Dalvin

I love his music so much, and I would love to see a 4 or 5 disc set of alot of his best materia, including his B-Sides. I own the 3-Disc set, The Hits/The B-Sides, but that is not enough Prince. Does Warner Brothers own all of the masters, because I heard he said he didn't want to put anything out, because he didn't want there to be any "cussing or negative influence on kids" now that he's a commited Jehovah Witness. Anyone know if this might see the light of day soon?

POWERBOMB

There is a Prince box set of live music. It doesn't look like anything worth the price as most of the songs are unknowns.

Warner does own pratically all of his music from the 80's & 90's, maybe more. But until he becomes a "hit" again I wouldn't hold my breath for a box set from them.

DISC 1:
1.Rainbow Children
2.Muse 2 The Pharoah
3.Xenophobia
4.Extraordinary
5.Mellow
6.1+1+1 Is 3
7.Other Side Of The Pillow
8.Strange Relationship
9.When U Were Mine
10.Avalanche
DISC 2:
1.Family Name
2.Take Me With You
3.Raspberry Beret
4.Everlasting Now, The
5.One Nite Alone...
6.Adore
7.Wanna B Ur Lover
8.Do Me, Baby
9.Condition Of The Heart
10.Diamonds And Pearls
11.Beautiful Ones, The
12.Nothing Compares 2 U
13.Free
14.Starfish & Coffee
15.Sometimes It Snows In April
16.How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore
17.Anna Stesia
DISC 3: IT AIN'T OVER: UP LATE NIGHT WITH THE NPG AFTERPARTY JAM (BONUS DISC)
1.Joy In Repetition
2.We Do This
3.Just Friends (Sunny) / If You Want Me To Stay
4.2 Nigs United 4 West Compton
5.Alphabet Street
6.Peach - (extended jam)
7.Dorothy Parker
8.Girls & Boys
9.Everlasting Now, The - (vamp)

Gdrlv

I love the live box set, actually, and I hadn't heard of most of the tracks on it before I bought it. (I'm a casual Prince fan but a huge fan of live music in general. Few people are as electrifying live as Prince.)

Rogue588

Quote:

Originally posted by Dalvin
I love his music so much, and I would love to see a 4 or 5 disc set of alot of his best materia, including his B-Sides. I own the 3-Disc set, The Hits/The B-Sides, but that is not enough Prince. Does Warner Brothers own all of the masters, because I heard he said he didn't want to put anything out, because he didn't want there to be any "cussing or negative influence on kids" now that he's a commited Jehovah Witness. Anyone know if this might see the light of day soon?

Dalvin, I would truly suggest buying all his albums. Perhaps you could find a set on eBay or something. There is SO MUCH good stuff on 'em. Stuff that wouldn't be considered "hits". Almost all of disc one on the set that POWERBOMB listed, was his last album "the Rainbow Children". While this album was musically impressive [as are most of his albums], the lyrics were very offensive and a complete 180 from what Prince sang about in the past. In fact, IMO that set isn't worth the price NOT because of the "unknown" songs, but:

1. it's not a COMPLETE show..there are songs missing.
2. it concentrates on "the Rainbow Children".

Prince is notorious for recording EVERY.SINGLE.PERFORMANCE. and he [supposedly] has a vault full of unreleased tracks [some BETTER than released stuff]. Being the great businessman that he is, he chooses to ignore BOTH of these potential sources of MAD $$$ and preach Larry's his agenda. It's his life man.

Quote:

Originally posted by Gdrlv
I love the live box set, actually, and I hadn't heard of most of the tracks on it before I bought it. (I'm a casual Prince fan but a huge fan of live music in general. Few people are as electrifying live as Prince.)

THIS, is true. I haven't seen any of his shows recently, but the 11 i've seen have been the best shows i've EVER seen. I don't know how i'd feel about seeing him now...

Not to blow my own horn [I got a girlfriend for that ], but check out this RANT I wrote about Prince a lil while back...

[still waitin' for that big fat wet one grunter ]

DRG

All those 'vault' releases are crap anyway... most of it sounds like it's from the past 10 years or so. There is a load of *great* stuff from the 80's available on crappy, not-so-legal recordings. Why is he holding out on the good stuff? Oh yeah, he's lost his frickin' mind. So sad as I was once insane about trying to collect every single thing he recorded, and now I don't even have the interest to *download* his new stuff.

Dalvin

In music today there a very few people who can actually fill up an entire record of classic material in a Box Set. Frank Sinatra comes to mind, with his beginning Columbia recording, to his classic(and most popular) Capitol recordings. Michael Jackson is another one, who has produced so many hits, its scary, along with Stevie Wonder. My question I have to you is, do you think there will ever be a Prince Box Set in the near future? If so, does Warner Brothers own the masters to the originals or does Prince own them? There are so many classic tunes such as "Sometimes it Snows in April", which features Prince at the Piano, and is an amazing track and "The Beautiful Ones" from "Purple Reign" which never made hits lists, but are still classic songs. Yes, I know there is that Box Set titled, "One Night Live" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=music but what I wanted is a true Studio Box Set. Do You think it will every happen?

Rogue588

Warners owns the masters.

No.

OR...you could just check HERE

Dalvin

Well if Warner's owns the Masters, don't you think they'd want to make some more money, especiaslly coming off a success like "Musiccology"? I know if Prince owned the masters, he wouldn't want cussing on them(i.e. Erotic City, "The Pope" and material from his "Come" album) now that he is a Jehovah's Witness. I would not buy it if it was edited down.

cdollaz

Forget a box set, I just want to know where I can pick up that "Purple Reign" album?

Dalvin

ha ha, I was thinking of Shaq's album. My bad!!!!

DRG

If there were to be a box set, I could imagine it set up something like:

Disc 1: The Beginning
Songs from 'For You', 'Prince', 'Dirty Mind', 'Controversy' era

Disc 2: The Revolution Begins
Songs from '1999' & 'Purple Rain' era (there's enough here to warrant its own disc, IMO, especially when b-sides are taken into consideration)

Disc 3: The Paisley Park Era Begins ('Sign' wasn't the Revolution, but it's something of a capper to that timeframe)
Songs from 'Around the World in a Day', 'Parade', 'Sign O' the Times' era

Disc 4: The Paisley Park Era continues (middle period where he pretty much did everything himself)
Songs from 'The Black Album', 'Lovesexy', 'Batman', 'Graffiti Bridge' era

Disc 5: The NPG Era
Songs from 'Diamonds & Pearls', 'O+>', 'Come' era

Disc 6: The O+> Era Begins
Songs from 'Chaos & Disorder', 'Gold Experience', 'Emancipation', 'New Power Soul' era

Disc 7: ??? (More recent works)
Songs from 'Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic', 'Rainbow Children', 'Musicology' era

I say 'era' after each assuming key b-sides and rarities from each era could be included with the other songs recorded in that timeframe.

I'm tempted to put 'Chaos' on Disc 5 with the NPG stuff, because it fits a bit better stylistically even though it is credited as 'The Artist' (and it's the last of the 'new' Warner albums). Disc 6 would still have 5 discs of material to work with, I suppose. Or 'Rave' could just be added to that disc as a capper to the symbol years, and 'Rainbow' and 'Musicology' could be saved for some later release. I forget, is 'Rainbow' a O+> or Prince release?

TheGregWitul

'Sign 'O' The Times' began as Prince/Revolution, but Prince decided on doing most of the music himself. There are several different combinations of this album, before it became the finished product. 'The Dream Factory' was actually pressed, but Prince decided against releasing it to record more music. 'Crystal Ball' became the next working title, and had Wendy/Lisa on the album (as opposed to being mixed down on certain material when he released the outtakes cd 'Crystal Ball' years later), but material was cut from the album, more songs were recorded, and so on.

The female sounding vocalization that Prince adapts was also meant to spawn an entire album, but once again, Prince never released it.

Going offtrack for a moment, 'Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic' has been around since 1987-1988, and was going to be released as an album around that time, featuring new tracks and a couple great tracks left off of '1999' and 'Purple Rain'.

Back on the subject at hand: Prince eventually combined the re-worked Wendy/Lisa tracks, some of the 'Camille' (The female alias Prince would use throughout his career) material, along with everything he did nearly on his own, as 'SOTT'. Upon release, it was hailed as a masterpiece, and remains the best album Prince released - with 'Purple Rain' right beside it.

A few comments on the posts in this thread: Prince has a ton of b-sides/unreleased material, and while there has been material leaked that isn't the best quality sound wise, there are many awesome tracks that average Prince fans don't know exist. Along with that, the full length mixes of such songs like 'Pop Life' and 'Erotic City' better the official album/single versions, especially 'Pop Life'.

