icecreamcastle777 said:

Number23 said:

I know, overwritten garbage by an unknown obsessive who clearly finds it had to fault his beloved Prince’s dodgy castoffs. Can’t believe his thread has had 25,000 views, guy probably wishes he had some podcast or YouTube channel to promote.

Okay... So a random Prince.org fan writing a review. Gotcha.

-

What's the difference between a damn good fan review,

and a professional music journalist with basic Prince-info errors ?

-

Now you try it!

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[Edited 9/20/20 0:52am]

Vannormal said:

JoeyCococo said:

KingSausage said:

Not caring about other people’s reviews of Prince’s music is a strange thing to rant about on a thread titled “Number 23’s SOTT Deluxe Review.” If you don’t care what others think about Prince’s music before you hear it yourself, why click on this thread? What the fuck.

A large quantity of Prince fans love to storm into any SOTT deluxe thread to proclaim their pressing pre-order philosophies.

.

"I don't care anything about this new track you're all discussing, I prefer to wait for the entire set to arrive!"

.

"Who cares about reviews!? Not I... I prefer to wait for the entire set to arrive!"

.

And btw, you do friggin' care the second you start penning tomes about how you don't care.... We're the ones who really don't care... except me of course who, you know, only cares about you not caring for the purposes of caring about unnecessary spam filler clogging up literally the most innocuous threads on the org.

[Edited 9/20/20 14:09pm]

WhisperingDandelions said:

icecreamcastle777 said:

Vannormal said:

-

What's the difference between a damn good fan review,

and a professional music journalist with basic Prince-info errors ?

-

Now you try it!

-

[Edited 9/20/20 0:52am]

Keep drinking you're kool-Aid and pay me no mine. I couldn't care less if it's a run of the mill Prince.org fan, or journalist. I'd rather not read reviews about Prince music I'm gonna buy. I'd prefer no one try to persuade me to like, or not like my upcoming Prince albums based on their own personal opinions and unstable theorized assumptions. I like the excitement and mystery of listening for myself and coming to whatever conclusions on my own - not from other people's indoctrinated coaxing, but hey, that's just me. You do you though. . [Edited 9/20/20 6:37am]

It's just their opinion. It's not stopping you from buying or not buying. Everyone is going to have an opinion good or bad... chill.

icecreamcastle777 said:

Vannormal said:

-

What's the difference between a damn good fan review,

and a professional music journalist with basic Prince-info errors ?

-

Now you try it!

-

[Edited 9/20/20 0:52am]

Keep drinking you're kool-Aid and pay me no mine. I couldn't care less if it's a run of the mill Prince.org fan, or journalist. I'd rather not read reviews about Prince music I'm gonna buy. I'd prefer no one try to persuade me to like, or not like my upcoming Prince albums based on their own personal opinions and unstable theorized assumptions. I like the excitement and mystery of listening for myself and coming to whatever conclusions on my own - not from other people's indoctrinated coaxing, but hey, that's just me. You do you though. . [Edited 9/20/20 6:37am]

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1. You're right about that! I wish I had the patience to experience once more a new Prince album, dropped out of the blue ! But I'm way too curious and spineless, and want to be here in the midsts of the excitement, like you I suppose.

2. No, It's not about persuasion...

3. and these are not unstable theorized assumptions. Please feel free to write one, I'd like to read them. I really do, this is no sarcasm.

4. You're absolutely right to feel the excitement and mystery of listening on your own.

5. ReviewS never want to 'indoctrinate coaxing', you're absolutle free (I presume)

-

Don't forget, reviews a-can be very important towards sales, or spreading the news.

How else are we able to discuss about this right now ?

These reviews are based on leaks, that were send to journalists - with the same end result.

'Unstable', 'theorized assumptions', 'pursuasion', 'indoctrinate', 'coaxing'... (fortunately) this is not a political war, or some chinese system to fight.

Peace though.

-

Still waiting.....

JoeyCococo said:

Still waiting.....

all the best writers leave a little something something to the imagination

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Yeah

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lustmealways said:

JoeyCococo said:

Still waiting.....

all the best writers leave a little something something to the imagination

Probably has a writers block by now...

SuperHero said:

Thanks, Number23! You've certainly piqued my interest!

"Walkin' in Glory" and "When the Dawn of the Morning Comes" can't get here soon enough!

fragglerock said:

“When The Dawn Of The Morning Comes” sounds amazing

Sounds like an otherwordly experience.

Number23 said:

And, like someone else said as the last words on his final work, ‘That’s it!’

.

Thanks a zillion, Number23. for all your observations, thoughts, and opinions. I can't believe you caught flak from some people on the Org. You went above and beyond, and I can say that, after reading your voluminous reports, I'm now more excited for certain Vault tracks than I was originally.

.

Don't let the lead blankets weigh you down! Keep up the good - no, GREAT! - work.

.

I look forward to your exploration of the Vault tracks in the "Around The World In A Day" SDE next fall! (Although, to capitalize on the divisible-by-5 anniversary, it'll probably be "Parade"...)

Number23 said:

SuperHero said:

Probably has a writers block by now...

