To anyone who has heard The Dawn, the 3-disc fan-made release: Wouldn't that have been the most incredible release ever if Prince had made that his "album he was born to make?"

What if Prince had stuck by his word and never recorded anything for WB after he had changed his name? And what if, after somehow breaking his contract with WB, The Dawn was the album he had released as Emancipation.

That would have been an insane release.

Personally, I'd rather have seen Prince release something like 'The Dawn'
instead of Come & The Gold Experience, and kept Emancipation as a single album.
As I think the Come/Gold era produced enough material of a high enough quality
to fill 3 CDs without getting stale.

How realistic was this tracklist? That would be a pretty great release.

Here's a complete list of the fan release of 'The Dawn' with listings of exactly
what versions were used, and how the tracks were mixed and segued together...

Act 1:
01. WELCOME 2 THE DAWN (2:05) – edit of the track available on ‘The Truth’. Used as a kind of ‘Intro’ to the album.
02. npg operator (0:11) – edit of a couple of Operator segues, so it says “Hello, welcome 2 the dawn, playground 4 the new power generation. There are over 500 experiences 2 choose from. Press ‘come’ 2 begin”.
03. COME (PART 1) (4:21) – mix created using the Beautiful Experience remix and the original version. Segues into…
04. ENDORPHIN MACHINE (3:50) – taken from the Come original test pressing. Segues into…
05. SPACE (5:10) – mix created using the album version, with snall bits from the Universal Love Mix and the Funky Stuff remix. Segues into the crowd intro of…
06. DAYS OF WILD (7:15) – mix created using the released live version on ‘Crystal Ball’ and the guitar solo from one of the AHDIO Shows from NPGMC year 1.
07. npg operator (0:17) – taken from ‘The Gold Experience’
08. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD (4:55) – mix of ‘The Gold Experience’ album version and the unreleased ‘Mustang 96 Remix’.
09. THE POPE (4:32) – mix created using the album version from ‘The Hits 2’, the promo only 12” remix, a drum loop from ‘Acknowledge Me’ (barely noticable) and a burst of ‘D.M.S.R.’ from the ‘1999’ album.
10. RIPOPGODAZIPPA (4:37) – taken from ‘Crystal Ball’.
11. npg operator (0:05) – taken from the NPG Operator segue originally used before the studio version of ‘Days Of Wild’ (“If u would like 2 access another experience, here’s how”)
12. RACE (8:20) – mix created using the video version (from the Beautiful Experience TV special) and the ‘Outta Space’ part of the unreleased NPG version of ‘Super Hero’ from the ‘Exodus’ sessions.
13. EMPTY ROOM (3:16) – unreleased studio version of the track.
14. npg operator (0:06) – created using the “Please access another experience” part of one of the segues from ‘The Gold Experience’.
15. MAD (4:32) – edit of the unreleased track. Segues into…
16. ROCK & ROLL IS ALIVE (4:31) – b-side to ‘Gold’, pitch shifted up a semitone to get it in the right key.
17. SHHH (6:57) – taken from ‘The Gold Experience’. Outro segues into…
18. STRAYS OF THE WORLD (4:41) – edit of the track released on ‘Crystal Ball’ (Drum/fanfare intro ommitted and opening keyboard section extended.)

Act 2:
01. PUSSY CONTROL (5:38) – the VH1 Fashion Awards version, intro uses a snippet of the released version from ‘The Gold Experience’.
02. npg operator (0:09) – edit of the NPG Operator from ‘Interactive’ and one from ‘The Gold Experience’ (“That was just an example of the many experiences the dawn has 2 offer. There are over 500 experiences 2 choose from, here’s a sample”)
03. PEACH (3:05) – edit of the version from ‘The Hits 2’ mixed with parts of ‘The Purple Medley’. Segues into…
04. CHAOS & DISORDER (4:12) – unreleased original version, pitch shifted up to the same key as ‘Peach’ (intro also extended by 1 bar).
05. SHY (4:55) – mix created simply by running the released version from ‘The Gold Experience’ and the unreleased original mix simultaneously.
06. npg operator (0:15) – taken from ‘The Gold Experience’.
07. PHEROMONE (4:27) – taken from ‘Come’, with the addition of a few seconds from the unreleased instrumental version as an intro.
08. 319 (3:19) – taken from ‘The Gold Experience’, including the ‘hotel lobby’ intro (which is how it was originally intended to appear on the released album, as the intro was specifically created to make the song last exactly 3:19).
09. HIDE THE BONE (5:05) – taken from ‘Crystal Ball’
10. 18 & OVER (6:21) – original unreleased longer version, edited slightly at the end to create an ‘ending’ rather than a fade out.
11. npg operator (0:13) – original unreleased “And now a word from our sponsors” intro.
12. LEMME SEE THAT BODY GET LOOSE (4:31) – remix created using ‘Loose!’ from ‘Come’ and the unreleased instrumental ‘(Lemme See Your Body) Get Loose!’. (Loosely based on various live renditions from around the time).
13. PAPA (2:48) – taken from ‘Come’
14. npg operator (0:06)
15. BILLY JACK BITCH (7:05) – unreleased ‘full length’ version.
16. EYE HATE U (8:50) – mix created using ‘The Gold Experience’ version and the ‘Extended Remix’. Outro segues into…
17. LET IT GO (5:29) – taken from ‘Come’, street noises on outro taken from the outro to ‘Lady Cab Driver’ from ‘1999’. Outro used as a segue for…
18. DON’T TALK 2 STRANGERS (3:12) – taken from the ‘Girl 6’ sountrack.

