As someone who has heard no more than maybe 50 unofficial P tracks (in other words, next to nothing), I ask this of more hardcore fans.

Do you think that his unofffical stuff is one big missed opportunity?

Could orgers put 25 or 30 albums together of unofficial tracks that would wipe the floor with the official stuff or....
has P just about got it right (give or take a dozen or two tracks) and released most of the best tracks he has cut.

Just interested.

lemoncrush59 said:

I think certain parts of his career could have been viewed very differently (ie: Better) if some of that unreleased stuff would have been released, instead of the songs that ended up replacing them.

Hell, the biggest missed opportunity was not releasing another Crystal Ball bootleg set to "clean up" the bootleg market again. The songs that fans REALLY wanted were not on the first Crystal Ball for the most part. I think just certain albums could have been made better with the "outtakes" from that album. "All My Dreams" and "Old Friends 4 Sale" comes to mind for Parade. Wouldn't the end of UTCM have been SO much better if a song like "All My Dreams" came on at the end instead of "Mountains"? Oh yes, I think so.

I know I'll get flack for this, but I think "Moonbeam Levels" was a stronger song than "Free", and should have been on 1999.

The B-side to "Take Me With U" 12" should have been the long version of "Computer Blue".

W&L's version of "Strange Relationship" should have stayed intact on SOTT.

And I'd still love to hear Rosie's voice on the album.

lemoncrush59 said:

I sometimes wonder, if Prince released most of the songs from The Work, Vol. 2 Disc 3, what would critics today think of it. So many great songs: Teacher, Teacher, In a Large Room With no Light, Sex of It, Witness, Rebirth of the Flesh.

From what I have heard, there are some gems out there but also a fair amount of duds. There are a fair few songs which don't reach overly high points (but still worth a listen if you get the chance)

I go along with another posting about the choosing of some songs. All My Dreams is a great tune although I don't know if it has the feel of the other songs on Parade.

ernestsewell said:

i agree with the xception of the version of strange relationship is weaker than the version on sott

and i would have loved electric intercourse on purple rain instead of the beautiful ones

his version of slave 2 the system needs 2 b released

it pains me sometimes when better songs from the vault go over looked instead of songs that have been released but then again there r some songs in the vault that r just ok.

All My Dreams is one I am familiar with, having an old vynil copy of Charade.

Even the few I have heard makes me wonder why All My Dreams, I Wonder and others were omitted from Crystal Ball in favour of Poom Poom and *gulp* Cloreen Baconskin.

L4OATheOriginal said:

The Beautiful Ones is one of the best thigns he's recorded, released or otherwise!

i think the released albums are all just great as they are.
if he would have put certain other songs on there in favor
of the ones we got now, we would be saying "i wish he would
have put 'the beautiful ones' on purple rain instead of the
track 'electric intercourse'".

he couldn't release everything he recorded and i'm sure he
put together on albums what he liked best.

it's just sad that he's not given these songs their place
amongst his great catalogue and chose to let them sit in
the vault for all this time. i wonder if he will ever let
at least the ones we've heard of out. but i doubt it.

crystal ball II, III and IV are way over due.

TheEnglishGent said:

I think TBO worked better on Purple Rain....however, Elec Inter would have made for a wonderful B side. And why not put 2 B-sides on a single? It's not the first time it's been done. Hell, Stevie Wonder released a two disk set, AND a bonus 45 with 4 songs on it! There was SO much space for him to release that stuff.

There's great stuuf 4 sure, probably enough 4 that many albums if u count the stuff that ain't circulating.

Batman would've been a much better album if he'd replaced arms of orion with dance with the devil and scandalous with we got the power.

TheEnglishGent said:

the good thing about the beautiful ones is he did a good job by editing out the xtra parts ..but i have a thing 4 electric intercourse that the beautiful ones can't ever touch

garywobby said:

dance with the devil could have still been added imo and we got the power more suits a lovesexy album or b side ..in fact even tho he recorded we got the power after lovesexy, i think it still works better than escape

L4OATheOriginal said:

Well that's fair enough.

garywobby said:

I don't think he had had much of a choice on Batman. Almost all the b-sides or outtakes were better than the actual Batman album, for example 200 Balloons(using the same beat) would've been a much better choice than Batdance.
For almost all of his albums I am much happier with the released album over the outtakes, except to say I would prefer extended versions rather than the edited versions. Lovesexy is a great album, but if you listen to it with the Glam Slam remix, Escape xtended, and I Wish U Heaven xtended, it's pure brilliance.
But, to each their own.

IstenSzek said:

I appreciate everyone's ideas of rearranging albums and such...however, Prince made his albums the way that he did...And they are done. I toast 2 Prince 4 exactly how his life has transpired...Every thing that has been...was meant 2 be.

Some of the official albums that his fans love to hate would be hailed as masterpieces had he never released them. If all the material on NPS or Rave or TRC only existed on bootlegs, we would be praising those songs to no end.

KoolEaze said:

I don't think so. That's not to say we wouldn't have a couple songs on each cd we like, but there are songs I like on albums and don't like, and there are many bootlegs I like and many I can tell why he left them off any albums, because they are sub-par for his talent(or are simply demos).
NPS and Rave both have some gems but overall NPS was an NPG album to me(as it says on the sleeve) and Rave just doesn't sizzle to me. Well performed but not what I normally relate to or like about his music.