The androgynous thing was big in the 80’s. Believe me, Prince was super heterosexual. I’ve heard several stories saying that even surrounded by 6ft odd bodyguards he was the manliest guy in the room! With this song he’s just addressing what had been written in the media about him. That’s how he answered his critics, in the music. He didn’t even give a proper tv interview until 1986 … 7 years into his career. He didn’t like talking about himself and was quite shy underneath the confident image. He used to say, if you want to know who I am, listen to the music. That is so true, he was a very honest and clever song writer! If you listen to his lyrics over his 40 year career you will understand who he was as a man … and an exceptional one at that!
Prince LOVED women!!!! Look at his history. He’s been linked with some of the most beautiful women in the world and has been married twice. Not sure what went on behind closed doors but I’ve never heard about him being coupled up with any men.
Auto tune didn’t exist in 1982! He just used effects on his voice. Prince used guitar effects on keyboard parts and drum tracks. He was truly an innovator. Banging track 💜
Just think how unique he was and his music was when he released them. A lot of what he did was controversial and looking back he was just being his authentic self, he didn’t make himself PG like most other artists, he was way ahead of his time with what he would speak about in interviews, an intelligent and extremely talented man (who loved women)
Prince played all the instruments, sang all the vocals pretty much, wrote, arranged, composed and produced his first 5 albums on his own. Only him and an engineer in the studio!
Keep in mind there was no autotune back then, he used a special effect when he recorded the voice track, he also played all the instruments, wrote, arranged, composed and produced for all the songs in most of his albums.
Prince’s sexuality was in question for literally decades, although women were usually so enamored by him that we tended not to care, or spend much time speculating, lol. Judging by his clothes, make up, and sometimes his mannerisms, Prince often came off as being perceivably gay or bi (“gender fluid” was not a known term Back in the 1980s, to my knowledge), But as others have pointed out, Prince had been known, since early in his career for having almost an animal magnetism with females. He became well known for always having gorgeous women on his arm, and beautiful female dancers on stage with him-one whom he married. And according to people who knew him going back to his high school days, and worked many years with him , Prince was always very attracted to females. I think it was former band member Morris Hayes Who said in an interview how Prince on occasion was saved from a potential beat down after attempting to steal another man’s girlfriend . Hence, the Long, running, mythic status of Prince, being a man who could wear your girlfriends clothes, hairstyle and make up and STILL take her from you. 🎸
Keep in mind this is the single edit of the song. The album version is 7 minutes long and there’s more to it. This song is in response to people at the time not knowing what to make of Prince. Was he black or white? Was he straight or gay? Prince was an enigma and this was his response to them. Prince wore provocative clothes, flirted with sexual ambiguity, and just generally pushed boundaries and didn’t care about fitting into neat boxes, so people had questions. But to answer your question, Prince was very much straight. But he definitely liked to get people talking and didn’t care what they thought. Definitely try to check out the full album version of this song. Some of his songs they made single edits to that completely cut out huge parts of the song. I Wanna Be Your Lover is another one, the single edit cuts out the killer instrumental second half of the song. In this song they cut out something that was definitely provocative where he recites the Lord’s Prayer, and then goes into a long outro part where he repeats the line “People call me rude, I wish we all were nude, I wish there was no black and white, I wish there was no rules.” Rules? Prince broke them all the time.
The first 5 albums that Prince released were absolutely timeless. He was doing something remarkable that no one else would. He was becoming a legendary artist that everyone nowadays try to recreate. He had a complete style of his own, either in the studio or live on stage. By the way, everything musically was organic and not digitized. There was no such thing as “Autotune”. Thank you for posting this and keep up the great work that you guys are doing.
Purple Rain was his 6th album. Sign his 9th. He had a 19 album run IMO. For You through Emancipation. Nobody has anything like that. Not even the great Stevie Wonder. Chaos and Disorder was a throwaway to settle a record contract and still was probably one of the best rock albums of the year. Emancipation a master class in genre diversity and musicianship. But yes the run between 1979 and 1988 is pretty much perfection.
