It's always criticized by Critics as a misstep in the shadow of the iconic "Dirty Mind" album, but I love Controversy.

Let's Work, Controversy, Private Joy all fun jams.

I even like Do Me Baby, except for that hilarious/creepy "I feel so c.c.c.coooold" bit at the end.


Why isn't this album ever shown more love?

Imago said:

I don't understand it too..it's my favourite album. I love Let's Work..amazing bass riff!

Imago said:

I AGREE FULLY

I don´t know. I really like all the songs you mentioned. But the rest? Meh

My favourite Prince album.

It's OK. It's got 3 duds IMO. "Ronnie", "Annie" & "Jack".

The highs points are brilliant, but when you have 3 very weak songs in an 8 track album, it's a problem.

Love this album

TyphoonTip said:

Yeah..those are weaker songs, but I don't skip them. I always play my albums as a whole, that's the way how they were recorded. 5 excellent tracks out of 8 - still good album

zaza said:

Well, maybe half an album.

Imago said:

I prefer Controversy to Dirty Mind, never really like DM much,

TheEnglishGent said:

I always play them both, DM and C. They are like "brother & sister" in the way how they sounds.

"Ronnie Talk To Russia" is the only weak point of this great album

Imago said:

It's "Just hold me..." at the end.

I think It is both "just hold me" and "I feel so cold" at the end. Would make sense to be held if cold.

Ronnie is a great song, love the blow up at the end, and the sing along vibe Albeit short and a tad silly in it's goofy political references, but the message of communication and peace , avoidance of war, popular Prince themes are all embedded in this brief gem. I enjoy it, like most of the record.

Sexuality does not get enough props. Mama, are you listening??!!

great thread! first of all, what's so dang controversial about this collection of songs? it's basically just music, which is sound waves hitting our ears. please, can someone tell me what's so controversial about sound waves hitting our ears? ha. that's physics, plain and simple.

now, if you're addressing the emotional states that said sound waves hitting ears can evoke in a listener, why that is another topic entirely. because, see, no matter what emotional states are evoked by the music on this album, a person still can't call the album itself 'controversial', since music is art, which can be interpreted in different ways by different people.

take, for example, picasso's work, specifically - his paintings. some people would have a look at his paintings of disjointed faces and figures and say "Poo! THAT ain't art, that's just a dude with myopia, or some other vision problem, or maybe even a drug problem, or a psychological condition which affects his ability to put brush to canvas and render up an actual likeness of his subject." that's what SOME folks would say.

still other people, however, might gaze upon a picasso painting and opine that he demonstrates true insight into the human condition, deftly capturing the nature of life, the inherent conflict of living through the use of angular visual interpretations to symbolically represent the struggle each of us face daily, the problems and issues we must all address which can set us upon ourselves physically and morally, as we learn to live in both harmony and antagonism with our own ego complex.

so when we acknowledge that 'art' is subjective, we must admit that prince's album is not 'controversial', in and of itself, but rather evokes a different response from each and every one of us. me, i never heard the album so i couldn't really say which was which. thank you, that is all.

Controversy was absolutely necessary. It has always been overlooked by new breed and bandwagon hopping fans. BUT it's never been overlooked by o.g. fans, people who were fans of P's before this album was released. Again, this was simply a crucial album for P. Musically, lyrically and conceptually. Moreso than Dirty Mind in many ways. This album is important if for no other reason than his masterpiece 1999 simply would not have been what it was if it were not for this album.

blackguitaristz said:

I always respect your opinions BG but to generalise as you have done ere is just wrong. I'm fairly new breed, having only hopped aboard the purple train in about 1992, yet I enjoy Controversy. It bugs me when people make out like you can't appreciate something unless you've been there from the beginning. Can't people just like or dislike music regardless of when it was made, or when they first heard it?

TyphoonTip said:[quote]It's OK. It's got 3 duds IMO. "Ronnie", "Annie" & "Jack".

Annie is NO DUD! it's typically WHY i put the album on. the techno feel of the intro and the nuanced guitar work on that joint is REEE-DIC-U-LOUS! i'm convinced the first 10-15 seconds of that song influenced early techno (Detroit DJ, The Electrifying DJ played TONS of Prince and techno pioneers, Derrick May, Juan Atkins, and Kevin Saunderson are all from Detroit and all site Prince as an influence and Mojo as "must hear" radio back in the day). The song apart from the title track best captures the "Controversy" of the day and fits the album's goal to "shock" Ronnie was politically relevant and timely so fit the album conceptually but was not a good track sonically.

