Sign “☮” the Times

post your favorite Sign “☮” the Times era pictures, stories, music[released and unreleased] [protege or Prince]

This album has always been bittersweet 4 me
Back then I never knew of the Dream Factory album or the Camille project, but it was really exciting to view this 'concert', I was ready 4 him when he brought the show 2 the States, ...but sadly he decided to release it as a concert film. The visuals are so stimulating.
My favorite stage set up, he could continue 2 use this one and there is so much there that I would never get tired of it. (I also love the Times early 80's stage backdrop)













[Edited 4/15/09 11:51am]

the 1st review I read of the Sign “☮” the Times show

PRINCE IN EUROPE: A PREVIEW OF HIS NEW SHOW

BY KURT LODER [Interview Magazine]




IT'S FOUR IN THE MORNING, May 15th, at Quasimodo, a small, black-walled Berlin jazz cellar, but the beer is still flowing, and fresh hash smoke curls languidly through the hot, stuffy air. Some 300 people are packed into the place, most of them lucky holdovers from a set much earlier in the evening by the expatriate American singer Joy Ryder. Now they are crushed around the club's tiny stage, staring in popeyed wonder at the totally unexpected mystery gig currently under way.

There are three men in long, hooded robes on stage -- one playing sax, another bass, the third wringing wondrous sounds out of a Fairlight synthesizer. There is an amazing woman playing drums -- it's Sheila E. And at center stage, wearing a rhinestone-spangled black leather jacket and at least three different kinds of dangling earrings, his heroically coiffed hair gathered into a small ponytail at the back, stands a little guy with a peach-colored guitar. Yes, it's Prince.

"Wanna go home?" he asks, peering out at the crowd with a coy smile.

"Nooo!"

"Me neither," he says, then glances at the band. "I think we oughta play the blues in G." A flurry of T-Bone Walker-style guitar lines suddenly fills the room, modulating quickly into a series of unmistakable Hendrixisms. The song is Jimi's "Red House," sort of. "There's a beach house over yonder," Prince sings, in a playful approximation of the original lyrics. "That's where my sugar stays...." He shouts out another verse or two and then takes off into a wild, glass-rattling guitar solo that makes jaws drop around the room and jacks up the temperature maybe another ten degrees.

It has been a long and amazing night, and there's still no end in sight. Many hours before, Prince and his new ten-member group, fresh from warm-up gigs in Sweden (they'll reach the U.S. sometime in August) -- played the fifth show of their 1987 European tour at West Berlin's Deutschlandhalle to a riotous response. It was Prince's first appearance in the divided city, and local scribes were already clapping together reviews centered on such words as genius and fantastic and marveling at the show's tech data: the thirteen trucks required to carry the elaborate stage set, the 240,000 watts of lighting, the 110,000 watts of amplification, the fourteen wardrobe trunks, two for Prince alone. In short, the first of Prince's two sold-out concerts in Germany's hippest city was an unqualified success -- at least for the approximately 12,000 people who danced and cheered their way through it.

The Prince camp, however, was less than totally pleased. There were some minor missed cues, and the rhythms of the tour hadn't yet settled into a satisfying groove. It had also been a disconcerting day: several members of the band had spent the morning visiting East Berlin and were still weirded out by the ugly hassling they got from the Volkspolizei gorillas on the eastern side of the Checkpoint Charlie border crossing. (Backing singer Cat Glover, who had rather rashly made the trip wearing a hot-pink suit and a white navy officer's hat, had been detained at length over a visa foul-up.) There was a certain fatigue factor at work as well. Three of the musicians -- bassist Levi Seacer, saxaphonist Eric Leeds, and keyboard phenom Matt Fink -- do double duty in Madhouse, the jazz-instrumental quartet that opens each show, and might have been subconsciously husbanding their energies in anticipation of this postconcert surprise gig that Prince had laid on. So, while the first concert at the Deutschlandhalle had been extraordinarily good by any normal standard, it hadn't been great -- which is Prince's standard.

