NouveauDance said:

Yeah I know, I don't normally bite that easily!
But I just find it annoying when people spout a load of BS without actually
looking into the subject at all.

Or maybe he's right, and the whole thing is an enormous conspiracy, and
the numerous people who worked on the 'new master' tracks were all in on it.

KrystleEyes said:

Boris knows his stuff.

Man, have you picked the wrong guy to have a fight with!

BorisFishpaw said:

Thanks for the info, and you´re right, I should have remembered that Soft And Wet was the last re-recorded song ( if I recall correctly, Morris helped a bit on that one)....it´s been quite some time and I only read it once , on the library computer, so that´s probably the reason why it slipped my mind.
It was way back on that old L4A site.

Much respect to you, you really know your stuff and never tell bullshit.

BorisFishpaw said:

He probably had a real "swear-burn-out" after that and vowed to never curse again!

I really don't know if I want to hear any of those re-recorded tracks. Not because they might be worse, but because it's just odd to have two versions of a song. I guess I would leave them alone (except for re-mastering, of course).

I presume then that the npgmc mixer versions of "Let's Work" and "Endorphinmachine" that were on the npgmc a few years back were taken from these 'new masters' (as they were slightly different to the album versions).

But still, I'm not 100% convinced on this whole thing. He may have just said he had completed it to scare the shit out of WB. I mean, do we have any conformation of this so-called "wrap party" other than what was posted on the website?

Another possibility is that he just re-recorded them with his band live-in-the-studio over a couple of days (the same way Miles Davis famously recorded 5 albums worth of material in two days to finish his contract with Prestige in 1955).
[Edited 4/30/06 6:53am]

Prince please don't do this! You have such other more important things to do.

KrystleEyes said:

You are on this site since 11/2004 and still haven't realized that Boris' infos are very valid and well backed up?

Thetan said:

Exactly!

Krystal666 said:

Too late. Done and dusted

.

toejam said:

Ah, crap. Why didn't I save those?

KoolEaze said:

***

Yes, I remember Morris Day saying he had just finished remixing 'Soft and Wet' and that it was the last song for the project. It sounded as though Morris had been given quite a bit of creative input.

Personally, I would still like these even as a side project.

calldapplwondery83 said:

For real. I wanna hear 'em!

That should be Morris Hayes, not Day.


I'd really like to know how much time he spent doing those re-recordings. Depends of course how much he changes, but it still seems like quite a task.

toejam said:

It hardly took a few days to complete the 'new masters'. The work was done over
about a 2-3 year period.

BorisFishpaw said:

That is a bit of a relief. I don't know how he could make great versions of all of his songs in two weeks. He's incredible but I'd think that would be hard to do.

Somehow I just feel people are mixing up the 1st of May with the 1st of April here...

No way.

Novabreaker said:

Yes way


.

No way.

Novabreaker said:

Either you are deluded or you're a glutton for punishment.

I suspect it's the latter

.

Oh, great. All the songs on Purple Rain with guest rappers.

Novabreaker said:

And with Kirky J. drumbeats!

I would guess that Prince didn't release the new masters because he realized there would be no point. Well, let me rephrase/clarfy - all the diehard fans like us would have bought them (in fact, he could easily just place them all for sale as limited-run CDs and/or downloads on NPGMC and we'd pretty much all buy them), but radio stations would never 'replace' the originals and start playing the new masters. People keep saying WB would be scared by Prince releasing all the new masters - are you kidding me? They know it wouldn't affect them at all.

EmancipationLover said:

"I knew a girl named Nikki, I guess U could say she was rather keen
I met her in a hotel lobby reading a watchtower magazine"





(only kidding)

BorisFishpaw said:

"... call me up whenever u want to study scriptures."

Seriously, a theoretical question: Obviously, he made significant changes to the arrangements of some songs (see 1999 TNM). Would it have been (legally) possible for him to re-record the old stuff note for note with the exact same sounds and instruments? He's the composer/writer, but it would be an exact copy of the masters WB owns, in the end.

There's no way Prince could have memorized how to play all of his songs, especially as many of them would recall for specific patches on electronic instruments that he most likely do not even possess anymore. Prince's music doesn't consist usually of played notes, but it's rather made of sound textures and grooves that are very much the result of the sounds he ended up favouring. It's just way too much guesswork.

Novabreaker said:

if he still had the original tracks for all instruments on each song it would
not be much work at all since he could basically just "remaster" his entire
catalogue and just replace for instance the bassline in a song or the guitar
licks etc for it to constitute a new master.

at least, that's what the man himself said in the past. he said there is no
need to re-record the entire song from scratch. all it takes is to make it
slightly different by replacing an old instrumental track with a new one or
a new vocal track, etc.

hence, it would figure that people like Wendy & Lisa, Dr Fink etc could all
still be on the new masters, exactly the same way they were on the original
and Prince would only be required to re-record one of the tracks he had put
to tape by himself, like the guitar, drum or vocal etc.

something like that would also explain why he would have been able to finish
this project withouth it taking up more than a decade's worth of time when
he was also recording new albums and touring all over the place.

one more thing i remember is blurbs on the early npgmc site about a totally
remastered 1999 album. i was so excited about that, but became scared of the
idea when he released the 1999 new master single.

it was a very bad example to make and to try and warm people to the idea of
the new masters.

But that's not how the legalities of recording ownership works. Any courtroom would consider those mere remixes or reworkings, when WB still would retain the ownership on them. Yeah, he might be able even to produce a "new master" just by downmixing the old multitracks and taking them to a mastering house, but it's still under the same title as the original recording and resembles the original.
Bollocks I say.

Novabreaker said:

Sorry Novabreaker, but are you seriously suggesting that just because an idea was flawed or legally not-so-brilliant, that would stop Prince from doing it anyway?

"Hey Prince!"
"What?"
"Walk a straight line!"
"No way man. I'm wearin' crooked shoes!"
"oh."

newpowergeneration said:

awesome.

newpowergeneration said: