Just read about the Purple Rain test pressing on Wikipedia.

Anyone know if this is right? Don't know if that's official or not, but I bloody love it. Listed on Wikipedia as:

Test pressing
The track listing to the November 7, 1983 test pressing[16]:

"Let's Go Crazy"
"The Beautiful Ones"
"Darling Nikki"
"Wednesday"
"Purple Rain"
"I Would Die 4 U"
"Baby, I'm a Star"
"Father's Song"
"When Doves Cry

What an amazing sequence of songs!


[Edited 4/9/10 13:27pm]

A test pressing 4 Purple Rain is true but, the list is not exactly true. Include 'Computer Blue' after 'The Beautiful Ones' and take out 'When Doves Cry' then it'll be correct. At that time 'When Doves Cry' did not exist or at least not recorded. 'Wednesday' is still unreleased, although 'Father Song' appeared in the movie is also unreleased. Several other songs were intended 4 the Purple Rain film/album at some point that remains unreleased including 'G-Spot' and 'Electric Intercourse' 2 name a few also some of the songs on the album where a bit longer originally.
[Edited 4/9/10 15:25pm]
[Edited 4/9/10 15:26pm]

that sequence looks like it would be very weird to listen to
"the beautiful ones" as the second song, followed by "darlin
nikki" doesn't seem to help the flow of the record at all.

the last half of it is just as messy. once you've heard the
released version you just can't imagine the last 3 songs on
the released version being jumbled like that.

i guess on a vinyl it would be kinda ok to have purple rain
close one of the sides, but on a cd it would suck big time
to have that song in the middle of the album.

IstenSzek said:

And we'd probably say the same thing if this configuration was released, then we heard the configuration we know how. "How could he put "Take Me With U" on there????" Something like that. It's all perspective.

There's alternate early sequences and test pressings with different tracklists
for most of Prince's albums. It's all part of the process of honing down the
album and improving it, so that the final released version has the best songs
in the best sequence.

clbrooks said:

Did When Doves Cry even exist on that date? Don't really feel like looking it up, bit it and Take Me With U were kind of last-minute editions

errant said:

No it didn't. That tracklisting is slightly wrong.
As sms130 already pointed out, the correct tracklisting for that
configuration actually looks like this...

"Let's Go Crazy"
"The Beautiful Ones"
"Computer Blue"
"Darling Nikki"
"Wednesday"
"Purple Rain"
"I Would Die 4 U"
"Baby I'm A Star"
"Father's Song"

^ And folks really need to bookmark this great site: http://www.princevault.co...urple_Rain

Early album configurations

7 November 1983
A1. Let's Go Crazy
A2. The Beautiful Ones
A3. Computer Blue
A4. Darling Nikki
A5. Wednesday - lead vocal by Jill Jones?
B1. Purple Rain
B2. I Would Die 4 U
B3. Baby I'm A Star
B4. Father's Song

23 March 1984
A1. Let's Go Crazy (7:37)
A2. The Beautiful Ones (5:15)
A3. Computer Blue (7:23) alternate mix
A4. Darling Nikki (4:15)
B1. When Doves Cry (5:52)
B2. I Would Die 4 U (2:51)
B3. Baby I'm A Star (4:20)
B4. Purple Rain (8:45)

squirrelgrease said:

love that site. wish it was a little more complete though.

squirrelgrease said:

always found that Let's Go Crazy straight into The Beautiful Ones was a bit too much of a gear change right at the beginning of the album. without Take Me With U in the line-up, I think I'd move The Beautiful Ones after Darling Nikki to close out side one. otherwise, I think this version of the album is A+ and even better than what was released.

errant said:

I know. They're constantly updating it with actual facts, though.

squirrelgrease said:

I love that about them

IstenSzek said:

I hear what you;re saying, but to say "if it was on vinyl....". It WAS on vinyl, and this test pressing would have been too. I don;t think it;s jumbeled, I think you have to take a step back and reimagine it.

BorisFishpaw said:

Yuyp, I realise thqt (I'm a musician myself and I've been through the process many times). This is just one that I actually think would work great. Going into the quite strange-sounding electronic drums / snyth at the beginning of Beautiful Ones would be so great after Lets Go Crazy for example.

clbrooks said:

What the Heck is "Wednesday"? Never heard of it before! and I keep up on list pretty well.
Is it sometimes known as something else?

I remember reading something about Prince wanting to release the sound track album including the protege songs?

