what is up with that? all of a sudden, out of nowhere, there seems
to be this great big conspiracy theory like stance that every good
or decent song he releases must be some 1986 left over he rehashed
for the new album

especially a lot of songs from Musicology, 3121 and Planet Earth,
as well as -and most persistantly- "F.U.N.K." are more often than
not bluntly referred to as "a reworked vault track".

why do people think that? did it start because he released Rave on
the same titled album back in 1999?

i know he's done it before in the past, yes, but i think the last
track before Rave to be pulled from the vault was "Feel U Up" back
in 1989.

and anyway, we specifically know about all the vault tracks that
were later released on albums or b-sides.

it's only logical that people assume this continued with later cds
and that some of the songs might date back a few years but i find
it hard to believe that songs from post 2000 originated in 1985 or
near that date.

for instance, "a million days" does have that npg circa 1995 feel
to it but what makes people assume it was recorded at that time or
even just state that as a fact?

is there any further evidence to back that up?

Gives the haters a loophole when they actually like one of his new songs I spose?

soulyacolia said:

Bingo.

Graycap23 said:

I'd have to agree with that as well.

There were a couple of tracks where those involved (band members etc) have stated that a track is older than the album it has appeared on, and because of that people's imaginations have run away with them.

I think it's worth bearing in mind that no-one's said a track dates REALLY far back, just a few years, or the 90s at most.

And it's not anything particularly unusual for Prince to pull out a track from a few years back and retootle it for the current project, he's always done that, always.


.
[Edited 8/28/08 10:27am]

If memory serves, A Million Days and If Eye Was The Man In Ur Life date back to the mid-nineties, as does The Dance. Lolita was originally written for The Time's aborted reunion in 1999. And FUNK is actually a new song, written prior to the PFU debacle, but released at that time. Many mistakenly believe it was written in response to PFU.

Just ask Bowis.

Prince has pretty much always grabbed a couple of past tracks and put one or two of them on newer albums, but yes, it does seem that some fans are convinced that Prince suddenly lost his ability to create music after NEWS and the last three albums could only possibly be vault stuff.

I'm not sure whether it's a tribute to the man that he can still make great pop and some fans just can't believe it, or whether it's an insult that they must think he's just a lazy, talentless twat these days.

Actually, this post is from my vault - I originally wrote it in 1994 as you can tell by my use of the very dated word 'whether'.
The '...just can't believe it...' section was added more recently.

Most everything else, and then some, is new. Btw, P was scouting distribution channels for a completed 'new' album to be released this Autumn.

Now that we're talking about this, my thinking on this would b perhaps P may use 1 song that's a song from the vault on each new album since Chaos & Disorder. I'm amazed P still has something 2 say and that we have over 20 albums from him.

... musical genius ...

Haystack said:

It's quite common for Prince to include a older reworked track or two on most
of his albums. But to think that ALL his recent output is culled from the vault
is like putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 7. Besides, exactly how
"old" does a track need to be to be considered a Vault item anyway? With
any other artist, a track written in that last 2 or 3 years would be considered
a 'new' composition, yet with Prince, fans seem to consider it a 'vault' song
if he dusts off a track that wasn't recorded in the last 2 or 3 months!

BorisFishpaw said:

very true!

soulyacolia said:

Haystack said:

could have fooled me

BorisFishpaw said:

Agreed.

Prince has always inlcuded "older" re-worked tracks in his albums. This practise dates back to the 1980s.

E.g. SOTT is a 3rd generation album, re-worked from Dream Factory and Crystal Ball tracks recorded, in some cases, 1-2years before.

And yes, other artists, says ones I know of, the Chili Peppers, record tracks over a period of 2-3 years and release albums roughly on this basis.

I know we all know this, but it is worth re-iterating in order to establish that Prince's recording practises haven't changed that much over the years and that most of the new material IS recorded for new albums.

Anji said:

...sorry...what did u mean???

I remember, in the case of F.U.N.K. (the jam formerly known as 'PFUnk'), there was a statement of Prince recording a new track in a day, which was later said to be 're-recorded new vocals for a previously recorded track')

And Boris is right; stuff like Strange Relationship was recorded in 82, but only was released after having been reworked in 1987. Same with loads of other stuff.

Even though I once said a certain song sounded like something from way back, re-recorded, I myself never stated that ALL his recent work was so. We know he did it before, we could say he still does, but we just do not know.

So many artists with a 'longer career' take older songsketches and earlier recorded 'jams' to create new material. Nothing unusual here.

And alltough it can be assumed that Prince is using vault-material from time to time, there is no proof that most of the material on his latest CD's comes 'straight from the vault'.

Stevie Wonder's last album featured songs he'd been working on 30 years. It's cool. These guys have waaay more ideas than what can realistically be released at a given point in time.

Why does it matter? Why do people think that any artist that has a new record out HAS to have only new music that was written recently. I find it silly.

Prince has always used music written over different periods on all his albums.

I have an painter friend who does the same thing. And he continually updates even established works he has in catalogs, on posters etc.

The art regardless of the medium continually evolves as do people.

I have always seen Prince songs (and some U2 songs) like wine. He writes them and lets them sit, like turning the bottle of wine as it ages, and when its ready, then it is ready. I am just glad to have it at all.

I know it is fun to specualate when he got the first idea from a history timeline perspective. But does it really matter? All the music is good and blessing to have.

I don't think this is true. I think he has ideas laying around that he's recorded but never used. As someone who also makes music, I go back from time to time and listen to pieces and parts and get a different perspective on them and sometimes I will incorporate them with newer material or finish what I started.

purplecam said:

.. so do i