why would those songs not make sense if they were released today?

the original version is personal on the one hand but can be read in a

metaphorical way too. in that way it doesn't relate just to prince. it's

got a personal meaning for me too, beyond the fact that i love it to

bits for what it is about and what it means on the surface.

same thing goes for Hello (which Oldfriends4Sale) mentioned. they

might have been very topical at the time of recording but the story

doesn't diminish over time simply because the subject covered is a

year or a decade in the past.

you are fcuz completely right when you say that prince probably does

not care one bit about releasing such songs, dealing with personal or

private stuff from so long ago. personally, i think that's a shame since

his most personal stuff is usually his best.

i'd take dated personal narratives over another cookiecutter lyrics any

day of the week.

IstenSzek said:

why would those songs not make sense if they were released today?

the original version is personal on the one hand but can be read in a

metaphorical way too. in that way it doesn't relate just to prince. it's

got a personal meaning for me too, beyond the fact that i love it to

bits for what it is about and what it means on the surface.

same thing goes for Hello (which Oldfriends4Sale) mentioned. they

might have been very topical at the time of recording but the story

doesn't diminish over time simply because the subject covered is a

year or a decade in the past.

you are fcuz completely right when you say that prince probably does

not care one bit about releasing such songs, dealing with personal or

private stuff from so long ago. personally, i think that's a shame since

his most personal stuff is usually his best.

i'd take dated personal narratives over another cookiecutter lyrics any

day of the week.

Oh, definitely agree with you, and I do love both Hello and O4FS, too, and yes, the content of the songs may be timeless but still, I meant looking from Prince´s point of view or position, I see no reason why he´d release a song that mentions Steve, Big Chick, Jimmy and Terry and the snow storm incident etc. etc.

Surely the topics as such are timeless (cocaine addiction, greed, false friends, the hangover after the big and intoxicating commercial success and rush of Purple Rain) but who besides his inner circle and us long time fans could really relate to those lyrics?

They are very cryptic to the casual listener or music critic, aren´t they?

However, I wouldn´t be surprised to see the old version show up on some "strictly for the fans" release in one form or the other.

But on a normal album? In this day and age? With the original lyrics? Not happening.

you're right, it wouldn't happen these days. and that makes me a bit sad.
i would have loved for prince to do, if not expanded remasters, at least a

pretty thorough anthology series of his vault material. songs like this one

would be well suited for that. oh well. what if what if.

This was a time of a massive "purging" of music from Prince onto the public.

.

Come/The Black Album/1-800-New-Funk/TGE/Exodus/C&D/Emancipation were released at what seemed to be a break-neck pace . . . at times almost overlapping. Especially considering that he was also appearing on soundtracks such as Showgirls, Blankman, and Girl 6.

.

With only a slight pause after Emancipation, another onslaught of material emerged in the form of Crystal Ball, New Power Soul, and slightly after that, The Vault: OF4S.

.

Phew!

.

Now, on to the album itself. I didn't fully appreciate it at first because of its jazz leanings, and also because of coming off the R&B/rock high that I just spelled out above. Once I gave it an honest listen, and everything "clicked", then I loved it.

.

I think OF4S led the way to ONA/TRC/NEWS/C-NOTE in the short years to follow.

.

We fans would pretty much fall over ourselves if he delivered this album NOW.

Se7en said:

This was a time of a massive "purging" of music from Prince onto the public.

.

Come/The Black Album/1-800-New-Funk/TGE/Exodus/C&D/Emancipation were released at what seemed to be a break-neck pace . . . at times almost overlapping. Especially considering that he was also appearing on soundtracks such as Showgirls, Blankman, and Girl 6.

.

With only a slight pause after Emancipation, another onslaught of material emerged in the form of Crystal Ball, New Power Soul, and slightly after that, The Vault: OF4S.

.

Phew!

.

Now, on to the album itself. I didn't fully appreciate it at first because of its jazz leanings, and also because of coming off the R&B/rock high that I just spelled out above. Once I gave it an honest listen, and everything "clicked", then I loved it.

.

I think OF4S led the way to ONA/TRC/NEWS/C-NOTE in the short years to follow.

.

We fans would pretty much fall over ourselves if he delivered this album NOW.

he was on the movie showgirls ..not the sndtrck...which was great anyhow

luvsexy4all said:

KoolEaze said:

IstenSzek said:

why would those songs not make sense if they were released today?

the original version is personal on the one hand but can be read in a

metaphorical way too. in that way it doesn't relate just to prince. it's

got a personal meaning for me too, beyond the fact that i love it to

bits for what it is about and what it means on the surface.

same thing goes for Hello (which Oldfriends4Sale) mentioned. they

might have been very topical at the time of recording but the story

doesn't diminish over time simply because the subject covered is a

year or a decade in the past.

you are fcuz completely right when you say that prince probably does

not care one bit about releasing such songs, dealing with personal or

private stuff from so long ago. personally, i think that's a shame since

his most personal stuff is usually his best.

i'd take dated personal narratives over another cookiecutter lyrics any

day of the week.

