As i only learned about bootlegs and bought my first one in 1991 (it was Charade), i was wondering when exactly did Prince outtakes start to circulate amongst fans and what were the first released studio bootlegs (besides The Black Album in '88).

Anyone in the mood 4 nostalgia?

On vinyl some of the oldest must be The Chocolate Box or Camille's Crystal box. As well as Charade.

On CD probably the earliest efforts should be the likes of Yellow, the earliest versions of Crucial and the two triple sets The Jewel Box.

I first got a bootleg cassette tape of the Black Album standing in line to buy tickets for the Los Angeles Lovesexy tour. That would have been around October 1988.

Around early 1990, I found an import Cd shop in Redondo Beach that had all these odd looking cd's of prince songs I never heard of. Shortly thereafter, I was on Melrose ave in Hollywood and found a treasure trove of bootleg CDs. Thats about when the floodgates opened, at lease here in Los Angeles.

[Edited 4/13/11 13:35pm]

should note that there were just as many bootleg vinyl releases as well.

Many versions of the Black Album, "Crucial", "Crystal Ball", "For Those of you on Vallume", "Small Club, 2nd show that night", "Regeant of First Ave", were some of the early titles.

Goldmine newspaper/magazine had tons of adds for boots. Uptown magazine had regular reviews of said bootlegs.

The first boot I got that had outtakes was Camille's Crystal Ball, a 2 record set that combined live set from the 1999 Tour in Little Rock, Arkansas (1983) with outtakes from Purple Rain & tracks "Taken From The Legendary Camille Album".

The outtakes included were:

Feel U Up (titled Let Me Feel U Up)

Rebirth Of The Flesh (titled Souly-A-Colia)

Crystal Ball (titled Export Lover)

G-Spot

Instrumental (I can't remember which instrumental it is)

Darlinkg Nikki

The Beautiful Ones

Computer Blue

I Would Die 4 U

Baby, I'm A Star

The Ball (titled Crystal Ball)

I got it in '88 after discovering bootlegs in my search for the Black Album. Soon after, early '89 I think, I picked up Royal Jewels, a 3 record box set of outtakes that included ALL of the outtakes that were on Camille's Crystal Ball (but none of the live tracks) combined with The Chocolate Album bootleg & some SOTT outtakes.

The tracks included all of the above and:

High Fashion

Mutiny (titled Muting)

Desire

Susannah's Pajamas (titled Susannah's PJ's)

Yes

The Dance Electric

Around The World In A Day

Instrumental Variations (don't remember which Instrumental)

Movie Star

Heaven

Starfish And Coffee (titled Starfish E Coffee)

Ballad Of Dorothy Parker

Joy In Repetition

Data Bank (titled Pretty Face)

Girl O My Dreams

Can't Stop This Feeling I Got (titled I Can't Stop)

We Can Funk (titled We Can Fall)

All Day, All Night

I also got Charade on vinyl around this time, possibly between the 2 of these. I won't go in to the tracks as that boot is well known.

[Edited 4/13/11 19:41pm]

It was May 23, 1988 and I was at a Jesse Johnson concert at The Ritz in NYC. A friend of my brother's who worked at Warner Brothers hooked a than 16 year Prince freak up to a pristine copy of The Black Album. Considering that LoveSexy was released on May 10th, it was quite a coup and great to have these two albums to compare. Still prefer the sound/message of Lovesexy but The Black Album was some serious funk...About 2 years later I think that I found Charade in a Hollywood record shop and then the search was on...I miss those searches of record stores for Prince boots...It all seems to easy to get now...The search was half the fun...

wishuhvn said:

It was May 23, 1988 and I was at a Jesse Johnson concert at The Ritz in NYC. A friend of my brother's who worked at Warner Brothers hooked a than 16 year Prince freak up to a pristine copy of The Black Album. Considering that LoveSexy was released on May 10th, it was quite a coup and great to have these two albums to compare. Still prefer the sound/message of Lovesexy but The Black Album was some serious funk...About 2 years later I think that I found Charade in a Hollywood record shop and then the search was on...I miss those searches of record stores for Prince boots...It all seems to easy to get now...The search was half the fun...

