Prince Is The New King In Town On ‘Partyman’
The fact that the 1989 big budget debut of Tim Burton’s Batman featured extensive use of original Prince songs, as well as an entire Batman themed Prince album is something that I often think about in the context of things that I can’t be entirely sure anyone under the age of 30 completely understands.
Prince? And Batman? What? Why?
While certain younger readers may question why? The correct question to be asking is why not?
Why not give Jack Nicholson’s Joker a playful menace by soundtracking his exploits with some funky Prince songs? A feature of the ‘89 Batman film that was definitely a bold, left field choice at the time. But one that nobody can argue Prince didn’t throw himself into, completely.
Again, there was an entire album of Prince songs, including the lead single ‘Bat-Dance’. A song that heavily sampled the campy 60s Batman theme. Followed up by the crown jewel of this Prince-Batman connection, the New Jack Swing infused ‘Partyman’.
Just how into this whole project was Prince? Not only did he bring in his Purple Rain director, Albert Magnoli, for ‘Partyman,’ he also brought out his alter-ego character, Gemini, to headline an extended music video. Including half-face (not Two Face) Joker makeup and stylish purple suit.
The music video shows Prince/Gemini/Partyman throwing a huge shindig at his mansion (castle?) hideout, complete with all of the city’s most-elite partygoers. Everybody wants a piece of Prince as he holds court and sings about being the new king in town and the funkiest man you’ve ever seen.
But early on in the video he sets everyone up for a fall. He goes up to his giant fish tank full of beautiful women (What? You don’t have one?) and proceeds to pull a small bottle of something out of his jacket and take a sip. But watch closely and you’ll notice he quickly swaps the bottle of drugs (good!) for a different bottle of drugs (bad!) and pours the bad one into the tank as all his guests rush to dunk their glasses and get a taste of what they assume is Partyman’s good time concoction.
But by the end of the party? It’s revealed that all his guests are, at best, passed out and, at worst, dead. As the cops arrive just in time to watch Partyman make a clean getaway and do absolutely nothing about it.
Few Batman villains can actually claim to get one over on Bruce Wayne. But here comes Prince. Setting his own rules, putting himself right into the mix and causing more chaos in one seven minute music video than the actual Joker was able to do in an entire theatrical film.
Figures. Leave it to Prince to throw himself so fully into an assignment that success includes nothing less than crafting a character and idea that could both compliment an existing project and, in certain ways, show it up completely by being able to do whatever he wanted, unbound by any sort of reverence or continuity to the source material.
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