtrack to his second movie which was subtitled “Music from the motion picture Under The Cherry Moon”, which also became his eighth full-length studio album, and the third and final to be credited to Prince and the Revolution.  Prince dashed off a minute-long bluesy acoustic demo for them on a mini tape recorder.  Mazarati and producer David Z re-worked the song, giving it an irresistible funk groove.  When Prince heard it, he took the song back, replaced their lead vocal, added the guitar break in the chorus and included it as a last-minute addition to his 1986 Parade album.  New lyrics are present from Prince, along with Jill Jones, that end with a humorous dialogue between a wife and her husband watching Prince on television.

‘Kiss’ became a fan favorite because it is a song about a man who is trying to woo and explain his intentions to a woman, so she can fit into his world.  The song is a bit sexist with Prince telling women that they don’t have to be rich, cool or anything particular in order to be with him and when he says, “Act your age woman, not your shoe size.”  Prince sang lead vocals and played various instruments and Mazarati sang backing vocals (Tony Christian, Craig “Screamer” Powell, Jerome “Romeo” Cox, Marr Starr and Aaron Paul “Ace” Keith), while Craig Powell played guitar, Tony Christian was on keyboards, Marr Star and Aaron Keith were both on drums and Kevin Patrick sang backing vocals.  ‘Kiss’ became Prince’s third number-one US hit following 1984’s highly successful ‘When Doves Cry’ and ‘Let’s Go Crazy’.  On the week ‘Kiss’ hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the #2 hit was also a song written by Prince, the Bangles’ ‘Manic Monday’.  Tom Jones had a hit single (#5 in UK, #31 in the US) when covering this song with the British avant garde electronica group Art Of Noise in 1988, and this helped to revive his career.  It is interesting that Prince and Tom Jones were both born on the same day, the 7th of June (Prince in 1958, Jones in 1940).

The single was certified Gold in 1986 for sales of 1 million copies by the RIAA.  The song was ranked at #464 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  NME ranked the song at #4 in their list of The 150 Greatest Singles of All Time, and voted ‘Kiss’ the best single of 1986.  Prince won the 1986 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance for this song.

You don’t have to be beautiful
To turn me on
I just need your body, baby
From dusk till dawn
You don’t need experience
To turn me out
You just leave it all up to me
I’ll show you what it’s all about

You don’t have to be rich to be my girl
You don’t have to be cool to rule my world
Ain’t no particular sign I’m more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your kiss

You got to not talk dirty, baby
If you wanna impress me
You can’t be too flirty, mama
I know how to undress me
Let me be your fantasy
And maybe, you can be mine
You just leave it all up to me
We could have a good time

You don’t have to be rich to be my girl
You don’t have to be cool to rule my world
Ain’t no particular sign I’m more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your kiss

I think I’d better dance now

Women and girls rule my world
I said they rule my world
Act your age woman, not your shoe size
Maybe we could do the twirl
You don’t have to watch Dynasty
To have an attitude
You gotta leave it all up to me
My love will be your food

You don’t have to be rich to be my girl
You don’t have to be cool to rule my world
Ain’t no particular sign, I’m more compatible with
I just want your extra time and your kiss

The challenge today is to focus on this song and use it for a short story, a piece of flash fiction, or a poem that you can share with the WordPress writing community.  There is no need to stick with this song, as if you like to write about another Prince song, or a song by Tom Jones, then go with that.  You might also go with a song that has something to do with kissing, or being rich, or cool, or ruling the world.  Maybe you could write a post about talking dirty, or being flirty, or a fantasy about undressing someone.  If you are familiar with the show Dynasty then you could write about that, or you could write about dancing and twirling, that would also work.  The whole point of this MM Music challenge is to get you to think, to trigger something so that you can show how creative you are and everyone is welcome to participate.  This challenge is very loose, so pretty much whatever you come up with will be acceptable.  I try to throw some ideas out there for you and if they seem right, then go with it.  You could write about your astrological sign, if you like.

Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie brings you a dose of fetish, good friends and an incomparable muse and Dylan Hughes will be here next Friday on February 19 with her First Line Friday and she will provide the first line for your post and then you get to write whatever comes afterward, with the length, genre, and structure being completely left up to you.  I will be back on Friday, February 26 with another MM Music Challenge where we will discuss the song ‘Gee’.  When you are finished writing your post, create a ping back to this post, but you can also place your link in the comments section below if you desire.  This Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Music challenge has a special feature called Mr. Linky, which will allow you to instantly link your post after you click the Mr. Linky Button, and permit everyone to read your post sooner that way, and then follow the directions that are given. When you click the Mister Linky widget, another screen will pop up that will look like this screenshot below, with two empty boxes, one for your name and the other containing the web address where your post can be found, both ready for you to fill in.  You must check the box below, for your post to go through.

About newepicauthor

My About Me section is meant to provide my readers with an honest picture of myself that gives a little bit of background information on who I am and I will wrap this up with a catchy image. I am a story teller and I like to use my imagination. I am interested in many things, but a few of my favorites are watching the NFL and playing golf. I do not like onions and I always make sure that my food does not contain any. I had two wonderful parents, my dad Herb Adams was a television repairman and my mother Mary Adams was mostly a stay at home mom. They are both deceased now and I miss them. I am a retired Electrical Engineer specialized in control systems. I held many different positions because I worked mostly as a consultant. I did work as a Substitute Teacher, for a while, but the kids were awful. I am happiest when I am writing, as this gives my life has a purpose. Forming a sentence with meaningful words that articulate my inner feelings is an everyday quest for me. Every writer needs to tell their story, and all writers have their own style. All stories starts off with characters, who are able to entertain the reader. Creating realistic lovable characters is the best way to tell a story. If you are able to develop characters that become real to you, then you will know exactly what they will do say and do next and this lets your story progress to the completion. Writing changes everything and having the calling to create something new through the power of words is much more than just making marks on a page. Once written, a book can be used by many people to learn and be entertained. The act of writing can be compared to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle as it contains an inherent fuzziness, because various people may derive different meanings from reading the same words. You can never know the true nature of written words and the best I can do is hope is that people will understand the meanings that I am trying to convey. There are no clear-cut laws on how to write and it is impossible for me to determine how my readers react to my books.

View all posts by newepicauthor →