Oh, definitely agree with you, and I do love both Hello and O4FS, too, and yes, the content of the songs may be timeless but still, I meant looking from Prince´s point of view or position, I see no reason why he´d release a song that mentions Steve, Big Chick, Jimmy and Terry and the snow storm incident etc. etc.

Surely the topics as such are timeless (cocaine addiction, greed, false friends, the hangover after the big and intoxicating commercial success and rush of Purple Rain) but who besides his inner circle and us long time fans could really relate to those lyrics?

They are very cryptic to the casual listener or music critic, aren´t they?

However, I wouldn´t be surprised to see the old version show up on some "strictly for the fans" release in one form or the other.

But on a normal album? In this day and age? With the original lyrics? Not happening.

Aren't these people the only ones that matter?

Spoke to me
I can't believe it, but she spoke to me
Close to me
I never thought I'd get her close to me

Now the moon and the sun belong to me
All my wildest hopes
My crazy dreams
They seem more like reality

Fantasy
This girl fulfills my every fantasy
She must be
Specially designed by heaven just for me
(Just for me)

My friends look at her
They see mystery
But I look at her and I see a masterpiece
Can it be, I mean really did she?

Spoke to me
Spoke to me
I can't believe it, but she spoke to me
Speak to me baby, speak to me baby

Spoke to me
I can't believe it, but she spoke to me
And if she hurts me
I'll take it all with open arms you see, you think I won't?

'Cuz like a track
Under a subway train
She could roll all over me
And I'd still be the same

'Cuz today is the day she spoke to me
I can't believe it, but she spoke to me
Close to me
I never thought I'd get her close to me

If I'm stuck in some groovy wet dream
Don't pinch me
I don't wanna wake up
I'm diggin' the scene, yeah baby
(Diggin', diggin', yeah baby)

I'm diggin' the scene
I'm diggin' the scene, yeah baby

I've got a little love for this album. What I like most about it is how different it sound to the other Prince album released that year (Rave Un2). Organic vs Synthetic. Neither groundbreaking albums but both worth a listen. I do prefer OF4S though as I can actually listen to it through without having to skip anything. Rave on the other hand...

Exactly same experience here and one I've heard from others in exactly the same terms, especially those worn out cassettes.

I think there was also, until The Vault, a sense in the Prince 'underground' of tapes and boots, that Prince was really tuned to his hardcore audience and was going to use his 'emancipation' to bring all this hissy tape into startling digital focus.

And then The Vault and the realisation that he just didn't have the slightest clue about the underground sensibility.


I'll probably need to go and have a little cry now.

*sniffle*

OldFriends4Sale said:

iZsaZsa said:

OldFriends4Sale said: That's your name, don't wear it out. Haha. And I get what you're saying about the remake. It must have felt sugarcoated and like you were being shut out. Or that's just me. I heard the album version first, so when I heard the original it felt like I was being pulled in closer and trusted with more of the truth.

LOL

yeah, I think that at the time spoiled the album for me. I couldn't hear it then.

The latter version is definately less personal. And overdone

greyhoodiegirl said:

I've got a little love for this album. What I like most about it is how different it sound to the other Prince album released that year (Rave Un2). Organic vs Synthetic. Neither groundbreaking albums but both worth a listen. I do prefer OF4S though as I can actually listen to it through without having to skip anything. Rave on the other hand...

I too, now prefer the Vault:OF4S to Emancipation by a long shot

Yes, as underground as he actually was, I don't think he understood that from a fans perspective, He could have milked what happened with the Black album in 1988

XSX said:

Exactly same experience here and one I've heard from others in exactly the same terms, especially those worn out cassettes.

I think there was also, until The Vault, a sense in the Prince 'underground' of tapes and boots, that Prince was really tuned to his hardcore audience and was going to use his 'emancipation' to bring all this hissy tape into startling digital focus.

And then The Vault and the realisation that he just didn't have the slightest clue about the underground sensibility.


I'll probably need to go and have a little cry now.

*sniffle*

OldFriends4Sale said:

LOL

yeah, I think that at the time spoiled the album for me. I couldn't hear it then.

