Throwback Thursday: Sign O The Times

I hope Ock don't punch me for usurping his meme (he ain't done one of these in awhile anyway), but the "Brunch" thread reminded me that this month is the THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY (three freaking decades already--aaggh where did my childhood go?!?!) of what most people consider to be Prince's greatest album, Sign O' The Times.



Sadly, next month will be the one-year anniversary of his untimely passing, so we won't get to hear him play songs from the album ever again (although his former bandmates, The Revolution, are doing a tribute tour this year). When I first heard the title song, I really dug it when it came out, as it was in the spare-arrangement mode of his previous smash, "Kiss".

I remember buying the 45-rpm single of the title song a few weeks before the actual album (@African King and @DreG sorry, y'all just gotta look up 45s on Wikipedia). There was some sexually ambiguous figure on the cover with the head covered up. I was a freshman working in the college student programs office at my university, the church sista I worked with gave me some serious side-eye when I brought it from the record store in between classes. Neither one of us knew if that was Prince wearing the peach miniskirt or not (on the front or the back of the record!). Lol. Luckily, I soon found out it was Prince's new protege Cat, and my boy hadn't totally gone over to the transgender side.


Now, I'll be honest, I still think "1999" is his best album (also a double one) and I wasn't as bowled over with "Sign" as much as I was with his pre-Parade/Cherry Moon Soundtrack work. But I can see why people think it's his best. It came out in the 20th-anniversary-year of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" album. And like Sgt. Pepper, "Sign" showed that Prince was a gifted artist who could do no wrong in whatever musical genre he chose to lay his majestic purple fingers on: psychedelica ("Starfish and Coffee", "Hot Thing"); r&b slow jams ("Adore"); punk rock ("I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man"); 80s Top 40 sound ("U Got The Look"); live concert jamming ("It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night); funk ("Housequake"); new wave/art rock ("It"); you name it. And lyrically, he could be just as profound and deep as any of the so-called white greats like Lennon, Dylan, or Prince's hero, Joni Mitchell ("If I Was Your Girlfriend").

So, Dearly Beloved, let us continue to get through this thing called life and enjoy the work left behind by our departed genius:

 

Lol, yeah there's so many. The first time I watched Purple Rain, I was like why that nikka riding Batgirl's motorcycle? Lol

I've never seen Under The Cherry Moon (due to its rep) but the soundtrack is probably my second favorite album of his. At the time, I actually thought Sign O The Times was a step backwards, as I liked the chances he took on Parade. Plus, I always liked him more with Wendy and Lisa as a psychological counterbalance, so the fact that he fired The Revolution prior to Sign was a letdown. But I was a kid, what did I know?

My favorite Prince song is still "Pussy Control", a filthy but life affirming song that only he (or maybe Marvin Gaye) could pull off