50 great things about Prince's 'Sign O' The Times'

Well, if Tusk can have such a thread, then I can't see why this masterpiece shouldn't.

1. The beginning of the album - drum machine, then *snare* "AW YEAH!"

2. The backwards snare in 'Starfish and Coffee', which pans from speaker to speaker.

3. The Joni Mitchell namecheck in "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker"

4. what silence looks like

5. the synth cluster in "it"

6. how "i could never take the place of your man" feels like the shortest 6 minutes and 30 seconds in recorded history

6. Lisa plays the Fairlight sitar

okay fine 7.

8. The out of sync backing vocal on "Forever in my Life"

9. "DRUMMER, DRUMMER! DO YOUR THING!"

10. The little "brrrrrimg" before the telephone rings in "Dorothy Parker"

*brrrrrring

11. The vocal harmonies at the end of 'The Cross'

11. The abrupt modulation on "next time I'll do it soooonnneeeerrrr" on "Dorothy Parker"

13. the alarm clock at the beginning of "Starfish and Coffee"

*12

14. "BULLSHIT...I MEAN REALLY!"

15. "pleeeeaaahehehease!"

16. The synth toms in the instrumental break on 'It'

17. thrilling solo during break in "play in the sunshine"

17. Prince's self-harmonies on "Strange Relationship"

19. "Yeah, let me get a fruit cocktail, I ain't 2 hungry"

20. those two huge snare hits at 2:00 in "the cross"

21. "crucial!"

22. "if it's a boy"

23. "When you smiiile, when you smiiile, when you SMIIILE... how your smile's... how your smile's for me"

24. "what's this strange relationship-ship-ship-ship"

25. "Let's get outta here" "Yeah"

25. "Silly, no?"

oops 26.

27. blast of wedding march organ at start of IIWYG

28. The way the acoustic guitar comes in for the last few seconds of 'Forever In My Life', which up to that point is so spare arrangement-wise that you really notice it when it happens.

29. The sound of the electric guitar in "The Cross," which Eric Weisbard once wrote rocks like '80s Lou Reed.

30. "Til a gorilla falls off the wall"

31. the very idea that you can take a bath with someone else, so long as you leave your pants on, when you're kinda going with someone.

32. The spooky detuned DX synths in "If I Was Ur Girlfriend"

33. "Would U let me wash UR hair? Could I make U breakfast sometime? Well, then could we just hang out, I mean, could we GO 2 A MOVIE and CRRYYYHYHYHY 2gether?"

34. The way the bass plays off the lead hook of 'I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man', during the "BABY, DON'T WAAAASTE YOUR TIME" part.

35. "Did I say an hour? My face is red. I stand corrected."

36. Sheena Easton being quite good.

37. "GROOVE! UH!"

38. Prince playing out his James Brown fantasies on 'It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night'

39. "...well, maybe not the ride"

38. Acoustic guitar sting during the fade of Forever in My Life

40. Prince's cousin developing a smack habit mere months after smoking weed for the first time. Well, that escalated quickly!

lol

41. Prince watching the news and reading papers.

31 wins this walking away

42. "ONE TWO ONE WOOO!" at the very end of I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

43. GREEN EGGS AND HAM!

44. The piercing shrieks in 'Hot Thing', which make Prince sound like he's auditioning to be the lead vocalist for a grindcore band.

45. The riff at the end of "U Got The Look"

46. The Pontiac Grand Prix front end on the cover.

47. The emotional knottiness-unto-creepiness of "If I Was Your Girlfriend" and "Strange Relationship."

48. That weird pterodactyl shriek that Sheena Easton (?) does at one point in "UGTL"

49. "Step right this way, ladies"

50. The beyond genius "Dorothy Parker" drum programming

48. That weird pterodactyl shriek that Sheena Easton (?) does at one point in "UGTL"

― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, May 11, 2016 1

thought it was Prince himself

51. Prince's shades on the cover

Xpost It's been a minute since I watched it but I think in the video / SOTT film she looks at the camera and does it. It's also never sounded like his voice to me.

