I was rummaging through some old CD-Rs, and I found something interesting: The Work, when it was first made available, I think from Napster back in 2001. It's in a slightly different version from either the TRC album version or the CD single version. This one has one extra bar at the beginning. Right after the first eight notes (da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da) it goes DAAA and then DAAA again (that's the extra part). Anyone else notice this? Other than that it seems to be identical to the one that was made available for download.

The original solo towards the end was edited/re-worked for the album too. I remember NPGMC posted that the song was recorded in one take, and that the solo features Prince playing guitar with one hand and keyboard with the other hand. Maybe he re-thought that later.

It's slightly different lyrically too:

http://www.dtt-lyrics.com....html#work

http://www.dtt-lyrics.com....html#work

The Work, Pt. 1

"This track predated The Rainbow Children by several months, being released on the NPGMC in April, 2001. This obvious homage to James Brown is a horn-boosted funk number featuring backing vocals by Kip Blackshire and Millennia. The lyrics lambastes the media and social ills while they speak of "doing the work", which may be spreading the religious word. The album version of the song has some slight musical and lyrical changes"

http://www.dtt-lyrics.com...A-Z.html#W

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I like the single version better than TRC version - it's more laid back, guitar parts are more subtle. It's funy though, The Vault overlooked this - they don't list The Work as existing in alternate versions.

fms said:

Then again, 'The Vault' also overlooked December 1999 entirely.

In fairness, 'The Vault' has tremendous ground to cover and, at the time of printing, I don't think the differences had been (widely) detected. I remember that it was only after 2002 ONA performances where Prince encouraged the 'gotta lot of work 2 do' chants (which emerged on the re-arranged European leg of the tour), that I listened back and it dawned on me that the DTT needed to consider a second transcription.

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