I think Controversy was a good album, but not great, and not too "pop" IMO. not that this means anything, but it was embraced more by R & B radio than Pop radio.

blackguitaristz said:

I've just recently had a real Controversy kick when I got a vinyl copy so I would just let it run rather than hit the forward button and it's almost the archetypal Prince record. It's got everything. Great melodic pop, epic bedroom ballad, funky bass groove, a bit of weirdness, explicit spirituality and explicit sexuality.

Ronnie Talk to Russia gets love from me if only for the fact that in the '80s when I'd make mix tapes and you only had a couple mintues left on one side, you could always squeeze Ronnie Talk to Russia in there (plus it ends with the explosion which is always a great way to finish a mix tape)

And I love the scream at the end of Jack U Off, and the guitar on Annie is the saving grace on that song.

It get's overlooked because it's surrounded by other great albums but it's definitely worth a play now and then.

mynameisnotsusan said:

I remember I started a thread about how underrated Controversy was I stated that exact thing; being sandwiched in between Dirty Mind and 1999 has caused it to get overlooked and under appreciated. This is my favorite album. Although the guitarist in me would've liked a more straightforward, hard rocker like Bambi or Why You Wanna, I still love this album to death.

this ALBUM IS IN MY TOP 3


IMO


controversy---- contains my fav funk licl, best thing he wrote at that point
"does ur daddy cry"

sexuality--- pure princly funk "stand up organize"

do me baby-- his baest bedroom ballad EVER...this is unbeleavable.
Baby, please stop teasing me"

Privatejoy-- One of his most underatedated. such fun this is,.makes me happy every
time. herd it wasabout Susan m. "u belong to prince"

ronnie--- 1:40 to 1:58 is incredible "don't u blow up my world"

let work-- this is incredible funk at it's best..me and my 4 year old neice
are both in love with this jam...lol "I'de make u climb the walls"

annie-- one of the songs i play the most off the album...for all it's
strange genius..."annie christian was a whore"

jack u off--- just pure fun..."as a matter of fact...jack me off"


overall one of his best
IMO
[Edited 4/19/09 16:51pm]
[Edited 4/19/09 16:52pm]

nyse said:

thats what im talking about!

^^^^

u know the deel...

blackguitaristz said:

Controversy has always been one of my favorite albums as well. IMHO, this is the cd that really started the Prince that we have all come to know and love...the linn drums, the color purple, the spirituality mixed with the sexuality, the political statements, really the 1999 and Purple Rain look and vibe even...he may have flirted with mixing all the ideas before this, especially sexing it up with Dirty Mind, but this was definately, to me, the emergence of Prince as we know him. All the songs are classic to me. I love it all.

But one funny side note...I was listening to it one day in my car and with the exception of "Do Me Baby", the songs all start off fast and keep jumping through their entirity, and it just sounds like all the songs are on crack! Seriously! Also, Controversy has one of my fave tracks that I have always showed off most of Prince's great musical chops. "Lets Work".

TheEnglishGent said:

Thanx for the compliment and sure people can dislike things regardless of when it was cut, of course. Dig me now, I never stated that new breeders didn't LIKE the album Controversy, I stated that they overlook it, which in what I see, they do. There is always an exception to the Golden Rule and in your case TEG, you're not part of that generalization.

blackguitaristz said:

Thank you. (...thinking to self... "what are people talking about: Criticized?") I don't know, perhaps some of you weren't around back in the day, but "Controversy" was HUGE when it was released, and spawned a multitude of Prince clones runnin' all over the place, lol. I even had MY "Rude Boy" button, along with the one long Geri Curl flipped down over one eye, lol.
[Edited 4/20/09 1:41am]

PDogz said:

Man...one of the first threads I ever wrote on here was asking the folks that were blessed to be around during that period was did P ever influence the way u dressed? On there, I mentioned how when I was in Jr. high and high school, P DEFINATELY influenced how I dressed. Moreso than P, Hendrix was my biggest influence on how I dressed and wore my hair. Then around early 82, I started wearing bandannas, the trench coats with the studs, and 12 Rude Boy buttons lined up in a row going straight down on one side of my Rude Boy shirt or whatever else I was wearing. Then I started blending Hendrix and Prince's look into Dez and Jesse's.

I loved this album at the time it was released. I think the only reason it doesn't get as much 'love' as his other classic period albums is because it's the only one, IMO, that doesn't show a big shift in sound and style from its predecessor. It has a bit too much of a "Dirty Mind 2" vibe going to be to be considered a true classic on its own. "Dirty Mind" and "1999" changed all the rules when those albums came out. "Controversy" was more about keeping a good thing going rather than changing the rules.

To put it another way: "Controversy" is a great album by almost any standard EXCEPT by the standard that compares it directly with the two albums that sandwich it. An IMPOSSIBLE standard to reach, in retrospect.