4 someone who can't stand them T.V. dinners
U sure eat enought of them motherfuckers

3NineteeN04 said:

yeah i did the exactly same thing!
[Edited 1/14/06 5:17am]

prettymansson said:

That's exactly what I had before I got a CD version.

I'm stunned more folks haven't mentioned Rockhard in a Funky Place. Those horn parts are killer.
Dead On It is a groove and Bob George is a hoot.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

prettymansson said:

it was kinda of fun back then when it was just a bootleg (still have the tape).

kpowers said:

I see where you're coming from. I had a vinyl bootleg of it in 1988, and then I bought the CD boot (which had a few extra tracks on it like Crystal Ball). When it finally came out it initially a). sounded inferior to my original vinyl and CD boots and b). seemed like a real damp squib. This was, of course, mostly rubbish. It's a very good album, whichever way you hear it.

zaara said:

Hey, if u get the original album, which was stealed from the factory (2 packages in Ahlsfeld nearby Hamburg...back in the days) before the whole pressed albums were destroyed....then u have something special!
Lots of $ !

I remember getting an early boot of it on cassette, but it had been recorded a tad slow - not enough so you'd notice, but when I finally got the official CD, everything sounded so different and sped up.

FunkMistress said:

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, , I must ask, is "Cindy C." about Cindy Crawford?

kpowers said:

yes it sounded better when it was a bootleg cassette! more juicier and raw, more precious

The intro gets me .

So U found me
Good I'm glad
This is Prince
The cool of cools
Some of U may not know this
But some of U may know
Some of U may not want to know
We r here to do service
Please don't try 2 stop us
4 we come regardless
4 we r strong as we r intellegent

So come vibe with us
Welcome 2 the Funk Bible
The new testament

I got it in 88 after hearing Lovesexy and wondering for months what Bob George sounded like. BG was everything it was said to be. Le Grind, Cyndi C., Superfunkycalifragisexy, 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton and Rock Hard in a funky place were all hardcore Prince funk marathons, not as strikingly creative as stuff of on SOTT but still inventive in their own way. Prince wasn't out to impress with his pop artistry -- he was going back to his roots and enjoying himself and letting it flow freely. When 2 R In Love adds a well-needed dose of Prince romanticism. Dead on It is nasty and short-sighted about rap, which is a shame because it's nicely executed. TBA is all about execution and not so much about structure and songwriting.

In retrospect, he was wise to put it aside. Releasing it at that time would have been like disavowing all the things he's said in SOTT, and going back to the mindset he had in songs like Lady Cab Driver, the Dirty Mind-1999 period. Even the decision to pull it added to his legend by propelling it underground and giving him a kind of gritty prestige along with all the other bootlegged stuff of the period, when his cover of Just my Imagination could be found in small shops along with An Honest Man and the likes. It supposedly became the most bootlegged record of all time with the possible exception of The Basement Tapes.

So even though Prince was right to change his mind at the time, it is a great record, the kind few pop stars have had the priviledge to make, a musical snapshot of the artist in a foul mood that doesn't fall flat on its face.
[Edited 1/14/06 8:50am]

GodzHand said:

That's what I heard

Anyone remember how USA Today announced the "new" Prince album's release for December 18,1987 and had everybody worked up ?

I was looking for it up until Alphabet Street came out.

uhm, is BOB George the evil twin of BOY George?

I have the album now on hot rotation...

SenseOfDoubt said:

Bob George, the name, is a pun on Bob Cavallo and Black music critic, George Nelson.

muleFunk said:

It was December 17th in the UK. A friend of mine used to work in a record shop and made me a copy of the WB promo tape. When it was announced that the album wouldn't be coming out, WB asked for the tape back. Of course he'd made copies for all his friends ...

I remember the excitement back in the day because a friend of mine got the real one as a Christmas gift because the company he worked for did Prince's taxes or something like that. He made me a great sounding tape of it (wouldn't sell it to me, even though he wasn't a Prince fan!) and I rocked out!

I loved it. I remember someone had a copy of the CD (not the bootleg that was in every store) but an actual CD and they were selling it for over a thousand dollars! I also remember when I found an unofficial CD (not album, but an actual CD!!!) for the first time in a store. It was selling for about $200, but it seemed worth it at the time. hahahaha. wow.

