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Sign o' the Times

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This article is about the album. For the song, see Sign o' the Times (song).
For other uses see Sign of the times (disambiguation).
Untitled

Sign “☮” the Times (or Sign o' the Times) is a studio album by soul and funk musician Prince, released March 31, 1987 on the Paisley Park record label. The album is the follow up to Parade, and Prince's first "solo" album following his departure from The Revolution; the symbol between the quotes is a peace sign. The double album was a synthesis of three projects from 1986, including some work with The Revolution. The bulk of the tracks originate from the final Revolution project known as Dream Factory and a later solo project called Camille. These projects, along with some other songs merged into a 22-track, 3-LP opus called Crystal Ball. Prince's record company, Warner Bros. Records, balked at the idea of a 3-LP album, considering the lukewarm performance of Parade, and Prince's second movie, Under the Cherry Moon, and forced Prince to trim the album down. The result was Sign o' the Times, which quickly became widely regarded as Prince's magnum opus amongst fans and critics alike. The album yielded three top-ten hits, the most from a Prince album since 1984's Purple Rain.

Thematically, Sign o' the Times covers the depressing state of the world in the title track, party funk in "Housequake", sexual lust in "It", and spiritual enlightenment in "The Cross". It also showcases Prince's fourth live song released on an album, "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (the other three being "I Would Die 4 U", "Baby I'm a Star", and the title track from Purple Rain, all recorded on August 3, 1983 at First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN). Though selling modestly, somewhat akin to Parade, Sign o' the Times was almost universally applauded by critics and has since been frequently identified as Prince's finest album, and a standard of comparison for all of his albums to follow. In 1989, Time Out magazine ranked it as the greatest album of all time. It was ranked #16 on the New Musical Express list of the All Time Top 100 Albums and 3rd in Hot Press magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of All Time. The album was also placed 8th on Nieuwe Revu's Top 100 Albums of All Time. The Times listed Sign o' the Times as the 29th greatest album of all time.[1] In 2003, the album was ranked number 93 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[2].Sign 'O' the Times placed at #35 on VH1's 100 Greatest Albums.

Recording

As with many of Prince's early '80s albums, this album features extensive use of the LinnDrum drum machine on most songs. In addition, many songs on the album (such as "If I Was Your Girlfriend") feature minimal instrumentation, and use of the Fairlight, a then state-of-the-art digital sampler. Unlike many of Prince's contemporaries, the singer simply used the stock sounds of the Fairlight to create the title track. Two of the album's standout songs, "U Got the Look" with Sheena Easton and "If I Was Your Girlfriend" offer sped-up vocals, ostensibly the voice of Camille, Prince's alter ego of this era.

Interestingly, Prince was known for recording his vocals in the control room area of the studio. Typically, in the recording process, a vocalist records in the recording booth (or, in some instances, an echo chamber). To have privacy during vocal recording process, Prince usually asked his engineer, Susan Rogers, to leave the room. Rogers recalls:

We'd get the track halfway or three-quarters of the way there and then set him up with a microphone in the control room. He'd have certain tracks on the multi-track that he would use and he'd do the vocal completely alone. I think that was the only way he could really get the performance

On some occasions, Prince simply recorded vocals with his back to her. Rogers monitored the vocals with a pair of headphones so Prince's recording microphone would not pick up the speakers she would usually have used. Prince typically used a Sennheiser 441 dynamic microphone (recommended to him by Stevie Nicks) for recording vocals at this stage in his career.

Unlike his previous albums, Sign O' the Times was regarded as "less polished" than his earlier efforts. Susan Rogers points out, however, that "we spent more time and money on Sign o' the Times than anything he'd ever done. Much more work went into it."

Music

Two of the album's songs were first recorded in 1982: "Strange Relationship" and "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man". Prince did additional work on both for their placement on the Dream Factory project and involved Wendy and Lisa on the former. When the project was canceled, "Strange Relationship" was further updated for Camille. The remaining tracks were recorded between March and December 1986. The surviving Camille tracks feature a playful sped-up vocal. "U Got the Look" was also recorded in this manner, though it was not intended for the Camille album.

The double album was Prince's most diverse album to date, featuring a wide array of musical styles — rock, pop, soul and funk - with various cues taken from dance, electronic, and jazz styles as well. The album marked a return to Prince's self-contained recording process, with the artist performing and arranging nearly all the album's music single-handedly. As a result, many of the tracks have a sparer, more funk-oriented, and at times, more electronic feel than Prince's previous few records recorded with The Revolution. In addition to the album's eclecticism, many critics have identified the record as one of Prince's most adventurous, with radically minimalist, experimental arrangements on songs like "Housequake", "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker", and "Forever in My Life".

Track listing

All songs composed and arranged by Prince unless otherwise listed. Some songs were listed on the package with incorrect time; only the correct times are listed below.

Side one

  1. "Sign o' the Times" – 4:56
  2. "Play in the Sunshine" – 5:05
  3. "Housequake" – 4:42
  4. "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" – 4:02

Side two

  1. "It" – 5:09
  2. "Starfish and Coffee" (Prince, Susannah Melvoin) – 2:50
  3. "Slow Love" (Prince, Carole Davis) – 4:22
  4. "Hot Thing" – 5:39
  5. "Forever in My Life" – 3:30

Side three

  1. "U Got the Look" – 3:47
  2. "If I Was Your Girlfriend" – 5:01
  3. "Strange Relationship" – 4:01
  4. "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" – 6:29

Side four

  1. "The Cross" – 4:49
  2. "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (Prince, Doctor Fink, Eric Leeds) – 9:01
  3. "Adore" – 6:31

*NOTE: The iTunes version uses the radio edit of "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man".

Chart history

Album

Chart (1987) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard 200 6
U.S. Billboard R&B Albums 4
UK Albums Chart 4

Singles

  1. "Sign o' the Times"
  2. "La, La, La, He, He, Hee" lyrics cowritten by Sheena Easton
  1. "If I Was Your Girlfriend"
  2. "Shockadelica"
  1. "U Got the Look"
  2. "Housequake"
  1. "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man"
  2. "Hot Thing" (#63 US, #14 R&B)

Personnel

  • Susannah Melvoin: Backing vocals on "Sign o' the Times" & "Starfish and Coffee"; co-lead vocals on "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"
  • Eric Leeds: All saxophones
  • Atlanta Bliss: All trumpets
  • Sheena Easton: Co-lead vocals on "U Got the Look"
  • Sheila E.: Drums and percussion on "U Got the Look", drums and "Transmississippirap" on "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"
  • Clare Fischer: Arranger of strings for "Slow Love"
  • Wendy Melvoin: Guitar and backing vocals on "Slow Love"; tambourine & congas on "Strange Relationship"
  • Lisa Coleman: Backing vocals on "Slow Love"; sitar & wooden flute on "Strange Relationship"
  • Miko Weaver: Lead guitar on "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"
  • Jill Jones: Co-lead vocals on "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"
  • The Revolution: Performance of "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"
  • Gilbert Davison, Todd Hermann, Coke Johnson, Brad Marsh, Mike Soltys, Susan Rogers and "the Penguin": Party voices on "Housequake"
  • Greg Brooks, Wally Safford, Jerome Benton and "6000 wonderful Parisians": Backing vocals on "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"
  • Susan Rogers, Coke Johnson, and Prince: Engineer
  • Prince: All other vocals and instruments

References

  1. ^ Acclaimed Music - Sign 'O' the Times
  2. ^ 93) Sign 'o' the Times : Rolling Stone
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