Reason for end of Revolution: intimacy issues! No really, just like he stated in an '86 interview how he thought the time were turning into godzilla (i.e. may actually be popular in their own right) i think he disbanded the revolution because he wanted to be "the only star on the scene". with reagrds to the original crystal ball album...upon listening to it, warners were right. i still don't think sign o' the times segues with play in the sunshine (a bit silly), but overall, SOTT was a better release. that's not to say i don't LOVE the track crystal ball, but he was being artiscally difficult. if his ultimate aim was to get this stuff 'out there' whilst still under contract he could have put crystal ball and joy in repitition out as 12" single b-sides. he didn't because he was keeping the good stuff for a rainy day (not to mention i personally think he is behind some of the leaks, and was therefore profiting anyway).
Then he just became obstinate with the black album...
bottom line, he could have released all of the good stuff, but chose to release b-side filler instead (some b's good, some bad) which would be better?: la, la, la he he hee 12" or crystal ball? he had the good stuff but decided it was better to keep it under wraps for his own profit after his attempts at a triple album (and coinciding payment) were thwarted...what do you think?

Camille - Warners say no for commercial reasons
Dream Factory - Prince says no because he's feeling precious (about too much collaboration)
Crystal Ball - Warners say no because they are too cheap to do the extra vinyl
Black Album - Prince realizes he's commting commercial suicide...

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Yeah, basically he's so hyper-sexed and spoiled he just starts butt-fucking constantly (like a dog that clings to a visitors leg). That was pretty much my conclusion. I have to import that banana thing as a standard "smilie" on my msg board

btw madison, if you give me your credit card details i swear i'll be much more tender with them

stichdoll said:

WB didn't say no to Camille, Prince shelved it.

stichdoll said:

And they were right, Prince cut short the promotion for Sign O' The Times on a whim, it would've been more costly with a triple LP.

stichdoll said:

Your timing is way off on this.

The Time was broken up by the time Purple Rain hit theaters. A few days, someone had to literally drag Morris out of bed and to the set to do his lines, after he was crashing from cocaine binges. Frankly, The Time as we'd like to remember it was broken up before 1982, when Jimmy & Terry left, and Monte followed soon after.

He disbanded The Revolution in the fall of 1986, after the last Hit N Run show in Japan, which was the middle of September 1986.

He did not break up The Revolution because of intimacy issues. Do your homework. There were much bigger factors in that breakup, and it wasn't intimacy.

no i wasn't saying the time broke up in 86, that was the year he made the comment about them. and what was the reason for the revolution break up?

stichdoll said:

Nothing to do with that, it was shelved for moral reasons because of this mystic bad trip he had with Ingrid under ecstasy. TBA could actually have become kind of an underground hit as well as getting back part of the black audience who thought at the time that Prince was becoming too "pop".

stichdoll said:

I'm not sure i understand your post. I think Prince considered "Crystal Ball" as being too important/special to be wasted as a mere, quickly forgotten, b-side. Not to mention the fact that no matter which single it would have been the b-side of, the a-side would have sounded kind of weak in comparison to its b-side.

All the CB songs have been released in one form or another and most of them quite rapidely after the project was shelved:
"Shockadelica" WAS released as a b-side in 1987.
"Rock Hard In A Funky Place" ended-up on the Black Album later in 1987 (though it was postponed until 1994).
"The Ball" became "Eye No" on Lovesexy in 1988.
"Good Love" ended-up on the Bright Lights Big City OST in 1988 as well.
"Joy In Repetition" was released on Graffitti Bridge in 1990.

And much later indeed, we got "Crystal Ball" on the eponymous album in 1998 and a 1988 rehearsal version of "Rebirth Of The Flesh" was ultimately released in 2001.

As for the leaking theory, it's most likely a fan fantasy. For one thing outtakes used to circulate with a terrible sound quality back then, and many Prince specialists and ex-collaborators confirmed that many tapes were given to friends and collaborators back then, that some others were obviously stolen by employees/engineers/whoever was around and that it's where the songs came from.

Obviously, Prince knew and tolarated that some of the material he was giving would leak, but i don't think it was the prime purpose of him doing so. As for the idea that he sold the tapes and made any money out of it, it's REALLY dubious: there wasn't THAT MUCH money to make out of bootlegs. Bootlegs probably didn't sell more than a few hundred to a few thousand copies back then : that's profit to be done for whoever had the tapes and sold them, but not for a multimillionnaire who was selling millions of records and playing in sold-out stadiums.

databank said:

You dont actualy believe that 'dark night of the soul" bullshit, do you?

xlr8r said:

Per Nielsen does. I believe in Per Nielsen.

databank said:

Im not saying he never did X and tripped out but it was obviously a bbusiness/sales decision not to release it. Not some spiritual mumbo jumbo.

xlr8r said:

Unless i'm mistaken this is a personnal theory of yours. Is there any testimony from anyone around him at this time corroborating it?

I don't see anything "obvious" in it: TBA wasn't supposed to become a hit-record since it was, like "Camille" if released, not supposed to be marketed as a Prince record (no single was even considered to go with it), and knowing Prince as we know him, i'm totally unsurprised by the mystic-trip theory. Besides, Lovesexy didn't have any more commercial potential, so why cancel an "experimental" record only to release another one instead?

databank said:

I already know the story as you do and I see what you're getting at. Im just not automatically taken in by his mumbo jumbo. Sure he could have put the spin on the reord being evil but I dont buy into "looking for the ladder" etc stuff when some things are obvious to me. Many business decisions are spun into his mythos at times imo. Makes for good copy and at the time ".."fun"?"

Ingrid was no "spirit child" of Lovesexy..just another lay he put on wax.

xlr8r said:

I often like to believe people don't involve "mumbo jumbo" into their thought process. But it does happen...waaaay to often. Don't lie to yourself...U know it. This damn country is run on a healthy dose of mumbo jumbo... How much mumbo jumbo is in Prince's train of thought 2day? All U gotta do is roll back the clock and roll forward the spirituality.