Tracker Pixel for Entry

​All my future crimes: Prince and Batman

Cinema | June 22nd, 2016

Following “Sign o’ the Times,” his third theatrically-released feature as performer and second as director, Prince’s next cinematic surprise was the soundtrack to Tim Burton’s juggernaut “Batman” in 1989. Unfortunately, the prolific artist did not appear in the film, even though I recall discussing with friends the wildly nerdy notion (rumor?) that Prince would kill it in a violet cowboy hat as Shame should he get a later shot as a “guest villain.”

As funky, lush, and filthy as much of his recent output – “Batman” was only two years after “Sign” – the album has been unfairly maligned, although a number of articles going back at least as far as Steven Hyden’s tellingly titled 2012 A.V. Club piece “Prince’s ‘Batman’ Soundtrack Is Not the Embarrassment It’s Reputed to Be” root for it.

Prince followers continue to be divided on the quality and legacy of the record. Some argue that the “for hire” conditions of the music’s use by the Warner Bros. machine and Burton as savvy cross-promotion constitutes a level of market-driven synergy and “selling out” in violation of Prince’s previous alignment with “artistic integrity.” Most accounts, however, indicate that Prince’s desire to participate in the project was earnest, eager, and genuine.

Additionally, a number of critical reassessments of Prince’s “Batman” have attempted to stake out a position favorable to the record, including Ira Madison III’s bold headline claim that “Prince understood Batman better than anyone.” Madison’s hyperbolic introduction calls the collection “…one of the most significant pieces of American pop culture criticism,” but the essay’s thesis – that Prince, like Batman’s gatekeepers and handlers, could closely relate to the necessity of evolution – also makes room for the idea that Prince’s “remixing and reinventing a classic character” anticipates the web-assisted tendencies toward constant rebooting of franchise properties. In other words, Prince was once again ahead of his time.

Six of the album’s nine tracks would be excerpted in the film, but only two would enjoy status as fully featured diegetic showcases. Replacing Burton’s original temp selections of “1999” and “Baby I’m a Star,” “Partyman” and “Trust” complemented and defined top-billed Jack Nicholson’s take on the Joker as, alternately, an anarchistic visual artist/drum major and a petulant and narcissistic master of ceremonies. A new generation of fans too young to have surfed the crest of “Purple Rain” would come to know Prince through those unusual scenes (and the choice of a “Scandalous” edit instead of “The Arms of Orion” during the end credit roll), but MTV’s heavy rotation of bizarre and unlikely number-one single “Batdance” would overload the grid.

“Batdance,” accompanied by the ace music video directed by Albert Magnoli and choreographed by Barry Lather, reportedly turned up as an eleventh hour replacement for “Dance with the Devil.” The swap turned out to be a fortuitous one, because even though the song does not appear in the movie, it has come to represent Prince’s musical contributions to the project more than any of the other “Batman” tracks (which really construct a fascinating parallel narrative to the one Burton expressed).

Bummer that off-screen collaborator Kim Basinger was played by “All This and Brains Too” doppelgangers, but the “Scandalous Sex Suite” makes up for it. And Prince’s half-Batman, half-Joker “Gemini” character looked as sharp, or even sharper, than Nicholson or Keaton in costume.

During the kitchen sink chaos of “Batdance,” Prince chops up work print audio snippets of lines delivered by the Joker, Bruce Wayne, and Vicki Vale, and then mixes them with a go-for-broke reference to the iconic two-syllable chorus of Neal Hefti’s 1966 television theme. Somehow, it works. Michaelangelo Matos and others have written about Prince’s off-balance relationship to hip-hop, particularly in terms of the clumsy incorporation of, as Matos has it, “MCs of limited ability.”

Yet “Batdance” is in some strange way Prince’s most successful sustained example of creative sampling. The song and the soundtrack deserve a place of pride in Prince’s discography.  

Recently in:

By Alicia Underlee NelsonLocal groups will speak out against current and projected federal budget cuts in downtown Fargo this Saturday, April 26. The Red River Valley chapters of Fearless and Indivisible will lead a protest from…

By Prairie Rose Seminolems.prairierose@gmail.com I was a child who walked behind my parents into classrooms and kitchens, spaces of song and prayer, where teachings lived in the air and settled on my shoulders. I didn’t yet have…

Saturday, April 26, 1:30-3:30 p.m.Rourke Art Gallery + Museum, 521 Main Ave., MoorheadThings are coming up rosy at the Rourke in a true feast of the senses during the third annual “Gallery in Bloom” exhibit. The pop-up…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com I feel like reading a newspaper is the equivalent of listening to music on vinyl. Not only is it analog, it’s an experience. I might be a little biased, but there's something about the rustling…

By Ed Raymondfargogadly@gmail.comThe wizards and kleagles in whites now wear blue suits and red tiesA hundred years ago, more than 30,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan from virtually every state in the Union wearing their white…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com After a very inspiring conversation with Kayla Houchin of Sonder Bakehouse a few weeks ago, I decided that it’s an appropriate time to write a column about some of the sweet people who are involved…

Mooncats and Pert Near Sandstone play Empire TheatreBy Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comThe MoonCats describe themselves as “Americonscious Campfire Folk.” They have a clear acoustic folk sound with a sense of whimsy — think…

By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.comRyan Coogler goes big and bold with “Sinners,” a sweaty, bloody vampire movie set in 1932. The filmmaker stuffs this universe with enough ideas to serve a limited-series season of episodic…

By Raul Gomez Modern Man was a gentle soul. If you were down or just wanted a friend, he’d be there for you. I remember the first day I met Modern Man. It was Jeremiah Fuglseth and me. He wanted to write about this legendary…

By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.comHigh Plains Reader had the opportunity to interview two mysterious new game show hosts named Milt and Bradley Barker about an upcoming event they will be putting on at Brewhalla. What…

By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…

By Josette Ciceronunapologeticallyanxiousme@gmail.com What does it mean to truly live in a community —or should I say, among community? It’s a question I have been wrestling with since I moved to Fargo-Moorhead in February 2022.…

By Alicia Underlee NelsonProtests against President Trump’s policies and the cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are planned across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday, April 4 and…

By Faye Seidlerfayeseidler@gmail.com In 2023, the Superintendent of Fargo Public Schools, Rupak Ghandi, gave a passionate plea to the Fargo School Board to follow federal law, because a recently passed state law would increase…