Shit 49 s/b "Look at the bargains offered here, ladies" . Mods please correct!

*over here

Sheesh. My memory's failing.

They're not shades, they're glasses! As evidenced by the SOTT movie.

52. The fact that "U Got the Look" is the only hit/single/song ever made to include the word heck-a-slammin'.

53. for you naked i would dance a ballet

54. sometimes i trip on happy we could be....PLEEEEEE-HEEE-HEEE-HEEEEEEEASE!!!!

*how happy... and the way his vocals distort at the end of that phrase

That was already at #15.

(xpost)

55. I just hate 2 see an erection go 2 waste!

56. The 'Hot Thing' bass note being slightly out of tune.

57. The self-aware melancholy in I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man.

Xxpost Wrong album

58. How "Hot Thing" goes from synth menace to a sax breakdown.

59. Play? No! PLAY! NOOOOO!

They're not shades, they're glasses! As evidenced by the SOTT movie.

Ok, in fairness, I haven't seen the movie in 20+ years.

But yes, you are correct. Another reason I thought they were cool, IIRC.

60. How the record is noted for being one of Prince's finest, yet the form it eventually took was not Prince's original vision for it!

61. u got the look's baseball metaphor is the best since paradise by the dashboard light

62. The way everyone slags off 'Slow Love', even though it's absolutely magnificent.

63. the nothing compares 2 u call back in adore

64. The encouraging way he says "Go on, Cynth" at 1:58 of Starfish and Coffee

65. Sheena Easton's "Oh please" in U Got the Look, which will be eternally cool

66. How this album basically introduced Camille. I remember how WEIRD it was to first hear that vocal effect on a Prince song the day I brought the album home (bought it the weekend of release). But this was Prince and he always aaaalways had something new up his sleeve then.

67. the best use of factory presets on a record ever?

68. The literally phoned-in rap in "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night".

69. The Fairlight orchestral stab sound is one of the most memorable parts of the titular song, and yet the stab is heard only two times, towards the end of tune. It takes only about two seconds of the 5 minute song, but Prince sure knew how to use those two seconds most effectively.

70. The ending to 'Play In The Sunshine', which is not so much psychedelic as an utterly bizarre mess that somehow works!

This is one of the few consensus "best albums" that actually is his best album. It really encapsulates everything I love about Prince.

Including those glasses.

71. "Mind if I turn on..." *drum fill* "...the radio?"

72. That there are just enough songs on this that I forget a few and am pleasantly surprised when I remember them every now and then.

73. Side 3 is prob the best run of songs Prince ever did:

U GOT THE LOOK
IF I WAS UR GIRLFRIEND
STRANGE RELATIONSHIP
I COULD NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF YOUR MAN

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/65/38/98/65389838d91e18c556a6f280aab23df1.jpg

Glasses!

The sleeve art on the double LP was such a shock - we had "slick Prince" as the mental image, black and white crop top, 30s chic in Cherry Moon, and then suddenly SotT drops and we have neopsychedelic Prince, Cat (who?), peach'n'black, ashram robes, flokati vests and Haight-Ashbury glasses. That plus Camille knocked me for a loop. And Sheena "My Baby Takes the Morning Train" Easton? Where's the Revolution? WTF?

did people really think this was him?

http://img.cdandlp.com/2012/09/imgL/115554290-2.jpg

one of the great back-of-the-sleeve shots ever.

According to Cat, some people did.

MatthewK totally OTM

Yah I remember folks thinking it was him :)

67. the best use of factory presets on a record ever?

― flappy bird, Friday, May 13, 2016 6:15 AM (4 days ago)

73. Side 3 is prob the best run of songs Prince ever did:

U GOT THE LOOK
IF I WAS UR GIRLFRIEND
STRANGE RELATIONSHIP
I COULD NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF YOUR MAN

― flappy bird, Monday, May 16, 2016 12:23 AM (Yesterday)

yesssssssss

74. Those finger cymbal things that I want to call castanets but aren't, particularly on Strange Relationship

Crotales iirc? Love the way he uses them. They are all over the atwiad LP.

was anyone else annoyed by this line in the p4k retrospective review of SOTT?

