Dez Dickerson: “Without a
doubt, the most widely known and sought-after of my songs is ‘Modernaire’.
The song was immortalized in the film, Purple Rain, during my
performance onstage with my band, The Modernaires (then comprised of
Paul Cassady on bass, Roland Lozier on keyboards, Ernie LaViolet on
drums, and the late, great Joe Hunt on guitar). Whilst all but 18
seconds of our big screen debut wound up on the cutting room floor,
the song became somewhat of an underground favourite, with some going
as far as taking a snippet of the tune from the film soundtrack and
looping it!
“Originally, all the music
from Purple Rain was to have been included on a single soundtrack
album, but Prince continued to write material well after completion of
the shooting of the picture. In the end, only his music ended up on
what became the Purple Rain album.
“‘Modernaire’ is the
most overtly Prince-influenced of anything I ever recorded, for
obvious, practical reasons – in that it was to be part of the film
and subsequent soundtrack project, it needed to fit well with the rest
of the music. Prince and I collaborated on the recording, which also
accounts for his strong influence. He particularly pushed for me to
find a new singing voice on the track, which he succeeded in helping
me to accomplish.
“This song was originally to
have been released by Warner Bros. as a single at the beginning of my
1983-84 Kamikaze Tour. In fact, when we started the tour in late 1983,
many DJs requesting interviews were aware of the single and asked what
the release date was. Prince had arranged for his managers, Cavallo,
Ruffalo & Fargnoli, to represent me during that time, and they
believed they had it all worked out with the label as far as my deal
was concerned. But, in fact, things never did come together with
Warner. They subsequently began searching for a deal with virtually
every other major label on the planet, from Capitol to Polygram, with
several of them verbally committing to sign me. But, when it was all
said and done, more was said than done!
“Ironically, I received a
call from the business affairs department at Warner over one year
after their initial plans to release the single, requesting that I
supply them with a B-side and artwork – they were finally going to
release it after all. But in the end, (you guessed it) it never
happened.
“For this Citinite release
we were unable to locate the original 2 track analogue master of the
song and have been forced to utilize one derived from a cassette copy
of the original master. Surprisingly, the quality is much better than
one would expect!”
Born in Minneapolis in 1955,
Dez Dickerson was the eldest child of three. His father worked two
jobs to provide for his family and so that they could move out of the
inner city to the suburb of Maplewood, just north of St Paul,
Minnesota.
Dickerson remembers, “When I
was 12, I asked my parents for a guitar. In order for them to buy it,
many of my relatives from Minnesota to California chipped in. I
remember waiting and waiting for it to arrive by mail – I couldn’t
wait to get it to start playing all the music I was listening to. When
it finally arrived, I opened the case and was devastated to find the
neck had been broken in shipping. I had to wait nearly a year for the
replacement to come.”
Dickerson began his performing
career at age 14 when, like so many young boys, he put together a
band. They practiced endlessly in his parent’s basement – his
mother remembers the house shaking and things falling off the walls
from the volume. Word got out that there was a young kid playing
guitar like Jimi Hendrix. Winning a local talent contest got the band
signed to a booking agency while Dez was still in high school. Most
weeks, his mother was writing notes to school administrators to
release him early on Fridays so that he and his bandmates could travel
to their shows. At age 18, after graduating from technical school, Dez
was playing music full-time, touring the Midwest for the next 9 years.
In 1978, an up-and-coming
artist from Minneapolis named Prince asked Dez to join his band. Dez
proved to be hugely influential on Prince’s music and image and
stayed with Prince’s band for five years, touring across the US and
Europe and appearing on major tv shows. Between tours, Dickerson began
doing showcase gigs with his own group, The Modernaires. After making
a cameo appearance in Prince’s motion picture, Purple Rain, Dez
ventured out as a solo artist. Dez Dickerson & The Modernaires
headlined concerts throughout the US and opened for Billy Idol as
special guest on his 1984 ‘Rebel Yell’ tour.
As a songwriter and studio
musician, Dez worked with Aretha Franklin, Vanity 6 and The Time, and
by 1988, he was producing albums and writing for artists in the
Christian music industry. In 1990, this led to his position as
Vice-President of A&R for StarSong Communications. In July of
1994, Dez launched his own record label, Absolute Records and three
years later released his album ‘Oneman’, which encapsulated his
musical and spiritual journey and signalled his future direction.
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