Prince, Sign O' the Times
Prince, Sign O' the Times
Prince’s period-defining 1987 double-album Sign O’ the Times, a kaleidoscope of the funk, pop, and rock that came out of the era, is getting the super deluxe reissue treatment akin to the 1999 remastered edition that came out last year, with over 60 unreleased songs surfacing from the vault. The album comes out September 25, and for new Prince fans and the heads alike, this is a can’t miss reissue that resonates as strongly today as when it was released.
“What people were saying about Sign O’ the Times was, ‘There are some great songs on it, and there are some experiments on it,'” Prince told Rolling Stone in a 1990 interview. “I hate the word ‘experiment’ – it sounds like something you didn’t finish. Well, they have to understand that’s the way to have a double record and make it interesting.”
The unreleased tracks include edits, mixes, and original demo versions of songs from Sign O’ the Times, from “Shockadelica”, a b-side to “If I Was Your Girlfriend,” two different versions of “Witness 4 the Prosecution,” a remaster of “Cosmic Day,” to the 1979 version of “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man.”
Counting down the launch of the reissue, The Current is producing a weekly audio documentary series. “Prince: The Story of Sign O’ the Times,” a collaboration with the Prince Estate, Paisley Park, and Warner Records, airs at 8 p.m. every Thursday, and is also available as a podcast.
For the uninitiated here’s what you should know about Sign O’ the Times.
Prince recorded pretty much everything
This was Prince’s first record since disbanding the Revolution, and he didn’t look outside himself for much help on this one. Only three of the 16 songs have co-writers (“Starfish and Coffee”, “Slow Love”, and “It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Night”) and for nine of the songs, there is no outside collaborator listed as performing any instruments. This album, like many of Prince’s releases before it, relied heavily on his use of the Linn LM-1 drum machine, and longtime Prince engineer Susan Rogers was an integral part of the record.
Prince originally wanted to release a 22 track record
But his label, Warner Music, refused to release the 22 song album they were sent, scared it would cost too much and wouldn’t sell enough. The label insisted the album couldn’t be any longer than a double, making Prince cut his work down to meet their demands. This dustup was a precursor to the enormous fallout awaiting Prince and Warner Music in the ‘90s.
Three shuttered projects led to Sign O’ the Times
Many of the songs and ideas from Sign O’ the Times were born out of sessions meant for different Prince works. Before disbanding the Revolution, Prince and the band had recorded songs for a Dream Factory project that wouldn’t see the light of the day, but several songs from the session made their way onto Prince’s ‘87 record. Prince had also been working on a project entitled Camille, an androgynous alter ego with his voice pitched to sound more womanly, and Crystal Ball, described as a rock-funk opera.
Sign O’ the Times is in the Grammy Hall of Fame
Sign O’ the Times is considered by some to be Prince’s best album to ever be released, and in 2017 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The album was nominated for Album of the Year when it came out, but lost to U2’s Joshua Tree.
Beyond the music
This release includes a complete audio live performance of Prince’s ‘87 stop in the Netherlands on the Sign O’ the Times tour, and a DVD of the New Year’s Eve benefit concert at Paisley Park on December 31, 1987, featuring Prince’s performance with jazz legend Miles Davis (one of the unreleased tracks on the super deluxe edition is a collaboration with Davis, “Can I Play With U?”). Bonus: A 120 page hardcover book with handwritten lyrics, photos, studio material, and more, as well as liner notes from names like Dave Chappelle, Lenny Kravitz, The Current host Andrea Swensson, and more.
