Sign o 'the Times (album)
| Sign o 'the Times | |||||||||
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| Prince's studio album | |||||||||
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Publication |
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admission |
March 15, 1986 - January 15, 1987 |
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| Label (s) | Warner Bros. Records / Paisley Park Records | ||||||||
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Format (s) |
Double CD, double LP |
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Title (number) |
16 |
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80:01 |
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Studio (s) |
Dierks Studio Mobile Trucks (mobile recording studio) |
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Sign o 'the Times ( stylized as Sign “☮” the Times ; English for signs of the times ) is the ninth studio album by the American musician Prince . It was released as a double album on March 30, 1987 on the Warner Bros. Records / Paisley Park Records label. Prince originally recorded a triple album with 22 songs called Crystal Ball , but had to reduce this to a double album with 16 songs at the request of Warner Bros. Records and renamed it Sign o 'the Times .
Guest musicians act Clare Fischer , Jill Jones , Lisa Coleman , Wendy Melvoin , Susannah Melvoin , Sheena Easton and Sheila E. with. Sign o 'the Times was commercially successful and was able to achieve gold and platinum status in various countries around the world.
According to music critics , Sign o 'the Times represents a high point of Prince's musical output; On the album he combines various styles of music from the genres of R&B , electronic dance music , funk , jazz , pop , rock and soul . In 2017 Sign o 'the Times was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame . The album's track list also serves the concert film Prince - Sign O 'the Times , which was released in US cinemas in November 1987.
On September 25, 2020, Warner Bros. Records and NPG Records posthumously released a revised version of the double album called Sign o 'the Times Deluxe .
Emergence
In mid-March 1986 Prince had a recording studio built into his private home in Minneapolis , Minnesota. The new home studio offered enough space for a music band to record songs. Sound engineer Susan Rogers (* 1956) said: “It was a world class studio. We could really have competed with anyone. In contrast to the previous house, this one even had a small additional studio where you could set up drums and piano . ”In previous years, Prince had to switch to other music studios for band studio recordings due to lack of space.
On March 14, 1983 Prince recorded the song Strange Relationship , which he recorded in his private recording studio called Kiowa Trail Home Studio. From January 1981 to November 1985 he lived in a house in Meeker County , Minnesota; the house is also known as the "Purple House" because Prince had it painted purple. Over the years he revised, together with Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman , Strange Relationship repeatedly and placed him eventually on the album Sign o 'the Times .
Three years later Prince recorded the first song, The Ballad of Dorothy Parker, on March 15, 1986 in his new home studio in Minneapolis, and Starfish and Coffee there on April 20. From May 3 to May 11, 1986 Prince booked the Sunset Sound recording studio in Los Angeles , California, and recorded the song It on the last day . He recorded Slow Love on June 4th in his home studio. From July 12 to July 18, 1986 Prince rented the Sunset Sound again and recorded The Cross on July 13 and the title track Sign o 'the Times on July 15 . He also revised the song I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man on July 16 , which he originally wrote in May 1979. Prince recorded Hot Thing in his home studio on August 6, 1986, and Forever in My Life a day later
From August 12 to September 9, 1986, he was on his parade tour around the world, which he completed with The Revolution . On August 25th, Prince played the song It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night at the Zénit in Paris and had it recorded.
When Prince was back in Minneapolis, he recorded the song Shockadelica in his home studio on September 16, 1986 , which served as the b-side of the single from If I Was Your Girlfriend , released in May 1987 . While Prince was working in his home studio during this time, he received a phone call from producer Quincy Jones . He asked if Prince wanted to sing the title song for his new album Bad (1987) in a duet with Michael Jackson . Sound engineer Susan Rogers said, “Prince was thrilled to be asked, but he said to me, 'I don't do that kind of stuff.'” But Jones recalled: “Prince came into the studio, heard the song, and left. Michael had to sing alone. ”In addition, Jackson's then manager Frank DiLeo wanted to organize a music promotion in which Jackson and Prince are presented as competitors, which should generate interest in the song and the album of the same name. Furthermore, Jackson and Prince should appear together in the music video for the single Bad . Instead, Prince offered to play the song Wouldn't You Love to Love Me? to contribute to the album Bad , which Jackson declined. Eventually Prince passed the piece on to singer Taja Sevelle, who released it on her album in 1987. After Prince's death, the version he sang was released on the Originals album in 2019.
In early October 1986 Prince flew back to Los Angeles to record more songs in the Sunset Sound studio for three months. Saxophonist Eric Leeds and trumpeter Atlanta Bliss provided some songs with brass overdubs and Jill Jones was hired as a background singer for several songs. For the first two weeks, Prince was busy writing songs for other performers. Under the pseudonym "Joey Coco" Prince recorded songs for Kenny Rogers , Deborah Allen and Nona Hendryx, among others . He also wrote a song called Emotional Pump for Joni Mitchell , who declined the song and later commented: "I called him and said, 'I can't sing this'". The piece was finally released on Sign o 'the Times Deluxe in September 2020 .
Camille
In mid-October Prince worked on his own projects again and recorded the song Housequake on October 18, 1986 . With the help of technical devices, he changed the pitch of his voice and created an alter ego called "Camille", which served as a pseudonym and is interpreted as an alter ego by him - his evil side. Sound engineer was with Coke Johnson since Susan Rogers was on vacation. Within ten days, Prince recorded five more songs - all with his new "Camille" vocals, including a revised version of Strange Relationship , Rebirth of the Flesh and, on November 2nd, If I Was Your Girlfriend .
On November 5, 1986, Prince completed a new album he called Camille . All songs on this album are performed in accelerated vocals. The album was already given a catalog number by Warner Bros. Records and should be released in January 1987. As the first single, Shockadelica was to be released with Housequake as the B-side . The tracklist of the planned album Camille was as follows:
| No. | Camille : November 5, 1986 | publication |
|---|---|---|
| A-1 | Rebirth of the Flesh | 2020 on Sign o 'the Times Deluxe |
| A-2 | Housequake | Sign o 'the Times |
| A-3 | Strange relationship | Sign o 'the Times |
| A-4 | Feel U Up | 1989 B-side of Partyman |
| B-1 | Shockadelica | 1987 B-side of If I Was Your Girlfriend |
| B-2 | Good love | 1988 on soundtrack of Bright Lights, Big City 1998 on Crystal Ball |
| B-3 | If I Was Your Girlfriend | Sign o 'the Times |
| B-4 | Rockhard in a Funky Place | 1987/1994 on Black Album |
Crystal ball
However, the album Camille was not released and Prince did not pursue the project any further. Instead he recorded Adore in Sunset Sound on November 19, 1986 and Play in the Sunshine on November 22 . He also revised the live version of It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night ; Prince added new lines of text, Sheila E. sang the Transmississippirap and played percussion afterwards . Jill Jones and Susannah Melvoin later took over the backing vocals . In addition, Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss were flown in from Minneapolis to record their instrumental parts on this song and on Adore . On November 30, 1986, Prince completed a new triple album of 22 songs, which he called Crystal Ball . The tracklist was as follows:
| No. | Crystal Ball : November 30, 1986 | publication |
|---|---|---|
| A-1 | Rebirth of the Flesh | 2020 on Sign o 'the Times Deluxe |
| A-2 | Play in the Sunshine | Sign o 'the Times |
| A-3 | Housequake | Sign o 'the Times |
| A-4 | The Ballad of Dorothy Parker | Sign o 'the Times |
| B-1 | It | Sign o 'the Times |
| B-2 | Starfish and Coffee (without alarm clock) | Sign o 'the Times |
| B-3 | Slow love | Sign o 'the Times |
| B-4 | Hot thing | Sign o 'the Times |
| C-1 | Crystal ball | 1998 title track of the album of the same name |
| C-2 | If I Was Your Girlfriend (no intro) | Sign o 'the Times |
| C-3 | Rockhard in a Funky Place | 1987/1994 on Black Album |
| D-1 | The Ball | 2020 on Sign o 'the Times Deluxe |
| D-2 | Joy in repetition | 1990 on Graffiti Bridge |
| D-3 | Strange relationship | Sign o 'the Times |
| D-4 | I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man | Sign o 'the Times |
| E-1 | Shockadelica | 1987 B-side of If I Was Your Girlfriend |
| E-2 | Good love | 1988 on soundtrack Bright Lights, Big City 1998 on Crystal Ball |
| E-3 | Forever in My Life | Sign o 'the Times |
| E-4 | Sign o 'the Times | Sign o 'the Times |
| F-1 | The Cross | Sign o 'the Times |
| F-2 | Adore | Sign o 'the Times |
| F-3 | It's gonna be a beautiful night | Sign o 'the Times |
Mo Ostin , then Chairman of the Board of Directors of Warner Bros. Records, visited Prince in Los Angeles at the Sunset Sound studio and listened to the album Crystal Ball . He then conferred with Prince and Steve Fargnoli (1949-2001), one of Prince's managers at the time. Ostin was skeptical and expressed doubts about the release of a triple album. Sound engineer Susan Rogers described the situation as follows: “Prince and Mo had mutual respect. Mo said to Prince, 'I respect your vision, but it just won't work. It will be hard to sell. ' […] Of course, Prince was very, very disappointed. "Prince's then tour manager Alan Leeds - brother of saxophonist Eric Leeds - was impressed by some of the songs, but he was also not very enthusiastic about the release of Crystal Ball as a triple album and said:" Man had to at least expect that fans and critics would react negatively. The hardcore fans would certainly have been happy about such a mountain of new material, but apart from that, this thing had hardly any advantages. "
Warner Bros. Records insisted that Prince reduce the triple album to a double album. “There were countless meetings, there was a lot of yelling and a lot of annoyance. It was very, very uncomfortable, ”Alan Leeds later recalled of the discrepancies between Prince and Warner Bros. Records. Prince eventually shortened the album Crystal Ball , cut seven songs, changed the order of the songs and renamed the album Sign o 'the Times .
On December 21, 1986 Prince recorded the last song for the new album in Sunset Sound with U Got the Look . When Sheena Easton unexpectedly appeared in the recording studio, he used this opportunity to sing the song together with her as a duet. On January 15, 1987, the double album Sign o 'the Times was completed in Sunset Sound, and Prince integrated a peace sign in the album title instead of the word "of".
