PRINCE VS. WB: THE FANS LOST
Part 1: The Come(back) album that never happened

By Scififilmnerd

Following a string of successful albums in the eighties, Prince disappointed critics and fans for the first time with the weak Batman album in 1989. Fans didn’t lose faith in Prince, though, as it could be excused as being a soundtrack album. However, in 1990 Prince disappointed again with the introduction of the horrible Game Boyz on the Nude Tour, and with the Graffiti Bridge album that would have been good if it had been just a Prince album rather than a collection of songs also featuring his protégées of the time. Again, it could be excused as being a soundtrack album to the equally disappointing movie of the same title, which went straight to home video in Europe.
Unfortunately, in 1991 Prince disappointed fans once again with the Diamonds And Pearls album that pandered too much to popular trends in music, when it used to be Prince himself who set the trends for others to follow. And this album couldn’t be excused as being a soundtrack album. Combined with the Game Boyz being featured prominently on the tour that followed, it was a bleak time for being a Prince fan. So what kept their interest in their idol? Bootlegs of unreleased tracks, like the guitar rocking MC Flash album, gave fans hope that their musical hero hadn’t completely lost his touch. They anxiously hoped for a comeback album that would prove to critics and fans alike, that Prince was still the best artist alive.
Despite the concern of fans, Diamonds And Pearls reached number three on Billboard’s Pop Chart and spawned four hit singles. It sold about 2 million copies in the US and almost 4 million copies outside of the US. And so the stage was set for the deal that would change Prince’s career.

The contract
On 31 August 1992, Prince signed a new recording contract with Warner Bros. It would reputedly earn the star $100 million. It would fund six albums, each with an advance of $10 million, and provide joint-venture funding for Paisley Park Records, another new label, and payment for Prince in the role of vice-president of A&R, including a suite of offices in the Warner building in Century City, California.
Jill Willis, Vice-President of Paisley Park (until she was fired by Prince and replaced by Gilbert Davison on 17 September 1993), was one of the people who put that deal together. "At first, Prince was very happy with the deal," she later told biographer Liz Jones.
Although that $100 million deal made the headlines, many in the industry called it absurd. If Prince had been guaranteed that amount, it was unlikely that Warner would make a penny. The figure was the very highest he could make at the very best levels of sales performance. At his royalty rate of 20 per cent, he would have to sell five million copies before Warner could recoup its advance. At best the label had a chance of breaking even, and they certainly wouldn’t want him putting out album after album, not giving them a chance to recoup their money. Once the label had committed themselves to figures of that sort, they felt they would have more control over his output. They wanted to apply proven hit-making strategies: Release one album a year; ensure it contains a string of potential singles, and put those out with a variety of mixes; ensure their artist adhered to the advice of in-house promotion and marketing departments.
The $10 million per-album advance, it was reported in Time, kicked in only if his previous album had sold five million copies or more; if sales fell below that number, a new figure would have to be negotiated.

The start of the friction years
The first of Prince’s contracted six albums was released 13 October 1992. The album didn’t feature the Game Boyz as prominently as on Diamonds And Pearls, and musically fans were generally pleased with the album. It wasn’t quite the comeback album they had hoped for, but it certainly appeared to be a step in the right direction.
However, fans may have been happy with the album, but Prince wasn’t happy with its sales performance. reached number five on the Pop Chart and sold 2.8 million copies world-wide, a respectable showing but far short of the smash Prince expected and below the number that would ensure him a $10 million advance for his next album. He became furious about the sales figures, which he blamed on slack promotion by Warner Bros.
Prince’s griping helped generate a pervasive gloom about his career at the label. Having so recently signed him to an expensive contract, Mo Ostin (Warner’s Chairman) and Lenny Waronker (Warner’s President) were worried about the brisk pace at which he insisted on releasing albums. Warner Bros. noticed an increased resistance from radio stations to play the singles from , clearly indicating that the audience couldn’t absorb more music from Prince for the time being. By generating records more frequently than once a year and touring almost as often, he had become seriously overexposed - another point Prince would not think of conceding.
Matters weren’t helped when the Prince protégé album Carmen Electra was released 9 February 1993. The record sold very poorly and failed to even enter the Pop Chart. From the perspective of Warner Bros., which had sunk $1 million into promoting Carmen Electra, the entire effort was nothing short of a catastrophe.

The making of Come
"The Come album really evolved from boredom during Christmas vacation," drummer Michael Bland told Guitar World in 1994. "Bassist Sonny Thompson and I were the only two cats in the band who hung around Minneapolis during Christmas vacation. And Prince got bored, as he usually does. Because when he’s not creating, he’s not alive, you know. So he went down to the soundstage where we were set up for rehearsal before vacation began. And he just played by himself all day; they say he stayed in there for like eight, 10 hours, just messing around with ideas. And then the second day he got up the courage to call us up and ask, "you guys bored too?" So we came out and worked on a good half-dozen tunes. And we went in the studio and started cutting them - we cut the rhythm tracks for Dark, Come, Papa and a few other things like that."
The recordings took place on 2 January 1993 and also spawned the songs Endorphin Machine, Dolphin, Laurianne and Dream. Tommy Barbarella and Morris Hayes were brought in to add keyboards to some of the tracks after the initial session.
On 18 January Prince also recorded Dance Of Desperation and at some unknown date, Pheromone followed. In February, he recorded Loose and, prior to assembling a tape with the new songs in March, Prince also recorded Space and Poem. The cassette featuring the new music was untitled and the tracks making up this first known configuration of what would become the Come album were:

Prince: untitled cassette (March 1993)
1. Come (4:49)
2. Endorphin Machine (3:51)
3. Space (5:30)
4. Pheromone (4:22)
5. Loose (3:23)
6. Papa (2:19)
7. Dark (6:26)
8. Dolphin (4:57)
9. Poem (3:30)