Cool - - this one must've just got released. And re. the song line "am I straight or gay." Yeah, it was hard to tell, but Prince was literally the _Opposite_ of gay! (heels and makeup notwithstanding). In fact as a teen his dad had to finally kick him out of the house, because he kept sneaking girls into the house after hours. Which was against the rules. No problem though, he just went down the block, to move in with the family of his friend and bandmate, Andre. (But Andre's mom was even more strict though, so no more sneakylinks for him ! At least not There.) And he still remained close with dad. btw, this was the shorter radio version. but there's a whole 1/3 of the song to go. Which might blow your minds. And also shows why it's called 'Controversy.' ( Especially today, 40+ yrs later)
Prince had a 4- to 5-octave vocal range. Not sure why you’re thinking this is auto tuned. I don’t believe there’s any effects on his voice other than that his vocals are layered tracks. But singers and bands have layered their vocals going back at least to the 1970s. It was not an uncommon practice. As others have said, there was no autotune in the 1980s This song came out in 1981 and autotune wasn’t really a thing until… like 15-20 years later. Maybe the mid to late 90s , or later? 🤔
@@leeharrison8222 I have seen a video where they analysed his vocal tans on the song ‘Temptation’ and they proved with his high screams and deep baritone, his range was close to 6 octaves.
Gotta do some Prince joints that he did for his side-project bands: Vanity 6 "Nasty Girl", The Time "Cool", Sheila E. "A Love Bizarre", Jill Jones "G-Spot", The Family "Screams of Passion", Madhouse "Six". Don't sleep on it!
This song among other early prince songs are too out of the loop and nothing like u have heard before and suddenly they grow on u..U hear these songs in your sleep. And once they grow on you the keep growing because u won't hear jack shit like it anywhere else..Imagine listening to John Denver's "Thank God Im A Country Boy" and then this song comes on lol..Thats what made Prince an Underground King fellas.U hear all other songs on the radio with the same style and music and then Controversy,1999,Little Red Corvette,Sexuality,Soft and Wet(His 1st song released and the one that his female guitar player,Wendy,said that she was in a club in L.A. and heard this song and she and her friends ran up to the DJ and said,"We loved that last song,who is that girl and can you play it again? And the DJ looked at them and said,it's not a girl,it's a guy and his name is Prince.. That story reminds me of the part in Prince's song,"My Name Is Prince" where is says,"WIthout a pistol,without a gun,when u hear my music,you'll be having fun,THATS WHEN I GOT CHA',THATS WHEN U MINE" LOL..So true,once u heard his shit,he got you.. One more story about Controversy.. One of u guys said when u first heard it that u didn't like it much but the more u did u liked it..Thats exactly what Martha Stewart one to 1st VeeJay's of MTV in the 80's said..She said she had the Long 12inch version of Controversy and would play it over and over and over and over again..Thinking about it now is weird but...also lets u know that if u were digging his music,u were ahead of the game with tons of other peeps..
NO AUTO TUNE!!!! NEVER!!! AND he played all instruments on his albums....His First band was the revolution, Then New Power Generation..... He also was the vary first Artis to get complete control in a major studio Water Brother AT 17 YEARS OLD THANK YOU
Men started that rumor about Prince being gay.😂😂😂Prince was very much straight…just research his sexual prowess from Madonna to Shelia E, Sheena Easton, rumors about Stevie Nicks stalking him…Nona Gaye, Carmen Electra, Jill Jones, Vanity…he was in a 10 year relationship and marriage with Mayte Garcia, then married Manuela Testilloni…many, many, many more I haven’t mentioned…the man was a BEAST😂
Purple Rain Concert Tour 1984/1985. Two-hour show. Long encore. Find it here on UA-cam. “I Would Die 4 U / Baby I’m A Star.” Any questions about how much he danced shall be forever put to rest. Keep in mind: it was an **encore** after a 2-hour show. Prince vs Michael Jackson is a false dichotomy; the world is big enough for both of them! They were both brilliant artists; they were fundamentally different artists. Don’t fall for that one-or-the-other stupidity. I was a tween and a teen when they were in their golden days. Lots of us loved both of them. THE 80s WILL NEVER DIE.
