The "Love Symbol" album, also known as Love Symbol, Symbol Album, or Symbol, is the fourteenth studio album by American recording artist Prince, and the second of the 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. 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.

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 which he claimed to have trademarked his given name for promotional purposes).

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.

Background 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 artifact 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.

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 inquires about the Three Chains of Turin was edited from the final sequence provided for mastering and release.

In 1994, Prince released 3 Chains o' Gold, a direct-to-video film that featured songs from the album and a similar storyline.

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. 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."

Track listing

Notes

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

• My Name Is Prince contains a sample of I Wanna Be Your Lover off his second album Prince (1979), Partyup off his third Dirty Mind (1980) and Controversy off his fourth Controversy (1981). 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.

"Intro" "My Name Is Prince" "Sexy MF" "Segue" "Love 2 the 9's" "The Morning Papers" "The Max" "Segue" "Blue Light" "Segue" "Sweet Baby" "Segue" "The Continental" "Damn U" "Segue" "Arrogance" "The Flow" "Segue" "7" "Segue" "And God Created Woman" "3 Chains o' Gold" "Segue" "The Sacrifice of Victor"

Personnel Adapted from Benoît Clerc

Musicians

Prince and The New Power Generation

Prince – lead vocals , rap , spoken vocals , backing vocals , electric guitar , acoustic guitar , electric sitar , bass guitar , synthesizers , piano , drums , programming , finger snapping , percussion , claps , Tambourine , finger cymbals Tony M. – rap , spoken vocals , backing vocals Tommy Barbarella – synthesizers , Hammond organ Michael B. – drums Damon Dickinson – backing vocals , percussion Kirk Johnson – backing vocals , percussion Levi Seacer Jr. – lead vocals , electric guitar Sonny T. – bass guitar Mayte – lead vocals , spoken vocals , backing vocals

Additional musicians

Brian Gallagher – tenor saxophone DJ Graves – scratching Dave Jensen, Steve Strand – trumpet Kathy Jensen – baritone saxophone Michael B. Nelson – trombone Airiq Anest – programming Kirstie Alley – spoken vocals Michael Koppelman – bass guitar , synthesizers Eric Leeds – saxophone Carmen Electra – rap String orchestra Fred Steele, J D Steele, Jearlyn Steele, Jevetta Steele – backing vocals

Technical

Prince – producer Keith Cohen – additional producer, mixing George Black – additional producer David Friedlander – recording engineer Steve Noonan – recording engineer , additional mixing, mastering Ray Hahnfedt, Brian Poer – recording engineers , additional mixing Michael Koppelman – recording engineer , mixing Peter Arata – recording engineer Larry Mahn – recording engineer Airiq Anest, Dave Aron, Steve Durkee – assistant recording engineers , additional mixing Tom Garneau, Bob Rosa, Steve Beltran – mixing Brian Gardner – mastering Clare Fischer – string arrangements

Publishing All songs published by Controversy Music/WB Music Corp.; except: Track 1 (Copyright NPG Music/Michael Anthony Music), track 15 (NPG Music) Track 12 (Controversy Music/WB Music Corp; contains a sample of "I Know You Got Soul" by Eric B. & Rakim which is published by Songs of Polygram International Inc./Robert Hill Music; contains a sample of "Jazz It Up" originally by C.F.M. Band and also a sample of "Niggaz 4 Life" by N.W.A; copyright Ruthless Attack Muzik/Sony Songs/Bridgeport Music). Track 14 published by Controversy Music; additional publishing by Powerforce Music/Budget Music; sample of "Tramp" by Lowell Fulson published by Blues Interactions, Inc.

Singles "Sexy MF" maxi-single (No.66 US, No. 76 US R&B, No. 4 UK) "My Name Is Prince" maxi-single (No. 36 US, No. 25 US R&B, No. 7 UK) "7" maxi-single (No. 7 US, No. 3 US R&B, No. 27 UK) "Damn U" (No. 105 US, No. 32 US R&B) "The Morning Papers" maxi-single (No. 44 US, No. 8 US R&B, No. 52 UK)

Charts +Weekly chart performance for Love Symbol Chart (1992) Peak position Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) 8Spanish Albums (AFYVE)5

Certifications and sales

Notes

References

External links Love Symbol at Discogs Revisiting the Love Symbol Album after 25 years at MTV