Has anyone here heard the version of "Head" recorded during "The Rebels" seession in 1979? Considering the vibe of those sessions I would imagine it to be very different from the Prince/Fink/Lisa version that was officially released...

Good question.

I'm not sure if its circulated though.

That's not circulating.

I would go as far to speculate that the released version is the demo. I've read that the whole Dirty Mind album was actually one big demo but Prince decided to release it as it was due to the raw vibe that would have been hard to recreate later. Hence the sound quality not being great and it sounding like it was made quickly. Lucky he did though, it's one of his best IMO.

[Edited 5/10/11 0:58am]

TheFreakerFantastic said:

I would go as far to speculate that the released version is the demo. I've read that the whole Dirty Mind album was actually one big demo but Prince decided to release it as it was due to the raw vibe that would have been hard to recreate later. Hence the sound quality not being great and it sounding like it was made quickly. Lucky he did though, it's one of his best IMO.

[Edited 5/10/11 0:58am]

I've heard the same thing but I thought he recorded all the DM tracks in the Spring/Summer of 1980 in Minnesota. If the older version of Head from Colorado was truely part of the Rebels session, that recording would include the full band including Gayle Chapman's vox.

If the demo never emerges hopefully a live pre-Dirty Mind version eventually shows up. I've heard the Atlanta 1980 show (with Andre and Gayle) but unfortunately Head wasn't on the set-list.