Come - the Musical
All of the tracks on this first configuration remain unreleased versions.
Prince gave a copy of this cassette to playwright David Henry Hwang while in New York 24 - 27 March 1993. Hwang was most known for his Tony Award-winning Broadway play M. Butterfly. Prince told him a story about the relationship between a rock star and a fan, an intense erotic affair conducted through letters, spinning off into exercises of fantasy and dominance - sex between lovers who never met in the flesh. From this premise, Hwang wrote the libretto for a musical titled Come, incorporating the songs on Prince’s tape. The musical never became a reality, however, but now Prince had a title for his new collection of songs, and the collaboration spawned a new song, Solo. In late March 1993 Prince also recorded Strays Of The World, supposedly intended for the musical.
From 8 March to 17 April 1993, Prince embarked on a tour of the US entitled Act I. At the concerts, fans were offered a preview of the song Loose, which was played in continuation of Partyman. At aftershow concerts, Prince played Come and Papa. Another new song was previewed on the tour, Peach, which had been recorded in April/May 1992 and featured a sampled Kim Basinger.
On 10 April 1993, Prince met with journalist Alan Light in San Francisco. Alan Light’s interview with Prince was published in Vibe in 1994. Prince told him: “We have a new album finished, but Warner Bros. doesn’t know it. From now on, Warners only get old songs out of the vault. New songs we’ll play at shows. Music should be free, anyway.”
Still, in April it was reported by MTV News that Prince intended to release an EP with four of the new tracks on his birthday, 7 June 1993. According to Uptown #9, the four tracks were:

Prince: Papa EP (April 1993)
1. Papa
2. Come
3. Peach
4. Race

Prince “retires”
Race was a song Prince had recorded in November 1991. His new track Fuck D Press, recorded 21 April, didn’t make the cut. However, Warner Bros. refused to release the single, so on 27 April 1993, Prince’s publicity firm announced that Prince was retiring from studio recording to concentrate on new forms of “alternative media projects, including live theater, interactive media, nightclubs and motion pictures.”
A week before the announcement, Prince had been in the office meeting with Ostin and Waronker, expressing his dissatisfactions and frustrations during a 5-hour meeting.
According to the announcement, Prince would fulfill the remainder of his six-album contract with Warner Bros. with old songs from his “library of 500 unreleased recordings.” He would not stop producing songs for other artists or continuing other aspects of his career, including touring and operating Paisley Park.
Earlier in the day, Gilbert Davison had informed Warner Bros.’ chiefs, Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker, that Prince would not be delivering any more new studio albums to the company. Despite an official attitude of “amused skepticism,” many Warner Bros. top-level executives were shocked by the announcement, fearing that they would not get any new music from one of their best-selling artists.
Prince, who was very disappointed in the sales of the album and lack of reaction to most releases on his Paisley Park Records label, accused Warner Bros. of failing to support the records adequately, expressing his dissatisfaction with their promotion staff, which he felt was weak. Arguing that his job is done once he delivers the music, he blamed the company for relying on him for interviews and participation in promotional activities, and then using his reluctance as an excuse when something didn’t sell as expected.

Finalizing Come
Hesitant to give Warners a new album, Prince was increasingly thinking of new means of getting his music to the public. On the same date as the retirement announcement, an instrumental version of Pheromone debuted as a theme song for the TV-channel BET’s Video LP show.
The hit dance performance by The Joffrey Ballet, Billboards, which featured four different ballets set to 12 Prince songs from 1978 to 1991, probably inspired Prince to conceive a dance performance of his own set to his brand new music. Initially called Glam-O-Rama, the idea was conceived by and Kenneth Robbins, and produced by David Haugland.
During the month of May, Prince continued to write songs, despite his retirement from studio recording, including Pope (an obvious stab at Warner Bros. President Lenny Waronker), Zannalee, I Wanna Be Held Tonight (19/5), Emotional Crucifixion (26/5) and Interactive, as well as segueing the previously recorded Poem with the new track What’s My Name, extending Papa and supposedly updating Race.
By the end of May, he assembled a new sequence of his new music. According to a fax his dancer Mayte sent to the fan magazine Controversy on 1 June 1993 (published in Controversy #42), the sequencing took place two days earlier and included the following tracks:

: Come (29 May 1993)
Track list unknown, but includes Come, Race, Pheromone, Dark, Dolphin, Pope

Come free?
Mayte, who admitted to having had help writing the fax by someone whose name wasn’t Prince, wrote: “All I can say is that it’s unlike any music he’s done before. All one word titles and strange.
He seemed happy when he played me the sequence but when I asked him, “what are U going 2 do with this new music now that U have retired?” He looked me in the eye and said, “I’m going 2 give it 2 my friends.” I don’t know what friends he’s talking about.
But I remember once he told me, “Music should be free – just like air.” Did he mean – the way it’s played or paid 4? I’m really afraid he’s not going 2 release any more new albums because now we’re rehearsing only the new music. With just Michael, Sonny, Tommy and Mr. Hayes.”
Considering Prince’s newfound attitude of “music should be free”, it is amazing that the Come album escaped bootlegging. During much of the eighties, Prince freely handed out cassettes of new songs to friends and acquaintances, but by the mid-1990s he had tightened up this practice. So did he really give Come to his “friends”?

The name-change
Adding to the confusion of who would be getting his new music, Prince’s publicity firm announced on 7 June 1993, his 35th birthday, that Prince had changed his name to the symbol of his latest album. ’s intention was to fulfill his Warner Bros. contract with “Prince” recordings from the vault while continuing to record and release new material as “.”
The media avalanche that followed was filled with derision and mockery. Among fans and in some media articles there was speculation that Prince was seeking to escape his contract with Warner Bros. by changing his identity and then arguing that the label’s agreement was with “Prince”. When Prince made the announcement in May 2000 that he was discarding the symbol name, he basically admitted as much. At a New York press conference, he said that the name had been a means of escaping “undesirable relationships” – that is, his contract with Warner Bros. He wanted the freedom to put out more material under his new name. Warner Bros. might have wanted Prince to put on the brakes, but he had other ideas.
When completed work on the side-project Goldnigga with The New Power Generation in late June 1993, his plan was for Warner Bros. to release it by summertime. For Warner Bros., the time had arrived to draw the line. They told that the company had no interest in the album, but instead wanted a reasonable pause in new music to allow for the release of a greatest hits package. They presented the best-of concept to , who with some reluctance agreed to support it.

The movie that didn’t happen
On 14 June 1993, , with Michael Bland and Sonny Thompson, recorded an EP entitled The Undertaker that included a prelude of Zannalee and a new version of Dolphin. The recording of The Undertaker was filmed and released as a home video in March 1995, albeit with some changes made to Dolphin. also recorded a different version of Space with his side-project Madhouse, 7 July 1993.
On 15 June, recorded another great guitar rock track, Calhoun Square.
Knowing that Warner Bros. would not allow him to release a new album only about eight months after the release of the album, Prince was still thinking of other ways to let his fans hear his new music. He contributed six previously unavailable songs to The Hits/The B-Sides, including Peach and Pope from Come. He then made a new configuration of Come, presumably removing or replacing the tracks he had given to the hits compilation.

