Can anyone help an old trainspotter like myself? I'm really curious to know recording dates for songs on the Crystal Ball CD set - by reading Prince's liner notes you get a fair idea but some of the comments are, how shall we say, less than forthcoming on information!

Has anyone been able to ascertain this? I have searched on the net for this but (surprisingly) found no information other than what I already guessed (e.g. Crystal Ball, Dream Factory, Movie Star recorded 1986).

Any help would be really appreciated.

FROM: http://www.prince.org/msg/7/102554

Info posted by BorisFishpaw:

Thanks ever so much Nouveau. I obviously missed this when I searched for Crystal Ball topics in the forum so I hope I didn't waste too much of your time!

sonicbliss said:

a fucken riddle!!!


Thank you for this thread.

NouveauDance said:

Really? In an Emancipation release interview, he said this was the only song he'd recorded since finishing and releasing Emancipation (which places it as November 1996).

I can't believe it!! I picked up The Vault on E Bay for a whopping £0.99 (about $1.80) - it's turned up today with sleeve notes even more useless than Crystal Ball.

"The enclosed material was written during the period beginning 1/23/85 and ending 6/18/94 and was originally intended 4 private use only"

Well that's really informative!! Can anyone shed some light on when these songs were recorded?

I am beginning to think that maybe he should employ someone to write his liner notes for him if / when he decides to release any more archive material.

These sort of releases are really for fans, not the casual listener. Surely he must realise that the people that buy them are interested in this sort of information?

Hi there. I have managed to answer most of my question now regarding The Vault after digging around on the web for a few hours last night (yes it really did take that long for me!). So if anyone else is interested:-

The oldest track on the album is Old Friends 4 Sale, taped at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, in April 1985, but it was revamped with new lyrics in 1991 and has probably been worked on since then as well.

Three of the tracks are from the abandoned I’ll Do Anything soundtrack from 1992: The Rest Of My Life, My Little Pill, and There Is Lonely. Of these, “My Little Pill” was recorded at Paisley Park in late March, shortly before the start of the Diamonds And Pearls tour. “The Rest Of My Life” and “There Is Lonely” were recorded at either Paisley Park along with “My Little Pill” or at Platinum Studios, Melbourne, in mid-April 1992 when the Diamonds And Pearls tour visited Australia.

5 Women was recorded by Prince in Tokyo, Japan, on the 1990 Nude tour and re-recorded by Joe Cocker for his Night Calls album in 1992.

She Spoke 2 Me is included in an “extended remix,” which is essentially a longer version of the track that was previously available on the soundtrack to the 1996 Spike Lee film Girl 6. The track was recorded during the Paisley Park sessions for the album in late 1991.

Initially intended for Rosie Gaines, Extraordinary was taped at Paisley Park in the summer/autumn of 1992, after the Diamonds And Pearls tour (copyrighted October 9th 1992).

It’s About That Walk was recorded in September 1993 at Guillaume Tell Studios in Paris, France, during a day off on the Act II tour.

Sarah is from February 1996 and one of the last Paisley Park sessions with The NPG line-up featuring Sonny Thompson, Tommy Barbarella, and Michael Bland.

It isn’t known where and when When The Lights Go Down was recorded.