Haystack said:

The Foefur remaster of the black album is what you're after. Finally worthy of listening to.

It's no different from The Beatles "The White Album". Same cover really, just different color. Obviously that's where P got it from. Me, I always thought it was fitting.

NouveauDance said:

JEDINATION said:

This is great! U got it that way, just like a criminal Cool!

I got mine just one year before its official release, so it was in 1993.
I lived in Pesaro, Italy back then and thare was this vinyl fair in a 4 star hotel's basement. I went there disillusioned, thinking to myself 'I'd never find the black album'.

After ten minutes, I walked out of there with the record itself under my arm.
I listened to it over and over again on my grandad's stereo.

What a great summer!
[Edited 10/3/08 1:46am]

By the way, it was a boot!

Brillant album. Very creative. Full of ideas. Thanks for starting this dumb thread (joke) because I haven't listened to it for ages and you just made me want to play it.

got it on vynal last week and haven't stoppped playing it since. So funky.Who could possibly sit still when bob george is on ?

Superfunkycalifragasexy is my jam!

MattyJam said:

Listening to it right now while working. God how brillant is this jam ! So creative, so funky, so rich. Prince was really at his peak back then.

sarkozyiszeman said:

And also very high on something

LMAO I just came to see the riot !

I don't think it's his best... but really nothing to "disappreciate" here... It is "kinda" overrated, but DEFINITELY not bad!

JEDINATION said:

that is an excellent story! If I was the artist, and peeps were getting my "underground" record this way, well I'd be proud as all hell. I really would.

Let the haters hate. this is an excellent album. It makes me love it more that there is so much hate towards it. suck it.

was just complaining about the cover & the release date of The Black Album. like the actual music it makes me laugh-


" hate 2 c an erection go 2 waste,
'm just rock-hard in a funky place!"

I don't have this one yet,but I really want to get it. Another thing to add to my X-mas list.

This will always remain as one of my top Prince albums. Fun and funky...a great little party album.

My old copy was at least 15th generation cassette and had THE worst sound quality and was faster than the actual thing. But the bass was crazy-deep and I played that thing to almost-death (still have it btw). I remember getting the official copy in 94 and thinking, why is it so SLOW???

This, 1999, and Purple Rain were the only Prince albums ALL my friends liked back in the day.

I was surprised when I found out my 1989 (cassette!) copy was sonically identical to the "real" thing when he put it out. Which he never should have done..

abigail05 said:

it wasn't so much his decision as much as it was WB pressuring him with a way to get out of his contract, from what i understand...

Poplife88 said:

I can dig it. I got my copy on cassette too early in the game (I also still have it) and it had STILL been dubbed over like a muthafucker! BUT to me, that gave it that certain quality, that appeal to it that u KNEW u were listening to some truly unreleased shit! This album is in my top 5 fave P albums, that's for damn sure. I liked it being a boot but I always wished it was officially released in 87/88. Although it was sooooo heavily circulated, it might as well have been an official release. It had so much myth behind it..at that time, it was very potent. The stories behind WHY P recorded it in the first place...Ranging from it was just some jams for him to play at Sheila's birthday party to it was actually a "gift" or an "offering" of some sort...Weird shit. Then the reasons WHY Prince didn't want it released...because if he died, he didn't want that to be the last thing released by him. To that it was evil and he didn't want to give into "Spooky Electric" and the whole 9. It was so strong that P talked about it in the Lovesexy tour book to placing hidden messages in the Alphabet St video. He was feeding the rumors by putting in the video "I'm sorry...don't buy the Black Album". All of that, I thought was cool. To me, this album is his true follow up to his 1999 album. Bob George is one of the most HARDEST tracks ever. This whole album, except for When 2 R In Love, which I can't stand, and oddly, he put that on Lovesexy (?) this album is true Prince. Raw, street, crazy, funky..Like I said, to me, it's 1999 Pt 2.

blackguitaristz said:

now I want it even more than I already did.

I just got a hold of this album, had never heard it before

i have this album and i like it i think that any great artist has ONE of THOSE albums in the catalog

2 Nigs United 4 West Compton!!!!


Great album - one of my faves!

Cheek said:

Same here. My pick is still Le Grind, next to your choice and of course Rockhard In A Funky Place and the weirdness that is Bob George. The only track I never got was Dead On It.

The Black Album to me is like SOTT, infused with some The Time and 1999 influences, then warped into oblivion by Spooky Electric. I must admit; I kinda like Spooky. He got the party started better than the interferons bs he preached later on in his carreer.

The entire album's got a bounce to it I love; raunchy, naughty and enjoying it. I suppose him canceling it was the start of the decline of his carreer as a superstar, even though it gave us Lovesexy, which was a trip on itself.

HamsterHuey said:

"Le Grind" would be my pick too. It's just so impossibly funky and fucked up. I love the fanfare horns. Seems a twin to the track "Lovesexy" that way.

I don't really have much to disappreciate here. All the tracks are love for me, even "Dead On It". The only gripe I have is "When 2 R In Love". It's a brilliant song for sure, but definitely sounds more at home on Lovesexy. It's kinda the same complaint I have about Dirty Mind. As great as "Got A Broken Heart Again" is, the album is so breakneck and badass that a ballad seems a little out of place. The Black Album is the same. Something wicked, funky and weird would've worked better in its place like "The Sex Of It" or "Rebirth of the Flesh".

Ya know, there is a darkness to this album, but not any more than say 1999. The main feelings I get when listening to it are maniacal, unhinged, silly and fun. There's nothing as desolate or depressing here as "Something In The Water" or "Anna Stesia". It gets a bad rap for being 'evil'.

HamsterHuey said:

How come? It's a current fave of mine. Love the crazy arrangements and those silly 'lala' and 'shoo-bee-doo-baa' vocal parts!

bold edit
[Edited 10/4/08 0:28am]

Oh and my first exposure to this record came early in my Prince fandom. I knew I loved Prince from the age of 8, but didn't start collecting until 13 or so. My friend Scott and I started to buy everything we could find and ventured out of our somewhat small town to the big city to score the 12" singles and whatnot. At Record Time in Roseville, MI, behind the cassette counter, someone was bragging about their copy of Cookie Jar that they had just purchased. We asked 'What's that?' He explained that the VFW Hall was having a record show that day and to go check it out. So we did and it made such a huge impression on our naive teenage selves. One vendor had at least 300 Prince bootlegs on CD, none of which I had ever heard of. Scott bought Crucial and I bought The Black Album. The next day I was the coolest kid at school, at least in my mind. The rest is history. I miss the wonder of discovering something precious and rare. Hell, I even miss poor sound quality sometimes.

TRON said:

I know what you talkin'!

TRON said:

The collecting of outtakes was fun. I chucked all my tapes away, except the outtake tapes, with their typed covers.

The Black Album came to me via a schoolmate, that got it from a friend and I got it from her. I remember sitting in the train back home a bit shocked. But when i got home I blasted Le Grind out of my speakers so loud, my mom came upstairs, as I could not hear her downstairs shouting to shut off that racket.

[grin]