“Housequake” is, perhaps, the most obvious songs on the album, a funk jam that would have been a hit single if he’d allowed it to be released as such. But the care of the track’s construction belies any shallow analysis. It starts with a cartoony voice (maybe a Camille reference), a synthesized drum heavy with echo, then adds bass, keyboard stabs, and rhythm guitar. The synth drum and snare drum merge while there’s a double-beat on the kick. Live horns come it and the bass line moves as there’s both a synth bass keyboard and a live bass doing playing different lines. Various backing vocals float in and out with Prince doing his James Brown impersonation as singer/MC. Compared to the simple loops of your average club banger, “Housequake” is a symphony of syncopation. The beat moves even as it grooves.

wtf the drum machine couldn't be any more dry

none more dry

Perhaps we should have Camille step back from the drum machine so s/he doesn't trod on it.

I already got into one stupid argument about Prince productions earlier this week but until I just replayed this, I had thought it was the bass drum w the gated reverb too. I guess it's a detuned tom?

The sleeve art on the double LP was such a shock - we had "slick Prince" as the mental image, black and white crop top, 30s chic in Cherry Moon, and then suddenly SotT drops and we have neopsychedelic Prince, Cat (who?), peach'n'black, ashram robes, flokati vests and Haight-Ashbury glasses. That plus Camille knocked me for a loop. And Sheena "My Baby Takes the Morning Train" Easton? Where's the Revolution? WTF?

― MatthewK, Sunday, May 15, 2016

you hadn't heard "Strut" or "Sugar Walls"? Those were massive hits.

p4k retrospective review

these were so terrible, especially the ATWIAD one discussing his politics

er Controversy one

I meant to say

yeah over here she was Sheena 'From BBC TVs The Big Time' Easton to me too. in the UK she hadn't been heard of since forever. Sugar Walls? in with a bullet at 95 in the UK charts, while Strut didn't even get that far! her last hit had been For Your Eyes Only 6 years earlier.

73. Side 3 is prob the best run of songs Prince ever did:

U GOT THE LOOK
IF I WAS UR GIRLFRIEND
STRANGE RELATIONSHIP
I COULD NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF YOUR MAN

I say this very thing enthusiastically and quite often!

that SOTT review was absent minded

like nelon george wrote it with 50 tabs open

75. such a great cover

http://img.cdandlp.com/2015/10/imgL/117728616.jpg

That one took a while!

76. "Reefer." So quaint.

77. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlBxxOPEVsg

76. "Reefer." So quaint.

― dinner boat, Friday, May 20, 2016 10:33 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

even more so, who calls it "horse"??

I thought horse is a fairly common slang word for heroin, or at least it was back when Prince wrote the tune?

Both jazz terms, yeah?

When I think of the magic of this record it makes me sadder than all others, that this guy is not with us any more.

My guitar teacher thought it would be interesting to help me figure out the chords to "Dorothy Parker," and yeah, it was! We realized one reason Prince played everything himself is that it would take a lot less time to do that than to explain to someone else how to contribute to a totally out there sui generis song like that one. In fact, there are a couple of tracks on "Sign" that similarly transcend genre in really fascinating and less than obvious ways.

Also, I decided the opening drum sequence of the title track makes a really cool ringtone.

Which tracks are you thinking of?

Well, Dorothy Parker, for one. It's funky, and jazzy, and just - weird. The bridge-thing where he quotes Joni Mitchell, wtf is that? Or Forever In My Life, what is that? Strange Relationship, that's another one that's funky but not really funk. It's like looser influences like jazz or folk have altered more immutable forms, like funk or dance pop or whatever. I mean, Play In the Sunshine is essentially ... rockabilly? Something like that. But then it's got that crazy fusion-y coda.

forever in my life is quite gospelly in its arrangement i think.

the melody i mean.

xps what are the chords to Dorothy Parker?

