The internet is presently losing his shit about the fact that, after 18 years of pure bile, Prince and Warner Brothers Records appear to have kissed and made up.
The obvious thing to have done today would’ve been to post a Prince video in this week’s column. However, I’m not sure if and when Prince will officially allow his videos back on YouTube. Plus, he still might wanna sue my ass. So, no Prince. We talk about him plenty on this site anyway.
The next obvious thing to do would have been to post a Public Enemy video, seeing as Record Store Day is tomorrow and Chuck D. is the Record Store Day Ambassador this year, but…nah.
So, here’s Vanity’s video for “Under The Influence.” There’s at least a Prince connection, although by the time this song was released, she’d long left Prince’s employ and was recording for Motown Records.
This jam (a top 10 R&B hit) was from her second solo album Skin On Skin. At this point, Vanity’s sexpot image was firmly entrenched. While she remains more clothed than usual in this clip, there’s no doubt that it’s meant to get folks as titillated as the lyrics of the song do. There’s a lot of grinding, crossing and un-crossing of legs, and some serious “O-Face” action going on. No surprise, then, that Vanity (AKA Denise Matthews) got her start in Skinemax-reminiscent soft porn.
Vanity’s substance use was spiraling out of control at this point, no doubt aided by the access provided her as a music and film star. Plus, she was involved with the equally toxic Nikki Sixx at this point, and they were engaged by 1987. The engagement didn’t turn into anything permanent, however, and by the mid ’90s, Matthews had renounced her “Vanity” persona and the only person she was under the influence of was the man upstairs.
So…I’m assuming there won’t be a Vanity 6 reunion as a consequence of all this making-nice Prince stuff, huh?
To console you, feel free to watch this clip of Vanity on “The Late Show With Arsenio Hall” circa 1987. I feel like this interview segment could be partially sponsored by cocaine.
