Figured I'd go through my old "master discs" of stuff I had recieved from original source tapes today and back them up again. Came across three AMAZING discs... One of which was the Diamonds And Pearls Demos, the others I'll write about later...

Listening to the tracks for the first time in YEARS and I'm really loving them. The first time I got them was in Atlanta and I either got them from Mike Golden, or someone else... Don't remember. But the tape was slowed down immensely and the versions of Horny Pony and The FLOW were both faded at the ends.
I remember digging through Gold Mine to see who I could trade them with and coming up with a name I had been looking at for a bit and now that I finally had something cool I figured I'd call him.
Tony Melodia...
I call Tony and talked to him for a bit, he was EXTREMELY cocky and in the end basically said that I should just send them to him and he would not send me anything in return because he was this elite trader and that regardless he would get them in one way or the other. Sure he would, but why be so cocky about it?

So, years later, I end up with a 1st generation copy of it. I GUARANTEE you Tony don't have this quality. I finally got to meet Tony, he was a nice guy, once he found out the stuff I had...

When in school in 1991, one of my teachers did the mixdown for the D&P sessions and one day at the end of class he says "D'Aquino, you ever hear Somethingfunky"? I'm like, "ummm..."
"As a matter of fact, yes I have"
So he brings me into the studio, pops a DAT in and plays me this UNBELIEVABLY clean copy of"Something Funky". The mix was FANTASTIC and to hear this song after playing that original tape I got from Mike was earth shattering. He also had Schoolyard.

Anyway...

Listening to the songs, as POP songs, Prince really had his own thing going on when it came to writing "mainstream" pop tunes. I mean, back then things were a wee bit more "free" to come up with something of your own, whereas today it's more stick to one standard of somgwriting, one "Formula" and that's it.

VERSION ONE:

Horny Pony - The STOMP on this one is really great. Vocal performance is really neat and "fun". Cool song, ended up CHEESY as SHNIG when finally released as a B-Side to Get Off.

Schoolyard - What a FUN song... The vocals are SO great on this song man. The warmth of that wierd Hammond and the whole "frog leap" guitar thing he was doing when writing songs in 1988 - 1989. The whole time period, I mean, the songs in that time, like Elephants And Flowers... This whole Storytelling thing he was doing. SO great. Unlike ANY other stuff he has done in any other time period. This should have been on Graffiti Bridge, would have paired up perfectly with Elephants And Flowers.. Or maybe a B-Side to an Elephants And Flowers Single (WITHOUT any wack deep house mixes to ruin the song thank you).

Live 4 Love - Most of the time you get an early version of a track and then when it comes out you're all bummed because it's ruined, this wasn't the case with this one. I have ALWAYS thought this song was great, and to have TWO different versions of the track is like having two COMPLETELY different SONGS. The demo is all warm and chill... The vocals just flow in falsetto while the released version is full of anguish and emotion. I remember talking to the engineer for this record and him telling me how he only had an hour or so to mix the final version and he sampled an older version of the song and used this new technique of "Flying in the background vocals" (listen to the released version). This is when sampling was generally new (in good quality anyway). I remember him singhing and using his hands as if he's dropping something in like a sampler. Cool memore, and the whole time I'm knowing EXACTLY what he is talking about
The circulating boots and tapes of this tape show absolutely NOTHING on how cool the mixes on these songs are. REALLY laid back and stripped down but "full" somehow.

The FLOW - Man, when I got this I thought I had died. The loop he uses in this is just SICK... HISSS... HISSS...
Tony Mosely was actually kinda cool in this, actually... On the whole record to tell ya the truth. It's DAMON AND KIRK who were the REAL problems Prince doing the whole "I'm the producer so I'm gonna heckle in the background so you know I was a part of this" that later became the Timerland / Puff Daddy trademark... Prince does it well though, like "I'm the coach and I'm in control see..." This is a GREAT track. The breakdown at the end with all the samples and Michael Bland bangin' around until the loop comes back in and Prince slangs that nasty a*s guitar lick in there.. Ohhh nelly, this was the Days Of Wild of 1990. And the crunchy NASTY synth he was using all over this record is just such a CRAZY texture, I love it.

