IrrisistableRich said:

I always wondered if he doubted that the album cover being solid black was a smart marketing idea but then why would he pose nude on Lovesexy as if that would make much of a difference when it came to album sales.

PEJ said:

that is simply, the best post i have seen all week

PEJ said:

.. but when held to the light.... Prince's face is on the cover ..

Flowerz said:

that's a bootleg


the official version is solid black

PEJ said:

right.. pitch black ... but his face is in it.. not bootleg ..

Flowerz said:

I have it but never seen his face. I also have the bootleg and I've seen his face.

SoulAlive said:

Damn.....I wish that P HAD released this album in 87. I like this album overall much more than Lovesexy. Bob George alone blows away everything on Lovesexy. I've said on here several times that I seriously believe P wanted to regain his o.g. black core audience that he had lost during ATWIAD and Parade. That's why he called it the "Black Album". And to prove that he still had his edge. That he was still funky and he wanted to regain his street cred that P had during 1980-1984. LeGrind would have been played to death on black radio. Edited version anyway. I think it would have outsold Lovesexy as well. The album cover kept many mainstream folks from even fucking with it. The Black Album would have done very well cuz it pointed back to Prince 1982 era where he was very dark and crazy and wicked funky.

blackguitaristz said:

I hear what you're saying about Prince wanting to regain his black audience,but you know what? I don't think he really needed to.'SOTT' contained some of his "blackest",funkiest jams ever."Housequake" alone is one of the funkiest jams he did in the 80s.R&B radio went nuts over the SOTT album.In my area,even non-singles like "Adore","Hot Thing" and "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night" got airplay on our R&B stations.I would say that he successfully regained much of his R&B/black audience with that album.

blackguitaristz said:

Completely agree...great post. Black album was and is MUCH better than Lovesexy imo. Its funky, nasty, funny, and a PARTAY album. I think he would've definitely regained some of his street cred if he released this. My friends back then HATED Prince after ATWIAD and Parade...but friggin LOVED Bob George, Cindy C, and Le Grind.

Other than SOTTs and Purple Rain, the Black Album is the one that gets the most spins to this day.

this is really weird... I started this thread a little while ago and when I was posting on it, i wasnt getting that many replies... now that ive kinda lost interest in it, its getting more posts... what's up with that?

almost like when Prince puts his heart & soul into a project and doesn't promote it anymore because he's lost interest in it and is busy working on something else... strange...


and this is the first time ive been hearing that SOTT had won some of his black audience back. I had no idea

its good to know there's still so much to learn

DreamyPopRoyalty said:[quote]
this is really weird... I started this thread a little while ago and when I was posting on it, i wasnt getting that many replies... now that ive kinda lost interest in it, its getting more posts... what's up with that?

almost like when Prince puts his heart & soul into a project and doesn't promote it anymore because he's lost interest in it and is busy working on something else... strange...

i don't know but IMO it may be that the fun ofr the artists is in the making of the music and everything that entails and then moving on to the next thing - not so much because you have lost interest but real artists are always developing and making new things.

ritaw said:[quote]

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

I think you're right about that... I guess that just came from what I hear critics or even people who've worked with him have said. Even what he has said himself. He puts his effort into making something perfect and he simply goes onto the next thing.
But some people have accussed him of not properly promoting his material and it seems like he no longer has interest in it because he had finished writing the work intitially.

when u hear something so many times, it just rubs off on ya, I guess. The whole thing about him losing interest in already-finished projects, that's not my opinion. I'm just repeating what I've heard people say.

but currently, I think I have lost interest in exploring this idea. I pretty much got through all the literature I could get a hold of and have heard what people here have to say. I still don't think I'm any closer to an answer, but I don't necessarily have to come up with a conclusion to both the questions I asked. Only now, I just have more pieces to the puzzle and I might have to come back to this in a few months time b4 I can sort it all out.

But it was a great learning experience while it lasted because I really learned a lot.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:[quote]

ritaw said:

I would not worry about it, even amongst the faithful there is confusion, just listen to "I could never take the place fo your man" or almost anything on SOTT, it is all about contradiction, but in a very unique way, shit, I am falling in love with the album again

Flowerz said:

That's is one of the most circulating bootlegs. Fan/pirate release with more of these gimmicks in it. One UTCM face (dead give away it is not Prince) and one SOTT Prince in Furry outfit (from Tourbook, which is another dead giveaway but more defendable due to the timeline).
Lot's of people have this one (at least 500 more than the number of escaped copies). I had some copies of these myself and for some friends in the day and I knew (then) where they came from (and it wasn't legit).
[Edited 2/16/08 1:33am]

InsatiableCream said:[quote]i'd have to go with he wanted to make a party album. since SOTT was so serious he wanted to make a fun record



In the category of serious albums, whats so serious about Sign of the Times?

Tell Me who in this house knows about the quake ?

Hot thang nearly 21?

It was 7.45 and we were all in line to greet the teacher Miss Kathleen?

Beautiful night you'll say ?

I dont feel guilty for my honesty alright?

Dorothy Parker was cool?

Did I say an hour my face is red I stand corrected?

BringBackPluto said:

I think you make a good point I dont think it wasd a great album amongnst what he hadbeen releasing at the time and I feelsimiliarly about it bet track for me on it ws always when 2r In Love otherwise Im not fully into this album.

I have said this b4. All things seem to have a natural order or line-up....Some things in art just filter to the bottom, for being the heaviest in the heart.
This is necessary for every artist...4 the less positive emotions to come out. It is very healthy, and helps to propell the self growth within.

I look at Prince like a garden...and A good bit of the Black album, is weeds.

where's the mystery? brother turned into satan for a minute then arrested himself. only happens to the best of us.

Flowerz said:

if it's pitch black, then there's nothing in it but black ink evenly printed!

I also remember some stories about The Black Album being put together to shut up the critics that thought Prince had lost his soulful edge. George Michael's Faith album was huge, "I Want your Sex" was a hit and there was talk that Prince was losing his ability to creat soulful-funky-sexy dance music.

So there was alot of anger and arrogance in creating it, maybe needing to prove something.

Then I remember some of it being music made for Sheila E.'s birthday party.

I also remember the "Camille/Spooky Electric" stories and explanations. The fear of dying and the Black album being the last record, etc. Sparking the Lovesxy phase of his evolution.

So probably somewhere in the middle of all of that is the Truth.

Only God and Prince knows what happened and why.

Of my 2 questions, I think I finally have an answer to the 2nd one.
Got it straight from the source

Here's an excerpt from the 1990 Rolling Stone interview that I just read.



Whether drugs were involved or not, it's anyone's guess. Prince most likely will never confess to it either way.
All I can really say is that drugs may still be a possibility, but they're not the only possibility.