Prince sits on alot of tracks, but this one amazes me that it still is laying there. Perhaps its too painful for him to sing about, but he's been toying around with it for almost 2 decades now. He decided it wouldnt go on the Vault, then re-recorded it from a Live show back in the NPGMC days, so he does still have it in his mind, even played it at the 2000 celebration. So now he's in the rock mood again, for the first time since Chaos it seems, lets get this track out already, re-do it, just you and the guitar and drums. I mean Prince has been re-working songs over the last few years, for 3121, the title track WAS NOT a new song, and niether was the Dance, and on Musicology its been said that Reflection and a Million Days were from older sessions in the late 90's just redone.

when he did Empty Room at the 2002 celebration I about came in pants. no lie.



But yeah, it would be a good one to re-do. I'm not crazy about the ONA version that was released.


There are some tracks that I wouldn't mind him re-recording. Of course, I'd like for him to release the originals, but there are some that I think are classic enough examples of songwriting that I don't think he could fuck them up too bad if he re-did them.

If we're going with rock re-recordings of outtakes, here are mine:

Empty Room
Open Book
Moonbeam Levels
The Grand Progression
U
Just My Imagination (a note-for-note recreation of the solo from Small Club would be good.... hell, just lift it straight out of there and put it in the track)
Love Thy Will Be Done

how many times does he have to re-record that damn song?!? i'm perfectly PERFECTLY happy with that C-NOTE soundcheck recording.

Prince is not trying to do that old shit anymore. Hey hey hey, wake up it's a new day!

wlcm2thdwn said:

3121, The Dance were all old tracks that dated way back into the later 90's early 00's so he has been re-working music.

lastdecember said:

I don't suppose you have any evidence to back that up? People assume that to be the case simply on the basis of what those songs sound like - but certainly researchers like Uptown were unaware of tracks by those names having been recorded previously (apart from the slightly earlier was it 2004 version of The Dance of course). Michael B. himself has said that 3121 came about from a jam and recording session with Prince and Sonny T. in 2005 I think it was...

Personally I love the C-NOTE version of Empty Room, the guitar is fantastic, and actually beats the other versions I have heard.

metalorange said:

My probably with the CNOTE version is that Prince's guitar isnt tuned, after all it was just a soundcheck, though vocally he sounds better than he did during the actual concert performance, his guitar is out of tune. The evidence i have heard for the Dance is that it was being worked on around the time Prince was working on the HIGH album, which is actually where alot of the tracks like the Dance and others from Chocalate Invasion/Slaughterhouse were from. The HIGH album material dates back as far as 1999-2000. As far as 3121 the track, i have heard it was originally worked on back in 2003-04 during jams with Sonny/Michael but stemmed from jammed they did when they were band members back in the 90's. The thing is Prince writes so much and tosses so much aside, you really dont know where songs originated, Empty Room, many people say is from 1994 and the I'll do anything sessions, but the truth is Prince wrote it way back in 1985.

lastdecember said:

You may hear an out of tune guitar, I sure don't.

I've never heard of the Dance being included on any proposed tracklist for High. As you say, the entire High album was released through npgmc downloads - but not The Dance, which surely suggests it was not part of that album? The Dance only came to be included on the Chocolate Invasion when put up for download in 2004. All you can really say is it was recorded sometime before 2004!

There are interviews with Sonny T. on the Org. I've definately seen him post that 3121 came from a recording session 2005-ish, I've not seen him indicate that it stemmed from even earlier, though I could have missed that. Certainly the beat is pretty basic, many used to claim it was merely the Days Of Wild beat being re-used, it is hard to imagine they would have to work on it twice. Lyrically it is hard to believe Prince came up with the 3121 concept in the 90s and has been sitting on it, it certainly seems to deal specifically with the parties he was having at his LA mansion for a while which would not be relevant back in the late 90s.

new day new dawn let's move on!

I don't think it's any secret that he takes out old songs (including ones we've never heard of before) or parts of songs and recycles them for new projects. The only evidence of it for 3121 is "The Dance" which is clearly an Emancipation outtake and was released in 2004.

Raze said:

I don't understand why it is 'clearly' an Emancipation outtake?

metalorange said:

have you listened to it? it's sounds just like every ballad on (and left off) that album, but not as good.

Raze said:

Oh, so there's no facts to back you up, it is just a feeling you have.

It could well be, but it could also be Prince just creating something new that happened to be reminiscent of his older work.

metalorange said:

The beginning of the Dance sounds similar to Journey of the Center of your Heart. I think the issue is that Prince writes so much, jams so much and SHELVES so much work, that on occasion he goes back and furthers an idea, thats not saying music he does know he recorded 20 years ago, its saying that maybe a few jams here and there he started awhile back, had no title, had no words, but now he came up with something to further the idea, its not a bad thing, everyone that has a career of output does that.

The version I have from 1995 is a great version and the quality is good enough for me not to be that bothered if it see's an offical studio version released.

I would love to see him redo Moonbeam Levels though that would be great.

It was rumored on HQ that most of the 3121 tracks were from the vault and varing years, but no one was willing to enlighten us any further. Not that it matters really it was still and is a great album.

Prince should consider rerecording some of his vault stuff, wasn't Graffiti Bridge pretty musch an album made up of old and updated songs with a few new ones.

To hell with re-recording it, just release the '85 version, I say.

i dont know, the problem is that I always like his original versions. The original of the Dance in 1995 is really good, was dissappointed with the 3121 version. The same with Something in the Water, the original outtake is outrageously amazing, however, the 1999 version is excellent too, just different.