In a way, aye. It’s hard to drum up much creative energy and enthusiasm for the last three tracks. I thought the set would have leaked by now so was expecting this thread to be quickly forgotten - which it soon will be. Or maybe I’ve just been lazy. Truth is that I’ve had a lot of work on that actually pays and doesn’t get me grief in orgnotes lol. Big Tall Wall 2, however, is as extraordinary as it always hinted at in that muddy, recorded-through-a-wall, 12th generation leak - yet much more crunching and monstrous and carnivorous and claustrophobic-sounding in such eerie crisp clarity. The vocal harmonies here, as most of you will already know, are otherworldly. Disturbing - as they are intended to be. It’s Big Tall Wall 1 stripped of all its flippant psychedelic exuberance and its surrealistic, Paisley-tingled wackiness. The oxygen has been sucked out of every pore. The light dissipated, the blinds drawn, from day to night. This is Prince’s ‘Idiot Wind‘, only crueller. Again, I’m guessing this was re-recorded in a fit of self-pity and pique, a negative image of the original technicolour, devoid of warmth. Harsh, binary tones, the skeletal instrumentation communicating simply black and white. There’s no grey areas, no shade, no ambiguity. It’s fucking brutal. Prince openly mocks Susannah - tells her directly he’s fucking countless women but she’s just going to have to accept it, his option of having so many ‘holes’ isn’t going to stop them from ‘having fun’. She’s his prisoner, literally, and the entire song sounds like it was recorded in a brick chamber, a cell, where Susannah has zero option to leave. Sounds anything but ‘fun‘ they’re having. It’s a fucking toxic song. Twisted, hateful, sickening. But it is a thrilling insight into Prince’s shattered psyche at the time. The fact he thought twice about releasing this - as extraordinary as it is as a work of art - says everything. He didn’t want us to know ‘him’. This is the real black album - something that should never have got out. And here it is. We’re rubberneckers at a car crash. Compare and contrast with the stunning, warm, heartbroken ‘Come Home’ recorded not long after. Like the originator of the similarly-themed and aforementioned ‘Idiot Wind’, fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan, Prince Rogers Nelson truly contained multitudes. As for Lisa’s A Place In Heaven? It’s stunning, but doesn’t achieve anything the Prince version I talked about a million posts ago didn’t. The 12” Wonderful Day is the leak with Lisa and Wendy - no doubt included so we could make our own ‘authentic’ Dream Factory tracklist. Even though we can’t really. And I spoke about the Shep remix of SR earlier too. Sounds great, it really does - massive full production, picks the best of the song’s harmonies and lays the bare bones of the tune out for archaeologists to ponder, although it’s very steeped in its era for some of the production choices. Yet, released in 87, it’d have been an absolute club banger. It understands the song, doesn’t just bludgeon it like a beat like most remixes. And, like someone else said as the last words on his final work, ‘That’s it!’ [Edited 9/21/20 16:23pm]

Thanks Number23! Great job, looking forward to the set even more now.

shall state the obvious but, after reading this review of the vault tracks, you need to get your bearings as you are disoriented... you remember that all that is in addition to the 18 songs he released that year (SOTT album, La La La and Shockadelica). A remarkable and onnce in a liftetime giant...

christobole said:

CD6 / LP9&10: Vault, Part 3

1. “Emotional Pump”

THERE’S no fucking about here. No intro, no setting the scene or establishing a mood. Foreplay is a hit of the drum, like a slap on a newborn baby’s arse to hear it cry, then … a carnivorous, predatory groove enters, crunching and chewing everything in its path. Soon, colours and shades will be layered on top of this cylindrical bassline like sweet (too sweet perhaps?) icing, but for now it will just not fucking give up - it’s alive. Sentient. A conscious entity. Willed into existence by murky voodoo and locked into the drums like Fort Knox. It’s Godzilla gobbling up Larry Graham then puking him out, just absorbing the nutrients - it’s what thunder would sound like if there was such a thing as musical heaven.

This song just won’t work on low volume - it’s been created to fill a room to justify its existence, it’s no quiet storm, or headphone masterpiece, it was born to be noticed, brash and bold - this ain’t wallpaper. You don’t play this studying for your exams. Like it said on the original vinyl pressing of Ziggy Stardust: ‘Play this record loud’.

Impishly confident with his creation, Prince actually kills everything stone dead just a few bars in, gives two more cheeky hits on the drum, holds off for an extended pregnant millisecond, then gives another single snare strike and we’re fully launched into an all-dials-up-to-ten cavalcade of rock hard, playful funk - sweetened, perhaps too much to some ears, by the song’s very poppy synth hook - a slinky little ear worm that’s quirky and light enough to carry the nimble, elastic vocal when it enters. Initially, the lyrics might strike one as leith froth,transparent, without metaphor, random, throwaway even - purely there to carry and accentuate the groove. ’Last night I was lonely/ Not for anyone/Not just for anyone/Last night I wanted you/Stars outside my window/Counted them just for fun/Counting just for fun/I counted 2002’. That’s clearly a lie too, because Prince was never that patient - would have taken at least half an hour to do that.