Design of the cover
The record cover shows a background made of junk, such as battered musical instruments and amplifiers, withered flowers, broken toys and neon advertising signs on which catchwords like “Arcade”, “Bar Grill” or “Girls, Girls, Girls” can be read; the setting corresponds to the set of Prince's' Sign-o'-the-Times tour and his then-stage designer LeRoy Bennett pointed out that the “cover background was not created on the computer, it was set up in Minneapolis at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater, an event hall. “The drum set is placed on the hood of a Pontiac Grand Prix (built in 1972), the meaning of the number plate“ CKJ 505 ”is not known. On the right outside of the cover half of Prince's face can be seen blurred in the foreground and the color scheme of the cover is mostly kept in peach tones.
In contrast to the booklet , the inner sleeve of the double album contains two more photos of Prince, one of which also depicts the dancer Cat. The record cover of the double LP was not designed as a gatefold cover; the two LPs are pushed into an opening, as with a single LP. The lyrics of the individual songs of Sign o 'the Times are printed both in the booklet and in the LP edition.
In the liner notes Prince mentions a stuffed animal named "The Penguin" (dt .: "The Penguin "); this was used as a running gag during the album recordings and it was always given to the respective sound engineer as a "punishment" who fell asleep for a short time. Due to Prince's unusual working hours, his sound engineers had not always been able to stay awake.
Music and lyrics
On the double album, Prince combines the musical styles that characterize his first eight albums; Pop , rock , funk , soul , R&B paired with electronic dance music and electronica . In addition, influences of jazz can be heard on some of the songs from the Sign o 'the Times album . For the songs Sign o 'the Times and It Prince used the Fairlight CMI as drums , otherwise he trusted the Linn LM-1 .
In the lyrics , Prince deals with topics that he previously dealt with in his albums; interpersonal relationships, love and sexual innuendos. In addition to his characteristic falsetto singing , he also uses lower voices. Prince's pseudonym "Camille" is given as the lead singer on the four songs Housequake , U Got the Look , If I Was Your Girlfriend and Strange Relationship ; a pitch-shifting effect makes Prince's voice a bit higher and faster than usual.
The title track Sign o 'the Times is from the music genres rock and funk, paired with guitar licks with a hint of blues . Prince sings the lyrics to the song , intoning the words in an expressionless, dull tone . He deals with socially critical issues, which are not representative of the double album. For example, Prince makes references to AIDS , drug use , youth gangs , poverty and bomb neuroses. He also addresses the Challenger accident in January 1986 and sings: “It's silly, isn't it? When a missile explodes and everyone still wants to fly ”.
Play in the Sunshine is a party song from the genre Psychedelic Rock and the lyrics are celebrating Prince partying, dancing and the joy of being alive; he wants to have fun like it's the last time.
Housequake comes from the funk field and the horn riffs are reminiscent of Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley , when they used to play in James Brown's band. The sometimes chaotic party atmosphere, on the other hand, is reminiscent of George Clinton's bands Parliament and Funkadelic . The lyrics are similar in content to Play in the Sunshine .
Due to a technical defect, the ballad The Ballad of Dorothy Parker was sometimes muffled; When Prince and his then sound engineer Susan Rogers were working on the song that had already been recorded, there was a power outage due to a snow storm. Rogers later found that the mixer was only running at half the watts recommended. As a result, the song took off highs. The lyrics are about a blonde waitress named "Dorothy Parker" who Prince seeks solace through an anonymous affair. Prince's girlfriend at the time, Susannah Melvoin - twin sister of Wendy Melvoin - inspired the lyrics to the song when he recorded the song after an argument with Susannah Melvoin. Prince also sings a line of lyrics from the song Help Me (1974) by Joni Mitchell from her album Court and Spark . The Ballad of Dorothy Parker has nothing to do with the US writer Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) .
The song It is from the rock and funk and Prince used the Fairlight CMI as drums instead of keyboards for the first time on a song - he recorded the piece on May 11, 1986. The lyrics are about desire and sexual attraction and have sexual personalities; Prince wants to have sex “anywhere” and “all night”, be it in bed or on a staircase.
Starfish and Coffee is influenced by 1960s Britpop . The song begins with the sound of a shrill sounding alarm, then plays Prince piano - chords . The woman named "Cynthia Rose" in Prince's lyrics was a former classmate of hers in real life, according to Susannah Melvoin.
Slow Love is a bedroom ballad from the soul music genre, which is dominated by brass. It is the only song on the album where the String Orchestra of Clare Fischer is heard. Prince's voice moves back and forth between octaves at times, and the lyrics are about love and sex. Prince was inspired by the British singer Carole Davis , with whom he had a brief affair in 1986. Davis is listed as a co-author of the lyrics in the liner notes .
Hot Thing belongs to the funk genre and contains a repetitive keyboard motif that sounds both psychedelic and Far Eastern. In the lyrics of the song, Prince meets a "barely 21-year-old girl" to whom he makes sexual advances.
