Okay i need some help here.

I've just bought a new purple rain cd, and i have never seen that one before.
it is the usual purple rain cover picture. but on the cover itself (the plastic) there is a golden prince symbol.

Can find anything about it nowhere so is it just the wrong cd-case or is it a limited edition or what is it?

Hope you can help me.

Mstar - Denmark

Someone just replaced the original jewel case with a Symbol album jewel case...


[Edited 8/12/08 4:00am]

Was 1999 the first album with the symbol

His name was still 'Prince' when he made purple rain. He hadn't even invented the symbol yet, so it's obviously a fake cover.

Dayclear said:

It's just the 'Symbol' jewel case

Dayclear said:

If u look at the Purple Rain cover u can clearly see the old style symbol painted on his motorbike!

R.I.P.ur eyesight haha!!

Dayclear said:

He had 'invented' the symbol. It is definitely on the cover of 1999


oh and yes the cover is defo the cover from the Symbol Album
[Edited 8/12/08 4:44am]

Nevermind, my bad
[Edited 8/14/08 12:54pm]

FuNkeNsteiN said:

The funny thing is, that it's not the symbol album jewel case. it's a totally different print. you cannot feel the symbol on the symbol album. but on this one you can feel it clearly. and it's way more (golden) i'll try to scan the cover to you. it's weird my first thought was of course that it were the symbol album, but it's not. hmm but thanks anyway.

i'll scan it later.

Mstar said:

Perhaps that was just a bad pic, but there are copies of the 'Symbol' album with a symbol sticker on the front, that has a way more 'golden' color to it and yes, you can 'feel it' on the cover

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Yep, to explain it maybe easier...

The first pressings of the Symbol album actually had a large golden symbol embossed (is that the right word) on the front of the actual plastic of the jewel case so basically, although the actual cover of the booklet only looked like this;



When you slipped it into the Symbol jewel case, it looked like this;



Now, I'm guessing that somehow, the purple rain booklet and back-sheet have simply been put into the symbol jewel case. Actually, I'd have bought it for that alone because my golden symbol case is looking a bit worse for wear now and it would be nice to have a nice, shiny new one.

Scan the damn thing so we know what you're talking about.

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Actually isn't it the symbol for "sex" as it is a combination of male and female?

The moniker which derailed Princes career just added the strange squigly thing to it, right?

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Okay here is a scan of the two cd's: my purple rain cd(with the sign) and my the sign cd.

And remember it's not that i don't believe the ones saying that it is a replaced cd-case i just wanna be for sure. Thank you all for helping



Click on the image to get it bigger.

Mstar - denmark

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Actually...the "old" symbol combines the symbols for male and female.

Dayclear said:

the symbol 1st appeared on the 1999 album if u look closely at the letter "p" in the bottom

the symbol just doesn't have the swirl under the O tho but it's what some will call the "original symbol"

on the purple rain album it's there again on the motorcycle in red

Mstar said:

It's definitely just a "" album case. The reason it's more 'golden' is that
it's actually the UK/European version, which used the 'gold blocking' method
of printing symbol on the case. This gives a highly metallic/reflective gold
which looks much more impressive than the regular U.S. issue.

The full "" symbol (complete with 'curly bit') wasn't invented until June
1992, so it's physically impossible for this version of the symbol to have been
used before this time. Prior to June '92, the earlier version of the symbol
(without the curly 'music' part) was used.

Genesia said:

I stand corrected... I took a closer look at the picture,


I had totally forgotten that
I just looked at a small picture of the cover, and recalled he had the regular female symbol on the bike
[Edited 8/14/08 12:50pm]

Yep it's on the motorcycle. Prince also had it on the Let's go crazy single, on the back cover

BorisFishpaw said:

Boris; just to clarify: the first US issue of the 1992 CD, also used the 'gold blocking' method; subsequent re-issues of the CD have the more orange-looking symbol printed on the booklet.

kookooman73 said:

Yup

Jestyr said:

I wasn't aware that later US copies printed the symbol on the booklet (I might
have to get one now!). I was referring to the gold symbol printed on the
outer case. I've got a UK and a US copy of the album, both of which have
the gold symbol on the case. But even though they're both gold, both exactly
the same size and shape, they look VERY different to each other due to their
method of manufacture.

The US version isn't anywhere near as reflective as the UK version. On the US
version, you can barely detect the symbol by touch on the case. However, on
the UK version you can feel it quite distincly, the edges of the symbol are
also slightly raised, so the whole thing feels 'embossed'. The most obvious
difference though is the actual reflectiveness of the symbol itself. On the US
version the symbol is fairly matt, but the UK version is as shiny and
reflective as a piece of aluminum foil. You can actually SEE yourself
reflected in the symbol when you look at it, it's that shiny!

L4OATheOriginal said:

It also came back in GB on the black bike...but it really came back during Diamonds and Pearls....He started wearing the necklace and the lights above the stage was the symbol and it was printed on the floor as well....

prime said:

it was all over in GB as well with his jackets having the symbol and the "bracelet" on the sleeve of the jacket

BorisFishpaw said:

Interesting. I wasn't aware of that. I may have to get hold of a UK copy now!