I also remember KROQ out here in Los Angeles, playing tracks from it on the radio.

Those were amazing days when we were so HUNGRY for new music, and you never knew where, or how the songs would show up. Most of them sounded terrible, but we loved it. Sad that his music today doesn't strike that chord of passion in people.

Too bad he doesn't decide to release a Crystal Ball once a year with 10-20 old tracks on it for the fans or for the NPGMC members. Those would sell like hot cakes.

buying the black album was money well spent!

I was 15, I remember seeing the release date posted at Music Land in the local mall. Then, I remember hearing on the radio that the album's release was cancelled!! But then, the day after a music awards ceremony, a DJ on the radio in SF, CA reported he had gotten a copy of the cancelled "Black Album" by Prince. He worked it up for a while saying "You all have never heard anything like this...And Prince has cancelled it!...Too bad y'all won't ever get to hear it." Then, he proceeds to play "Le Grind" and "Cindy C". For the next year and a half I could not stop wondering what the rest of that album sounded like. Then, in the summer of '89 one of my buddies was the first to get his driver's license and we drove to SF for some shoppin. We just happened to end up at Star Records. Of course I went to the P section. To my surprise there must have been about 10 or 12 boots, all different, live, outtakes, vault material!!!!! My eyes just about popped outta my head and I nearly fainted from hyperventilation. There were Purple Rain Concerts, Parade outtakes/concerts, etc. First thing I grabbed was TBA. I must'a stood there for a good hour trying to decide which ones to take since I could only take three. The cash I had on me was all that I had to my name. I spent $75 for three records and starved for about the next month! However, they were well worth it as they had never been heard (by me, at least). Long story short:this was my initiation into the world of Prince's boots.

It's still kinda special to me, too, just cuz how I found it. I actually gave BLOOD to earn the money to buy that album. I had heard all the controversy and all about how the album was pulled, but that some 300,000 copies were leaked out. So imagine my surprise when I'm boppin' along, I think I was out lookin' for a job or something, and I wandered into a record store in El Cajon (east part of San Diego), and while looking through the Prince section, I saw a copy of THE BLACK ALBUM. I flipped. I think it was like $12. So I went to the blood bank, did what I had to do, got the money, and went back to buy the album. This was at the time when, no matter what, if it was Prince, it was the best thing since sliced bread. These days it's just a good album, but I've certainly found albums I like better.

Just thought I'd share.

when I first heard this in '88 it was like a fucking slap in the face of dark funk. I mean, just that crazy rhythm noise in Le Grind is dark midnight funky. Just that song jumped out and seemd like nothing i was hearing or had ever heard, and it seemd so different and intensly flavorful creative. that shit influenced so many producers now. Prince seemed rough, mean, and innaccesssibly nonmainstream black funky. It seemd crazy back then. Crazy. I mean what was on the radio? "Parents Just don't Undertand"? Maybe only "Push It" had that vibe.

That album is the sh*t! Not a weak track on it. But I have to disagree with Aerogram, I don't particularly like 'When 2 r in Love' on there. 'Rockhard in a Funky Place' is one of THE classic Prince cuts.

SenseOfDoubt said:

POOK KNOW!

POOK HAVE LOT MORE ALBUM POOK LIKE WHOLE WAY THROUGH

THAT POOK HAVE ON TAPE FIRST

We have a bunch at my work right now (about 3-4). I work at Amoeba in SF...

SenseOfDoubt said:

Yet another alter-ego of Prince's, just one that was never clearly developed.

Frankie seems to be the "DJ character" that inhabits the imaginary universe of Black Album and Lovesexy.You can hear his name called out in the dialogue bits on both albums.

SenseOfDoubt said:

This just in... WE'VE LANDED ON THE MOON! WE'VE LANDED ON THE MOON. ASTRONAUT NEIL ARMSTRONG HAS DONE IT! WE'VE LANDED ON THE MOON.

lol... j/k... Enjoy the CD. My fave cut is Le Grind. Then Cindy C. I love songs that don't get airplay, but you love 'em anyway. Make it feel like they belong to you, and nobody else!

prettymansson said:

Oh it was just regular ole weed but he just lost his mind thinkin I dreamed that shit