I have a little over two-hundred and sixty Prince bootlegs, which contain all of his leaked studio work, 12 inch mixes, tons of live shows, and so on. When you take the bootlegs with the offical catalog, you come to understand that this man is one of the top three musicians of all-time - regardless of a lot of his lyrical content - because, really, some albums are so powerful musically that the lyrics come second ('1999' being the best example, along with 'The Rainbow Children' which would be even better sans lyrics)...

Really, do yourself a favor and look for Prince's live music. Prince has to be one of the best guitarist of all-time. Perhaps his most famous bootleg would be a show from around '87, where Prince appeared unannounced in a nightclub overseas (He almost always plays aftershows, and before the NPG club deal - and sometimes even now - he will appear unannounced and tear the roof off the joint). The aftershow features some of the greatest and most powerful guitar work ever recorded, it's simply that awesome. Most of the show features Prince going crazy on the guitar - as most of his live aftershows showcase - but this show in particular is extra special. Do yourself a favor and track it down - you will not regret it. I'm not going to break any rules on this forum, in regards to boot trading, as even if it would be allowed, Prince is extra tight about boots and whatnot - so I don't want to cause any problems...

For those of you that made it this far, some info: WB has been working on remastering Prince material, with 'Purple Rain' being one of the key titles. A few things though: WB had a box set lined up that featured all of the music recorded by Miles Davis during his later years. For those that know Miles/Prince, it is common knowledge that Miles and Prince recorded material together. WB has the material, and were set to include it in the box set, as it would be a major selling point (As even the bootleggers don't have the material. There is a lot of boots with material that people claim contain Miles, but most are untrue, or feature Prince's trumpet player, who himself was a bit of a Miles clone at times. There is live material that exists that includes both artists, and it is out there (I have it, hence the claim), and Miles has also covered Prince songs - 'Movie Star' is included in the twenty disc Miles Live box set) to fans of both artists, and would include all of the material Miles recorded during the final stage of his lifetime. Prince balked at the idea, and would not allow his music to be included, so the box was shelved. This was before his newfound success with 'Musicology', though, so Prince may change his views, but don't hold your breath. WB will not license any Prince material (Those Gold discs with remastered sound are independent, and try to license certain artists to release. They tried to contact WB about Prince, and WB said no, and also mentioned working on remasters), and it remains to be seen as to what WB/Prince plan to do with releasing his back catalog in remastered/bonus editions. Look at it this way:

Do you...

1. Go the Brian Eno route and do an 'Original Masters' release that improves on the sound while retaining the essence of the original master, while perhaps including special packaging, but no bonus tracks.

2. Go the Miles Davis route and remaster the albums to give them the best musical quality, while possibly including a bonus track or two at the end of the album. The packaging would include the original album material, along with bonus write-up/pictures. Box sets could be released that contain the whole of certain Prince periods, with more extra music, expanding write-ups, etc.

3. Go the David Bowie/Elvis Costello route and remaster the album with the proper album on disc one, with bonus tracks/single or 12 inch mixes/demos to take up disc two. Bowie has the better packaging, but some of his remastered '30th Anv.' edition sets have fluff material on disc two. This is best looked at on 'Aladdin Sane', which is missing a key demo, and lacks material on the weak bonus disc. Elvis Costello has the better extras, as his second discs are loaded with material. I could see WB wanting to do something in the vein of what Ryko is doing for Costello.

4. The Prince factor: Would the man really censor his material if given the chance to re-release his own music? Is this holding WB back? Prince has the masters for the vast majority of his unreleased music, so Prince would have to give WB the okay to include 'Moonbeam Levels' on '1999' or 'Purple Rain'. I think that right now, all WB could do is remaster the albums/improve the sound and have a fluff piece included in the original booklet - which is why there is no remasted work on the release schedule. WB is probably waiting for the chance to deal with Prince on releasing the album(s) with some kind of bonus material, and no 'self censoring' of any kind (And the man has done it before. The 'Crystal Ball' box set Prince himself released a few years back, is full of tampered songs, that either mixed certain people out of the track, or were altered to form something different. So don't think for a moment that those are 'true' outtakes, or the best Prince has to offer, because it's not).

Prince seems to be opening up, with 2004 being a great year, his marriage making him much happier, his Grammy appearance in 2004 and being a Grammy presentor this year - the possibility is there. And at the very least, he isn't going by a symbol, and raging against everything anymore. So you never know. One can hold hope, though...


j.