Sold Date: September 21, 2022
Start Date: September 14, 2022
Final Price: $35.00 (USD)
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ARTIST: Prince 
TITLE: Controversy 
YEAR: 1981
LABEL: WB
CONDITION:  Sleeve is in Shrink and EX / Vinyl is EX - a truly beautiful copy - I hesitate to call anything Near Mint these days but this is dang close.
DETAILS: Comes w/ Poster - Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, etched/stamped): B-16192-REI-S2 BSK-1-3601-(RE-I)-S2 + SLM ++ △ 9̶6̶4̶-̶X̶ ̶ 952 Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, etched/stamped): B-16192-S2 BSK-2-3601-S2 + SLM + △ 952-X

Released on October 14, 1981, Controversy became a conveniently radical rejoinder to that incident, one of the most famous moments in early Prince history. If the L.A. Coliseum crowd’s violent repulsion of him brought to the surface the racism, sexism (because, don’t forget, longtime keyboardist Lisa Coleman was touring with him at that point, too), and homophobia coursing through rock culture, Controversy was another one of Prince’s defiant declarations that his revolution was not deterred, that it was still fully under way and on its way in spite of racist rock culture’s resistance to it.

Controversy is often thought of as the bridge between Prince’s pathbreaking Dirty Mind and the epic, new-world-making 1999. But it was released during one of the most consequential social, political, and cultural years of the U.S. 1980s for people living in the margins of America—people of color, women, queer folk, poor folk. And the fact that Prince, louder than most all of his peers, was continuing to call, on this record, for collective social and cultural revolt through and by way of his music makes it one of the most important album releases of 1981.

No one was combining the carnal with collective social resistance and political critique as overtly and as imaginatively and along the axes of race, gender, and sexuality as Prince all throughout his three-decade plus career, and especially on this record. As he had on his previous releases, he assumed the role of the pan-musician on Controversy, having a hand on nearly every instrument but also calling on Coleman for backing vocals (on the album’s title track, and “Ronnie, Talk to Russia” and “Jack U Off”). Fellow future members of his band the , Dr. Fink and Bobby Z. would supply keyboards (as did Coleman) and drums, respectively on the closing track, “Jack U Off.”

A seven-minute dance epic unto itself, “Controversy” is comprised of many moving parts: oft-cited anti-confessional lyrics (“Am I black or white/ Am I straight or gay…”), vocals that swing between the spoken and the sung, an oscillation between concern for the “I,” the “you,” and the “we,” the Princely melding of the high spiritual (including a recitation of The Lord’s Prayer) and the suggestion of the profane (“I wish we all were nude…”), the dream of no boundaries (“I wish there were no black and white/ I wish there were no rules…”). It’s a song about a longing to be emancipated from our most wretched and oppressive inhibitions and biases, and as Prince climbs a register and takes us to the gripping bridge (“Some people want to die/ So they can be free”), we hear the suggestion of other places where we might go with him.