Just imagine... It's 1997, Prince is free from his WB contract and decides that it's time 2 free some gems from the Vault. Prince plans to release ten 80's outtakes, most of them already bootlegged or released, and twenty Come/Gold-era outtakes (+ a few later songs), as he feels that more songs from these years shoulda been released if his "war" with WB hadn't limited the quantity of music he could give his fans.

But in this alternate reality, he feels that he should NOT mix both eras, so he decides to release a single album called Crystal Ball, with the then already legendary "vault" songs, and a double-album called Days Of Wild, which chronicles the now legendary 1993-1995 period.

Though the order of the tracks would have been slightly different, as it doesn't always work if kept in the triple-CD Crystal Ball sequence, here is the content of both albums:

CRYSTAL BALL:

Crystal Ball

Dream Factory

Movie Star

Crucial

An Honest Man

Sexual Suicide

Cloreen Baconskin

Good Love

Last Heart

Make Your Mama Happy

DAYS OF WILD:

Acknowledge Me

Ripopgodazippa

Love Sign

Hide the Bone

2morrow

So Dark

Tell Me How U Wanna B Done

Interactive

Da Bang

Calhoun Square

What's My Name

Strays of the World

Days of Wild

Poom Poom

She Gave Her Angels

18 & Over

The Ride

Get Loose

P Control

Goodbye

Do u think it would have been a smarter or a worse move? Would u have preferred it that way or do u think the triple-album mixing everything is better? Do u think music magazines would have reacted differently than they did? And for those who were already Prince fans in 1998, what do u think ur reaction to each album would have been back then ?

Just wondering

Not on for long, but just a quick comment - I love how your have sequenced the DoW disk to start with Acknowledge me and end with Goodbye...

For the rest of your questions, I'll have to get back to you on that as I'm out of time for today

Sorry, I prefer CB as is. I love the cross overs. When I select songs for my listening devices; I mix the eras becasue my day is never routine or mondane. Variety is Life's Special Spice Mix.

Only around 6 songs were new for me which sucked. Also, it could've been 5 discs, and each disc should've been at least 75 minutes. Then, I would've been really happy. A lot of the 90's stuff was just ok. I actually would've cleaned out the valut and made the damn thing 10 discs. Making the discs 40 minutes was just another example of him cheating us. Not to mention having my credit card charged 10 months before I got it, and then "Thanking" me with a lame shirt, and a cassette of "The War." It should've been a cd, and could've been full of live gems, instead of just one.

You are right that it should've been era specific, but it was way too short, and left out too many great songs.

stillwaiting said:

I actually would've cleaned out the valut and made the damn thing 10 discs.

For a basically underground net release...righhht. Where would the profit be in that?

Far supirior to the released CB. Nice call DataBank.

I feel that the crystal ball project was a little ahead of it's time, and would have seen greater sucess had it been released on the internet post 2002. Imagine a Prince website where you could buy small albums/collections of Prince songs that were previously bootleged. Each album is in perfect quality and runs about $13.99 with printable liner notes

Album 1

Turn it Up

Feel U Up -> Irresistable Bitch

Broken

Tick, Tick Bang (original)

Possessed

Baby, Ur a Trip

High Fashion (P version)

All Day, All Night

Moonbeam levels

Some Song we don't even know about

Prince fans would be shitting their pants! It's hard to admit, but the best Prince release in 5 years has been Chocolate Box lol. He could even spice it up by releasing old Protege Tracks

Protege Album

Manic Monday (Vanity)

Sex Shooter (Vanity)

Glamorous life (vanity)

Turn it Up (The Time) I'll be god damned if this track doesn't exist!

Wet Dream Cousin (vocal version)

Take me With you (Original Version)

17 Days (w/ Brenda)

Extra Time material off Corporate World

Talk about cost effective! They would sell like digital Hotcakes through a website. And all Prince would have to do is go down to the vault on a lazy afternoon and bring up the songs and upload them to his laptop. He could have these suckers up and out and ready to sell in a single day!

Oh man, I think I just had an imagination-gasm. Back to work for me

Nosferatu said:

Not on for long, but just a quick comment - I love how your have sequenced the DoW disk to start with Acknowledge me and end with Goodbye...

For the rest of your questions, I'll have to get back to you on that as I'm out of time for today

I didn't sequence anything: the track are in the order they appear on the triple-album. The beginning and ending work well, but the rest would need some resequencing. I can hardly imagine Strays Of The World being the second track on CD2, for example ^^

"do u think the triple-album"

lost me there. a rip-off. it all could have fit on 2 cds.

I like this idea. I mean, i very like CB as it is, but i enjoy a way more 90's songs than 80's. The idea of Days Of Wild is pretty good. If i have to choose between our old Crystal Ball or Days Of Wild, i would choose DoW.

Wildboy said:

Far supirior to the released CB. Nice call DataBank.

I feel that the crystal ball project was a little ahead of it's time, and would have seen greater sucess had it been released on the internet post 2002. Imagine a Prince website where you could buy small albums/collections of Prince songs that were previously bootleged. Each album is in perfect quality and runs about $13.99 with printable liner notes

Album 1

Turn it Up

Feel U Up -> Irresistable Bitch

Broken

Tick, Tick Bang (original)

Possessed

Baby, Ur a Trip

High Fashion (P version)

All Day, All Night

Moonbeam levels

Some Song we don't even know about

Prince fans would be shitting their pants! It's hard to admit, but the best Prince release in 5 years has been Chocolate Box lol. He could even spice it up by releasing old Protege Tracks

Protege Album

Manic Monday (Vanity)

Sex Shooter (Vanity)

Glamorous life (vanity)

Turn it Up (The Time) I'll be god damned if this track doesn't exist!