The melody of Forever in My Life is sometimes reminiscent of the song Everyday People by Sly & the Family Stone from 1969. The gospel- influenced ballad consists only of a few vocal tracks, a rhythm that was generated on the Linn LM-1 and off few guitar figures . A technical recording error shaped the song; before Prince wanted to begin the lead vocals, he asked sound engineers Susan Rogers to mute his previously recorded backing vocals. In retrospect, however, it turned out that Prince had started his main vocals too late, so that the main vocals lagged a little behind the rest of the music. But Prince eventually retained this effect. In the lyrics he promises that he will give up meaningless sexual encounters. John F. Kennedy, Jr. had the song played at his wedding to Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy on September 21, 1996.
U Got the Look comes from the music genre rock and Prince's guitar playing is sometimes reminiscent of that from the song Addicted to Love (1986) by Robert Palmer . Prince sings the lyrics in a duet with Sheena Easton and is about desire and sexual attraction.
The quiet song If I Was Your Girlfriend begins with a 14-second intro , which consists of samples of the songs Yellowstone Park (Rocky Mountains) (1985) by Tangerine Dream , the spoken phrase “Look at the Bargains over here, Ladies” from the Big Apple Rappin '(National Rappin' Anthem) (1980) by Spyder-D and Wedding March (1842) by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , which Prince does not mention in the liner notes . The piece comes from the field of rock and funk. Similar to The Ballad of Dorothy Parker and Forever in My Life , If I Was Your Girlfriend also had a recording error; Susan Rogers accidentally made a setup mistake that caused Prince's vocals to sound distorted in some words at times. "I thought he was going to rip my head off," she later recalled. But Prince liked the effect and he ended up releasing this version on the album. In the lyrics he longs for the relaxed intimacy between girlfriends and was inspired by the relationship he had observed between the twins Susannah and Wendy Melvoin.
The song Strange Relationship is from the genre of electronic dance music and pop music. In the lyrics of the song, the protagonist cannot stand when his lover is happy. But their sadness preoccupies him even more - a love-hate relationship develops, from which neither of the two emerges as the winner and for which he would like to apologize. In September 2018, an acoustic version of Strange Relationship was released on the album Piano & A Microphone 1983 , which Prince recorded in October 1983 and which he only plays on the piano . This version is very different from the one on Sign o 'the Times .
I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man is a rock song reminiscent of Britpop and surf music from the 1960s. In the lyrics, Prince tells a short story- like plot; a single mother who is pregnant again has been abandoned by her husband. She meets Prince and wants to start a new relationship with him, but he refuses. As a reason he sings that he is "qualified" for a one-night stand , but not for a long-term relationship. Prince refuses her suggestion "to be able to be friends" on the grounds that "we would not be satisfied".
The Cross is a slow rock number that has the touch of an anthem and a distorted guitar motif. In the lyrics, Prince describes the torments of life on earth, which are alleviated by the beauty of the afterlife .
The recording of It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night is from a live concert, the Prince with The Revolution in France on August 25, 1986 Zenith Paris played. The song is from the genre funk and dance pop , the lyrics are about desire and sexual attraction. The background choir quotes the songs of the warriors of the Wicked Witch of the West from the film The Wizard of Oz (1939) .
Prince sings the R&B ballad Adore mainly in falsetto. After hearing the two albums Winner in You (1986) by Patti LaBelle and Give Me the Reason (1986) by Luther Vandross , Prince inspired him to write Adore . In the lyrics, Prince shows a more mature approach to relationships, emphasizing devotion and commitment.
Title list and publications
Disc I.
| No. | song | author | length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sign o 'the Times | Prince | 4:56 |
| 2 | Play in the Sunshine | Prince | 5:05 |
| 3 | Housequake | Prince | 4:41 |
| 4th | The Ballad of Dorothy Parker | Prince | 4:01 |
| 5 | It | Prince | 5:09 |
| 6th | Starfish and Coffee | Prince, Susannah Melvoin | 2:50 |
| 7th | Slow love | Prince, Carole Davis | 4:22 |
| 8th | Hot thing | Prince | 5:40 |
| 9 | Forever in My Life | Prince | 3:30 |
Disc II
| No. | song | author | length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | U Got the Look (duet with Sheena Easton ) | Prince | 3:46 |
| 2 | If I Was Your Girlfriend | Prince | 4:59 |
| 3 | Strange relationship | Prince | 4:01 |
| 4th | I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man | Prince | 6:28 |
| 5 | The Cross | Prince | 4:45 |
| 6th | It's gonna be a beautiful night | Prince, Dr. Fink, Eric Leeds | 9:01 |
| 7th | Adore | Prince | 6:31 |
On March 30, 1987, Sign o 'the Times was released as a double album on record and as a compact cassette in Great Britain, and one day later the album was released in the USA. Sign o 'the Times was later released as a double CD on compact disc .
On September 25, 2020, Warner Bros. Records and NPG Records posthumously released a new edition called Sign o 'the Times Deluxe and on the occasion of Record Store Day on October 24, 2020, the original double album was released as a limited 140g Picture Disc on record.
Singles
Four singles were released from the album. Sign o 'the Times was released on February 18, 1987 as a pre-single, which has been shortened to 3:42 minutes. The B-side is a shortened version of La, La, La, He, Hee , which was previously unpublished. Prince recorded this song with Sheena Easton in mid-January 1987 . If I Was Your Girlfriend was released on May 6, 1987 and is 3:46 minutes long. On the B-side you can hear a shortened version of Shockadelica , which was also previously unreleased.