Maybe if you are located in NYC, where, I'm sure, there were many more opportunities & places to get bootlegs than there are in KY. For years, every vacation or road trip had to include stops at whatever record stores were most likely to have bootlegs. The couple stores in my town that carried boots did not have much to offer, and record conventions (remember those?) were at best an annual event....

The collector/completist in me will take the easiness of the internet ANY day!!

I don't know when they actually leaked, but the oldest outtakes I have are from 1976.

I had several lengthy recordings off a non-profit radio station in NYC that used to play a bunch of bootlegs. and live recordings. I got the Black Album from some kind of factory outlet store in my neighborhood in the Bronx. I wasn't even looking for it. I was just plain old lucky and it just so happened that this was when I first just began getting allowances and had just the right amount to purchase the best album Prince has ever recorded.....IMO....Okay, I lie. ONE of the best.

[Edited 4/13/11 20:57pm]

vitriol said:

On vinyl some of the oldest must be The Chocolate Box or Camille's Crystal ball. As well as Charade.

those three were pretty much the first ones I got on vinyl back in the days

I didn't get boots until they began pressing them on CDs. Yellow was the first boot I ever owned. Shortly after that, I got a cassette dub of A Better Place 2 Die.

vitriol said:

On vinyl some of the oldest must be The Chocolate Box or Camille's Crystal box. As well as Charade.

On CD probably the earliest efforts should be the likes of Yellow, the earliest versions of Crucial and the two triple sets The Jewel Box.

*wipes away a tear*

I still have the two Jewel Box 3CD sets, they were the best things since sliced Black Album back then, colour booklets and everything <3

The first boots that I ever *obtained* was The Black Album and the Camille album This was in 1988.

wishuhvn said:

...I miss those searches of record stores for Prince boots...It all seems to easy to get now...The search was half the fun...

the price was triple, though

i feel the same way...

vitriol said:

On vinyl some of the oldest must be The Chocolate Box or Camille's Crystal box. As well as Charade.

On CD probably the earliest efforts should be the likes of Yellow, the earliest versions of Crucial and the two triple sets The Jewel Box.

I have several of those early vinyl bootlegs.It's funny the way some song titles are completely wrong (lol).On one of those albums,the song "Data Bank" is titled "Pretty Face"

Adrianus said:

wishuhvn said:

...I miss those searches of record stores for Prince boots...It all seems to easy to get now...The search was half the fun...

the price was triple, though

i feel the same way...

Thank you! I forgot about the price. I used to pay $25-$35 per disc!!!

I don't mind giving Prince $10-15 per disc, but I'll take free with boots any day.

SoulAlive said:It's funny the way some song titles are completely wrong (lol).On one of those albums,the song "Data Bank" is titled "Pretty Face"

Still, I'll always maintain that 'If You Break My Heart One More Time' is a way better title than 'Last Heart'!

NouveauDance said:

djThunderfunk said:

The first boot I got that had outtakes was Camille's Crystal Ball, a 2 record set that combined live set from the 1999 Tour in Little Rock, Arkansas (1983) with outtakes from Purple Rain & tracks "Taken From The Legendary Camille Album".

The outtakes included were:

Feel U Up (titled Let Me Feel U Up)

Rebirth Of The Flesh (titled Souly-A-Colia)

Crystal Ball (titled Export Lover)

G-Spot

Instrumental (I can't remember which instrumental it is)

Darlinkg Nikki

The Beautiful Ones

Computer Blue

I Would Die 4 U

Baby, I'm A Star

The Ball (titled Crystal Ball)

I got it in '88 after discovering bootlegs in my search for the Black Album. Soon after, early '89 I think, I picked up Royal Jewels, a 3 record box set of outtakes that included ALL of the outtakes that were on Camille's Crystal Ball (but none of the live tracks) combined with The Chocolate Album bootleg & some SOTT outtakes.