: Come (June-July 1993)
Track list unknown

During June and July 1993, developed an untitled film project with director Parris Patton. The film was shot at Paisley Park and featured music interspersed with dramatic footage. General Hospital star Vanessa Marcil and Nona Gaye, daughter of Marvin Gaye, starred in the leading roles.
“The movie is about the relationship between two girls,” Vanessa Marcil told Soap Opera Weekly. “We deal with racial, social and sexual issues. Most of the action takes place in this underground club. Prince is the performer there.”
The film project was never completed, but the performances of Loose and Papa from the movie turned up in The Beautiful Experience TV movie in 1994.
On 12 July 1993, the premiere of Glam-O-Rama was cancelled and it would be over a month until it actually opened under a new name, Glam Slam Ulysses.
On the same day as the cancellation, Alan Light talked with again for the interview published in Vibe in 1994. Alan Light noticed that was fixated on one thing: “He has too much music sitting around, and he wants people to hear it.”

Come live
Some lucky fans got a chance to hear some of ’s new music on the Act II tour of Europe, which started 26 July and ended 7 September 1993. At some of the concerts, he played Come, Endorphinemachine and Peach in a row, leading to the belief that those three songs were actually the opening tracks of the May 1993 Come configuration. Dark also made a rare appearance.
Before launching into Come, would usually quote the lyrics of What’s My Name and give a little speech. At Wembley Stadium in London, 31 July 1993, he said: “The only reason why I retired is because I can no longer give the music to someone else to give to you. I wanna come to your house and give it to you myself. You don’t need no records. Next time bring a tape recorder. When it’s over, press save.”
“People say I make too much music,” he continued. “People say you can’t keep up. But I’m under the impression I make just enough music. I’m under the impression, can’t nobody keep it up like you.”
Other Come tracks performed during Act II, usually at aftershows, included Calhoun Square, Race and Pope. What’s My Name and Dolphin were played during a soundcheck in Paris. On 7 September, Prince played a live medley on BBC Radio One that included Pope and Peach.
Fans were very pleased with the Act II tour. Gone were the hated Game Boyz, leaving more room for exotic dancer Mayte. The NPG Hornz were also featured more prominently. Along with the new songs played, it had finally become exiting to be a Prince/ fan again.

Glam Slam Ulysses
While was in Europe, Glam Slam Ulysses finally opened 21 August 1993 at Glam Slam in Los Angeles. The 65-minute show was described as an “interactive musical theatrical production” inspired by Homer’s classic Odyssey. The choreography was by Jamie King, and Carmen Electra and Frank Williams danced the lead parts.
The production combined dance performances with videos and featured ’s most exciting studio recordings in years: Strays Of The World, Come (chopped into three parts), Interactive, Dolphin, Pheromone, Dark, Loose, Space, Poem, What’s My Name, Endorphinemachine, Race and Pope.
However, the critical response to the show (not the music) was unmercifully negative and the show only ran for two weeks, until 4 September 1993. Plans to tour US nightclubs were abandoned.
Although he had very little interest or involvement in the hits compilation prior to leaving, expressed some interest in taking on a more active role in the project upon returning from Europe. Warner Bros. preferred to avoid delays and actually paid not to get involved. When The Hits/The B-Sides was released 14 September 1993, helpfully backed it up with the announcement: “Greatest-hits albums are for artists who are dead, physically and professionally.”
Fans, however, were excited to finally get the guitar rocking Peach, which was also released as a single 18 November 1993 with an accompanying video featuring Mayte and just Michael Bland and Sonny Thompson from the band. The song failed to chart.
On Pope, fans were once again invited to “every time U want it I’ll be live, bring a date, I mean computer, when it’s over press save”. This practice never became allowed at concerts, though, and in 1995 stated his reason why in the song Feel Good: “Come to the show and bring a tape recorder ‘cause you oughta have a copy of the – yo! Wait a minute, no, in 1999 I’ll be free, so…”
A 12” remix of Pope appeared on a vinyl promo-single.

Back in the studio
During the autumn and winter of 1993, recorded a lot of new songs and reworked some of the Come tracks. Much to the dismay of his band, he changed Come and Race from band recordings to solo recordings, remixed Loose and edited Space and Dark, making them shorter
In early 1994, worked on making a movie entitled The Beautiful Experience which featured some of his new music. To coincide with the TV premiere of the movie, hoped to release an EP of the same title that included seven songs from the movie, including Come. However, Warner Bros. would only allow him to release just one song, so The Beautiful Experience instead became an EP with seven different versions of the same song.
In February 1994 he made an untitled configuration of new music that included Come and Endorphin Machine before deciding to just have Come and the new tracks be two separate albums.
On 6 March 1994, Holland’s largest radio network, Radio Veronica, began broadcasting a tape with eight unreleased songs, which they had purchased. Subsequent broadcasts followed in several other European countries. The tape included a shorter version of Interactive that included a middle piece with the NPG operator who would later figure prominently on The Gold Experience album, as well as Pheromone, which had been extended with a few lines that would end up in Poem.

The devolution of Come
By now, it had been a year and five months since the release of ’s last album. The time had finally come to present Warner Bros. with a new album for release. On 11 March 1994, delivered a scaled down configuration of Come to Warner Bros. Gone were potential hits like the title track and Dolphin. But it wasn’t all bad. It still retained the guitar rocking tracks Interactive (segued from a version of Poem that now had an actual poem in it), Endorphine Machine, Loose and Strays Of The World, plus the funky, highly danceable tracks Pheromone and Race (now edited for length). Thankfully, this configuration got bootlegged.

