PurpleRein said:

No.

I am a mediphical coworker.

fluid said:

You kidding me?

He needs to put out stuff like this every once in a while to put us in check!

fluid said:

well the copyright stuff and the catalog number were on it..

my GOOD GOD, the black album funks like a motherfucker.

anyone who doesn't agree is either deaf or dead.

fluid said:

No way...the Black Album is bad ass. We should be so lucky to have Prince try something like that again.

AMEN!!

See I dont get the creepy vibe (im listening to TBA as I type). As stated yes Bob George is dark, but its funny and i think another stab at rap music.

Maybe to me its like listening to a concert. its just so spontaneous and fun.


And really I never understood why it wasnt released back in the day.

Ive never bought into that Escasty story. Just seems like PR Prince to me.

lazycrockett said:

Well, several Prince associates have confirmed it. And while we may never know for sure, the descriptions those people have provided of his appearance and behavior on that night sound like someone on Ecstasy.

tiger2 said:

It's one of his best album, according to me. It's groovy, black, but so good.

How much more black could it get?



None. None more black...

The album was more than black, it sounded liek something 70s pimps would be bumping. I mean hs voice was all distorted andhe was talkingin differnt voices.

If this was The Black ALbum I can only hope to wonder what The White Album would be like.

Will he ever perfom these songs in concert.

lazycrockett said:

Yup, you can tell that Prince was just having some fun when recorded these songs. The fact that a good portion were recorded simply for Sheila E.'s birthday party should be evidence enough that the tracks themselves have no real 'dark' intentions or overtones. When 2 R in Love ended up on LoveSexy and Rock Hard is a left over Camille/Crystal Ball track, as well.




Looking at it purely from a musical perspective it's easy to see why Prince might have second thoughts about this collection. He assembled these tracks from random sources just to be able to throw a 'funk bible' at non-believers but the fact of the matter is that the album as a whole doesn't really cover any new ground. It's a throw back to the Dirty Mind and 1999 days, which is NOT a bad thing at all but it is rather a low brow effort for someone who had been growing by leaps and bounds and was, at the time, looking at his output as works of art.

LoveSexy was a much more interesting album, conceptually, and even though it wasn't a consumer darling it did continue to expand on Prince late 80's diversity.

I happen to love The Black album, as do many, but I have to wonder how much of the mass appreciation for this disc now is due to the whole controversy around it as much as the music inside.




I think there's plenty of evidence that this is a true story. The thing is, however, that I think all these separate events (TBA Cancelation, Ecstasy, LoveSexy) may have not been so closely connected before Prince's revisionist history got a hold of them and created a big psychological drama for the tour books, etc.

fluid said:

If you're talking about the Black Album, he performed them a lot on the Lovesexy tour, didn't he? "2 Nigs" even is on the ONA Live album on the aftershow CD, that for the music being too dark and evil (even JW Prince still plays some of it).

One of his best... simple as that. Its funky as hell. Its raw. It isnt over produced. It sounds spontaneous. Full of energy. Great lyrics. funny.

The man was simply at the height of his creativity. For him to be able to just cast it aside, when even to this day artists would give their left arm to be able to do that, shows how on his game he was back then.

Comercially it would have dropped like a dead duck... not a single in sight. Brilliant!

Its just a shame that that kind of creativity (for any great artist) burns fast and furious and then dies...

We will never see it again so just enjoy it and be greatful that we have witnessed such a gem.

This is one of my favorite discs! It's just non-stop funk except for that little "When 2 R In Love" break. Sure, lyrically it's crazy ... squirrel meat anyone? But the music just surges with energy and it shows a more playful side of Prince than you see in his other discs. From the crazy screaming at the end of "Cindy C." - "COME ONNNNN CINDY!" to the whole track of "Bob George" - I found myself laughing while bobbing my head to the awesome grooves. It doesn't seem that dark to me, but compared to the messages in "Lovesexy" - it was definitely more hedonistic.

Was it originally called The Black Album or did he have another name since it was various material.

EmancipationLover said:

Yeah, Bob George and Superfunkycalifragisexy were given a prominent position in the first half of each LoveSexy concert, including a segment where Prince is tied to a chair with neon(iirc) rope for Superfunky...

I was always surprised by this. It seemed to indicate to me that he was doing it to further promote the mystique of TBA itself and acceptance at the fact that a lot of fans were aware of those tracks. With all these public and semi-secret messages telling us to NOT buy The Black album, he sure did advertise it enough... (even as late as 1992 in the booklet to the album.)

fluid said:

During it's life as a work in progress it had been referred to as the "Funk Bible" and this name is mentioned in the intro lyrics for Le Grind - "Welcome 2 The Funk Bible, the New Testament".

It's the most carefree, fun party album he's ever made - the whole 'dark' thing makes no sense. He sounds happy, joyous and spontaneous. It all smells a bit fishy to me.

fluid said:

I was thinking about this the other day. IMHO the 1987 version had no official title, just as the Beatles' "White Album" is officially untitled. "The Black Album" just seems to be a convenient way to refer to it. Perhaps a better official name would have been Prince [1987] or Prince [II]. Problem is, though, the 1987 version doesn't have an artist credit either... I believe the artist was listed as "Somebody" on Warner Bros.' release calendar.

However, the 1994 official release had a sticker on the wrapper that said: "Prince: The legendary Black Album: Limited Edition." And the sticker on top of the CD case said: "Prince: The Black Album."

To be sure, both of these stickers were removed when you first opened the CD case. However, I have two copies of the 1994 release on vinyl, and on those, the first sticker I mentioned above is permanently affixed to the front cover of the album. So I take the position that the official title of the 1994 release is, indeed, The Black Album.

I think it was originally called "Baklava." Then he changed it to "Bagels with Cream Cheese." Later, he settled on "The Black Album" because Kiss had already released an album called "Music From the Elder."

matt said:

...and the album title was listed as "Something", IIRC.

Who let the freaks loose on this board?

CuntOMatic said:

It was that damn sasquatch again...

Oh I Believe He took Esctasy, I just dont buy the "Seeing God" stuff that was associated with him deciding to pull the cd. I remember that he said something bout if he died he didnt want TBA to be his last musical statement.

Also When it was first to be released, There wasnt going to be any sort of promotion or a single released. That was the way that Prince wanted to do it and Warner Bro. wanted to promote it, or so i remember.

He wanted to release it to prove that he was still "Funky" and let the fans find it for themselves by word of mouth. So I dont think that this cd was meant to break new ground, it was just a reminder to the nay sayers as what he could throw down.


Also I dont thing there ever was an official title for the cd.

tiger2 said:

Well how I understand it this album was made during his "Dark Electric" phase. That could explain that. The old bootlegs of the album were all black covered albums. I remember seeing a lot of the differents boots of the record and really they all looked a lot alike. The Warner release looks likes the boots did. I have no clue as to the rhyme nor reason for that. The guitar sound IS darker on TBA. The rapping P stuff really would have started on this album. That is if it was realsed in order of the production. I like the album BUT I would trade all the songs on it for Sign O The Times' songs.

I'm glad it was shelved. Lovesexy is a much better album.

The Black Album is interesting, but ultimately I think if released it would have been his weakest album of the 80s.