And does it feature the famous Prince "sus 2" chord?

Dorothy Parker doesn't have that sus2 chord. That's the weird chord in the third line of the chorus in "Sometimes it Snows in April." It does have plenty of weird quirks and changes.

The main progression in TBDP is a descending progression from Am7 (iv) to Em7(i), making every stop in the descending bassline before a quick trip to the V to build tension before the final line (before "Dorothy was fast," etc). Looks like this:

Am7
Dorothy was a waitress
Ab(flat 5)
On the promenade
Em7/G in bass F#m7
She worked the night shift
Fmaj7 B
Dishwater blonde, tall and fine
Em
She got a lot of tips

The bridge, as it were, changes from E minor to G. The second bridge modulates from A minor to A major on the "should have done it sooooneeeer" part. The ballad of dorothy parker line looks something like this:

A Bm Am Bm B+
This is the ballad of Dorothy Parker

Then it goes back to the main progression. This tab (and the rest of the tabs on this website) seems pretty good: http://princetabs.50webs.com/dorothy.txt

Sorry, click the link for better spacing, I haven't been able to figure out how to space text on ILX

xxxps to StillAdvance --- To me, Forever In My Life seems to be a minimalist version of a Sly Stone song. The melody reminds me a lot of Everyday People, weirdly.

I'm not good enough at this stuff to recognize if it's right or wrong, Only chord in our own little chart not up there is Cmaj7, maybe in the very early intro? Before the singing starts. There's a brief measure or two at maybe the end of the bridge where we just wrote a big "?," because it just goes wacky.

xpost It's totally Sly-y, but the muted-ness of the vocals and rhythm are even weirder, kind of like sing in the shower demo-esque.

It could be a Cmaj7 with a G in the bass in the verse progression (instead of the Em7 with the G in the bass)

Whatever the chords, what a weird little masterpiece

Dorothy Parker doesn't have that sus2 chord. That's the weird chord in the third line of the chorus in "Sometimes it Snows in April."
No, that chord on the third line of the chorus is really unusual. I think in that song he actually uses the sus2 as the third chord on the verse and then as the first chord on the chorus. He also uses it in "Purple Rain" and a number of other songs.

Anyway, the weird, weirdest? most interesting? most surprising? chord of "Sometimes It Snows," which appears in the third line of the chorus, seems to be a G#7 with an open B and E on the top. Which I guess you could call a G#7#9#5, which is a strong enough chord in itself, but is particularly surprising in the context of the song, since a) the prior two times in the chorus he just played a G#m7 and b) the chord introduces a new note, the B#(=C), which your ear will not be expecting given what the harmony was doing up until then and c) if you voice the chord so that the B and B# (=C) are right next to each other, a half-step away, instead of using a more open voicing, it packs even more of a punch.

Re: "Now he's doing horse" — wow, I've misheard that lyric all these years. Embarrassed to admit I thought it was "now he's doing whores."

Reefer was totally a hooker gateway drug back in the day, don't worry about it :)

78. He rhymes "moon" with "June" in the title track.

79. "Her favorite number was 20"

https://theshibeparkvaults.bandcamp.com/album/sign-o-the-times-rehearsals-disc-1

https://theshibeparkvaults.bandcamp.com/album/sign-o-the-times-rehearsals-disc-2

cool but who gets the 7 bucks if you actually pay for those things?

80. The way "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" takes a curve from 80s New Wave pop into an early 70s "Can't You Hear Me Knocking"/Traffic blues rock jam, from which it only returns for a very brief instrumental reprise of the first part of the song, then out.

