Toil and trouble everywhere. Trouble. Trouble. And no peace in sight. They say don’t worry, we gon’ be alright. But we live hand to mouth, no, we survive. Month to month. Day by day. And we pretend. We tell ourselves. God is on our side. He will protect us. If we worship him. If we believe in him. If. If. . .  A big fat if. If only. . .

Drugs are decimating a whole sector of our society. Opioids. Prince wrote us a song. Sung us a prophecy. Said this was all a sign of the times.

Here are four versions. Opening with Prince. He sounds, well, to my ears at least, his version is the least exciting.

Chaka Khan starts off mechanical, even a bit flat, but by the last couple of minutes she turns it on. Well, you know Chaka can shout. And, boy, does she ever. Her version includes a lot of trademark devices plus a bunch of voice overdubs. By turns, both ecstatic and extravagant. And also unalterably optimistic; “don’t you know we can change the world”!

But then we turn to Nina who starts off reciting the poetry of the song with a quite unnerving flatness to her enunciation. But somewhere towards the middle, Nina shifts into orchestral overdrive delivering both the emotion and the improvisation. And preaches a stirring anti-drug message. By the end its trance inducing. Damn near spiritual. After all, it’s Nina.

And we close with my favorite (Afro)German, Joy Denalane, working with a combo: two percussionists, guitar and bass. It’s jazzy. It’s funky. It’s an acoustic bomb, performed live before an audience. Makes you know Joy is simultaneously joyful and insightful.

There something to like in each version. But then, the variety. The diversity. That too, is a sign of the times.