OK these are the various incarnations of what eventually became the Sign O' The Times album. Does anyone actually think he'd have been better off releaseing any of these instead.

DREAM FACTORY
1. Visions
2. Dream Factory
3. It's A Wonderful Day
4. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
5. It
6. Strange Relationship
7. Starfish & Coffee
8. Interlude
9. Slow Love
10. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
11. Sign O' The Times
12. A Place In Heaven
13. Crystal Ball
14. The Cross
15. Last Heart
16. Witness 4 The Prosecution
17. Movie Star
18. All My Dreams

CAMILLE
1. Rebirth Of The Flesh
2. Housequake
3. Strange Relationship
4. Feel U Up
5. Shockadelica
6. Good Love
7. If I Was Your Girlfriend
8. Rock Hard In A Funky Place

CRYSTAL BALL
1. Rebirth Of The Flesh
2. Play In The Sunshine
3. Housequake
4. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
5. It
6. Starfish & Coffee
7. Slow Love
8. Hot thing
9. Crystal Ball
10. If I Was Your Girlfriend
11. Rock Hard In A Funky Place
12. The Ball
13. Joy In Repetition
14. Strange Relationship
15. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
16. Shockadelica
17. Good Love
18. Forever In My Life
19. Sign O' The Times
20. The cross
21. Adore
22. It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night

I personally think that the last version would have made an excellent 3 record set as it was intended, but unfortunatley WB had other ideas. Not very commercial I know, but there isnt really a bad song on there. IMO this was his most creative period, WB just couldnt release all the good music he was making at this point as they couldnt keep up with him. Maybe in future Prince will release an album of unreleased stuff from this period...that I would love to see.

I would like to have seen a triple album released
but I prefer the sequencing of 'Sign O The Times'
to 'Crystal Ball'. Maybe a cross between the two
would have been good.

side 1
1. Sign O’ the Times 5:02
2. Play In The Sunshine 5:05
3. Housequake 4:38
4. The Ballad of Dorothy Parker 4:04
5. Starfish & Coffee 2:51

side 2
6. Rebirth of the Flesh 4:51
7. Girl O’ My Dreams 1:26
8. Slow Love 4:18
9. Hot Thing 5:39
10. Rock Hard In a Funky Place 4:32

side 3
11. Crystal Ball 14:33 (The Ball & Crystal Ball segued together)
12. Crucial 7:16

side 4
13. U Got The Look 3:58
14. Good Love 3:38 (short edit)
15. If I Was Your Girlfriend 4:54
16. Strange Relationship 4:04
17. It 5:10

side 5
18. Joy in Repetition 5:23 (with full intro)
19. Shockadelica 6:12
20. I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man 6:31
21. Forever In My Life 3:38

side 6
22. The Cross 4:46
23. It’s Gonna be a Beautiful Night 8:59
24. Adore 6:29


I agree with WB that releasing a triple album would be very difficult to sell. So they could always have released a single 'highlights' album for the casual listener.

Prince - Highlights from Crystal Ball

side 1
1. Sign O’ The Times (edit) 3:38
2. Play In the Sunshine 5:05
3. Housequake 4:38
4. Slow Love 4:18
5. Hot Thing (edit) 3:58

side 2
6. Crystal Ball (part 1) 4:02 (The Ball)
7. U Got The Look 3:58
8. If I Was Your Girlfriend (edit) 3:46
9. I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man (edit) 3:59
10. Adore 6:29
[This message was edited Sun Feb 9 15:31:12 PST 2003 by BorisFishpaw]

I think this is a case of less is more. Sometimes the restrictions put on artists push them into performing even better than they would've given total freedom.

As much as I love songs such as "Crucial" or "All My Dreams", and as much as I think "Crystal Ball" is one of his greatest works, I just don't think they at all fit the vibe that is "SOTT".

Just because a track is brilliant doesn't mean it belongs.

Then there are songs such as "Good Love" and "Shockadelica" that look like real downers when sandwiched between classics such as "ICNTTPOYM", "Forever in My Life", "SOTT" and "Adore." And "Rock Hard" definitely belongs on the "Black Album".

I agree with you, though, this was his greatest creative period to date.

If Crystal Ball was released, that would have truly been Prince's crowning achievement(plus there would be no bootlegs from this time period)

Camille would have been cool if it was released like it was meant to be with no knowledge that Prince was behind the album. I think thats why the SOTT record cover is like it is. It was Prince last effort to combine Crystal Ball and Camille concept.

CrozzaUK said:

Wasn't 'Can't Stop This Feeling I Got' recorded for one of these albums? I'm sure I read somewhere that it was yet another outtake from this period...

End.

I agree, SOTT definitely has a vibe that makes the record what it is (other than all the brilliant songs). It just seems ridiculous that there is a whole other double album of songs from this year that remain pretty much unreleased, all of which are good.

Perhaps he should have released Crystal Ball as a 'best of the left overs' album. I kind of wish he'd done this when he released CB in 1997. Rather than doing general outtakes, he should have just focused on this period.

Cant Stop This Feeling was recorded around this time as was The Question of U. Other cool songs that weren't included in the line up were Data Bank, Girl O' My Dreams, We Can Funk, The Sex Of It, Train, Crucial...there's actually too many to list. I think we should just say it was a slightly productive period for Prince.

PeterJL121 said:

"Can't Stop This Feeling I Got" was recorded in July 1986,but not for any of these albums.It was actually recorded for a Broadway musical that Prince was planning at the time ("Girl O' My Dreams" was also intended for the musical).Of course,the musical never materialized and Prince re-worked the song in 1989 for inclusion on the 'Graffiti Bridge' soundtrack.