Prince: Come (11 March 1994)
1. Poem (3:36)
2. Interactive (3:05)
3. Endorphine Machine (3:49)
4. Space (4:30)
5. Pheromone (4:23)
6. Loose (3:26)
7. Papa (2:48)
8. Race (4:17)
9. Dark (6:03)
10. Solo (3:50)
11. Strays Of The World (5:18)

The opening track, Poem, could be interpreted in three ways. On the surface, it was just urging a female to come, but it could also be heard as guiding the listener onwards to the actual beginning of the album with Interactive (“keep going” and “you’re almost there”), while at the same time teasing Warner Bros. with lines such as “isn’t that what you want” and “imagine what you look like from across the room.”
The provocation certainly sparked a strong reaction from Warner Bros. “The company was so upset with that album. People said it was a piece of shit,” remembered Marylou Badeaux (Vice President at Warner Bros).
Ostin and Waronker bluntly told that the album was unacceptable. They asked for the title track and The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, as well as two or three other really strong songs. agreed.
On 16 March 1994, recorded Let It Go, that would be included on the final configuration of Come, and on 22 March 1994, he recorded a video version of Endorphine Machine that was later included in the Interactive CD-ROM game.

An exciting time to be a fan
The Beautiful Experience-film starring Nona Gaye premiered on the British Sky One TV channel on 3 April 1994 followed by broadcasts in many other countries. It was a science fiction movie set in a future where ’s website actually had something to offer: “Over 500 experiences” for only $19.99!
Besides the videos for Loose and Papa from the abandoned 1993-movie, The Beautiful Experience also featured a video version of Interactive with the NPG Operator in the middle, a charming video featuring the entire band in a long version of Race, and an extremely cool dance video of Pheromone starring , Mayte and the hot choreographer Jamie King. The new version of Come and the old version of Poem could also be heard in the movie.
Combined with bootlegs of the radio tape, the Glam Slam Ulysses show and Act I and Act II performances of Come songs, fans had heard all of the songs from the Come album by now. had indeed succeeded in finding alternative ways to let his music reach the fans.
And the fans liked the new music and the image he presented in the videos. It was his most guitar rocking music since Purple Rain and he was back to being the mysterious, dark, brooding and sexual, yet spiritual person his fans had first fallen for back in 1984. Now all that remained was the critically loved and chart-topping comeback album that would prove to the world, not just his fans, that the Prince the world had fallen in love with was finally back in full force.

The 4th Come configuration
In mid April, recorded a maxi-single version of the song Come before making a new configuration of the Come album, which he brought with him on a trip to Europe, where he met with three journalists in Monaco, 2 May 1994. One was from Q, the other from Max and the third was Alan Light from Vibe once again. wanted them to check out two albums that may or may not see the light of day: The next Prince album, Come, scheduled for an August 1994 release, and the first collection, titled The Gold Album, both pressed on CDs with hand-drawn cover art.
“Now you have two albums from two different artists in your hands,” told one of them.
“First comes the Prince album, which includes Endorphinmachine, Come and Dark,” noted Alan Light. “ skips back and forth between tracks. It all sounds strong – first rate, even – but he seems impatient with it, like it’s old news.”

Prince: Come (April 1994)
Track list unknown, but includes Come (The Beautiful Experience version), Endorphinmachine and Dark

Supposedly this configuration included two versions of Come, concluding with the maxi-single version of Come which would then continue into the hidden track, Strays Of The World.
While in Europe, played some concerts in Monaco and Paris, 3 – 6 May 1994. He played Come, Endorphinmachine and Space in a row, leading to speculation that those three songs were now the opening tracks on Come. He also played Race, Dark, Peach and a rare performance of Solo. While in Paris, Prince performed Endorphinmachine on the TV channel Canal+.

The final devolution of Come
Before turning Come over to Warner Bros. on 19 May 1994, decided to make further changes to the album. Strays Of The World was replaced with the weaker Letitgo. Pheromone, Race, Dark and Letitgo had annoying bits of Poem added at their beginnings, and what was left of Poem was retitled Orgasm and placed at the end of the album.
refused to include The Most Beautiful Girl In The World because it had been released as a song and Come was going to be a “Prince” release. Endorphinmachine and Interactive were removed from the album on the same grounds. reasoned that those were now “” songs because of their inclusion on the soon to be released Interactive CD-ROM game. These decisions left with a very short album, which may explain why he decided to include the maxi-single version of Come on the album instead of the shorter, original version.

Prince 1958-1993: Come (May 1994)
1. Come (11:13)
2. Space (4:28)
3. Pheromone (5:08)
4. Loose! (3:26)
5. Papa (2:48)
6. Race (4:28)
7. Dark (6:10)
8. Solo (3:48)
9. Letitgo (5:32)
10. Orgasm (1:39)

Warner Bros. wasn’t satisfied with the album submitted. They thought that it was worse than the last configuration they had received. They asked for Shhh, as several radio programmers were aware of it from The Beautiful Experience video and there was a great deal of interest in the song. said no, leaving Warner Bros. no other option than to accept the album as it was since released.
delivered The Gold Experience into Warner Bros. around the same time as this new version of Come. He proposed that Warner Bros. should release Come by “Prince” and, a few weeks later, The Gold Experience by “,” and he wanted both to count toward the fulfillment of his contract. The idea didn’t meet with much enthusiasm, however. Flooding the market with material was exactly what the executives wanted to avoid. Nor were they optimistic about releasing music with an unpronounceable symbol, rather than the powerful “Prince” trademark on the front cover. They agreed to release Come; The Gold Experience would have to wait. Again, was furious and complained that the label was censoring him.

The release of Come
On 7 June 1994, the CD-ROM game Interactive was released. It included the version of Interactive with the NPG Operator as an audio track and videos of Interactive and Endorphinmachine. An instrumental version of Race and an a capella version of Race were also included.
Meanwhile, had embarked upon a summer tour of clubs in Minneapolis, Miami, Los Angeles and New York. The tour lasted from 28 May to 26 July 1994 and included performances of a slightly different sounding Space, Papa, Race, Dark and Peach, as well as a short version of Interactive and Endorphinmachine, which he also performed on the TV channel VH-1 on 26 June 1994.
Warner Bros. decided that Letitgo should be the first single from Come. refused to shoot a video to support the single that was released 9 August 1994. A maxi-single followed with remixes that had no involvement from , but the single’s Edit version of Letitgo starts off without the annoying Poem-intro of the album version, so if you splice the beginning of the edit with the ending of the album version, you get the original song.
Originally, Come was supposed to be the b-side of the Letitgo single, but Warner Bros. considered Come a strong contender for its own single and replaced it with Solo.

