Hello all. I'm new to the group and had a few questions for some of you experts. A buddy of mine just laid the 2-cd DREAM FACTORY set on me the other day. I'm blown away by the music, but of course I had some questions about it. Specifically:

How close was DF to being released in 1986? Were test pressings ever made?

Assuming Prince had decided which tracks would be on DF and what the order was to be, how close is disc one of the bootleg to what Prince envisioned?

Regarding the song "A Place in Heaven", which version do you think would have wound up on the "official" release of DF? Also, I've heard of a song called "Nevaeh ni Ecalp a"... is this one of the two versions included on the boot or something entirely different?

Finally, the artwork on the boot of Prince with W&L in the clouds with the giant flower. Was this the actual art planned for the 1986 release? I quite like it!

Thanks for the help,

Jason

jasonbear said:

The 2CD set contains songs that were not part of any of those Dreamfactory configurations.



No test presssings.



See the new Sabotage release for one of the configurations Prince had in mind. The sound quality of this release is superior to the 2CD Thunderball set. DF would not have contained enough material for two CD's. Disc 2 of DF (TB) is "filler".



No. All there ever was AFAIK were some tapes. It's just one of those projects Prince was working on that never got released and several songs made it to other albums in one way or another. Happens all the time. Check out some of Per Nilsen's books for more info...

On the version i've recently acquired 'Sign O the times' segues into 'Expert Lover'.It's brilliantly done i wonder if it was originally segued that way.

I think Dream Factory evolved into Crystal Ball then finally into SOTT.

jasonbear said:

Dream Factory didn't quite make it to the test pressing stage. It was finished on the 18th July 1986, with the intention of a first quarter release in 1987. Wendy & Lisa announced that they wanted to 'go solo' at the end of July '86, so 'Dream Factory' was pretty much shelved at that point. Wendy & Lisa's (and The Revolution's) input into 'Dream Factory' was considerable, and Prince decided there couldn't be a 'Revolution' without them. He also felt he couldn't tour the album since the band that created it wouldn't be there to play it.



Disc one of that bootleg is 100% correct. That was the final completed version of the album.



The version of 'A Place In Heaven' on the completed 'Dream Factory' was the one sung by Lisa. 'Nevaeh Ni Ecalp A' is the name of the uncredited segue used between 'Visions' and 'Dream Factory'. On an earlier version of the album it was used inbetween 'In A Large Room With No Light' and 'Sexual Suicide', where it was actually named in the tracklisting.



No, the cover for that bootleg used an image used on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The actual cover was going to be a collage of images handrawn and painted by all the members of the band (it was finished, but has never been seen).

Thank you all for your help with my DREAM FACTORY questions. I do think the album is very good. I like most of the transitions on disc one of the Thunderball version, although "Interlude" into "ICNTTPOYM" sticks out like a sore thumb.

It's interesting to speculate how DF would have fared had it been released as is instead of undergoing various transformations into SOTT. I don't think it would have had the same impact SOTT did. Songs like "Crystal Ball" and "Dream Factory" are great, but probably wouldn't have appealed to the casual listener the way "U Got the Look" or "Adore" did. I would have chosen as the first single from DREAM FACTORY... "Strange Relationship".

Jason