Oh why, Oh whyyyy-i-i-i-i
March 31, 2017 10:28 AM Subscribe
You know, Prince's album Sign O' The Times, dropped 30 years ago yesterday, but there's not enough material online to make a good post about it.
This song has no baseline.[sic]
Prince, on that topic: "....‘When Doves Cry’ does have bass in it—the bass is in the kick drum. It’s the same with ‘Kiss’ [Parade]: The bass is in the tone of the reverb on the kick. Bass is a lot more than that instrument over there. Bass to me means B-A-S-E. B-A-S-S is a fish.”
posted by thelonius at 10:39 AM on March 31, 2017 [28 favorites]
Prince, on that topic: "....‘When Doves Cry’ does have bass in it—the bass is in the kick drum. It’s the same with ‘Kiss’ [Parade]: The bass is in the tone of the reverb on the kick. Bass is a lot more than that instrument over there. Bass to me means B-A-S-E. B-A-S-S is a fish.”
posted by thelonius at 10:39 AM on March 31, 2017 [28 favorites]
Wikipedia:
posted by Emmy Noether at 10:46 AM on March 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
The songs were largely recorded during 1986 to 1987 in sessions for albums Prince ultimately aborted: Dream Factory, Camille, and Crystal Ball. Initially intending to release a triple album culled from these sessions, Prince compromised with label executives and shortened the length of the release to a double album.For a different take on the album, see soniclovenoize's reconstruction of Dream Factory, the scrapped Prince and the Revolution album from which some of the song for Sign o' the Times were taken.
posted by Emmy Noether at 10:46 AM on March 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
Prince, on that topic: "....‘When Doves Cry’ does have bass in it—the bass is in the kick drum.
There's a brand new groove going 'round and the kick drum is to fault. #housequake
posted by hippybear at 10:49 AM on March 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
There's a brand new groove going 'round and the kick drum is to fault. #housequake
posted by hippybear at 10:49 AM on March 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
Big album. Little post.
posted by davebush at 10:55 AM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by davebush at 10:55 AM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Fun fact: The accompanying concert film is one of the best concert films ever made, even though most of it was shot at Paisley Park after footage from the European tour proved unusable.
posted by goatdog at 10:58 AM on March 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by goatdog at 10:58 AM on March 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
In 1989, Time Out magazine ranked it as the greatest album of all time.
I don't have the chutzpah to name the greatest album of all time, but neither do I have the cojones to argue with Time Out's judgement. That song "If I Was Your Girlfriend" knocks me out every time.
posted by kozad at 11:04 AM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't have the chutzpah to name the greatest album of all time, but neither do I have the cojones to argue with Time Out's judgement. That song "If I Was Your Girlfriend" knocks me out every time.
posted by kozad at 11:04 AM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
The Artist Formerly Known As performs Starfish And Coffee on Muppets Tonight in 1997.
posted by hippybear at 11:04 AM on March 31, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 11:04 AM on March 31, 2017 [14 favorites]
A.V. Club on Sign o' the Times at 30
Rolling Stone on Sign o' the Times at 30
BBC on Sign o' the Times at 30
Questlove on Sign o' the Times at 30
posted by Lyme Drop at 11:07 AM on March 31, 2017 [10 favorites]
Rolling Stone on Sign o' the Times at 30
BBC on Sign o' the Times at 30
Questlove on Sign o' the Times at 30
posted by Lyme Drop at 11:07 AM on March 31, 2017 [10 favorites]
Prince performing Sign o' the Times at the 1987 Video Music Awards was the first time I had ever heard it. Amazing performance here.
posted by JohnFromGR at 11:19 AM on March 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by JohnFromGR at 11:19 AM on March 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
i'll take the bullet and mention that Harry Styles, ex-1D member, is purposefully releasing promo material today announcing his first single titled, Sign Of The Times.
