prince

cf. "when the dawn of the morning comes"

I just started listening to it. Skimmed the main album a bit to see if it sounded different, realised I wasn't actually bothered, then went straight to the vault discs

I'm listening to witness, thinking prince was such a studio rat, the ultimate studio rat maybe, then thinking fuck, he recorded all THIS, maybe out of fear it might not come to him in such volume again, or whatever, and he died in his own studio, which by that point, was also his house. He deserved better.

Lol never mind that. Thank god this 60s version of big tall wall never came out. Wendy and lisa were often good influences, but sometimes they deserve blame.

i am not really a "big tall wall" fan in general

thinking fuck, he recorded all THIS, maybe out of fear it might not come to him in such volume again, or whatever

not news to anyone obv, but I've been retagging this into the various albums he intended to release, for a listening exercise (downloading "missing" tracks for Camille and from the Crystal Ball compilation, etc) and:

basically between March -> July 1986 he wrote & recorded three versions of the Dream Factory album, ending up with a 1hr 24 double LP
and 30 minutes of songs dropped from early cuts of the album

in six weeks from mid-September 1986, but mostly in a few days, he conceived & recorded the 42min Camille album
(and wrote and recorded most of The Black Album)

across a few sessions, in five months of late '86, he writes and records another 44min of new stuff for the Crystal Ball triple LP (inc. one song for Sign O' The Times when Warners reject the triple)

from less than 13 months across December 1985 to Jan '87, there's two hours of unreleased songs* written and recorded (I'm quarantining the alt. Big Tall Wall and Dorothy Parker here for listening btw)

the box also includes a CDs-worth of worthwhile alternate takes and mixes (I'm adding the Mavis Staples Train and subscription club live Rebirth and Strange Relationship to push this to 81 mins)

...and the box generously remasters half an hour of unnecessary 7" edits for posterity's sake too.



*plus another hour or so of finished songs that the archivist & team whittled away as being lesser!

it's exhausting just thinking of listening to all this in album context, let alone writing and recording it

tl;dr

Or more like tl;dl amirite

Feel like I read the story of the three other unfinished albums a few times after he died and sort of grasped it for a while but now my head is exploding like a Paisley Piñata.

fucking hell

his output even crazier than i thought it was when it’s put into context like that

(looks like his only writing for other artists in 1986 was three songs for/with Brownmark's band Mazarati, plus the Bangles recording 1984-written Manic Monday)

and Miles Davis, no? "Can I Play with U?"

there was a lot of writing intended for other artists. "emotional pump" is, hilariously, a song for joni mitchell to sing. most of the songs he reportedly wrote for bonnie raitt are here xp

yeah, iirc four of the unreleased songs on the box were for Bonnie Raitt, and mostly rejected for being too horny

true that Can I Play With U was for/with Miles, I was just looking for any stuff additional to this release

and Miles Davis, no? "Can I Play with U?"

I thought Mitchell had made up "Emotional Pump." I wish she had sung, say, "Power Fantastic," arranged and written in her style.

Then after Miles died they requested Prince sweeten it up along with some other tracks for Doo-Bop but he turned them down.

i love "emotional pump" so so so much tbh, it's so slinky

yep

sharhp horn arrangement too

*sharp

four of the tracks were recorded for Bonnie Raitt in these versions, but had all been written for other acts:

I Need A Man and Jealous Girl were recorded in 1981 as The Hookers, and not overdubbed with Vanity vocals when that band turned into Vanity 6

Jealous Girl was re-recorded in 1985 for, and rejected by, The Bangles - this version was spruced and saxed up for Bonnie Raitt

There's Something I Like About Being Your Fool was also recorded in 1981, and mixed in the Controversy mix sessions but not used. He also offered it to Jill Jones in 1985

Promise To Be True was recorded in 1983 for Vanity 6's non--existent second album.

All those tracks feature first-person female protagonist too.

lol yes they all have alternate lives in the prince catalog xp

Just read that that was supposed to be on Tutu but Prince and Miles were not happy with it so Prince asked Warner Bros. to take it off.

It sounds a lot like what Miles did on Amandla. So clearly even if the track didn't work, the general aesthetic absolutely did.

Was the jill jones album recorded in 86?

Yep, but more of it in 1985: http://www.princevault.com/index.php?title=Album:_Jill_Jones
So I'll be the jerk: what would you cut from SoTT? For me, a few easy choices: "It", "Hot Thing" and "U Got the Look" (I know, but it grates).

