MajesticOne89 said:

Check your orgnote.

Controversy is the purple truth. Period. Its the essence of Prince album. Has his manifesto as the titel track. He learned to freak the slow jam on this cd with Do Me baby. Antimusic punk with Annie Chrisitan. New wave wit Sexuality. Pure pop with Private Joy, bass funk inside out with Lets Work. If it wasn't for 1999 this one would..hell it is ...one for the record books.

This is my favorite Prince album.
Controversy sounds like some gritty filthy house music.
Sexuality has that raw punk funk vibe.
Do me baby, great song
Private joy is just a happy feel good pop tune, brilliant!
Ronnie talk to russia - one song i can consider as filler, but still good
Lets work - sounds like head, but better, insane groove
Annie Christian - Raw, edgy, minimal just grrrrreat!
Jack u off - weird rockabilly like only prince can do

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!

blackguitaristz said:

That's good to hear and it's just the point I was making earlier. It's good to see people dogging on old tracks, even if I happen to like then. For me, the new fans that can't appreciate old stuff, just because it's old, are no worse than the so called haters. Those who appear to hate the new stuff just because it's new and not recorded in the 'golden' age.

Like you say, if it's bangin', it's bangin'. But just for the record, Delirious is bangin and Lady Cab Driver isn't.

But isn't that the beauty of P? One mans gold dust, etc. If you like it, you like it. There's great stuff and crap throughout his career, it's all opinion.

TheEnglishGent said:

I've said this before, but it never fails to amaze me the diversity of opinion in Prince circles. You can have 2 hardcore P fans that completely despise each other's taste in music! I'm not sure that any other artist is able to divide their fans to this extent, just through their music. Usually that's the uniting force. Crazy, but good.

Its my 5th favourite, but includes my 3rd favourite ever Prince song "Do Me Baby", a sexually perfect record. The whole album is totally satisfying, raw early Prince with his dry humping beat of Dirty Mind, mixed with the elctronic starkness and semi garage party feel of 1999. The whole of the album to Private Joy is excellent, especially Controversy, Sexuality, Do Me Baby, easily the tighest starting combination on a record anywhere (1999 is a close second but everyone has heard those songs a zillion times, whereas only hardcore Prince fans have heard the Controversy hattrick), they don't have that heard it 2 death hit feel, u get after listening to WDC for the umpteenth time.
Another reason its superior, is Controversy is developed song writing and music, a quintessential Prince excellence, yet it still sounds raw, a funky young pretender, the falsetto, and squeaky organs, and then the sex and theres so much juicy lets get it on bump and grind in it. Do Me baby is great for an orgasm and Lets Work is a tight dance number and Jack u off a fine piece of groping satisfaction.
I discovered it early on in my fanhood (Got it and Dirty Mind on a 2 for 1 cassette I paid 50 cents for (Best 50 cents I have ever spent)), in 1992, splashed out on a CD in 94 that has on the back, "A self produced tour de force in which the multitalented Prince plays nearly every single instrument on the album and has composed all the songs himself, Controversy is musical output od self outrage - or something like that" The CD got burned on to my Ipod.
The only weak joints are Ronnie and Annie Christian, but the rest was his best ever, I only wished I could have gone to a tour concert then. He would have been tight.

TyphoonTip said:

It IS, for the most part, impossible to be that objective with music. Music reaches people on such a deep, emotional level that the music itself becomes inextricibly intertwined with where we were and what we were doing when we first heard it. I would say it is impossible, for example, for anyone who was a Prince fan in 1984 to hear anything from Purple Rain today and not have their listening to the music influenced by conscious and sub-conscious memories and emotions of whatever-else was going on in their lives in 1984.

That's the main reason why almost everybody has a deep affection for music that was popular during their youth and why, no matter how good the music itself might be, nothing that Prince releases in 2009 is going to have the same deep, emotional, long-lasting effects on our psyche the way his stuff from earlier did.

In 1982 Prince was singing MY life at a time and age when having music to express what I was feeling and going through was something I really needed. In 2009, I still think a lot of his music is musically great, but he's not only not really singing MY life anymore but, at 47, I don't reaily need music to express my thoughts and feelings as much anymore.

I like the raw, garage sound of Dirty Mind, but to me, Controversy just sounds so much more confident. His vocals kill anything on Dirty Mind.

MajesticOne89 said:

Your wish is my command Majestic....






[Edited 4/22/09 3:26am]

Want more...? Here's some more still pics from the film....

NouveauDance said:

You don't say.....