(can one self-flag?)
posted by cendawanita at 11:36 AM on March 31, 2017
(can one self-flag?)
posted by cendawanita at 11:36 AM on March 31, 2017
It's good to see this album finally starting to get the same due that albums like Sgt. Pepper's and Exile on Main St. always get. Because there's a very strong argument that it's superior to both of those (and many others), yet it always gets underrated -- for reasons unknown, other than the most obvious, which is that it's by Prince, whom many people love to underrate, still, after all this time.
posted by blucevalo at 11:38 AM on March 31, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by blucevalo at 11:38 AM on March 31, 2017 [8 favorites]
There are days I just want to live inside the instrumental jam of I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man forever.
posted by hippybear at 11:40 AM on March 31, 2017 [15 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 11:40 AM on March 31, 2017 [15 favorites]
My favorite Prince LP by a wide margin. Possibly the best record of the 1980s.
posted by porn in the woods at 11:42 AM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by porn in the woods at 11:42 AM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
What a great album. "Sign O' The Times" (the song) sounds like it could have been written and recorded last week, not 30 years ago - so much of it is still relevant today. And "Housequake" is one of the best party songs ever.
posted by SisterHavana at 11:50 AM on March 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by SisterHavana at 11:50 AM on March 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
Shut up already! Damn!
posted by hippybear at 11:59 AM on March 31, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 11:59 AM on March 31, 2017 [8 favorites]
...high on crack, totin' a machine gun.
That lyric still hits me.
posted by fuse theorem at 12:08 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
That lyric still hits me.
posted by fuse theorem at 12:08 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
THIRTY YEARS WHAT DO YOU EVEN MEAN?!
I got this one via one of those record clubs...Columbia? Most of the music I got back then was on cassette of course, but for some reason they didn't have this on tape so I got it on vinyl, which arrived while I was at school. I still remember my mom picking me up at school and handing it to me...she had to do something inside, so I sat in the car and ripped it open and had all sorts of crazy feelings and couldn't wait to get home and drag my parents' stereo into my room (since they had the only turntable in the house and I would never ever listen to Prince when they were nearby). Every new Prince album was like that--close the door, pull on headphones, and sink in, hoping nobody would call for supper or homework, forgetting everything else and just being inside his mind.
Now I guess I'm gonna sink into nostalgia instead. Wow. Thirty years.
posted by mittens at 12:34 PM on March 31, 2017 [7 favorites]
I got this one via one of those record clubs...Columbia? Most of the music I got back then was on cassette of course, but for some reason they didn't have this on tape so I got it on vinyl, which arrived while I was at school. I still remember my mom picking me up at school and handing it to me...she had to do something inside, so I sat in the car and ripped it open and had all sorts of crazy feelings and couldn't wait to get home and drag my parents' stereo into my room (since they had the only turntable in the house and I would never ever listen to Prince when they were nearby). Every new Prince album was like that--close the door, pull on headphones, and sink in, hoping nobody would call for supper or homework, forgetting everything else and just being inside his mind.
Now I guess I'm gonna sink into nostalgia instead. Wow. Thirty years.
posted by mittens at 12:34 PM on March 31, 2017 [7 favorites]
I got my driver's license in April, 1987. One of the first times I ever drove by myself, I borrowed my mom's Mazda after school to go to the mall record store in my small Tennessee town to buy Sign O The Times. I popped the cassette in the stereo and drove around listening to it for the first time. There was a storm blowing up as I left the mall parking lot, and during the course of the record, as I drove around aimlessly, a thunderstorm came and went. That mood of electricity and danger, with a sunset coming at the end of "Adore", has always stuck to the album for me. I listened to it on a walk on a bright sunny day yesterday and it still felt like that.
posted by vibrotronica at 12:45 PM on March 31, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by vibrotronica at 12:45 PM on March 31, 2017 [13 favorites]
"It's good to see this album finally starting to get the same due that albums like Sgt. Pepper's and Exile on Main St. always get. Because there's a very strong argument that it's superior to both of those (and many others), yet it always gets underrated -- for reasons unknown, other than the most obvious, which is that it's by Prince, whom many people love to underrate, still, after all this time."
