Pokeno4Money said:

bigd74 said:

The song is grossly underproduced, has way too much synth, and is far too political for my taste. If I want to hear about politics I'll listen to Springsteen.

Because the lyrics focus so much on events that occurred 30 years ago, the song did not age well. But the rest of the album is a big

the genius of the song lies in its apparent sparseness but upon deeper examination all SORTS of things are going down as has been mentioned 'deep in the mix'. it DENSE but appears to be thin, i'm glad i can take the diversity of topics artists may choose to cover and not just what i want to hear from them. and with someone of his talent, i'm glad P hasn't been one dimensional in his content. talk about putting someone in a box. i think the fact that he cites specific events of that time are great incite to help understand the cultural context in which the album was created. the song is a sonic history nugget

meisme said:

One of the most interesting of his career. Music like this is why I am a fan.

True that. It was one of the first 'album cuts' that pulled me in as a novice Prince fan. Would pay cash money to hear him explain these lyrics today though

V10LETBLUES said:

funkyhead said:

wow, just wow. Listened to this for the 1st time in a looooooong while and was blown away. If this were released today we'd be freaking out!. It has it all, great lyrics, a great story, a unique sound and excellent production. Damn he's good!

Completely agree on all points.

It's not about being stuck in the 80's when some of us insist that era was so good, it just was. The sound he was creating at the time was very indie, it certainly wasn't mainstream by any measure. It was unique, it was bold and it was bad-ass. Annie Christian is not a pop song. It is a work of art.

And in some of the indie music today, you can hear that sound creeping its way back into the mix. I find myself wondering if it's conscious on the part of folks like Little Dragon or St. Vincent (for example), or just a natural progression.

I mean, if artists are reaching back to punk and new wave, having grown up in the hip hop era that sampled lots of funk and 80s r&b beats, it may be inevitable that they end up producing bits of Prince-ish sounds every now and then, isn't it?

funkyhead said:

wow, just wow. Listened to this for the 1st time in a looooooong while and was blown away. If this were released today we'd be freaking out!. It has it all, great lyrics, a great story, a unique sound and excellent production. Damn he's good!

it was way ahead of its time when released...kindof like the sound of Controversy

funkaholic1972 said:

The guitar solo that goes on for the entire lenght of the track (buried deep down in the mix) has always amazed me. Makes me wish for a mix where you can hear the guitar solo more prominently!

Agreed- the guitar on the track is just mindblowing - my favorite is the mini-solo at the end... If I could sneak into the vault, I'd grab the guitar track for this and Bob George (which actually is quite a similar song on some levels).

JumpUpOnThe1 said:

'Controversy' is an excellent bizarre album. It's just a bit short imho, but still an underestimated gem. Prince should've made a double long concept album about it with more of these strange undergournd-ish pop gems like AC & Ronnie Talk 2 Russia. Just always loved it.

'Annie Christian' yeah I lov this song too.

Absolutely astounding song.

My fav on that album!, the keyboards and lyrics are just fantastic.