Prince 1958-1993: Letitgo single (July 1994)
Letitgo (Edit) (4:15)
Solo (3:48)
Alexa De Paris (Extended Version) (4:54)
Pope (3:28)

Letitgo only reached number 31 on the Pop Chart and number 10 on the R&B Chart. put the blame on Warner Bros. in an interview with The Guardian in March 1995. "If they don't want to promote a song, they don't make the effort to cross it over into other markets and the fans don't get to know it," he said.
"Now if Letitgo sold two million like The Most Beautiful Girl In The World did, people wouldn't be saying that I'm slippin'," he added in The Voice in March 1995. "But to sell two million, the dudes gotta PRESS two million copies, see what I mean?"
Come was released 16 August 1994 and it was not the comeback album fans had hoped for or even expected based on the bootlegs. The new, longer and sexually explicit version of the song Come would have been fine for a maxi-single release, but not as an opening track of an album. It seemed to have no other purpose than to provoke Warner Bros. at the cost of disappointing the fans that loved the original version.
Gone were all the guitar rocking tracks with the exception of Loose!, transforming the album from a funky rock album to an ordinary R&B album. At least the middle section of the album was still intact, so fans finally got Space, Pheromone, Loose!, Papa, Race, Dark and Solo in good sound quality.
If had never released Come in any form, it would have gone down in history on par with the mythical Black Album from 1987. But instead of just skipping the album and moving on to his newer, equally unreleased album, The Gold Experience, unfortunately felt Come should be his next album to see release, despite the fact that he was actually consciously devolving it by removing songs with every new configuration he made. Why he would want to release a shadow of the former masterpiece that was Come remains one of the universe’s great, unsolved mysteries.

Critical reaction
Fans weren’t the only ones who were disappointed by a “Prince” album yet again. The reviews of Come were fairly negative. Many critics labeled it as Prince’s “sex album,” picking up on the sexual contents of songs like Come, Pheromone, the Poem-bits and Orgasm. They complained that the lyrics were too explicit and sexually preoccupied, while most of the music was dismissed as uninspired or lackluster.
Simon Price wrote in Melody Maker: “This, the last recording under the name Prince, is apparently his parting gift to Warners: An album containing no feasible singles. Touché.”
Not everyone was all-negative, though. Ian Cranna of Q agreed with the fans’ assessment: “In the middle of it all comes a run of more tenuously related tracks, which are actually pretty good. There's the harder, up-tempo excitement of Loose, the bumping equality rap of Race, the '60s Southern R&B-style lament of Dark and the poppy, bouncy funk of Letitgo. This segment also includes the album's one genuinely shocking track, Papa.”
Chuck Arnold of Philadelphia Daily News wrote: “It marks a return to his more bare-bones pre-New Power Generation days, although NPG members do play here. This back-to-basics approach results in some of his best dance music in years.”
Jim Walsh of St. Paul Pioneer Press was probably the one person most pleased with Come: “Dead or alive, Prince - and Come, his most powerful record in years - provides pleasure and warmth in a cold, cold world.”
Despite Jim Walsh’s enthusiasm, Come became a commercial failure. It reached number 15 on Billboard’s Pop Chart, which was ’s lowest position for an album of new music since Controversy in 1981. The record peaked at number two on the R&B Chart. It sold around 345,000 copies in the US, making it the poorest selling album of ’s career up until then.
Neither nor Warner Bros. did much to promote Come. Much like the case with the greatest hits collection in 1993, ’s heart wasn’t in the Come album. The former masterpiece had quite simply ended up as contract filler.

’s Come singles
In the middle of September 1994, set to work on a Space single. The initial track lists were:

Prince: Space single (19 September 1994)
Space (Universal Love Remix Edit) (4:00)
Pop Life (Kirky J Remix Edit) (4:36)

Prince: Space maxi single (21 September 1994)
Space (Universal Love Remix) (6:10)
Space (Funky Stuff Remix) (5:41)
Space (Funky Stuff Remix Dub) (4:47)
Space (Acoustic Radio Remix) (4:41)
Space (Album Version) (4:31)
Pop Life (Kirky J Remix) (6:13)

When it was released on 1 November 1994, had removed the Kirky J Remix of Pop Life, but otherwise it was the same. Despite some very good new recordings of the song, the single failed to enter the Billboard Pop Chart and reached only number 71 on the R&B Chart. There was no video to support the single.
The unreleased Dolphin had a video, however. It was released to TV on 30 September 1994 without a single for it to promote. had “slave” written backwards across his cheek in the video, which also featured his band and Mayte dressed as an angel. Keyboards had been added to Dolphin since it was last heard in Glam Slam Ulysses.
also worked on a Come EP that autumn. He recorded Come (Techno Mix), Come (Remix) and Come (18 & Over) of which an edit called simply 18 & Over was released on Crystal Ball in 1998. A video was made which was shown on The Gold Experience Tour in 1995 along with a video for Zannalee. Come (Remix) was the album version with the beat from 18 & Over.

Prince: Come single (pre 14 October 1994)
Track list unknown, but the B-side was Dark.

Prince: Come maxi single (pre 14 October 1994)
Track list unknown, but supposedly 7 versions of Come, incl. the original version, the Beautiful Experience version, Come (18 & Over), Come (Remix) and Come (Techno Mix).

A song entitled Alone In The Dark was offered to the From Dusk ‘til Dawn movie soundtrack in 1995 and it may or may not be identical with the Dark remix So Dark, of which an edit was released on Crystal Ball in 1998.
Although the Come EP wasn’t released, that didn’t stop from working on yet another single from Come that wouldn’t see release. This time, the chosen song was Loose!. recorded a remix of Loose! entitled Loose Dub. It was renamed (Lemme See That Body) Get Loose! and credited to his alter ego Tora Tora when it appeared on a give-away NPG Artist Sampler cassette on The Gold Experience Tour in 1995. Another version of Loose Dub was released as Get Loose on Crystal Ball in 1998.

