jaypotton said:

Thizz said:

Your position is terrible and misguided

Everything should have an official release. Even if only for the completist in his fanbase

"Terrible and misguided" get over yourself! It is MY opinion and based on being extremely familiar with unofficial releases for over 30 years. I love Prince. He has been a big part of my life for over 30 years. Seen him live more Han 30 times. I trawled record fairs and Camden Market in London most weekend trying to locate bootlegs. And in MY opinion a lot of the music I have collected on bootlegs and from Napster back in the day (literally hundreds of tracks) is not up to Prince's best standard. Some of it is downright awful!

You shouldn't encourage others to "get over" themselves just because you have some type of inferiority complex. Your opinion is quantifiably wrong. Obviously your point of view is rooted in emotion but it gives you no right too selfishly deem which of his works are worthy of public consumption. If you don't want them, don't buy them. It is in fact you imposing your own view on the many of Prince fans who would like to hear his music so you can take your own advice and "get over yourself"

Thizz said:

Here's my position on whether everything should be released. Yes, it should--but in much the way that everything is being released in Dylan's case. There's one or two CD's worth of stuff released every year as the main releases in the bootleg series, then slightly expanded versions also still for the mainstream... but at the same time, there are the large 50th Anniversary Collections in 2012, 2013 and 2014 (the so-called "Copyright Extension" releases, as Columbia has to release in order to extend copyright on the recordings) or this past year, when the gigantic "Collector's Edition" of The Bootleg Series' The Cutting Edge came out. Those large releases are "clearing the decks" type things, putting out pretty much everything that hasn't come out, with no concern about the "finished" or "unfinished" nature of the recording.

[Edited 5/8/16 20:34pm]

I certainly do not believe there are 1,000 separate novel Prince songs tracked. I do believe there are several hundred, however. But complete, ready for release? Well, can anyone estimate how many songs have leaked? How many spearate unique songs have been bootlegged? Anyone have a rough number?

I can't see how anyone who loves Prince music enough to be here may wish for the weaker vault stuff NOT to be released. U don't want it don't buy it but I want it! I know I'll be dead before it happens but if I could put my hands on everything I would. Probably there are songs I wouldn't care for but I want to hear them to make an opinion, and I still find it interesting to have even the most basic demos for the worst songs as a documentary of Prince's creative journey.

databank said:

BoraBora said:

Am I the only one to think that probably we fams are over-estimating a little too much what there is effectively in the vault?!?!?!?

I agree with you, there are lots of fantasies, I think.

Thizz said:

jaypotton said:

Gonna stick my neck out here and say... most of the stuff in the Vault should never see the light of day, I have hundreds of unreleased songs. Without doubt some are absolute gems BUT a lot of them are awful. Curiosities at best but certainly not worthy of release. Prince was music and lived for music. His leisure time was spent recording or performing (and recording what he performed) but this was often just for fun. can't really speak for what was recorded post Warner Bros as Prince's security seemed to miraculously tighten up once he was out of contract...but I reckon I have the vast majority of unreleased material from the WB years. the general quality of material from the 80s outstrips the material from the 90s for my money (remember he officially released vastly more material during the 90s compared to the 80s suggesting that what was left in the vault was literally the out takes and left overs. Anyway, no doubt there is a good number of quality tracks that can be carefully curated and released that will enhance Prince's legacy but I truly and genuinely hope the rest does not come out as IMHO it could damage his legacy.

Your position is terrible and misguided

Everything should have an official release. Even if only for the completist in his fanbase

.

Yes I'm hoping whoever gets the rights to the Vault is very greedy and releases a lot. However the problem is that people will copy and pirate the releases. So if you release every concert he ever did, how many are you really going to sell? I can't afford to buy all of them and I think fans would just trade them amongst each other.

.

