What was your reaction to this album first time u played it?
how much did u pay 4 the album back then?
How long did it take 4 you to obtain copy of it?

My first copy of this was bought on lp and it had been copied at too fast a speed. I just thought that he'd used the camille voice much more on the album. It was only when I bought an excellent quality version that I realised what I'd been listening to. It was so hard to get into it then - it sounded sooo slow, but I got used to it in the end. Did anybody else find that a) it was almost impossible to find a copy with the 'What kind of fuck ending was that?' bit on the end, and b) the official version had a worse sound quality than some of the bootlegs.

I first had the Black Album on cassette. "Cindy C' was the song I most remembered from the first listen. I didn't pay anything for it. I have two copies of the cd.

My local county library has this cd along with Gold available for check out. I wonder what the cost for losing a cd is? I am sure it may be less than to purchase this from someone.

jbchavez said:

MilesIsAlive said:

One time i found wecome to the beautiful experince boot at my local library

the black album was quite the holy grail for me in high school. it's hard to imagine now that i've had the internet around for so long how hard it could be to find such a disc, even if it was an unreleased one.

When I finally found it in my senior year, it was an LP with black-on-black artwork, and sounded pretty good for the $25 I spent on it. I remember ever so carefully playing it once to record onto a high quality tape.

Later I found it on CD (I won't tell you what I paid for it!) and it sounded AWEFUL. HORRID. I brought it back and made such a fuss over it they let me exchange it just so I'd stop using the word "bootleg" in their record store I got Crucial instead. I see what looks to be that same horrid Black Album CD on eBay every once in a while for about $5. Sometimes I think of picking it up just to have.
[This message was edited Wed Jun 5 11:08:11 PDT 2002 by xenith]

I had an awesome creative writing teacher in high school who made me a copy of it when he found out I was a Prince fan. Honestly, it's one of my top five favorite Prince albums and I've always loved it. I don't know if that's because it was something I wasn't supposed to have at the time or what.

I found a boot of it in Chicago in 1990 for $50 and then got the released version in 1994.

I pick up copy when i was in 8th grade at record show in miami
FL sometime in 92-93 from what i can recall i payed 24 dollars for it this boot had in all my dreams old freinds 4 sale on it
those two last tracks had crappy sound on it.i was in miami beach in 94 i pick up clean copy of the cd y&T record on south beach i payed about 12 dollars for cd back then.then few months later the offical album was released by WB .Back then being new to the boot game. t BOB george just blew my mind & i always wonderd what cindy crawford opinion was of this track written about her.

im out

MilesIsAlive said:

The first time I played it I was so gleaming with joy. Bob George is what I remeber most. I paid 20 buck and it was a bootleg Lp from spain with Cindy Crawford on the cover. That was about 1989 or 90. Later I bought a cd bootleg that was a recording of a scratched up Lp. In 91 I bought a perfect copy on CD for 30 dollars. A perfect replica as well. Now I have a sealed copy of the re-release and a sealed promo copy. The Black album is great,fantastic, and spectacular to me. I love it for its emotional and human worth, not the fact that it was unobtainable. In fact, I have many bootlegs from the late 80's with differnt cuts from the black album. What a great album!

uglybrowneyes said:

You should have tried Blue Note records in North Miami Beach. Killer store for bootlegs.

Damarok said:

Wrong reply sorry.

MilesIsAlive said:

You should have tried Blue Note records in North Miami Beach. Killer store for bootlegs.

Damarok said:

i got few things in the past from them i order cd's over the phone with them. never been up there they still carry boots?
do u live in miami since u know about bluenote?

I remember having The Black Album on tape sometime in 1987. I loved it from the first listen. A fe wmonth laster, I heard Lovesexy on tape before it was released and it didn't hit me as positively at first (thought I grew to love it quickly), but The Black Album kicked my ass the first time I heard it, Although I had already heard tapes of the unreleased "Camille" album, so "Rock Hard In A Funky Place" seemed out of place on TBA. Then of course "When 2 R In Love" seemed out of place on Lovesexy because I had already heard it on TBA.
[This message was edited Wed Jun 5 12:00:09 PDT 2002 by TonyC]

this is that aweful boot of it i got rid of:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eB...=879514740

That was the first time I heard those extra outtakes though.

Later I found a better CD...don't remember what I paid for it...I never bought the WB rerelease though. It just didn't seem like it would be the same.

I didn't like The Black Album very much at first...uh oh...
...but, I like it now, okay...lol...my appreciation for it grew tremendously. Cool.

I had a very poorly recorded cassette copy I picked up at a shop in London not so long (a year?...honestly, I don't really remember) after it was pulled...can't remember what I paid tho..

MilesIsAlive said:

Yep, still in Miami. Yes they carry boots for Hardcore collectors. I get most of my stuff these dayz from the net.