The final Come tracks
’s final TV-performances in 1994 were Peach at MTV Europe Music Awards, 24 November 1994, and Dolphin on CBS’ The Late Show With David Letterman, 13 December 1994. A home video of a 1993 Act II tour aftershow, The Sacrifice Of Victor, was released in March 1995, featuring a live version of Peach.
The European Gold Experience tour started 3 March 1995 and lasted until 31 March 1995. During the rest of 1995, gave concerts at Glam Slam Miami and at Paisley Park, before embarking on a Gold Experience tour of Japan 8 – 20 January 1996 and of Hawaii 17 – 19 February 1996. Endorphinmachine, Letitgo and (Lemme See That Body) Get Loose! were a fixed part of the set list, which occasionally also included Race, Dolphin, a playback of Orgasm and a shortened version of Peach with a changed second verse: “Summertime, feelin’ fine, here she come, lookin’ fine, here she come, dressed in gold, get her done, ‘fore she gets too old, her hot pants can’t hide her cheeks, she’s a peach.”
At aftershows, also occasionally played Come (18 & Over), Dark (with a sax solo by Eric Leeds) and Zannalee. At the end of the tour, disbanded The NPG, signaling the end of an era.
The Gold Experience had been released 26 September 1995 and it contained the Come-era tracks Endorphinmachine and Dolphin. Unfortunately for fans, had decided to ruin Endorphinmachine by remixing it and adding an annoying cowbell, and Mayte speaking Spanish at the end of it, before releasing it.
A similar fate befell Zannalee. A new, horribly overproduced version of it was released on Chaos And Disorder, 9 July 1996. had also changed the lyrics, leaving out the line “then we watch a movie, one o’ them dirty kinds.” This version was performed live on The Today Show on the day of the album release.
The final Come tracks to see the light of day was the full version of Interactive, Calhoun Square, What’s My Name and Strays Of The World on Crystal Ball in 1998. Thankfully, had not messed with those four, great tracks.
In 2005, a live version of Letitgo recorded at Paisley Park 22 October 1995 became available as a download from Prince’s now defunct NPG Music Club website.

Thanks to:
BorisFishpaw, Virgo, Gavin H., JediMaster, IstenSzek and Simonmillar

Sources:
Dan Glaister: The Singer vs. The Record Company, The Guardian, 3 March 1995
Michael Goldberg: Prince Retires - Maybe, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1993
Alex Hahn: Possessed – The Rise and Fall of Prince
Liz Jones: Purple Reign – The Artist Formerly Known As Prince
Janet di Lauro: Interview with Vanessa Marcil, Soap Opera Weekly, 21 September 1993
Alan di Perna: The Guitarist Formerly Known As Prince, Guitar World, November 1994
Prince In Print, http://princetext.tripod.com/
Leone Ross: Interview with , The Voice, 7 March 1995
Scififilmnerd: COME May 30th 1993 configuration: http://prince.org/msg/7/101499
Scififilmnerd: More evidence of COME 1993: http://prince.org/msg/7/105603
TTMAN: The original Come album configuration: http://prince.org/msg/7/141904" target="_blank"> http://prince.org/msg/7/141904
Uptown presents Days of Wild – A Documentary of Prince/

Part 2:
No records allowed, only videos: http://prince.org/msg/7/317534

Part 3:
All that glitters ain’t Gold: http://prince.org/msg/7/318315" target="_blank"> http://prince.org/msg/7/318315

Part 4:
Slave to the system: http://prince.org/msg/5/319042

Part 5:
Chaos and disorder: http://prince.org/msg/7/319752

Part 6:
Free at last!: http://prince.org/msg/7/342786

Appendix 1:
List of unreleased Prince album configurations: http://prince.org/msg/7/319757

Appendix 2:
List of unreleased Associated Artists album configurations: http://prince.org/msg/5/319895

Appendix 3:
List of chronological Prince recordings: http://prince.org/msg/7/320445
[Edited 8/29/10 8:29am]

Chronological Come-recordings
* = released version

Record Plant, Los Angeles, 8-23 November 1991
Race #1

Studios 301, Sydney, 25 April – 3 May 1992
Peach (3:48)*

The Paisley Park Power Trio, 2 January 1993
Come #1 (4:45) – segued with
Endorphin Machine #1 (3:50)
Dark #1 (6:26)
Dolphin #1 (4:57)
Laurianne #1
Dream

Come, Paisley Park, January 1993
Pheromone #1 (4:22)
Papa #1
Dance Of Desperation (18/1)
Laurianne #2

Come, Paisley Park, February 1993
Loose! #1 (3:23)
Space #1 (5:37)
Poem #1

Come Musical, late March 1993
Solo (3:48)* – lyrics by David Henry Hwang
Strays Of The World (5:07)*

Pre 27 April 1993
BET’s Video LP Theme #1 (3:57) – instrumental version of Pheromone
BET’s Video LP Theme #2 (3:08) – edit of #1
Fuck D Press (21/4)

Come & Glam-O-Rama (later “Glam Slam Ulysses”), May 1993
Papa #2 (2:48)*
Race #2 (4:03)
Pope (3:28)*
What’s My Name # 1 (3:03)*
Poem #2 (bootlegged as Orgasm) (3:30) – segued with
What’s My Name? #2 (3:06)
Zannalee #1 (2:51)
I Wanna Be Held Tonight (19/5)
Emotional Crucifixion (26/5)
Interactive #1 (3:05) – starts with a giggle
Interactive #2 (3:03)* - edit of #1
Come #2 (3:16) – edit of #1, tentative placing, aired over the PA before some aftershows on Act II

The Hits Remixes, 1993
Pope (12” Remix) (6:01)

The Paisley Park Power Trio: The Undertaker, Paisley Park, 14 June 1993
Zannalee (Prelude) (0:44)
Dolphin #2 (3:37)
Dolphin #3 (Video Version) (3:35)

Paisley Park, 15 June 1993
Calhoun Square #1 (4:46)*

26 June 1993
The Mad Pope – possibly a remix of Pope

Madhouse: 24, Paisley Park, 7 July 1993 – post-production by Ricky Peterson in late August – September 1993
o)+>: Keyboards, Levi Seacer, Jr.: Guitar, Sonny Thompson: Bass, Eric Leeds: Saxophone, Michael Bland: Drums
Space #2 (4:47)

Come, pre January 1994
Come #3 (3:17)
Space #3 (4:28)* – edit of #1
Pheromone #2 (4:36) – starts with lines that ended up in Poem
Loose! #2 (3:27)
Race #3 (6:13)
Race #4 (5:04) – edit of #3
Dark #2 (6:10)* - edit of #1

The Beautiful Experience/Gold/The Gold Album, Paisley Park, 20 January – early 1994
Interactive #2 (2:25)

Come, Paisley Park, March 1994
Poem #3 (3:36) – now with an actual poem, released as Come on a German promo
Endorphine Machine #2 (3:49)
Loose! #3 (3:26)*
Race #5 (4:17) - edit of #4
Let It Go #1 (16/3)

