Sign O' the Times by PRINCE

FACTS

Sign O’ The Times was the lead single of Prince’s 1987 album of the same name. The times described in the song are certainly bad times including references to issues such as AIDS, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and drug abuse.

The video for the song was an early example of a lyric video where the words to the song are the main element of the video.

In 1989 the band Simple Minds released an interesting version of this song.

THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS PRINCE

The author or masterpiece Purple Rain, a whizz kid, a charismatic performer; Prince was a prolific songwriter with a studio full of unreleased songs which the company (Warner Bros) refused to publish.

As a result, a legal battle began in 1993 when Prince appeared in public with the word SLAVE written on his cheek, and subsequently he decided to change his artistic name -which was trademarked by the company- to an unpronounceable symbol, combination of the gender symbols for man and woman, thus forcing the media to refer to him as “The Artist Formerly known as Prince”.

He was not able to use his own name until 2000 when the contract with Warner expired.

THE TIMES OF RONALD REAGAN

Ronald Reagan was president of the USA from 1981 to 1989. This meant a conservative era for the politics of the USA. He cut social program funds and increase defence spending. In 1982 the country falls into the biggest economic recession since the Great Depression with a consequent increase of unemployment.

The decade was also characterised by other aspects and events. Some lines of the song show references to these.

A BIG DISEASE WITH A LITTLE NAME

Yes indeed, AIDS is a big disease with a little name, which is an acronym of “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome”.

A syndrome caused by a virus, HIV, the initials of “Human Immunodeficiency Virus”.

AIDS alters the immune system making it vulnerable to infections and diseases. There is no vaccine and it doesn’t have a cure but can be treated with antiretroviral therapy.

The discovery of the existence of the disease was in 1981 when a medical publication issued a report on a number of infections with a high Case Fatality Rate. At the beginning it was considered a gay-related immune deficiency.

In 1985 American actor Rock Hudson announced that he was suffering from the virus. Another notable casualty of AIDS was Freddie Mercury in 1991.

1985 - Rock Hudson "Mystery Illness" 

In 1990 Red Hot + Blue was released, a benefit album to raise money for AIDS research. This was a compilation of Cole Porter’s songs performed by some contemporary artists such as Talking Heads, Erasure, U2 or Neneh Cherry.

WHEN A ROCKET SHIP EXPLODES

On 28 January, 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean 73 seconds after launching. All seven crew members of the spacecraft were killed and 17% of USA’s population were witness to the accident as it was being broadcast on TV.

Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion LIVE TV

FROM TRYING A REEFER TO DOING HORSE

In the song Prince tells us that his cousin tried a reefer in September. A reefer is a cannabis cigarette, but this word is sort of obsolete, nowadays joint would be a more common word.

Nine months later his cousin is doing horse, horse is the slang word for heroin.

With these lines Prince is implying that trying any type of drugs increases the chances to become addicted to highly addictive substances.

In the following video you can learn some more slang related to drugs.

SOME SAY MAN AIN'T HAPPY TRULY UNTIL A MAN TRULY DIES

The following quote is attributed to Solon, one of the Seven Sages of Greece:

“Call no man happy until he is dead”.

What should not be misunderstood as it would be the same as saying that death is the end for all human suffering, thus it is at this point that we can ascertain that someone has been happy as from now on they can suffer no more.

In the song Prince paraphrases this aphorism:

“Some say man ain't happy truly until a man truly dies”.