Does anyone remember that strange episode in Prince's career where a letter was sent out from NPMC to it's lifetime subscribers asking that we send our bootlegs to him?

It was done under the premise of an 'experiment', but I don't recall whatever came of that or what the rationale was.

Even Prince would know that it would fail if his intention was to swipe the world of Prince bootlegs. However, I'm convinced Prince wasn't intending to do that.

Does anyone know or would be willing to wildly speculate to wild abandon as to the reasons and circumstances behind his request?


Did any of you dumb fucks actually send your boots to him?

first!

also, if i remember correctly he was attempting to prove that warner brothers had released material they shouldn't have released. the proof would have been that someone, somewhere had a bootlegged copy of the forbidden release.

i dunno. at the time i didn't think his request was TOO strange, but maybe i am not remembering accurately...

'The Ways Of The Pharoe' as he called it. i remember it well, he was even asking for CD singles that were officially released in Europe, yet got in his list of boots somehow.

I remember getting an email from NPGMC on that.

I wonder if people were actually gullible enough to send stuff??

I think at the same time he was also requesting copies of actual Warner Bros single releases.
If i remember the ones he was wanting all had pictures of him on the cover within a star and I know PartyMan was one of them.
As far as I know some of the clowns who used to post over at NPGMC did infact send these out to Pailsey Park.

hers an example of one of them.

muirdo said:

Too much purple kool-aid

and


[Edited 7/8/08 8:57am]

muirdo said:

I Would Die 4U/ Erotic City, Kiss/Girls and Boys/UTCM were the others. perfectly legit releases, and yet Prince started losing his mind about them.

omg wtf

Marrk said:

They were not Prince endorsed products; they were re-releases by Warner Bros., while Prince tries to keep control of what music os released to the public and how.

There's probably some uncool little clausule in Prince's contract concerning his work for Warner Bros. or they would have released all the albums remastered and extra material just to piss him off.

I would have. I mean, if one of my former artists would throw hissy fits about the contract that made him fucking big and rich, then I would start releasing EVERYTHING; b-sides, extended versions, related artists, all with bonus material AND remastered just to antagonise him.

But that's just me; I got a little bit of bitch in me.

muirdo said:

I love Prince fans

You did it...didn't you. Imago?

Could he not just go on ebay and buy himself a copy?
Surely he didn't think every copy would be sent back to him, I would love to know the madness behind it.

Rorywan said:

If I was in Prince's position, I would do crazy shit like that just for a laugh. Just to see who'd do it.

Imago said:

That was awesome.

ToraToraDreams said:

Even worse!

I sent him legit copies of Graffiti Bridge! I know that bitch is angry at me until this very day!

The original announcement asked material to be sent to:

The Ways of The Pharaoh
PO BOX 169 Vermilion
OH 44089-0169

At a later stage, an announcement thanked people for their response, asked people to cease sending material, and advised that any progress in the initiative (which was never properly articulated) would be fed back.

No progress reports were ever issued.

At least one person reported having participated in the initiative and sometime later claimed to having received unsolicited merchandise.

ToraToraDreams said:

agreed. He probably laughed his butt off

langebleu said:

Yeah, I heard some cultme.. sorry clubmember got a free tshirt for sending in their boots. Stange days.

This was almost as hilarious as the open letter to Madonna.

I can just imagine a handful of fammy-fams lovingly licking those stamps for their jiffy bags like a hippy with a sheet of fresh acid tabs.

Imago said:

No, I just joined before they closed.

I don't know about the bootleg ordeal...What I do know is that Prince is a perfectionist...Artist's destroy things they create for their own personal reasons.

NouveauDance said:

oh fuck

hello, I thought Prince wanted the cassette of Dirty Mind And Controvercy back to back. I had one not sure where it went too. proably somewhere in my large storage unit.Does anyone know about that one. thanks

Yeah, I remember this also. I remember there was a big-ass post with heaps of pictures of various releases he wanted back. Of course anyone who actually had any of them would have been hardcore collectors anyway, and would know full well that their value would only increase now that they were on 'the list'!

To be honest, I had two copies of the Erotic City/IWD4U CD singles and I was tempted to send one in just to see what I might get out of it... but common sense got the better of me . Turns out all you got was a T-shirt (and even that was never verified, just some claims by people who claimed they did send it in).

Imago said:

You're sick.

Some of the people that sent in boots got a left over "jam of the year" t-shirts..etc!

Maybe they will update us in a few years and release Roadhouse Garden...HAWHAWHAWHAWWAWWWWW