Sounds to me like the beginning of "Crucial" on the Crystal Ball'98 version is actually the ending of another track, because the electric guitar sounds like when 'live' Prince joins two different songs together by means of a guitar tornado. So, is there any chance that "Coco Boys" or "When the Dawn of the Morning Comes" were segued into "Crucial" then?

P.S. This is the kind of question an orger makes when P doesn't release an album in 1 year

zxcvbnmmnbvcxz said:

Weird. I was listening to Crystal Ball last night and heard the same thing when "Crucial" came on. I also thought the opening chords contained a piece of segue. However, the liner notes say this was recorded for Sign O The Times, so one would assume it was a segue from a track on that project. Let's see....which one sounds like it ends with that kind of segue...

Well, most people say it was intended for a 1986 film project called "The Dawn" together with two other songs ("Coco Boys" and "When the Dawn of the Morning Comes") rather than for the "Sign 'o' the Times" album.

Maybe somebody could kindly post the recording date of "Crucial" (if known) and if any other song was recorded in that session. That might as well shed some light.

zxcvbnmmnbvcxz said:

According to the notes I have, it was recorded on Saturday, September 13, 1986. The guitar version was recorded first, but the saxophone overdubs were recorded by Eric Leeds on Wednesday, November 5, 1986.

I have to check some of my additional notes for more information beyond that. Hope that helps.