I remember hearing all the hype about the Black Album before it's release. I was really disappoint to hear it after I purchased it. The rumor at the time is that is was the dark side of prince. It was supposed to be really controversial at the time and WB didn't want to release it. I just don't see what the controversy was all about! The only song on there that I liked was "when 2 R in love". I'm glad he re released it on Love sexy. I think both LoveSexy & SOT smoked the Black Album.

What did the rest of the org think about the Black Album?

What were your favorite tracks?

What is the actual history behind the Black Album?

Not my favourite album or one that I listen to very often, but yet a very interesting addition to his catalogue, mainly because of all the mystery surrounding it: cancelled release, bootlegging, reasons as to why it was withfrawn etc.
[Edited 12/12/07 8:34am]

i loved it back in the day when it was a bootleg. i thought bob george was the creepiest, craziest thing ever. but you know, i think the mystery of the album and the "underground" rep it had were part of what made it so fun to listen to at the time. when it was finally released officially, i bought it but only to have an "official" copy in my collection. i don't listen to it near as much as i listened to my ratty old bootleg cassette that i got in college.

Love the album, but couldn't understand what the controversy was all about.

Le Grind, Cindy C and Dead on it are fantanstic dance tracks.

The Wikipedia site has given some background information on it but I am not sure how true it is. Check it out and see what you think.

I love that album,and my fave tracks r Bob George,Le Grind,When 2 R in Love,Superfunkycalifragisexi,and Cindy C.2 me,it wasn't as controversial as the Lovesexy cover.
[Edited 12/12/07 9:32am]

I wasn't fond of it when I first got it, but it then grew on me. Not my favorite, but sits right next to it's counterpart Lovesexy. I don't think there are any songs I don't like on it, but it certainly jumps around. My favorites are Cindy C, Bob George, Supafunky.

Funny, I thought someone with a name like jaimestarr would love the album...

At first I didn't like the album. It sounded too 80s, not enough melodies and not enough regular song structure (I first heard it when I was young, early in the 90s). After a bit of aging I loved the album and rank it up there with the very best of Prince albums.

The thing I don't understand is the so-called darkness/evil of the album, I hear pretty much an party-album. I do understand the pulling of the album (see above). Whereas wikipedia has some weird style of writing, everything you asked is to be found there. The essential story is here: http://prince.org/faq/7_G...Prince_FAQ Paragraph 4.3.

Fave is Bob George, too funny, too addictive!

When two are in love, it somehow fits better on Lovesexy then the Black Album. It's one of the better songs on Lovesexy, while I skip it most of the time on the Black Album.

I was not a fan of The Black Album when I got a bootleg back in 88. I liked Lovesexy much more. However over the years I listened to it more and more and it really grew on me. Now its in my top 5. Its funky, fun, and has a very loose feel to it all.

I never got the controversy. Prince said something about it being too dark so he recorded Lovesexy in a day or week or something ridiculously short amount of time.

Anyway, Cindy C, Le Grind, Bob George, and Rock hard in a funky place is just jamming.

http://www.renewal.org.au...album.html

I must warn you, the link above is not intended for the Prince fam - they might find offense to the frankness of the story. For the others, here's an "official" story surrounding the Black Album.

I did! I ordered it from ebay and paid A LOT of money, and never in my life have I been so disappointed!!

One of my least favorites, but I won't say that I don't like it.

I think it's a decent Prince album. Not his best, but it's worth a listen. "Bob George" is the most craziest song thing Prince has ever recorded.

bob george

hilton02895 said:

Wow, that was a great read! On point as well.

It's okay but not nearly as provocative as I thought it would be.

I do listen to it occasionally.
I tend these days to burn compilations for the car and Bob George is often on it.
I like Bob George, but the reason it lives there is it was one of the highlights of the LoveSexy tour for me AND I love the line:
Prince! Prince! Aint that a bitch, That skinny MF with the high voice?

It'sa classic. In my top 5

I like it. All the songs are listenable for me, exept for maybe Cindy C.

i think it's still Prince's crowning most unique, most creative, yet most cohesive album EVER.

It opened my eyes to his creative potential: from the anonymous authorship, the blank artwork, the fierce mixes, the surreal yet funky soundscapes... and the single most creative powerhouse song he has ever let loose, Bob George.

and then the way you had to track it down, the way all the celebrities referenced it and listened to it, the way it seemed so dark and bizarre in comparison to what other pop stars were doing....

The way it began with "So you found me..."

GREAT

so to answer your question, no I didn't dislike it. I did dislike Lovesexy, and had to listen to it over and over like sour medicine to try to get into it's details. Now I do appreciate Lovesexy and love the tracks Eye No and I wish U Heaven and Anna Stesia

hell no. one of my favorites.

IMHO the opening of Le Grind is the best opening to Prince album ever .."So u found me ...good..." I still listent to it all the time and love it as much as the first time I heard it in camden Market in 1988

I loved it mostly because it separated the fans from the casual fan. You couldn't just buy it at Sam Goodie--you had to go to independent stores and snoop a bit.

It was my first experience with the realization that there was even such a thing as a bootleg. Though the quality of them sucked, they helped me to satisfy what was a veracious appetite for his music not satisfied through the one-album-a-year method.


Listening to it now, I like it mostly for nostalgic reasons. Its a good album.

No like the black album when I first heard it. Quite disappointing after the effort of hunting it down, heard from some source it was some underground project. Now, there's a song or 2 I can tolerate.

hilton02895 said:

.. yeah but, the dates are wrong in this and plus.. no mention of the 'Xstacy' story.. which him experimenting with it is the whole basis of the album's birth... 'Anna Stesia' was about that night's events of him on ecstasy (there's a thread on it),

I've never been too fond of it, although it's ok. It's my least favorite 80s album of his, though.

The dirty sound you'd get from your tape being the 20th (if you were lucky) duplication was truly part of the magic.

Don't forget, this is the first album that really established the cult. Before that, Prince was the greatest, but with the outtakes thing, he became a legend, a semi-god.

Like, you know, "...And suddenly the vault was opened".

After the Black Album, The Dream Factory, Crystal Ball, Camille, Charade, Small Club begun to circulate... To listen to them in their time of "release" simply left you astounded. You would go : "So exactly how many has he kept secret ?". You already have the b-sides, The Time, Vanity and Apollonia, Sheila E, The Family, Jill Jones, all the Paisley Park artists and suddenly you realized the guy NEVER takes a holiday.

Per Nilsen, the Org, and everything else revolving around his work today, included us still debating in 2007, has originated from this cult status. But that's a theory, and if you don't want to know...

bonatoc said:

jesus, brilliantly put, Per Nilsen is amazing, I have two of the documentaries, which I basically used as bibles, back in the day

The Black lp is weak. Lovesexy is 100 times better lp. Annastesia is the bomb!!!

Thumparello said:

I'd say Lovesexy was the quickly drawn weak one..