Have you ever wondered about the imagery of the SOTT album cover? To me it tells a story of three albums that Prince wanted to put out the time.

In mid/late 1986 Prince had essentially three albums ready to fly: Dream Factory, Camille, and Crystal Ball with two being multi-albums. Warner Bros obviously feared the worst and told Prince that was just too much music to put out at one time. Prince strongly wanted to get this music out in some form, which is how we got SOTT.

If you look at the album cover Prince has covered all three albums in one picture.

First, the setting is "dreamy" which ties in Dream Factory.

Second, if you look to the left of the drums there is the "crystal ball" and the superimposed "crystal ball" in the background. This shows that his heart was really into making "Crystal Ball" come to life, especially in the movie.

Third, the picture of Prince on the cover. If you glance at it quickly, one can't tell if it is a man, woman or both. This is his "Camille" persona being brought to life.

This cover shows that Prince truly felt that these albums should have seen the "dawn".

What are you thoughts on the cover?

never gave it as much thought as u, joy...i've always thought of it like it's more like a paintin than a photograph.

From what I have heard, he doesn't put that much thought into his covers. The Art Director gets very little input from Prince.

Whoa, never thought about it that way, I just thought it was a really cool album cover.

*don't I feel smart*

it felt like a Man all over the Place stripped down trying to find Himself again&that Picture seemed like a Cat who had Wreck going on&wanted to find Himself back into the Picture again&He was letting it all hang out here.

I've actually heard that Prince isn't the guy on the album cover. Don't know if this is true or not, however.

I think the cover is a great description of the music the album contains...

eclectic, messy, gritty, all over the place...yet beautiful, colorful, and very cohesive when put together...

His best album cover IMO...for his best album!!!

joyinrepetition said:

Do I hear the sound of straws being desperately clutched at?

If you look at a lot of people very quickly you might not be able to determine their gender in one glance. Nor can you immediately tell if the picture of Prince on the cover is male or female if you look at it through frosted glass - or if you squint at it with the lights turned down low. C'mon - it's a very weak argument you are proposing.

Axchi696 said:

IT IS prince on the Cover. The story you are talking about is probably the whole Prince/Cat confusion that was going on at the time. Both of them used to look very similar back then. And Cat is on the Cover of the "Sign O The Times"-single. Many people thought it was Prince. I don´t understand that since she obviously is a girl

I'd heard that the Sign O The Times album cover was
photographed while they were making a (unused) video
for the title track. It's almost like a still from
the video. Apparently the way the live version is
filmed is pretty close to this unseen original video.
You'll notice that the guitar on the floor is
superimposed, because Prince was actually playing
it in the unedited picture.

Its a Wizard Of Oz cover

I never really understood where prince was trying to go with that cover. It looked like he was pissed off at the photographer and just walked off the set. But lil' old me enjoyed it anyways since I thought Prince was God.

The background 'artwork' (with all the street signs) is actually a real backdrop from a production of "Guys and Dolls" that was being put on at the Chanhassan Theatre down the street at the time. Prince's band was rehearsing for the "Sign.." tour when they decided to shoot the cover using this backdrop. Jeff Katz took the photos I believe and a few shots from this photo session appear in the tour book as I recall...

..spelling...
[This message was edited Wed Feb 12 14:36:31 PST 2003 by Jestyr]

The Thread Killer strikes again!

What is it with Prince and the half face, so to speak? Maybe it's his pretty side.

squirrelgrease said:

WHOOOAAA.

So, you're telling me Prince doesn't really design or provide much input to his album cover.

He just wakes up one morning, and DAYAMN, his new wrecka has him naked sitting on a flower?

otan said:

otan said:

Just sayin'.