BBC’s Top Of The Pops, Paisley Park, 22 March 1994
Endorphinmachine #3 (Interactive CD-ROM Version) (3:48)

Come, Paisley Park, mid April 1994
Come #5 (11:13)*

Come, Paisley Park, pre 19 May 1994 – album completed
Pheromone #3 (5:08)*
Race #6 (4:28)*
Dark #3 (6:10)*
Letitgo #2 (5:32)*
Orgasm #4 (1:39)* (previously “Poem”)

Spring – summer 1994
Race (Instrumental) (3:31)
Race (Acapella) (3:33)

Remixes of Letitgo, mid 1994
Edit (4:15)*
Caviar Extended Mix (7:15)
Caviar Radio Edit (4:59)*
Cavi’ Street Edit (5:02)*
Instrumental (5:02)* - entitled Q.D. III Instrumental Mix on Come 2-LP promo
On The Cool-Out Tip Remix (7:12)
On The Cool-Out Tip Radio Edit (4:34)*
Sherm Stick Extended Mix (8:50)
(-) Sherm Stick Edit (5:42)* - entitled J. Swift #3 Instrumental on Come 2-LP promo

Space single, pre 19 September 1994
Universal Love Remix (6:10)*
Funky Stuff Remix (5:41)*
Funky Stuff Dub (4:48)* - originally entitled Funky Stuff Remix Dub
Acoustic Remix (4:41)* - originally entitled Acoustic Radio Remix
Universal Love Remix Edit (4:00)

The Gold Experience, September – October 1994 – album completed
Endorphinmachine #4 (4:07)*
Dolphin #4 (4:59)*

Come single, pre 14 October 1994
Come (18 & Over) #1 (6:41)
18 & Over #2 (5:40)* - edit of #1
Come (Techno Mix) (4:49)
Come (Remix) (11:20)

Chaos And Disorder, November - December 1994
18 & Over #3 (Video Version) (4:16) (around 8/11) – edit of #2
Zannalee #2 (2:49) – possibly identical with #1
Calhoun Square #2 (4:28) – edit of #1

Pre 5 January 1995
Loose Dub #1 (3:47) – later retitled (Lemme See That Body) Get Loose!
Loose Dub #2 (3:31)* - released as Get Loose
Dark (Remix) (8:50) – tentative placing, possibly identical with Alone In The Dark
So Dark (5:14)* - edit of Dark (Remix)
Alone In The Dark – tentative placing, offered to From Dusk ‘til Dawn Soundtrack in 1995

Madhouse, 1995
18 And Over

Chaos And Disorder & The Vault, March 1996 – delivered to W.B. 26/4-‘96
Zannalee #3 (2:43)* - tentative placing

2001
Race (NPGMC Mix) (3:25) – included in Ahdio Show, June 2001

NB!
Michael Bland has mentioned an unreleased Rock Version of Space and an unreleased version of Solo. They do not appear in this list, as it isn’t known whether they are from 1993 or 1994.
[Edited 8/20/10 4:38am]

Is there a Reader's Digest condensed version?

Wowsers. A very convoluted but fascinating account of this time. I remember finally joining Controversy and reading the fax from Mayte excitedly. Attended one of the Wembley stadium concerts where he addressed the retirement, namechange, and prefixed the new songs with "Welcome to the dawn!". A friend recorded the Sky One special onto cassette for me and described/drew Prince's new symbol guitar. Exciting times...
[Edited 8/24/09 8:41am]

Im still wondering where this person gets Diamonds and Pearls was another disappointment.It had 4 hit singles! This was his biggest album since Purple rain, and he hasnt outsold it since. Gett Off, Cream, Live 4 love, Insatiable...Disappointment??? I dont think so

Genesia said:

What Genesia said. I'll read this on a Sunday. Looks interesting though!

Hi scifi

So great to see you do this

It was indeed an exciting time to be a Princefan in that period.
After some disillusive years and releases, no matter their commercial success - it was suddenly like discovering this amazing and daring artist all over again, 10 years later.
The music, the image, the willingness to deal with sexual and dark subject matters in a way that would soon be gone for good.
Such a shame that the released product was a pale shadow of what could have been.
He was really on to something during this time, so I totally agree with you; the fans lost.´
But at least we have the memories of a great period and reignited enthusiasm
as well as most of the music to make up our own "Ultimate Come"

Virgo said:

Yeah. Mine looks like this:

ULTIMATE COME

Disc 1 – The Songs
1. Interactive (3:03) – from Crystal Ball
2. Come (4:49)
3. Endorphin Machine (3:51)
4. Space (4:30) – from Come
5. Peach (3:48) – from The Hits/The B-Sides
6. Pheromone (4:23)
7. Loose! (3:26) – from Come
8. Papa (2:49) – from Come
9. Race (6:13)
10. Dark (6:03)
11. Solo (3:50) – from Come
12. Dolphin (4:58) – from The Gold Experience
13. Poem (3:30)
14. What’s My Name (3:06)
15. Zannalee (2:51)
16. Pope (3:29) – from The Hits/The B-Sides
17. Strays Of The World (5:18) – from Crystal Ball

Disc 2 – The Remixes
1. Poem (3:36)
2. Interactive (3:05)
3. Come (3:17)
4. Come (Album Version) (11:13) – from Come
5. Come (18 & Over) (6:41)
6. Endorphinemachine (Interactive CD-ROM Version) (3:48)
7. Space (Universal Love Remix) (6:10) – from Space single
8. Space (Funky Stuff Remix) (5:42) – from Space single
9. Space (Acoustic Remix) (4:41) – from Space single
10. Pheromone (Instrumental) (3:57)
11. (Lemme See That Body) Get Loose! (3:47)
12. Race (Edit) (4:17)
13. Race (Instrumental) (3:31)
14. Race (A Capella) (3:33)
15. So Dark (4:14) – from Crystal Ball
16. Pope (12” Remix) (6:01) – from Pink Cashmere promo vinyl single