Jeffiner said:

Very niiice! I dig it

keywhiz said:

Very well stated.

I'm always deeply perplexed by fans who 'don't' like this album.

For me it is a really intelligent album that is pure Prince.

It certainly doesn't play to the masses.

I think it's amazing and completely underated.

Poetically it's one of his best.

And 'Jack U Off'.. if you don't like this song what are you doing listening to Prince!?

This song just about sums him up!

PEJ said:

I AGREE!! I AGREE!! I AGREE!! I AGREE!!

How can anyone NOT like this song! It's pure genius!!

keywhiz said:

Good that someone else caught that about P's use of his falsetto and the difference of it's use on Dirty Mind and Controversy. I agree that P's confidence was sky high on the Dirty Mind album. Largely because I think that's when he discovered who he was as an artist and not just a cat who played a lot of different genres and instruments. His second album is very good and I always thought it was underrated. His songwriting on this album showcased his versatility and it's really a well rounded album. Can't really say there is any filler on that because each song has a life of it's on. A track like "It's Gonna Be Lonely" in itself is a cool track and that's the track that I think most people would point to as filler. That and "Sexy Dancer" and even "With You". But to me, those songs are very strong on their own. I say that to say P's use of falsetto is perfectly matched and tailored made for that album. And for 1979. Dirty Mind, is the Alpha album for what he would become and be known for and largely represented in Purple Rain. On Dirty Mind, he wrote more about a concept, a vision, an attitude. He then built upon that on each album which lead him up to his crowning of Purple Rain. But vocally, and his use of the falsetto where it's dominated on every track, I always thought one of the reasons he dropped it some for his natural voice was because of the arrival of The Time.

blackguitaristz said:

What I mean by this is I believe P felt now that he had unleashed The Time, who were seen as more masculine and cool, I think P felt he had to bring it with his own material. Since The Time's material (or bulk of it) was Prince's anyways, once he saw that it was well received (The Time's debut album sold better than Dirty Mind and Controversy) that opened it up even more for the type of material he chose to keep for himself. Thus, that got him off of the "sweet feminine girly" vibe and brought out more of his street raw side. And almost violent side. He's always "pimped" in his lyrics. Mentally pimping is when you're controlling someone even when they aren't aware of it. P did this to death in his lyrics from his second album. On the front, it appears that he's very sensitive and vulnerable when all along, it's designed to lure the woman in so he then can control her. After the emergence of The Time, P felt it was perfect time to drop his full time usage of his falsetto and be the crazed cat that he really is. That's the 1999 album. The whole "U think I'm crazy, you're probably right" motto. He was much more aggressive in his lyrics, much more dominant. So that echoed in his singing. He sounded a lot rougher and a lot of his themes on that album was sado sexually agressive. He definately had that "I'm not playing around with u, bitch!...U think I'm little?...Slap!" He was doing a Bob George on the 1999 album long BEFORE the Black Album. Essentially, I think P wanted to showcase that and I think one of the things that brought it out was The Time. He was already going in that direction on cuts like Ronnie Talk To Russia and Annie Christian. He was showing that he could get "weird". And he embraced that fully on the 1999 album. The Time's emergence I think dictated what he chose to keep musically. Tracks like "D.M.S.R.", "1999", "Lady Cab Driver" musically, are more darker in tone. More emphasis on a certain type of funk. He even took back "International Lover" that he intially wrote for The Time and decided to keep for himself. He was basically competting with himself through The Time and it manifested itself in different ways. For the better, I believe.
[Edited 4/23/09 14:12pm]

Jeffiner said:

Just pics showing that I was "Under the Influence".

Prince was finding his sound from the 1979 self-titled album thru Controversy. I agree the Minneapolis Sound was formed on this LP. Everything from the LInn drums to those bass licks and syths and so on. Prince started to wear those pants with the trench coats.

blackguitaristz said:

I've haven't read much about his predominant use of falsetto early on. I don't know if he's ever talked about it or not. I always assumed it stemmed from a lack-of-confidence of his voice, but it might just be that he thought the sound of his falsetto was a 'signature' sound that also played to the adrogynous image he was cultivating. An early version of "Camille", perhaps?

blackguitaristz said:

Some very good insight there, IMO.

keywhiz said:

Yeah, I've never seen anything written about WHY he sung in his falsetto early on either. I definately think it had much to do with the image he wanted to portray plus I think he just dug how he sounded singing in falsetto. I have many early demos of P from 76 and 77 and he was WEARING OUT that falsetto. He sung everything that way. It never struck me that it was a lack of confidence as much as he just liked how he sounded. I had never really thought about it untill I saw him in concert on the Controversy tour. Only then, on certain songs, I thought his falsetto sounded a little thin.

keywhiz said:

Yes I agree. That's pretty much what I said in the post you responded to.