Haystack said:

That's funny. Mine was copied at too SLOW a speed. the only way I could tell was "When 2 R in Love" came on.

My first impression was that it was over-reliant on the drum machine and sounded a little too synthetic and monontanous(sp?), as opposed to the funk-drenched, dark masterpiece it was hyped up to be. I remember trying to figure out what was so "evil" about it.

Loved "Bob George", "Dead on It" and "Rock Hard in a Funky PLace" right away.

MilesIsAlive said:

i thought it was garbage
i got it for like 10 bucks
i found a used CD at a shop in 1999


...its not something i listen to very often its okay its not all that.

I bought The Black Album on cassette off a street vendor in NYC for $10 about a month after Lovesexy was released. It was recorded at a higher speed & it took me forever to get used to the next copy I bought because it was recorded at the right speed.
And I loved it from the start.

I bought The Black Album from a newspaper ad selling it on LP for $50 Australian. It was around the time of when Lovesexy was released. Still got it. It's all black with a black label on the record. The only way you know what songs are on it is from a sticker placed on the cover.

The first time I heard the Black Album was when somebody I knew bought a bootleg copy on vinyl. I guess it wasn't too long after it started circulating (I really don't remember anymore).

The first time I heard I heard it I liked it! I was still relatively new to Prince's music back then so I didn't think anything "special" about it. I just liked it and just thought of it as a great album and how much of a shame it was that WB wasn't going to release it.

However, I never bothered purchasing a copy since I taped the vinyl from the person I knew. When WB finally released it is when I bought the CD and a legimitate vinyl copy as well. I played the CD only a few times as I was already familiar with the songs and my taped copy still held up pretty good.

Since then, I tracked down a promotional poster and promo "album flat" of The Black Album to enhance my collection.

Freshman year at Tennessee State University all of the 6th floor Prince fans came in the possession of the Black Album.
At first listen and at the last listen (today) I still have the same conclusion .Prince would have reclaimed his title as HIS ROYAL BADNESS.One of the great miscues in his history .

A dj in my dorm let me hear a cassette of it in early '88. It sounded like a mono AM radio version, but i was totally shocked by how wild and crazy it sounded, especially Bob George. It did sound very dark and spooky when I first heard it. I then tracked down a vinyl copy for $25.

It sounded horrible, then I found a slowed down clear sounding vinyl, then a cd, then a better cd, then a better cd, then it was released!

It is still my favorite Prince album. It's so cohesive, was so mysterious, and you had to work to get it.

You know based on my friends' reactions, this album would have really hit for Prince in a cool "anti-pop" way. Ironically, frat boys might have been blasting it alongside Public Enemy in their SUV's. Most of my friends who didn't care much about Prince asked for copies of this when it was a bootleg in 1988. They loved it. They haven't cared much for any Prince release since.

AAhh the Black Album This was the first of many many many bootleggs...I was at a Jesse Johnson concert at The Roxy back in 88 and was talking to a guy and mentioned Prince. The guy smiles and asked if I know about The Black Album and all I knew was that it had just been canceled. Well his friend worked at WB and he had an original copy. So within 3 days I had a perfect copy of this elusive and soon to be much bootlegged album...The following year was my senior year in high school and there was this one girl who was just soo fine...U know, outta most guys league and only dated college guys...Anyway she's a big prince fan and this boy has The Black Album I'm not saying that I got in them drawers because of this album BUT (hey, play on words) okay, I'm sure it did...I couldn't see this happening again with an album like Rave---
So anyway-Le Grind and Cindy C. were the standout tracks and Bob George was kickin..."Yea, 4 someone who can't stand them TV dinners U sure eat enough of the MF's!!"
Aloha~

4 those that Black Album after it was released sometime in the late 90's...it couldn't have the same effect on U as it did when it was first finished...This was 2 funky back than but truthfully doesn't hold up if played for the first time nowadays...Aloha~

Who else out there feels that Prince lost a great oppurtunity when this album was not released?

muleFunk said:

Probably would've moved more copies than "Lovesexy",and elicited many Spinal Tap "Smell the Glove" jokes from the critics. I know a few (admittedly small-minded) people who refused to buy "Lovesexy" based solely on the cover, and a few others who were turned off by the single track CD.

The Black Album material came off great live at the Lovesexy show. How did it sell after its official release?

muleFunk said:

i'm a fan of his development that ditching the black album was a part of. i don't think anyone would disagree that the black album would sell better than lovesexy...but i think we would have a much different prince today if he had taken that route. i think some want that prince...but i'm content to take things as they have come.

i think i paid $45 for the record from wynnco. it was the black cover with the shiny black picture of prince (on erotic city records). i thought this was the coolest record ever and the sound quality was great! this was in 1990 i think.