Chaos And Disorder Prince album

Warner Bros. Records

I was bitter before, but now I’ve washed my face.

The liner notes reveal the state of Prince’s relationship with Warner Bros Records in 1996, that Chaos And Disorder was created for demo purposes only. Although most of the tracks originate from earlier sessions, the material was reworked at Paisley Park in early 1996 to pass to Warner what would form the penultimate submission of master recordings in the six albums demanded by the $100 million contract the parties signed back on 31 August 1992 – a fact made abundantly clear in the one-line note on the cover.

The title track, Right The Wrong and Zannalee are the oldest on the album, recorded at Paisley Park Studios with the original lineup of the NPG in 1993, followed by Dinner With Delores in 1995. These were later re-worked at South Beach Studios in Miami during April 1996. I Like It There and The Same December were recorded at Paisley Park in 1994 straight after Prince’s sessions for The Gold Experience. The remainder of the tracks were completed throughout February and March 1996, to comprise the final batch of original material to be given to Warner to fulfil the terms of the contract.

The emotive and highly charged tone of the album was driven by the embittered and very public dispute Prince was embroiled with Warner Brothers, ongoing since 1993 over their continued ownership of his catalogue. Credited to The Artist Formally Known As Prince ( Prince Love Symbol), he offered minimal help to promote Chaos And Disorder. Promotion was brief, launched with a performance of Dinner With Delores on The Late Show With David Letterman on 8 July 1996 on the eve of the album’s release. It would be Prince’s final public appearance with SLAVE pencilled on his face, and his first showcasing the completely refreshed lineup of the NPG. The Prince and band next performed the song for NBC’s The Today Show the following morning at the Rockefeller Center, New York, on the day of the record’s commercial release. The two TV appearances was the sum of Prince’s promotion of the album.

1996 was a busy year for Prince releases: Chaos And Disorder following only a matter of nine months his much delayed preceding album The Gold Experience and only three months ahead of the Girl 6 compilation. Consequently, sales of Chaos And Disorder were muted, appealing predominately to fans the album retailed just 450,000 units worldwide. Prince took delight seeing Warner unable to profit from the release, but despite its low key promotion Chaos And Disorder reached the Billboard top 40 to peak at 26. Meeting greater success in the UK it charted at number 14, making it at that point Prince’s least successful album of his career. Yet, comprising his rawest work it is unjustly undervalued in result. Flanked by Come, The Gold Experience and Emancipation, the mid 1990s produced an exceptionally fertile period in Prince’s output and Chaos And Disorder is no exception. Chaos And Disorder wields an overriding sense of abandonment that highlights his unpredictability, lurching from country to grunge, hip hop to rock.

Promotion was lacklustre as neither party seemed willing to help it. With only one supporting single, Dinner With Delores broke with normality on two accounts: first, that for a musician whose B-sides were legendary, Dinner With Delores was backed with two other tracks available on the album: Had U and Right The Wrong – and both of them being digs at Warner Bros – it scraped into the UK top-40. It was not released at all in the US. Second, this solitary single marked the Prince’s departure from the single as a marketing format. Post Warner Bros, his singles did not enter the Billboard top-50 ever again.

The song Dinner With Delores is supposedly a swipe at C. Delores Tucker (1927-2005), civil rights campaigner who in 1993 outraged the hip hop community by launching spirited one-woman crusade against the prevalence of explicit lyrics in gangster rap music. She was unsuccessful. I Rock, Therefore I Am reunites Prince with Rosie Gaines who quit the NPG in 1992 after the Diamonds And Pearls Tour. Gaines remained on a retainer clause with Prince and was invited to sing on this March 1996 track, accompanied by Minnesota rap hopefuls Steppa Ranks and Scrap D.

Cover story

The cover art of Chaos And Disorder is brimming with symbolism, a collage rendered on computer by Prince’s art director Steve Parke. Compiled from a collection of Xeroxed Polaroids to create a hard hitting image chiming with the album’s concept at highlighting Prince’s embittered dispute with his record label Warner Brothers, in which the release was purely to fulfil contractual obligations. The collage shows Prince’s 1999 LP crushed underfoot, with his teary eye at the centre of the record portraying the awful state of the relationship between him and the label. The inside booklet contains photos of his awards and the door of his vault at Paisley Park. There is also a hypodermic syringe filled with a rolled up dollar bill spouting blood, and toilet bowel containing a heart and a bible about to be burned. The artwork leaves little room for interpretation on Prince’s sentiment at the time.

2019 reissue

Chaos And Disorder was reissued under Sony Legacy Recordings on 13 September 2019 occasioning the album to re-enter the Billboard chart, at number 62. It was the album’s first publication in vinyl format.

Performers

Vocals/Guitar

Prince Love Symbol

Drums

Michael Bland

Keyboards

Tommy Barbarella

Morris Hayes

Bass Guitar

Sonny Thompson

Baritone sax

Kathy Jensen ^{Right The Wrong, I Rock, Therefore I Am, Into The Light and I Will}

Trumpet

Dave Jensen ^{Right The Wrong, I Rock, Therefore I Am, Into The Light and I Will}

Steve Strand ^{Right The Wrong, I Rock, Therefore I Am, Into The Light and I Will}

Tenor sax

Brian Gallagher ^{Right The Wrong, I Rock, Therefore I Am, Into The Light and I Will}

Data

Producer

Prince Love Symbol

Label

Warner Bros. Records

Distribution

Warner Bros. Records

Cover/Design

Steve Parke

Released

30 years ago on 9 July 1996

Reissued

13 September 2019

Running Time

39:09

US Chart Peak

26

UK Chart Peak

14

Prince Album

#18

Orig. Formats

Singles from Chaos And Disorder

Dinner With Delores

Warner Bros. Records

Released

12 June 1996

Distribution

WEA Records

US Chart Peak

No Release

UK Chart Peak

36

Cover/Art

Jeff Katz

Formats

1. Dinner With Delores (2:46)
2. Had U (1:27)
3. Right The Wrong (4:40)