Can someone PLEASE hook me up with some info on the song "Empty Room." Just recently saw the video on the housequake forum and posted this question but didn't get any response.

Was this song ever released on any album or was it released through Prince's website????? What year was it released? And was this done after Prince and Mayte broke up? The song and video seem to be about their breakup and I imagine Prince might have used old footage of Mayte for the video. Anyways, I really dig the song and that's why I'm trying to find out more about it. Thanks in advance for any info.

It was available as part of a download called C-NOTE...a bunch of instrumentals with Empty Room stuck at the end. It was originally written around '86 I think (someone back me up on this not sure of the exact year), and it was about when Susannah Melvoin moved out.

Awesome song btw...one of his best hidden treasures.

I think the video you saw was shown at the beginning of the Gold tour shows in 95...I think he remade it around that time and made a video. I prefer the C-Note version out of all of them but I know a lot of fans prefer the original...I never heard that one to judge it tho.
[Edited 9/17/05 18:44pm]

Empty Room was actually recorded in 1985, and was about his girlfriend at the
time; Susannah Melvoin. They'd had a row, and Prince's response was to record
this song. The track was re-recorded in 1992 as part of the 'I'll Do Anything'
sessions. Then the original 1985 take was revamped in 1994, and Prince made a
video for it with Mayte too. The video was shown before the concerts (along
with several other new videos) during the Gold Experience tour, though it never
got an official release at this time. It was also going to be included on the
unreleased 'Roadhouse Garden' album in 1998. A new live version of the song
was finally officially released in 2003 as part of the download only C-NOTE ep.

Thanks to both of you for your great answers.

Can you tell me more about this "Roadhouse Garden" album? I've been a fan for a long time but with Prince it's easy to not know a lot of things and this is the first time I've heard of "Roadhouse Garden."

'Roadhouse Garden' was an unreleased 1998 album that would have featured many
previously unreleased Prince and the Revolution tracks, particularly those
that featured a heavy Wendy & Lisa input. This is the reason that the 'Crystal
Ball' compilation was almost devoid of tracks from this era. The tracklisting
for 'Roadhouse Garden' is unknown, but we do know that it was due to include
the following tracks, amongst others...

Roadhouse Garden
Splash
Witness 4 The Prosecution
In A Large Room With No Light
Empty Room
All My Dreams

.
[Edited 9/18/05 8:43am]

Wow! That sounds like the album I've always been waiting for
Hope someday this material sees the light of day.

BorisFishpaw said:

Neversin said on one of the Come threads that what is believed to be a 1994 revamp is actually the original 1985 version.

Empty Room was recorded on August 4th 1985, Also recorded this week was Splash on Aug. 1st and Sexual Suicide on Aug. 10th. These r definatley some of my most favorite songs.
[Edited 9/18/05 14:43pm]

scififilmnerd said:

Well, it uses the original 1985 mastertape, but the vocals were re-recorded
and I think the drums might have been re-done as well. It's a bit like the
difference between the original and the released version of Old Friends 4
Sale. So in a sense it IS the '85 version, but just tweaked slightly in '94.

What a brilliant thread title.


Someone PLEASE "tell" me about all of Prince's outtakes... preferrably from the 1980's...




"Tell" me all about 'em...


Brilliant thread!

BorisFishpaw said:

It's a brilliant song rergardless of when it was written.

I think as the vocals were re-recorded et al I would consider this a 1994 track myself especially as we know with certainty that the video is from 1994.

what a stunning song it is.

I always thought Empty Room would have been a great title track for an album, back in '95/'96 when there was a wealth of quality, current, unreleased music.

I guess it's unlikely that the studio version of Empty Room will see the light of day on anything other than a vault compilation, now that the live version is on C-NOTE.