Early Prince and his talent was clear from the get. The man just simply made awesome music and this song is a banger. Even at this early stage he wrote the music and played all of the instruments. He did it his way. Prince promoted the idea of fluidity sexually for a very long time. Androgyny was a big part of his schtick but more importantly he made it very obvious that acceptance was crucial regardless of your sexuality and gender. The symbol that he became was both a male/female symbol. His band members were straight & gay. All of that was not important to him. He wanted talented people who could play and that is what mattered to him. The Revolution was formed in 1979 as his live band but they did not become involved in studio albums until Purple Rain. You see some of the Purple Rain band members in the video - Lisa (keys), Dr. Fink (keys), Brownmark (bass). Guitarist, Dez Dickerson played until 1983 and was replaced by Wendy Melvoin in the Revolution. Those listed besides Dez were the first members of the Revolution to play on studio albums. Before that it was all Prince. This song was around 1981/82.
Well said! Just wanted to add, that the basist that you see in the Controversy video is actually André Cymone, Prince‘s best friend, and his first bassist before getting replaced, about a year after this album came out, by Mark Brown (a.k.a. “Brownmark”).
Check out the center of the album cover of 1999. Notice “The Revolution” written backwards. As a 40+ year superfan, I always love to point that out. ;)
Too bad this isn't the full version of Controversy, but I know you want songs with videos to watch. Prince has always been straight, not gay. Certainly androgynous and fruity at times, tho'. LOL. The Revolution was his band at the time, but Prince pretty much did EVERYTHING by himself in the studio.
There was no auto time then. People just had talent
The androgynous thing was big in the 80’s. Believe me, Prince was super heterosexual. I’ve heard several stories saying that even surrounded by 6ft odd bodyguards he was the manliest guy in the room! With this song he’s just addressing what had been written in the media about him. That’s how he answered his critics, in the music. He didn’t even give a proper tv interview until 1986 … 7 years into his career. He didn’t like talking about himself and was quite shy underneath the confident image. He used to say, if you want to know who I am, listen to the music. That is so true, he was a very honest and clever song writer! If you listen to his lyrics over his 40 year career you will understand who he was as a man … and an exceptional one at that!
Prince LOVED women!!!! Look at his history. He’s been linked with some of the most beautiful women in the world and has been married twice. Not sure what went on behind closed doors but I’ve never heard about him being coupled up with any men.
Auto tune didn’t exist in 1982! He just used effects on his voice. Prince used guitar effects on keyboard parts and drum tracks. He was truly an innovator. Banging track 💜
Just think how unique he was and his music was when he released them. A lot of what he did was controversial and looking back he was just being his authentic self, he didn’t make himself PG like most other artists, he was way ahead of his time with what he would speak about in interviews, an intelligent and extremely talented man (who loved women)
Prince played all the instruments, sang all the vocals pretty much, wrote, arranged, composed and produced his first 5 albums on his own. Only him and an engineer in the studio!
Keep in mind there was no autotune back then, he used a special effect when he recorded the voice track, he also played all the instruments, wrote, arranged, composed and produced for all the songs in most of his albums.
Prince’s sexuality was in question for literally decades, although women were usually so enamored by him that we tended not to care, or spend much time speculating, lol.
Judging by his clothes, make up, and sometimes his mannerisms, Prince often came off as being perceivably gay or bi (“gender fluid” was not a known term Back in the 1980s, to my knowledge), But as others have pointed out, Prince had been known, since early in his career for having almost an animal magnetism with females. He became well known for always having gorgeous women on his arm, and beautiful female dancers on stage with him-one whom he married. And according to people who knew him going back to his high school days, and worked many years with him , Prince was always very attracted to females.
I think it was former band member Morris Hayes Who said in an interview how Prince on occasion was saved from a potential beat down after attempting to steal another man’s girlfriend . Hence, the Long, running, mythic status of Prince, being a man who could wear your girlfriends clothes, hairstyle and make up and STILL take her from you. 🎸
Keep in mind this is the single edit of the song. The album version is 7 minutes long and there’s more to it. This song is in response to people at the time not knowing what to make of Prince. Was he black or white? Was he straight or gay? Prince was an enigma and this was his response to them. Prince wore provocative clothes, flirted with sexual ambiguity, and just generally pushed boundaries and didn’t care about fitting into neat boxes, so people had questions. But to answer your question, Prince was very much straight. But he definitely liked to get people talking and didn’t care what they thought. Definitely try to check out the full album version of this song. Some of his songs they made single edits to that completely cut out huge parts of the song. I Wanna Be Your Lover is another one, the single edit cuts out the killer instrumental second half of the song. In this song they cut out something that was definitely provocative where he recites the Lord’s Prayer, and then goes into a long outro part where he repeats the line “People call me rude, I wish we all were nude, I wish there was no black and white, I wish there was no rules.” Rules? Prince broke them all the time.
