After the release of his third Global-Funkathon shut-up-already opus in a row (damn) - I can recall all of Prince's Fluff n' Funk detractors being silenced by the title track "Sign "O" The Times" - surely the same moment of vindication The Beatles felt when "Yesterday" closed down even their snootiest critics.
The 1987 song about a big disease with a little name and 17-year old gun-totting crack-smoking hoodies getting off on machine guns across every major American city was a musical and lyrical kick in the ribs. And Prince managed to wrap it all up in Pinched Notes Funk that few have ever replicated - copied for sure - but never got near. And then to think there was a whole double-album of that - wow! But his ninth platter for Warner Brothers has been a digital disappointment for decades...
Well - at last - and Remastered for the first time - September 2020 has throw up the archive goodies big time. I know most diehards will have to own the 'Super Deluxe' variant with even more outtakes. But for us in the trenches with gas bills too frightening to look at for fear of cardiac irregularities - let's get starfish and coffee with the piddly '3CD Deluxe Edition'. Here are the hot things...
UK released 25 September 2020 - "Sign "O" The Times" by PRINCE on Warner Brothers/NPG/Rhino R2 643352 / 603497846566 (Barcode 603497846566) is a 'Three CD Deluxe Edition Set' with 17 Bonus Tracks and New Remasters. CD1 and CD2 are the original double-album, CD3 is Bonuses; they play out as follows:
CD1 (40:17 minutes):
1. Sign "O" The Times (4:57 minutes) [Side 1]
2. Play In The Sunshine (5:05 minutes)
3. Housequake (4:39 minutes)
4. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker (4:03 minutes)
5. It (5:10 minutes) [Side 2]
6. Starfish And Coffee (2:50 minutes)
7. Slow Love (4:22 minutes)
8. Hot Thing (5:39 minutes)
9. Forever in My Life (3:32 minutes)
CD2 (39:44 minutes):
1. U Got The Look (3:46 minutes) [Side 3]
2. If I Was Your Girlfriend (5:03 minutes)
3. Strange Relationship (4:01 minutes)
4. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (6:29 minutes)
5. The Cross (4:48 minutes) [Side 4]
6. It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night (9:02 minutes)
7. Adore (6:35 minutes)
Both CDs above are his ninth studio album "Sign "O" The Times" - released March 1987 in the USA on Paisley Park 9 25777-1 as a 2LP Set and Paisley Park/Warner Brothers WX 88 in the UK. Arranged, Composed, Played and Produced by PRINCE - it peaked at No.6 in the USA and No.4 in the UK. British Vocalist, Sheena Easton, duets with Prince on "U Got The Look".
CD3 "Single Mixes & Edits Remastered" (71:19 minutes):
1. Sign "O" The Times (Edit, 3:41 minutes)
2. La, La, La, He, He, Hee (Edit, 3:22 minutes)
3. La, La, La, He, He, Hee (Highly Explosive, 10:47 minutes)
4. If I Was Your Girlfriend (Edit, 3:47 minutes)
5. Shockadelica (3:31 minutes)
6. Shockadelica (12" Long Version, 6:13 minutes)
7. U Got The Look (Long Look, 6:41 minutes)
8. Housequake (Edit, 3:32 minutes)
9. Housequake (7 Minutes MoQuake, 7:12 minutes)
10. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Fade, 3:39 minutes)
11. Hot Thing (Edit, 3:41 minutes)
12. Hot Thing (Extended Remix, 8:32 minutes)
13. Hot Thing (Dub Version, 6:53 minutes)
The four-panel foldout card sleeves houses a CD in three too-tight card pouches and the 16-page colour booklet in the fourth (be careful pulling them out). You get the lyrics (essentially what was on the two inner sleeves), LP photos and updated reissue credits including CD3, but little else – no new liner notes, place in history – which is shame. But the BERNIE GRUNDMAN Remasters make up for critique most Prince fans don't need to read anyway. I LOVE the audio on this reissue – muscular but not overdone – it has been a pleasure to revisit every single song and CD3 is very, very tasty icing on an already buff birthday cake.
Musically - despite his 'all praise & glory 2 God' credit on the inner sleeves, this is still a Prince album, so naughtiness a-la-mode is not just present, it's mandatory. But what was and still is thrilling is the serious upping of his observations - lyrically "Sign "O" The Times" was the album that saw Prince never more socially accurate and on the money. To the tunes...
You still have to give the
volume control a big of welly for "Play In The Sunshine" - sign up on
the dotted line - dance until the early hours - love all the enemies. Serious
shut-up-already (damn) Funk kicks in with "Housequake" - the kind of
jam he seemed to gargle for breakfast - the Audio finally giving this big fat baby mama some ooh yeah. Taking a bubble bath with his pants on for "The Ballad Of
Dorothy Parker" - Prince captures a Blond Waitress' life on the Promenade
- all excitement and sometimes with a little too much after-party violence. And
call me an old softy, but how good is the smooch in "Slow Love" -
surely played in one too many inner city bedrooms by chaps needing to make
their squeezes feel the love, while she only wanted to get home for "21 Jump Street" and a comfort cushion. His larynx altering screams in "Hot Thing" are a
hoot and that great Saxophone from Fred Leeds in the background - so damn good (check out the Remixes of this track that tail end CD3).
Eurovision star and UK vocalist Sheena Easton gets her jammin'-slammin' moment with Side 3's opener "U Got The Look" - a fantastic groove and an obvious single. But “If I Was Your Girlfriend” outdoes even that where Prince goes full-bore imagination mode when describing what his dishy dame of the moment would look like with less apparel on if he was... It's the kind of naughty but fabulous Prince hook that even now in 2023 sounds so damn contemporary when so many truly sexist tunes have gone by the wayside. As if to confirm the album's greatness, he finds yet another winner in "Strange Relationship" - surely a huge fan fave and a song that wouldn't have out of place on 1982's "1999". And again - just so right - another single in "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" - a drum-bopping tale of a woman not so easily enticed by Prince but honest enough to say that she was trapped in a relationship by a partner even more unscrupulous. The single edit of 3:47 minutes removes that extended guitar/drums funk battle towards the end of the full album version at 6:29 minutes - I dig both equally because they are actually different beasts by the slice/non-slice.
Many Prince fans will probably play "The Cross" and cry - a stripped-down song about his faith that even though its short - this sweet air of salvation has always floored me. We go the nine-minutes of "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night" - a Funk marathon played Live in front of a Parisian audience - and man can u see the bodies digging it - the band tight - Prince working the crowd into a clapping rhythm - saxophone solo taking it home - James Brown and The JB's smiling - great stuff. And CD3 offers more of the same - love that slightly Prog Rock guitar battle 'Fade' as the Edit for "If I Was Your Girlfriend" and the "Shockadelica" and "La La..." outtakes that turned up as B-sides - those extended "Hot Thing" versions too.
"Sign "O" The Times" was probably the last time Prince fans were united in their hero's undeniable greatness - devoid of all the slave on my face shit that so marred the later years. But this - and its bigger brother/sister version - has to be a reissue of the year for 2020. And although in March 2023, I'm a little late to the righteous party myself - I'm so glad I made the effort to put my dancing shoes on and buy this heart-shaped stickered piece of glorious Eighties goodness. N-joy...
