what gets me about the whole fammish indignation over people owning prince bootlegs is that in the liner notes for 'crystal ball', it's noted that "movie star" is d'angelo's favorite bootlegged prince track. also, at one of the celebrations, fans were asked for their bootleggage suggestions for a proposed 'crystal ball 2'.

if we're supposed to shun bootlegs, then what's all this stuff about???

gemini77 said:

bwaaaaahahahahahahahahahahaaaaa!!!! oh lawd, that's rich...tell us another funny!

as for the question at hand: yep, sure do. i've never bought a bootlegg though, i've always gotten 'em through trading.

I have quite a few bootlegs and love them! I listen to them more than released albums. I don't care if Prince likes it or not. I'm not friends with him.

I got a pair of bootleg jeans does that count?

Anx said:

Prince loves that. You know he does. He's famous for having so much unreleased material. It's one of the things that's cool about him. Without the bootlegs, how would we know ?

He doesn't like other people making money from his work, that's different, and some songs he's probably embarressed by, but ultimately it's worked for his career.

[quote]

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Since his songs are his "children", maybe he feels like we are kidnapping them.

james said:

i think at this point, prince's bootlegs are kinda like the grateful dead's bootlegs...if you're in the "fan culture", you don't have to spend a penny on them, because other fans are always happy to share and trade. i think the internet killed off most (if not all) of the bootleggers' profits, so now all we have left is a bunch of happy fans trading music for free. prince isn't losing money from that, though he could stand to earn money by releasing some of the stuff officially. which, you know, would be nice, but since he won't, whatevs.

Nothing wrong with having bootlegs. They're not losing money by us owning a shitty concert recording.

The bad thing would be copying legal releases so we don't have to pay.

I don't own any!

I don't own any!

Questlove admitted to having all these Prince boots, but Prince never got mad at him.

I bootleg so many Cds, but I can honestly say I dont with prince's. Theres like 3 or 4 artist's or bands I HAVE 2 buy the CDS cause Im such a big fan! And with prince...it just has 2b done..

Years ago I bought a couple bootlegs from a little independent wrecka stow. They were overpriced and of such terrible quality, that I swore I'd never waste my money again.

Being on the .org, I've heard so much about so many wonderful boots that I'm tempted to try again, but since I have no source, it's kind of a moot point for me.

Either way, I consider myself a fan. In fact, from what I've read here, bootleg owners are some of the most ardent fans around. They seem to be real fans of the MUSIC, not necessarily of the MAN. In other words, they are fans, not fams. (I hate that term! :shudder: )

So where does that leave me as a fan? Pining away for product I cannot have, and sometimes feeling pretty left out. The saddest part is that I don't believe at this point that any of this stuff will ever see an official release because the content isn't in line with Prince's current beliefs, so I doubt seriously that he would release it now. And that leaves me SOL.

less of fan than I was before, but still love him and would pay anything to get front row seats

I'm a huge Prince fan. I own many many Prince bootlegs. I sleep very well at night as well.

Prince had no problem giving all these songs out on mixes 2 women he wanted 2 so something tells me he wasn't 2 concerned about them getting out in the 1st place. As 4 me, I think he loves the idea of people willing 2 do "the work" 2 unearth these songs, which was what was necessary before the internet. How he feels about downloading is another type of rant al2gether.

I own alot of bootlegs and if prince would offically released them I would buy them all (just like the black album).

I have a few Vinyl Bootlegs but most have come through the Internet / Sharing scene.....I don't have a problem owning them as all the Boots are unreleased material. Therefore as already stated, Prince isn't losing money cuz he hasn't released them.

If he did release them, yeah I would buy the stuff.....Obviously would be better quality etc. Prince won't, why should he?

myownprivateinsanity said:

Damn right.

A true fan of Prince music has the f***** due to buy bootlegs, if he has a source.
This is only for non-available stuff.
There are more unavailable songs out there (many in good quality) than released ones..and I don't mean livesongs, I mean studio boots.

If anything would be released officially...here's my money

I am not as big of a fan as I once was. This has a lot to do with the lack of interest in his current flow. I have a number of bootlegged cd's and I think they are much better than the stuff he has released in ages. In fact, the ONA boot I have is 10 times better than the "Offical" release, but I went out and bought it as well. A number of other artists request that their material be bootlegged **John Mayer is the latest** because they know that the songs will not see the harsh light of a record store but want the people who pays his bills to hear it. If the Elf would just re-master this stuff then I would pay top dollar for it, until then, trading will get me thru til the next decent album.