Do you think is actually old vault tracks he pulled out and reworked for his new albums?


I've spoken with several orgers who are convinced that much of his new material is probably just vault material, and I love the theory and would like to believe it, but I don't think there's any proof.


Do any of you feel much of his new suff really isn't new a all? Take "Somewhere here on Earth" for example--the reference to a "pager" and the overall sound of seems to coincide with the Symbol album years, etc. etc.

sayin' he's gay?

XxAxX said:

Actually Imago, I wonder the same thing.

Imago said:

i think lots of people who write music re-work old material. some of his recent releases have that 'older prince' vibe, imo.

Personally i think its a mixed bag: some idea's and songs he did pull out of the vault, combined with some new ones.

But i think thats not different from how he was working 'in the past'.

I mean, a lot of the songs on Graffiti Bridge ring back to the late eighties. A song like The Max uses a synth riff of a guitar riff he played live in 1988 during aftershows. And the title track of "Rave" harks back to 1988.

Its just a common thing among musicians to use 'old' idea's or older songs and release them officialy later.

Don't know if this has been mentioned. But Planet Earth (the song) is a straight rip of Empty Room! anybody else notice this - the basic structure is exact.

Riverpoet31 said:

His rework of Tick Tick Bang sounds nothing like the orginal though. His rework of The Dance wasn't all that much different on 3121 than from the original NPCMC version.


Now I'm not saying that he is just picking out vault stuff and hastily compiling the songs into an album---just that the theory is intriguing.

i remember when he released "prettyman" (quite a while back, btw, like, with rave?) i thought wow! the feeling was a lot like the 1987 period. exuberant, funky and slyly humorous. one of the favorite prince musical types, and one of my all time favorite prince songs.
[Edited 10/29/07 12:05pm]

It's a good enough question. I don't know. I think we would have heard about a few of these if they were. The lyrics seem very today. But if they are, where's the new material? I think he is simply retreading instead of bringing out old jams.

I am trying to think which, if any of the songs that might be.

He references paging but not pagers. I get the option to page when I reach someone's voicemail. I think it was just a rhyme.

But yeah I think the Dance proves that he dips into the vault, and that's part of the reason he doesn't open it.

There was some talk of Baby Knows being an old drum track, maybe Cream, and one of the GCS2000 songs used Billy Jack Bitch's drum track. Not vault stuff, but recycling nonetheless.

I think that since 1991 his stuff has sounded more generic (more timeless?) and could more easily pass for new than, say, a 1982 outtake.

Imago said:

first of all, his general lack of interest in his own vault material
seems to suggest that most of the songs are new creations.

although he does seem to recycle some stuff, like "the dance" which
is something i would have never in a million years thought prince'd
do -rewrite a song from a former album for a new one. ok, he did it
with "when 2 r in love" but that was not really released was it.

"somewhere here on earth" sounds more like an idea that might have
been kicking around since the one nite alone piano album. possibly
an outtake (there's already a track on there called here on earth).

other songs like "a million days" are probably older stuff too, it
certainly feels like his dolphin/into the light songwriting modus,
perhaps he just felt he had too many of those type of songs going
on at the same time and saved it for a while.

anyways, i think that a lot of times he just utilises instruments
or styles that he used before to create something completely new,
although it may sound like an outtake (think 3121, recorded with
michael b and sonny t about a year prior to it's release altho it
sounds like camille etc etc etc)

one thing that makes some of his songs sound like they were left
over from other sessions is the fact that he seems to cheap or 2
unconcerned to buy some new equipment these days. he's using the
same sound fx over and over again.

a final thing to remember is that he's done pretty much any kind
of style and hybrid of styles in the past so ultimately anything
he's gonna release is gonna be somewhat reminicent of past songs
or past albums.

I don't know about the NEW material. But I remember listening to the oringal 1986 recording of "Joy In Repetition" and it sounds just like the version he put on the Graffiti Bridge album. I mean he didn't really change anything to it..

XxAxX said:

I would have loved Pretty man to have been placed somewhere in Musicology instead of being tacked on the end of Rave.


It was such a fun song.

Imago said:

That would mean I would have to put on Musicology more and we simply cannot have that.

The Light spectrum travels endlessly beyond the low frequency of Infrared, and endlessly exists beyond the high frequency of Ultraviolet....Music will always have a thread of similarity...however, Musical Scales do that as well....In Eternity....Prince has room to grow, and will eventually please everyone.

Tame said:

i kinda dig how you see stuff, but uhm he asked if you think his material is from the vault

Tame said:

I absolutely HATE this post.

Tame said:

I think there's a good possibility that Prince has dipped into the vault for some of Planet Earth. He's done this on albums in the past, and I don't see anything wrong with it.

XxAxX said:

I think that is actually more 1981/82, see Cloreen Baconskin.

Fun thread, Dan. Of course, we act allhuffy and puffy, but he has been revisiting old songs for ages now. Songs like Feel U Up and Strange Relationship were composed far back as 1982, only to be released in 1987 and 1989 respectively.

And look at Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic or album titles like Crystal Ball. Prince has been doing this form the ge tgo, so why not now; he's got a vault full of goodies, why not nibble on them every now and then?

Tame said:

do you say that because he doesnt please you??

Imago said:

LMAO fuckin pager! anyways he most likely still does this.but hes not reworking top underwear drawer materials.or he is but still caught int he stale vegas-y funk sound.

Tame said:

Christopher said:

Flowerz said:

Ya'll stop hatin on Tame, she has Crystal Balls 4 eyes she can see everything!

I love you Tame!

Riverpoet31 said:

Several years earlier in fact.

There's been some info between here and HQ, on tracks from Musicology/3121/PE being earlier - Shoulda bookmarked 'em.

Listening to the material I don't think anything from the past few years dates too far back - maybe back to the mid-90s at the very earliest, and that's in rare cases. More likely if anything does date back, it's only a couple of years before release.

KidaDynamite said:

Tame is cool.. she's more far out there ..than even me lol ..(and i know im strange)

I wouldn't be surprised. That man has created hundreds and hundreds of songs so why not get them out there.

Sasal said:

I am absolutely in love with ur avater!

That's my girl!