An interesting piece here on perhaps Prince's finest hour.....

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The title track and lead single from Prince’s last truly great album, Sign ‘o’ the Times, emerged from sessions for no fewer than three overlapping projects the Purple One somehow found time to fit in during 1986, when he was engaged in a world tour. When Warner Bros baulked at a three-CD release, the recordings were whittled down (back then, Prince still knew what an Edit button was) to a double album, Sign ‘o’ the Times.

Using the then modish Fairlight keyboard — the first polyphonic digital sampling synthesizer — Prince devised his most minimal song to date. If hits such as When Doves Cry and Kiss had been sparse, Sign ‘o’ the Times was positively skeletal. With a casualness to make his competitors weep, Prince didn’t even bother to programme new effects for the song, relying instead on the synthesizer’s in-built sounds and mining from them pure sonic gold.

The percussive motif that introduces the song is immediately disorientating, underpinned by a cold, digital bass drum and a whip-cracking snare. The laid-back nature of Prince’s vocals is at startling odds with his lyrics, their sense of disgust made more lethal by the resignation of his delivery. “In France,” he begins, “a skinny man died of a big disease with a little name.”

He moves on from Aids to the recent Challenger space-shuttle explosion, environmental disasters, Reagan’s Star Wars initiative, gang wars and drug addiction. His pause before the end of the second verse — “September, my cousin tried reefer for the very first time / Now he’s doing horse — it’s June” — is split-second and deadly. The freeze thaws only on a repeated middle eight, where he asks “It’s silly, no? When a rocket ship explodes / And everybody still wants to fly” before concluding that “a man ain’t happy / Unless a man truly dies”.

The single reached No 10 here and No 3 in America — no surprise, in a sense, given how big a superstar he was, but extraordinary considering the song’s bleakness. A product of Prince’s increasing mono- and megalomania, Sign ‘o’ the Times undoubtedly benefited from both, yet in the subsoil of that introspection lay the seeds of his artistic decline
[Edited 11/17/08 3:45am]

That is a pretty mean article huh? who cares.

There was once a time when Prince had something intresting so say, musically and lyrically.

He was above everyone else in pop music once, original and diffrent in an inspired way.

and boy did he decline.

rusty1 said:

In your opinion.

Oh here we go again.....

I support your opinion Rusty1

SPOOKYGAS said:

jstar69 said:

As you are free to do..

however my opinion is that U and rustics opinion is wrong and I for one think that people who come on a 'fan community' web site and make these idiotic statements that have as much intellectual content as a fly that has just farted in the face of a shit, would be better of doing something more worthwhile, for instance putting forward a coherent and interesting comment with regard to the subject matter, for God's sake people get a bit of perspective here!

midnightmover said:

I find this article quite interesting given thats its retropsective. It starts off as though they are in awe of his causual attitude and yet I would say this track is very well thought out and well planned. The lack of samples etc within the track was indeed a move away from the more complex 'layered' direction he had previously taken and returned to.

It was a huge success at the time because it was so unique, thought provoking and just darn clever. It is IMO a timeless track and hasnt dated despite its lyrical topical content like some others of his work.

Its interesting that the author links introspection with artistic decline when I would have thought history has shown us that artists of all natures often require introspection and seclusion in order to produce their finest work. That journey includes experimentation and an artist always self edits, that is the moment they feel their work is complete or done. The difference back then was that someone else always had the final say a bit like an art teacher saying right brushes down, you have to finish now.

I would be interested if the author could support his/her idea that Prince artistically declined after SOT.

When was this article written?

syble said:

This has been clear and self evident to everyone in the world, music press and music lovers alike, except a dozen or so fanatics here on sites like this.
[Edited 11/11/08 2:59am]

Tame said:

Still searching for the supposed mean-ness...not seeing any...

Surely not even a fam like you can deny that his quality began to decline after SOTT?

Ugot2shakesumthin said:[quote]syble said:[quote]I would be interested if the author could support his/her idea that Prince artistically declined after SOT.


look at the above statement..... what do you think about tripe like that? this alone could be disected for many many topics,

as I have said before this type of comment has degraded many a topic on this site, where are the facts, where are the statistics, where is the proof? this is your opinion dimwit not mine and certainly not all of humanity minus 12..now go and get a book and read it, even a newspaper would be a start.

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

I wasnt asking for popular opinion but rather actual musical references that would support the authors idea. at school you are taught to always support an opnion when writing, i think journalists should do the same.

The paragraph about the use of the synth gave an insight into the technical side of the song which in turn gave weight to the opinion of the author that the song was 'simplistic' and thus unique compared to its peers.