Sgt. Pepper's is overrated; Exile is arguably underrated.
And Sign O' The Times is contemporarily more likely to be overrated than underrated, honestly. Prince's genius moments always come along with the problems of someone who knows they're a genius creating art — for every When Doves Cry, there's a Bat Dance. Even in Sign O' The Times, with one of the best opening lines in pop history, has hilarious anti-drug Nancy Reagan shit — "In September my cousin tried reefer for the very first time/ Now he's doing horse/ it's June." Or on U Got The Look: "Your face is jammin'/ your body's hecka slammin'/ if love is good/ let's get to rammin'."
Prince is pretty much the epitome of unfiltered genius, and because of that, his sprawling albums often have tons of filler. He's basically the '80s best justification for home taping, and it's one of those things that live shows of his really confirm — he often drops songs like It or Hot Thing into medley snippets, while expanding other songs outward into different arrangements.
It's an album that I think is an essential listen for thinking about albums, but it's been rated as a GOAT since the '80s, so claiming that it's underrated and not acknowledging some pretty good reasons that it's not GOAT seems absurd.
posted by klangklangston at 1:57 PM on March 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
Sgt. Pepper's is overrated; Exile is arguably underrated.
And Sign O' The Times is contemporarily more likely to be overrated than underrated, honestly. Prince's genius moments always come along with the problems of someone who knows they're a genius creating art — for every When Doves Cry, there's a Bat Dance. Even in Sign O' The Times, with one of the best opening lines in pop history, has hilarious anti-drug Nancy Reagan shit — "In September my cousin tried reefer for the very first time/ Now he's doing horse/ it's June." Or on U Got The Look: "Your face is jammin'/ your body's hecka slammin'/ if love is good/ let's get to rammin'."
Prince is pretty much the epitome of unfiltered genius, and because of that, his sprawling albums often have tons of filler. He's basically the '80s best justification for home taping, and it's one of those things that live shows of his really confirm — he often drops songs like It or Hot Thing into medley snippets, while expanding other songs outward into different arrangements.
It's an album that I think is an essential listen for thinking about albums, but it's been rated as a GOAT since the '80s, so claiming that it's underrated and not acknowledging some pretty good reasons that it's not GOAT seems absurd.
posted by klangklangston at 1:57 PM on March 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
I posted this in the big thread last year, but going to repost it here for the last three links:
Btw, another interesting woman from Prince's crew: Susan Rogers, sound engineer on Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day, Parade, and Sign o' the Times, among others. Here's a couple of interviews, on their work on Purple Rain (part one and two) and Sign o' the Times (parts one, two, three).posted by effbot at 2:49 PM on March 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
"Play In The Sunshine" is my happy af good time bouncy jam
posted by ersatzkat at 4:05 PM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ersatzkat at 4:05 PM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
there's not enough material online to make a good post about it
You ever hear about the time Prince went into Vortex Records in Toronto and took all of his bootlegs out of the Prince section and brought them to the counter and said, "I'll be taking these" and then walked out with them?
Yeah, he's really into copyright.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 4:09 PM on March 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
You ever hear about the time Prince went into Vortex Records in Toronto and took all of his bootlegs out of the Prince section and brought them to the counter and said, "I'll be taking these" and then walked out with them?
