Which ones are outtakes from earlier, aborted projects and which ones are 'new'?

squiddyren said:

Here:

http://www.prince.org/msg/7/116565

Dream Factory July 18th 1986
Last Album sequence made before it was shelved:

Side 1:
01. Visions
02. Dream Factory
03. Train
04. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
05. It
Side 2:
06. Strange Relationship
07. Starfish & Coffee
08. Slow Love
09. Interlude
10. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
Side 3:
11. Sign O The Times
12. A Place In Heaven
13. Crystal Ball
Side 4:
14. The Cross
15. Last Heart
16. Witness 4 The Prosecution
17. Movie Star
18. All My Dreams

Camille November 5th 1986
Album sequenced:

Side 1:
01. Rebirth Of The Flesh
02. Housequake
03. Strange Relationship
04. Feel U Up
Side 2:
05. Shockadelica
06. Good Love
07. If I Was Your Girlfreind
08. Rockhard In A Funky Place

Crystal Ball November 30th 1986
Album Sequenced:

Side 1:
01. Rebirth Of The Flesh
02. Play In The Sunshine
03. Housequake
04. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
Side 2:
05. It
06. Starfish & Coffee
07. Slow Love
08. Hot Thing
Side 3:
09. Crystal Ball
10. If I Was Your Girlfriend
11. Rockhard In A Funky Place
Side 4:
12. The Ball
13. Joy In Repitition
14. Strange Relationship
15. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
Side 5:
16. Shockadelica
17. Good Love
18. Forever In My Life
19. Sign O The Times
Side 6:
20. The Cross
21. Adore
22. It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night

So -

Prince - Sign O’ The Times (1987)

Forever In My Life
U Got The Look

- did not feature on previous aborted projects.

.

Thanks!

langebleu said:

You missed one in your list langebleu. Seems that U Got The Look is the only SOTT song that didn't feature on a previous aborted project.

Makes me wonder if the lyric is somehow personnifying the package of songs that became Sign O The Times.

"Here we are folks...The dream we all dream of..."

etc.

In a sense, almost all the tracks on Sign O’ The Times are ‘new’ as they were
mostly recorded after Parade had been released. Or looking at it differently,
only one track was specifically recorded for Sign O’ The Times - ‘U Got The
Look’. As all the other tracks were from the original 3LP version of the album,
when it was still called ‘Crystal Ball’ (since Sign O’ The Times is basically
an edited down version of Crystal Ball). Anyway, here's a short recording
history of each track...


Sign O´ The Times – recorded July 12th 1986 for Dream Factory. Extended
section added in November 1986 when the track was included on Crystal Ball.

Play In The Sunshine – recorded November 20th 1986 for Crystal Ball

Housequake – recorded October 18th 1986 just before Prince has the idea
for the Camille album. Later included on Crystal Ball.

The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker – recorded March 15th 1986. The first track
recorded for Dream Factory, and the first song recorded at his new home studio.
Later included on Crystal Ball.

It – recorded May 3rd 1986 for Dream Factory. Later included on Crystal
Ball.

Starfish And Coffee – recorded April 15th 1986 for Dream Factory. Later
included on Crystal Ball.

Slow Love – recorded June 4th 1986 and added to the ongoing Dream
Factory project.

Hot Thing – recorded August 6th 1986 just after Dream Factory had been
shelved and before any new project had been planned. Later included on Crystal
Ball.

Forever In My Life – recorded August 6th 1986 just after Dream Factory
had been shelved and before any new project had been planned. Later included on
Crystal Ball.

U Got The Look – recorded December 21st 1986 for the 2LP version of
Crystal Ball, now re-titled Sign O’ The Times.

If I Was Your Girlfriend – recorded October 27th 1986 for Camille. Later
included on Crystal Ball.

Strange Relationship – recorded summer 1982. Wendy & Lisa recorded extra
parts for it and remixed it in April 1986 for Dream Factory. Remixed again with
new vocals and extra recording work on October 27th 1986 for Camille. Later
included on Crystal Ball.

I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man - recorded summer 1982.
Additional recording and extended section added July 12th 1986 for Dream
Factory. Edited slightly in November 1986 for inclusion on Crystal Ball.

The Cross – recorded July 12th 1986 for Dream Factory. Later included on
Crystal Ball.

It´s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night – recorded live August 25th 1986 at Le
Zenith, Paris. Originally intended for a possible live album. Studio overdubs
and transmississippirap recorded November 20th 1986 for Crystal Ball.

Adore – recorded November 20th 1986 for Crystal Ball.

Interesting.

To further my theory about U Got The Look being about Sign O The Times as a package, here's my basic idea:

Presenting SOTT; the "dream" selection and sequence of songs:


Could the girl be Madonna? She was pretty big at the time.


Then the packaging of the concept:


It's generally considered a classic album; for many the zenith. Could be he realised this. The image was right. The content was right:


I've just listened to the lyric again. It's a speculative theory, but it seems possible and there isn't really anything in the lyric that couldn't fit without too much of a stretch.

My

fruitsalad said:

Cheers

.

BorisFishpaw said:

since both the transmissippi rap and adore were done on this same day... could Adore be about Sheila E. since she was in the studio that day doing the rap?

langebleu said:

My DEEPER WISH would be to see RELEASE the CRYSTAL BALL ALBUM in his original configuration as described above!(not the Official Fake fucking Crystal Ball 1997 npg version)>>>>Can we imagine that!

dreamfirstborn said:

Good question. I'm starting to wonder who all those songs were about now. I know books have assumed that they were about Susannah, but Prince was juggling so many women that no one really knows who they were about. I'm sure some of those songs had to be about Sheila and many others because he was feeling a few people at that time. In the end only Prince knows who inspired what or if more than one person inspired a song.