78/79/80 all v great things

Those Sign O The Times rehearsals are currently free to download btw

still looks like they're $7 to me. weird to see bootlegs posted so brazenly on Bandcamp.

wtf I'm not paying some asshole for these

i've just been streaming, it's free to stream in full

maybe just free in Europe then?

interesting recreationg of "Dream Factory" the album that was scrapped then combined with the Camille album to become Sign O the Times

http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2016/05/prince-and-revolution-dream-factory.html

Heyo

http://www.okayplayer.com/music/princes-sign-o-times-concert-movie-will-air-showtime.html

I haven't seen this since we threw out our VCR (we had a VHS copy) so I'm pretty excited to hear that my Twin Peaks:the Return-motivated Showtime subscription comes w this bonus

I don't understand why that article calls the SotT movie "rare" and "out of circulation"? It's been reissued on Bluray which is pretty easy to find, or at least it was when I bought it a couple of years ago. Great concert movie anyway, all the little stories that come with each song's performance are neat, and the choreography is gorgeous. And it has that massive Sheila E drum solo, my favourite part!

it is not available in America

multi-format copies of it on Amazon are currently $175

Oh, that's weird. Why would they reissue it in Europe but not the US?

some rights dispute, I assume. bigger Euro market, who knows

Forget it Shakes, it's Paisley Park.

[snips nostril]

There's a Japanese Blu-Ray you can get for about $50 which is Region A, meaning it will play on standard US players.

Here you go.

80. The way "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" takes a curve from 80s New Wave pop into an early 70s "Can't You Hear Me Knocking"/Traffic blues rock jam, from which it only returns for a very brief instrumental reprise of the first part of the song, then out.

― Hare in the Gated Snare (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, July 6, 2016 1:23 AM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes, with a screaaaaaaaaam.

That's my favorite song on this. It has a good message too -- don't lead on single mothers looking for companionship when you're out at the bar on a lonely friday night.

Region 2 DVD available for as little as £3.36 - multi-region DVD players are CHEAP

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prince-Sign-O-Times-DVD/dp/B0009PZ89E/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1503572329&sr=1-1&keywords=sign+o+the+times

yeah I had that dvd and... gave it away :O

quite a few dvd players can be made multi region using a universal remote (or another customizable ir-transmitter, some old phones can be used)

Until Youtube just started putting up Prince videos, I had never seen the video for Sign O The Times before, so I didn't realize that Prince was somewhat responsible for the birth of the lyric video.

movie news

PSA: Sign O’ The Times is on Amazon Prime.

— Chris McKay (@buddboetticher) March 10, 2018

If only Stop Making Sense had plasma ball interludes, then it might be as good as Sign O' The Times.

Also, the outfits in the So'TT film have held up better than Purple Rain.

Um...holy shit.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZM5i3CXkAA3Dbm.jpg

Oh man I needed this.

This is my favorite album so I guess I have to get the big box.

I need to know what's in the box but yeah, I'm definitely buying some version of this.

Presumably the big box will include all the stuff that ended up on Crystal Ball + B sides and unreleased tracks from that era + the movie? It's easy to imagine all that measuring to 8 CDs... The 1999 box already had two CDs worth of unreleased tracks from the vaults, and AFAIK there's way more of those from the SOTT era.

Oh hell yes

ALERT ALERT partial tracklist

fucking hell, the end of music, ciao pic.twitter.com/Giga0lLSNQ

— Boomkat.com (@boomkatonline) June 12, 2020

Why yes please.

That live show (12/31/87) is the one where Miles Davis appeared.

I don't know why I want to throw more money at this when the big box will bankrupt me, but I would love standalone releases of Camille, Dream Factory, Crystal Ball...

I’m s bit surprised that Dream Factory isn’t included within this box

C U R R E N T L Y U N K N O W N

with Australian ears I've always thought "turn on the telly" in the title track sounded slightly incongruous - like, I associate "telly" with the UK and feel the US is more of a "teevee" kinda place - or is this just the result of over-reductive generalising

sorry for this monumentally inconsequential q but every time I listen to this it makes me curious and I will never find a better place to make the enquiry

It's always stuck out for me, too. A weird affectation. It's not like saying "telly" instead of "TV" changes the flow of the line in any way.

