^But wasn't it a good thing it was "nothing like then-current music"? Especially after the rap stuff of D&G?

LiveToTell86 said:

sure, it was Prince, not "everything else."

That's how I learned to appreciate it. But it took a while for me to appreciate much of Prince's work, beginning with Diamonds & Pearls. I was into Nirvana & Snoop and he was playing The Morning Papers. It seemed out of style. But Prince was doing his own thing. Still is, for that matter.

I love this album.It's helped me crossover to Prince because it's so accessible.It's quite easy to listen to.I was suprised to learn it was discontinued and out of print but I don't know the full story about that yet.The lable & him dropping his name & all that.

I've read through a few of these threads & they've been really enjoyable,interesting & informative.Great stuff OldFriends4Sale.Thanks.
[Edited 3/11/10 18:33pm]

Love Sign
Released June 1994 [radio only]

Love Sign" is a song by Prince, from the 1-800-NEW-FUNK compilation album released by his independent record label NPG Records in 1994.

"Love Sign" was the most successful song released from the album, and it is a duet with Nona Gaye, although Prince (known as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" at the time because of his name change to an unpronounceable symbol) is uncredited as a singer due to his contractual dispute with Warner Bros. Records. A promotional single was sent out to radio stations independently through Prince's record label NPG Records, and was not commercially released. The song has an anti-violence message.

Love sign

Love sign (Get up)
Love sign (Get up)

Pop, pop, pop go the pistol
Bang, bang, bang go the gun (Get up)

CHORUS:
If U're sick of evil knocking on your door
Throw up the love sign once and 4 ever more
(2 signs of the times)
If U'd rather make love and have a little fun
Throw up the love sign everybody and not the gun
(Time is passing, passing is time)

In a chariot of red and gold
The cool, fuzzy voice said, "Come save your soul"
Before the fear of rejection reared its head
He stood before the masses and calmly said

CHORUS

In the day of where and why we all belong
Don't nobody wanna hear a silly love song
And if they did then we would sing it on the news
While U're aiming your gun at me and I'm aiming back at U

CHORUS

Pop, pop, pop go the pistol
Bang, bang, bang go the gun (Get up)
Pop, pop, pop go the pistol
Bang, bang, bang go the gun (Get up)

If U only had one year left 2 live (Get up)
What good is the time U spend if U got no love 2 give? (Get up)
Let's all get up off the front and find a cause 2 back
Then we can teach the babies replications of the act, of the act

CHORUS {x2}
(Sick of evil knockin', yeah)
(Then ev..everybody, oh)
(We can have a little fun)
(Everybody, oh yeah)
(Oh yeah)
(4 ever more)
(Make a little love now)
(We can make love instead of guns, oh)

Pop, pop, pop go the pistol {phrase x4}
Bang, bang, bang go the gun

Show us the love sign, we want the love sign (Get up)
Show us the love sign (Get up)
(2 signs of the times)
Show us the love sign, we want the love sign (Get up)
(2 signs of the times)
Show us the love sign (Get up)

(Pop, pop, pop go the pistol) {repeat 2 fade}
(Bang, bang, bang go the gun)
Love sign, we want the love sign
Love sign
Love sign, we want the love sign
Love sign

© 1994 Controversy Music / NMG Music - ASCAP





The music video was shot by rapper Ice Cube in 1994. Gaye and Prince are both featured prominently in the video. It received major airplay on BET and was very successful on its Top 20 countdown. The video shows Gaye at an anti-violence convention and Prince as a secret love tryst. At the end of the video Gaye is laying in Prince's bed and Prince walks away shaking his head jokingly. Most of the video was shot at Paisley Park.





http://www.kewego.com/vid...fYDg5.html
Prince & Nona Gaye. Love Sign [SoulTrain 90]



Gaye became involved with R&B superstar Prince. They recorded a few songs together and had a long-term relationship that ended when Gaye learned he was engaged to his backup singer and dancer, Mayte. Gaye later noted that there was a gulf between them that was explained by her substance abuse more than the 16-year age difference between them. "Three years I dated him and didn't know him and really never let him know me, either," she later told Harris in Esquire. "But that was a long time ago, and I wish him well."

http://freedomtrainonline...opic=648.0


On December 22, Paisley Park issued a press release that read as follows:

" has officially given notice to Warner Brothers Records (WBR) of his desire to terminate his recording agreement with the company. Over the course of their nearly two decade long relationship, The Artist and WBR have developed irreconcilable differences. Most recently, the unstable and ever changing management structure within WBR has made it impossible for the company to effectively market and promote its flagship artists, including .

The Artist is prepared to deliver the three (3) remaining albums under his former name Prince which will fulfill his contractual to WBR. Currently, the albums are titled: Prince - The Vault - Volumes I, II and III.

will release a recording entitled Emancipation once he is free from all ties with Time Warner."

