Chapter V: Let He Who is Without Sin… A Controversial Time
Where other artists would take months, sometimes even years writing and recording their albums, Prince seemed to write like a man for whom, to quote an old Irish expression, God hadn’t made enough hours in the day. He always looked like he was in a rush, barrelling through each project and heading off in a new direction at top speed, somewhat like the aforementioned hummingbird, which I decided was not a good metaphor for him, but which I now think may be. Though he was a perfectionist and would not let an album be heard until he was happy with it, he does not seem to have been one who would later come back and start tinkering around with it, trying to make it better, releasing remixes and overdubs and what-have-you. Once a project was done, it was done; yesterday’s news, and he moved on to the next challenge. I once read about a writer - can’t remember who, think he might have been French, not sure - of whom it was said he only wrote 100 words every day, but that those 100 words had been honed and crafted to perfection by him, and he never had to alter them.
In the same way, Prince seemed to, once he had got the right sound he wanted on each track, each album, put them aside and never look at them again (other than playing them live). Another comparison comes to mind, from the TV science fiction show Babylon 5, in which one of the characters described himself disparagingly as “someone rushing through my life, like a man endless late for an appointment,” and this is how I visualise Prince as he hared from one project to another, never, it seemed, tiring (or at least, never showing it), never resting, never taking time out, always working, the consummate workaholic. Today his discography stands at well over fifty, not including those he produced but did not play on. That’s pretty phenomenal for a man who spent a mere thirty years in the business, and certainly indicative of someone who was never content to rest on his laurels.
For his fourth album, Prince decided for the first time his band would have input, both playing and even writing. Up until now he had been a lone wolf, sequestering himself away in the studio for days at a time, writing, playing, producing, engineering and finally, as it were, giving birth to a new album, without any help from anyone. But whether life on the road had taught him the value of his fellow musicians, or whether he was just tired doing everything himself, or even that he hoped involving the band would spark new creative flows within him, and perhaps them, the new album would not be a solo effort.
After shocking the world with his explicit references to sex in his lyrics, he confounded those who believed they could predict which way he would jump next, using political and social messages and colouring his music with religion too, and turning the album out in just nine days. It took the charts pretty much by storm, climbing to number 21 and has sold, to date, over a million copies in the USA. Critics liked it, but were unsure of Prince’s new “serious” look, and noted that it was a genuine, if contrived, attempt to leave behind the sex-and-scandal of his three previous albums (despite the title) and be accepted as a serious musician, not just a pop star.
Album title: Controversy
Released as: Prince
Label: Warner Bros
Recorded: August 14 - 23 1981
Release Date: October 14 1981
Producer: Prince
Studio(s): Prince’s home studio, California; Sunset Sound, California
Chart Position* 22
Singles Released:”Controversy”, “Sexuality” (Australia only), “Let’s Work”, “Do Me Baby”
Singles Chart Performance: CON: 70 @BH100,3 @ @ BHSSC, 1 @ BHDCS, 5 @ UK; LW: 9 @ BHSSC, 1 @ BHDCS; DMB: 46 @ BH100, 1 @ BHSSC; SEX (unknown)
Sales: 1,100,000
Now where have I seen that pose before? Looks very similar to Tom Waits’
Heartattack and Vine, right down to the bedraggled shirt and the staring eyes, to say nothing of the newspaper headlines behind him. Would I be right, I wonder, in saying this is the first time Prince wears purple? Or, at least, is seen doing so? All right, technically it’s more a kind of a mauve, but still, it’s getting there. Possibly, if I’m honest, the first time he’s worn a full suit of clothes on the cover of an album!
Perhaps taking a cue from his work with The Time, the opening track here is seven minutes long, and it’s not the only one. I see a return to the broader funk of his second album here, with a definite look forward to his next work, which would be the one which would break him. It’s a cleaner, sharper, more defined sound, and for once the vocal is clear and understandable. I feel this is a slower version of “U Got the Look”, and very indicative of the way his music was going. With a sly wink to the conservative right, he quotes The Lord’s Prayer in the lyrics, and then goes on to express his wish that there was no such thing as black or white. A very impressive start; a tune that’s great to dance to and also has a lot to say in the lyric. It’s also the first time I hear him unleash that manic scream that is kind of his falsetto climax I guess, and which would show up in a lot of his songs from now on. A real signature.
Despite its title, “Sexuality” is devoid of the risque lyric that characterised much of the previous album, a sort of “All You Need Is Love” for the 1980s I guess. A fast-paced, breathless little tune that evokes later hit “Let’s Go Crazy” in its rhythm if not its melody. In the lyric, Prince moans about the influx of tourists into America (which kind of sounds a little dangerously close to “they come over here, takin’ our women”, just sayin’) against some pretty sharp guitar licks - yes, the guitar is back. The longest track then is a ballad, written in what would become classic Prince style, and looking back somewhat to his earlier love songs. “Do Me Baby” doesn’t need too deep an interpretation of the lyric, does it? Some great faux sexual expression by the man here (might have belonged better in the other song) and despite being the longest at almost eight minutes, not in the least boring.
He hasn’t forgotten his new wave fans though, and “Private Joy” sounds like something Laura Branigan (god rest her soul) would have enjoyed singing; very upbeat, poppy and excitable with jumping, hopping keyboards and a bouncy beat. Vocal’s not as strong here, and the song is a little throwaway in some respects, but then there is that guitar solo, which is very welcome. Prince’s political dabbling continues as he asks “Ronnie, Talk to Russia” in a very new wave/gospel/um, punk hybrid that just runs all over the place and includes sound effects which sound like machine guns. The whole thing is sung in a kind of kid’s nursery rhyme style and again features a great solo with some fine backing vocals, this time actual ones, provided by Lisa Coleman. A short song, less than two minutes, but great fun.