Just like they only wanted to release one new Prince album every couple of y ears in the 80s, I fear they will do the same with the Vault material, at least at first.

tree fitty

EddieC said:

Here's my position on whether everything should be released. Yes, it should--but in much the way that everything is being released in Dylan's case. There's one or two CD's worth of stuff released every year as the main releases in the bootleg series, then slightly expanded versions also still for the mainstream... but at the same time, there are the large 50th Anniversary Collections in 2012, 2013 and 2014 (the so-called "Copyright Extension" releases, as Columbia has to release in order to extend copyright on the recordings) or this past year, when the gigantic "Collector's Edition" of The Bootleg Series' The Cutting Edge came out. Those large releases are "clearing the decks" type things, putting out pretty much everything that hasn't come out, with no concern about the "finished" or "unfinished" nature of the recording.

[Edited 5/8/16 20:34pm]

Release it all, we've already heard the worst of Prince. We heard the carmen demos, we know what he is capable of. I've heard worse from many many many artists.

RELEASE IT ALL .... Start with whatever we have from the beginning... I don't have any feelings for the moaners who keep telling us "his legacy his legacy" RELEASE.IT like Morris Day said. Put it up on kickstarter and we can fund the whole vault so everyone gets everything. It will be a core of like a few thousand people who will keep track of it. but we got the audience to get a lot of stuff out.

The sad reality is that people are going to remember Prince by the following

1999/Purple Rain/Kiss/Superbowl/Hall of Fame solo They aren't even going to praise anything else. Just the diehards yelling about all the other material, meanwhile critics will be gushing about anything that has a Linn Drum.

Sorry Prince, America did the same thing to James Brown.

Unfortunately in the years 2 come maybe i say MAYBE a very very small portion of this Vault will be release....not surely the best songs or the classic unreleased 80 stuff with bad words....in the end = great probability 2 be hugely frustrated by all this in the end....and tragically the big portion of this Vault will be lost for the world & the fans cause .....Record industries do not care about Prince unreleased stuff Legacy & because cost 2 much to produce & release 4 some thousands fans at best!

This is my guess!!!

My thoughts... If it wasn't worth keeping he wouldn't have had the vault installed.

Using a time period of 30 years that's roughly 1,564 weeks.

1 song per week = 1,564 songs

2 songs per week = 3,128

3 songs per week = 4,692

4 songs per week = 6,256

5 songs per week = 7,820

6 songs per week = 9,384

7 songs per week = 10,948

I'm not for a second saying he consistantly recorded like this, but it's an idea of the numbers we could be looking at. He's only (haha "only") actually released about what? 400 songs? I suspect almost all of the 400 have at least one alternate mix.

I'm doubtful items such as The Time albums with Prince vocals still exist. From Prince's POV once the time recorded those songs why keep the demos?

I'm also doubtful about concert videos. I doubt they were kept past the point of Prince watching back that nights concert. I'm sure plenty were left in hotels or simply recorded over with the next performance. Up until the mid-late 90s when he seemed to become aware of the market, and probably started keeping a copy of everything.

"Maybe five percent of what we worked on was released."

Sheeeet, you know there's some funk up in there! Like nine cans of shaving powder...

jaypotton, I hear what you're saying. Forget unreleased, I think a large no. of his released songs are complete shit, but really, it's horrifying to even type that sentence NOW, about a dead man, specially when I think of the kind of good releases that he gave us - know what I mean?

As far as the Vault is concerned, well... I think I would like to hear everything for myself, and decide for myself what's good and bad......

I'll also add (for the vault detractors out there!), the boots we have already of unreleased songs are for the most part very bad quality (even the best ones could be improved upon by offiical CD quality release.) I think the improved audio quality would breath new life into the songs we already know in boot format. Also Songs like Electric Intercourse and Roadhouse Garden have never been heard as studio versions. I think at least a box set of the best stuff should be released to the masses, but the rest could be released in a lower key way (much like the Dylan stuff mentioned above).

I think we may know the same guy.

I was told that each and every rehearsal was recorded & her performed daily for 30 years.