![]() “I was being deliberately me.”Ī local stage production of Guys And Dolls provided the backdrop for the Sign O’ The Times artwork, shot by photographer Jeff Katz at Prince’s newly opened Paisley Park complex. ![]() “I wasn’t being deliberately provocative,” Prince said of Dirty Mind. The upturned bedsprings that framed him may or may not have been a lascivious take on the bars that imprisoned James Brown on the front of his 1971 live album, Revolution Of The Mind: Live At The Apollo, Volume III, but they offered the perfect setting. His look – stockings, bikini briefs, open flasher’s mac and neckerchief, topped off with a 2-Tone “Rude Boy” badge – was, Prince claimed, an expression of “pure sexuality” that barely prepared the listener for songs that tackled oral sex (Head) and incest (Sister) amid a new wave-funk crossover style that went some way to defining the “Minneapolis sound”. A mere two years after the release of his debut album, here was notice that Prince was truly unafraid to take chances. Photographer Allen Beaulieu took many of the early iconic Prince photos – not least the shot that appeared on the Dirty Mind album cover. Cut-outs of his eyes and the “Rude Boy” badge first seen on the Dirty Mind sleeve were buried among a whole host of other symbolic images and hidden messages aside from the extremely phallic “1” that made up part of the album’s title, close scrutiny reveals the name of Prince’s most famous band, The Revolution, written in backwards lettering within the “I” of “Prince”, and the earliest use of the hybrid male-and-female symbol that would assume increasing importance to Prince over the years. ![]() In the end, his own hand-drawn design immediately made the 1999 artwork one of the most memorable Prince album covers of all time. “I’m influenced by the sinisterness of it… I hear sirens all the time, things like that”). By way of apology, online orders of Crystal Ball came with an exclusive fifth CD, an orchestral suite named Kamasutra, which Prince had originally composed for his wedding to his first wife, Mayte Garcia.įor his breakthrough album, Prince initially planned to use an apocalyptic collage featuring, among other images, a sketch of a woman with a horse’s head, a broken heart and a collapsing skyline (“I see New York a little bit more,” Prince told Musician magazine the following year. Fans who had pre-ordered copies direct from Prince were encouraged to download and print their booklets from his website, even while delays in manufacturing meant their orders arrived after the album had been released in stores. Manufacturing issues meant the collection eventually came housed in something closer to an oversized petri dish, with a booklet included with in-store releases. A 3CD collection of studio outtakes and remixes compiled in order to beat the bootleggers, along with a fourth disc, an acoustic album of new material called The Truth, it was originally planned to be packaged a clear plastic sphere, in keeping with its title. Sold through Prince’s own website, Crystal Ball holds the distinction of being the first full album ever sold online. Listen to the best of Prince here, and check out the stories behind every Prince album cover, below. Most artists have a stage persona, but he was looking like that in his house when no one else was around.”Ĭovering every studio album artwork – from the intimate to the outrageous – here is a countdown of all 39 Prince album covers, ranked and reviewed. “He would show up at a photo shoot wearing what you think was the stage outfit, and that would be his street clothing,” Katz said. Each creative phase came with a colour scheme that extended to his album artworks, not only reflecting the music within, but the way Prince conducted his entire life: as an artistic statement in its own right. ![]() “When he would switch eras, he would literally change everything, from his wardrobe to the way his rooms were decorated,” photographer Jeff Katz told Pitchfork in 2020. But while his aesthetic helped define the 80s, the best Prince album covers also created a world that was entirely his own. Everything from the way his music sounded to how it was packaged was Prince’s call – and his call alone. From the moment Prince signed with Warner Bros in 1977, as a shy 19-year-old, he demanded complete control over his art.
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