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Back when I was deeply into Sign "O" The Times I couldn't help but notice that Sign had a quasi-psychedelic feel to it.

In 1987 there was much fuss about the 20th Anniversary of the Summer Of Love. Back in the 80's there was a fascination with all things 60's, a 60's revival, much like in the 70's there was a 50's revival and in the 90's a 40's revival and now an "80's" revival.

Along the way that year I discovered through a friend The Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The While Album and Jimi Hendrix Experience debut album.

It all kind of tied in in some way. As I held the 12 inch records I felt drawn specifically into the Sgt Pepper's album cover as much as the Sign "O" The Times album cover.

You'd think Prince's Around The World In A Day had more of a similarity to Sgt Pepper's but if you look closely at the songs, ideas, cover art work, messages, you'll see that, or at least I did, that Peppers inspired Sign "O".

Here are the similarities...

The guitar thrown on the floor. Both albums have that same thing...Prince's Peach Cloud Guitar and on the Peppers cover the Flower Guitar patch on the right lower corner! Interesting. On Pepper, a boy who delivered the floral display asked if he could contribute by making a guitar out of hyacinths.

The bass drums, on Pepper, the one bass/kick drum and on Sign the double kick drums. No artwork on them but interestingly enough in the center.

The "Stone Figures" at the right of the bass drum on Peppers cover and the stone relief figure on the amps/speaker cabinet on the right of the stage on Sign.

I don't know the story about Prince use of that, what it meant or what it was taken.

There is a feel of old time Vaudville, traveling show feel to the stage background of Sign artwork. The stage background, you know the one with "Bar Grill, Hotel" etc, was actually inspired by French stage designs of old plays and revues. I've seen other very very similar stage backgrounds. There's even a book about them and stage design history if you can find it.

The Pepper cover is inspired by old time iconic performers and heroes, a nostalgic feeling, which you also get from Sign.

When I spoke to a designer that worked on Signs cover, she mentioned to me that Prince wanted a feeling or contrast of utopia and dystopia, a feeling that one was sad and distraught and the other happy with flowers and plants.

Also Prince wanted personal things thrown about that he enjoyed, like the a bag of Doritos for trash and stuff.

The Flowers. Pepper has the flower bed which was an idea from Paul McCartney about this band receiving awards in a park in England and accepting awards from dignitaries. On Sign you also have flowers and plants to show the utopian side...The Cross: "Ghettos 2 the left of us/Flowers 2 the right", the contrast.

The theme of peace and love. Both albums had that vibe. Prince with the peace sign appearing on the logotype title and in the inner sleeve on his boot. The "Heart on the sleeve" literally, on Prince's sleeve!

The inner sleeve photo of Pepper with the Beatles smiling in a large photograph, they were actually told to look lovingly and feel "the love" as they looked straight into the camera!

The alter egos Prince looking like someone else, an alter ego! Camille!

On Pepper, the whole purpose of the concept of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band was for The Beatles to become another band, an alter ego band other than...The Beatles!

On Sign, I suspect that the out of focus photo you see of Prince was actually Prince trying to hide his identity and play with the Camille identity. You wouldn't be able to see if it really was him or "a long lost cousin, Camille"!

I wonder if this really was actually going to be the album cover for Camille. Prince looks freaky, his skin color a greenish hue, the Curtis Mayfield gold rimmed glasses, the long almost geekish hair do...was it Prince or Camille?

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Please if you have any other ideas in similarities, contibute to this thread. Like for example, Housequake has a '67 reference...Summer of Love was in '67...




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[This message was edited Wed Oct 15 23:52:54 PDT 2003 by FlyingCloudPassenger]

... hmm


Sgt. Peppers rocks!

These are interesting observations, but as a Beatles and Prince fan myself, I just don't connect the covers. I think you are really stretching to find connections.

Musically, I would say that SOTT draws more similarities to the White Album, and not just because it's a double. Both albums seemed to be rough around the edges, with very insightful and slightly off the wall interpretations of pop music.

As far as covers are concerned, I would say that I felt a connection between both the content and the cover art of ATWIAD and Yellow Submarine, but find there to be very few direct similarities between Prince abd tge Beatles, besides of course, their influence on pop music, and their experimentations with various styles of music.

savoirfaire said:

I'm not stretching it that far! I see the similarities at least from an inspirational point. But many things are similar if you go back and read what I wrote and really look at both covers.

I think Sign is a very artsy album, much like Peppers.

I agree with savoirfaire.

I simply think that the Sign O' The Times cover art has two or three obvious items which appear to coincide with items on the cover of a Beatles album. Beyond that, any similarity between the art, the aspirations behind the design concept, or the musical vibe itself, is either tenuous, or simply happenstance.

It's fine asking for more similarities, but it doesn't necessarily make the suggestion of a link between the two works any more convincing: Yes, it's interesting that 'Housequake' references 1967 if you are arguing some sort of connection with the 'Summer of Love', but it's just as interesting that it equally references 1966 one bar earlier, and that a few bars before he mentions 'Green Eggs and Ham' from 1960.

I may be pushing it on ONE comparison, but for me it was fun finding at the time Sign was hot and Sgt Pepper was popular because of "It was 20 years ago today!" was the "oh yeah!" thing.

It's all for fun, nothing deep just FUN looking at how both are similar and seem to go together. Take both albums and play them in whatever order, maybe Sgt first and its a neat thing!

FlyingCloudPassenger said:

Yep - nice idea.



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[This message was edited Thu Oct 16 1:31:48 PDT 2003 by langebleu]

I just wish Warners had released the CD without "TWO DISC SET" scrawled across the cover!

It makes it look like the album is called "TWO DISC SET" or something. It annoys me!

pigeontoes said:

What you mean... , huh?

hmmm...I always thought of Monty Python's 'Holy Grail'
mixed with 'Life of Brian' mixed with a little 'Where's Waldo'
mixed with the landscaping at Neverland Ranch or Disneyland
when comparing the Sgt. Pepper cover.

langebleu said:

Yes, fine idea. Don't stop making connections, by any means please. Thank you for your thoughts.

savoirfaire said:

I'd have to agree.

Supernova said:

You guys suck.