Yet, just when you think it’s simply another monster groove, funky but vacuous, Prince throws a curveball with the chorus, a masterful rhythmic octave jump with a double tracked falsetto, the silky voice in the highest harmony dominating. It’s pure avant pop. Too much ‘pop’ for some, I’d guess, but I’m not an emotionally dead brick of a human that can’t see beyond their protective layers. And now, for the second verse, the lyrics get interesting. We’re going somewhere. ‘I want you/Not just sexually/But in the way a mother wants a child’ which, obviously, harkens back to the cosmically incestuous emotional proto‘If I Was Your Girlfriend-esque plea of ‘I wanna be your brother, your mother and sister too’. All Princes happening at once.

And now we get literally cosmic. ’To Mars I want to go/Pardon my dying soul/ It’s all in black n white/Darling can you take me tonight?’ Literally to Mars? Surely not. Does he mean ‘men are from Mars’? It was certainly a big book that year. And the song was written for a female - the divine demigod Joni Mitchell - after all. Prince would never have cooked her a dish with no meat to chew on. Then again, maybe not. Chorus again: ‘Emotional pump, you are mine/Concentrate on u is all I have to do/You make my body jump/You make my body cry/Emotional pump’ Now, I’m from Scotland - and ‘pump’ means ‘fuck’ here. And maybe Joni’s been to Scotland too. I’m not surprised she wouldn’t sing it, what is essentially a song about Prince searching for depth in throwaway sex - much like how I’m searching for meaning and an insight into the human condition in an 80s funk jam.

Also, Joni Mitchell was 45 at the time. The music was just too sprightly, bright and bouncy. She’d have looked ridiculous. Putting melancholy lyrics over 80s balls-out party music was a trick he often deployed at this point, but it wasn’t quite ‘enough’ for Joni. it would have been interesting to hear her emote when the groove eventually lightens at the midpoint, breaks down to purely bass and drums, and Prince’s low speaking voice appears high in the mix - he clearly wants us to listen. It’s the song’s core - and suddenly it’s revealed why he intended it for Joni: “I notice the rain more than I used to/More than I used to/When I had u always, always/Always know u’re gone/Now I'm so blue/Bluer than I used to/Bluer than I used to be.”

Now, the chorus reemerges into different weather, a different, more resolved, less frantic key. Same tempo, just a different shade cast over it. Blue, perhaps, in Prince’s head. Then, we hear a single synth notes, signifying a musical break ahead, and yes, a synth bass kicks in, adds an all-too-brief new energy, aided by delicious little sci-fi synth notes being introduced that strike on the beat, but don't get in the way of the bass. Then, unexpectedly, a Caribbean-type percussion line dominates the top end as a deeper, groovier bassline kicks in. And just when that new groove is evolving organically underneath the chorus line, it’s all over. Less is sometimes more. And certainly, two days later he recorded Housequake - casually reinventing funk by deconstructing it to its marrow, beyond the bones, right to the molecules and quarks of rhythm. Shut up already, 23. Damn.

2. “Rebirth Of The Flesh (with original outro)”

Vive la Revolution! Here, Prince introduces the world to his new band, a ‘reborn’ version of The Flesh ensemble, in his mind. That’s how I see it anyway. The lyrics, again to me, are a clear swipe at his former band members, much in the way ‘Dez, do you like my band?’ cuts deep in the (tragically) unreleased Extraloveable from the 1999 sessions. ‘We are here, where are you, everybody dance to the New Boogie Crew’ Who were, essentially, Sheila E’s band. ‘Rebirth of the flesh/Is that your door?/Let ‘em in y’all/ It’s a brand new day.’ Reborn, refreshed, re-energied, this song is a dark exorcism, ridding and purging himself of the bright pastel colours, ruffles and whimsy of Lisa and Wendy - he’s that little bit funkier, nastier and grounded. He’s rediscovering his groove.

As an aside, it really must have been an odd time for Dr Fink as the last man standing. It might be Prince, but I’ll say it’s Fink so that last sentence isn’t a non sequitur, but a foreboding, haunted house rogan line keeps the vibe the right side of sinister - and there’s little joy in that ‘Soulalacolia’ hook. But this is life, this is real - and just when Prince fans who have heard the boot version a million times expect the chorus to kick in after that line, on this Deluxe edition we are treated to a secret, a two line diss that was edited out the version we know: ‘Hell, you could be my wife/But all you do is steal/Muthafukka/Muthafukka/Rebirth of the flesh/Is all over you’

Deliberately cut it out of the Camille version, perhaps the line finally reveals it’s about the Revolution after all, and he thought it too strong for release. To me, it’s quite obvious though - ‘Rebirth of The Flesh’ itself meaning ‘Listen to How Funky I Am Without Any Of You’. ‘We are here! Where are you?’ ‘Dez, don’t you like my band?’ While playing all the instruments himself of course, lol.