Delete from SOTT or the crystal ball triple?

Sott I think is a brilliant set of songs but not a great album (the triple I think would have been even more unwieldy). It doesn't really hang that well (better to listen in vinyl sides, in short 3 song sequences) That's an issue with a lot of prince albums, as he used multiple aesthetics, didnt care much for cohesion, just song quality, but its more pronounced here. I like the camille album as a concept and just as a tight, super funky album so I'd delete all those songs from sott.

Good point, I have to make myself a playlist of that. All the tracks are out now, right?

Most of it's on the box - for my compiled version I nicked the full-length Feel U Up ("Long Stroke") from the Partyman single, the original Good Love from Bright Lights, Big City OST, Rockhard In A Funky Place from The Black Album, and used the full-length ("Extended," but actually the original) Shockadelica.

Thinking of princes funk out put in this period, I think 87 is a cut off point for his funkiest songs. Housequake, rebirth..., not only did these songs kinda mark and end his 80s funk style (chicken scratch rhythm guitar mainly), but he started channelling JB or more traditional funk lyrics on say, rebirth, or housequake, that p funk ish sort of self reflexive lyric writing I think, writing about being the baddest rather than anything else. Then he would get more openly JB derivative on sexy mf of course, then the work, and musicology (all lousy IMO). Theres also the use of horns. I mean, his horns during this period were generally great, but it does seem like he was inching towards a more traditional, or more expansive setup compared to say, head or lady cab driver. Then again, he was still using drum machines so obv he wasnt going retro, but it was obv more drawing from earlier influences.

Those little passages of funky guitar at the start of the raspberry beret and u got the look videos are two of his all time funkiest teasers

Going back to the box set, why is Dave Chappelle in this thing? Did they think Chappelle show fans would buy it?! The book is more notable for being so huge and heavy than what's really in it (not to downplay the essays, they're good, but I dont much like essays in my box sets, I just like liner notes like what Alan Leeds did in the hits compilations). A nice paperback would have been more practical.

Also I wonder how many units these re releases sell....

He wrote a few things for Miles D.
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1114-inside-miles-davis-prince-obsession-as-detailed-by-davis-family-and-collaborators/

Also - the horn charts alone on Lovesexy make that album a constantly fascinating listen. Incredible considering the short gestation time for the album. It's the peak for me of Prince's musical interplay with his horn players.

The drum machine rework of big tall wall is stone cold classic.

If you like creepy, obsessive prince that is. Which this era is lacking.

Lovesexy has always felt like Prince's most blatantly funky album. I mean, you mention chicken scratch guitars and instantly I think of Alphabet Street.

uh, Controversy would like a word

https://www.princevault.com/index.php?title=Can_I_Play_With_U%3F
This also lists the other three songs that Prince wrote for Miles and what became of them.

Lovesexy has always felt like Prince's most blatantly funky album. I mean, you mention chicken scratch guitars and instantly I think of Alphabet Street.

― Just a few slices of apple, Servant. Thank you. How delicious. (stevie), Monday, September 28, 2020 6:31 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

v cherished memory of putting on Eye No at a party of cartoonist nerds c. 1993 upon which it instantly turned into a crazy dance party

(at j4s0n Lut3s' house - this detail for sic)

My favorite thing about Lovesexy is when a friend put it on a college dive bar jukebox, got the whole album for the cost of one play (to the consternation of everyone else in there, especially those who were trying to get the next tune).

hahaa of course

So I'll be the jerk: what would you cut from SoTT? For me, a few easy choices: "It", "Hot Thing" and "U Got the Look" (I know, but it grates).

― assert (MatthewK), Sunday, September 27, 2020 9:33 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

can't believe this is easy for you, especially "hot thing"

i'm the only person in the world whose favorite song on sott is "it" though

my hot take (which probably isn't so hot) is that the og "strange relationship" with wendy and lisa >>> album version, and that's probably the only adjustment i'd make to sott, which is otherwise perfectly pared down. i actually think it works really well as a sequence, but i'm not sure how much that's due to the movie, which works very hard to create a visual universe where these sounds can coexist (the melted art-deco city edifices and neon signs in the stage setup, modeled after the guys and dolls backdrop on the album cover)

well i also wish "all my dreams" were on an official prince album, but sott is not that one. maybe it would've happened had prince and wendy and lisa actually picked up roadhouse garden again in the late '90s/early '00s