Yeah, he's really into copyright.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 4:09 PM on March 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
I read that Charles Mingus's widow used to do that in Paris too, but not just with bootlegs - anything she deemed illegitimate, like if someone else owned rights, she'd confiscate. I think they just charged it to the game, since she didn't do this very often.
posted by thelonius at 4:20 PM on March 31, 2017
posted by thelonius at 4:20 PM on March 31, 2017
I'll admit, Prince's approach to copyright worked. If I'm out second-hand shopping, I'll always pick up a Prince CD if I see it because they still have strong resale value today, due to the paucity of material on the internet. This is not the case with most big-name CDs from the 90s now.
posted by solarion at 4:34 PM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by solarion at 4:34 PM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
Even in Sign O' The Times, with one of the best opening lines in pop history, has hilarious anti-drug Nancy Reagan shit — "In September my cousin tried reefer for the very first time/ Now he's doing horse/ it's June."
One person's "hilarious antidrug Nancy Reagan shit" is another's trenchant (for the time) social commentary, I guess. To each their own.
Or on U Got The Look: "Your face is jammin'/ your body's hecka slammin'/ if love is good/ let's get to rammin'."
This line isn't worse than anything you'd see on any 80's cock-rock album, and Prince has said it was modeled after "Addicted to Love," so if you're looking for "genius" lyrics here, you're looking in the wrong place, really.
To argue that Prince is "unfiltered genius" is the same rockist bullshit you hear about Prince all the time, and it doesn't wash. What would make his genius less "unfiltered" and more, what? Disciplined? Focused? Palatable?
Seriously, what 80s album didn't have "tons of filler"?
posted by blucevalo at 4:38 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
One person's "hilarious antidrug Nancy Reagan shit" is another's trenchant (for the time) social commentary, I guess. To each their own.
Or on U Got The Look: "Your face is jammin'/ your body's hecka slammin'/ if love is good/ let's get to rammin'."
This line isn't worse than anything you'd see on any 80's cock-rock album, and Prince has said it was modeled after "Addicted to Love," so if you're looking for "genius" lyrics here, you're looking in the wrong place, really.
To argue that Prince is "unfiltered genius" is the same rockist bullshit you hear about Prince all the time, and it doesn't wash. What would make his genius less "unfiltered" and more, what? Disciplined? Focused? Palatable?
Seriously, what 80s album didn't have "tons of filler"?
posted by blucevalo at 4:38 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Seriously, what 80s album didn't have lots of filler?
Seriously, what music fan would ask this? The 80's were no different from any other decade - tons of top to bottom solid albums were released. For instance, Elvis Costello's "King of America".
posted by davebush at 5:26 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Seriously, what music fan would ask this? The 80's were no different from any other decade - tons of top to bottom solid albums were released. For instance, Elvis Costello's "King of America".
posted by davebush at 5:26 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Fun fact: This song has no baseline.
I thought you were talking about the song "Sign O' The Times" and I did that head tilt thing like dogs do.
yet it always gets underrated -- for reasons unknown,
I don't know that's it's at all underrated now, but when it came out it was a little confusing because it was different from what came before. I bought it when it came out and just plain didn't like it, and most of my friends felt the same. A year later it was one of my favorite albums, and is my favorite Prince album. I haven't listened to Purple Rain that much in decades, it sounds like the 80's and I've heard it (and I think it's overrated). As someone said Sign O' The Times sounds like it could have come out yesterday.
posted by bongo_x at 7:00 PM on March 31, 2017
I thought you were talking about the song "Sign O' The Times" and I did that head tilt thing like dogs do.
yet it always gets underrated -- for reasons unknown,
I don't know that's it's at all underrated now, but when it came out it was a little confusing because it was different from what came before. I bought it when it came out and just plain didn't like it, and most of my friends felt the same. A year later it was one of my favorite albums, and is my favorite Prince album. I haven't listened to Purple Rain that much in decades, it sounds like the 80's and I've heard it (and I think it's overrated). As someone said Sign O' The Times sounds like it could have come out yesterday.
posted by bongo_x at 7:00 PM on March 31, 2017
Examples of 80's albums that had liberal amounts of filler: The Police's second and third albums. They had a heavy touring schedule and very little time to write and record, so, you got stuff like "Regatta de Blanc", which is basically from a live jam that they used to play when they needed filler even to do a show, "On Any Other Day", which is pretty much a Klark Kent tune, "Behind My Camel"( which won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Rock), or "Voices Inside My Head", which I will guarantee was basically a soundcheck jam re-done in the studio.
posted by thelonius at 7:27 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by thelonius at 7:27 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Ahha, I was just thinking of Regatta de Blanc as having the Platonic ideal of album filler. And Behind My Camel winning a Grammy over YYZ and a zillion other instrumentals! Even the band hated that song!