Disc 3 – Live 1993
Act I:
1. Come (11:13) – San Francisco, 12/4
2. Peach (5:13) – New York, 26/3
3. Partyman/Loose! (3:41) – Chicago, 6/4
4. Papa (4:18) – San Francisco, 12/4
Act II:
5. Come (incl. What’s My Name-speech) (9:06) – Den Bosch, 10/8
6. Endorphinemachine (3:39) – Den Bosch, 10/8
7. Peach (6:31) – Den Bosch, 10/8
8. Race (8:46) - Barcelona, 23/8
9. What’s My Name (Rehearsal) (2:57) – Paris, 1/9
10. Pope/The P (6:28) – Paris, 1/9
11. Come (5:40) – Paris, 1/9
12. Endorphinemachine (3:42) – Paris, 1/9
13. Peach (5:52) – Paris, 1/9

Disc 4 – Live 1994/1995
1. Come (2:57) – Monte Carlo, 4/5 ‘94
2. Endorphinmachine (3:49) – Monte Carlo, 4/5 ‘94
3. Space (incl. NPG Operator) (5:25) – Monte Carlo, 4/5 ‘94
4. Peach (6:58) – Monte Carlo, 4/5 ‘94
5. (Lemme See That Body) Get Loose! (9:59) – Brussels, 28/3 ‘95
6. Papa (3:20) – Minneapolis, 26/7 ‘94
7. Race (12:45) – New York, 13/7 ‘94
8. Dark (10:25) – New York, 13/7 ‘94
9. Solo (1:55) – Paris, 6/5 ‘94
10. Dolphin (5:40) – London, 3/3 ‘95
11. Zannalee (2:41) – London, 23/3 ‘95
12. Come (18 & Over) (5:16) – London, 9/3 ‘95
13. Peach (4:18) – Birmingham, 18/3 ‘95
14. (Lemme See That Body) Get Loose! (3:32) – Dublin, 30/3 ‘95

Making that collection is what finally inspired me to go ahead and actually write this article, that I had wanted to write ever since the original Come threads back in 2004.

Also, with some of the tracklists from back then being proven fake, I thought it was high time to state what we actually DO know about the evolution (and devolution) of Come.

Great work scifi - your never-ending fascination for every nuance of the development of the Come album is contagious!

Now to go back and finish reading it

Do you know HOW MUCH I LOVE you for putting this together??! I love delving into music this way and I'm glad you took the time to put it down

thanks so much 4 an outstanding introspect on this era

This is the period I became a fan of P, 'Letitgo' got my attention and the events that followed got me hooked. I loved his new way of thinking in releasing music to his fans. Definately a highlight of the 90s part of his career.

Great read. Thanks for posting!

For me, this time in my life I was a destroyed person. I was in my abusive relationship and that is why Solo struck such a chord with me. I loved everything about this album. The flourish of Come, the freedom of Space, the secret nature of Pheremone, the rabidity of Loose, the heartbreak of Papa, the strength of Race, the longing of Dark, the abyss of Solo, the awakening of Letitgo and the final gett off at the end.

This was such an exciting and frightening time to be a Prince fan. An album announcing the death of your musical hero. Information back in those days needed to be sought out so you really didn't know what was coming next. Prince experienced a rebirth with Gold, and I happened to be experiencing mine at the same time.

I can never get over this period in Princehood. So thrilled I was there as it happened. Thank you scifi for bringing me down memory lane Those were some hard HARD times. But to have made it through, makes all the pain worthwhile. This was the soundtrack of the most devastating time of my life. Thank you Prince.

nice, nice work. cant wait for ultimate gold!

awesome... can't wait to read other Ultimate album articles

ARock said:

Are there others? Links

Genesia said:

Pretend it's a play. would you want to half ass one of your performances?!

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

They are still in the working stages. Patience, my dear.

And thank you for all the kind words.

And I'm sure Prince would be proud to know that his Come album provided you with such comfort in your hour of need.

scififilmnerd said:

Never thought I'd say I needed Prince's Come!

Genesia said:

I'm surprised I wasn't the only one thinking that.

So it looks like the following songs have never seen the light of day outside Prince's vault! I wonder what they sound like

Dance of Desperation
Laurianne #1, #2
Fuck D Press
I wanna Be Held Tonight
Emotional Crucifixion
Alone in the Dark

purplecam said:

well isn't this your dream? That people love Prince? Now they do and you don't appreciate?!

I think I'll devote part of tonight's Prince marathon to your research and play as many of the aforementioned tracks as I have access to. Amazing work, scifinerd!

exenn said:

Yeah, I'm TOTALLY going to fam out on this

scififilmnerd said:

Actually, you got that wrong. Prince would only really start making lots of money if he sold more than 5 million copies. There's no way WB would enter a contract that would be bad for them. Precisely the fact that Prince had to sell 5+ million copies to really make money was the kind of encouragement that was built into the contract: why else would Prince make an effort?

In the end, it was a ridiculous clause: not a single Prince album had sold 5+ million copies post-PR, except for D&P -- and that one was designed to be a hit, and Prince undertook a massive tour to promote it.

See also this: http://prince.org/wiki/19...er_reading

There's also a chapter from a book in Google that talks about the contract (though I don't know if it's any good):
http://books.google.com/b...q=&f=false

On a side note... Sweet Jebus, there's some really stupid stuff out there:

http://www.npr.org/templa...d=12193683



Yeah, he didn't like the terms SIX MONTHS AFTER HE HAD SIGNED IT.

WOW thank u 4 this. Makes me want to put my Come cd on. Prince made great music during 93-95 and Come is a great album in my opinion.

scififilmnerd said:

Because they'd been planing to do a GH for years, but it got delayed each time because of Prince's involvement.

scififilmnerd said:

I'm still curious about what exactly had happened there. I mean, a DAT tape with a bunch of unreleased songs plus the gig from Feb 13 just happens to get sold to one or more radio stations? AFAIK this is the only time Prince actually helped bootleggers.

scififilmnerd said:

Oh come on, Strays is sub-par Queen. Letitgo is pretty damn great.

scififilmnerd said:

And by screwing WB, Prince also screwed his fans, and in the long run screwed his career.

scififilmnerd said:

Which he should have done. And then just released those songs as part of EPs.

But then those EPs never happened with TGE either, so...

And it all went downhill after 1995. "Hey, I'm artist of the month @ VH-1, what shall I do? Ah yes, tape a TV special in which I depict my fans as loony stalker types!"

Awesome... I read the whole thing. This is what I'm interested in... the recording process, all the alternate versions, the decisions made about which songs get included, etc. I wish all of these tracks would be released in a compilation with comments from band members. That would be a great Prince release.