Ive always felt that SOTT should have been titled(or at least was a homage to)OZ.The reason is because there's so many Wizard of Oz type references. Dorothy Parker(Dorothy), the affliction brought on by a witches curse(wicked witch of
the west),Princes high Camille munchkin voice on songs like If I Was Your Girlfriend,You Got The Look etc. And of course the obvious "oh we oh, oh oh's" from Its Gonna Be A Beautiful Night which were what the wicked witches' henchmen sang in Wizard Of Oz.

Not to mention the cover art which has a crystal ball as a centerpiece (like the crystal ball the wicked witch used in Oz).Play in the Sunshine also talks about a big white rabbit so I guess he added a little Alice in Wonderland to the mix too. Maybe he wrote it as a soundtrack to be played along with WIZARD OF OZ just like Pink Floyd allegedly did with their Dark Side Of The Moon album back in the day?

After all Prince did like to make "answer" albums of previous rock gods(Purple Rain=Hendrix, ATWIAD=the Beatles, SOTT=pink floyd, etc) not to mention the Pink Floyd like sounds in the song IT. Also the line in Strange Relationship, where he says "isnt it a shame this aint a movie...". Plus the fact that his face is Wicked Witch of The West green color on t e cover of the album and cd. All in all the cd, album Sign of The Times is a sexy, adult version of Wizard Of Oz, or so it seems.

if there was ever a time where i think he experimented with
drugs.i would say this was the time period.the whole album
has lyrics that sound like some1 on LSD.but adore did come from that album so who really knows.

Strange u should mention Pink Floyd & Prince. My favorite musician and band. Rumor has around 1985-86-87 that Prince listened 2 a lot of Beatles, Zeppelin, Floyd.

theC said:

During this period he did try X & LSD.

christophertracy1986 said:

I know this isnt what you meant by saying favorite musician but your response reminds me of once when I asked a lady who was quite older but was trying to be hip the question.. "do you like Led Zepplin?"..and she said "oh yeah, he's good".

rdhull said:

I know, I know...gottem' backwards...Prince=musician & Pink Floyd=band :0) Thanxs...

rdhull said:

Very, very interesting observation. I never really looked at Sign "O" The Times that way. It's like Michael Jackson's The OZ! A black version of Wizard of Oz...very cool!

I never pulled that out! I just thought he was having fun with stuff that he liked creatively.

I always thought he was mixing James Brown double albums and Curtis Mayfield urban/social awarness, hence the square gold rimmed glasses. Hard Funk fantasy and quasi-psychodelia.

Great catch.

The 'big white rabbit' referenced Warner Bros. (their corporate symbol at the time was Bugs Bunny).

Jestyr said:

But Bugs is grey and white.

the wiz...and it was a broadway play staring Stefanie Mills prior to becoming a film with Diana Ross :O who was over fourty at the time filming...

go figure...

rdhull said:

kinda like the "which one's Pink" joke about Floyd...

twonabomber said:

Have a cigar...yeah I was gonna say that but I didnt wanna seem liek I was clownin CTracy

Me and my friends always joked about the "wizard of oz" element to Sign O the times. But we also factored in his two, braided, ribboned, mini pigtails at the beginning of the movie, just like dorothy.

At the Xenaphobia thing, he said "the man behind the curtain... all of you need to become the man behind the curtain."

starboy126 said:

Hmmm...more fuel for the fire.
[This message was edited Sun Jul 7 17:25:03 PDT 2002 by rdhull]
[This message was edited Sun Jul 7 17:25:32 PDT 2002 by rdhull]

rdhull said:

What you smokin rd?

bkw said:

This is what happens when you smoke out to SOTT

SOTT--the opening song and credits--about whats going down in OZ--no Aussie Oz though

Play In The Sunshine--the munchkins sing and fraggle around their land to this tune

Housequake--the witch enters and tells errybody to shut up already damn--do they know about the quakle instead of that sunshine shit

Ballad Of Dot Parker--talkin about the background and ones experience with Dorothy