Wet Dream Cousin (vocal version)

Take me With you (Original Version)

17 Days (w/ Brenda)

Extra Time material off Corporate World

Talk about cost effective! They would sell like digital Hotcakes through a website. And all Prince would have to do is go down to the vault on a lazy afternoon and bring up the songs and upload them to his laptop. He could have these suckers up and out and ready to sell in a single day!

Oh man, I think I just had an imagination-gasm. Back to work for me

A vocal version of Wet Dream Cousin doesn't even exist as far as I'm aware, surely it was just an instrumental only?

TheFreakerFantastic said:

Wildboy said:

Far supirior to the released CB. Nice call DataBank.

I feel that the crystal ball project was a little ahead of it's time, and would have seen greater sucess had it been released on the internet post 2002. Imagine a Prince website where you could buy small albums/collections of Prince songs that were previously bootleged. Each album is in perfect quality and runs about $13.99 with printable liner notes

Album 1

Turn it Up

Feel U Up -> Irresistable Bitch

Broken

Tick, Tick Bang (original)

Possessed

Baby, Ur a Trip

High Fashion (P version)

All Day, All Night

Moonbeam levels

Some Song we don't even know about

Prince fans would be shitting their pants! It's hard to admit, but the best Prince release in 5 years has been Chocolate Box lol. He could even spice it up by releasing old Protege Tracks

Protege Album

Manic Monday (Vanity)

Sex Shooter (Vanity)

Glamorous life (vanity)

Turn it Up (The Time) I'll be god damned if this track doesn't exist!

Wet Dream Cousin (vocal version)

Take me With you (Original Version)

17 Days (w/ Brenda)

Extra Time material off Corporate World

Talk about cost effective! They would sell like digital Hotcakes through a website. And all Prince would have to do is go down to the vault on a lazy afternoon and bring up the songs and upload them to his laptop. He could have these suckers up and out and ready to sell in a single day!

Oh man, I think I just had an imagination-gasm. Back to work for me

A vocal version of Wet Dream Cousin doesn't even exist as far as I'm aware, surely it was just an instrumental only?

If it xists no one ever heard of it, but this is kinda out of thread anyway.

Not sure if a vocal version exists for sure, certainly if it does it's in the vault.

The flip side is that it would make sense if there was a vocal version. I wouldn't see Prince putting an instrumental on a V6 album, and the instrumentation sounds mostly finished to my ears. And if memory serves me correct, Prince would do a song like "High Fashion" and have one version where he sung guiding vocals, and another tape that would just be the instrumentation for the protege to sing on.

This track (to my ears) sounds like one of those tracks that was just waiting for Brenda, Susan, or Vanity to lay down there vocals on. Which leads me to another point, is there a version of this song with Prince's guide vocals somewhere in the vault?

And furthermore are there tracks of Prince's guide vocals for songs like "Ooo She She Wawa" or "Nasty Girl" (hearing P sing "Do you think I'm a nasty girl" would be seriously funny, if not slightly disturbing).

^ I love Ooh, Ooh, She, Wa, Wa.....love the tape slowing down part...

databank said:

Just imagine... It's 1997, Prince is free from his WB contract and decides that it's time 2 free some gems from the Vault. Prince plans to release ten 80's outtakes, most of them already bootlegged or released, and twenty Come/Gold-era outtakes (+ a few later songs), as he feels that more songs from these years shoulda been released if his "war" with WB hadn't limited the quantity of music he could give his fans.

Ah yes, his "war" with WB. So who's preventing him from releasing the 2CD version of 20Ten? Who's preventing him from releasing the Tamar album? How many releases has he announced in the past 15 years that never surfaced? How many of the things he has released are still in print?

But in this alternate reality, he feels that he should NOT mix both eras,

In this alternate reality he should grow a brain and realize that a collection of outtakes is rubbish, and that he needs to collaborate with WB on remasters and special editions and deluxe editions.

BartVanHemelen said:

So who's preventing him from releasing the 2CD version of 20Ten? Who's preventing him from releasing the Tamar album? How many releases has he announced in the past 15 years that never surfaced? How many of the things he has released are still in print?

Dear lord!!! No....No.....NOOO!!!!!

Wildboy said:

It's hard to admit, but the best Prince release in 5 years has been Chocolate Box lol.

You mean Box O' Chocolates.

Chocolate Box was the pressed bootleg that first began circulating in the late 80's and had all sorts of incorrect/misspelt song titles like "We Can Fall" lol. Looked like this.

Yep, sorry

BartVanHemelen said:

databank said:

Just imagine... It's 1997, Prince is free from his WB contract and decides that it's time 2 free some gems from the Vault. Prince plans to release ten 80's outtakes, most of them already bootlegged or released, and twenty Come/Gold-era outtakes (+ a few later songs), as he feels that more songs from these years shoulda been released if his "war" with WB hadn't limited the quantity of music he could give his fans.

Ah yes, his "war" with WB. So who's preventing him from releasing the 2CD version of 20Ten? Who's preventing him from releasing the Tamar album? How many releases has he announced in the past 15 years that never surfaced? How many of the things he has released are still in print?

But in this alternate reality, he feels that he should NOT mix both eras,

In this alternate reality he should grow a brain and realize that a collection of outtakes is rubbish, and that he needs to collaborate with WB on remasters and special editions and deluxe editions.

Well, I wouldn't mind another collection of outtakes

[Edited 9/14/11 8:02am]