Three singles were planned, but never ultimately released from the Love Symbol album in 1993.

Blue Light
1. Blue Light

2. Walk Don't Walk

Sweet Baby
1. Sweet Baby
2. Damn You (Sax Mix)

Love 2 The 9's
1. Love 2 The 9's (Edit)
2. The Morning Papers

Do you think any of these would have found sucess? Or perhaps be regarded differently all these years later?

We'll never know, but maybe Blue Light could have been a succes because it's something completely different than he did before. I think it could have gotten a lot of airplay on mainstraim radio.

bluegangsta said:

Three singles were planned, but never ultimately released from the Love Symbol album in 1993.

Blue Light
1. Blue Light

2. Walk Don't Walk

Sweet Baby
1. Sweet Baby
2. Damn You (Sax Mix)

Love 2 The 9's
1. Love 2 The 9's (Edit)
2. The Morning Papers

Do you think any of these would have found sucess? Or perhaps be regarded differently all these years later?

I didn't know they were planned, but to be honest, much as I like each of them, they would not make good singles.

Interesting you didn't list 'The Continental', as its the most obvious single that never was, and was one of the tracks promoted on the album advert before every show at on the D&P tour.

Obviously 'The Morning Papers' was released as a single.

To me, the additional singles (beyond Sex MF, My Name and The Morning Papers and Damn U) should have come from The Continental, I wanna Melt With U or The Max.

SquirrelMeat said:

bluegangsta said:

Three singles were planned, but never ultimately released from the Love Symbol album in 1993.

Blue Light
1. Blue Light

2. Walk Don't Walk

Sweet Baby
1. Sweet Baby
2. Damn You (Sax Mix)

Love 2 The 9's
1. Love 2 The 9's (Edit)
2. The Morning Papers

Do you think any of these would have found sucess? Or perhaps be regarded differently all these years later?

I didn't know they were planned, but to be honest, much as I like each of them, they would not make good singles.

Interesting you didn't list 'The Continental', as its the most obvious single that never was, and was one of the tracks promoted on the album advert before every show at on the D&P tour.

Obviously 'The Morning Papers' was released as a single.

To me, the additional singles (beyond Sex MF, My Name and The Morning Papers and Damn U) should have come from The Continental, I wanna Melt With U or The Max.

THE CONTINENTAL should have been released instead of DAMN U, it's obvious to everyone. Prince and WB were utterly crazy to not understand it.

GOD CREATED WOMAN could have been next.

BLUE LIGHT could have been a moderate success in Europe, but not in the US.

skipthecharades said:

We'll never know

Well, obviously. It was 23 years ago. Isn't that the point of a forum? Discussion and speculation?

dodger said:

Love 2 The 9's may have done well and the edit may have appeased fans if it was Tony M free. . Would have been good to have Damn U (Sax Mix)

Love 2 The 9's is probably the one song in which I think Tony M (and Mayte...) actually have a place.

As for the Sax mix of Damn U, a 40 second snippet has leaked, but that's sadly it.

bluegangsta said:

skipthecharades said:

We'll never know

Well, obviously. It was 23 years ago. Isn't that the point of a forum? Discussion and speculation?

Well I'm very sorry about those 3 words that are obvious indeed. Djeez man..

Just read the rest of that post for my speculation.

skipthecharades said:

bluegangsta said:

Well, obviously. It was 23 years ago. Isn't that the point of a forum? Discussion and speculation?

Well I'm very sorry about those 3 words that are obvious indeed. Djeez man..

Just read the rest of that post for my speculation.

I don't think I can forgive you immediately. But, maybe in time I can reconcile the horror you've bestowed upon my thread.

I always thought "Morning Papers" would have had legs as a single, but if it was a b-side to "2 the 9s" I'm not so sure.

Sweet baby is a nice song, I'm not sure about single success. The "Damn U" sax mix is incredible.

bluegangsta said:

Three singles were planned, but never ultimately released from the Love Symbol album in 1993.

Blue Light
1. Blue Light

2. Walk Don't Walk

Sweet Baby
1. Sweet Baby
2. Damn You (Sax Mix)

Love 2 The 9's
1. Love 2 The 9's (Edit)
2. The Morning Papers

Do you think any of these would have found sucess? Or perhaps be regarded differently all these years later?

