Sign O' the Times

Sign O' the Times (1987) Prince

In 1984 and 1985 I loved Prince. He replaced Michael Jackson as my favorite. I loved Purple Rain and was excited about Around the World in a Day but that second record wasn't so great. Then there was Under the Cherry Moon and my interest dropped off a little.

And I didn't like "Sign O' the Times" at the time though "U Got the Look" was cool. What got me back was "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man". Great song- I still think it's exciting.

Anyway, I didn't really start to like SOtT until I'd moved away from home and came back for a visit and brought back some old tapes to play in my car.

I'm thinking about the album now because today I was on Spin.com and read through their list of the 125 best rock & roll albums of the past 25 (I think ) years. SOtT was #2, which surprised me. Top 10, sure, but #2 seemed odd. Still, I'm not going to disagree. And really, what can you say about those kinds of lists anyway?

But I do think it might be his best album overall. The only song I would drop is "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night". I remember I'd always fast forward past it and it would always take fucking forever. It's almost 9 minutes.

Because I got it on tape I always forget it's a double album (same thing with 1999).

Also, I think the cover photo is beautiful, probably his best. No, definitely his best.

Note: I mentioned before: on Youtube you can find a video of Kevin Smith talking about his experience filming a documentary for Prince and it's very funny. Also, I'm pretty sure Prince is insane at this point, which is sad. I mean, he's not lying in bed like Brian Wilson did; he's functional. It's just that, as his assistant told Smith, he's living in "Princeworld"- his own private, fragile bubble.