The first 5 albums that Prince released were absolutely timeless. He was doing something remarkable that no one else would. He was becoming a legendary artist that everyone nowadays try to recreate. He had a complete style of his own, either in the studio or live on stage. By the way, everything musically was organic and not digitized. There was no such thing as “Autotune”. Thank you for posting this and keep up the great work that you guys are doing.
Purple Rain was his 6th album. Sign his 9th. He had a 19 album run IMO. For You through Emancipation. Nobody has anything like that. Not even the great Stevie Wonder. Chaos and Disorder was a throwaway to settle a record contract and still was probably one of the best rock albums of the year.
Emancipation a master class in genre diversity and musicianship.
But yes the run between 1979 and 1988 is pretty much perfection.
Straight, he liked confusing people about his sexuality.
Y’all really need to listen to some of his live stuff. You have to see that to appreciate Prince. He was the whole package❤❤
Cool - - this one must've just got released. And re. the song line "am I straight or gay." Yeah, it was hard to tell, but Prince was literally the _Opposite_ of gay! (heels and makeup notwithstanding).
In fact as a teen his dad had to finally kick him out of the house, because he kept sneaking girls into the house after hours. Which was against the rules.
No problem though, he just went down the block, to move in with the family of his friend and bandmate, Andre. (But Andre's mom was even more strict though, so no more sneakylinks for him ! At least not There.) And he still remained close with dad.
btw, this was the shorter radio version. but there's a whole 1/3 of the song to go. Which might blow your minds. And also shows why it's called 'Controversy.' ( Especially today, 40+ yrs later)
You have!! to check out his live performances… 💜 one of my favorites is Forever in my life and Motherless Child…
Three members of the Revolution played on this album (also called Controversy) but they weren't "officially" the Revolution yet
Prince had a 4- to 5-octave vocal range. Not sure why you’re thinking this is auto tuned. I don’t believe there’s any effects on his voice other than that his vocals are layered tracks. But singers and bands have layered their vocals going back at least to the 1970s. It was not an uncommon practice.
As others have said, there was no autotune in the 1980s This song came out in 1981 and autotune wasn’t really a thing until… like 15-20 years later. Maybe the mid to late 90s , or later? 🤔
@@leeharrison8222 I have seen a video where they analysed his vocal tans on the song ‘Temptation’ and they proved with his high screams and deep baritone, his range was close to 6 octaves.
This sounds different because this was early Prince.You two dudes weren’t even born yet when this came out.
Another favorite Prince song
Love it
Prince and the New Power Generation were a great combo
You should react to the album version of this song because it's an extended version with the Lord's Prayer and the chant.
Gotta do some Prince joints that he did for his side-project bands: Vanity 6 "Nasty Girl", The Time "Cool", Sheila E. "A Love Bizarre", Jill Jones "G-Spot", The Family "Screams of Passion", Madhouse "Six". Don't sleep on it!
This song among other early prince songs are too out of the loop and nothing like u have heard before and suddenly they grow on u..U hear these songs in your sleep. And once they grow on you the keep growing because u won't hear jack shit like it anywhere else..Imagine listening to John Denver's "Thank God Im A Country Boy" and then this song comes on lol..Thats what made Prince an Underground King fellas.U hear all other songs on the radio with the same style and music and then Controversy,1999,Little Red Corvette,Sexuality,Soft and Wet(His 1st song released and the one that his female guitar player,Wendy,said that she was in a club in L.A. and heard this song and she and her friends ran up to the DJ and said,"We loved that last song,who is that girl and can you play it again? And the DJ looked at them and said,it's not a girl,it's a guy and his name is Prince.. That story reminds me of the part in Prince's song,"My Name Is Prince" where is says,"WIthout a pistol,without a gun,when u hear my music,you'll be having fun,THATS WHEN I GOT CHA',THATS WHEN U MINE" LOL..So true,once u heard his shit,he got you..
One more story about Controversy..