Something Funky - OK, what did I say about Tony M? Maybe I should hush. This is pretty much a song that could define the sound of the NPG at that time. The tight gated stabs, the samples swirling all aroujnd in the earphones... A VERY live sounding track. The addition of the wierd swirling samples is what always made me remeber hearing that mix in the studio that time. Really creative mix (as far as Prince's mixes goes). Cool track but I always seem to skip it for some reason... Maybe it's because of wehat's next?

Daddy Pop - THIS is the shizniggity. Now, remember what I said about Live 4 Love, about how things can usually get screwed up when released? This is a REALLLY good example of that. (although Endorphinmachine absolutely takes the cake - Right 7?)
That same groove that drove The FLOW, that NASTY Hisss...
LOVE it. The loop could be brought up a bit to add to the drive, but these are all rogh mixes, which adds to the coolness of the tape.
I do like the break that came out on the LP version but this whole Clintonesque / Psoulsycadelicide thing it has going on is just kick a*s. The chant "Ain't no stoppin' 'Till You Pop" He had some really DRIVING tracks during this time period. Great stuff. Rosie is going on and on but it is a great part of the song. This Funk Had Been Brought To You By Daddy Pop, And The New Power Generation... Ain't No Stop Until You Drop..."

Walk Don't Walk - Another great song weather it be the released OR unreleased version. Both GREAT versions. The horn samples that are so prominent in the released version is pushed as far back as possible on the demo, I remember when I got this I was like "What in the world is that wierd sound in the background?" Prince was really experimental back then with his sounds, real cool stuff.

Willing And Able - The Intro to this song was used on a more finalized version of the album with a spoken word piece which led into Cream called "Joyful Sound". I like the raw version here better than the one that finally came out. There is actually yet ANOTHER version of this song which is a bit more like the "rehearsal" version he did for the D&P video collection but still different.

VERSION TWO (ALL tracks are the same as previously described except where indicated):

Something Funky
Daddy Pop
Walk, Don't Walk
Schoolyard
Diamonds And Pearls - LP version
Strollin'
Willin' N' Able (With Intro)
Horny Pony
Cream
Insatiable
Money Don't Matter Tonight - LP version
Live 4 Love
The FLOW

GREAT story to add here about "Money Don't Matter 2Nite"...
I was talking to the guy who did the recording of this track one day and he told me how once all instrumentation was completed, Prince has him set the board up for vocals, as he always did.. Tells him to leave.. And about two hours later he gets the call to come back in. Goes back in, rolls tape... And the vocals are all DISTORTED! He looks at Prince and Prince is like "I MEANT to do that!"... The guy shrugs it off like "yeah right" Turns out Prince started screwing around and was up too close on the mic because he records the vocals AT the board. What came out of all this is what you hear, and it sounds GREAT. Tube Saturation can sometimes be a REALLY cool thing, even if it WAS a mistake.

Getting Closer to the released version:

VERSION THREE!

Thunder - A COMPLETELY different STRIPPED DOWN mix with a few more lyrics and instrumentation. All the stabs and HUGE stuff is missing, mostly Prince with the drum machine and background vocals... The guitar is intact as is the Thunder samples and the keyboard "tink tink tink" stuff. After listening to the released version, this one really is intense... But what makes it odd, is that the ending is abrupt and oddly edited. Really wierd.

Daddy Pop - EXACTLY the same as the released version except the ending just keeps going like the demo version. Shorter than the demo though.

Diamonds And Pearls - Same as LP version.

Joyful Sound - Tony M talking over the drum Michael Bland drum part that led into "Willing And Able" on the demo cassettes. Some wierd sound effects flying around in the background kinda giving you an "armageddon" feeling. Woulda been a great addition to the released record. This has never even been spoken about until now, wonder why?

Cream - Album version...

Strollin' - Same as LP version.

Willing And Able - Same As LP version.

VERSION FOUR:

This is the in house cassette of D&P, the only thing different as far as I know is that Get Off is included on it, but it's an edited version of the "D*mn Near 10 Minutes" version. One day I'll actually listen to this tape and fill in any differences here.


I don't think anyone in here is really interested in this type of stuff, so if there's no interest I won't post anything like this again. Sorry if I bored you guys, just thought I'd bring a piece of AMP to the ORG.

Wow!

?
[This message was edited Wed Feb 26 1:48:14 PST 2003 by IstenSzek]

Please, please, please keep on with this kind of post. Fascinating stuff!

Dude, that shit was great, I would *love* to hear more breakdowns of outtakes and such if you have more to shared. Maybe I need to frequent amp more often...

TheMEssage said:

Keep cross posting man. This is great stuff and maybe it'll elevate the level of discourse on the .ORG to where it should be... plus AMP is not what it used to be anyway.

TheMEssage said:

MAN THAT WAS COOL!!!

Thanks 4 the post...can i ask how the hell you know all these engineers? You must be in the business

Mmmm...gotta go and get my UNCUT DIAMONDS boot and have a listen in honour of this post...bet my boot doesn't sound as good as those DAT's though...

Finally sumthin´ interesting!

NICE!

God, what a great post. I wish I had the versions of the songs you speak of.

First of all,everybody has these demos and they're actually quite lame. I felt gyped when I got back form Europe and popped what was then called "Stolen Treasure" (the exact same set of songs) on my turntable. Many of the so-called "demo" versions are just crappy slowed down cuts of the released. 'Schoolyard' is such a shit song that I'm embarresed for Prince that he even wrote it, and on top of that even 'the Flow' and 'something funky' were both re-worked for "". No offense, but if you want to enjoy Diamonds and Pearls, even the American standard CD released version (avail for $5 used at any store in the US) is 50X better then this boot. Now why don't we turn our attention to real bootlegs. Or, wait, we're not supposed to talk about that here.

sorry so cynical... just tellin the truth.

Actually, I doubt that is tube saturation... nobody was mixing on tubepre's in the early 90's.

And well I have to agree with Cornerman, even though I'd hate to. Those early versions are surprisingly lacklustre, I never thoought Prince could sound so untight before the mixing and overdubbing process... And "Schoolyard" for chrissakes is one of the worst pieces of music he has ever made. Of course in a funny, tongue-in-cheek kinda of way, but how can anybody seriously even imagine that on the macho/glam/posing by the Porsche - album that Diamonds & Pearls became.

A little grip on reality, may I request.

Nobody was using tube mic pre's in the early 90's? Excuse me???

"Something Funky" was released on the symbol album?

You BOTH just showed how much credability you have.

T, I treasure and look forward to all the stuff you drop on us! For real. It's the reason why these sites should exist. More real knowledge about what's important to prince fans... the prince stuff.

Please write whenever you have the time! Many will read it with a carefully.

P.S. you know I love descriptions of song textures. You are writing pure sugar for my brain.

TheMEssage said:

Post this kind of stuff as often as possible. For those of us who R musicians and/or work in studios, this is GREAT!!

oops I meant to write "Many will read it carefully"

What a post!

TheMEssage said:

I like everything about this paragraph!

Great post mate, look forward to seeing more like this one

It's a rare treat to come across a post so spectacularly informative and insightful.

Cornerman said:

As much as I agree with Cornerman's assessment ("Uncut Diamonds" is the only disc of Prince outtakes I've ever gotten rid of), I still found myself interested in this enthusiastic and insightful rant (and don't get put off by my use of the word "rant" - in my world, a "rant" is any spirited piece of articulation). In fact, strangely enough, I find this description of said music even more interesting than the actual music being described!

great insight but misplaced enthusiasm I feel. just my 2 cents.

Thanks T.

Okay... just for the sake of posterity:

T knows his shit and has more insight into Prince than the vast majority of us, so nobody should start trying to give him shit about his posts. I am sure that he will not mind people disagreeing with his opinions on songs, but people should at least appreciate his efforts and the fact that he really DOES have some serious inside information and material.

That is just my 2-cents on the matter... and it is strictly my opinion, therefore your mileage may vary.

Great post. More like this is surely welcome. Getting deep on THE MUSIC...

Got to disagree on "Schoolyard" though, that song is straight horrible.

Farfunknugin said:

Where should it have been? I don't understand...

I'm not saying this is Prince's best work of art to date...
The POINT of my post was to follow the evolution of the album, how it came to be. The different versions of the tapes I have, and an insight on each piece with a few facts tossed in to make it a bit more interesting than a typical "review" of a record.

This wasn't a review at all...
Just a fun look at a time period in a man's life,
who we all love.

I'd KILL to see someone else pop up from out of nowhere and write a cool piece about how specific vocal track was recorded. I honestly feel that I'm like THE ONLY person on this whole message board who seriously cares about Prince's music and that alone. 100% of the posts on Prince.Org are about how much better this color person is than that person.. or how much sexier Prince looks in blue than in red. I think my post has been the ONE AND ONLY post with any insight on the music.

Anyway, just wanted to share some insight... Maybe I'll post something on the Lovesexy tapes someday, that seems to be a real winner album in here.

Essence said:

"Schoolyard" is a Fun song man. It's not "Alexa De Paris"... It's just a bumping happy little fun story.
Have a listen to it again, listen to the way he's all childish and playfull in his vocals and how the music "teams up" with them and makes you actually FEEL like your riding down the road in the car with them... And then when it all changes up and the eerie chords pop in and you feel the anxiety when he's got when he's just about to lay into Carrie

The whole Glove and Baby Lotion thing was quite cheesy though

TheMEssage said:

theC
the story is cool(him and dre and their girls)but the song
plays out fast.u can tell y it was a outtake.(IMO)

TheMEssage said:

No. Not in professional studios anyway. 95 to 99% of professional recordings are cut with class A solid-state preamps (and that distortion certainly isn't pleasing). Very few people use tube preamps even today in professional use even with today's tube revivalism - the tubes usually reside in compressors and other processing units - well that could introduce distortion on the other hand of course altough the pressure to a mike when singing too close might produce distortion but it's different in nature and certainly not "a wonderful thing". Who knows maybe Prince would use them, maybe he did. I don't know. But I doubt it. The mike could be a tube too, though I've never heard of a tube mike distorting itself so how would I know, I always tell everybody to back the fuck up. You know, shit on pop up filters and all. As if cleaning up coke bottles and hamburger wrappers wouldn't be enough.

And everybody has already those cuts so...
[This message was edited Thu Jul 11 2:28:30 PDT 2002 by Novabreaker]

Novabreaker said:

By the way... Prince has a big collection of older Neumann mics and various other tube mics. It is true that he uses an SSL console and they certainly do not have tube mic preamps, but I read somewhere the he has used tube pre-amps for some time rather than using the mic pre-amps on the SSL. I have never been to Paisley Park, so I cannot say that I have actually seen his setup in person, but there was a website at one point that had a full equipment list... I believe the site was done by Tom Garneau (sp?) who used to be an engineer for Prince.

Interesting. I've always wanted to know what kind of a setup he has what comes to the recording process - I could care less about gold-plated symbol encrusted machineheads on guitars. Especially I have always wanted to know about the microphone/preamp setup, especially since he records with the mic hanging over the console. How does he compensate for the acoustics and all the interference noises? I guess he just doesn´t!

I'm surprised by the notion that he would use separate preamp units. Mostly because to me he just doesn't seem like a guy who would give rat's ass about the finer aspects of the recording process - such as the ever-popular preamp fetishism amongst engineers.

I have to take my words back on solid-state mic pre's sounding awful when they distort though. Cause there is nothing like a good old solid-state distortion for screwing up an otherwise crystal clear signal. Splendid.


Like if all this would matter.
[This message was edited Thu Jul 11 6:57:30 PDT 2002 by Novabreaker]

Novabreaker said:

I just tried to find Tom Garneau's page, but it is no longer available...

The old link for studio A was:

www2.bitstream.net/tgg/paisleypark/studioa2.html

There were also lists for studio B and C as well as a comprehensive microphone list and a miscellaneous equipment list. I wish this site was still up, as it had some good information on Prince's equipment.

.....
[This message was edited Thu Jul 11 7:05:46 PDT 2002 by IceNine]