LinnLM1 said:

Camille doesn't seem to have the "evil" masculine vibe that makes the Black Album hold together so well... Only "Come" seems to have that vibe.

Camille is a much more spidery thing with shifts in mood from Rebirth to Good Love.

NorthernLad said:

when people say that prince pulled the black album, i don't get it. i know he has said that in the past, but i thought the lyrics to "face down" were clearly referring to the black album ("bob george" in particular).

(apologies if this has been mentioned before. if it has, i haven't seen it.)

JPMcGee said:

But weren't copies pressed? I find it hard to imagine that:

1 - WB would go through the expense of getting an album ready for release and even going thru the process of printing some copies if they had no intention of releasing it.

2 - WB would refuse ANYTHING of Prince at that point, within reason. They weren't about to let him issue 3 or 4 LP sets, but the Black Album would have been a $$$ winner considering there would be no expense on promotion. All they had to do was ship it and it would sell without any help whatsoever.

And did WB later force Prince to release the Black Album as part of his deal to get out of his contract?

I always thought the line you refer to in "Face Down" deals with the whole Gold Experience/Come era fiasco, or perhaps Exodus.

JPMcGee said:

No, the lines in Face Down have nothing to do with the Black Album (WB actually
wanted to release the album, it was Prince that didn't want it to come out).

The Face Down lyrics are actually refering to the song 'Love Sign', which
Prince wanted to issue independantly as a follow up to The Most Beautiful
Girl In The World, but WB refused permission for another independant single
and wouldn't release it themselves either (well not as immediately as Prince
wanted anyway).

huh. i always thought that that story was a way for prince to save face. WB killed TBA, but let him say it was his decision.

where did you get that from, boris? the lyrics to "love sign" refer to gun violence in society. i suppose prince could have referred to that as "a black child going buck wild."

edit: plus i guess it makes more sense that he would be referring to something recent, rather than the nine-year-old black album. it's not like prince to mull over his past music much.
[Edited 1/18/07 15:35pm]

but then again, the album was about emancipation, and if warners did kill TBA, prince might well have included that fact in one of his songs.

oh hell. i should stop thinking about this. i actually have work to do (tho i'm not exactly willing to do it, har har).

No, it's well documented and confirmed that it was TOTALLY Prince's decision
to pull the Black Album. The Black Album's non-release cost WB a lot of money
as they had already started manufacturing and thousands of copies had already
been preassed. Warners WANTED to release the album, and they made several
attempts to persuade Prince to let them release it over the years, finally
succeeding in 1994 when it became part of the deal for Prince's release from
his contract. It shows that back in 1987, Prince actually had a very good
relationship with WB and could pretty much do what he liked.

It's also been confirmed that the lines in Face Down refer to the non-release
of the Love Sign single, though I agree that the lyrics themselves are fairly
ambiguous and non-specific. This was at a time when Prince wanted to be able to
just release what he liked when he liked, without having to wait for the "right
time" (which could be months away) or having to promote an album. Though WB
had allowed the release of The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, they didn't
allow any other tracks to be released independantly. Which is why the B-side
ended up being a dance mix of the A-side (the B-side was originally supposed to
be New World). The same happened with The Beautiful Experience EP, this was
originally going to consist of 7 different tracks and be more of a mini-album.
This was changed for the same reason.

ufoclub said:

I disagree.The Camille album is much more focused...it's simply a better collection of songs."Housequake","Shockadelica","Good Love","Rebirth Of The Flesh"....these songs put The Black Album tracks to shame! Camille is a much more cohesive album while TBA just sounds like a collection of jams....like he was just playing around in the studio.In fact,didn't he originally record those songs for Sheila E.'s Birthday party?

thanks, boris. i'm still curious about your sources, but you sound like you know what you're talking about.

(i do have a prince bio that i never finished reading. maybe i should go back to that.)

SoulAlive said:

Rebirth has nothing of the mood, message, or vibe of Good Love or even of Feel U Up (which is from 1999 days)...

Camille is a collection of funky songs with the vocal track technique as thread. The Black Album has a consistent attitude, mood, and tone. Right down to the peach lettering on black for the labels, it is a cohesive work of art. I love the "hidden" intro message to announce what you are about to hear.

Camille is much more like a typical Prince album (thought some of the songs are outstanding) where it switches up moods and attitudes.

I think Crystal Ball would have been even better use for tracks like Rebirth and If I Was...