Yes, the original intention was to have a soundtrack album that featured tracks
all the artists in the movie. So it would've featured Prince and the Revolution,
The Time, Apollonia 6, Jill Jones & Dez Dickerson and the Modernaires.

This was all prior to the tracklists posted above, and was while the album
would've still featured 'Electric Intercourse' instead of 'The Beautiful Ones'
and 'G-Spot' instead of 'Darling Nikki'. However, as the project grew, Prince
wrote more music and it became apparent that there was no way this would all
fit onto one album. So the idea was dropped in favor of releasing separate
artist albums instead.

EML3 said:

http://prince.org/msg/7/320445

Piano rehearsal, 1983 – tentative placing
17 Days (6:30)
Purple Rain (1:15)
A Case Of You (1:58) (Joni Mitchell)
Mary, Don’t You Weep (4:59) (Inez Andrew)
Strange Relationship (2:55)
International Lover (4:03)
There’s No Telling What I Might Do #1 (0:55) – later retitled Wednesday
Cold Coffee And Cocaine (5:37)
Mama (6:58)

Purple Rain, home studio, late October – November 1983 – test pressing of album 7 November 1983
Let’s Go Crazy #2 (4:39)* - edit of #1
Computer Blue #4 (7:23) (Prince/Matt Fink/Lisa Coleman/Wendy Melvoin/John L. Nelson) – edit of #2/segued with
Darling Nikki #2 (4:15)*
Wednesday #2 (24/10) – lead vocal: Jill Jones, previously titled There’s No Telling What I Might Do
Father’s Song (1:12) (29/10) (John L. Nelson?)
Sex Shooter #2 (Long Version) (7:00)* (November)
Sex Shooter #3 (3:39)* - edit of #2
Katrina’s Paper Dolls
I Wonder #1 – tentative placing

BorisFishpaw said:

I'm glad that we ended up with several different albums instead of that "Graffiti Bridge"-style amalgam.

Some folks may not know that WB did release a promo with that concept (sort of) in mind:

http://eil.com/shop/morei...ogid=30700

PRINCE Strange Tales From The Rain (This elusive Warner Japanese 25-track promotional only double vinyl LP was issued to radio and industry in 1984 to promote the legendary movie Purple Rain. This rare pressing however contains the ENTIRE movie soundtrack and not just the Prince tracks that were on the commercial issue soundtrack making this the only pressing to represent the movie in it's entirety.

Side 1

Let's Go Crazy 7.32
Jungle Love / The Time 3.25
Take Me With You 3.55
The Beautiful Ones 5.14
God 4.02
When Doves Cry 3.49

Side 2

Computer Blue 4.01
Darlin' Nikki 5.13
Sex Shooter / Apollonia 3.01
The Bird The Time 7.40
Purple Rain 4.07
I would Die 4 U 2.50
Baby I'm A Star 4.13

Side 3

Soft And Wet 3.01
I Wanna Be YOur Lover 2.57
Sexy Dancer 4.18
Uptown 4.07
Dirty Mind 4.11
Do Me, Baby 7.47

Side 4

Sexuality 4.20
Controversy 3.35
Little Red Corvette 3.08
Delrious 2.36
The Glamours Life 3.41

I would love 2 hear a 2 disc special pressing of the Purple Rain soundtrack similar 2 Strange Tales From The Rain. That would be cool 2 have out here.

squirrelgrease said:

weird that they used the extended Let's Go Crazy but used the single edits of When Doves Cry, Purple Rain, and Jungle Love. I would have thought the point of doing it as a double-vinyl would have been to include the whole thing plus the Time/Apollonia stuff. and kept side 4 for the extra hits.....

What I would like to know is whether these "test pressings" were ever more than a work in progress tapes compiled to cassette or whether lacquers were cut . Personally I think just tapes.

andrewm7 said:

"test pressing" indicates that it was cut. we know he gave out a lot of tapes, but these would be for more serious use; him or the label to listen to in a certain sequence over and over, as close to the true experience of listening to an album (at that time, on vinyl) as possible to make decisions.

squirrelgrease said:

errant said:

That is what "test pressing" indicates certainly, but has anyone actually eyeballed a vinyl or lacquer copy of Purple rain with an earlier, different track listing.
Early configurations of some of Princes 90s albums surfaced as Warners in house cassettes and mastering reference cassettes.Respectfully I would doubt that anything would be cut before the mastering stage

Test pressings of an album is part of the work in progress in making an album, at least in Prince's case. Prince's test pressings r legendary. U get 2 c where he was going with the albums as they were being made. I would love 2 read about a test pressing of 1999 and Controversy, those would be interesting.