It’s remarkable that P also recorded Rockhard In A Funky Place during the same session. Both songs have a similar playful, yet slightly ‘off’ vibe, humour and front is being used as a defence mechanism, a testing ground for stretching out after being constrained. ‘It ain't about the money, we just wanna play’ also foreshadows similar comments in Play In The Sunshine and Everybody Want What They Don’t Got, which strike out at greed corrupting musicians - all to playful soundscapes. Unlike, for instance, the unreleased Old Friends 4 Sale, where the music directly correlates to the regretful mournful lyric. Souliacoulia, indeed. Anyway, the ending you’re all so keen to know about. No, it doesn’t sound ‘spliced’. Just slightly different to what we’re used to. The playground chant ‘la la al la la’ winds things up, leading to a Partyman-esque ‘Hey! hey! hey! hey!’ chant, then a scream, a fuzzy guitar solo builds, then an extended extra line from the version we know - nothing significant - and the song finishes up on a group ‘Hey!’ So put your concerns aside, it sounds wonderful.

3. “Cosmic Day”

Prince had a truly cosmic day once, back in 1978. Sporting a huge afro and bumfluff moustache, and yet to put out an album, he had been playing acoustic guitar nude in his bedroom when the mattress took off like Dorothy’s house in The Wizard of Oz and Prince was hurled on a voyage through space. During this voyage, Prince was privy to experiencing past, present and future all at one time - he saw that nothing really exists and we are simply the imagination of ourselves on a three dimensional plane of existence which absorbs and allows itself to be moulded by the galactic glue that we call time. Infact, Prince actually split into three separate physical demential entities of himself within this single splice of spacetime. And within this fold of the universe, where he perceived all things at once, Prince heard hundreds of hit songs from the future - thousands and millions of years into what see call ‘future’ - songs that he remembered when his bad landed back on Earth.

I’m not making this up - you’ve all seen the evidence. Incase Prince thought the incident was all a dream, he was handed a photo of his three selves while they flew through the universe on his 1978 bed. P liked the picture so much that he included it on the gatefold of his debut album For You - a sly wink to himself that everything that was to follow this debut was already inside his head. All the songs, thousands of them lined up, ready to be freed from his mind.

And ‘Cosmic Day’ is the song about that journey. ‘There’s nothing strange/I’m not deranged’ Of course it happened, have you heard Prince’s back catalogue? Are you telling me one man did all that without seeing the future?

The tune itself? In terms of tempo and structure, it’s a foreshadow of his reworking of the 78/80 ICNTTPOYM - but with a very heavy, distorted guitar carrying the tempo along with a heartbeat pound drum track, no fills, rolls or frills. Just thump thump thump, all the way through. It’s designed as an adrenaline rush, a journey through the cosmos, where nothing is real, where you realise you’ve been wrong about everything, that you’re lost inside mathematical gas. And that you should just relax and accept it.

The very heavy (for P) riffing is sweetened by the lightest, most feminine vocal he’s ever put on record. It’s a delicious dichotomy - especially as the tempo speeds up and the chords crunch hard and dark for the second verse - it’s warp speed 10 through the galactic barrier, with the foetus from 2001 singing along with the tra la la las. Double tracked Thin Lizzy guitars are hinted at during a little coda … leading to a cool, groovy breakdown where the drumming keeps pounding that same basic beat, no fills, rolls - just that heartbeat pound. Pound Pound. Boom. Boom. Things get hazy. Chemicals kicking in. Euphoria turns to confusion. You need help, advice. Then: ’Look outside your window….’ He gets what he needs - his heart keeps pounding. Boom boom boom. ‘Theres nothing strange, we not deranged’. Then, we kick back into gear, in a new key, as a foreboding, sinister solo builds as the tempo accelerates once more … this is Prince’s bed spinning around eternity, every song he’ll ever create attaching itself to his physical embodiment’s neurones. The music of the spheres. Downloaded. ‘Theres nothing strange’ he repeats. “We’re not deranged’. He’s not trying to convince himself now - it’s realisation. It’s the royal ‘we’. It’s all about his mind. He’s simply saying ‘I’m not mad, y’know. Reality is pretty strange and we can only perceive what we’re allowed to.’ Then, ‘We only want every day to be a cosmic day’. He’s enjoyed the experience. It’s not psychedelic. It’s real. It’s reality. Prince is being a honest as Kurt Cobain in In Utero here. Every day of Prince’s life on Earth was a cosmic day.

4. “Walkin’ In Glory”

I remember begging my dad to pay £3.50 to rent Steve Martin’s movie Leap of Faith in 1992. I loved The Jerk and thought I’d be getting much the same vibe. My dad knew better, taking one look at the garish Hallmark card font and shite tagline ‘Real miracles, sensibly priced’ and ushered me outside, empty handed. Why am I telling this story? Well, I eventually managed to see that movie years later, where SM played a fake preacher (well, they’re all fake of course, but SM is conscious of his mass deception and hasn't convinced himself of his own bullshit, like a lot of preachers have). It was terrible, of course, but a few nights ago when I switched on CD3 of SOTT Deluxe to hear this song, I was reminded of Steve’s lame performance - because Prince adopts a similar persona here - only he pulls it off. Not only that, Prince in full preacher mode - and you’ve never heard anything like it - does it with APLOMB. Seriously, you have not lived until you have heard Prince in full throttle Southern hellfire and damnation, gnashing teeth and wailing souls, gimme ALL YA money persona. It’s satirical - it’s too funny not to be - but, again, the dichotomy with Prince - he’s also utterly sincere. Purifying the lie at the core with genuine passion and belief.

