Savoy Records: Sign O The Times

Sign “O” The Times

PJ Proby with
the Savoy Kropotkin Orchestra

1989

Savoy Schopenhauer Production

PJS7

12"

A 45rpm

Sign O The Times
(Prince)

B 45rpm

Son Of Niki Hoeky
(Smith)

Recorded in the UK at Suite 16, Rochdale, and The Pink Studio, Liverpool.

Sign O The Times available on the Savoy Sessions and Savoy Wars CDs

• See the Orders page for vinyl purchase details.

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Record label texts:

England, in the abstract, will never forget PJ Proby, dying in the Year of our Lord, 1990.

"We watch things pass by in order to forget that they are watching us die."

Bousquette

Savoy fear no man (or woman). Straight up to Prince and a knockout blow with the first punch. Long before Tom Jones / Art of Noise did Kiss and before Simple Minds even thought of covering Sign O the Times, Savoy commissioned Herr Proby to do his campest on the Minneapolis Midget's finest hour.

"Proby looks like Dennis Hopper coming up for air in Blue Velvet, only twice as crazy. This cover of the Purple Imp's classic is packed with an equal viciousness. Imagine a castrato Tom Jones with napalm on his knees singing for his very life and you have an inkling of what's going through Proby's mind as he wades waist-deep in gore through the Tim Buckley-style orchestration.

This is the sound of a man who's at home with adversity and this is his idea of fun. 'Don't you know you've been messing with my mind', the sexy backing singers trill as Proby relaxes in his oxygen tent. Frighteningly brilliant."

SAM KING, Sounds

"More deconstructed classics from those funny people at Savoy Records in Manchester. Is PJ Proby the real Johnny Angelo? Only Nik Cohn knows."

THE FACE

(Sign O the Times was subsequently listed as one of
The Face's Singles of the Year for 1989)

"Destined to remain on the margins of pop mythology, PJ has obviously decided that satire is the best form of marketing. Brilliant."

i-D

"This is a great record. Proby, the mystic weirdman of rock, croaks, croons and samples his way through the famous Prince number, backed by the Savoy Kropotkin Orchestra. Strange, haunting and very good."

BRETT EWINS, Deadline

The legend takes on Prince over a super rhythm arrangement and pisses all over the critics who say he's a has-been. The man has a unique voice and the song becomes his own property. For the flip he does a resurrection shuffle on Niki Hoeky a real swamp thang that rocks like hell. It has pulverising gtr and living proof that the man still shines. PJ's ''80s recordings for Savoy are more valuable than most of you skunks will realise right now. Miss it and it's your loss.

TREVOR FAULL, Outlet

"And talking of arrogance—this Prince cover is surprisingly energetic, with the loudest production I've heard in a long time."

PETER DOHERTY, Bury Times