Prince – “Controversy” (1981)

“People call me rude / I wish we all were nude / I wish there was no black and white / I wish there were no rules”

Some albums in people's collections have been purchased for one or two songs, sometimes you’ll also find other great songs as an extra plus. Other albums have been purchased because the buyer assumes it will be a good album, but maybe just finds one song that’s agreeable and lets it go round and round on the turntable. If I remember correctly, I got this record from my brother, I’m not sure how he had got it. I was somewhere in the first half of my teens and ever since the day I got the album I have always associated it with a single song - the title track Controversy.

Yes, this relationship has been so tight that when I now listen to the album, it's almost as if I hear it for the first time. I found the song Controversy quite nice while the others, at the first listening in my teens, were rather boring and uninteresting. Therefore, I never played them again. Instead I let the song Controversy start and finish this LP. It was OK to treat records you hadn’t bought with your own money this way, if I had paid for it myself, I had probably forced myself to listen to the other songs as well. I also suspect that my brother didn’t pay for this album, which made it even easier. It should also be added that, after a year in my possession, a number of drops of acetone ended up on the B side which left this side more or less ruined. Those things happen, right? I can now listen side B thanks to the Internet and the Web site Grooveshark.

Controversy was Prince's fourth album and his most political up to that date. It sounds typical Prince - many parts syntheseizer, a few parts funky bass lines, a few pinches of falsetto vocals here and there, of course some love dripping ballads and a few sexual hints (how about the subtle Jack U Off?). When I listen to it now it still feels pretty bland. Prince's love ballads have never been my favorite genre and I've always been ambivalent to his relatively dry funky sound with lots of syntheseizers. On many of his records, including this one, there is much one can put aside, but here and there there are a few gems hidden. When listening to the record before writing this post, I realized that it was actually another song I sometimes listened to, Annie Christian. It had fortunately survived the acetone attack and just as in my younger years I still find the song quite good with a somewhat different sound from the rest of the album.

Prince went on a tour following the release of Controversy, among other things, he opened a number of concerts in the United States for the Rolling Stones. A combination that, at least in my world, seems a bit strange.

In addition to the above mentioned exceptions, I am not particularly fond of this album so it will problably continue a quite life in my record collection.

Favorite Songs

Controversy

Annie Christian

 

Tracklist

Side A

1 Controversy 7:14

2 Sexuality 4:20

3 Do Me, Baby 7:47

 

Side B

1 Private Joy 4:25

2 Ronnie, Talk To Russia 1:48

3 Let's Work 3:57

4 Annie Christian 4:21

5 Jack U Off 3:12

Prince and Youtube seems to be a bad combination at the moment (of course it is the artist who doesn’t feel like giving people the opportunity to listen to his songs for free). Therefore no cool Youtube links. Greedy and disappointing, to say the least, and bad PR in today's world of digital media. And this from an artist who probably has more money than he will ever be able to spend (like Youtube clips would get someone to lose income).