Prince and The New Power Generation (October 13 1992) Love Symbol - Album

The Love Symbol Album (commonly known as the Symbol Album) is Prince’s fourteenth studio album and the second to feature his backing band The New Power Generation. Released in October 1992, it was conceived as a conceptual “fantasy rock soap opera” with a narrative involving an Egyptian princess, a rock star, and the sacred 3 Chains o’ Gold.

RELEASE DETAILS

Artist: Prince and The New Power Generation

Label: Paisley Park / Warner Bros. Records

Date: October 13, 1992

Catalogue: 9 45037-1

Format: 2×LP (Double Vinyl)

Country: United States (worldwide release)

THE STORY

The album blends R&B, funk, pop, rock, soul, and hip hop. It tells the story of an Egyptian Princess (Mayte Garcia) who falls in love with a rock star (Prince) and entrusts him with the sacred 3 Chains o’ Gold after escaping assassins. The official title is the unpronounceable Love Symbol #2, which Prince later adopted as his stage name.

CONTEXT & NOTES

Following the success of Diamonds and Pearls, Prince delivered this ambitious conceptual project. Early configurations included more spoken segues (some featuring Kirstie Alley), many of which were cut to fit “I Wanna Melt with U.” The album reached the top 10 in multiple countries and produced several charting singles.

TRACK LISTING (1992 Original 2LP Vinyl)

Side A

A1 My Name Is Prince — 6:37

A2 Sexy M.F. — 5:25

A3 Love 2 The 9's — 5:45

Side B

B1 The Morning Papers — 3:57

B2 The Max — 4:30 B3 Blue Light — 4:38 B4 I Wanna Melt With You — 3:50 B5 Sweet Baby — 4:01

Side C

C1 The Continental — 5:31

C2 Damn U — 4:25

C3 Arrogance — 1:35

C4 The Flow — 2:26

Side D

D1 7 — 5:13

D2 And God Created Woman — 3:18

D3 3 Chains O' Gold — 6:03

D4 The Sacrifice Of Victor — 5:40

PERSONNEL Musicians

• Prince – lead vocals, rap, spoken vocals, backing vocals, electric & acoustic guitar, electric sitar, bass guitar, synthesizers, piano, drums, programming, percussion, claps, tambourine, finger cymbals

• Tony M. – rap, spoken vocals, backing vocals

• Tommy Barbarella – synthesizers, Hammond organ

• Michael B. – drums

• Damon Dickson – 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

Production

• Prince and The New Power Generation – producers, arrangers

• Various engineers including Keith Cohen, Steve Noonan, Michael Koppelman

• Brian Gardner – mastering

• Clare Fischer – string arrangements

PACKAGING HIGHLIGHTS

• Iconic cover featuring the unpronounceable Love Symbol

• Early pressings with embossed gold symbol on jewel case

• Gatefold sleeve with lyrics and credits

CHARTS 

America Country: Chart | Entry Date | Peak Position

USA: Billboard 200 | - | Top 10

USA: Billboard R&B Albums | - | Strong charting

SINGLES RELEASED

• “Sexy MF”

• “My Name Is Prince”

• “7”

• “Damn U”

• “The Morning Papers”

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.