The point that I was making, is that fans should acknowledge (to themselves as much as everone else) their prejucdices so that they and everyone else can have a better understanding of where they're coming from.

Controversy was the first Prince album that I bought,Controversy was the first 45 I bought of Prince also backed with When You Were Mine and I love the album it`s what made me a Prince fan!I remember his first singal Soft and Wet and all the singals before Controvery,which were good but it`s this one that got me to the record store and I`ve been a loyal fan ever sense.The Let`s Work 12" blow everybody away right then and there you knew he was special,with Gotta Stop Mess`n About their was no turning back I was a fan for life."people call me rude I wish we all where nude I wish their was no black or white I wish their were no rules" Do people have love for the Controvery album, heck yeah they do a whole lot of people do your not alone,Controvery made a lot folks Prince fans and collecters HE DID HIS BEST SCREAMS ON THAT ALBUM do you still have the poster?

purplefingers said:

I've stated on here SEVERAL times through out the years that the song Controversy is by far my all time favorite song by Prince. When P first came out, I was hip to him from his single Soft and Wet. I liked it well enough when it first started getting airplay but I didn't have the album yet. So without knowing who P was, I first thought just from hearing Soft and Wet on the radio, as a little kid, that it was a white girl singing and the name of the band was Prince! It wasn't untill my older cousin who had the album, did I see that P was a brutha. I bought the album and the only song besides Soft and Wet that I liked was "I'm Yours". I dug the hell out of his second album. I played that to death. Then When Dirty Mind hit, I liked it a lot. I actually had a chance to see P in concert at a club called Flippers in Hollywood but the tickets were all gone by the time I found out about the show. When the song Controversy started getting airplay, I flipped. I was already a fan of P's BUT when I heard THIS song, it was all over for me. It was, to me, the BADDEST and most different song I had ever heard. I was entranced by it. It sounded like nothing else on the radio to me. It had that raw guitar like Zapp's More Bounce To The Ounce, but it had that weird almost gospel like vibe crossed up with new wave....I thought the cat was the shit. Then when I saw the video to Controversy,...P and Dez looked beyond cool with that stain glass window behind them and the two angel statues on each side of the stage...they were throwin' down hard in a church...I knew P was on another level entirely. And yeah, Let's Work was no joke. Especially the 12'. Gotta Stop Messin About, a left over from the Dirty Mind sessions, sounded like a cross between The Cars and My Sharona from The Knack. Nobody could fuck with Prince during that period. From 81 to 83, P was simply somewhere else.

keywhiz said:

Thank u, sir.

blackguitaristz said:

I had a different experience getting into Prince, which is probably the main reason I've never been blown away by the Controversy album. I had heard his hits from the first two albums but they never really grabbed me. I much more into rock and big production at the time--the stripped down sounds just didn't do it for me. My roommate brought home the Dirty Mind album and he just loved it and listening to that a few times I could tell that Prince was really onto something but still, the stripped down sound and the falsetto vocals just weren't much of what I was into at the time. Controversy just sort of missed me. I didn't hear that album and I'm not sure I heard any tracks from it at the time. I was blown away when I heard "Little Red Corvette" on the radio and the positive press the 1999 album was receiving prompted me to buy it. I was just blown away by that whole album and as a result then went back and bought Dirty Mind and Controversy.

Had I been in the clubs in 1981 when they were spinning "Controversy" and other tracks from that album, I'd probably have a different relationship with that album.

keywhiz said:

I can dig it....I grew up listening to literally everything when I was a kid. Be it Parliament-Funkadelic, KISS, Hendrix, Bowie, to Donna Summer, The Carpenters and Abba. Queen, Zepp, Sabbath to me was no different than Bootsy, The Isley Brothers and E,W & F. And the reason was because I dug it all. It was all good music. So I totally understood where P was coming from during his second album. Here was a cat that listened to and studied bands like Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon and The Cars. As well as The Bee Gees and The Emotions. He just blended all of that together and put his spin on it and blam, there is his second album. P was a true hybrid, musically and visually. As much as he took from Hendrix and Sly visually, he took from Adam Ant, Johnny Thunders from the New York Dolls and Iggy Pop.
[Edited 4/25/09 20:54pm]

love it!

blackguitaristz said:

word!