But this surprise set at Quasimodo has been wonderfully invigorating. Madhouse opened up, blowing straight, muscular jazz and feeling more at home here than in front of the rock-funk crowds drawn to Prince concerts. Then Prince popped onstage, commandeered a synth and led the group into a steaming rendition of "Strange Relationship," from the Sign o' the Times album. That evolved into an extended jam ("Just keep on top of it!" Prince shouted), followed by the Hendrix workout. Next came a red-hot version of "Bodyheat," the James Brown dance classic, followed by a delicate and beautifully sung "Just My Imagination," the old Temptations hit, with more band members crowding onstage to join in. "Housequake," another song from the Sign LP, with Sheila E. whomping out a monster beat, loosened the roof on the place, and the closer, "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night," with Prince briefly taking over on drums, blew the sucker completely off. The crowd was a puddle of glee, most patrons unable to believe what they'd just seen (and free of charge). Then, quicker than you could say, "Elvis has left the building," Prince was gone.

This hour-long off-the-cuff jam -- a rare up-close demonstration of Prince's sensational powers as an instrumentalist, an improviser and (lest we forget) a singer -- was apparently just the tonic the whole troupe needed. By the following night, considerably refreshed and still buzzing from the Quasimodo gig, Prince and his band were primed to kill -- and proceeded, unforgettably, to do so.

The Friday-night crowd, another sellout, was already on its feet and screaming as an ocean of smoke poured out onto the stage. From somewhere within this impenetrable fog there erupted an abstract barrage of Hendrixian guitar sirens. A purple spotlight cut through the haze, revealing Prince in a long black leather coat and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, playing his peach-toned axe. As the electro-thump drumbeat that animates the title track of Sign o' the Times boomed through the hall, he began singing, and a back-light spot flashed on, silhouetting Cat Glover -- clad in the black bra and bikini briefs she would wear through most of the show -- gyrating wildly on an elevated platform at stage right. As the number built to a crescendo, the rest of the group came trooping down a long, winding ramp at stage left, each pummeling a drum with marching-band precision. Joining Prince, they spread out n the stage, beating out a resounding tattoo. It was an exhilarating entrance.

Then the lights went out, and the extraordinary stage set sizzled to life. An elaborate cityscape built on two levels, it echoes the cover of Sign o' the Times: a towering, impressionistic metropolis festooned with flashing neon signs -- UPTOWN, FUNK CORNER, BAR & GRILL, GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS. With all the lights popping on and off, the effect was that of a giant pinball machine. The band launched into the rollicking "Play in the Sunshine." On the stage level were Prince, bassist Seacer, rhythm guitarist Miko Weaver and backup vocalists Glover (whose picture on the sleeve of the "Sign" single has been widely mistaken to be Prince in drag), Greg Brooks and Wally Safford (two former Prince bodyguards). Elevated above them, and all but buried within her drum set, was Sheila E. And on the second tier, high above the stage, stood the two horn players, sax man Leeds and trumpeter Matt "Atlanta Bliss" Blistan, and keyboardists Fink and Boni Boyer.

Over the next ninety minutes, Prince and his extraordinary group ran, jumped, crawled and danced their way tirelessly through nineteen songs, ten of them from Sign o' the Times. Some numbers (the almost balladic version of "Little Red Corvette," for instance) were essentially abbreviated acknowledgments of past hits, but Prince did pull out the stops for certain oldies -- in particular a thunder-and-lightning performance of "Purple Rain" turned the house into a swaying sea of upraised arms. Equally memorable was the furious run-through of "1999" that closed the main part of the show, and the ultrafunk attack on "Kiss" that ended the first encore.

But in general it was the new material that was most powerfully presented. "Housequake" lived right up to its title and then some. The razor-riffed "Hot Thing" and the irresistibly exuberant "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" came across as instant and undeniable hits. On a steamier note, "If I Was Your Girlfriend" provided a perfect erotic set piece: as the song slithered to a close, Prince and the barely clad Glover, embracing before a giant, pink plastic heart, slowly went tilting back upon it into an unambiguous missionary positions as two neon signs high above the stage alternately flashed the words SEX and LOVE.

