Love Symbol Explained

Love Symbol
Type:studio
Artist:Prince & the New Power Generation
Cover:Love Symbol Album (Prince and the New Power Generation album - cover art).jpg
Released:October 13, 1992
Recorded:September 11, 1990; December 1990; May 12, 1991; September 18, 1991 – March 1992; July 1992
Length:75:00
Label:Paisley Park, Warner Bros.
Producer:Prince and the New Power Generation
Chronology:Prince
Prev Title:Diamonds and Pearls
Prev Year:1991
Next Title:The Hits/The B-Sides
Next Year:1993

Love Symbol is the fourteenth studio album by American recording artist Prince, and the second of two that featured his backing band the New Power Generation. It was released on October 13, 1992, by Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records.[1] It was originally conceived as a "fantasy rock soap opera" with various spoken segues throughout, and contains elements of R&B, funk, pop, rock, and soul.[2]

The official title of the album is an unpronounceable symbol depicted on its cover art, which Prince copyrighted under the title "Love Symbol #2", and adopted as his stage name from 1993 to 2000 to protest his treatment by Warner Bros. Records (which had refused to steadily release his back catalog of unreleased music, and trademarked his given name for promotional purposes).[3] [4] The release has been referred to under titles such as Love Symbol, Symbol Album, or Symbol.[5]

Its first two singles, "Sexy MF" and "My Name Is Prince", achieved modest success on the US pop chart, though both made the top ten in the United Kingdom. Conversely, the third single, "7", was not as successful in the United Kingdom, but was a top ten hit in the United States.

Storyline

An early configuration of the album contained as many as eight segues, as well as an introduction setting the scene of Prince's self-proclaimed "rock opera". These helped to provide a narrative thread to the songs which when taken together explained the album's conceptual storyline: An Egyptian Princess (played by Mayte Garcia, in her debut on a Prince album) falls in love with a rock star (Prince) and entrusts him with a sacred religious artefact known as the Three Chains of Turin (colloquially referred to by Prince as the 3 Chains o' Gold) after escaping from seven assassins who had murdered her Father in cold blood in an attempt to obtain the priceless relic, as referenced in "7".

In a last-minute attempt to add an additional song: "I Wanna Melt with U", which contains several sampled elements also present in "7" (and which was originally considered as a non-album B-side for the "7" maxi single), Prince had to cut many of the segues in order for its inclusion and to fit within album length constraints. The few that remain are somewhat confusing without the connective tissue these excised segues had helped provide. The unreleased segues have long been available amongst fans in the years since, and it is likely that any future Super Deluxe Edition release of the album by the Paisley Park Estate will see them reinstated. [6]

On the released album, the segues featuring Kirstie Alley as reporter Vanessa Bartholomew are mostly kept intact. In these, she scrambles to salvage some sense of an interview with the elusive rock star (Prince) but fails at the first hurdle when he promptly hangs-up after she informs him he is being recorded. In a later segue, Prince toys with Vanessa and her line of increasingly intrusive questioning by being purposefully vague and responding with nonsensical answers for his own amusement. A few lines in which Vanessa enquires about the Three Chains of Turin was edited from the final sequence provided for mastering and release.

3 Chains o' Gold, (a direct-to-video promotional film produced and directed by Prince), was eventually released in the Fall of 1994 even though filming for the project had been ongoing since 1991 and was completed in time with the intention of being a lavish visual companion piece to tie-in with its album counterpart upon release. Despite Prince’s protestations (after financing much of the project himself), Warner Bros Records nonetheless held it back. The film follows the sequence and narrative structure of the Love Symbol Album also containing a number of the excised segues originally intended for the album.

Marketing

Warner Bros. Records pushed for "7" to be released as the album's first single. However, Prince pushed for "My Name Is Prince" to serve as lead single, as he felt that its hip-hop sound would appeal better to listeners that had enjoyed his previous album Diamonds and Pearls.[7] "Sexy MF" would ultimately serve as the album's lead single.[8]

Critical reception

The Love Symbol Album was voted the 14th best record of 1992 in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics nationwide, published by The Village Voice.[9] Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, later wrote of the album: "Designed to prove his utter inexhaustibility in the wake of Diamonds and Pearls, by some stroke of commerce his best-selling album since Purple Rain, this absurdly designated 'rock soap opera' (is he serious? is he ever? is he ever not?) proves mainly that he's got the funk."[10]

Track listing

All tracks written by Prince, except where noted; all tracks arranged and produced by Prince and The New Power Generation.