The third single was released on July 14, 1987 U Got the Look , which is identical to the album version. The B-side Housequake has been shortened to 3:24 minutes and has been censored; instead of “bullshit”, Prince only sings “bull”. The last single was released on November 3, 1987, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man , which was shortened to 3:38 minutes. The B-side is the piece Hot Thing , which at 3:40 minutes is two minutes shorter than the album version.
Music videos
With Sign o 'the Times , U Got the Look and I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, Prince produced three music videos for songs from the album Sign o' the Times . In the music video for the title track, only the lyrics of the song are graphically displayed using computer animation . Prince or anyone else does not perform.
U Got the Look shows Prince with his backing band and duet partner Sheena Easton how the song is sung together on a stage in the playback . The video was shot on June 16, 1987 in Paris in the Arena Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy during the Sign-o'-the-Times tour and can also be seen in the concert film Prince - Sign O 'the Times . The director was David Hogan. The music video for I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man is also taken from the concert film and shows Prince's live performance on June 27, 1987 in Rotterdam at Ahoy Rotterdam .
No music video was officially released for the single If I Was Your Girlfriend ; Although a video from the film Prince - Sign O 'the Times can be viewed online on various video portals , this was done without the consent of Prince or Warner Bros. Records.
Cover versions
Various musicians from different genres recorded cover versions of songs from the album Sign o 'the Times , with the title track being the most frequently interpreted; for example Billy Cobham (1987), PJ Proby (1989), Simple Minds (1989), Nina Simone (1993), Sex Mob (1998), The Ukrainians (1998), Heaven 17 (1999), Joy Denalane (2004) , Sandy Mölling (2006), Chaka Khan (2007), Barbara Morgenstern (2011), Muse (2012), Torun Eriksen (2013) and Steven Wilson (2014).
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Slow Love covered Carole Davis (1989), I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man Goo Goo Dolls (1990), Jordan Knight (1999), Sigue Sigue Sputnik (1999), Soulounge (2003), Gob Squad (2004) and Eels (2008). Michy Reincke recorded the first German-language version of a Prince title in 1992; his version of I'm Not Your Man is based on I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man .
Gary Numan (1992) re- recorded the song U Got the Look , and If I Was Your Girlfriend re- recorded TLC (1994), OP: L Bastards (2001), Eels (2008) and David Helbock (2012). The song '03 Bonnie & Clyde (2002) by Beyoncé and Jay-Z also contains the lyrics to If I Was Your Girlfriend .
The Cross was covered by Porcupine Tree (1994), Laibach (1996), The Blind Boys of Alabama (2002) and Simple Minds (2018), featuring Starfish and Coffee by Soulwax (1999), Matt Nathanson (2004) and by Renee Stahl Maya Rudolph (2015). In addition, the Belgian musician Bart Peeters recorded a version in Flemish with Zeester met Koffie (2002) .
Forever in My Life interpreted Soulounge (2003), Adore TQ (2004) and The Ballad of Dorothy Parker Bob Belden (2005). Ween's song LMLYP (1990) is based on Shockadelica , the B-side of If I Was Your Girlfriend
tour
The Sign-o'-the-Times tour began on May 8, 1987 in Stockholm in the Johanneshovs Isstadion and ended on June 29, 1987 in Antwerp in the Sportpaleis . The tour took place exclusively in Europe, included 34 concerts and was attended by a total of around 350,000 people. Prince appeared for the first time in Switzerland and Austria. Both the concerts on June 27 and 28, 1987 in Rotterdam Ahoy and the final concert in Antwerp were filmed. A compilation of these concerts with additional scenes, which were shot in Prince's Paisley Park Studio in Chanhassen , Minnesota, was released in November 1987 as the concert film Prince - Sign O 'the Times . A typical setlist on the Sign-o'-the-Times tour consisted of those songs that were also recorded for the concert film, supplemented by the top ten hits of 1999 , When Doves Cry , Let's Go Crazy , Purple Rain and Kiss .
The concert length varied from 90 to 110 minutes and the total cost of the stage production was about 250,000 US dollars, at that time about 450,000 DM . The band Madhouse, a side project of Prince at the time, appeared as the opening act and played for about 20 to 30 minutes. Prince's backing band during the Sign-o'-the-Times tour consisted of the following ten members:
- Atlanta Bliss (born Matthew Blistan in Atlanta , Georgia, December 14, 1952 , school friend of Eric Leeds) - trumpet
- Boni Boyer (born Bonita Louisa Boyer on July 28, 1958 in Washington, DC , † December 4, 1996 in San Pablo , California) - keyboard and backing vocals
- Cat (born Catherine Vernice Glover in Chicago , Illinois on July 23, 1964 ) - dancer and backing vocals
- Dr. Fink (born February 8, 1957 as Matthew Robert Fink in St. Louis Park , metropolitan area Minneapolis-Saint Paul) - keyboard
- Eric Leeds (born Eric Jeffrey Leeds in Milwaukee , Wisconsin , January 19, 1952 ) - saxophone and flute
- Greg Brooks (as Gregory Allen Brooks in Detroit , Michigan) - dancer and backing vocals
- Levi Seacer Jr., (born April 30, 1961 in Richmond , California) - electric bass and backing vocals
- Miko Weaver (born March 11, 1957 in Berkeley , California) - guitar and backing vocals
- Sheila E. (born December 12, 1957 in Oakland , California) - drums and backing vocals
- Wally Safford (born Wallace Anthony Safford on November 10, 1959 in Detroit, Michigan) - dancer and backing vocals
On December 31, 1987, Prince played a benefit concert at his Paisley Park Studio , ending the Sign-o'-the-Times era. He had invited Miles Davis as a musical guest and the concert was released on DVD in September 2020 under the title Live at Paisley Park - December 31, 1987 .