Throughout all of this, the band was spectacular. Prince has been listening to a lot of Duke Ellington and preelectric Miles Davis lately, and the show, while louder and maybe even funkier than ever, was also mightily enriched with jazz flourishes. The result, quite often, was an almost orchestral rock-jazz synthesis that was both harmonically exciting and (thanks to Sheila E. -- surely the world's hottest drummer in high-heeled pumps) relentlessly funky.

And the best came last. Prince started "The Cross" alone and shirtless, strumming the simple opening chords on his guitar as lighting effects flickered behind the darkened cityscape above him. Then the song started to build -- drums wading in, then fully cranked guitars, then the full band -- until the number attained an enormous, hall-shaking roar, with Prince soloing off into the stratosphere as a shower of mulitcolored silk flowers rained onto the stage. From there, the band jumped straight into "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night," which had the whole crowd chanting and stomping along with such abandon that certain far sections of the balcony seemed in danger off crashing to the main floor. Prince was out the stage door, into the limo and halfway back to his hotel before the cheering stopped.
[Edited 4/15/09 11:52am]

JET No. 10
Sign “☮” the Times highlights his European Tour



While Prince fans across the nation may be saddened to know he may never take his Sign 0’ The Times tour on the road in the U.S., they can find comfort in knowing they can still enjoy the mesmerizing music and on-stage antics of the pop rocker in a recently released movie that highlights his widely-acclaimed European tour. Hailed as “the rock Mozart” in Germany, Prince also won raves from critics in Paris who touted the tour as “two hours of torrid perfection.” Even though Prince has put a U.S. tour on hold, devotees have the unique opportunity of being able to experience Prince’s performance from a unique vantage point in the new movie Sign O’ The Times. Sign 0’ The Times, Prince’s third foray into film making (Purple Rain and Under the Cherry Moon), gives movie goers an insider’s view of his performance that could never be experienced in a standing-room-only auditorium that seats 25,000 people.

Written and directed by Prince, Sign 0’ The Times is a full-length concert movie that includes some oldies and tunes from his latest double album of the same name. Film footage was shot during performances in Rotterdam and Antwerp in the Netherlands and features such roof-raisers as U Got The Look, Play in the Sunshine, Hot Thing, Little Red Corvette and the movie’s title tune. For those who are often left in the dark by the cryptic messages in Prince’s music, the film also includes vignettes that lift the veils of mystery from some of his music. With the debut of his top-knotch, ten-piece band, with Sheila E. on drums, Prince and company are in rare form on the silver screen. Besides Sheila E., Prince is joined in the film by Sheena as on (she had a hit with the Prince-penned tune Sugar Walls), dancer extraordinaire Cat, Dr. Fink, Miko Weaver, Levi Spencer Jr., Wally Safford, Gregory Allen Brooks, Boni Boyer, Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss. Talented Sheila E., who made it big solo with Glamorous Life and Love Bizarre, said working with her mentor has been an experience like none other in that it was so emotional exhilarating. She told JET, “ music is really spiritual for me because it’s such a major part of my life. Prince may hit a certain note and I would get chills and start crying on stage.” She added, “When a musicians become one, there is a magic that just happens.”

'Spiritual' for Shelia E.
Working with him also gave her a chance to see a side of Prince she had never known. “I had heard all kinds of things through-out the years about what working with Prince was like, but all the negative things are lies. He’s the sweetest, nicest guy you’d ever want to meet.” Cat, the lithe dancer who hails from Chicago, exudes energy as she bumps, grinds, twists and twirls to the beat. For her, Sign 0’ The Times is a dream come true. “For years, I’ve been a solo dancer. I dance free-style.. .For years, the songs I’ve been dancing to have been by Prince. Dancing to his songs was my signature.” Recalling what it was like working on Sign 0’ The Times, Cat said, “We worked for two months putting the show together for the European to.... the film is not a standard concert picture. It’s more like a musical fantasy...”


[Edited 4/15/09 11:52am]

Very nice

Edmonton, AB - - If you're happy and you know it your hands, if you're happy and you know it do a

I just pulled this out last night and marveled at the energy that presented itself w/SOTT Tour.

I wish I would have seen this show...like all of the other's that I missed.

Fav SOTT song hands down is Adore

nurseV said:

Fav SOTT song hands down is Adore

OldFriends4Sale said:

nurseV said:

Fav SOTT song hands down is Adore

This is the song that Cat would be on the swing during the Lovesexy tour?
One Night Alone piano rendition was cool
I don't think this song has every been performed live with justice 2 the album cut. I would love to hear a full orchestra/band of this song.

Until the end of time, I'll be there 4 U
U own my heart and mind, I truly adore U
If God one day struck me blind, your beauty I'd still see
Love's 2 weak 2 define just what U mean 2 me

From the first moment I saw U
Ooh, I knew U were the one
That night I had 2 call U
I was rappin' till the sun came up
Tellin' U just how fine U look
In a word, U were sex
All of my cool attitude U took
My body was next
U made love 2 me
Like U were afraid
Was U afraid of me?
Was I the first?
Was I your every fantasy?
That's why...

CHORUS

When we be makin' love
I only hear the sounds
Heavenly angels crying above
Tears of joy pourin' down on us
They know we need each other
They know U are my fix (Cuz U know)
I know that U know I ain't cheatin' baby (I ain't cheatin' on U, baby)
They know this is serious
I ain't fuckin' just 4 kicks
No, this condition I got is crucial, crucial baby
U could say that I'm a terminal case
U could burn up my clothes (U could burn up my clothes)
Smash up my ride (U could smash up..)
Well, maybe not the ride
But I got 2 have your face all up in the place (Do U think?)
I'd like 2 think that I'm a man of exquisite taste
(I'm a man of exquisite taste)
A hundred percent Italian silk imported Egyptian lace
Nothin' baby, I said nothin' baby could compare (Nothin' could compare)
2 your lovely face (2 your lovely face)
Do U know what I'm sayin' 2 U this evening? (What U sayin' about?)
Tryin' tryin' 2 say (I hear what your sayin')
Just tryin' 2 say that until
Till the end of time, I'll be there 4 U

I'll be there 4 U
U own my heart, U own my mind (Truly adore U)
I truly adore U (Darlin')
U don't know what U mean 2 me, baby
(Until the end of time, I'll be there 4 U)
Baby, baby
(U own my heart and mind, I truly adore U)
Till the end of time I'll be there 4 U
(Adore U)

Can I talk 2 U, tell U what U mean 2 me? {CHORUS x2 in BG}
Everytime U wander, I'll be your eyes so U can see
I wanna show U things that I show no other
I wanna be more than, more than your mother
More than your brother
I wanna be like no, like no other
If U need me, I'll never leave
I know that U know without U there is no me, there is no me
Without U there is no sea, there is no shore
Love is 2 weak 2 define how much I adore
U child, U child
The last words U hear, the last words U hear

Until (Until the end of time {x7 in BG})
I'll be there 4 U, baby
Be with me darlin' til the end of all time
I'll give U my heart, huh, I'll give U my mind, huh
I'll give U my body yeah, I'll give U my time
4 all time I am with U, U are with me
U are with me, U are with me

I was there when Sign'O the Times came out.....I had been a casual fan until then...what made me was Parade....I really dug it...Sign 'O the Times came out and I became a true believer.....WoW....it was all that I believed and more....of course I was young...in my teens...but damn it all came together after this record.....I have loved his work since then but that really was it...I wish he was allowed to have Crystal Ball but whatever..

Aaaah the good ol' days!!!

Amazing album

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[Edited 4/11/09 3:01am]

Dayclear said:

Here is a picture of mine during or riiiiight at the beginning of the SOTT period. Prince leaving a restaurant with Lisa Coleman proceeding him(that's Lisa in the leather). I don't have many pictures of Prince out and about during SOTT

Dinner Party March 24,1987
Dinner with Prince & Miles Davis

TLM: You were part of an amazing dinner party on March 24 1987 that included Miles, Prince, Prince’s Dad, Sheila E and you. Was that the first time you met Miles?