So, right away, we are lunched into a manic-tempo, gospel chords and organ stabs, car chase percussion and full throated declarations of ‘Glory, glory!’ All Prince’s vocal weapons are deployed here, and it’s staggering hearing it all at once - falsettos, screams, moans, shouts, yelps, croons .. all sounding simultaneously chaotic and yet in perfect harmony. ‘Aggghhhhhhh YEAH! Ooooooooooh! Glory glory! Walking in glory!’ Yes, When The Dawn , The Voice Inside and even Trust explore similar ground … but not like this. It’s next level, Prince actually GETTINg the sound in his head on tape. I think it must have scared him. One man? All this? Come on.

He kills his girlfriend off first. read into that what you will. ’Woke up this mornin/Looked all around/Couldn’t find my baby/She nowhere to be found/Think Tha Lawd took her/Late the other night/Took her off to heaven/Well people that’s alright cuz (chorus kicks in) She’s walkin’ in glory!/Her soul is saved!/She walking with Da Lawd!/Whose son he gave!/ So we don’ fall to damnation/This world is fading fast/Got that from Revelation/And you got to say his name y’all/Way up on the hill/Ask him for forgiveness/The lord will show you where/My baby was a sinner/But she knew the meaning of love/Now she walking with dat man up above/Walkin in glory!/Her soul is saved!’ FUCKIN TESTIFY, P!

At the end of each line, a Flavour Flav/Bobby Bird type hype man is urging P on, questioning him, mimicking his vocal. It’s hilarious, you imagine this voice waving a towel on stage to cool Preacher P down as he dances, pounds the floor with his heel and slams his fist into a Bible. What a vocal, seriously. Absolutely stunning - I’ve not heard anything quote like it for P. The fact there’s still surprises like this in the Vault is … well, you don’t need me to tell you that Prince was a genius. He knows this music, and utterly owns it here - he ‘is’ this music. It’s so frantic, daring, imaginative and genuinely outrageous.

It’s all anchored by that Southern-style lead vocal intensity, almost parodic like I said, but passionate enough to have deep gravitas. It’s a hugely ambitious song, a thunderous sounding revivalist stomp across an altar on fire … and just when it reaches peak intensity - at about 1 min 30 seconds in lol - P gives us some beautiful angelic relief with a stunning solo falsetto proclaiming ‘You got to say his name (key change, tempo builds again) ‘Jesus! Jesus! Glory! Glory!’ It’s beautiful - and I’m far from a believer in angry Judeo Christian skygods. Then, we hear the first stirrings of ‘Lovesexy' euphoria - Prince loses it in rapture, almost talking in tongues now ‘Who whoo whoo whooooooooooooo!’

This is explicit Lovesexy, raw and uncut. No ambiguity, no metaphor. This is Seventh Day adventist, true word of the Bible, true faith and belief in the son of god, so rootsy. Now we get a sincere dedication to Jesus admit a frantic huge sci-fi gospel groove : ‘No-one can match his glory/Or his fame/Hell mend ya/If u don't know his name/I want to tell his story/ Each and every day!) Then a synth appears that sounds like a sax - synthetic but great. A wild, twisting tornado of a solo, deeply distorted and fed through various pedals. It’s then the turn for the organ, and everything breaks down to the roots, and we are truly at church now, P manically talking in tongues, doing insane things with his diaphragm and vocal chords, things we’ve never really head before in such unfiltered form, in rapture to his Lawd, full of righteous flame. A strange juddering bass then rolls in, like a massive truck rolling past, woooooom, then an exhilarating ’YAS YAS YEAHHH!’ sends the ‘sax’ away.

Now it all breaks down to organ and we hear, intimately, slowly, P getting his breath back (as intimately as it gets with a million multitrack Princes intoning ‘Help me Lord/Don’t let me lose my way’ It’s truly beautiful. A true soul confessional. And an astonishing display of vocal virtuosity. ‘Look at me!’ he shouts in the outro.’I’m freakin!’ He knows how insane it is, what he’s just created. ‘Shaka shaka shakaa!’ He’s loving it. Telling ‘fools to get out of my face’, that ‘it’s allright!’. Even a shout out to ‘Big G y’all!’ Hilarious. Deliberately so. Then, he sings to us - ‘One day we’re all going to talk in glory’.

It’s Lovesexy, thats all I can say. Finally, an organ reenters the mix as everything breaks down, it’s warm, woozy. ‘It’s alright y’all. Big G y’all. We gon walk!/One day you’ll see/my soul will be free/And I’ll walk in glory with the Lawd/HELP ME LAWD/DON’ LET ME LOSE MY WAY/I WANT U EVERY DAY!’over A single chord high synth. Then, a dramatic, hard-sung, like his voice at the end of The Cross: ’GLLLOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRY!’ and it’s all over.

My God, I think I’m a believer.

