OldFriends4Sale said:

I love this shot, Thats Prince ain't it.

Can't believe that I never saw this during that time??? Wow.

Adorecream said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I love this shot, Thats Prince ain't it.

The weak link of the "DirtyMind-Controversy-1999 Electro/ModernFunk/Rock Trilogy", but still a necessary album/bridge between DM and 1999

Swa said:

CONTROVERSY

This is the album that introduced me to Prince. I was 8 years old and watching tv when I say 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 it’s arrangement and recognise it now as a truer Prince ballad than previous albums. Listening now you can almost here a hint of Adore in there. Here is someone learning quickly how to craft a ballad that doesn’t stray into being overly smaltchy 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 it all an album that is possibly a truer reflection of an artist finding his voice at the right time.

Swa

I just love your posts, so thoughtful and introspective, yet they totally analyse the music too. Controversy must have been very complex for your 8 year old mind to absorb at the time. Its a wonder you got songs like Do Me Baby past your mother then.

It's a good album.

Adorecream said:

Swa said:

CONTROVERSY

This is the album that introduced me to Prince. I was 8 years old and watching tv when I say 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 it’s arrangement and recognise it now as a truer Prince ballad than previous albums. Listening now you can almost here a hint of Adore in there. Here is someone learning quickly how to craft a ballad that doesn’t stray into being overly smaltchy 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 it all an album that is possibly a truer reflection of an artist finding his voice at the right time.

Swa

I just love your posts, so thoughtful and introspective, yet they totally analyse the music too. Controversy must have been very complex for your 8 year old mind to absorb at the time. Its a wonder you got songs like Do Me Baby past your mother then.

That the beauty of head phones, lol.

And Controversy was nothing compared to listening to 1999 with Let's Pretend We're Married.

Swa said:

Adorecream said:

I just love your posts, so thoughtful and introspective, yet they totally analyse the music too. Controversy must have been very complex for your 8 year old mind to absorb at the time. Its a wonder you got songs like Do Me Baby past your mother then.

That the beauty of head phones, lol.

And Controversy was nothing compared to listening to 1999 with Let's Pretend We're Married.

i like your in depth analysis of his work too- hope you keep doing it with all his future albums

hhhhdmt said:

Swa said:

That the beauty of head phones, lol.

And Controversy was nothing compared to listening to 1999 with Let's Pretend We're Married.

i like your in depth analysis of his work too- hope you keep doing it with all his future albums

Thanks - for those interested you can still read (just not add to) thoughts on each album

here:

http://prince.org/msg/7/344518

If you want to add stuff to an album you love feel free to copy and past the review and start a new discussion.

[Edited 4/9/11 17:11pm]

Swa said:

Adorecream said:

I just love your posts, so thoughtful and introspective, yet they totally analyse the music too. Controversy must have been very complex for your 8 year old mind to absorb at the time. Its a wonder you got songs like Do Me Baby past your mother then.

That the beauty of head phones, lol.

And Controversy was nothing compared to listening to 1999 with Let's Pretend We're Married.

I know, I remember my Mum nearly banned anything by Boy George when I was 7 or 8, and she suspected I was gay, but I was only a kid and no idea what gays or transvestites were, I just thought Boy George looked funny, but his music was great.

DerekH said:

TonyVanDam said:

THIS^!!!

"Ronnie" isn't even 2 minutes long and some people still don't want it on the album! I like how it starts from the guitar solo at the end of "Private Joy" and then just ends with an exlplosion and goes right into "Let's Work". "Ronnie" wasn't meant to be a radio single, but I think it fits as an album track.

I would have prefer for Private Joy to sequence straight to Let's Work. But that's just me of course.

Masterpiece it introduced the "Rude Boy" buttons ,trenchcoats & hair swept on one side..........Showed a more cleaned up rockibilly Prince.

Risico said:

Great album. It took me a long time to appreciate it, as it really does seem like the bridge between Dirty Mind and 1999 without being as bold as either one.

But as time goes on, I really prefer Controversy to DM - There's a clear evolution in production, songwriting and just flat-out energy.

my thoughts exactly

thedance said:

If Ronnie Talk To Russia wasn't included, this album would be perfect.

Controversy, great sound and brilliant songs especially side 1 of the vinyl

True dat!

Anything form the Purple era is worth gushing over.

The title track, "Sexuality", and "Do Me Baby" (a/k/a Side 1) are vintage Grade A Prince songs. All-time classics. Side 2......has not aged too well though "Jack U Off" is a cool song (though lyrically dumb) and was great live back in the day. That being said, Side 1 is so strong it's easy to forget the weaker songs.

GREAT! The first Prince album I bought (actually it was a Christmas present from my mother). But it wasn't my intro to Prince though. I was already familiar with the albums Prince and Dirty Mind (one of my all time faves). So I was hooked once the single Controversy came out. Real Fonky! Then I got the album and listened to it and was hooked forever. By the way, I did eventually did go back and get the Prince and Dirty Mind albums in later years just in case you was wondering.

Swa said:

CONTROVERSY

This is the album that introduced me to Prince. I was 8 years old and watching tv when I say 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 it’s arrangement and recognise it now as a truer Prince ballad than previous albums. Listening now you can almost here a hint of Adore in there. Here is someone learning quickly how to craft a ballad that doesn’t stray into being overly smaltchy 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 it all an album that is possibly a truer reflection of an artist finding his voice at the right time.

Swa

Great break-down Swa

I don't think Dirty Mind is a better song by song album than Controversy. But it mos definatly has a better flow to it, making it a better album.

I understand why people think that songs like Ronnie Talk To Russia and Jack U Off could have been taken out of the album. But if they werent on the album, you wouldn't understand his weird and punk influented persona that makes his music sound both raw and outrageous as the same time as it's tight and sophisticated funk. His punk inspiration is extremely important at portraiting his wild side.

njin said:

I understand why people think that songs like Ronnie Talk To Russia and Jack U Off could have been taken out of the album. But if they werent on the album, you wouldn't understand his weird and punk influented persona that makes his music sound both raw and outrageous as the same time as it's tight and sophisticated funk. His punk inspiration is extremely important at portraiting his wild side.

You're probably right. Nice description!