MantuaPharoah said:

I didn't know what Small Club was back then, but the first real boot I ever BOUGHT was the aforementioned Prince In Rock, and that was on there. Just amazing. I think I never quite got into that song, until I heard Prince sing it. Prince In Rock is also where I fell in love with "Moonbeam Levels", "Old Friends 4 Sale", "When The Saints Go Marching In", "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night" (from le Zenith not SOTT), "Love Thy Will B Done", "Get Blue", "Hold Me", "Allegiance", etc.....all for the first time.

Hmm....

The earliest experience I remember was a bootleg copy of The Black Album from a used cd store ages ago. After that I discovered Napster. lol

1995 - The Premiere Gold Experience - purchased in Camden Market, London. I played that thing so many times. Think I will go and give it another listen.

Why don't you leave her telephone #.
[Edited 5/20/09 21:52pm]
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udo said:

It could be, i really do not remember. I just remember it was early 90's

A cassette bootleg of the black album. It was just around the time LoveSexy was released, and everybody was trying to get a hold of a copy of The Black Album.
I had also discovered b-sides at that time, even though I had been a fan since the Purple Rain days (actually since 1999, but not die-hard till PR).

one of my sister's friends was the drummer for a band called Remy Zero, who was a fanatical Prince fan at that time, and I think he was the source of much of the bootlegs stuff floating around at the time in our little circle of friends. They had not been signed to a major label yet at that time, so it wasn't like he hand "insider" connections.

I also received a bunch of b-sides from 45s and a cassette called neon-rendezvouz or some shit like that which had a song that had Purple Rain's music (the title track), but the lyrics were completely different.
Does anyone know what the name of that song is? I've completely forgotten. It was pretty smooth.


The cool thing about the boots back then was that they generated a whole lot of excitment and 'street' cred for prince with the post modern hipster crowd (calling themselves 'alternative' at the time). Thanks to boots like The Black Album and some of the Camille stuff, Prince enjoyed a level of respect and fandom from folks who were listening to The Dead Kennedys, Sousxie and the Banshees, and The Cure which his peers (except for Madonna) did not have.

Mine was in 88, The Black Album on vinyl. The tracklist on the LP still makes me laugh.

1. The Crush
2. Syn D. Kay
3. Alive Off Him
4. The Hate Of 2
5. Robert & Georgina
6. Sound Of Music
7. 4 Black City 2 East Brompton
8. Funny Place To Find Hard Rock

xenon said:

Reminds me of the Charade boot I had...they had the song titles right, but instead of Prince & The Revolution, the band credited on the cd was Romero And Friends.

A good ol' friend of mine (R.I.P.) had a vinyl boot of the Black Album.
I made a cool cassette tape out of it, patchwork artwork... '88 / '89 I guess...

Imago said:

Gotta Shake This Feelin'.

black album on vinyl

i remember feeling like the only one in the world who had it

Imago said:

I only just noticed this bit.

I love Remy Zero, they did the themetune for Smallville!!

My first bootleg experience was a cassette tape of 'The Black Album' that someone made for me in 1988

A year or so later,I went into one of those small independent record stores and found several vinyl bootleg Prince albums for sale.I bought all of them! One of them is the well-known boot called "Crucial",another is a complete live recording of the Lovesexy Tour at the LA Coliseum and I found a few more vinyl copies of 'The Black Album'.I have a few more,but I forgot what they are.

Oh yeah,forgot to mention...

The person who taped 'The Black Album' for me had alot of room on the cassette,so they also taped the 'Camille' album for me,too.Those two albums are the first Prince bootlegs that I heard.

Who remembers those cheaply packaged vinyl bootlegs where the song titles are misspelled or completely wrong? I actually have a boot where the song "Data Bank" is listed as "Pretty Face"!

SoulAlive said:

i have that one! family jewels! those bootleg vinyl comps were sooo cheesy, but at the time it felt like i had discovered the ark of the covenant.

Someone recorded "The Black Album" for me on cassette. After I listened to it, I was disappointed because it sure as hell wasn't what I was expecting. With a title like "The Black Album", I was expecting the Old Prince like he used to sound when he was listened to by a black audience only. Instead, I got more artsy/fartsy late 80s Prince.

Dave1992 said:

That was on Prince In Rock too. It was so weird hearing that song, given the music.

Some guy was selling cassettes of the Black album ($10) in the parking lot, when i went to see the Lovesexy concert.

A double album (LP) of Prince live (not sure where) $20. Pretty poor sound quality, but the best songs on it where a extended version of Head (made the crowd snap their fingers---That is the sound of orgasm) and a Stones cover with Ron Wood and Keith Richards on hand.

Bootleg DVD of the Lovesexy tour ($25). Picture was ok but the sound sucked.

I'm very wary of buying bootlegs unless they have decent sound or picture now.

IAintTheOne said:

Isn't the B-side version Prince's vox (as Jamie Star, of course)??

Lammastide said:

Yeah, for most of us Talk about the joys of being a Prince fan. Nowadays everything is instant back then you really had to work at famhood!

My first boot experience was back in college. Yeah, it was the fall of 1988. Two classmates had this cassette. It was Prince and whole bunch of music I had never heard of. It was Crystal Ball. One of the tracks included a really cool track call Strange Relationship with a groovy sitar intro and a crunchy-thumpy bassline.

And my bootleg experience took off from there through my fellow sisters and brothers of the purple underground.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

I remember spending nearly every other weekend at record fairs looking for stuff and even answering ads in newspapers and music magazines just so you could get your hands on some crappy C90 cassette that was barely audible.

Those were the days!!!

Anxiety said:

Heh..I had one called The Back Album that had all his b-sides released up till PR. I thought it was clever

Anyone here remember that ad that was always in the back of Rolling Stone, where the dude would make custom tapes of bootlegs for you? How he was able to get away with that for so long was beyond me I got my first copy of The Black Album thru him, with Camille filling up the rest of the tape.

irrisistableB said:

Me neither. I'd rather have bootleg dvds though. I love to watch him at work! I wouldn't know where to start though and doubt they are quite as available in the UK. Oh man, the many things of his I want but will probably never have makes me very sad!

..my 1st boot-leg experience was in an I-HOP..i cleaned the man out of everything prince..i did it..3'x total..i confess...but now i have promised i won't buy boot-leg anymore..i will however accept them as gifts
..i feel morally-correct now..
...mzsexybaby'WHO WANTS 2 B A MILLIONAIRE'

Anxiety said:

what's a bootleg?

usedtobebliss said:

Ask Wendy and Lisa.