I've been seriously wondering about this for years. How is it that sooo much soundboard quality music is out there. Already there are copies of at least two full ONA concerts circulating for download that are soundboard quality. How can this be without Prince himself not being aware? I'm sure his sound technicians don't need the side cash that bootlegging would bring or maybe I'm wrong on that thought.

I have a copy of an interview he did in the early 90's when he refered to his songs as children. He said he gives birth to his children, raise them to maturity by playing them over and over until they have hit perfection. Then he sends them out into the world and watch them stand on their on. But it saddend him that a lot of his children don't get to make it into the world, because at the time Warner Brother's was only letting him release one album a year.

So this begs the question. Is this Prince's way of sharing his works with the world? He truly isn't in just for the money or he would still be with WB dropping major hits or I could be wrong on that thougt too. Also, is it the bootlegging that truly makes dedicated Prince fans? Those out there like myself who search the web at night for a new crumb to sample. Searching for that perfect performance. Or if the bootlegs dried up, would some of his fan base dry up with them? I know I would still be here, but would those who need a constant fix to keep them going stick around?

This is just something I've pondered for a while. Just the courioustiy of an over sexed and under worked middle age man. Oh my mistake, I forgot I have children and a mortgage, it's the other way around.

Full ONA soundboard recordings?...where?.
That 5 track Indianapolis EP?...it's only 30 minutes.

Please explain, as for bootlegs...prince has nothing to do with boots, at best he turns a blind eye.
But he has cracked down and got rid of all the bad people, as a result less things have surfaced.

DaddyMan said:

Huh? Two full concerts? Which ones? I only soundboard I of is the 5 song EP given to radio ststions. I thought everything else was audience recordings. Details please. Thanks.

Whoops! 'Snap' with Liberation.

[This message was edited Sun Aug 4 12:19:49 PDT 2002 by Heavenly]

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[This message was edited Wed Jul 17 18:15:13 PDT 2002 by MeshOfFlesh]

Yeah, we shouldn't panic. I assume DaddyMan is refering to the sooo easily available Chicago gig -I must confess, the very first samples I heard from that recording led me to think it was a soundboard one. I recently had the chance to listen to some tracks from the Hollywood concert, and the quality was very, VERY good as well. The fact that these 2002 concerts are held in theaters plus nowadays technology allows people to tape gigs in such quality.

First of all Prince HATES ALL bootleggers. He calls Sabotage "the Thives in the Temple". It's really hard to get a soundboard recording because of how careful Prince is now days. All the ONA shows are audience recordings. They are really good sounding, expcept maybe the N.Y. show could be better. But over all if you have noticed, not many soundboard Live shows and/or NEW studio songs are being released. This is because Prince has really tightened the security of his music.

This is why we have an abundance of audience recordings...

If you want more info just check out this Very informative thread:

http://www.prince.org/msg...&tid=18448

'nuff said.
[This message was edited Wed Jul 17 18:13:42 PDT 2002 by chookalana]

OK, being careful not to get in trouble about getting too deep on the boots. Keeping the discussion general, I'm no expert on live performance recordingS other than the many I have personally listened to. But the MP3's I downloaded from the wonderful world of KaZaA sound like they are right off the soundboard. They are the Hollywood Kodak Theater and 2nd Nite in Chicago. The crowd is in the background and not vice versa. And the sound quality is crisp and the bass is banging. With the use of the equalizer supplied with the Musicmatch player after a little adjusting I feel like I'm back in my front row seats in Houston. Hope I didn't tick off big brother talking about those boots.

DaddyMan said:

Like I said they are very good recordings for the most part, but not crystal clear. Besides if it was a soundboard recording you would hardly hear the crowd. trust me they are all audience recordings.

'nuff said.

Because I'm at work and doing other things I didn't read Chookalana's, Heavenly's and Lickerdipper's responses before my last response. I do mean they SOUND like they are from the soundboard. I can not authenticate anything off of the web, but they don't sound like the recording source is in the audiance. I'm listening to it right now and it sounds like I'm on the stage with Prince. Maybe I need an education on recordings. I would like to know how a person was able to get a recording device into the concert. I was felt up and waved with the magic wand before I could get in.

Hey Chookalana, I read your thread and if I take it at face value then I think that was a deep education. I never knew there was a third album made to Sign 'O' Times. And six weeks to get a tape of the Black Album. Damn. But anyway if these are audiance recordings I'm hearing then I would probably freak out over a true sounboard recording.

well for Him to Leave a Subtle Message in the Video for "alphabet Street" that says Don't Buy the "Black" Album speaks Volumes.He knows that certain things are out there.He probably didn't trip on it much during the Warner Brother Days because it wasn't out of His Pocket but you can best Believe now He is like George Bush in a Staff Meeting all things are to Remain in office.not to mention He gave "The Work Part 1" to Napster.they may have given Him a Fee I don't know but still He knows what time it is?

There are some very good audience recordings out there, but give me a VG soundboard show over an EX audience show any day.

It's all in the ears.

DaddyMan said:

The "third" disc was various cuts from Crystal Ball/Dream Factory/Parade era. Crystal Ball, All My Dreams, Dream Factory were some of the songs that were on it.

I still have a rehearsal from Purple Rain tour on cassette that I do not think that has ever been released on boot.(can I say that?) I AM NOT OFFERING IT THOUGH.

I still have a rehearsal from Purple Rain tour on cassette that I do not think that has ever been released on boot.(can I say that?) I AM NOT OFFERING IT THOUGH.[/quote]




i think i know the rehearsal ur talking about

mistermaxxx said:

I read that the Black Album was shelved because Prince had a bad experiance and didn't want the Black Album to be the last thing he was remembered for incase he died. That's why Lovesexy is such an opposite album then the Black Album. If this is true, which I believe is after reading it several places over time, then that would be the reason for the his Message in Alphabe Street. He hasn't come out and said anything else about boots that I'm aware of. In fact he was supportive of Napster in saying that if people really dug someone's music they would go and buy the CD even after they've downloaded the music, because it's just better quality. Which is very true. Think of all the boots on the Crystal Ball. I had almost all of them and I was one of the first to send in my $50 bucks for a better copy. In the end he profited from the fact that these were bootlegs.

chookalana said:

Is this why he owns all the possible James Brown / Jimi Hendrix outtakes out there?

Not having read any of the previous posts...this is the 1st thing that came 2 my mind.

Prince likes/loves the $$$ 2 much 2 release anything without payment.

The only thing he released 4 free was a song called "The Work, Pt.1" which was about getting paid.

'nuff said.

mistermaxxx said:

He didn't want people to buy the Black Album because he had specifically chosen to abort the project and NOT release the material for spiritual reasons.

Other material arguably hasn't been slotted for a project like the Black Album tracks were, and just hasn't been released because the proper place hasn't come for it yet, or he's doing other things. It may be that other recordings are meant to be released at some point, and P just hasn't focused on their release yet, while the Black Album was blocked just before release.

There's also something to be said for "buying" The Black Album and other bootleg material versus trading or downloading the music.

Not letting other people profit off stealing Prince's work is a key point, and also whether those who bought it as a bootleg would be willing to buy it again when it is officially released.