Aftershows
From 1986 onwards, Prince occasionally played an aftershow after the main concert, i.e. another concert after midnight. His aftershows took place in smaller music clubs in front of mostly 300 to 1,500 spectators and Prince did without the lavish stage shows, choreographies and light shows of his main concerts. In addition, he designed the selection of songs differently and often did without his top ten hits. Some of the aftershows' highlights were guest appearances by well-known musicians.
In 1987 Prince played an aftershow at 5 of the 34 concerts on the Sign-o'-the-Times tour. He performed on May 13, 1987 in Gothenburg in Park Lane, on May 15 in Berlin in Quasimodo , and on May 21 in Munich in the Park Café. Steven Van Zandt and Prince's father John L. Nelson played as musical guests in Munich . In addition, Prince gave an aftershow on May 29 , 1987 in Vienna in the U4 and on June 15, 1987 in Paris in the New Morning .
reception
Press
The double album Sign o 'the Times was , according to various music critics, a high point of Prince's musical output and some compared it to The White Album (1968) by The Beatles and Exile on Main St. (1972) by The Rolling Stones . In Europe in particular, Sign o 'the Times received excellent reception in some cases .
Ted Mico of the British magazine Melody Maker praised Prince: “The man is truly a genius. Here you can find allusions to the Temptations , a touch of Isaac Hayes , traces of Sly Stone and even the footprints of Robert Palmer . ”Charles Shaar Murray from the British music magazine Q highlighted Prince's“ finesse ”and“ courage ”for his“ funky angularity in the middle into the soft white belly of the pop “out. Kurt Loder of the US music magazine Rolling Stone described half of Sign o 'the Times as "brilliant" and the other half as "just better than ninety percent of the things you hear on the radio". There is "really no one like Prince (although a lot of people try to be), and he remains that rare Pop Art artist who can be appended with the word genius - or artist - without choking." of course terrific ”. The US magazine Time wrote that Prince had put a " hypnotic hook " on the album , and Dennis Hunt of the national US daily Los Angeles Times said the album was "mostly very good".
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the highest score of five stars and wrote that Sign o 'the Times falls “in the tradition of huge, chaotic double albums like The Beatles [The White Album] , Exile on Main St. and London Calling [(1979) von The Clash ] - albums that are fantastic because of their overreach. ”The US music journalist Robert Christgau awarded the album the top grade A + and described Prince as“ the most talented pop musician of his generation ”. The US weekly newspaper The Village Voice voted Sign o 'the Times as "Best Album of the Year" in 1987 and the title track as "Best Single of the Year".
But there were also less enthusiastic reviews; for example, wrote Dieter Römer from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : “Braise in your own juice”. He also considered the "voltage drop during some pieces" to be "considerable". His conclusion was: "Crude texts, counting rhymes, platitudes , vulgar philosophical and endless variations of individual lines mix with impressive descriptions as in the grandiose title track." Paolo Hewitt from the British magazine New Musical Express was also more reserved with praise and said the album had an effect sketchy, unbalanced and incomplete. Geoffrey Himes of the US newspaper The Washington Post wrote that the album was " inconsistent, " and Bart Bull of the US music magazine Spin was even very disappointed; he was of the opinion that the album was "to be thrown away" and the songs "so dissolute" that they "could" be " outtakes ".
Musician colleagues also commented on Sign o 'the Times ; When Herbert Grönemeyer was asked by the music magazine Musikexpress in the 1980s which records he would take with him to an island as an emergency ration, he listed nine, including the Prince albums Sign o 'the Times and the 1986 album Parade . Joni Mitchell said of Prince: "Like every artist, he is constantly driven - motivated by artistic development and a willingness to experiment, as opposed to the constant repetition of a once successful hit formula."
After Prince's death in April 2016, the music journalists Albert Koch and Thomas Weiland from Musikexpress reviewed the album Sign o 'the Times and gave it the highest score of six stars. They wrote: "If you are wondering which of the countless Prince publications is really the absolutely indispensable, you will find the answer here". On the album, Prince "burns off a fireworks display". 30 years after the year Sign o 'the Times was published , Sassan Niasseri gave four and a half out of five stars from the German edition of the music magazine Rolling Stone in 2017 . He said the album was "Prince's masterpiece because it combined a variety of styles".
