WHY ISNT THERE A SPECIAL EDITION PURPLE RAIN OR SIGN O THE TIMES WITH BONUS TACKS, EXTRA SLEEVE NOTES, COMMENTARIES, ALTERNATE VERSIONS, BONUS TRACKS, PICTURES ETC ETC? IT SEEMS LIKE SUCH A PITY COS HE WAS AN ARTIST THAT WAS BORN FOR ALL THESE EXTRA FEATURES, SIMPLY BECAUSE THERE IS A WEALTH OF HISTORY AND MUSICAL ACTIVITY BY THE LIL MAN. HIS . I SAW THE THRILLER SPECIAL EDITION, AND THERE WASNT REALLY THAT MUCH EXTRA , I HAVE THE "WHOS NEXT" SPECIAL EDITION WHICH IS FANTASTIC, THE MARVIN GAYE SPECIAL EDITION "WHATS GOIN ON?" WITH AN EXTRA DISC. BUT IS SEEMS THAT WE ARENT GOING TO GET ONE FROM PRINCE ANY TIME SOON WHAT WITH THE WHOLE WB THING.

Cuz Warner's OWNS the MASTERS.

& Prince will not do a deal with them for it.

Which means NO special editions or anything until he starts getting each cd back starting next year.

25 year rule.

Artists get thier master back 25 years after recording it.

For you; 2003
Prince ; 2004
Dirty Mind; 2005
Controversy: 2006
1999 : 2007
Purple Rain: 2009
ATWIAD : 2010
Parade: 2011
SOTT: 2012
Lovesexy: 2013
Batman: 2014
Graffiti Bridge: 2015
D & P : 2016
: 2017
Come: 2019
Gold: 2020


(chas & disorder, & the vault were seperate in a deal made with Warner's.)

Now if Warners were to sell the masters early to Prince, he could buy them back.

I HEARD (rumor) that in 1999, Warners wanted something outrageous like 200 million for them. Again.....just HEARD this.....Also heard some crap bout Universal getting involved but not enough proof is out there to go on it.

So that is your answer to the special editions UNLESS you will be satisfied by the very best of set coming from the NPGMC sometime before you die.

If that is the 2 cd set "Prince's Celebration" was to be released last year, it will still be 2 cd's.

Just like "One Night Alone" is a Piano album Prince made two years ago called "Keys". Several tracks off of that have been changed since the original 2000 version of that cd.

jseven said:

Thats it....Everything he said above is true.

There is an old saying which is very appropriate at this point. "O 4 FUCKS SAKE". No chance of a Sign O times special until 2012. Something has to be done. Can't Warner release the Special edition?

jseven said:

This is the real problem. If Prince went to WB and said "I'll let you sell a remastered SOTT" in exchange for a bigger piece of the pie, WB would absolutely be interested.

Prince would still own the SOTT masters in 2011, and he could issue a deluxe set w/b-sides/outtakes at that time... but there is no reason that a classic ablum like that (or 1999, Lovesexy, etc.) should still be in such poor quality.

It all comes down to the fact that Prince is too hung up on his anti-record company crusade to be reasonable. WB is not going to give him back his masters, so he needs to either pay the necessary price (which he won't) or let bygones be bygones and cut a deal with them to release this stuff in better quality in exchange for a bigger cut.

An additional piece of the equation here is the fact that Prince does not feel comfortable with a lot of his old work because of his religious beliefs. I'll be very suprised if he releases 25-year anniversary versions of many of his old albums w/ b-sides and outtakes. Do you think Prince has any interest in selling a remastered version of Dirty Mind? That's probably one of the reasons that he hasn't bought back his masters... he wouldn't want to sell them anyways. He might sell a remastered box set with selective songs, but there ain't no way "Head" or "Sister" are ever getting remastered!

'scuse my ignorant ear...but what's wrong with the sound quality of those CDs?

There's only so much you can do with an analog master that was recorded in the 70's right?

I've always got into the sound quality of CDs like Dirty Mind or Controversy because they sound so simple and bare...like the music is happening right there with minimal messing around.

Unlike CDs from his later years where some of the stuff sounds all muddy/smashed together(Lovesexy...sometimes).

How could/would they be improved?

S3V3N said:

I was referring mainly to SOTT and 1999... both of which need remastering.

S3V3N said:

Check out some of the Stevie Wonder remasters.

S3V3N said:

I agree that Dirty Mind and Controversy are perfect the way they are. Not 1999 or SOTT though... the CDs sound terrible... I much prefer listening to both on vinyl.