Hi. Can anyone tell me if the version of "Colonized Mind" that was streaming on lotusflow3r.com before the site launched was a full version? And without "Feel Better, Feel Good, Feel Wonderful" barging in before it's over?


I know the radio broadcast one was, but I'm not sure if I ever bothered with the one that was on the preview to the website.


Thanks.

errant said:

It was the same version as played on the radio.

Yep. There was a streaming mp3@192 file on lotusflow3r.com before it opened that had the full ending without "Feel Better" fading in... Much better that way IMO. "Feel Better" is a funky track, but it does cut in a couple of seconds too early on the album. Such a deep track like "Colonized Mind" needed a few more seconds to resonate before the funk .

The whole Lotusflow3r album (disc 1) is ruined by the dodgy mixing together of tracks, in my opinion, especially Boom into Crimson & Clover or The Morning After - whichever version you're listening to it sucks. He should have allowed the songs to breathe.

Interesting to know. I didn't realize there was a version circulating without the abrupt ending. Thanks.

asideorderofham said:

there's usually going to be a little bit of that on Prince's better albums. I don't really mind Boom/Crimson & Clover. I don't even mind Dreamer and Back 2 The Lotus seguing into each other.

the ones that really bug me on LF are Colonized Mind/FBFGFW and the way Wall Of Berlin fades out a drum solo (!) for some chatter at the club leading into $. makes compilations a pain when an artist does this kind of thing. but then, maybe that's the point (artistically), considering the track-by-track culture that the market has evolved into.

i'm not sure if i still have those 3 or 4 songs that were debuted on
the radio from that album but i remember that they had some different
endings/segues going on in places that did not end up on the final
album versions.

errant said:

on the album itself, i don't mind that kind of thing at all. it makes the
album seem to flow better and makes for a more cohesive experience imo.

but you're right, if you want to listen to individual tracks or put them
onto a compilation it can be a bit frustrating.

IstenSzek said:

As a general rule I like album tracks to segue into one another, just so long as it's a well considered effort to make an album cohesive. I do not believe that the way these tracks were crudely stuck together was a well considered act.

The version of Lotusflow3r that had been played to people in the press a while before it came out had "Lotusflow3r" (before it was chopped up) as track 1 and Crimson & Clover as track 2, then sometime in the next few weeks he played around with the running order and we get the awful, hastily thrown together Boom/C&C mix.

Funnily enough, even though there is a clean-starting unmixed C&C in existence (that was played on the radio and on the LF preview site) the Crimson & Clover music video actually features the track lifted straight from the album, so we get the last note of Boom mixed in. I just think the project could have used a little more care and maybe time spent on it.

asideorderofham said:

One of the articles I read before the album came out described a six-minute instrumental preceding C & C - are you saying that ...from the lotus and boom (lotusflow3r) were originally one long track? I have wondered that myself. But Boom isn't exactly an instrumental, despite not having too many sung lyrics. Kid of puzzling. It would explain the "six-minutes" thing, though.
Also, it's funny, I never listen to the Boom/C&C edit for some reason. Only the download version with Boom/The Morning After. I actually like the way that one segues.

fms said:

That would From the Lotus/Back 2 the Lotus that was the long instrumental intro, before it was split into 2 and used as opener and closer.