Act 3:
01. INTERACTIVE (3:01) – taken from ‘Crystal Ball’
02. ACKNOWLEDGE ME (6:33) – mix created using the version on ‘Crystal Ball’ and the ‘Big City Remix’ of the NPG’s ‘The Good Life’ (used to make an extended ending which replaces the released version’s fade out using a vocal lifted from ‘All My Dreams’).
03. npg operator (0:09)
04. SOMEBODY’S SOMEBODY (3:41) – the released ‘Livestudio Mix’ (promo / b-side to ‘The Holy River CD single). Segues into street sounds created as an intro to…
05. LOVE SIGN (4:36) – the ‘1-800-NEW-FUNK’ version, edited slightly to create an actual ‘ending’ to the song. (Intro segue features snippet of the unreleased ‘Mack Attack Message Mix’ over street sounds and gunshots taken from various sound effects discs)
06. WHAT’S MY NAME (3:01) – taken from ‘Crystal Ball’, with the addition of the unreleased spoken “welcome 2 the dawn” intro.
07. THE RIDE (8:31) – mix created using the version on ‘Crystal Ball’ and the unreleased version from ‘The Undertaker’ album.
08. npg operator (0:19) – taken from ‘The Gold Experience’.
09. NOW (3:59) – taken from ‘The Gold Experience’. Mixes straight into…
10. FACE DOWN (2:10) – remix made using the promo only ‘Acapella Mix’ and loops from ‘Now’. (Musically just a continuation of ‘Now’ with ‘Face Down’s lyrics over the top.)
11. npg operator (0:12) – created using parts of the NPG Operator segue from ‘The Most Beautiful Girl In The World’ layered over itself at various different speeds, to lead into…
12. 2MORROW (4:07) – edit of the ‘Crystal Ball’ track. Uses the acapella intro to ‘Beautiful’ as an intro (with the addition of some echo on the word ‘world’).
13. THE SAME DECEMBER (3:26) – taken from ‘Chaos And Disorder’. Birdsong outro extended slightly using a track from a sound effects disc).
14. EXTRAORDINARY (2:26) – taken from ‘The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale’. Segues into the opening chords of ‘Dolphin’ which are extended slightly and fade up under the outro.
15. DOLPHIN (6:17) – mix of the released version from ‘The Gold Experience’ and the unreleased version’s outro from ‘The Undertaker’ album. Segues into…
16. COME (PART 2) (9:12) – mix created using an edit of the released version from ‘Come’ and the unreleased (as a whole track) ‘Poem’ from the Come Original test pressing. Segues into…
17. npg operator (0:38) – taken from ‘The Gold Experience’.
18. GOLD (7:22) – taken from ‘The Gold Experience’.
[Edited 9/8/05 0:44am]

It sounds like a brilliant piece of work, not my cup of tea, but brilliant nonetheless. But no place for Zannalee!!!!?

Me personally, I would rather listen to Prince's mixes/production/sequence of his own songs.

As for the concept of 'The Dawn' - I kinda liked the idea of releasing [the original versions of] Come / Gold together as originally intended.

Certainly agree though that 'The Dawn' would have been a much better release than the 3-disc Emancipation. Obviously contractual differences at the time prevented this.

KAB said:

I feel the same way.

KAB said:

Yes. Sad, isn't it. A The Dawn made in 1993 would've been far superior to Emancipation. But... What is, is.

Why the f%ck would anybody make the effort to make anything like that? I've had mixtapes but this is ridiculous.

Novabreaker said:

Fun, try having some.

Anji said:

Can't be arsed.

Yeah, it's a shame 'Zannalee' and 'Dark' didn't quite make it onto The Dawn,
but you can't have everything (it does have more songs on it than was originally
intended as it is though).

Novabreaker said:

Do u want 2 b happy?

love

Anji said:

Interesting approach. I guess so, maybe I should make a fan compilation.

And another thing was The Dawn a concept Prince had before he'd hoped to release Come / Gold on the same day [or closely together]? I'm sure this was answered in the amazing COME thread started by Scififilmnerd but I've forgotten!!

KAB said:

Uhm...

Not much is known about the 1993 The Dawn other than Prince worked on one and that the NPG Operator segues were introduced at this point. But was it ever finished?

Wondering about what Prince's 1993 The Dawn would have been like is what inspired Borishfishdear's tracklist for the The Dawn remix compilation.

I think.

(Did that answer your question? )

So if the The Dawn is a project from 1993 then it does predate the 'same-day' release of Come/Gold 'idea'.

scififilmnerd said:

No!!!!!

So if the The Dawn is a project from 1993 then it does predate the 'same-day' release of Come/Gold 'idea'.

I thought someone else had complied that fan-made version not Boris. His synopsis of each individual track was excellent however.

I have to hold my hands up and admit that the fan-made "The Dawn" 3CD set
is my little creation.

BorisFishpaw said: