CONTROVERSY

This is the album that introduced me to Prince. I was 8 years old and watching tv when I saw this video clip for a song called Sexuality. I was drawn by the beat and groove of the track and the next week went out and bought my first 7” record.

A few weeks later I saved my pocket money to buy the album, and so began my own private purple experience.

I can still recall getting home with the album in my hands and rushing to put the headphones on and drop the needle. And out came the opening to CONTROVERSY. From the first jolting synth stab to the final rip I was hooked. That relentless beat and bubbling synth that seemed to be ready to boil lead me into the track with its crawling synth bass line and what would become classic Prince funk guitar riff. Lyrically it was all about the rumours swirling around Prince at the time, and they holds strong to the distorted notion many still have about him to this day. Boldly he lays them out, straight, gay, black white? But rather than confirming of dismissing he just lets them hang maybe knowing all to well the power wasn’t in the truth but in the mystique. The chorus just lifts you with the progression of chords and then drops you back in the funk soup. Although it feels sparse in comparison to later releases, the music is littered with little aural hooks, a double guitar riff here, a synth blip there.

Now dig if you will a picture of an 8-year-old kid hearing the Lord’s Payer in a song, and then a moment later lines like “I wish we all were nude”. It was more than this little brain to handle. I didn’t know what it all meant, but I knew it was better than a lot of the other music I was hearing. Today the dichotomy seems more obvious with the spiritual and sexual meeting more to expose the duality of Prince much like the questions of the verses do. And is this the first time we hear that Princely scream?

Not a breath is taken between the end of Controversy and the relentless grove of SEXUALITY pounds in your ears. The songs raw energy and pace is almost like the song is trying to outrun the groove of the record. This song will always take me back to being that little kid flipping out on the sound of a musician in their element. Again all the soon to be Prince trademarks were there lyrically and sonically – the pop clap, the funky guitar riff, the layered beat, the haunting backing vocal stabs, To this day the song sound fresh and is close to perfect.

Now as a kid not only did I not get DO ME BABY lyrically, but I also just didn’t gravitate to it as a song. Over time I have come to appreciate its arrangement and recognise it now as a truer Prince ballad than previous albums. Listening now you can almost here a blueprint for Adore in there. Here is someone learning quickly how to craft a ballad that doesn’t stray into being overly smaltzy and even gives us a glimpse of how explicit (or erotic depending on your point of view) he can get with the drawn out orgasmic climax.

PRIVATE JOY was also a song that didn’t overly grab me. It seemed too bubblegum pop with it’s bouncing beat and synth line. It was too bright musically, maybe a deliberate ploy to let the suggestive lyrics get by. And while I don’t rate it as one of his best songs, I can’t deny my toe is tapping right now, so maybe he has won this one. (oh and it’s interesting to hear this track and the obvious influence it had on Ready For The World’s “digital display”.)

Going from happy pop to the nuclear war fearing apocalypse rocker of RONNIE, TALK TO RUSSIA. Whilst taking on a stronger political viewpoint on this album and voicing the fear that many had the song can’t help but sound dated now. This fear of a nuclear doom is revisited more convincingly on 1999.

And just when the paranoia seems overbearing Prince pulls out the funk on LET’S WORK. Now, years later in a fortunate meet and greet Prince told a group of us how this was the start of his frustration with the way record labels were run. As he tells it, Let’s Work was originally entitled Let’s Rock and inspired by a dance going around at the time called The Rock. Writing what he though was a topical hit, he wanted Warner’s to release it, but they were worried about flooding the marking with something new from Prince while Dirty Mind was still out there. So instead of throwing the track away, he just reworked it into the classic we have right now. This again is an instant classic, that bass line just reeks of funk, and those sliding synth stabs just create this irresistible mix that you can’t stand still to. As a kid I remember thinking it was so strong and just filled with cool. The track swaggers and knows it’s the joint.

For ANNIE CHRISTIAN we hear for the first time a stronger reliance on a drum machine and synth leads, and Prince exploring how he can record his vocals to create a sparser feel. We also see lyrical Prince’s love of playing with names to describe the person (Annie Christian = Anti-Christian). Now lyrically there is a fear expressed but seems to suffer from a need to rhyme more than to explore a story, and what was all that about living his life in taxi cabs? Musically though it points us to 1999’s something in the water and automatic.

And always one to not make it too heavy, Prince follows up with JACK U OFF (the first appearance of Prince shorthand) with its rockabilly vibe. Now as an 8 year old I had no idea what he was singing. To me sounded more like I’M A JAGUAR. And revisiting the song later as a teen hearing him say jack u off the penny dropped. And as if closing the album with a deliberate bit of controversy he doesn’t alter the phrase to make it more heterosexual, but lets it just play around in the mystique that was the whole Prince gay/straight persona.

When the needle finally came to rest I placed it back on side one and listened to my favourite cuts. Listening again years later, some have weathered the passing of time considerably well, while others seem a little more dated and throwaway, but all in all it's an album that is a true reflection of an artist finding his voice at the right time.

Controversey isn't one of my fav P albums (I know, I know, just shoot me). Something about it feels... dated. Probably because like For You, Prince, and Dirty Mind, I didn't get into it until kinda late and it feels very dated listening to it in hindsight. Private Joy and Sexuality especially, and of course Ronnie Talk To Russia. :/

Still songs like Controversey and Do Me Baby make the album as a whole still a must have in the collection.

Its a masterpiece!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jaybendy said:

Controversey isn't one of my fav P albums (I know, I know, just shoot me). Something about it feels... dated. Probably because like For You, Prince, and Dirty Mind, I didn't get into it until kinda late and it feels very dated listening to it in hindsight. Private Joy and Sexuality especially, and of course Ronnie Talk To Russia. :/

Still songs like Controversey and Do Me Baby make the album as a whole still a must have in the collection.

I can see how you might feel this as the sounds used in terms of drums and synths are very much from that era, but I still think the key songs like Controversy, Sexuality and Let's Work all stand up pretty well.

His most underrated album, for sure.

Side 2 is perfection.

Private Joy

Ronnie Talk 2 Russia

Let's Work

Annie Christian

Jack U Off

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Its a masterpiece!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It baffles me that this album is never mentioned in the top best Prince albums......It has everything hard rock,soul, rockabilly,pop,& funk........

This was the second Prince TAPE ( Getting old) I owned after 1999. They both seem to flow well back to back almost like a continuation of one another. I know I am a weirdo but I saw "Lady Cab Driver' as a part 2 to "Annie Christian' Private Joy to Delirious ETC. Like all the songs were intertwined. My 3rd favorite album by Prince