Strutting and striding all over the place then with “Let’s Work”, which became a big club and dance hit, stabbing keyboards and falsetto vocal and stuttering synthy brass adding a kind of Earth, Wind and Fire feel to parts of the song. “Annie Christian” has the vocal pushed far up in the mix, and in fact it’s more a spoken word sort of thing than singing, which sort of takes away from the pretty good music behind it, but it further advances his social and political commentary and I imagine made him seem more a serious artist instead of someone just singing about love women and sex. Love the guitar solo in this, even if it is very short. That brings us to the final track.
“Jack U Off” is a fast, dancy, almost honky-tonk number with definite rockabilly credentials and some fine guitar thrown in, though it mostly run on a thick organ which reminds me of Dire Straits’ “Walk of Life”. It’s a bit of a silly song to be fair, and perhaps serves to leaven out the somewhat heavier fare that has characterised this very different album, bookending it well.
TRACK LISTING
Controversy
Sexuality
Do Me Baby
Private Joy
Ronnie, Talk to Russia
Let’s Work
Annie Christian
Jack U Off
I think this is probably the first Prince album I’ve mostly enjoyed (as evidenced by the colour-coding of the tracks above) and on which there is really nothing I don’t like, though some of the songs are certainly better than others. It’s quite a transformation, a continuation of his previous album to some degree but an evolution too, certainly in the lyrical department, and again it’s amazing to think this is a guy who only two years previously was crooning about falling in love and dancing all night. While he hasn’t forgotten those messages, there are new ones to be put out, and he does this with the consummate ease, and the lack of selfconsciousness that a man ten years in the business might have trouble projecting.
The title of this journal is
Baby I’m a Star, and I don’t think Prince ever once believed he would not be. He certainly worked to make it so, and all his hard work was about to pay off the following year.
But before that, it was time to tour the album.
Following the release of
Controversy, Prince was ready to hit the road again. Andre was gone, having jumped ship to help Owen Husney launch his own solo career, so Prince again looked back to the musicians he had played with before landing a record deal, and chose bass player Mark Brown from a tenth grade band called Fantasy. Well, now the guy’s fantasy was about to come true, as he joined Prince on the road to promote the new album. Brown quickly saw how the fantasy turned to hard cold reality, as Prince pushed him - and everyone else - to excel. He was not a mentor, Brown found, nor a teacher. He had not the time to hold anyone’s hand. He expected you to be as good as he had been told, and if you were not, you got a chance but then you were out. There would be no passengers on the Prince train as it pulled out of the station. Everyone was expected to contribute to his growing success.
Meanwhile his shadow band were playing and Prince believed that The Time had progressed to the point where they were ready for a tour. His own big chance came as none other than the Rolling Stones asked him to open for them in the Los Angeles Coliseum, which knocked him flat. He had always been a huge admirer of the Stones, had even modelled his own performances, he said, on those of Jagger. To him, it was a match made in heaven. Dez was less certain; he knew the sort of audiences the Stones drew, and he worried the hard rock and blues brigade might not take kindly to Prince’s particular brand of electronic funky new wave. Of course, he didn’t get a say, and had enough sense not to voice his concerns.
Warner of course were delighted. Not only was it great exposure for a man who was fast becoming a real star of their stable, it was the perfect opportunity to promote the new album and get it across to far more listeners than radio or TV appearances could. However Dez’s fears proved not to be unfounded, as the sweaty, rowdy, impatient fans waiting for the Stones greeted “Uptown” with barely-restrained contempt, not to mention the little black guy standing in briefs and a trenchcoat on the very stage on which later (and not soon enough) their rock and roll god would strut and preen and growl out standards like “Brown Sugar” and “Satisfaction”. It did not start well, but Prince, ever ready to adapt when the need arose, changed the setlist and began concentrating on guitar-centred music, turning his intended funk and dance performance into the best he could of a rock one.
Had this been two years later, of course, things might very well have been different, but to the public at large, and certainly to rock audiences, Prince was pretty much still an unknown quantity, and they mistook the lyric of “Jack U Off” for “Fu
ck you off”, after which the barrage began. Dez got hit by a piece of fruit which knocked his guitar out of tune, Mark Brown, facing his first ever gig and his first ever developing riot, must have been scared s
hitless. Prince, though scared enough himself, was also angry. He recalled one “dude right in the front” who wouldn't’ stop throwing things” and remembered “the hatred all over his face”. Feeling like he had taken enough, Prince left the stage to a chorus of boos and the kind of fusilade that might have made even the Light Brigade pause before charging.
He returned though, his band having stayed onstage, and ripped off the kind of guitar solo that it seemed might pacify these guys. It did, to a degree, but though the booing turned to applause at the end, it was light, polite, an afterthought, the kind of clapping that told you your audience were glad you were gone, and hoped, unlike most rock audiences, there would be no encore. They needn’t have worried. Having walked offstage Prince had left LA and had arrange a flight home. It took Mick Jagger, desperate not to lose his support act in the middle of a tour, and Steve Fargnoli, Prince’s manager, who knew that it his client blew it here, he would never be asked on any major tour ever again, to convince Prince to give it another shot.
It was a total disaster.
Without any real rock material to replace the dance numbers with, and with Prince rather perversely and stubbornly refusing to wear something other than his bikini outfit, things were no better the second time around. Audiences still hated them, things still got thrown, people were in danger of getting hurt, Prince left the stage again (leaving his band playing) to a chorus of boos and catcalls. The truth had to be faced: Prince was not going to be able to play on the Stones’ tour, it had been a failure from the start. It was the final nail in the coffin of Prince’s suitability as a support act. Nobody ever asked him to join their tour again.
But soon, that wouldn’t matter any more.