Well, fwiw, he was coming off the Parade tour through Europe, maybe that had something to do with it.

I listen to the fan remastered Sign-era box all the time, this will be great. I'm beginning to sense a pattern: release a deluxe edition of a Prince masterpiece, then a bunch of shitty stuff from the 90s and beyond, then a deluxe masterpiece, then a bunch of shitty stuff, then another masterpiece ...

It's a marathon, not a sprint, I guess.

One of the fondest compilations in my collection: a CD-R of those DF and CB outtakes.

We appear to have a formal tracklisting:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BMXT2SK/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=prince&qid=1592933387&refinements=p_lbr_music_artists_browse-bin%3APrince%2Cp_n_date%3A1249114011&rnid=1249111011&s=music&sr=1-4

Tracks not listed in the earlier summary include "Wally," "Cosmic Day," "When the Dawn of the Morning Comes," "I Need a Man" and various others.

The CD version is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BMSF4XT/50.

Sorry, bad link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BMSF4XT

I listen to the fan remastered Sign-era box all the time, this will be great. I'm beginning to sense a pattern: release a deluxe edition of a Prince masterpiece, then a bunch of shitty stuff from the 90s and beyond, then a deluxe masterpiece, then a bunch of shitty stuff, then another masterpiece ...

Great to have a "Everybody Want..." and "Cosmic Day" remastered/mastered but where is "Traffic Jam" which is ... a godlike instrumental?!?

Also - about 5 things here I never heard of before so really psyched.

Hoping that price comes down a little. I don't think I paid more than $65 for the 1999 CD box. This obviously has a few more discus, but feels like a big jump.

discs even

Looking at the setlist from that Paisley Park show, looks like none of the Miles Davis-featured songs are on the dvd tracklist
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/prince/1987/paisley-park-studios-chanhassen-mn-4bd857c2.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjgKgirygjA

Looking at the setlist from that Paisley Park show, looks like none of the Miles Davis-featured songs are on the dvd tracklist

According to the press release, all the Miles live tracks are all part of a long medley - it's the last track on the DVD.

Great interview with the archivist who put the box together; he explains why the movie isn't included (basically, Prince sold the rights).

Fwiw, the movie is still up as a free title on Prime.

Holy shit, "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" is from 1979!?

Yeah that's a hell of a shocker. That and these unreleased remixes and more -- gotta say, Howe really seems like a first-rate guy to be doing this work based on the details in the answers and the clear care he's got with the material.

Totally makes sense in a way, I always think of it as a companion to When You Were Mine

If ‘Witness For The Prosecution’ is anything to go by we’re in for a treat...

Totally makes sense in a way, I always think of it as a companion to When You Were Mine

I was about to preorder the deluxe box set this on Amazon, but wtf is up with its price? On the German Amazon it's 153 euros (with taxes) and on the US Amazon it's 160 dollars! The 1999 box set had 5 CDs and 1 DVD and it cost 72 euros on Amazon, and I felt that one was already a bit pricey, but this one has 8 CDs and 1 DVD and it costs twice as much? The price is pretty much the same as if you would buy 9 individual albums separately, which is ridiculous for a box set.

Popmarket.com has it on vinyl for about $250 after you give them your email and phone number (gets you 10% off).

Bullmoose has the CD set for $122, free shipping.

Managed to order it via Amazon Italy, about €100.

Obv postage extra, but often enough it gets supplied from a domestic warehouse

I was stunned by the inflated retail price too. It's mainly ruthless free market dynamics - with each super deluxe set of his key WB albums, they've seen how 1) fans are willing to spend more to get more and 2) how they've underestimated demand each time out, with the vinyl super deluxe sets in particular selling out pretty fast. This set has the most lavish packaging, and even the CD version (which was fairly compact - no pun intended - on the prior two super deluxe editions) is now an LP sized box, with I think a hardcover book. Combined with bigger expectations regarding demand, it makes logical sense, but it's still really high. Bull Moose's $122 price tag for the CD version feels more like the list price I would have expected.

