Sign o’ the Times, Prince‘s rarely seen 1987 concert film, is coming to Showtime next month. Created as a companion piece to the classic double album of the same name, it hasn’t aired on U.S. television in more than ten years, the channel said in a statement.
Self-directed by Prince (with Purple Rain director Albert Magnoli), Sign o’ the Times includes performances of the title track, “U Got the Look,” “If I Was Your Girlfriend,” “Little Red Corvette,” and a Sheila E. drum solo. It’s the latest piece of the Prince filmography to become widely available after his death, following a number of classic music videos recently posted to YouTube and Vevo.
Though Sign o’ the Times earned positive reviews—Robert Christgau judged it nearly as good as Stop Making Sense, Jonathan Demme’s legendary Talking Heads film—its original theatrical release fizzled. The film was never re-issued on DVD in the U.S; for years, the only ways to watch it were via online rip, foreign DVD, or a surviving copy of the 1991 VHS edition.
Sign o’ the Times airs September 16 at 9 p.m. on Showtime, and comes to on-demand the next day.