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:40 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:40 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Well, Sting hated it and refused to play bass on it.
posted by thelonius at 7:43 PM on March 31, 2017
posted by thelonius at 7:43 PM on March 31, 2017
Seriously, what 80s album didn't have "tons of filler"?
Off the top of my head?
The Queen is Dead
Electric
Reckoning
Purple Rain
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Paul's Boutique
Daydream Nation
Earth, Sun, Moon
(I should stop there before I just list off all my favorite albums of the 80s.)
That's a hell of a list. You forgot:
Louder than Bombs
Love
Life's Rich Pageant
1999
Fear of a Black Planet
Check Your Head
Goo
Express
Might also add Fishbone EP. Also The Joshua Tree. Maybe The Stone Roses.
Some bands just put out consistently great albums and I miss the era of judging artists by the albums they put out, rather than the singles. Prince holds up very well under both standards. Possibly the greatest pop star.
Sgt Pepper: waaaay over rated, not even the Beatles' best.
Exile: probably rated appropriately.
Sign O The Times: probably under rated, although at the time of release was seriously hyped as "Prince gets serious and made an Important legacy record" which naturally turned me off. I like it more now, but can't shake the notion that I am "supposed to like it".
It's really unfortunate that when too many people are writing about a piece of music, it kinda ruins the piece of music for me. This is why I can't listen to or appreciate Radiohead.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:57 PM on March 31, 2017
Off the top of my head?
The Queen is Dead
Electric
Reckoning
Purple Rain
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Paul's Boutique
Daydream Nation
Earth, Sun, Moon
(I should stop there before I just list off all my favorite albums of the 80s.)
That's a hell of a list. You forgot:
Louder than Bombs
Love
Life's Rich Pageant
1999
Fear of a Black Planet
Check Your Head
Goo
Express
Might also add Fishbone EP. Also The Joshua Tree. Maybe The Stone Roses.
Some bands just put out consistently great albums and I miss the era of judging artists by the albums they put out, rather than the singles. Prince holds up very well under both standards. Possibly the greatest pop star.
Sgt Pepper: waaaay over rated, not even the Beatles' best.
Exile: probably rated appropriately.
Sign O The Times: probably under rated, although at the time of release was seriously hyped as "Prince gets serious and made an Important legacy record" which naturally turned me off. I like it more now, but can't shake the notion that I am "supposed to like it".
It's really unfortunate that when too many people are writing about a piece of music, it kinda ruins the piece of music for me. This is why I can't listen to or appreciate Radiohead.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:57 PM on March 31, 2017
I think about it all the time, alright?
posted by hippybear at 10:09 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 10:09 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
I mean, it's a double album, but what track is filler? If you know the album, what tracks would you eliminate to make a shorter version? I can't think of a single one.
posted by hippybear at 10:19 PM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 10:19 PM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
Easily in my top 10 of all time, "Together Forever" is a particular favourite.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 10:36 PM on March 31, 2017
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 10:36 PM on March 31, 2017
so, you got stuff like "Regatta de Blanc" yt , which is basically from a live jam that they used to play when they needed filler e
great track -- I don't care how they came up with it
posted by philip-random at 11:51 PM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
great track -- I don't care how they came up with it
posted by philip-random at 11:51 PM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
O-e-o. Ohh-ohh
posted by Myeral at 5:56 AM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Myeral at 5:56 AM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Housequake is the funkiest song ever recorded. And I spent hundreds of hours dancing my baby son to sleep in my arms to It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night. I love this record.
posted by bigbigdog at 8:33 AM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by bigbigdog at 8:33 AM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Gonna Be A Beautiful Night
When the band kicks in? Funk heaven.