The tracks included all of the above and:

High Fashion

Mutiny (titled Muting)

Desire

Susannah's Pajamas (titled Susannah's PJ's)

Yes

The Dance Electric

Around The World In A Day

Instrumental Variations (don't remember which Instrumental)

Movie Star

Heaven

Starfish And Coffee (titled Starfish E Coffee)

Ballad Of Dorothy Parker

Joy In Repetition

Data Bank (titled Pretty Face)

Girl O My Dreams

Can't Stop This Feeling I Got (titled I Can't Stop)

We Can Funk (titled We Can Fall)

All Day, All Night

I also got Charade on vinyl around this time, possibly between the 2 of these. I won't go in to the tracks as that boot is well known.

[Edited 4/13/11 19:41pm]

Damn, you wrote EXACTLY what I was going to write. The Royal Jewels was (at the time) amazing and I remember buying it at Bleeker Bobs on Melrose in Hollywood. Back in the day there were several shops that had vinyl boots. Aron's records, Bleeker Bobs and one out in West Covina. The first CD boot I bought (except for the Black album) was SEPTEMBER, the 2 disk Parade show. I paid (drumroll....) $300 for it (cymbal crash on my head).

WTF was I thinking?

I got a lot of outtakes and concerts back in 1986 (on cassette), before the European Parade Tour

Around that time, about 10 USA concerts were available

eyewishuheaven said:

SoulAlive said:It's funny the way some song titles are completely wrong (lol).On one of those albums,the song "Data Bank" is titled "Pretty Face"

Still, I'll always maintain that 'If You Break My Heart One More Time' is a way better title than 'Last Heart'!

true

This was my first bootleg, and also The Black Album on tape.

This vinyl had two titles Sex Machine and The Purple Album With White Spots.

It's the Paris aftershow from '87.

I gave this to my sister when I started to buy cd boots, I think she still has it.

(not my pics)

[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related/P%20mag%20and%20boot%20covers%20and%20ads/R-495107-1295793758.jpg[/img:$uid][img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related/P%20mag%20and%20boot%20covers%20and%20ads/R-495107-1295793771.jpg[/img:$uid]

djThunderfunk said:

I got it in '88 after discovering bootlegs in my search for the Black Album. Soon after, early '89 I think, I picked up Royal Jewels, a 3 record box set of outtakes that included ALL of the outtakes that were on Camille's Crystal Ball (but none of the live tracks) combined with The Chocolate Album bootleg & some SOTT outtakes.

I have the Royal Jewels too, I think it was the first vinyl boot I got.

This is the first vinyl boot I got... and what a way to begin! Such a fun show, and I still think that the version of Just My Imagination here is better than the one on Small Club!

Oldest boots I have are from 1976

the 1st bootleg(?) I had was Old Friends 4 Sale played on one of the local radio station late 1985 early 1986 prior to Kiss ( I still have the Maxwell tape I recorded it on from the radio)

the next 4 me I believe in the Black album I got as soon as it was pulled/released in 1987, heard it playing in a 'urban' clothing store. Man announced we were hearing the Black album by Prince... I got a copy from him a few days later.

wow...

Let me just say- coming from a Prince fan since 2005 this looks FREAKING COOOL!

these just add to that mysterious quality and i can only imagine what it would have been like to run into these in an old dusty record shop back in the day.

I would love to get my hands on a couple of these.

1st I ever heard of them was around 1987 after the Black album was produced.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Oldest boots I have are from 1976

I think the OP is asking about the date outtakes started circulating, not about the recording dates of the circulating stuff.

You can say that you got outtakes from 1975 (that started circulating like in 95 with the Studio Nights set if I'm correct) but you don't have any Prince bootleg record released in 1976.

Or maybe I was reading too much into a simple typo and you meant 1986...

NouveauDance said:

djThunderfunk said:

I got it in '88 after discovering bootlegs in my search for the Black Album. Soon after, early '89 I think, I picked up Royal Jewels, a 3 record box set of outtakes that included ALL of the outtakes that were on Camille's Crystal Ball (but none of the live tracks) combined with The Chocolate Album bootleg & some SOTT outtakes.

I have the Royal Jewels too, I think it was the first vinyl boot I got.

I have that 'Royal Jewels' vinyl set too

SoulAlive said:

NouveauDance said:

I have the Royal Jewels too, I think it was the first vinyl boot I got.

I have that 'Royal Jewels' vinyl set too

Theres something too cool about that album cover.