databank said:

Obviously, this collection is sadly incomplete: it lacks 3 additional Purple Rain edits and this is plain wrong.

It could also have included 4 The Tears In Your Eyes (USA For Africa version), since it was released a short while before ATWIAD, i.e. still in the proper "Purple Rain" era, but I assume it was considered more appropriate to include both versions on a future ATWIAD release, so I can live with that, but omitting the 3 PR edits is really bad. Least they could do is to release them as remastered single digital downloads!

True, but honestly I think having useless extra edits is just a waste of space, besides one is on a promo...
There are numerous edits of "Baby I'm A Star" that aren't on here either simply because they weren't on any single release but on a promo/testpressing... I would have rather seen the longer mix of "I Would DIe 4 U" on this but that one also wasn't released on any single but was in the movie...

The movie edit of "Father's Song" would have been nice too, but alas, also not on any single or promo...

And, fucking hell, the intro pitched guitar squeel on "Erotic City" 12"... What the fuck... WBR is truly shameless in fucking over Prince AND now his fans too... I always had WBR back, but this shit is as amateur as having the talentless fucking idiot who fucked up Prince's last releases "remaster" "Purple Rain"...

Neversin.

[Edited 6/24/17 9:36am]

Frustrating to get tiny edits of songs that are already on the album! (what exactly is the point of them for the average fan unless you are playing them on radio?!)

Why did they put the special dance mix of LGC on there when it's already on Ultimate?! Also I guess for disc space reasons the 'I would die 4 u' extended was cut from the original 30 minutes to 10 but even so seems a bit like butchery?!

Where was Girl [Extended]? that is a big miss!

Pleased to get Another Lonely Christmas Ext, Erotic City and God - Love theme, that is an underrated gem!

That Erotic City glitch is as noticeable as hell even on my ITUNES file that I downloaded! So there was bad quality control there!

Despite these exceptions, I do feel that this disc was a missed opportunity and instead they should have released a disc previously unreleased mixes along with all the other songs in Purple Rain like Modernaire, Jungle Love and Sex Shooter.

[Edited 6/24/17 12:51pm]

airth said:

PopcornFetus said:

Hanklin said: Ever since it was officially released in 1984.

Which means it's never been on the bootleg scene unlike the 30 minute version it was edited down from.

[Edited 6/24/17 2:00am]

Oh, sorry. At least a couple of years for the unedited version (widely). Probably longer in the 'elite' circles. Not never.

Adorecream said:

Although, if it helps, there are many ways to get Erotic city extended, on the original singles and some very good quality boots. My favourite mix is on the one used here without the dropout on Lets Go Crazy 12 and for some reason repeated on the British 12 inch of Girls and Boys issued in August 1986 for a Parade tour collectable.

.

The disc could have been done better, as most of the 7 inch mixes came out on 4ever and the 12 inches on Prince Ultimate. Also I agree, where is 17 Days extended, that song must exist extended beyond 4 minutes. God (Love theme from Purple Rain) is a treat though and sounds better than my muddy bootleg mix on Testament 1983 and Purple Rush Volume5 with the 45 minutes of Purple Rain music score.

.

I mean would it kill them to put The Bird, Jungle Love, Modernaire and Sex Shooter on that album too.

.

I mean the videos for all those songs sans Modernaire, appeared on the 20th anniversary DVD set of Purple Rain, along with MTV party and even original movie ads.

Yes! When I first heard about a Purple Rain Deluxe edition, my first thought was that it would include full versions of ALL the songs heard in the movie, whether they were performed by Prince or someone else.

That got me thinking - Is Purple Rain an actual soundtrack, or simply a Prince album that serves as the soundtrack to the film of the same name. Maybe that's just semantics and there's no difference. But, if WB sees Purple Rain first and foremost as simply a Prince album, then it makes sense that they felt no need to include the songs by other artists. The album obviously has a life of its own far, far beyond the movie. But, if they saw this release as the deluxe reissue of the Purple Rain soundtrack, then they might have been more inclined to include the non-Prince tracks.

PurpleSullivan said:

There's literally no good reason why the single edits of these songs should sound better than the album versions. Yet, they do. [Edited 6/24/17 12:37pm]

Remastered by different people. Album was Josh, the rest was Bernie Grundman.

TheFreakerFantastic said:

! Also I guess for disc space reasons the 'I would die 4 u' extended was cut from the original 30 minutes to 10 but even so seems a bit like butchery?!

Where was Girl [Extended]? that is a big miss!

The ten-minute extended version of I Would Die 4 U is what was released by Prince in 1984. I've always thought it was a superb edit, not butchery.

Girl was released as the b-side to America in October 1985, so hardly "a big miss".

Has anyone checked the HDTracks release to see if the problems with this disc also exist there?

jtfolden said:

TheFreakerFantastic said:

^ Agreed! I can see now why WB were so keen on saying the album remaster was overseen by Prince! Probably so they wouldn't get the blame!

airth said:

TheFreakerFantastic said:

! Also I guess for disc space reasons the 'I would die 4 u' extended was cut from the original 30 minutes to 10 but even so seems a bit like butchery?!

Where was Girl [Extended]? that is a big miss!

The ten-minute extended version of I Would Die 4 U is what was released by Prince in 1984. I've always thought it was a superb edit, not butchery.

Girl was released as the b-side to America in October 1985, so hardly "a big miss".

I always felt 'Girl' was a Purple Rain outtake but it appears it was not! However, the extended mix has all the passion, moans and screams of this era (bit like We Can Fuck), but hopefully then it will surface if they ever do a remaster of ATWIAD.

[Edited 6/25/17 1:31am]

I really like this disc overall, particularly for the Another Lonely Christmas (Extended) and God (Love Theme...). In addition to the obvious problems people have already spoken on at length, I really don't like the flow of the disc.

.

It starts off okay. When Doves Cry, 17 Days, Let's Go Crazy. Fair enough. But then we have Let's Go Crazy (Special Dance Mix), so I have to listen to Let's Go Crazy again. Then much of the rest of the album continues to repeat the same songs one after the other.

.

Naturally, I can make a playlits in the order I want to listen to them but the disc just isn't ordered in a way that makes it highly listenable. Either they could have ordered the tracks more randomly so I don't have to listen to the same song twice in a row, otherwise the smart move would have been A-Side, B-Side, A-Side, B-Side... etc.

.

I had a similar problem with the 4EVER compilation though. The order of the tracks just made no sense. Some of it was chronological with tracks from certain albums lumped together, but they also had tracks randomly strewn throughout. I found it distracting. Of course it's not really a complaint, just an observation.

Neversin said:

databank said:

Obviously, this collection is sadly incomplete: it lacks 3 additional Purple Rain edits and this is plain wrong.

It could also have included 4 The Tears In Your Eyes (USA For Africa version), since it was released a short while before ATWIAD, i.e. still in the proper "Purple Rain" era, but I assume it was considered more appropriate to include both versions on a future ATWIAD release, so I can live with that, but omitting the 3 PR edits is really bad. Least they could do is to release them as remastered single digital downloads!

True, but honestly I think having useless extra edits is just a waste of space, besides one is on a promo...

Thing is either you do something for the masses, and then a remastered album with a few bonus cuts will do, or you do it for the real fans and then you aim at completists, and you include promos because they were sent to radios and meant to be heard. Now I agree there was a space problem with all mixes and b-sides fitting on one CD without those additional PR edits, but then they should have offered those digitally at least. BTW I realise that there are not three but FOUR edits missing out of a total of five: the "Long Version", the 4:19 and 5:37 promos and the 4:30 brazilian one (admiteddly that last one was edited by WB Brazil and its masters may be lost or hard to find, but at worse a needledrop is better than nothing). I'll admit than 5 PR edits on a CD is somewhat ridiculous, but they should put them on iTunes and HD tracks.
There are numerous edits of "Baby I'm A Star" that aren't on here either simply because they weren't on any single release but on a promo/testpressing...

I've never heard of those neither have Princevault, but I assume you have them. However in-house/testpressing were not supposed to reach the general public in the first place, so I do not consider them "released".

I would have rather seen the longer mix of "I Would DIe 4 U" on this but that one also wasn't released on any single but was in the movie...

Incredible! I actually had never realized IWD4U is longer in the movie!!! Entry corrected on my Discog site, thank you for pointing that out!!

The movie edit of "Father's Song" would have been nice too, but alas, also not on any single or promo...

Yes, if it was up to me all bits of music in the movie, as well as the live promo videos sent to local TV stations during the PR tour should be included, but I do realize that those are a little excessive demands.

And, fucking hell, the intro pitched guitar squeel on "Erotic City" 12"... What the fuck... WBR is truly shameless in fucking over Prince AND now his fans too... I always had WBR back, but this shit is as amateur as having the talentless fucking idiot who fucked up Prince's last releases "remaster" "Purple Rain"...

Yes, this is unbelievable!

Neversin.

[Edited 6/24/17 9:36am]

Can't believe I had to do this, but actally digitised the '89 german Erotic City CD and replaced the corrupted track from Disk 3 on my iTunes.

.

Crazy they fucked that up!

james said:

Can't believe I had to do this, but actally digitised the '89 german Erotic City CD and replaced the corrupted track from Disk 3 on my iTunes.

.

Crazy they fucked that up!

I've actually found out that you can easily keep the remastered version AND correct the glitch with Audacity:

- Edit the opening note out of the long version.

- Copy and paste it from the short version unto the long one.

If well done, you can't hear a thing and it's perfect

databank said:

I've actually found out that you can easily keep the remastered version AND correct the glitch with Audacity:

- Edit the opening note out of the long version.

- Copy and paste it from the short version unto the long one.

If well done, you can't hear a thing and it's perfect

Hmmm... yeah. That might be a better option!

There IS a volume difference (at least) between the old CD single and the new remaster version!! Doh

This disc sounds really good, Mr. Grundman knows what he's doing. Let's Go Crazy sounds better here in the extended version than on the album version done by Joshua. Obviously there is some kind of mastering error in the intro of Erotic City and I also noticed that you can hear a fade-out of something else during the intro of 17 Days, this fade-out is not on the version from the Hits/B-sides compilation.

Aside from these two issues this is a well produced CD of most if not all the single versions (at least the commercially released singles, not counting promos).

KingSausage said:

jtfolden said:

Has anyone checked the HDTracks release to see if the problems with this disc also exist there?

I read on another site that the HDTracks files have all the same problems.

I've read a lot of people saying they heard from others that they do but no one that has actualy compared I guess.

luvgirl said:

Erotic City extended version is a masterpiece!!!

luvgirl said:

Erotic City extended version is a masterpiece!!!

Even with the warped beginning guitar plunk?

I forgot how the let's go crazy edit differs from the album version. Compressed start with more layers of talking to save time with going into the beat nearly at once.

databank said:

james said:

Can't believe I had to do this, but actally digitised the '89 german Erotic City CD and replaced the corrupted track from Disk 3 on my iTunes.

.

Crazy they fucked that up!

I've actually found out that you can easily keep the remastered version AND correct the glitch with Audacity:

- Edit the opening note out of the long version.

- Copy and paste it from the short version unto the long one.

If well done, you can't hear a thing and it's perfect

I use that method when fixing bad track markers and for splitting the final track on a CD when it has a 'hidden' track.

If a CD has really bad track markers, it's very quick and easy to rip the whole CD as a single WAV file and add the markers manually - and then merely batch export.

coltrane3 said:

Adorecream said:

Although, if it helps, there are many ways to get Erotic city extended, on the original singles and some very good quality boots. My favourite mix is on the one used here without the dropout on Lets Go Crazy 12 and for some reason repeated on the British 12 inch of Girls and Boys issued in August 1986 for a Parade tour collectable.

.

The disc could have been done better, as most of the 7 inch mixes came out on 4ever and the 12 inches on Prince Ultimate. Also I agree, where is 17 Days extended, that song must exist extended beyond 4 minutes. God (Love theme from Purple Rain) is a treat though and sounds better than my muddy bootleg mix on Testament 1983 and Purple Rush Volume5 with the 45 minutes of Purple Rain music score.

.

I mean would it kill them to put The Bird, Jungle Love, Modernaire and Sex Shooter on that album too.

.

I mean the videos for all those songs sans Modernaire, appeared on the 20th anniversary DVD set of Purple Rain, along with MTV party and even original movie ads.

Yes! When I first heard about a Purple Rain Deluxe edition, my first thought was that it would include full versions of ALL the songs heard in the movie, whether they were performed by Prince or someone else.

That got me thinking - Is Purple Rain an actual soundtrack, or simply a Prince album that serves as the soundtrack to the film of the same name. Maybe that's just semantics and there's no difference. But, if WB sees Purple Rain first and foremost as simply a Prince album, then it makes sense that they felt no need to include the songs by other artists. The album obviously has a life of its own far, far beyond the movie. But, if they saw this release as the deluxe reissue of the Purple Rain soundtrack, then they might have been more inclined to include the non-Prince tracks.

I've always clearly seen this as a movie soundtrack - but naturally it is awesome as a standalone album. After all, Prince was assembling songs for the film and requirements for the film directly influenced what was on the album and what was specifically written for the film - and not necessarily the other way round.

For me, exclusion of the none Prince tracks isn't an issue. To put this in context of what was happening in 1984, those tracks featured on those artist's own albums, to promote their own careers - obviously with the exception of Dez.

BoraBora said:

Strictly to my interest, I would be happy the same if the 3rd CD was a 2-track including only "God (Love Theme From Purple Rain)" and "Another Lonely Christmas (Long Version)".

So, being these two with no audio defect and in official quality, I live well with it.

That said, the distortion on EC is an absolute major letdown, only partially alleviated for who (like me) have the 1989 "Erotic City) German CD on his collection.

Agreed with all of the above.

God Instrumental & ALC Extended alone make this worthwhile, and having them all (minus the PR edits that databank mentioned of course) on one disc and packaged with the album is great.

Erotic City Extended is a head scratcher. The German CD single is obviously still the go-to release for this track. It could use some remastering from Bernie for improvement, sure, but without the glitch it still beats this new one. That said, very few collectors have that release so, this is unacceptable.

djThunderfunk said:

BoraBora said:

Strictly to my interest, I would be happy the same if the 3rd CD was a 2-track including only "God (Love Theme From Purple Rain)" and "Another Lonely Christmas (Long Version)".

So, being these two with no audio defect and in official quality, I live well with it.

That said, the distortion on EC is an absolute major letdown, only partially alleviated for who (like me) have the 1989 "Erotic City) German CD on his collection.

Agreed with all of the above.

God Instrumental & ALC Extended alone make this worthwhile, and having them all (minus the PR edits that databank mentioned of course) on one disc and packaged with the album is great.

Erotic City Extended is a head scratcher. The German CD single is obviously still the go-to release for this track. It could use some remastering from Bernie for improvement, sure, but without the glitch it still beats this new one. That said, very few collectors have that release so, this is unacceptable.

It's interesting to know if some collectors have started late or if Prince picked up fans along the way.

I ponder this because I would always see the German 5inch and 3inch singles for years, so I would have thought if anyone wanted them by now then they would have them.

I remember at the time I couldn't decide whether to buy the 5inch or 3inch set so I bought both.

I never played the 3inch set as the packaging can be fragile but I would always compile my CDs onto cassette just for ease. Naturally, everything then got ripped as a digital back-up, so I suppose in many cases my CDs have only ever been played one or at most twice.

I do think it's a little funny that one day a whole load of mint CDs and vinyl will end up in a landfill as I wouldn't imagine anyone would want them in years to come.

darkroman said:

It's interesting to know if some collectors have started late or if Prince picked up fans along the way.

I ponder this because I would always see the German 5inch and 3inch singles for years, so I would have thought if anyone wanted them by now then they would have them.

I remember at the time I couldn't decide whether to buy the 5inch or 3inch set so I bought both.

I never played the 3inch set as the packaging can be fragile but I would always compile my CDs onto cassette just for ease. Naturally, everything then got ripped as a digital back-up, so I suppose in many cases my CDs have only ever been played one or at most twice.

I do think it's a little funny that one day a whole load of mint CDs and vinyl will end up in a landfill as I wouldn't imagine anyone would want them in years to come.

I used to see the 5inch singles back the 90s all the time but as imports they were expensive, $13+ for singles. They were certainly around long enough for anyone interested to pick them up if willing to pay an album price for a single.

As for the 3", I've rarely seen them in stores. I have one myself and have see most of them in the collections of friends, but rarely saw them in stores.

databank said:

The sound glitch at the beginning of Erotic City is simply unacceptable

I would discourage anyone to spend a dollar on this product unless at least this has been corrected.

.

That was very surprising. Especially since it's right at the beginning and absolutely noticeable.

.

Digitally it's repairable, I just made a fix using the ping from the 7", but the CD is forever screwed.

.

There's been plenty of other releases from other artists that have had defects. *Sometimes* the record company will offer replacement discs. I doubt WB will for this.

rdhull said:

luvgirl said:

Erotic City extended version is a masterpiece!!!

Even with the warped beginning guitar plunk?

I heard that right off. My face -->