Sign O' the Times - Prince (CD 1987)

In the course of human history there are events that help us define who we are as individuals or as a nation. It seems rather silly to think that a song or an album could assist in such an endeavor, but I submit to you that the things we remember are the things that endure. It's the songs, television shows, family trips and sometimes even tragedy. They all pass through our consciousness and tumble out leaving the memory of the moment, a memory that we can sometimes access at will, other times all it takes is the right song.

I know many Prince songs by heart, don't get me started, all I need is a little snippet of lyric and I'll sing the entire song. From Purple Rain, to 1999, to Sign 'O' The Times Prince remains an artist who cannot be marginalized, dismissed as crude or underestimated.

Sign 'O' The Times
Produced, Arranged, Composed, & Performed by Prince

All The Tracks

Album I

Sign 'O' The Times
Play In The Sunshine
Housequake
The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
It
Starfish And Coffee
Slow Love
Hot Thang
Forever In My Life

Album II

U Got The Look ( Duet With Sheena Easton)
If I Was Your Girlfriend
Strange Relationship
I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
The Cross
It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night
Adore

Success gives birth to acceptance, acceptance can be the pre-cursor to the demise of innovation, which brings us back to the time 1987 and the release of Sign 'O' The Times.

Sign 'O' The Times

In France, a skinny man died of a BIG disease with a little name
By chance his girlfriend came across a needle and soon she did the same
At home there are 17-year-old boys and their idea of fun
Is being in a gang called The Disciples
High on crack and totin' a machine gun

Confronted by his own demons of acceptance and success it's as though Prince wanted to prove he was still relevant and he did not have to show us his private parts to shock us and make us think. Even with all of that he still wanted us to dance and have a lot of fun, then he would show us his private parts. Sign 'O' The Times the first song on the album careens from the issues of AIDS, drug abuse, Hurricanes, child abuse and the Challenger explosion. That one song alone makes Sign 'O' The Times the most serious of Prince albums. The bass line and the rhythms of Sign 'O' The Times captivate and then the words spew forth a reality that covers you from head to toe. You sing along and when it's over you repeat it and repeat it until you can sing the words by heart, okay that was me, but I think it will have a similar affect on you.

Selected Song By Song Rant

Sign 'O' The Times is only the beginning, next there is the Jam Housequake, this is a dance song to beat all dance songs and if released today in a dance club it would prove to be timeless. Starfish and Coffee is a nice little pop ditty that simply proves that Prince is a master of his craft, it's a silly little song that I'm sure only Prince could make work. Hot Thang is a raunchy little rock song or that's how it sounded to me with all the guitar work. Album two just Rocks and Pops along from U Got The Look, to If I Was Your Girlfriend, Strange Relationship and finally I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man. Okay the other songs are good too and I can listen to the album from cut to cut, but these songs in my estimation are timeless examples of the artistry of Prince. Any greatest hits album could include these eight songs as a starting point and anything else would be an extra added bonus.

Sign 'O' The Times is as close to a Prince MasterWork as any of the albums before it. It is a double album that unlike the 1999 double album, Sign 'O' The Times is filled to the brim and satisfies from track one of side one through the last cut of side four of album two. For those who would categorize the music of Prince or seek to define him by the known styles of music this is for you. If you are looking for an artist who can glide smoothly from Rock 2 pop 2 funk 2 R&B 2 soulful ballads Prince is your man and it's all there on Sign 'O' The Times.

Sign 'O' The Times should be in any Prince collection and it could serve as a deviding line for Prince music, music before Sign 'O' The Times on one side and music after Sign 'O' The Times on the other. I believe that is the power of and the effect this album has had on his career. If you were to do a retrospective of the work of Prince it should start with Sign 'O' The Times and then work forward and backward based on personal preference. In my next opinion I will define the Prince Greatest Hits Album I'd like to see.

The Prince 4 Play Continues Next Week With: Prince: 4 Play: Special Installment Part II - The Prince Greatest Hits Album I'd Like to See