Con-fusion!
posted by petebest at 2:49 PM on April 2, 2017
When the band kicks in? Funk heaven.
Con-fusion!
posted by petebest at 2:49 PM on April 2, 2017
"One person's "hilarious antidrug Nancy Reagan shit" is another's trenchant (for the time) social commentary, I guess. To each their own."
It could have been taken from Reefer Madness, man. C'mon.
"This line isn't worse than anything you'd see on any 80's cock-rock album, and Prince has said it was modeled after "Addicted to Love," so if you're looking for "genius" lyrics here, you're looking in the wrong place, really."
"Addicted to Love" isn't cock rock, first off. Second off, "any '80s cock-rock album" is a pretty far goalpost from underrated masterpiece, don'tcha think?
To argue that Prince is "unfiltered genius" is the same rockist bullshit you hear about Prince all the time, and it doesn't wash. What would make his genius less "unfiltered" and more, what? Disciplined? Focused? Palatable?
Oh, bullshit. What would make his genius less unfiltered? Tighter editing, more label interference/oversight, keeping the recording engineer involved through the recording process? I mean, SotT is already filtered down pretty significantly from Camille. And what would that make it? Yeah, more focused, less indulgent — the only real controversy would be whether or not it ended up cutting some of the moments that make SotT so great at its highest points.
But that's not "rockist" to say — it's "rockist" to the extent that the album, not the single is considered the default critical format, but we're talking about a fucking double album here, man. Prince pretty clearly intended SotT to be considered as a single piece, and so did this post. Without working too hard, you can put together a Poptimist argument that SotT is evidence against rockism, in that the singles (SotT, IIWYG, UGtL, ICNTtPoYM) are so strong overall that the album was unnecessary, especially since half of the songs on the album show up on a single or its b-side.
And if you think that "unfiltered genius" is something that only appears in rock, you haven't listened to enough Kool Keith, George Clinton, John Zorn or Kanye.
"Seriously, what 80s album didn't have "tons of filler"?"
Other folks have hit a bunch, but I think it's worth coming back to note that Prince released albums in the '80s that didn't have tons of filler. Purple Rain, for one.
But since there're tons of '80s albums without a lot of filler (and tons with a lot of filler), let's up the difficulty level: Let's say non-comp, non-live '80s double albums. Even then, you've got Children of God, Warehouse: Songs and Stories, Daydream Nation… and 1999. There are a handful of others I can think of, but they're almost all jazz or other long-composition music. That's mostly because making a double album without a lot of filler is pretty hard.
"Sign O The Times: probably under rated, although at the time of release was seriously hyped as "Prince gets serious and made an Important legacy record" which naturally turned me off. I like it more now, but can't shake the notion that I am "supposed to like it". "
That's still the critical consensus, though through the benefit of hindsight we know that the heralded evolution to a more cerebral Prince turned into Batdance.
I mean, it's a double album, but what track is filler? If you know the album, what tracks would you eliminate to make a shorter version? I can't think of a single one."
I'd argue "It" is the weakest track on the album, but you could probably cut a couple of minutes out of "It's Going to be a Beautiful Night," "Hot Thing" and "Slow Love" each and not miss very much. If you wanted to be brutal, you could lose all of the second side and go straight from "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" into "U Got the Look."
I know you're old enough to remember having to fit albums onto cassettes — just gaming it through, I'd probably drop "It," "It's Gonna be a Beautiful Night" and "Adore" to fit it into 60 minutes on tape (give or take for leaders). Or you could lose "Slow Love" and "Hot Thing" if you want to put "IGbaBN" back on.