Also, some have pointed out that Paul McCartney has REALLY jacked up the price on his next super deluxe box set for "Flaming Pie." Also lavishly packaged, it's far more expensive with more inconsequential audio and video bonuses when the album is nowhere near the level of "Sign 'O' the Times." Maybe they're expecting a smaller but more devoted (i.e. more willing to spend more) consumer base for that set? Whatever's their target, I ain't a part of it.

Best price I've seen - ImportCDs.com has it for $113.65.

I almost went with ImportCD's but it wound up costing a little more than Bull Moose due to taxes and shipping. (The $122 Bull Moose price includes shipping and they don't collect taxes for my location.) With that in mind, if anyone's looking for the absolute best deal, you should look at the checkout totals first.

1979 I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man - Dirty Mind style all the way!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAegR_IKlyc&feature=emb_logo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAegR_IKlyc

Better than the SOTT version to me...can’t wait for this...

Couldn't disagree more. I hate that Dirty Mind sound; even the actual album sounds like a home demo to me. Love the SOTT version, though.

agree

Imagine having a song that strong and sitting on it for years

"better than the original" is a (graffiti) bridge too far but this is fucking awesome

eheh yeah, it's fun but it sounds like a demo compared to the "original" imo.

TBF the ‘original’ was never one of my faves...bit long and overblown for me...like the economy of the demo...all his demo’s have such a great bounce about them

Clearly he jibed with that aesthetic, for whatever reason. The demo-like quality of "Dirty Mind" and "Controversy" really set the stage for the technicolor leaps he'd make next, though tbf, I always thought "Little Red Corvette" sounded like a demo, too.

Count me among those preferring the Dirty Mind era version.

The SOTT version is interesting because it’s a take on 70s maximalist classic rock, like Frampton Comes Alive or the Eagles or something, and I can’t think of another song where he did that quite so thoroughly. Eh, probably a bullshit take.

Maybe it’s because the original sounds a bit stale now but I love the spontaneity of the demo...the original sounds a bit thought through?...

70s maximalist classic rock, like Frampton Comes Alive or the Eagles

both these acts are pretty mellow and I wouldn't say maximalist at all

the early version is interesting but the SOTT version seems more realized to me

SOTT version to me is his "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" (which sounds good to me, maybe not everyone)

SOTT is an anthem, '79 version is a new wave ditty. Albeit an excellent one.

My take shouldn't be taken seriously, I've always thought ICNTTPOYM was on the lesser side of the SOTT singles.

the original is def far superior, but i respect the opinion of people who think it drags on for too long

*original meaning the version released with sign in 1987

The half-time section on the LP version actually made me like it a bit more than the single version I was used to.

i love the halftime section too, so i'm just picking nits.

I love demo Prince usually, but it's interesting to hear it without the keyboard parts that are the biggest hooks of the song.

(I hate the halftime jam section on the original, although the preceding solo is a classic)

Listening to the SotT live concert version (or at least this edit without the halftime jam) makes the studio version version sound like a ballad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Px4jY1TVc

the guitar solo on the SOTT is so hot

SOTT version

Love Sheila E. but she always seems too small for her drum set, I can never figure the physics out. The same is true for all Prince stuff from the '80s, tbh. What I see and what I hear the drummer doing never seems to sync up.

Well I guess they are miming in that clip, so it may not quite gel convincingly. But although I love Sheila's percussion work I have never enjoyed her as a drummer on a full kit, which puzzles me.

unearthed version of 'forever in my life,' with an extended vamp at the end and a fleshed-out arrangement. pretty cool, surprisingly bill withers-esque.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48X95dJQ6A

fabulous

The more or less official Prince podcast has started up again -- collaboration between the Current and the Estate, and they've been doing little minidoc seasons for each new big reissue, and the _SOTT_ era begins today. Advertorial to some sort of degree, but still enjoyable:

https://toppodcast.com/podcast_feeds/prince-official-podcast/

I was about to preorder the deluxe box set this on Amazon, but wtf is up with its price? On the German Amazon it's 153 euros (with taxes) and on the US Amazon it's 160 dollars! The 1999 box set had 5 CDs and 1 DVD and it cost 72 euros on Amazon, and I felt that one was already a bit pricey, but this one has 8 CDs and 1 DVD and it costs twice as much? The price is pretty much the same as if you would buy 9 individual albums separately, which is ridiculous for a box set.