5. “Wally”

Oh ma la de da. Oh malady. Oh my sickness. Well, at least we now know that the tape speed of this legendary leak was completely wrong. Prince’s voice is pitched in the middle of his range with a slightly affected, questioning, delicate bend on the vowel sounds - insinuating a questioning, confused, vulnerable tone. But no effects or artificial pitch shifting. ‘Do you know what malady means in French?’ Prince apparently asked Susan Rogers while recording the original, now lost, version. Before she could answer, he replied: ‘It means sickness.’ And if too much richness makes us queasy when overindulging, Prince was determined to make us sick here - throwing the kitchen sink at this stunning confessional to make us puke. ‘He’s ruining it’ Susan thought, watching him add the layers upon layers. He wasn’t ruining anything - he was trying to make us feel as sick with the richness of love that he had once felt. Oh malady. Oh ma la de da. As a production, it’s ridiculously sumptuous, over the top and mad professor territory - echoing the accusations levelled at the lesser, more flowery, less deep, less ‘arty’ Adonis and Bathsheba.

Wally is not only magnificent, but the artistic highlight and emotional core of this entire set. including SOTT - especially if you buy into the P and Susannah love story.

The eyes are the window of the soul. And men rarely want their friends to see how they really feel. Wally comes in wearing funky shades. Prince talks parties and women, fronting, small talk: ‘Lets go out like we used to do’. He asked to wear Wally’s glasses - not because he believes those are the freakiest glasses he’s ever seen, but because he doesn't want Wally to see the truth in his own eyes. Not at the start of the song anyway. But when P puts those glasses on, and still sees the world is the same sickening place, realises that he still feels the same, that he can’t hide behind shades forever, the song reveals itself as a true soul confessional: “Wally, what am I going to do? She was the only once I could talk to.’

'O my la de da'. The refrain, the sickness, is beginning to swell. The horror of loneliness grows and P layers the vocals on to drown out the pain, the emotion, make it huge, make it shadow over everything. ‘Its too late for sympathy/Whatever will be will be/I’m going to a party and if I don't find somebody/Somebody will find me’ Then, puncturing his own bravado straight away: ‘What am I gonna do? She was the only one I could talk to.’ My god, the little falsetto harmonies on darting in and out that wee line are heartbreaking. So clear now, not muffled at all, we hear everything as it should be in this ridiculously widescreen creation - there’a full movie here. And it’s certainly a Hollywood production. Big emotions. Huge brush strokes. A conventional blueprint Eric plays with wildly - he knows what’s expected of him here, and delivers one of the most outstandingly emotional and exhilarating performances I’d heard him magic into the world.

Then, trembling, The Voice…’Wally? Where’d you get them glasses?’ A muted horn enters. P, hushed, humbled: ’Those are the freakiest glasses I’ve ever seen.’ Then, the universe explodes, Prince’s heart opens up completely, we see everything. ‘Oooohhhh oooh ohhhhhh, what am I gonna do?!’ He takes it to the stars, all the pain, all the hurt, all the regret, the agony of existence - all channelled through the core prism of earthy musical beauty.

And now, we see the real meaning of the glasses. He envies how Wally views the world, carefree, easy, cool. They didn’t work for Prince. He still felt the sickness. A loneliness beyond description. So he’d drown it out - bring in Eric Leeds to arrange one of the most dramatic explosions of sound he’d ever put to tape. P is even generous enough to through in three false endings as crescendos - with the ‘actual’ fade outro sounding like the ultimate emotional sucker punch in this quality.

Susan might think this doesn’t have the power of the original, and I trust her judgement generally - so can only imagine what the original was like. Oh my la de da. Oh malady. Oh my sickness. I think Susan misses the point of those layers, to sicken himself, to drown out the pain - t’s utterly heartbreaking, devastating and just as distressing and honest as Susan believes the original was. Making himself sick with indulgence. What a fool he’s been. ‘What am I going to DO?’ P realises he’s been fronting all his life - and, making small talk with Wally, realising how pathetic it is to fake emotions to real friends. Who’s fooling who? ‘Wally, what am I going to do?’

A huge, magisterial, final solo is awarded to Eric before P straps on his guitar for the final flourish, busting a hole through the material world and taking it to the ether ( and we hear him shouting something like ‘Dont go!’ deep, deep in the mix during the solo here, something not audible in the leaked version. The third crescendo peaks, and then it’s gone. A moment in time. Lost, like tears in the rain, to steal a phrase.

As you can probably tell, I genuinely believe this is one of Prince’s greatest works. And just like he took away the colour and warmth and richness from his other ‘Susannah’ songs (Forever In My Life, Big Tall Wall etc), here he took the skeletal, dark original (I”m imagining, don’t bloody orgnote me for it when I return, no-one has ’Wally 1’) and made the most elaborate, huge, exhilaratingly high octane emotional release he had ever created - took everything at his disposal and laid it all on. Phil Spector would have dropped his jaw in awe. And probably would have shot P for eclipsing him. But that bullet might have been wasted - part of Prince had died. He’d never be this open again. At least, not on anything officially released. His heart, for all intents and purposes, was closed. Younger women awaited, those he could mould and reinvent in his own image. This song is a wake for the Prince that was. Things would never quite be the same again.

--- the remaining songs will be reviewed tomorrow ---

Beautiful worded all of it, but I hadn't seen Wally that way.

Number23 said:

SuperHero said:

Probably has a writers block by now...

