Prince’s trusted engineer Susan Rogers speaks at length about his sprawling epic, SIGN “O” THE TIMES, which was recorded between 1986 and 1987—with other, older tracks pulled from the vaults—a record ultimately created from the ashes of the aborted albums Camille , Dream Factory , and Crystal Ball .
THE EPIC by Chris Williams
From your point of view, what was Prince’s mind-set going into the creation of Sign “O” the Times after his Parade album a year prior?
broke off the engagement. Sign “O” the Times represented Prince soldiering through a tough time, personally and professionally. There were changes, and it’s hard for people to cope with changes. As an artist, he coped with them by pushing forward and writing his way through it. That can go either way—it can yield some of the best work you’ll ever do, or it can yield work that is self-indulgent, dispirited, and apathetic. In this case, it yielded some of his very best work. Sign “O” the Times resulted from a combination of three different albums that Prince was working on: Camille , Dream Factory , and Crystal Ball . What was Prince’s overall creative approach during this time? When we came off the Parade tour [which wrapped up in September 1986], Prince was constantly recording; and as he was recording, sometimes in the arc of that constant process, he would pull tracks together with a concept for an album. Crystal Ball and Dream Factory were both emerging around that time. He was playing around with certain ideas: Will there be another version of the Time? Will there be another band that will be an alter ego that will handle certain kinds of tracks? He had this character called Camille. He wanted to try some new stuff. It’s what any artist does when they’re going fishing for a perspective or concept for their next record. At one point, the album that became Sign “O” the Times was a three-record set. While in discussions with Warner Bros., his record label at the time, they were absolutely unwilling to release a three-record set, because it would’ve been too expensive to manufacture and the profit margin wouldn’t have been as high. I can say from personal observation that Prince was unhappy about that decision. He wanted that three-record set, but push was coming to shove at that point. So he regrouped and he came
Susan Rogers: Well, I really didn’t know what he was thinking, because he tended to not reveal that kind of stuff. I’m assuming that he was proud of the Parade record and the movie. The album was well received, and “Girls & Boys” and “Kiss” were hit singles, so I think his personal outlook was very positive and optimistic, and musically he was looking for the next new thing, meaning new things he could say and new ways he could express a groove, melodies, tonalities, and timbres. These were things he didn’t express on his previous record. His mood was generally like it always was. He was serious, pensive, upbeat, and optimistic. He was a thoughtful person. Things were changing around the camp then. Wendy, Lisa, and Bobby Z. were the heart of the Revolution. Wendy and Lisa were aching to get out there on their own and to express themselves musically. I think Prince was thinking that now would be a good time to make a change. The general consensus within the camp was that this train was going to keep on rolling. It was a mutual decision when Wendy and Lisa decided to leave. His mood and approach was to try something different and to see what he could do. Susannah Melvoin, Wendy’s twin sister, was still around, so that connection was still there to Wendy and Lisa. It caused a little bit of tension, and naturally it would, because Susannah was missing Wendy, and Wendy was missing Susannah. They were really close. Because of that tension, it fueled a creative atmosphere. It was a funny time to be working with him without Wendy and Lisa. The sorrow of their absence was also felt in the room. The imminent departure of Susannah was coming, because she wasn’t happy, and he wasn’t happy either. They were engaged to be married, but it became clear to them that it wasn’t going to happen. So they
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Photograph by Jeff Katz, originally shot for the inner sleeve of Sign “O” the Times . Courtesy of Warner Bros.
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