Maps of Music

Controversy (1981)

Where the lyrics of Controversy take you, and where it was really made.

Prince wrote and produced nearly the whole album and played most of its instruments himself, yet it was also the first of his albums to tie him strongly to the color purple.

Key places

Kiowa Trail home studio (1981)

Recording site Kiowa Trail home studio — The source lists the Kiowa Trail home studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota as a recording location for Controversy. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Hollywood Sound (1981)

Recording site Hollywood Sound — The source lists Hollywood Sound in Hollywood, California as a recording location for Controversy. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Sunset Sound (1981)

Recording site Sunset Sound — The source lists Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California as a recording location for Controversy. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Controversy: fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter and musician Prince
• Released October 14, 1981 by Warner Bros. Records
• Prince wrote and produced the entire album except one track
• Prince performed most of the instruments on the recording
• Opens with the title track, which raises questions being asked about Prince at the time, including his race and sexuality
• The title track flirts with blasphemy by including a chant of The Lord's Prayer
• Do Me, Baby is an extended bump-n-grind ballad with explicitly sexual lyrics
• Ronnie, Talk to Russia is a politically charged plea to President Ronald Reagan
• Private Joy is a bouncy bubblegum pop-funk tune, showing off Prince's lighter side
• Annie Christian follows and lists historical events, such as the murder of African-American children in Atlanta and the death of John Lennon
• The final song, Jack U Off, is a synthesized rockabilly-style track

Background

• The album reflects a period when Prince was drawing public questions about his identity and image
• Political and social subjects sit alongside sexual themes across the record

Recording

• Bob Mockler, Mick Guzauski, and Ross Pallone served as recording engineers on tracks 1 to 3 and 5 to 8
• Peggy McCreary served as recording engineer on tracks 1 to 7
• Morris Day is listed for possible drums on track 1
• Lisa Coleman sang backing vocals on tracks 1, 5, and 8
• Bobby Z. played drums on track 8
• Doctor Fink played Oberheim OB-X on track 8
• Bernie Grundman mastered the album at A&M Studios

Cover

• Photography by Allen Beaulieu

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Prince Rogers Nelson, born June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota; died April 21, 2016 at Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
• Signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1977 at age 18; first album For You released April 7, 1978.
• Career spanned funk, rock, R&B and pop, with estimated sales over 100 million records.

Career

• Breakthrough with Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981) and 1999 (1982).
• Purple Rain (1984) made him the first singer to hold the number-one film, album and single in the US at the same time.
• Sign o' the Times (1987) is widely considered his greatest work.
• Changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in 1993, becoming known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince; reverted to Prince in 2000.
• Won seven Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone: critic Stephen Holden wrote that Prince's first three records were so erotically self-absorbed that they suggested a licentious young libertine
• Holden said that on Controversy the libertine proclaims unfettered sexuality as the basis of a new, more loving society than the bellicose America of Ronald Reagan
• Holden found Prince's message refreshingly relevant despite the contradictions and hyperbole in his playboy philosophy
• The Village Voice: Robert Christgau gave a generally favorable review, finding the socially conscious songs catchy but coming from a rather confused young man
• Christgau said the record was less far-out and on-the-money than earlier songs such as Head, Sister, and When You Were Mine
• Blender: Keith Harris called it Prince's first attempt to get listeners to love him for his mind, not just his body
• Blender: Harris said the album refines the propulsive funk of previous albums and adds treatises on religion, work, nuclear war, and Abscam
• AllMusic: Stephen Thomas Erlewine said it continues the new wave-tinged funk of Dirty Mind, with emphasis on Prince's fascination with synthesizers and on blending disparate pop genres

Reappraisal

• Voted eighth best album of 1981 in the Pazz & Jop poll, an annual critics' poll run by The Village Voice

Records

• Reached number three on the Billboard R&B Albums chart
• Certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• This was the first of Prince's albums to strongly associate him with the color purple.
• It was also the first of his albums to use sensational spelling in its song titles.
• The title track addresses questions about Prince's race and sexuality that were circulating at the time.
• The album's critical standing rose in the Pazz & Jop poll, where it placed eighth among the year's albums.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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