Charts
| ChartsChart placements | Top ranking | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
 Germany (GfK)
|
3 (29 weeks) | 29 |
 Austria (Ö3)
|
2 (27 weeks) | 27 |
 Switzerland (IFPI)
|
1 (1) (27 weeks) | 27 |
 United Kingdom (OCC)
|
4th (37 weeks) | 37 |
 United States (Billboard)
|
6th (59 weeks) | 59 |
The highest ranking in Germany results from the new edition of Sign o 'the Times Deluxe in October 2020 , the original album reached number 11 in 1987. Sign o' the Times sold around 3.2 million copies worldwide, half of them in was deposed from the United States. Internationally, the album has been awarded gold and platinum status several times:
- US: 1 × platinum for 1,000,000 copies sold on July 2, 1987
- CH: 1 × gold for 25,000 copies sold in 1987
- UK: 1 × platinum for 300,000 copies sold on September 1, 1990
- DE: 1 × gold for 250,000 copies sold in 1993
- AU: 1 × gold for 35,000 copies sold on May 31, 1999
- FR: 2 × gold for 200,000 copies sold on October 18, 2001
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
UK
|
US
|
|||
| 1987 | Sign o 'the Times |
DE35 (14 weeks) DE |
AT20 (8 weeks) AT |
CH11 (15 weeks) CH |
UK10 (9 weeks) UK |
US3 (14 weeks) US |
|
| If I Was Your Girlfriend | - | - |
CH15 (5 weeks) CH |
UK20 (6 weeks) UK |
US67 (6 weeks) US |
||
| U Got the Look ( duet with Sheena Easton ) |
DE61 (5 weeks) DE |
AT23 (2 weeks) AT |
- |
UK11 (9 weeks) UK |
US2 (25 weeks) US |
||
| I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man | - | - | - |
UK29 (6 weeks) UK |
US10 (17 weeks) US |
||
| 1988 | Hot thing | DEnvDE | ATnvAT | CHnvCH | UKnvUK |
US63 (9 weeks) US |
• No single release, placed via Airplay.
• Chart entry: February 6, 1988 |
| 2016 | Sign o 'the Times | - | - |
CH67 (1 week) CH |
- | - |
• Posthumous re-entry : May 1st, 2016
|
Awards (selection)
In 2010, the US music magazine Rolling Stone compiled a list of The 500 Best Songs of All Time , among which it placed Sign o 'the Times at number 304. In 2020, the same magazine voted the album Sign o 'the Times at number 45 of The 500 Best Albums of All Time . Prince also received the following awards for the album:
Grammy Hall of Fame
- 2017: Sign o 'the Times (album)
Minnesota Music Awards
- 1988: Album of the Year: Sign o 'the Times
- 1988: Best R&B composition (R&B / Bands: R&B Composition): Sign o 'the Times (song) and U Got the Look (tie between the two songs)
MTV Video Music Awards
- 1988: Best Stage Performance: U Got the Look
- 1988: Best Male Video: U Got the Look
literature
- Alex Hahn: Obsessed - Prince's turbulent life. Hannibal, Höfen 2006, ISBN 3-85445-262-4 .
- Arthur Lizie: Prince FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Purple Reign. Backbeat Books, Guilford (Connecticut) 2020, ISBN 978-1-61713-670-2 .
- Dave Hill: Prince - A Pop Life. Droemer Knaur, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-426-04036-0 .
- Duane Tudahl: Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions 1983 and 1984. Rowman & Littlefield, London 2018, ISBN 978-1-5381-0549-8 .
- Jason Draper: Prince - Life & Times. Jawbone Press, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-906002-18-3 .
- Jon Ewing: Prince - CD Books : Carlton Books, Rastatt 1994, ISBN 3-8118-3986-1 .
- Jürgen Seibold : Prince. Verlagsunion Erich Pabel-Arthur Moewig, Rastatt 1991, ISBN 3-8118-3078-3 .
- Michaelangelo Matos: 33 1/3 Sign 'O' the Times. Continuum International Publishing, New York / London 2004, ISBN 978-0-8264-1547-9 .
- Per Nilsen: DanceMusicSexRomance - Prince: The First Decade. Firefly Publishing, London 1999, ISBN 0-946719-23-3 .
- Roland Mischke: From Nobody to Pop Prince. Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1989, ISBN 3-404-61157-8 .
- Ronin Ro: Prince - Inside the Music and the Masks. St. Martin's Press, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-312-38300-8 .
- Uptown: The Vault - The Definitive Guide to the Musical World of Prince. Nilsen Publishing, Linköping 2004, ISBN 91-631-5482-X .
- Wally Safford: Wally, Where'd You Get Those Glasses ?. Lil Gater's Publishing, Detroit, Michigan 2019, ISBN 978-1-7336451-1-9 .
Web links
- Princevault , information about the album Sign o 'the Times
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 281.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 208.
- ↑ Tudahl (2019), p. 39.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 208.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Nilsen (1999), p. 280.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), pp. 266-267.
- ↑ a b c Nilsen (1999), p. 281.
- ^ I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man. In: Princevault.com. September 26, 2020, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 267.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 215.
- ↑ Seibold (1991), p. 76.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), pp. 215-216.
- ↑ a b Hahn (2006), p. 161.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 216.
- ↑ a b Nilsen (1999), p. 217.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 218.
- ^ Crystal Ball. In: Princevault.com. October 11, 2020, accessed on February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Steven Joseph Fargnoli in the Find a Grave database . Accessed February 21, 2021.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 219.
