If any year were fitting to reissue Princeās pivotal record Sign oā the Times, itād be 2020, a year marked by a pandemic, protests for racial justice, the rapidly developing climate crisis, and a consequential election in the U.S. But the Prince Estate didnāt plan any of this, of course. āSign oā the Times was the one that organically raised its hand becauseĀ of the sheer amount of love that it has, first of all, and second of all, the volume of ancillary material that we thought would be able to support it in a meaningful way,ā says Michael Howe, Princeās archivist who worked on assembling the reissue. āThe serendipitous element of it is that weāre living in such a volatile time at the moment, such an unpredictable time, that the issues Prince was exploring on the album seem to be just as relevant today.ā
Itās a fitting testament to Princeās continued relevance as a musician over four years after his death. So is the fact that the reissue of Sign oā the Times, out September 25, features a bounty of new material, the most for a Prince reissue yet. The superdeluxe edition includes 45 never-released tracks, along with two full live performances (from Utrecht, Netherlands, and Paisley Park, the latter including a guest appearance by trumpeter Miles Davis). Itās only two-thirds of the material they considered, says Howe, adding that he still makes weekly discoveries in Princeās mythical vault. One of his favorite songs on the reissue is a 1979 cut of āI Could Never Take the Place of Your Man.ā āNobody knew it existed,ā he says. āItās kind of astonishing to think that he had that song in his pocket the entire time and decided to wait and reimagine it for inclusion on Sign oā the Times.ā As for the release as a whole, Howe only wants it to strengthen the intentions that were already in Princeās music. āI hope it brings people joy and that it has the same kind of emotional resonance that I think Prince viewed as most important in his art,ā he says. āAnd the other thing I hope is that people see how wildly creative the guy was and how he was able to do pretty much anything he wanted to.ā
The superdeluxe edition also includes a book with a stacked cast of liner notes, including Dave Chappelle, Lenny Kravitz, Princeās engineer Susan Rogers, Prince | Official Podcast host Andrea Swensson, and author Duane Tudahl. For Chappelleās contribution, the comedian reflects on his friendship with Prince along with the social relevance of Sign oā the Times. Read an exclusive excerpt from Chappelleās liner notes below, in conversation with photographer Mathieu Bitton.
Do you remember where you were when you first heard Sign oā the Times?
It was a spring day in 1987. I was listening to Casey Kasem on a local Dayton, Ohio, radio station. I remember being struck by the way Kasem introduced the song. He actually read the lyrics before he played the record. That really impressed me. When would you ever hear a DJ read lyrics on a Top 40 countdown? The words were profound.
In France, a skinny man died of a big disease with a little name
By chance his girlfriend came across a needle and soon she did the same At home there are 17-year-old boys and their idea of fun
Is being in a gang called the Disciples
High on crack and totinā a machine gun
I didnāt realize it at the time, but in hindsight, he was singing about what would be the two definitive crises of my generation: crack and AIDS. Our story was being told in hip-hop, but as a genre, it was still in its infancy. Prince was the first mainstream artist to wax poetic and tell our communityās story, establishing himself as one of the preeminent lyricists for my generation.
He literally was a sign of the times.
I found a radio interview recording on YouTube where Prince was asked about your skit, and this is what he said: āI loved it, loved it! Thatās a true story, by the way,ā to which the DJ asked, āSo you got game?ā He responded, āOh definitely! And he [Murphy] donāt! And 2 be honest, it aināt that Iām that great, heās just so bad.ā He continued: āU know what was cool 2 was Dave came to one of my shows after, and heās going, āHey, did you see the skit?ā and I say, āYeah, yeah, come over and sit down.ā And weāre just sitting, chillinā, weāve been there for like 2-3 hours or whatever, and then out of nowhere I said, āDave, want some pancakes?āā
[Laughter]
When I leftĀ Chappelleās Show, not only was Prince the only person I could relate to, he was one of the few people who truly cared about what was happening in my life.
Thereās a thing I say that āthe last sane man on earth is going to think heās crazy.ā He was the only one I knew who had already done it. In the loneliest corners of that experience, there was always a sign, like āBrooks was here,ā that he had been there and lived to tell about it.
The mere sight of Prince reminded me that Iām not the last sane man on earth, and Iām not crazy.
He was the first person I knew who didnāt question my choices. In fact, he didnāt even ask me about them. He just told me, āWhatever it is, youāre right.ā
He helped me understand that it might not be over and that there might be another side to it ā¦ and whether or not there is or isnāt, at least youāre free. Or, as he would say, āU gotta B free.ā