Eric Leeds: He had come by a rehearsal for the Sign ‘O’ The Times tour that afternoon and I was introduced to him then. I had gone home after rehearsal and got a call from one of Prince’s assistants, “By the way, Prince is inviting you to have dinner with him,” so I jumped in my car and went over to Prince’s house. I kinda think that Prince wanted me there to open up the conversation with Miles and get things rolling. Miles was as much a performer during that dinner as he ever was on stage. You couldn’t get him to shut up and it was very funny! There are some aspects of that evening that I’m not sure I want anybody else to know about, and if I do, it’s going to be in my book! [note that at present, Eric has no firm plans to write a book].

But basically the most interesting aspect of the relationship between Prince and Miles was the dance that they would do around each other. What Prince really related to about Miles was his character – his legacy, his mystique and everything that Miles represented as a personality. Prince saw in Miles so much of what he thought of himself – the person that goes against the grain, that’s opinionated, that doesn’t allow himself to be controlled by any aspect of the industry for his own artistic vision. And that’s very much what Miles saw in Prince. He saw a young version of himself but there was always something about the generational thing. It was like “The King is dead, long live the King.” You had these supreme egos that had an undying respect for each other but neither wanted to give it up to each other. So with Miles, you could almost see the cartoon balloon over his head saying: “Yeah you’re young and hip, but I’ve got all of these years of experience that you haven’t had yet.” While Prince was looking at Miles and saying “Yeah, you’re the icon – but you’re old! I’m the new version!” And it defined and characterised every aspect of their relationship and it was hilarious to sit back and watch that unfold. That was the biggest enjoyment for me – watching these two dance around each other.

TLM: Any more recollections you want to share?

Eric Leeds: At one point in the evening, Miles grabbed me by the arm and said: “Eric, let me see your carriage!” I’m looking at him and trying to be cool and I say: “My what?!!” And he says, “Your carriage! Show me how you hold your horn!” And then I realised: “Oh my God, he’s using an archaic definition of the word carriage. He said “Show me how you stand when you hold your saxophone.” Then he goes: “Do you do it like this?” And he mimicked the way a saxophone player holds his horn. I looked at him and laughed and then I said, “Is that the way I should hold it?” And he said “Yes,” and I replied, “Well Miles, that’s exactly how I hold it!”

When we were sitting down the first thing I wanted to ask him was about the acid funk band with [guitarist] Pete Cosey [1973-1975], which is the band that I absolutely loved. I was one of the few people at the time that did! And Miles looked at me and said “You liked that band? Nobody liked that band! I never met anybody who liked the band. You liked that band?” I said “Miles, there were some of us who loved that band.” I also got the indication from his demeanour that that was a period of his life he didn’t remember too much about and what he did remember, he didn’t want to remember. I don’t think a lot of people realised that a lot of what Miles said, he said for effect. That he really wanted to say dumb stuff at times just to see how you would react or it was his way of making of point. So it was a case of trying to figure whether he was saying something for effect, or was heartfelt or was a direct response to a comment.

I remember asking him “Are you into someone like [trumpeter] Lester Bowie? A part of me said “Lester Bowie comes from the Art Ensemble of Chicago, a kind of music Miles was known for disliking, so what will he say?” Miles changed his tone of voice and looked at me very seriously and said: “Why wouldn’t I like Lester Bowie?” But then it would not have surprised me if I saw an interview with him in a magazine the next week where he dissed Lester Bowie! Because he was going to say what he was going to say depending on how he felt or what he felt the purpose of the question was. It was an interesting night.


[Edited 4/11/09 14:01pm]

OldFriends4Sale said:

Here is a picture of mine during or riiiiight at the beginning of the SOTT period. Prince leaving a restaurant with Lisa Coleman proceeding him(that's Lisa in the leather). I don't have many pictures of Prince out and about during SOTT

Well, I was at the Rupert's show where he did it live.

sro100 said:

No more denim 4 U!

CJanssen said:

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moussemaker said:

No more denim 4 U!

CJanssen said:

[/img]

PEJ said:

moussemaker said:

No more denim 4 U!

CJanssen said:

[/img]

[Edited 4/11/09 17:58pm]

Dayclear said:

PEJ said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

PEJ said:

[Edited 4/11/09 18:04pm]