Why did Prince promise "bootleg classics" and then fill the 3 CDs with songs that nobody wanted, like Kirky J remixes, and songs already released (Good Love)?

Aren't there only about six previously released songs on there? I don't like the entire CB package, but I was happy to have a lot of those songs officially released. Good Love and So Dark were kind of a waste on there, but I like that version of Interactive better, for example.

I love Crystal Ball..that is all

lspear76 said:

did he?

I like "So dark" on Crystal Ball. "Crucial" is beautiful, "Get Loose" is fun, "Rippop.., Lovesign....I love thw whole thing."

i think the reason people were so bummed out by those mixes on that set
was because there were only 10 songs per disc.

with a type of anthology of bootlegged material i guess most people who
were waiting for the set expected it to be 3 discs filled in some sort
of chronological order to the brim with outtakes. 70 minutes per disc,
instead of 10 tracks per disc.

if you take off the remixes and the released stuff you could fit that
set onto a double disc.

for a future release like this it would be great if it were three cd's
filled with songs ranging from 79-99. this set also leaned to heavily
on "new" material from just 3 or 4 years prior.

I like a good portion of the songs on Crystal Ball but at the same time I do wish he had put better songs than the ones that he put on there. More hot unreleased 80's music. More classic time periods. Like unreleased songs from the 1999, and Purple Rain era. It woulda been way more intresting at that time.

I think that the inclusion of "Good Love" was a "fuck u" 2 Warner, like "u own the masters of the song, so sue me 4 rereleasing it if u dare." It might b more or less the same 4 the various Come/Gold remixes though i think it's more than Prince was really enthusiastic about all the stuff he recorded in 1993-1994 and he just wanted more of it 2 b released which xplains why half of CB is Come and Gold outtakes and remixes instead of more 80's stuff. It might have been a big disappointment 4 lotsa fans but i kinda like CB the way it is and i can understand Prince being more enthusiastic about recent recordings than old ones, even if 30 completely unreleased songs would have been more intetresting 4 us fans.

shaomi said:

Agree.

Also a reason for not including more 80s stuff, he's not stupid, he knows that is his trump card, he's cautious about when and if to play it.
[Edited 1/9/08 2:45am]

Tame said:

But if you want the best, and the real versions of "Crucial" the ONLY place to find them is on bootlegs. And that says what?

lspear76 said:

i didn't really mind the slight changes in some of the tracks although i was
bugged quite a bit about the intro to "moviestar" having 'jam of the year'
playing in the background. wtf was that all about?

i guess that personally i'd rather have the songs in good clean quality even
if they have some slight edits.

it's just the mixing on crystal ball that bugged me a lot. first of all the
tracks were just randomly thrown on there with no chronology of any kind.

and to make matters worse a lot of the tracks are mixed into each other and
that just makes me go limp in 2 seconds. ewwwww.

if he wanted to do such a project it should have been done more in depth,
something more like the beatles anthology series. that was good.

the way crystal ball turned out it would have made more sense if he'd just
released a single disc of 1985-1987 material and released the rest of the
newer 1992-1996 tracks online in his musicclub or something.

yeah... as to my thread about "particular album".. this one falls suite just perfectly to what i am referring to.

Between Emancipation (3cd) and Crystal Ball (3cd).. i'm hard pressed to find one albums worth of solid, good prince music... and I emphasize the word Prince.

the only thing that remotely saved crystal balls ass for me is the actual song Crystal Ball, and most of that acoustic truth cd....

I freakin love this CD: reminds me of when me and my husband met and how I used to dance around my attic apartment half-naked to my first CD player that my husband bought me. "Honey you have GOT to stop with the cassettes"
Much love to Prince for this and every song he's shared with us!!
OUT

IstenSzek said:

Crucial is more than slightly edited on Crystal Ball, it was gutted. The vocals, lack of depth, and lack of horns or guitar at the end dooms it. Yet, we get the full versions of "So Dark" and "2Morrow." Talk about lame.

I think the inclusion of Interactive andGood Love was fair enough as both songs were very rare.

Bruce Springsteen included a few b Sides on his excellent 4 disc outtakes set Tracks and for me they were very welcome as I didn't have them previoulsy.

The remixes were a mistake and also he should have filled the disc's up.

Romeoblu said:

He could have left off the shovelware and put on the raw version of Endorphinmachine or at the very least all of the mixes of Come. Or even the alternate Shy, Gold, long version of BJB, originally Zannalee and so much more.

lspear76 said:

I could release a better bootleg compilation than Prince:

1) Endorphinmachine (raw)
2) Come (TBE mix)
3) Days of Wild (studio extended)
4) Zannalee (original)
5) Empty Room ('95)
6) Cosmic Day
7) Witness 4 the Prosecution (any mix)
8) We Can Funk (original)
9) Tick Tick Bang (1981 version)
10) Crucial (guitar)
11) Crucial (horns)

There ya go, a full CD of great stuff and no Kirky J.

lspear76 said:

i agree it sound more orthentic, aka from the time period its meant to be from (1987) i hadnt heard the song before cause i kinda just skipped through crystal ball.... and i just listened to it on crystal ball and thought its ok and then i listened to the bootleg and its sounds like something off of lovesexy or sott..... its a cool track

lspear76 said:

Cuz he wanted to.