nothingfails

On a whim earlier, I was looking at reviews on Amazon and decided to type in Prince. Outside of the two most recent collections and a few of the poorer catalog sellers (like Come and Symbol), the entire Warner Prince catalog is currently available only via used CD's, even the bigger titles like 1999 and Purple Rain that would never go out of print.

Makes me wonder if this means Warner is planning on releasing remaster editions of his 1978-1994 catalog in the new year. 2008 would make sense since it not only marks Prince's 50th birthday but also 30 years from the release of "For You". Does anyone know if they are working on these or if it's just a mere coincidence and the majority of his albums all sold out at once?

Supermallet

God, I hope so. Prince's albums need remastering so badly.

Rogue588

Holding my breath in 3...2...1.

Your logic makes sense, nothingfails, but anything relating to Prince defies the laws of logic..

nothingfails

true true, but Purple Rain still generally sold over 1000 copies a week just this year so I highly doubt Warner would purposely take it out of print without planning a superior quality version in the near future.

Personally, I'd love Warner to mine the vaults and do deluxe editions of each album like they did for Elvis Costello, but at this point, just straight ahead remaster editions with nothing extra will suffice knowing how Prince works.

Snowmaker

I was just noticing this too. All the earlier Prince CDs are not in stock at Amazon.

zombiezilla

Unless they come with some great bonus or live tracks or (preferably) a live dvd of the corresponding tour for the CDs, I'll pass.

Hollowgen

i'd settle for DVD 5.1 audio of all the albums.

mikelowry

I hoping for a Sign o' the Times remaster in deluxe packaging.

Mabuse

Sign o' the Times meeds remastering most of all. Somehow I have a feeling we are getting excited for nothing. Why would these be put out of print with no anouncement of a future re-release?

nothingfails

yes, I noticed that even the Best Buy by me is now out of the Warner titles (besides Ultimate and Very Best Of). I think we'll get an announcement sometime soon because I don't think Purple Rain or 1999 would be taken out of print without a good reason, both of those albums still sell fairly well 25 years on.

murphy_wmm

Since Prince did a lot of great b-sides for his singles that were often just as good as what made the album, they should re-issue the albums digitally mastered with the b-sides as a bonus.

The Infidel

With everything else Prince has been preventing us from enjoying, maybe it was him that had everything pulled. Somewhere in his madness he probably thinks that he'll make more money by not allowing anyone to buy anything of his. In the future, if you want to hear a Prince song, you'll have to hire him to come play it for you in person.

JeffTheAlpaca

http://variety.com/2014/music/news/p...es-1201159487/

Tom Creo

Awwwwwwww yeah. Can't wait to here The Beautiful Ones remastered.

lisadoris

This made my day!

gmanca

I hope all of the side producing work gets issued on CD like Mazarati, Sheila E, and Vanity 6.

Ringmaster

On the documentary found on the Purple Rain DVD, the director said Prince recorded 100 songs for the soundtrack. Hope we see a lot of this songs make it to a Purple Rain box set!

Spiderbite

I always thought that Prince and Jeff Lynne have to have a massive "vault" of music that will never unfortunately see the light of day.

Supermallet

Unfortunately in Prince's case, fortunately in Lynne's.

I was watching an interview with Prince where he said that his vault is mostly filled with half-formed musical ideas, hardly the sort of thing that most people would want to hear. And if he really had any full on masterpieces sitting in there, I'm sure he would have dusted them off by now. That's not to say there isn't good unreleased Prince music. There definitely is. But the idea that there's a whole other album on par with Purple Rain or Parade or Sign O' The Times is fantasy.

As for these remasters, I can't wait. I just hope that it's not brickwalled to hell.

Spiderbite

Figured someone would post a dick comment like that. I have never understood the hatred and disrespect that Jeff Lynne receives.

Supermallet

I've always found Lynne to be a derivative and bland songwriter/performer. I can't speak for everyone but I imagine others feel the same way I do. Also a lot of his career seems to be on the back of far more talented musicians like George Harrison and Tom Petty.

Also "Don't Bring Me Down" has got to be one of the worst, most annoying piece of shit songs I've ever heard. Every time it comes on the radio I want to dunk my head in an active deep fryer.

Tom Creo

What radio station do you listen to?

Btw, I dig Telephone Line.

Supermallet

Classic rock stations play it from time to time. Enough to make me consider suicide anyway.

Shamus McAnally

Can't wait for a proper SotT remaster. Love the album, but SO badly in need of a remaster.

Absolutely fantastic news!

Spiderbite

Funny you say that since Harrison and Petty both came to him for help in production and song writing and each walked away with one of their biggest selling albums of their careers (Cloud Nine and Full Moon Fever, respectively) and both albums were also critically acclaimed by most at the time. Some consider both of those albums comeback albums for them. Read some interviews with Harrison and Petty. Lynne was hardly riding on their shoulders and honestly, Harrison and Petty were riding Lynne's for those albums. He was also the main driving force behind the acclaimed Traveling Wilburys but is also the one most forgotten. He did the majority of the heavy lifting for that group.

As far as your hatred for "Don't Bring Me Down," I understand it. But the guy has written so many better songs and has so many great albums (both his own, ELO, and as a producer), I find it silly to bash him for that. Every artist with that kind of catalog has several stinkers in their past. Prince is definitely included in that (especially on some of his more recent releases. They just don't get played on the radio anymore).

Sorry for the Jeff Lynne rant in a Prince thread. I just tire of the needless bashing of him.