The latter version is definately less personal. And overdone

eyewishuheaven said:

jcurley said:

5 Women

It took 5 women to getcha off of my mind
It took 5 months, a plenty good wasted time
But it just took 5 minutes when I saw your face again
To fall in love all over, I guess with you I'll never win

March was a cold one in more ways than one
Went down to the nightclub lookin' for the sun
Lookin' for a light that could brighten up a day
That's been darker than a hole since you went away

April usually brings showers, this time it was a hurtin' kind
This woman said she wanted my baby
I told her I'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind
To fall in love with someone that I barely knew

Baby would never really have a father
'Cuz I still, 'cuz I still, 'cuz I still, still, still
Be stuck on you, ooh

It took 5 women to getcha off of my mind
Get off my mind, baby
Fallin' in love all over you, I'll never win

May was her name, she was jumpin'
Jumpin' from plane to plane
Actress or model or somethin'
I can't even remember her first name

June brought an Easter bunny
Needless to say that girl was late
Told a made-up story to a busy-body of our only date
What a sketch

July was a heartbreak, extraordinary
Said I met this woman whose kiss was somethin' scary
It felt so much, so much like yours
But it only made me, made me want you more
She's gone, she's gone but you're still here
I want you very, it's you I fear

Said it took 5 women, yes it did, to get you off my mind
It took 5 months, 5 months, a plenty good wasted time
But it just took 5 minutes and I saw your face again
I fell in love all over with you, I guess I'll never win, I'll never win

It's too loud.

NME

PRINCE
The Vault... Old Friends 4 Sale
(Warners)

Or how about some previously unreleased portraits of The Artist as a young man that his former label have cobbled together to cash in on a dwindling hardcore rump of completist fans? Recorded between 1985-'94 this motley collection beggars a very uncomfortable question: "Grandpa, did you really think this bloke was a genius?"

You'd be hard-pressed to name any great Prince songs of the 1990s; hell, you'd actually be hard-pressed to remember the tune five minutes after you'd heard it. After fighting his psychological war against the mighty corporate pig giant, The Artist seems content to churn out some of the most perplexingly awful sub-Parliament rubber-thumb-bass funk that is unworthy of the godlike genius who thrilled the baggy pants off a generation with the epic genre-bending of '1999', 'Dirty Mind', 'When Doves Cry' and 'Kiss'.

There are flashes of that brilliance here. 'She Spoke 2 Me' (which actually cropped up on the soundtrack for Spike Lee's Girl 6) is one of those lubricated jazzy soul ballads that slinks in and out of Combustible Edison loungecore territory while '5 Women' is a torch song that reeks of unhealthy obsession and painful sex.

There are a couple of standard Prince fillers, like the taut sub-Sly & The Family Stone stomper 'Sarah' and the agreeable though unmemorable 'It's About That Walk', complete with horrible '80s brass sound that is already picking up some kitsch appeal.

But apart from that, the cupboard is bare. Prince material that is mediocre: the perfect revenge of the Warner Brothers' plantation owners on their erstwhile slave.

4/10

Tommy Udo

When The Lights Go Down

Se7en said:

This was a time of a massive "purging" of music from Prince onto the public.

.

Come/The Black Album/1-800-New-Funk/TGE/Exodus/C&D/Emancipation were released at what seemed to be a break-neck pace . . . at times almost overlapping. Especially considering that he was also appearing on soundtracks such as Showgirls, Blankman, and Girl 6.

.

With only a slight pause after Emancipation, another onslaught of material emerged in the form of Crystal Ball, New Power Soul, and slightly after that, The Vault: OF4S.

.

Phew!

.

Now, on to the album itself. I didn't fully appreciate it at first because of its jazz leanings, and also because of coming off the R&B/rock high that I just spelled out above. Once I gave it an honest listen, and everything "clicked", then I loved it.

.

I think OF4S led the way to ONA/TRC/NEWS/C-NOTE in the short years to follow.

.

We fans would pretty much fall over ourselves if he delivered this album NOW.

so true.

if released today we would go ga-ga.

best since.........the symbol lol.

My Little Pill

What's a single woman with no real man 2 do?
Tryin' 2 raise your kid when he couldn't give a damn about U
All my cares and troubles dive right off my window sill
Everytime I pop my little pill

A pixie does my laundry and the universe my will
All my cares and troubles dive right off my window sill
All my cares and troubles dive right off my window sill
Everytime I pop my little pill

My Little Pill is the sixth track on Prince's 22nd album The Vault... Old Friends 4 Sale.

While specific recording dates are not known, initial tracking took place in mid-late March, 1992 at Paisley Park Studios, Chanhassen, MN, USA (during the same set of sessions as I'll Do Anything, Make Believe and a re-recording of Empty Room). The song was written specifically for the James L. Brooks movie I'll Do Anything.

The track was re-recorded by the ensemble cast for the movie, and was included in a rough cut of the movie. This version was included as the third track on a planned I'll Do Anything album. While Prince was not directly involved in this version, it is included in the listing here as his own version was intended as a demo for the soundtrack version. When preview audience reactions to the music were overwhelmingly negative, all production numbers from the film were cut, and the album was abandoned.

-PrinceVault