Prince's Music Vault

Still slowing way down by Prince standard!

 

yeah but who knows how much is in the vault

 

this is very important, i really hope its in good hands, but i dont know-

 

As I don't have any kind of TV broadcasts coming into my home, I don't know how I remember or know about this but he addresses the vault question at about the 2.30 mark in this clip:



That sounds pretty hopeful.

 

I'm really enjoying all the Youtube clips popping up. Until these bits and pieces get officially (re)released I hope they stay up.

 

The Vault... Old Friends 4 Sale, as mentioned, was released to fulfill his contract, but it is not "bottom of the barrel". Rather it is a themed collection of songs, some of them were originally intended for a movie and much of the the material is inspired by Jazz and what I call "Uptown" Blues, so if one finds that sort of music "dull, boring" then I guess it is, but to me it is another facet of his artistry which made me appreciate him more.

He had pretty much released one album a year from 1978-2010. There was a break after that, yes, but then there were two albums in 2014 and two more in 2015, that's hardly drying up, and as always there had been material continuously released one way or the other outside of the regular albums. None of the material on any of these albums is from before 2011, so there is no "old vault stuff".

 

I was able to get to some of my Prince recordings (though not all by a long shot) and the CD in question is called WB's Emancipation. This is my copy, not some stock image.



The track listing is as follows:

Slave (2 The System) - Unreleased song
New World - Same as Emancipation album
Slave - Different than released
20/20 - Unreleased song
Feel Good - Unreleased song
Right Back Here in My Arms - Different than released
Journey 2 the Center of Your Heart - Different than released
I Am the DJ - Unreleased song
(Excuse me is this) Goodbye - Same as on Crystal Ball
Emancipation - Different than released

In fact, if you want a really exhaustive read about what lead to the Emancipation album, read this. It all relates to so much that's still in the vaults.

Prince.org exclusive: Ultimate Emancipation »

 

To play devils advocate... quite a bit of the vault material is "out there", even though much of it is second and third generation quality, but the stuff isn't completely unfindable.

I would love Prince co./Warner however to release the stuff officially in master quality sound, but there are sets like "The Work" that suffice if you really want it that badly.

 

To further play devil's advocate, how do you know that "quite a bit" is out there? I've been collecting these Prince "rarities" since before the internet (and boy did it take off with online trading), and for the most part it's the same ol' stuff that's been floating around forever.

People put this old stuff out, claiming better sources, and sometimes it is, but really you'll find a load of re-EQed stuff out there that's the same 3rd-gen tracks.

I don't believe that a lot has been released on boots relative to the amount of material actually in the vaults. I mean, there's a list of known tracks that go on and on, not to mention undocumented tracks that Prince would throw out there like "Splash" that nobody knew existed prior to release.

The surface has barely been scratched.

 

well, there was a 32 disc set that leaked in 2014 (an upgrade from "The Work"). I do consider that "some" stuff at least, even though of course there's probably 200 cd's worth of stuff. But it's definitely better than nothing.

 

he went through an "albums are dead" phase where he said he was going to stop making albums because of piracy. We did get a lot of one-off singles in 2011-2013 though, many of which appeared in some form or fashion on the last four albums.

 

Being a fan since 1983....i really hope that whomever inherets the estate (sister?) will hire some top audio engineers and musicologists to curate the vaults(s) of Prince's unreleased music. Susan Rogers??

 

I feel like there's two possible scenarios if a relative is put in charge. Either they are going to stubbornly insist that every whimsical utterance that ever came out of Prince's mouth regarding his music must be followed forever... or they'll want to milk his oeuvre for every cent they can get.

 

Your friend was wrong. It's a terrific collection of songs. Get it quick!

 

One of my favourite unreleased songs is "Get Blue" and I'd love to see collections of CDs with songs of that level of quality.
Here's Louie Louie's (very good) version of it (Prince on all instruments except sax, strings and percussion):

 

I know a guy who would go to a live show with a fat wad of cash in his pocket. He'd befriend the/a sound guy before the show and then make it clear that all that cash could be his if he just hit "record" and slipped him the recording after the show. This guy was part of an "Uberfan" Springsteen network that had some amazing things. You needed something exclusive to get in and if it ever got outside the circle, you'd find yourself banned. I got to listen to some astonishing stuff but he refused to let me copy any of it. There's probably some amazing Prince stuff out there that has only been heard by a small group of people.

 

Are most of his official albums decent sound quality? All I have is Hits/BSides comp and it sounds good to me.

 

That's a loaded question in this forum.

Personally, I don't like the sound of the Purple Rain or SOTT CDs. I prefer the LPs. But PR was never an audiophile-quality recording to begin with. I also prefer "1999" on LP, but don't hate the CD. The rest of the catalog sounds fine. He almost always recorded things well. The sound of his albums were one of favorite things about them back in the day.

 

BTW....let's keep this thread going. I would think Prince's several hundred hours of unreleased material deserves as much forum time as does "Carnival of Light"....

 

Think the climax of the first Indiana Jones movie.

 

I'd love all that.

But also think "Hendrix". I could also easily see greedy relatives just going in and raping the vault and hastily releasing whatever they find and calling it a "new Prince album!"

 

My favorites of all the unreleased Prince tracks are "Moonbeam Levels" [also known as "A Better Place To Die"], "Wonderful Ass" and the original (piano/vocals only) version of "Old Friends 4 Sale". There's also an original version of "We Can Funk" (circa 1982) that is awesome.

Btw, there's an incredible live 1987 vinyl bootleg from a small club (New Morning Club) in Paris that is phenomenal. There's a song called "Was It My Faith?" that is absolutely killer. Entire show is great though.

 

This song was playing on the SiriusXM channel earlier today and my first thought was "isn't that unreleased"? But there is so much stuff that I really can't remember every song on every album (let alone keep track of all the unreleased stuff in my head.)

Was this song ever released? And if not, where was SiriusXM getting it from?

 

Not officially, no. And I presume SiriusXM was getting it from the same sources as any of the rest of us. Did it sound any good? I've only ever heard it tinny and distorted.

 

That's what I'm worried about. The Hendrix catalog seems incoherent to me.