Turns out the box only has 3 CDs worth of previously unreleased studio recordings + a live show divided onto 2 CDs. So the amount of actual unreleased songs is the same as on the 1999 box, yet this one costs twice as much. Definitely feels like a scam.

It has three CDs of other material too. Previously released, sure, but it's still there. I'd prefer if they didnt release remastered albums tbh. 1999 already sounded good. Sott was never meant to sound great as prince didnt care much for that. So I dont imagine it sounding that great regardless. And I'm not sure it should either. Hopefully though the next releases aren't so expensive.

The demos of forever and ICnTTPOYM are interesting but dont see myself playing them that often. He made all the right decisions in what actually made it to stores. That 70s miles Davis-ish ending to ICMTTPOYM is one of the best moments on the album. But for scholars and fans who like comparing versions, it is pretty amazing how many different versions of certain songs there are in the vault. Glad he never released dorothy parker with horns!

I don't think it's a scam, but part of me thinks they are testing the waters to see how much they can charge for this stuff moving forward. Sadly this seemed to fly off the shelves too, so I have to imagine this will be the more likely price point for future sets than the 1999 box price.

I don't have the big box in the budget, so I settled for the three disc version and I'm really annoyed that the third disc for that package is just the singles and extended versions. I've already got the singles from The Hits/The B-Sides and none of the extended mixes have done a lot for me. I would have much rather had one of the vault discs as the bonus here or, better yet, a curated selection from the vault discs and live stuff.

its the shitty book that bumps up the price so much.

I bought the 3-disc version, but the third disc was messed up, and when I took it back to exchange they had no additional copies to replace it with. So I applied the credit toward the Neneh Cherry Raw Like Sushi reissue. Also 3 discs, also late 80's, and a little more fun.

shitty book

Spot on. The track and liner notes SUCK. Just reading the Prince Vault entries for free online will get you far more insight into the music, which is pretty fucking sad. This doesn't even rise to the level of David Fricke's hack liner notes, it's well below that.

Three discs of raw like sushi?!

The book is just a coffee table space filler exercise. No photos of real merit and no essays of real interest (though admittedly the andrea Swanson one looked decent and I've not read the Susan rogers one yet. Think I was just put off by some of the others). Just straightforward liner notes would have been nice.

I stopped listening to it a while ago actually. Oddly it made me fo back to the bootlegs lol

I strongly recommend a live bootleg called wonder boy over this utrecht show, which is ok but feels a bit perfunctory.

Simon Reynolds with an interesting take on the new edition.

http://blissout.blogspot.com/2020/10/cornucopious.html?m=1

His actual review -
https://4columns.org/reynolds-simon/prince

the only reason I can think of that the estate didn't put on the full "Crystal Ball" recording, "Movie Star" and some other cuts of this vintage on this box is because he threw it out will nilly on the 98 record by the same name? I would think that it would be fundamental to include every recording that was germane to Camille, Dream Factory and Crystal Ball projects…

I can't remember the details, but yes, they couldn't include those tracks because of some legal business with the rights to those songs. It sucks.

I bet we'll eventually see full releases of those albums.

what's this strange relationship
ship
ship
ship

doot doot doodoodoot

14. "BULLSHIT...I MEAN REALLY!"

― thom yorke state of mind (voodoo chili), Wednesday, May 11, 2016 4:06 PM (eight years ago) bookmarkflaglink

i mean real-lay!
real-lay!
real-lay!

Shut up, already! Damn.

Times.

Thepantswerewettheycameoffbutshehadntseenthemoviecosshehadntreadthebookfirst