One of u guys said when u first heard it that u didn't like it much but the more u did u liked it..Thats exactly what Martha Stewart one to 1st VeeJay's of MTV in the 80's said..She said she had the Long 12inch version of Controversy and would play it over and over and over and over again..Thinking about it now is weird but...also lets u know that if u were digging his music,u were ahead of the game with tons of other peeps..
I ❤ this comment.
I do in fact have an iTunes playlist with both John Denver and Prince. 😊
NO AUTO TUNE!!!! NEVER!!! AND he played all instruments on his albums....His First band was the revolution, Then New Power Generation..... He also was the vary first Artis to get complete control in a major studio Water Brother AT 17 YEARS OLD THANK YOU
Fireeee
Men started that rumor about Prince being gay.😂😂😂Prince was very much straight…just research his sexual prowess from Madonna to Shelia E, Sheena Easton, rumors about Stevie Nicks stalking him…Nona Gaye, Carmen Electra, Jill Jones, Vanity…he was in a 10 year relationship and marriage with Mayte Garcia, then married Manuela Testilloni…many, many, many more I haven’t mentioned…the man was a BEAST😂
Prince had a feminine quality that led to assumptions he lived his life his way as we all should
Google Prince wives and girlfriends and it’ll be hard for anyone to compete with his roster. Calling one of the biggest players ever gay is hilarious
Purple Rain Concert Tour 1984/1985. Two-hour show. Long encore. Find it here on UA-cam. “I Would Die 4 U / Baby I’m A Star.” Any questions about how much he danced shall be forever put to rest.
Keep in mind: it was an **encore** after a 2-hour show.
Prince vs Michael Jackson is a false dichotomy; the world is big enough for both of them!
They were both brilliant artists; they were fundamentally different artists. Don’t fall for that one-or-the-other stupidity. I was a tween and a teen when they were in their golden days. Lots of us loved both of them.
THE 80s WILL NEVER DIE.
Early Prince and his talent was clear from the get. The man just simply made awesome music and this song is a banger. Even at this early stage he wrote the music and played all of the instruments. He did it his way. Prince promoted the idea of fluidity sexually for a very long time. Androgyny was a big part of his schtick but more importantly he made it very obvious that acceptance was crucial regardless of your sexuality and gender. The symbol that he became was both a male/female symbol. His band members were straight & gay. All of that was not important to him. He wanted talented people who could play and that is what mattered to him. The Revolution was formed in 1979 as his live band but they did not become involved in studio albums until Purple Rain. You see some of the Purple Rain band members in the video - Lisa (keys), Dr. Fink (keys), Brownmark (bass). Guitarist, Dez Dickerson played until 1983 and was replaced by Wendy Melvoin in the Revolution. Those listed besides Dez were the first members of the Revolution to play on studio albums. Before that it was all Prince. This song was around 1981/82.
Well said! Just wanted to add, that the basist that you see in the Controversy video is actually André Cymone, Prince‘s best friend, and his first bassist before getting replaced, about a year after this album came out, by Mark Brown (a.k.a. “Brownmark”).
@leeharrison8222 That’s BrownMark in the video. Andre left after Dirty Mind the year earlier.
Check out the center of the album cover of 1999. Notice “The Revolution” written backwards. As a 40+ year superfan, I always love to point that out. ;)
So good🎉
prince in 1981 before the revolution
Auto-tune. I almost slapped the TV.
There's a longer version with the Lord's Prayer. "People call me rude. I wish we all were nude ..."
He loved women. I could always tell it was Prince singing I guess because I grew up listening to him lol
No autotune didn’t exist
he was only like 20
This was his 2nd album..people didn't know what to say..so he sung about..he loved women
Controversy was his 4th album preceded by ‘For You’, ‘Prince’ and ‘Dirty Mind’
Prince, autotune lmao you young kids. Nobody was able to do what this musical genius could do.
Why do people want to know about someone's sex life? That's the climate today. 🙄.
For the record Prince was straight.
u cant be mad look at the way he dress touch grass
STRAIGHT
Too bad this isn't the full version of Controversy, but I know you want songs with videos to watch. Prince has always been straight, not gay. Certainly androgynous and fruity at times, tho'. LOL. The Revolution was his band at the time, but Prince pretty much did EVERYTHING by himself in the studio.