I would like to know to which music the author is referring to when they say prince has had an artisitic decline or are they merely spouting retoric - popular belief. I would be interested if the author was a fan or indeed aware of all princes music since sot.

you can hardly call his output artistically declined wether you like it or not.

someone who is in artistic decline is someone who cannot create and prince has created tons of music since then. Again its your choice if you like any of of it or not.

Do we say that once van gogh stopped painting realistic pictures and moved to his move colourful impressionist art that he was in an artistic decline? simply because it was different? I would guess that his peers thought so but in hindsight we can see that it was his artistic flowering that produced that work.

The same can be said of Prince. Once commercial boundaries are lifted artistry can thrive. That is why I am genuinely interested to know to what references the author of that article is thinking of.


It is my experience that many journalists have little 'specialist' expertise in the fields they report upon. Many things have been written about prince that have been inaccurate re-workings of the same few facts.

I think its a shame you are so closed minded as to asume that i was being 'fammy' without really questioning what you had read and its content and credentials.

SOTT the song, has no sex, has nothing that a now Jehovah Prince would find objectionable, I think it proves that he didn’t need any of that to make a great record, and that he can follow his new found faith and still make great music.
The music and lyrics are as fresh today as they were 20something years ago.
He wasn’t following or aping any trends on that song, just Prince being Prince and it sounded like nothing before it.

Just a few years later, we would find Prince trying to pander his music to what he thought "kids" would like. Juvenile musical themes and aping the trend of the moment. The musical equivalent of a grown man parked at schoolyard offering kids candy. I'm glad there are people who dig that phase in Prince’s music; it’s all just a matter of taste.
[Edited 11/11/08 3:54am]

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

I get you. and agree. thank you for your thoughts.

syble said:

The article was written a few days ago. As for Prince's casual approach, the author is correct, and points out that Prince just used the synthesizer's built in sounds. The author could have also pointed out that the song was written and recorded in a day. That was the remarkable thing about Prince then. He was tossing off masterpieces as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

midnightmover said:

Thanks for that, thats what i meant by retrospective and was wondering if they are simply following popular retoric (sp?) or actually fully believe he has had an artistic decline. I do wonder sometimes if peeps simply arent aware of the volume of music he has output since. Or maybe they are and just dont like any of it - which i find hard to believe.

syble said:

The majority of people agree that Prince's music declined over the years.

midnightmover said:

Whose has NOT?

Graycap23 said:

Most decline, but Prince is definitely one of the more spectacular cases. People like Springteen and Dylan are still turning out some great work, even if it's not as frequent as it once was. Even Stevie still does fantastic tracks here and there (So What The Fuss, Rain Your Love, I'm New), though admittedly his best days are behind him too.

midnightmover said:

Anyone want my copy of the 'Rainbow Children'? I wont listen to it ever again because it is not the work of genius that I once thought. I never realised that Prince is no longer in ascension but actually in decline.

To help me from listening to sub standard music again could U or anyone else of the 'experts' please put up a list or a graph of the peaks and troughs of Prince's music, indeed a little graph for each track on each album would be most appreciated, I for one will never trust my own thoughts ever again, thank God I now have the 'experts' to assist me in my listening pleasure.
[Edited 11/11/08 13:30pm]

SPOOKYGAS said:

If we enforce our own opionions, that does indeed make us all experts (albeit self righteous)... LOL

SPOOKYGAS said:

SPOOKYGAS said:

Cool, nice to see a fam come to his sences. welcome back from inside Princes ass
spooky gas indeed!
[Edited 11/11/08 18:44pm]

SPOOKYGAS said:

My point exactly!

the article said artistic decline, you may not like what he has put out over the last 20 years but you cannot deny that he experimented with many different sounds and themes. the rainbow children must surely be held up as one of the greatest works by a popular artist. Its unique, okay for me it was a one listen thing but its still unrivalled in musical and lyrical terms.

I think its very closed minded to insist that everything since sott is below parr. Just because someone evolves and creates new sounds that you arent into doesnt mean its a musical decline. To me a decline would be no output at all. That simply isnt true with prince. Im not a big fan of planet earth as an album but musically planet earth the track itself is quite outstanding.

since when did we expect a musician to produce a new album per year?

Cool, nice to see a fam come to his sences. welcome back from inside Princes ass
spooky gas indeed!
[Edited 11/11/08 18:44pm]



Define fam and I will tell you if I am one.

What is this word 'sences'...is it an americanism?

Can I take it that in your opinion because I disagree that Prince's music is in decline that I am in some way engaged in anal probings of the afore mentioned....please explain.

Oh and its SPOOKYGAS.
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[Edited 11/12/08 14:02pm]

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[Edited 11/12/08 16:40pm]

SPOOKYGAS said:

bad spelling

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

What do you think of '7' from the symbol album?

syble said: