Saturday, January 04, 2014

Sign ☮' the Times (1987)

Out of curiosity, I wonder what the consensus presently is on best Prince album? I know a lot of people were very high on Sign for some time, but I have a feeling most of the affection has settled on Purple Rain (or, in some circles, Dirty Mind). I have always admired and respected Sign but never exactly loved it. Let me try to explain. It often feels a little like work to take it on, and not only for its generous double-LP 80-minute dimensions. There are other reasons. For example, the worst song here is the first one encountered, and the title song no less. A fetching aural landscape (as also was "When Doves Cry," remember) but more of a novelty and/or inert art object, and ultimately tiresome I think. No need to go into the belabored attempt to be topical, I hope. I don't doubt Prince wanted peace on this earth in 1987, still does, and always has, but he's a little fatuous about it, don't you think? There's a downside to spending your life locked into a studio. Then there are what I think of as The Lessons in Funk—"Housequake," or "Hot Thing." This is great stuff, but is it my imagination or is there something a little clinical here? I guess there's a downside to putting on a clinic too. He studied his James Brown, George Clinton, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, and Little Richard well. Prince Rogers Nelson is the Tiger Woods of funk and soul and rock 'n' roll and always has been. He knew where to fix his gaze and absorb, and he's loaded with talent. And it is indeed brilliant music to be found here, absolutely ... stop to listen close ... sure enough, hands in the air like I just don't care. So why don't I get to it more often? Partly I think there are actually a good many lesser lights besides the title song. I don't like "Starfish and Coffee" or "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker," and "The Cross" is the kind of business I don't want to be involved in (wonderful grinding bottom or no). In other cases the songs themselves are patchy: "Play in the Sunshine" and "It" have very nice moments but can be lackluster about getting there. "Slow Love" is a good one, the kind of torchy sex song he does on a regular basis and often pulls off (which also means it isn't necessarily indispensable). "If I Was Your Girlfriend" is weird in a good way and charming. "U Got the Look" works pretty well too, and "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" is about as big as the 9:02 allows. My favorite on the recent visits was "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" and its soaring hook, which sounds to me like it could have played on Purple Rain, although maybe (or maybe not) I could do without the proggy break (thus making it another patchy song, though at 6:29 it has the room to breathe too). I have to admit, I tend to favor the next album over this, Lovesexy, which I thought better achieved the seamless suite of everything he is going for (see also, names above), sans huffed-up topicality, which feels more like making it mighty real to me. But I expect Sign O' the Times (with or without embedded peace symbol) is pretty far up the Rolling Stone Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ladder, yes?

5 comments:

  1. Dirty Mind has a special place in my heart ... it's short, for one thing, and one of the greatest shows I ever saw was Prince in a small club on the Dirty Mind tour. But I usually list Sign o the Times as the best (there I go with best vs. favorite again). I love all four of the Dirty Mind-Purple Rain era albums, and Sign was a great "comeback". There is usually something interesting on all his releases, there is just too much of it. And I've seen him as recently as 2004, and he's still great live. I can't argue with the "clinical" tag ... but he is arguably the greatest musician of his era, so I forgive him for that, and I'm always hoping he'll show up at an awards ceremony so he can show off again.

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  2. I've seen him a couple of times in small venues and they were amazing. I know it was a little silly of me to complain about things being too good!

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  3. Wow, I just figured out who Mon-sewer (trés nice handle) really is!

    I'm pretty close to you on this. For some reason, when I *think* about the album, it stands very impressively, no doubt due in part to how much I liked it at the time, but there are about a handful of songs, maybe, that have survived with me -- mind you, those are all really, really great, I think. I'll take all of "I Could Never Take the Place..." which ended up on my Top 100 a few years ago (sounds to me like he's aiming for a "Can't You Hear Me Knocking"-type of breakdown, but I like what he does so much better). "U Got the Look" and "Dorothy Parker" are up there for me also. But yeah, I never cared at all for the title track (not true: it was striking on the first two or three hearings, but wore its welcome quickly).

    I love Prince, but really have a hard time figuring out which album of his is my favourite. I guess with the passage of time, I've latched on to songs all across his career (up to the end of the '80s, though there are a few later things I didn't mind), but I don't really fixate on one LP so much (if anything, I fixate on the entire '80-'84 run, but that's cheating, no?).

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  4. Seen him live twice, first on the Purple Rain tour, which I don't remember much about, aside from his showering the audience with sperm from his guitar at one point (!), and second on the Lovesexy tour, which was completely fantastic. To see him in 1980 in a club, however, is something I am beyond envious about, I admit. Was he wearing the jockstrap?

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  5. I thought the same thing about "Can't You Hear Me Knocking"!

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