Prince’s Artistic Process Was a Mystery. See How He Made ‘Sign o’ the Times.’ - The New York Times

But I’m not a speechmaker so I’ll do what I do best.” [playing “Sign o’ the Times”] “If y’all want to dance, it’s cool.” Singing: “In France, a skinny man died of a big disease with a little name.

It was just everything, all about it was like, OK, I think you’re hooking me in.” “Who were you to Prince?” “Oh, well I know if he were answering that question, he’d say something funny.” “How are you feeling tonight?” “I feel with my hands, Martha.” “But I’m not as witty.

There was an earthquake in Los Angeles.” Announcer: “My goodness, a live earthquake, right here.” “He didn’t like that kind of stuff, you know.

When a rocket ship explodes and everybody still wants to fly.” “This was all coming at him, and he felt it was apocalyptic.” “If you look at the pop charts from those years that didn’t sound like ‘Sign o’ the Times,’ right?” “It doesn’t sound like new wave.

Singing: “You spin me right round, baby, right round.” “That doesn’t obviously sound like hip-hop?

Singing: “Oh, I wanna dance with somebody.” “To me, it’s kind of like this Prince that is pivoting away from having to prove himself any longer with the Rolling Stone rock radio set?

Prince didn’t talk much.

On the song ‘Sign o’ the Times,’ he played all of the instruments on it.

He had a watchmaker’s knack for understanding how music worked, and how to get it to work with the fewest possible parts.” [music playing] “The other reason you have to remember with Prince is every time you listen to a song, it’s telling a story.

Singing: “And everybody still wants to fly.” “And you’d hear those soul preacher screams, and you’d know, oh this is going to be one of those that just has me on my knees.

Singing: “Sign o’ the times.” “When he comes back with ‘Sign o’ the Times,’ how does he present it to you?” “In the car.

We were like, ‘Whoo, yeah.’ You know, like that’s how we always were, like, it’s great.

Instead of your eyeliner you got a big ass?“ The sign o’ times mess with your mind, hurry before it’s too late.” “What’s really interesting to me is that, you know, he basically spends four minutes, or whatever it is, cataloging the ills of the world, and then his solution is … Singing: “Let’s fall in love, get married, have a baby.

That he could then be the guy he felt he needed to be.” “It’s very hard to hear the song ‘Sign o’ the Times’ and not think of health crises, political crises that we have going on now.

Like, what do you think Prince would have made of 2020?” “I don’t think Prince was preoccupied with world events for their own sake.

I don’t think he would have been the kind of man who would write a letter to the editor of his local newspaper.

So it’s our responsibility now to keep building forward from what Prince gave us.” “Why are you giving interviews and refusing to speak?

These were the conditions that Prince sought to wrap his arms and mind around on his enduring 1987 single “Sign o’ the Times,” the title track from his ninth studio album — a double LP that was widely considered a masterpiece at the time, and has only grown in stature in the decades since.

— illuminate the creation of “Sign o’ the Times” in vivid detail, from his reaction to the AIDS epidemic and the Challenger explosion to his demeanor during those feverish, 24-hour studio sessions.