LoveGalore said:

RJOrion said:

LoveGalore said:

Jack U Off is still a classic and it's distinctly Prince. That's Prince being the Prince we all know and love for damn near the first time.

Fine, Ronnie is a goofy song. Okay. But he just blew your brains out with Private Joy and that solo a second ago so you need some time to get your shit together anyway. Then the album continues to destroy your mind all over again.

And let's not even talk about how the melodies and the range of sounds are just better on Controversy. DM is filled with an extremely squeaky keyboard on every fucking song. And his falsetto never sounded more nasal than that record. No no no.

Ronnie is the punk funk, though, to me. It has the aggressiveness of punk, but the synthiness of funk. And you know, Controversy is probably one of Prince's most politically charged records in the 80s. I've written about "Sexuality" and "The Future" and their similiar stories and ideologies. "Ronnie" was very pointed considering what was going on at the time with Reagan just having taken office. The Cold War was still very much in play and we were still doing nuclear war drills in our schools. It's definitely not to be dismissed.

"Annie" touches on so much in the media at the time, and a lot of it having to do with Black children being killed by Wayne Williams, a twenty-three-year-old man, who spent three years on a murderous spree ultimately killing twenty-eight black children in Atlanta while driving a blue car.

The title track and "Sexuality" are just as political. I rather enjoyed it because it was very much the zeitgeist at the time. While bands have always been political, in the new age of new wave, pop, new romantics, punk and more, Prince took no reservations on addressing then-current day issues. I enjoyed that. I didn't understand all of it in the moment, but as I learned more about history I realized how important songs like "Sexuality", "Ronnie" and "Annie Christian" were to the narrative and conversation.

"Jack U Off" is pure Prince, as you noted. It's about straight up fuckin'. Both sides of that record are ended with heavly sexual songs. (The irony is that "Sexuality" isn't that sexual. That's why I almost expected "Orgasm" to be a song about cornbread or something when I saw Come's track listing.) And of course that guitar ending of "Ronnie" ends up in "Orgasm."

RJOrion said:

The live performance of "Partyup" on Saturday Night Live in February 1981, was probably Prince's greatest early career TV performance...P, Andre, Dez & Fink had amazing chemistry, intensity, and showmanship on that show... theyre STILL my favorite Prince band ever.

that performance is great!

strongoxman1 said:

Vannormal said:

kinda like that fucked up shit too

guilty pleasure.

The Cheyne cover is far superior.

Thanks.

downloaded it, it's so bad it's good.

Love it! Close to Prince's version.

There's just one thing that bothers me about this album, it is (way) too short.

That's how goddamen good it is!

Period!

It became even more brilliant over the years to me, if you compare it with anything later NPG-ish.

It sounds more timeless than Diamonds&Pearls, The Symlbol or anything after that (at least to me).

Say What?

Think about that opening dance beat, tighter then a 17 yo pussy, a dark prayer poored over the sparse funk with a gothic smell, and a guitarlick to die for, how controversial is that! Wet nickers that is!

Do Me Baby is fan-fuckin'-tas-tic!

I (once) remixed 'Ronnie ...' to have a longer version.

Did the same with 'Jack U Off', and added 'Irresistible Bitch' to it together with 'Horny Toad' in a slowed down dirty version. Just to have a longer album.

I kill everyone who think it doesn't! ))))

Come on up you purple fools. I dare you! )))))

I also like the YACHT version of ''Annie Christian.''