Prince's Sign O' the Times (Thirty Three and a Third series) [Paperback]

Michaelangelo Matos (Author)

Book Description

Series: 33 1/3 | Publication Date: March 31, 2004

One of the greatest double albums of the vinyl era, Sign 'O' the Times shows Prince at his peak. Here, Michaelangelo Matos tells the story of how it emerged from an extraordinary period of creativity to become one of the landmark recordings of the 1980s. He also illustrates beautifully how - if a record is great enough and lucky enough to hit you at the right time - it can change your way of looking at the world. EXCERPT The most immediately striking thing about Sign 'O' the Times is the jazzy sensibility running through it. Prince's father was a jazz musician, his mother a vocalist; he'd been a fan of chops-heavy jazz-fusion as well as rock and R&B growing up. But when Prince began recording for Warner Bros., he abjured the brass sections that dominated groups like Earth, Wind & Fire and Parliament-Funkadelic, opting instead for stacked synthesizer patterns and a spare, cold feel that markedly contrasted with lush, overarranged disco and the wild, thick underbrush of the era's giant funk ensembles; Rickey Vincent, author of Funk: The Music, the People, and the Rhythm of the One, dubbed it "naked funk." Getting away from traditional R&B instrumentation is an underappreciated aspect of Prince's crossover success; Prince is also said to have actively disliked the sound of horns early in his career.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

A new entry in a series about famous LPs. Diminutive, purple-clad funkmeister Prince aimed for more than chart success and danceability in his work (though it had plenty of both), and Sign o' the Times, one of his finest works, still sounds bold, adventurous, and edgy in ways that even critics too old to rock and roll appreciate. If Matos admits to being somewhat nonplussed at Prince's shift in musical direction with Sign o' the Times, his reminiscence of the milieu that midwifed this classic if not definitive Prince album is entirely welcome.

Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Refreshingly, Michaelangelo Matos's gift is to confound his readers, forcing them to rethink '80s pop politics without getting overly political… Matos critiques from two standpoints-the 13-year old kid and the 29-year old Rolling Stone contributor and Seattle Weekly editor-with a pure love for Sign and pop music in general. Rather than becoming an energy-draining exegesis, his exploration breathes unexpected life into the record. It's inspired me to drop into Amoeba Music and retaste Sign, too." --San Francisco Bay Guardian, 5/19/04

“[M]y favorite bit of new Prince product isn’t the fine Musicology but Michaelangelo Matos’ 121-page treatment of Sign as part of Continuum’s new 33 1/3 series, in which various writers tackle individual albums in long form…Matos identifies the factors that make Sign of particular relevance…” –The Memphis Flyer, 6/12/2004

“I consider it among the three of four best records I’ve every heard, which is why my favorite bit of new Prince product isn’t the fine musicology but Michaelangelo Matos’ 121-page treatment of Sign as part of Continuum’s new 33 1/3 series, in which various writers tackle individual albums in long form. I know [Matos] well enough to know that he holds Sign O’ the Times in the same esteem as I, but I don’t know him well enough to have prepared me for the shock of recognition that came from the first of the four ‘sides’ his Sign book is divided into. The rest of Matos fine little book steps back for a more critical take on both the album and Prince’s career in toto. Matos identifies the factors that make Sign of particular relevance.” -The Memphis Flyer, 6/12/04

"Both a student and a fan of Prince, Matos integrates the particulars of Prince's rise to fame--including the release of the double LP Sign 'O' the Times--with an endearing and at times hilarious telling of his own coming of age in the suburbs of Prince's Minneapolis." --Mark Baumgarten, Willamette Week, 1/5/05

Extracts from the book featured in One Week To Live, 2007

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Continuum; Copyright 2004 edition (March 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826415474
• ISBN-13: 978-0826415479
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #608,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, if you accept its premise., December 25, 2008

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H. Domingue "hld3" (NOLA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Prince's Sign O' the Times (Thirty Three and a Third series) (Paperback)

There have been a lot of negative reviews of this book and, to be fair, they are not totally unfounded. If you bought this book and expected it to be a factual narrative with gooey bits of trivia concerning only the making of this album... well, then you'll be disappointed.

But that doesn't mean this book isn't worth your time. It's a delightful little read that not only covers the making of the album (including the various incarnations and playlists of the concepts that preceded the final release), but also tells a personal narrative that contextualizes its impact.

Yeah, there's a lot of personal narrative, but so what? This series of books takes an alternate approach to charting and cataloguing musical history. The editors encourage a varied approach to evaluating these albums. The one on Black Sabbath is an entirely fictionalized account of the action the album describes. The one on Celine Dion is a sort of social experiment in which the author (who is Canadian and hates the album) eventually comes to appreciate the work for what it is.

Though some are a little more straight-laced in their approach, most of these books are meant to be different. If you understand that notion before purchasing and reading this volume (that you'll be reading something closer to a blog or OpEd than a history book), then the book is fantastic and extremely fun.

21 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars AWFUL, August 2, 2004

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Eric Firebird - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prince's Sign O' the Times (Thirty Three and a Third series) (Paperback)

Let me say that I also read a couple of the other books in this series (the ones on the Kinks, Neil Young, and Joy Division), and being a big Prince fan I thought I would get a similarly interesting, well-written, well-researched examination of "Sign O' the Times." WRONG! This was more about the author, which is so typical for so much of what passes for "music journalism" -- the writer placing himself at the center of the story instead of his subject matter (maybe it's an ego or insecurity thing). I mean, it's great that the album affected Mr. Matos so much, but shouldn't we assume that's already the case since he's WRITING A BOOK ABOUT IT??? There's no reason that 25% of the book should be dedicated to his childhood and family and such. A brief introductory couple of pages would have sufficed for that. Anyhow, the rest of the "analysis" of the album, most of which isn't very illuminating to anyone with more than a passing knowledge of Prince, is written in the most joyless, hip-music-journo, almost condescending tone that is a real turn-off. After reading this I did a web search of this guy and found some articles he's written for some weekly newspapers, and it's more of the same. I would recommend staying away from this book and (hopefully) waiting for a better Prince book to come along.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Easy pass..., January 9, 2011

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3MTA3 (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Prince's Sign O' the Times (Thirty Three and a Third series) (Paperback)

I'm actually sorry I read this book. I don't honestly believe the author loves the source material as much as he mentions repeatedly during the autobiographical first half of this publication. His actual song-by-song dissection of the album is a big, pompus 'MEH' and super bummed me out. I do, on the other hand, feel good about having properly recycled Michaelangelo Matos' self-indulgent pamphlet along with the Sunday paper and my small collection of empty toilet paper tubes.