Every use of the pronoun "I" throughout the song titles and liner notes is represented by a stylized "" symbol. Prince fans commonly transliterate this symbol as "Eye".

Special editions

Several editions of this album were released. Early pressings of the album featured an embossed gold love symbol on the jewel case, sometimes matte, sometimes glossy. Later editions feature it printed on the booklet or not present at all. A Special Limited Edition Gold Box CD was released with a purple love symbol engraved in the golden box. One boxed set came with a bonus "Sexy MF" CD single, another with a specially created CD single of "My Name Is Prince" mixes.

Early configuration

Below is the early version of the album with all the original segues. "The Sacrifice of Victor" is slightly longer on the early configuration.

  1. "Intro"
  2. "My Name Is Prince"
  3. "Sexy MF"
  4. "Segue"
  5. "Love 2 the 9's"
  6. "The Morning Papers"
  7. "The Max"
  8. "Segue"
  9. "Blue Light"
  10. "Segue"
  11. "Sweet Baby"
  12. "Segue"
  13. "The Continental"
  14. "Damn U"
  15. "Segue"
  16. "Arrogance"
  17. "The Flow"
  18. "Segue"
  19. "7"
  20. "Segue"
  21. "And God Created Woman"
  22. "3 Chains o' Gold"
  23. "Segue"
  24. "The Sacrifice of Victor"

Personnel

Prince and The New Power Generation

Additional personnel

Production

Publishing

Singles

Charts

Chart (1992)! scope="col"
Peak
position
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[11] 8
Spanish Albums (AFYVE)[12] 5

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Prince & The New Power Generation Discography . . April 15, 2009.
  2. News: Willman . Chris . October 11, 1992 . Prince's Latest Fleshed-Out Fantasy . . 0458-3035 . 3638237 . July 6, 2017 . July 25, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120725061926/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/61717569.html?dids=61717569%3A61717569&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS%3AFT&type=current&date=Oct+11%2C+1992&author=CHRIS+WILLMAN&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+%28pre-1997+Fulltext%29&desc=Prince%27s+Latest+Fleshed-Out+Fantasy+%2A%2A+PRINCE+%26+THE+N.P.G.+%22%28genders+merging+symbol%29+%22+Paisley+Park%2FWarner+Bros.&pqatl=google . dead .
  3. News: Lussenhop. Jessica. 2016-04-22. Why did Prince change his name?. en-GB. BBC News. 2020-05-20.
  4. News: Rhodes. Margaret. 2016-04-22. The Fascinating Origin Story of Prince's Iconic Symbol. Wired. 2020-05-20. 1059-1028.
  5. News: Carter. Andrew. The People Formerly Known as Fans . 2018-07-05 . June 23, 1999 . City Pages. https://web.archive.org/web/20081014192125/http://www.citypages.com/1999-06-23/news/the-people-formerly-known-as-fans/ . October 14, 2008.
  6. Web site: The lost album segues / original version . dawnation.com.
  7. Book: Hahn, Alex.. Possessed : the rise and fall of Prince. 2003. Billboard Books. 0-8230-7748-9. New York. 50868280.
  8. Hajari . Nisid . July 24, 1992 . Video Capsule Review: Sexy M.F. (1992) . https://web.archive.org/web/20070602073505/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,311235,00.html . dead . June 2, 2007 . Entertainment Weekly . Time . February 25, 2022.
  9. http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres92.php Pazz & Jop 1992
  10. Book: Christgau, Robert. 252. Robert Christgau. Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. Macmillan Publishers. 2000. 0312245602.
  11. Book: Pennanen, Timo. Sisältää hitin - 2. laitos Levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla 1.1.1960–30.6.2021. 2021. Prince. 204. Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. Helsinki. fi.
  12. Book: Salaverri, Fernando. Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002. 1st. September 2005. Fundación Autor-SGAE. Spain. 84-8048-639-2.