Prince’s Path to ‘Sign O’ the Times,’ Told by His Musicians, His Fiancee and His Longtime Engineer
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe starmaking “Purple Rain” may have been Prince’s most commercially successful album, but if fans have to pick a favorite, for many it’s “Sign O’ the Times,” his sprawling, wildly diverse 1987 double album that combines R&B, pop, rock, ballads, gospels across its 80 minutes in a dazzling display of his creativity and imagination.Yet the album was created amid dramatic personal and professional turmoil — and by the end of the year, when Prince had finished the touring behind the album and was well into his next project, he’d parted ways with the Revolution, the band that rode with him to stardom and became stars in their own right; his fiancée, Susannah Melvoin (twin sister of Revolution guitarist Wendy); and