Jack & Diane or Sign O' The Times?

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Mellencamp's Jack & Diane (1982) or Prince's Sign O' The Times (1987)

― applelooser, Tuesday, 12 July 2005 02:55 (twenty years ago)

Could someone please post one of these threads with a song that has say a remote chance of being comperable to a Prince song? Like maybe Sly Fox - "Let's Go All The Way" vs Prince and the Revolution - "I Wish U Heaven"?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 02:58 (twenty years ago)

Nothing against the Coug, but seriously, lock thread.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 03:59 (twenty years ago)

I like both songs. I like the Prince one a lot more.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 04:42 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, no real contest. But hearing the first 15 seconds of either will always make me smile.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 04:52 (twenty years ago)

Nothing against the Coug, but seriously, lock thread.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 04:56 (twenty years ago)

little ditty bout chuck & diane.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 05:11 (twenty years ago)

Two landed gentry doin' the best they can

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 05:18 (twenty years ago)

CHucky's gonna be a fuck i don't know you think of something star
Diane decapitated in the backseat of XXXX's car

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 05:23 (twenty years ago)

Man, do I ever hate John Mellencamp. He doesn't even deserve to be compared to Prince.

― jng9685, Tuesday, 12 July 2005 06:11 (twenty years ago)

I don't even hate John Mellencamp, but is this really a contest? "Sign o' the Times," no question.

― Lyra Jane (Lyra Jane), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 12:55 (twenty years ago)

If it was "Rain On The Scarecrow" vs "Sign 'O' The Times," then it's Coog no question.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

Could someone please post one of these threads with a song that has say a remote chance of being comperable to a Prince song?

I think that's silly, why not pick wildly different songs? I think it's as fun as picking similar songs. Of course about ~~99,9999~~ 100 percent will pick SotT. :-)I really like both songs, but SotT is better.

― nathalie's body's designed for two (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:14 (twenty years ago)

"jack & diane" is my pick. i love prince, but "sign o' the times" isn't one of my faves by him. i mean i like it ok, but it's no "purple rain" or whatever.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:17 (twenty years ago)

Actually, the two songs have this in common: big hits overpraised by critics for being about Something Meaningful as opposed to their other mindless party blather or whatever. Not particularly bad, but not as exciting as their other work.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:19 (twenty years ago)

"similar" != "comperable" (sic) Songs that are comparable would be of similar quality/esteem and allow for interesting contrasts and arguments to be put forth. Threads like this are kind of boring; is it really fun to read a long list of entries that follow along the lines of "The Prince song. Are you high?"

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:20 (twenty years ago)

If it was "Rain On The Scarecrow" vs "Sign 'O' The Times," then it's Coog no question.

very OTM. Coog gets a genuine sense of personal apocalypse going on while Prince gets by on musical intrigue and a few novel lyrics (I'm a big fan of the "...it's june"). A Prince POX dropkicks most other folks POX but he's not infallible.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

TS: "Rain on the Scarecrow" vs "Pink Houses"

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:22 (twenty years ago)

HStencil OTM. "Sign o the Times" is one of the less interesting Prince songs, as far as I'm concerned. "Jack and Diane" by a nose.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:22 (twenty years ago)

i like mellancamp and prince both better when they're more exuberant, i think that's the only reason j&d wins for me over sott.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:23 (twenty years ago)

(vs "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.")

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:23 (twenty years ago)

And let's face it: the putatively socially conscious lyrics on "Sign o the Times" are on a "We Didn't Start the Fire" level of analysis.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

Well, I'll take "Let's fall in love, get married, have a baby, we'll call'em Nate if he's a boy" over "birth control Ho Chi Minh Richard Nixon back again"

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

Well, I can't argue with his choice of names...

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

i think i might go with mellencamp here! (miccio otm about the "...it's june" part.)

― strng hlkngtn, Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:40 (twenty years ago)

That guitar riff in "Jack & Diane" seared my soul in junior high but "Sign" only had me saying, "oh, Prince is being political or something" when I was in high school. I alway hit 'skip' on this track (and "the Cross") when playing this prince abbim. I'm going with Cougar here.

― p.j. (Henry), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:43 (twenty years ago)

And let's face it: the putatively socially conscious lyrics on "Sign o the Times" are on a "We Didn't Start the Fire" level of analysis.

No it isn't! There narrator in "We Didn't Start The Fire" is just listing headlines and factoids with absolutely no personal involvement while the narrator in "Sign O' The Times" is going through a list of global AND personal issues, getting more and more frustrated and upset before saying "fuck it" and daydreaming about starting a family (with a heavy intimation that he's going to try to increase the happiness in his life by making it better for his kid).

The closest the Billy Joel song comes to that level of involvement is shouting "WHAT ELSE DO I HAVE TO SAY???" (Ans: Um, how about anything of substance, you useless tool?) and "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE!!!!" ("You and me both, fuckface." *changes radio station*)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:44 (twenty years ago)

It is impossible to imagine "Sign 'O' the Times" without "Jack and Diane." Prince said so in his 1991 interview in Spin.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

Dan otm. When Billy Joel wants to project concern he just sounds like a pissed-off millionaire. He was more convincing in the video when he overturned the table.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:50 (twenty years ago)

I totally prefer "Sign' O' The Times" to "Jack & Diane," though. I've never liked "J&D," that and "Glory Days" are the songs that make me wonder why more boomers haven't killed themselves.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

He was more convincing in the video when he overturned the table.

Hahaha that was when Billy Joel helped invent emo.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

How soon we forget Simon LeBon!

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:56 (twenty years ago)

If I prefer "We Didn't Start The Fire" to "Sign O' The Times" its not necessarily to Billy Joel's 'credit.'

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 13:57 (twenty years ago)

I think that what "We Didn't Start the Fire" and "Sign O The Times" have in common is not the emotional resonance but that they both stretch to find a pattern in events that display little obvious connection. So Prince knows someone who went from reefer to horse in a few months and this somehow ties into people Star Wars and AIDS and people shooting up churches? I guess from a millenarian religious perspective it may be persuasive, but to me it seems a bit reductive.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 14:45 (twenty years ago)

Have you ever read the lyrics to "Sign O' The Times", o. nate? Are you seriously trying to argue that a person can't look at events happening to close to home combined with events going on in the world at large and can't feel bogged down, unsettled and upset, that the combination of all of those things can't make you feel like society at large is about to collapse?

"We Didn't Start The Fire" doesn't work because it is precisely what you are describing. "Sign O' The Times" does work because it is precisely the opposite of what you're describing.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

"Sign O' the Times" by countless light years.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 15:15 (twenty years ago)

I fucking hate "Jack and Diane." At least "Glory Days" is about particular individuals, but "J&D" tries to universalize this bullshit about how the thrill of livin' will surely be gone after those teenage years. Song has always struck me as phony. Worst line: "Hold onto sixteen as long as you can." Yeah, I was tryin', buddy, but that ol' clock on the wall just kept on ticking away ... What a poignant American tragedy.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 15:37 (twenty years ago)

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