In a way, aye. It’s hard to drum up much creative energy and enthusiasm for the last three tracks. I thought the set would have leaked by now so was expecting this thread to be quickly forgotten - which it soon will be. Or maybe I’ve just been lazy. Truth is that I’ve had a lot of work on that actually pays and doesn’t get me grief in orgnotes lol. Big Tall Wall 2, however, is as extraordinary as it always hinted at in that muddy, recorded-through-a-wall, 12th generation leak - yet much more crunching and monstrous and carnivorous and claustrophobic-sounding in such eerie crisp clarity. The vocal harmonies here, as most of you will already know, are otherworldly. Disturbing - as they are intended to be. It’s Big Tall Wall 1 stripped of all its flippant psychedelic exuberance and its surrealistic, Paisley-tingled wackiness. The oxygen has been sucked out of every pore. The light dissipated, the blinds drawn, from day to night. This is Prince’s ‘Idiot Wind‘, only crueller. Again, I’m guessing this was re-recorded in a fit of self-pity and pique, a negative image of the original technicolour, devoid of warmth. Harsh, binary tones, the skeletal instrumentation communicating simply black and white. There’s no grey areas, no shade, no ambiguity. It’s fucking brutal. Prince openly mocks Susannah - tells her directly he’s fucking countless women but she’s just going to have to accept it, his option of having so many ‘holes’ isn’t going to stop them from ‘having fun’. She’s his prisoner, literally, and the entire song sounds like it was recorded in a brick chamber, a cell, where Susannah has zero option to leave. Sounds anything but ‘fun‘ they’re having. It’s a fucking toxic song. Twisted, hateful, sickening. But it is a thrilling insight into Prince’s shattered psyche at the time. The fact he thought twice about releasing this - as extraordinary as it is as a work of art - says everything. He didn’t want us to know ‘him’. This is the real black album - something that should never have got out. And here it is. We’re rubberneckers at a car crash. Compare and contrast with the stunning, warm, heartbroken ‘Come Home’ recorded not long after. Like the originator of the similarly-themed and aforementioned ‘Idiot Wind’, fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan, Prince Rogers Nelson truly contained multitudes. As for Lisa’s A Place In Heaven? It’s stunning, but doesn’t achieve anything the Prince version I talked about a million posts ago didn’t. The 12” Wonderful Day is the leak with Lisa and Wendy - no doubt included so we could make our own ‘authentic’ Dream Factory tracklist. Even though we can’t really. And I spoke about the Shep remix of SR earlier too. Sounds great, it really does - massive full production, picks the best of the song’s harmonies and lays the bare bones of the tune out for archaeologists to ponder, although it’s very steeped in its era for some of the production choices. Yet, released in 87, it’d have been an absolute club banger. It understands the song, doesn’t just bludgeon it like a beat like most remixes. And, like someone else said as the last words on his final work, ‘That’s it!’ [Edited 9/21/20 16:23pm]

-

Waaw.

Again, you know how to 'supremely fool around' with a Prince fan's mind in a most longing and promising way.

Your writings live up to our Princely youthful wonder that we all so desperately want to relive.

I'm sittign here reading it all again, like a kid that needs to pee, and doesn't want to leave the room.

You're rightfully 'the man' for the last two week here on the org.

Look how these imaginative appealing words are so much appreciated by most.

Thank you !

Like I said before, I printed your reviews to put 'm in the deluxe LP box I ordered, just to read them again, while possibly having a greasy and most happy eargasm.

-

Vannormal said:

Number23 said:

SuperHero said: In a way, aye. It’s hard to drum up much creative energy and enthusiasm for the last three tracks. I thought the set would have leaked by now so was expecting this thread to be quickly forgotten - which it soon will be. Or maybe I’ve just been lazy. Truth is that I’ve had a lot of work on that actually pays and doesn’t get me grief in orgnotes lol. Big Tall Wall 2, however, is as extraordinary as it always hinted at in that muddy, recorded-through-a-wall, 12th generation leak - yet much more crunching and monstrous and carnivorous and claustrophobic-sounding in such eerie crisp clarity. The vocal harmonies here, as most of you will already know, are otherworldly. Disturbing - as they are intended to be. It’s Big Tall Wall 1 stripped of all its flippant psychedelic exuberance and its surrealistic, Paisley-tingled wackiness. The oxygen has been sucked out of every pore. The light dissipated, the blinds drawn, from day to night. This is Prince’s ‘Idiot Wind‘, only crueller. Again, I’m guessing this was re-recorded in a fit of self-pity and pique, a negative image of the original technicolour, devoid of warmth. Harsh, binary tones, the skeletal instrumentation communicating simply black and white. There’s no grey areas, no shade, no ambiguity. It’s fucking brutal. Prince openly mocks Susannah - tells her directly he’s fucking countless women but she’s just going to have to accept it, his option of having so many ‘holes’ isn’t going to stop them from ‘having fun’. She’s his prisoner, literally, and the entire song sounds like it was recorded in a brick chamber, a cell, where Susannah has zero option to leave. Sounds anything but ‘fun‘ they’re having. It’s a fucking toxic song. Twisted, hateful, sickening. But it is a thrilling insight into Prince’s shattered psyche at the time. The fact he thought twice about releasing this - as extraordinary as it is as a work of art - says everything. He didn’t want us to know ‘him’. This is the real black album - something that should never have got out. And here it is. We’re rubberneckers at a car crash. Compare and contrast with the stunning, warm, heartbroken ‘Come Home’ recorded not long after. Like the originator of the similarly-themed and aforementioned ‘Idiot Wind’, fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan, Prince Rogers Nelson truly contained multitudes. As for Lisa’s A Place In Heaven? It’s stunning, but doesn’t achieve anything the Prince version I talked about a million posts ago didn’t. The 12” Wonderful Day is the leak with Lisa and Wendy - no doubt included so we could make our own ‘authentic’ Dream Factory tracklist. Even though we can’t really. And I spoke about the Shep remix of SR earlier too. Sounds great, it really does - massive full production, picks the best of the song’s harmonies and lays the bare bones of the tune out for archaeologists to ponder, although it’s very steeped in its era for some of the production choices. Yet, released in 87, it’d have been an absolute club banger. It understands the song, doesn’t just bludgeon it like a beat like most remixes. And, like someone else said as the last words on his final work, ‘That’s it!’ [Edited 9/21/20 16:23pm]