It-The witch and 3 friends sing

Starfish n Coffee--The Scarecrows tale

Slow Love-Dorothys one off side trip with ,...and Tin Mans ode

Hot Thing-Lion

Forever In My Life--Dorothys ode to home or her new friends

U Got The Look--the inhabitants of Oz sing this to them all when they enter OZ

If I Was Your GF--The Wizard sings this to the inhabitants of Oz

Strange Relationship--about Dorothy and her new friends

ICNTTPOYM-The Wiz sings this to Dorothy after being found a fraud

The Cross-Dorothys song about OZ reality right before meeting up for the last time with the witch

Its Gonna Be A Beautiful Night--sung after the wicked witch is destroyed

Adore--Dorothys last song to her new friends before she clicks her heels

"Big White Rabbit" also is a double reference. It also refers to the prodiminantly white-run Warner Bros. record company. Remember, "Play in the Sunshine" was added to the project AFTER WB insited that it be whittled down from three to two discs...

I've heard this theory a couple of times...interesting. You never know with Prince.

I think this SOTT/Wizard of Oz thing is stretching reality just a bit too far.
Dark Side of the Moon steals the show on this one. Has anybody tried synching that album to the movie? The sequence of songs, scenes, sound effects, etc. fit together so well and it's a real treat to experience. There's one difficulty to it though; recent videos of the Wizard of Oz have been edited differently, so don't work after the first few minutes.

Anyway, there are web-sites devoted to this, and this is a Prince list...

Ahhh...so THIS must b how myths start!

So...who's going 2 bring Willy Wonka in2 this?

I REALLY think Prince should b in a remake...it would b mad funny.

Jestyr said:

I always thought it was more of a drug reference, quoting the Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit". In-fact I also thought Play in the Sunshine was an anti-drug song. But the WB thing makes sense too.

The Oz/SOTT coincidences aren't even close compared to Dark Side. Floyd had to have done that on purpose when they recorded it. Prince might have been referencing OZ a lot but I think that was about it.

nice work, rdhull.
prince IS green on the cover
new there had to b a reason 4 that...

I don't think Prince consciously referenced Wizard of Oz.

Dorothy Parker, that's not referencing Oz, that's just the name of the writer Dorothy Parker.

The Crystal Ball on the cover is because the album is a marred down version of the Crystal Ball album.

However, it does sound like a good excuse to chillout to some SOTT

MiaBocca said:

A post come back to haunt me..I never meant that he intended to make some answer record to SOTT like a Real Roxanne mess..Im just saying he was inspired partly "probably" and a lot of pieces fit..and Dorothy Parker is the name of a female member of a vicious circle member but he did not mean it to be about her regardless. And the whole crystal ball scene-project is inspired by Wizard Of Oz imho..everyone his age speaks of crystal balls in the terms of Wizard of Oz regardless...unless your Stevie friggin Nicks. But yes..a good time for SOTT again this weekend.

THANKS as The Wizard of Oz was n just on here on the USA, here is a trivia question...
...the witches hencemen do not really sing OH we OH, as we do from Beautiful Nite

what do they sing??

Mauve said:

oh WE all love the OLDDD one

rdhull said:

close
but
no

Mauve said:

well..what do they say? Because thats what a documentary said about it
[This message was edited Mon Nov 25 22:56:04 PST 2002 by rdhull]

Pagey said:

"POP goes the music when the big white rabbit begin 2 talk
and the color green'll make yo best friend leave ya"

This is a reference to folks from the Prince camp (Morris Day specifically, I think) who left the fold on less than good terms, somewhat due to COCAINE, among other things.

There's a story I read somewhere...EVERYONE on the 1999 and Purple Rain tours were wasted, COKED OUT, all but Prince. Chick and Vanity are the main ones everyone knows about, but Morris also had habits, even after leaving the Prince camp.
[This message was edited Tue Nov 26 0:01:28 PST 2002 by VioletBlue]
[This message was edited Tue Nov 26 0:01:57 PST 2002 by VioletBlue]