Prince – Sign O’ The Times (Super Deluxe Edition)
Format: CD – LP – Digital
Label: Warner Records
Release: 2020
“I feel that we’re on the brink of something. It is going to be strict and wild and pretty.” — Prince, 1986
More than any other release in his four-decade-long recording career, Prince’s iconic double album Sign O’ The Times captured the artist in a period of complete reinvention.
Primarily recorded between the end of 1985 and beginning of 1987, the era saw the dissolution of his band The Revolution, the end of his engagement to Susannah Melvoin, and the creation (and ultimate abandonment) of the albums Dream Factory, Camille, and Crystal Ball. By the end of that period of transformation, Prince emerged with one of his most urgent and wide-ranging releases to date — an epochal double album that would be hailed as a creative, critical, and commercial triumph.
The Super Deluxe Edition includes all the audio material that Prince officially released in 1987, as well as 45 previously unissued studio songs recorded between May 1979 and July 1987, and a complete live audio performance from the June 20, 1987 stop on the Sign O’ The Times Tour at Stadium Galgenwaard in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Also included is a brand-new DVD containing the complete, previously unreleased New Year’s Eve benefit concert at Paisley Park on December 31, 1987, which was Prince’s final performance of the Sign O’ The Times Tour stage show and his only on-stage collaboration with jazz legend Miles Davis.
The Super Deluxe Edition set also features a 120-page hardcover book containing Prince’s previously unseen handwritten lyrics for many of the songs from the era, including the hits “U Got The Look,” “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man,” and “Hot Thing,” iconic unseen images from the era taken by Prince’s primary photographer in the mid-1980s to early 90s, Jeff Katz, plus images of archive assets including original analog tape reels and studio tracking sheets.
The Super Deluxe Edition book is completed with brand-new liner notes by Prince’s creative peers and friends Dave Chappelle (in conversation with photographer Mathieu Bitton) and Lenny Kravitz; Prince’s longtime engineer Susan Rogers; Daphne A. Brooks, Professor of African American Studies, American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University; Minneapolis radio host and author Andrea Swensson, host of the Official Prince Podcast; and Prince scholar and author Duane Tudahl.
Deluxe Edition 8 CD+ DVD Set
CD1 / LP1: Remastered Album (Disc 1)
01 Sign O’ The Times
02 Play In The Sunshine
03 Housequake
04 The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
05 It
06 Starfish And Coffee
07 Slow Love
08 Hot Thing
09 Forever In My Life
CD2 / LP2: Remastered Album (Disc 2)
01 U Got The Look
02 If I Was Your Girlfriend
03 Strange Relationship
04 I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
05 The Cross
06 It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night
07 Adore
CD3 / LP3&4: Single Mixes & Edits
01 Sign O’ The Times (7” single edit)
02 La, La, La, He, He, Hee (7” single edit)
03 La, La, La, He, He, Hee (Highly Explosive) (12” version)
04 If I Was Your Girlfriend (7” single edit)
05 Shockadelica (“If I Was Your Girlfriend” B-side)
06 Shockadelica (12” long version)
07 U Got the Look (Long Look) (12” edit)
08 Housequake (7” edit)
09 Housequake (7 Minutes MoQuake) (12” edit)
10 I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Fade 7” edit)
11 Hot Thing (7” single edit)
12 Hot Thing (Extended Remix)
13 Hot Thing (Dub Version)
CD4 / LP5&6: Vault, Part 1
01 I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (1979 version)
02 Teacher, Teacher (1985 version)
03 All My Dreams
04 Can I Play With U? (featuring Miles Davis)
05 Wonderful Day (original version)
06 Strange Relationship (original version)
07 Visions
08 The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker (with horns)
09 Witness 4 The Prosecution (version 1)
10 Power Fantastic (live in studio)
11 And That Says What?
12 Love And Sex
13 A Place In Heaven (Prince vocal)
14 Colors
15 Crystal Ball (7” mix)
16 Big Tall Wall (version 1)
17 Nevaeh Ni Ecalp A
18 In A Large Room With No Light
All tracks previously unreleased
CD5 / LP7&8: Vault, Part 2
01 Train
02 It Ain’t Over ‘Til The Fat Lady Sings
03 Eggplant (Prince vocal)
04 Everybody Want What They Don’t Got
05 Blanche
06 Soul Psychodelicide
07 The Ball
08 Adonis And Bathsheba
09 Forever In My Life (early vocal studio run-through)
10 Crucial (alternate lyrics)
11 The Cocoa Boys
12 When The Dawn Of The Morning Comes
13 Witness 4 The Prosecution (version 2)
14 It Be’s Like That Sometimes
All tracks previously unreleased
CD6 / LP9&10: Vault, Part 3
01 Emotional Pump
02 Rebirth Of The Flesh (with original outro)
03 Cosmic Day
04 Walkin’ In Glory
05 Wally
06 I Need A Man
07 Promise To Be True
08 Jealous Girl (version 2)
09 There’s Something I Like About Being Your Fool
10 Big Tall Wall (version 2)
11 A Place In Heaven (Lisa vocal)
12 Wonderful Day (12” mix)
13 Strange Relationship (1987 Shep Pettibone Club Mix)
All tracks previously unreleased
CD7&8 / LP11-13: Live In Utrecht – June 20, 1987
01 Intro/Sign O’ The Times
02 Play In The Sunshine
03 Little Red Corvette
04 Housequake
05 Girls & Boys
06 Slow Love
07 Take The “A” Train/Pacemaker/I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
08 Hot Thing
09 Four
10 If I Was Your Girlfriend
11 Let’s Go Crazy
12 When Doves Cry
13 Purple Rain
14 1999
15 Forever In My Life
16 Kiss
17 The Cross
18 It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night
All tracks previously unreleased
DVD: Live At Paisley Park – December 31, 1987
01 Sign O’ The Times
02 Play In The Sunshine
03 Little Red Corvette
04 Erotic City
05 Housequake
06 Slow Love
07 Do Me, Baby
08 Adore
09 I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
10 What’s Your Name Jam
11 Let’s Pretend We’re Married
12 Delirious
13 Jack U Off
14 Drum Solo
15 Twelve
16 Hot Thing
17 If I Was Your Girlfriend
18 Let’s Go Crazy
19 When Doves Cry
20 Purple Rain
21 1999
22 U Got The Look
23 It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night Medley (featuring Miles Davis)