-

Waaw.

Again, you know how to 'supremely fool around' with a Prince fan's mind in a most longing and promising way.

Your writings live up to our Princely youthful wonder that we all so desperately want to relive.

I'm sittign here reading it all again, like a kid that needs to pee, and doesn't want to leave the room.

You're rightfully 'the man' for the last two week here on the org.

Look how these imaginative appealing words are so much appreciated by most.

Thank you !

Like I said before, I printed your reviews to put 'm in the deluxe LP box I ordered, just to read them again, while possibly having a greasy and most happy eargasm.

-

Lol, appreciate that Van, looking forward to reading other people's opinions when it leaks/releases, especially your own.

Also, I've read a few folks on here mentioning that the version of Crucial here is the 'Clare Fischer' version - but that would be misleading. There is a faint orchestral movement in the background of the instrumental breakdown before the guitar solo but it's far from a foreground mix - doesn't sound much like Clare either, to my ears. Can hear it very vaguely during the actual solo too, but like I say, don't expect a huge, obvious Clare input.

[Edited 9/23/20 6:37am]

KingSausage said:

Not caring about other people’s reviews of Prince’s music is a strange thing to rant about on a thread titled “Number 23’s SOTT Deluxe Review.” If you don’t care what others think about Prince’s music before you hear it yourself, why click on this thread? What the fuck.

Indeed

Maybe they should Free Pro too? He was a good friend of mine back in the day and I haven't heard from him since.

grantevans said:

Free Kares. Free Number23 It is so sad. I know the people who have been around forever (Neversin, databank, Bart and the others we all know). There have been too many semi-trolling posts. And also a lot of opinions from people who were not born.or very young when the actual events occurred. It's great to have younger fans but there needs to be respect shown to those who know this and lived this. Can we please bring back some civility to the org. A focus on music. Less gossip related posts, less hypotheticsls This place used to be about Prince and music. Please can it be so again.

-

WTF is happening with this thread :

The ''Bob George Voice'' originated from Susan Rogers playing around on studio equipment

It's been days since it is closed ...

-

SquirrelMeat said:

Number23 said:

It's neversin's analysis that deserves to go in the book's linear notes, mine is really just flowery exposition and subjective personal opinion. Neversin knows if this release is truly comprehensive for the era or simply another cash-in - he's the real deal. I just got lucky with Warners this time around. Shame that NS has had his fingers burned so many times here, being accused of lyring, making facts up - it's not that he demands reverence for his knowledge, he just feels he's earned the right not to be challenged on what he knows to be fact. He told he's written up extensive analysis but doesn't want to put it out in public. Some might see it as a tease, but I get it. Still doesn't mean I'm not begging him to read it lol.

I disagree. Not about Neversin as such (I've been around since year zero, so I know who has in-depth knowledge and access to certain matertial- if he wrote a book I'd buy it in a second), but about a danger of one version of the truth becoming treated as fact and that version being cast in stone.

Whether we go back to the Pers research, the Prince Vault data, Duane's work or post 2016 relevations from people who were in the room, rarely do they completely match up.

'Facts' normally solidifiy when several sources (usually 3 in the science world) varify the same result. We can see from the SDE releases that previous 'facts' about certain material was wrong in some cases.

I'm certainly not saying we should trust the estate either, but whatever the source is, if someone feels they've earned the right not to be challenged without providing evidence, they aren't going to be fully respected; be it a Neversin or Boris, or a Wendy and Lisa.

As its been pointed out on here before, Prince is dead. Thre is no reason not to share information. A version of a song which originated from a band member or engineers cassette does not invalidate an alternative 'tweeked' version on an SDE, as long as we can reference what and why the tweeked version exists. Someone digitising the vault now is more likely to be able to provide better reference material than a band member recollecting a recording session 35 years ago....in SOME cases.

Ultimately, building on your new 'Prince' thread, the only thing that will keep things in check is a posotive, active and informed fan base. If the smoke and mirrors approach continues with both the 'elite' collectors and the estate, then the studio legacy will never be solidified.

Very well stated. I strongly agree.