Although they are all (very) good Prince songs I don't really see them as possible successful singles. The Continental would have been a better choice IMO.

bluegangsta said:

dodger said:

Love 2 The 9's may have done well and the edit may have appeased fans if it was Tony M free. . Would have been good to have Damn U (Sax Mix)

Love 2 The 9's is probably the one song in which I think Tony M (and Mayte...) actually have a place.

As for the Sax mix of Damn U, a 40 second snippet has leaked, but that's sadly it.

Wow! For me, this is the song most destroyed by the appearance of Tony M.

The full length version of Damn U (Sax Mix) has been circulating for some while now. It's even on YouTube...

jjam said:

The full length version of Damn U (Sax Mix) has been circulating for some while now. It's even on YouTube...

Well, there we go! I can't believe I missed that!

bluegangsta said:

jjam said:

The full length version of Damn U (Sax Mix) has been circulating for some while now. It's even on YouTube...

Well, there we go! I can't believe I missed that!

I've not heard that one before and was looking forward to listening. Wan't expecting an instrumental though. The best part of Damn U is the absolutely stunning vocal. Disapointed.

bluegangsta said:

dodger said:

Love 2 The 9's may have done well and the edit may have appeased fans if it was Tony M free. . Would have been good to have Damn U (Sax Mix)

Love 2 The 9's is probably the one song in which I think Tony M (and Mayte...) actually have a place.

As for the Sax mix of Damn U, a 40 second snippet has leaked, but that's sadly it.

So what's with the 4:04 version I am listening to right now?

ETA: Just read the rest of the thread and see it was already posted. This version is on both WOW and iVault 1995, FYI.

[Edited 10/8/16 11:48am]

http://img.cdandlp.com/2015/09/imgL/117664854-2.jpg

the morning papers was released in uk, with love 2 the 9s as a b-side.

Dandroppedadime said:

http://img.cdandlp.com/2015/09/imgL/117664854-2.jpg

the morning papers was released in uk, with love 2 the 9s as a b-side.

And still one of the most underestimated singles of Prince's career.

i don't care what songs he could have or should have released,
what i missed the most with this album was there were no real
bsides.

he probably just stuck 90% of the session tracks on that album
to begin with, but it would have been nice to have a few more
additional tracks. even a song like "the call", which is nice just
for it's groove, would have been welcome.

i never understood why he didn't just release bsides from some

of his associated artist albums on his a-sides.

like, the a side, a remix or an edit and then just 2 carmen trax
or a mavis staples song, to promote their albums. if he didn't
have or didn't want to include bsides of his own, those would've
made more sense to me.

IstenSzek said:

RODSERLING said:

THE CONTINENTAL should have been released instead of DAMN U, it's obvious to everyone. Prince and WB were utterly crazy to not understand it.

Well we don't know that WB didn't want it released... I read a long time ago that Prince insisted on the singles for this album and that WB was not happy with the choices but relented after his success with D&P. WB wanted 7 as the lead single, for example...

bluegangsta said:

Three singles were planned, but never ultimately released from the Love Symbol album in 1993.

Blue Light
1. Blue Light

2. Walk Don't Walk

Sweet Baby
1. Sweet Baby
2. Damn You (Sax Mix)

Love 2 The 9's
1. Love 2 The 9's (Edit)
2. The Morning Papers

Do you think any of these would have found sucess? Or perhaps be regarded differently all these years later?

Wasn't The Continental planned at some point, too? I'm sure I've read that somewhere.

As I said in a recent thread, the actual singles had issues:

Sexy MF: Too 70's when the 70's were not yet back in fashion (it would very soon, hell Jamiroquai was only a few months later, but P was a bit ahead of his time here - it had worked for Lenny a year earlier, though), and of course the airplay issue due to profanity in the US.

MNIP: No melody but no real hip-hop either, and the lyrics were too arrogant not to antagonize the average listener.

TMP: A really catchy melody but it lacked a true chorus.

7: Very obscure lyrics, way too abstract for the average listener.

.

In that sense, at least Blue Light and Sweet baby were more simple songs, with a classic structure and accessible melodies and lyrics. + reggae was pretty hot in 93. I believe they would have been better choice.

As for Love 2 The 9's it'd have been a hit or miss. I clearly remember at the time that the song was deemed as absolutely visionary in the way it merged a warm and melodic classical soul sound with a cold-hearted hip-hop, all in a single track. This was still quite groundbreaking in 1992. So it may have blown everyone's mind or it may have been too edgy. But nevertheless it would certainly have been praised by critics. Another issue though was the the song was hard to edit for radios without defeating its purpose.