(I do remember having the factory tape for SotT, and regularly being annoyed that it was poorly timed — there was at least 10 minutes of blank tape after "Adore.")
posted by klangklangston at 6:08 PM on April 3, 2017
It could have been taken from Reefer Madness, man. C'mon.
"This line isn't worse than anything you'd see on any 80's cock-rock album, and Prince has said it was modeled after "Addicted to Love," so if you're looking for "genius" lyrics here, you're looking in the wrong place, really."
"Addicted to Love" isn't cock rock, first off. Second off, "any '80s cock-rock album" is a pretty far goalpost from underrated masterpiece, don'tcha think?
To argue that Prince is "unfiltered genius" is the same rockist bullshit you hear about Prince all the time, and it doesn't wash. What would make his genius less "unfiltered" and more, what? Disciplined? Focused? Palatable?
Oh, bullshit. What would make his genius less unfiltered? Tighter editing, more label interference/oversight, keeping the recording engineer involved through the recording process? I mean, SotT is already filtered down pretty significantly from Camille. And what would that make it? Yeah, more focused, less indulgent — the only real controversy would be whether or not it ended up cutting some of the moments that make SotT so great at its highest points.
But that's not "rockist" to say — it's "rockist" to the extent that the album, not the single is considered the default critical format, but we're talking about a fucking double album here, man. Prince pretty clearly intended SotT to be considered as a single piece, and so did this post. Without working too hard, you can put together a Poptimist argument that SotT is evidence against rockism, in that the singles (SotT, IIWYG, UGtL, ICNTtPoYM) are so strong overall that the album was unnecessary, especially since half of the songs on the album show up on a single or its b-side.
And if you think that "unfiltered genius" is something that only appears in rock, you haven't listened to enough Kool Keith, George Clinton, John Zorn or Kanye.
"Seriously, what 80s album didn't have "tons of filler"?"
Other folks have hit a bunch, but I think it's worth coming back to note that Prince released albums in the '80s that didn't have tons of filler. Purple Rain, for one.
But since there're tons of '80s albums without a lot of filler (and tons with a lot of filler), let's up the difficulty level: Let's say non-comp, non-live '80s double albums. Even then, you've got Children of God, Warehouse: Songs and Stories, Daydream Nation… and 1999. There are a handful of others I can think of, but they're almost all jazz or other long-composition music. That's mostly because making a double album without a lot of filler is pretty hard.
"Sign O The Times: probably under rated, although at the time of release was seriously hyped as "Prince gets serious and made an Important legacy record" which naturally turned me off. I like it more now, but can't shake the notion that I am "supposed to like it". "
That's still the critical consensus, though through the benefit of hindsight we know that the heralded evolution to a more cerebral Prince turned into Batdance.
I mean, it's a double album, but what track is filler? If you know the album, what tracks would you eliminate to make a shorter version? I can't think of a single one."
I'd argue "It" is the weakest track on the album, but you could probably cut a couple of minutes out of "It's Going to be a Beautiful Night," "Hot Thing" and "Slow Love" each and not miss very much. If you wanted to be brutal, you could lose all of the second side and go straight from "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" into "U Got the Look."
I know you're old enough to remember having to fit albums onto cassettes — just gaming it through, I'd probably drop "It," "It's Gonna be a Beautiful Night" and "Adore" to fit it into 60 minutes on tape (give or take for leaders). Or you could lose "Slow Love" and "Hot Thing" if you want to put "IGbaBN" back on.
(I do remember having the factory tape for SotT, and regularly being annoyed that it was poorly timed — there was at least 10 minutes of blank tape after "Adore.")
posted by klangklangston at 6:08 PM on April 3, 2017
So maybe what you wanted was actually a SotT that had another two songs on it!
posted by hippybear at 1:26 PM on April 7, 2017
posted by hippybear at 1:26 PM on April 7, 2017
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