Ok, here's a question (and no it's not what's the tracklisting for the Dream Factory); it's said that The Dream Factory was never completed because Prince went off on his own to record Crystal Ball, which later became SOTT. BUT, certain songs on SOTT credit Wendy & Lisa and other Revolution members. Does anyone know what songs from that era are actually Wendy & Lisa/Revolution songs and which are solely Prince songs? Including songs from Dream Factory and Crystal Ball? Because I do believe that some of the songs that were to be on Crystal Ball were actually Wendy & Lisa songs. Also, was any of the stuff on the above mentioned albums left over from Roadhouse garden? Any input at all is greatly appreciated.

FanofDaFascist said:

Songs with Wendy/Lisa input:

Starfish and Coffee
Slow Love
Play In The Sunshine
Strange Relationship
Dream Factory
Train
Witness
Large Room With No Light
Teacher, Teacher
It's A Wonderful Day
Neon Telephone
All My Dreams

That's what I can remember.

And 'It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night' of course

NouveauDance said:

Sure, but I don't believe that IGBABN was ever slated for Dream Factory or Crystal Ball.

Spinlight said:

It was on Crystal Ball.

Don't make me whip out the tracklists again!

NouveauDance said:

You know, The Dream Factory Tracklist has been the repetitive culprit here on the org., which no one ever wants to see again; but there's nothing wrong with sharing a Crystal Ball Tracklist.
Contrary to what I've read, it doesn't really sound like Prince was really trying to stray from the Revolution by recording Crystal Ball. It seems like it was more of an evolution of The Dream Factory. But what about songs like "Splash" wasn't that left over from Roadhouse Garden? How come no tracks from Roadhouse Garden made it to any of these projects? Also according to the tracks listed above, Wendy and Lisa contributed to more than 90% of SOTT; so what was Prince trying to do on his own?

Wendy & Lisa had hardly any input into Crystal Ball / Sign O' The Times. For the most part the
album was made up of songs that didn't feature them. None of the songs on Sign O' The Times
were co-written with Wendy & Lisa and only a few actually feature them as musicians. Here's a
quick overview of the journey from Dream Factory to Sign O' The Times.

The Dream Factory was intended to be very much a 'band' project and most of the songs
featured significant contributions from the Revolution (particularly Wendy & Lisa). This
culminated in what is often refered to as the "second configuration" of the album, which
even features Wendy & Lisa singing lead vocals on a few of the tracks. This was in June 1986,
and at this point the tracklisting for 'Dream Factory' looked like this...

side 1:
1. Visions
2. Dream Factory
3. It's A Wonderful Day
4. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
5. It

side 2:
1. Strange Relationship
2. Teacher Teacher
3. Starfish And Coffee
4. In A Large Room With No Light
5. Sexual Suicide

side 3:
1. Crystal Ball
2. Power Fantastic

side 4:
1. Last Heart
2. Witness 4 The Prosecution
3. Movie Star
4. A Place In Heaven
5. All My Dreams

By July, things in the Revolution had become strained, and Prince started replacing a lot
of the full band songs with solo material. A third configuration was made of the album.
While the album was still not finished, it would prove to be the last version of 'Dream
Factory' to be sequenced, as soon after it was completed Wendy & Lisa announced that
they wanted to leave and Prince would later disband The Revolution. The third version of
'Dream Factory' looked like this...

side 1:
1. Visions
2. Dream Factory
3. Train
4. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
5. It

side 2:
1. Strange Relationship
2. Starfish And Coffee
3. Slow Love
4. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

side 3:
1. Sign O' The Times
2. A Place In Heaven
3. Crystal Ball

side 4:
1. The Cross
2. Last Heart
3. Witness 4 The Prosecution
4. Movie Star
5. All My Dreams

After disbanding The Revolution 'Dream Factory' was shelved altogether. Prince then embarked
on 'Camille' in October 1986, and the album was finished by November. The tracklisting was
as follows...

side 1:
1. Rebirth Of The Flesh
2. Housequake
3. Strange Relationship
4. Feel U Up

side 2:
1. Shockadelica
2. Good Love
3. If I Was Your Girlfriend
4. Rockhard In A Funky Place

Almost as soon as it was finished, Prince decided to expand 'Camille' into a triple album
called 'Crystal Ball', which would incorporate a lot of the solo material form the last days of
the 'Dream Factory' project. The album was completed by the end of November 1986 and
looked like this...

side 1:
1. Rebirth Of The Flesh
2. Play In The Sunshine
3. Housequake
4. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker

side 2:
1. It
2. Starfish And Coffee
3. Slow Love
4. Hot Thing

side 3:
1. Crystal Ball
2. If I Was Your Girlfriend
3. Rockhard In A Funky Place

side 4:
1. The Ball
2. Joy In Repetition
3. Strange Relationship
4. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

side 5:
1. Shockadelica
2. Good Love
3. Forever In My Life
4. Sign O' The Times

side 6:
1. The Cross
2. Adore
3. It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night

'Roadhouse Garden' was a much later project. In about 1997 Prince decided to release some
of his previously unreleased material. So he started to assemble a couple of albums - a new
three CD set entitled 'Crystal Ball' (which had nothing in common with the 1986 album, bar
the title track) and a album made up from Revolution era tracks entitled 'Roadhouse Garden'.
Obviously 'Crystal Ball' got released in 1998, while 'Roadhouse Garden' unfortunately still
sits in the Vault.