- ↑ a b Hahn (2006), p. 165.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 268.
- ^ Hill (1989), p. 263.
- ↑ Sassan Niasseri: Production designer LeRoy Bennett in an interview: “Prince was not allowed to be electrocuted!” In: Rollingstone.de. September 4, 2020, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ a b c d Hahn (2006), p. 168.
- ↑ a b Booklet of the double CD Sign o 'the Times by Prince, Warner Bros. Records / Paisley Park Records, 1987
- ^ Album cover of Prince's double LP Sign o 'the Times , Warner Bros. Records / Paisley Park Records, 1987
- ↑ a b c Uptown (2004), p. 376.
- ↑ Ewing (1994), p. 72.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), pp. 221-223.
- ↑ Draper (2011), p. 85.
- ↑ a b c Hahn (2006), p. 159.
- ^ Hill (1989), p. 277.
- ↑ Mischke (1989), p. 181.
- ↑ a b c d Nilsen (1999), p. 222.
- ^ Hill (1989), p. 265.
- ↑ a b c d e Kenneth Partridge: Prince's' Sign O 'the Times' Turns 30: All the Songs Ranked. In: Billboard.com. March 31, 2017, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Nilsen (1999), p. 223.
- ↑ a b Thorne (2017), p. 194.
- ^ Hill (1989), p. 278.
- ↑ Hahn (2006), p. 162.
- ↑ a b Thorne (2017), p. 185.
- ↑ a b Thorne (2017), p. 193.
- ↑ Hahn (1989), p. 269.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 211.
- ^ Ro (2011), p. 153.
- ↑ a b Hahn (2006), p. 160.
- ↑ Hahn (2016), p. 163.
- ↑ Hill (1989), pp. 269-270.
- ↑ Thorne (2017), p. 195.
- ^ Hill (1989), p. 276.
- ↑ Hahn (2016), p. 174.
- ↑ Matos (2004), p. 85.
- ↑ Lizie (2020), p. 91.
- ^ Prince - Sign o 'the Times. In: Recordstoredaygermany.de. October 24, 2020, accessed on February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 78.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 230.
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 80.
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 84.
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 86.
- ↑ a b c Uptown (2004), p. 623.
- ↑ Cover.Info. In: Cover.info. Retrieved February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Prince on WhoSampled
- ↑ SecondHandSongs - a cover songs database. In: Secondhandsongs.com. 2021, accessed on February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 80 and p. 83.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 238.
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 83.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 234.
- ↑ US dollar exchange rate development 1971 to 2020. In: reisebuch.de. 2021, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 81.
- ↑ Uptown (2004), pp. 80-81.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 257.
- ↑ Bonita Louisa “Boni” Boyer in the Find a Grave database . Accessed February 21, 2021.
- ↑ Official Cat Glover. In: facebook.com. July 23, 2020, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Prince's 'Cat' vows to keep his memory alive. In: chicagocrusader.com. May 5, 2016, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 21.
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 60.
- ^ Levi Seacer, Jr. In: Princevault.com. September 5, 2020, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Safford (2019), p. 3.
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 81
- ^ One-Off Performance May 21, 1987. In: Princevault.com. May 10, 2019, accessed on February 21, 2021 .
- ^ Uptown (2004), p. 82.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Nilsen (1999), p. 233.
- ↑ Kurt Loder: Read the original Rolling Stone Review. In: Sonicmoremusic.com. March 31, 2014, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Mischke (1989), p. 181.
- ↑ Stephen Thomas Erlewine: Prince - Sign 'O' the Times. In: Allmusic.com. 2021, accessed on February 21, 2021 .
- ^ Robert Christgau: Prince: Sign o 'the Times. In: Robertchristgau.com. 2021, accessed on February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ a b Mischke (1989), p. 182.
- ↑ Mischke (1989), p. 144.
- ↑ Albert Koch and Thomas Weiland: From the great Prince Special - an overview of all albums. In: Musikexpress.de. May 27, 2016, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Prince. In: officialcharts.de. Retrieved February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Prince. In: austriancharts.at. Retrieved February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Prince. In: hitparade.ch. Retrieved February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Prince. In: officialcharts.com. Accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Chart History - Prince. In: billboard.com. Accessed February 20, 2021 .
- ↑ Hahn (2006), p. 169.
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 79.
- ↑ Gold for Sign o 'the Times in Switzerland (PDF file, p.43)
- ^ BPI - Certified Awards. February 21, 2021, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Gold / platinum database. In: Musikindustrie.de. 2021, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ^ ARIA Accreditations. 2021, accessed on February 21, 2021 .
- ^ Les Certifications depuis 1973. In: Infodisc.fr. April 12, 2018, accessed April 12, 2018 (French).
- ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
- ↑ Rolling Stone: Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of all time (2010 Edition). In: Rollingstone.com. May 10, 2013, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Rolling Stone: The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In: Rollingstone.com. September 22, 2020, accessed February 21, 2021 .
- ^ Grammy Hall of Fame. In: Grammy.com. 2021, accessed on February 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 91.
- ↑ a b c Awards. In: Princevault.com. August 1, 2016, accessed February 21, 2021 .