The best circulating sources for this are, afaik, 'Purple Fantasia' for the 82 session and 'T's 7th Street Entry' for the 83 session.

Purple Fantasia

2 CDR

Label : Fan Release

Catalogue : N/A

Disc Length : 46:02 / 42:08

Source : Studio Outtakes / Rehearsal

Sound Quality : EX / EX+

Year Of Release : 2004


Disc 1

1. Computer Blue 2. Extra Loveable 3. Purple Music 4. Possessed (vocal) 5. Wet Dream Cousin

Disc 2

1. Piano Jam (#1) 2. Piano Jam (#2) 3. Piano Jam (#3) (Purple Music) 4. The Beautiful Ones 5. I Would Die 4 U

COMMENT

An amazing collection of tracks from various recording sessions spanning 1982 - 1984. The opening 'Computer Blue' is the highlight of the entire set. It is very similar to the Sunset Sound Version (#3), however it runs for a minute longer and features some great (and VERY lengthy) guitar distortion to close out the song. It is the most instrumental version of the song circulating as it lacks the infamous ' Hallway Speech', however there are extra guitar and instrumental parts added - it's criminal that it has never surfaced officially as a 12" as it is a piece of stunning art that is unlike anything else. 'Purple Music' features a slightly longer instrumental intro the other versions circulating however the sound quality is much improved over any other release. The 3 piano jams are one long piano rehearsal. They have been circulating for years, however as with many of the other tracks on this fantastic release they have NEVER been out in this clear sound quality before. From what information I can gather this release is the result of a cassette which was found in a fan's collection from the tape trading days - it was sent to another fan who tweaked and cleaned things up a little, and.....voila. I have also been told there is a factory pressed 2cd release of this, but have not been able to verify, nor get any other info on it yet. In my eyes, this is perhaps the best collection of studio material released by a fan in 2004, and that's no easy thing to achieve.

©TheDataBank.org

7th Street Entry

1 CDR

Label : SaTim Records

Catalogue : N/A

Disc Length : 71:19

Source : Various

Sound Quality : VG+ / EX

Year Of Release :


7th Street Entry, Minneapolis : 25th October 1984

1. Africa Talks To You 2. Erotic City 3. Mutiny 4. Blues In G 5. Controversy Jam

7th Street Entry, Minneapolis : 11th July 1985 (w/ Sheila E)

6. Girls And Boys 7. Holly Rock

Piano Rehearsal : 1983

8. 17 Days 9. Purple Rain 10. A Case Of You 11. Mary Don't You Weep 12. Strange Relationship 13. International Lover 14. Wednesday / Let Me Tell You What I Night Do 15. Cold Coffee And Cocaine 16. Mama

©TheDataBank.org

7th Street Entry : Tweaked And Enhanced

1 CDR

Label : Cosmic Records / Evolsidog Productions

Catalogue : #CR-EP 001

Disc Length : 26:48

Source : Soundboard Recording

Sound Quality : EX

Year Of Release : 2008

7th Street Entry, Minneapolis
25th October 1984

1. Africa Talks To You 2. Erotic City 3. Mutiny 4. Blues In G 5. Instrumental Jam

COMMENT

Nothing new here, but a 2008 re-issue of Prince's short appearance after his guest appearance at next door's First Avenue show during Sheila E's set. The recording is available on numerous other releases from the past, perhaps with SaTim's '7th Street Entry' and Sabotage's 'Purple Rush 5' being the most well known. This release is much cleaner than Sabotage's effort, but for my money, it doesn't quite match the excellence of the SaTim release. This version has almost no background hiss/graininess which affected the Sabotage release, however whatever "tweaking and enhancing" has been done on here has reduced Prince's guitar tone making it sound thinner and tinnier than before. Certainly the reduction of any imperfections is to be applauded, and the soundboard recording has benefited greatly in terms of losing a fair amount of surface noise, but in reducing the outside imperfections, I can't help but wonder if the show has been over-tweaked. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy this immensely and if I hadn't heard this show a hundred times before, I'd be more than happy with this release, but even inferior, older bootleg releases of this show have Prince's guitar with more life, depth and volume than what we have here. Still, a cleaner soundboard recording is a cleaner soundboard recording. The show is something of an oddity due to it's improvised, loose nature, and is a world away from the structured performances of the Purple Rain tour due to start the following month. The majority feels like a rehearsal with Prince calling out chord changes to the band, especially on 'Mutiny' which, whilst not being a complete performance of the song, gets it's live debut. As I said previously, I do like this "tweaked and enhanced" version, however for my personal own taste, what I gain in overall clarity, I loose in Prince's guitar tone - and when he's grooving on it for the entire 27 minutes, it's a pretty big deal.