The press release wasn't very detailed, but it outlined my feelings as the Holiday week approached. While it was a message to everyone, it was more for the ears of the entertainment industry, and specifically it was geared towards the music industry and its musicians - both young and old, green and seasoned, struggling and successful. These words from Paisley Park are from me. My ultimate message is a cry for solidarity amongst artists and a reprieve from the greed of entertainment executives.

My message stems from a lifetime of development as an artist and as a businessman, and my increasing awareness of a greedy structure within the music industry that unjustly rewards large, slow corporate management teams, while overlooking and not protecting its bread and butter - the artists.

As difficult as it is to admit now, when I began my career with Warners in 1978, I had a lot to learn. The transition into the artist I am now hasn't been a smooth one. I don't want other young artists to be mislead in the same way. I'm expressing my feelings so that others will learn from my mistakes. I also want all established artists to understand the issues and know that there should be a better way and to join with me to create that new path.

A little history.

At 37 years old, I have been a recording artist for Warner Music for what will be seventeen years this April. I was only 19 when I recorded my first album as Prince. Recording for a large label was new and exciting. I had an opportunity to reach millions of people around the world, not just my faithful following here in Minneapolis around the club scene. As time passed, the realities of the music industry and its current hierarchal pecking system sunk in. Artists are last on the totem pole in terms of recoupment.

My path has been a long and arduous one. In the beginning, both youth and excitement towards the opportunity to have an album produced made me, as Prince, naive. Savvy lawyers claiming to have my interest at heart, long in bed with the record companies they pimp, offered me what seemed to be a lucrative contract, without fully explaining the ramifications of its terms. I wrote an album a year for many years until I realized a trap had been laid. I would never be able to leave the legacy of my music to my family, my future children or anyone, because "Prince" did not own the Masters-I did not, and still do not, own my Art.

For most of all my adult life, I have labored under one construct. I compose music, write lyrics, and produce songs for myself and others. My creativity is in my life; it is what guides me everyday, my sleepless nights. My songs are my children. I feel them, I watch them grow and I nurture them to maturity. I deliver them to my record company, and suddenly, they are no longer mine. The process is painful. I have been long ready for a new program. The time is now.

As an artist, I want to share my music with others. I crave the experience of writing and sharing with others. It is what I do as an artist; as a human being. I take pleasure in the fact that others are able to share in my joy once the process is complete. My fans are my children's friends; I respect them and want to communicate with them.

As a businessman and the owner of NPG Records-the label that released "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World"-the 1994 number One release by an independent, I realize that record companies are a natural part of the food chain. It is the record label that allows a musical artist to reach out to his or her audience, but that does not mean that whichever organization markets and distributes the music should own the final product, i.e.: The Masters.

What I have learned both as an artist and a businessman is that a middle ground must be developed. All artists, whether new or established, must have a substantial ownership interest in the music they create. Conversely, all record labels need an incentive to market music and push it thorough their distribution systems; still, that incentive should not be ultimate control. Record labels have no right to enslave the creators.

The first step I have taken towards the ultimate goal of emancipation from the chains that bind me to Warner Bros, was to change my name from Prince to . Prince is the name that my Mother gave me at birth. Warner Bros. took the name, trademarked it, and used it as the main marketing tool to promote all of the music that I wrote. The company owns the name Prince and all related music marketed under Prince. I became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros.

By my 35th birthday, June 7, 1993, I was beyond frustrated with my lack of control over my career and music. It seemed reminiscent of much that had been experienced by other African Americans over the last couple of hunderd years. They had turned me into a slave and I wanted no more of it. The dilemma had only one clear solution. I was born Prince and did not want to adopt another conventional name. The only acceptable replacement for my name, and my identity was , a symbol with no pronunciation, that is a representation of me and what my music is about. This symbol is present in my work over the years; it is a concept that has evolved from my frustration; it is who I am. It is my name.

I look forward to the release of Emancipation in the near future. It will be The Dawn of the next phase of my life as a musician. It will represent my freedom from the past and it will be a continuum of what I have started here today.

]

0-+>
[Edited 3/16/10 10:08am]

Swa said:

Loved ur review SWA, U do pretty good album reviews anyway, good expression

A lot happended in that era/time in life.
I like ur threads by the way. Smile.

October 10. 1995
Paisley Park Chanhassen
Video Shoot
Rock And Roll Is Alive
Days Of Wild
Gold
[Edited 4/3/10 21:06pm]

I absolutely adore this album and the live boots from this era. The live band was so tight together that seriously, every boot I've heard is pretty much perfect. Prince may have been looking a bit nutso but I think that at the time the sound and look was a natural way for Prince to express himself musically and mentally. It definitely made a clean break from the music/appearance of the 80s, that's for damn sure.

TGE is phenomenal.