JediMaster said:

I remember the summer of '88. While the release of Lovesexy was still thrilling us all, we had all heard about the bootlegs that had been circulating around of the "Black" album. Not having any exposure to bootlegs, this seemed near-mythical in its scope! The idea of having an unreleased album! It was an incredibly exciting concept, but I never hoped to actually lay hands on one.

One afternoon, a friend of mine called me up to tell me I needed to head to his apartment as soon as possible. He had something that I was gonna flip over. Now, this buddy of mine was as big of a Prince fantatic as I was, so I KNEW what he was talking about. When I arrived, he handed me a cassette..."is this...?". "Yes!". We sat and grooved on the cassette over and over that afternoon.

That fall, I was in line with a friend to purchase tickets for the George Michael "Faith" tour. I struck up a conversation with a couple of guys in the line, who got incredibly excited when I mentioned I had the Black album. So excited, in fact, that they offered to purchase our tickets in exchange for a copy! I look back on that and think "damn, was that the best deal ever, or what?"

Later, I found out our cassette was actually the "sped-up" version. By that time, the album was in regular ciculation as a boot. I had bought a vinyl copy at a store, and at first was put off by the change in tempo. The more I listened, the more I came to appreciate that this was the proper speed for the album. I also discovered that my original cassette had a skip from the vinyl it had been sourced from (the whole "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" bit was missing from my tape). It was like hearing the whole thing again for the first time!

Of course, it was shortly thereafter that I saw Prince on the Lovesexy '88 tour, and the inclusion of "Bob George" and "Superfunkycalifragisexy" were MAJOR highlights of the show! It was an incredible time to be a Prince fan, with him releasing such fantastic music and putting on such amazing shows!

Another 5 Star story I'm loving these recounts of peoples adventures 'ah the good ole days'

fun I've always loved to listen to Prince's album on fast

OldFriends4Sale said:

JediMaster said:

I remember the summer of '88. While the release of Lovesexy was still thrilling us all, we had all heard about the bootlegs that had been circulating around of the "Black" album. Not having any exposure to bootlegs, this seemed near-mythical in its scope! The idea of having an unreleased album! It was an incredibly exciting concept, but I never hoped to actually lay hands on one.

One afternoon, a friend of mine called me up to tell me I needed to head to his apartment as soon as possible. He had something that I was gonna flip over. Now, this buddy of mine was as big of a Prince fantatic as I was, so I KNEW what he was talking about. When I arrived, he handed me a cassette..."is this...?". "Yes!". We sat and grooved on the cassette over and over that afternoon.

That fall, I was in line with a friend to purchase tickets for the George Michael "Faith" tour. I struck up a conversation with a couple of guys in the line, who got incredibly excited when I mentioned I had the Black album. So excited, in fact, that they offered to purchase our tickets in exchange for a copy! I look back on that and think "damn, was that the best deal ever, or what?"

Later, I found out our cassette was actually the "sped-up" version. By that time, the album was in regular ciculation as a boot. I had bought a vinyl copy at a store, and at first was put off by the change in tempo. The more I listened, the more I came to appreciate that this was the proper speed for the album. I also discovered that my original cassette had a skip from the vinyl it had been sourced from (the whole "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" bit was missing from my tape). It was like hearing the whole thing again for the first time!

Of course, it was shortly thereafter that I saw Prince on the Lovesexy '88 tour, and the inclusion of "Bob George" and "Superfunkycalifragisexy" were MAJOR highlights of the show! It was an incredible time to be a Prince fan, with him releasing such fantastic music and putting on such amazing shows!

Another 5 Star story I'm loving these recounts of peoples adventures 'ah the good ole days'

fun I've always loved to listen to Prince's album on fast

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

Always on my personal Top10.

ALWAYS

Nearly as good as Dirty Mind. Nearly...

I scored my first vinyl copy of the Black Album from the record collector's magazine called Goldmine in the summer of 1988. I don't remember how much I paid for it. You could definitely hear the songs, but the quality had a lot to be desired. I went to see a Lovesexy show in Chicago a few months later and was so excited to hear Bob George and Superfunkycalifragisexy live. Shortly after that I met a guy who worked in a local record store and he gave me a cassette tape that was actually pretty clear, compared to what I had.

I received a cassette copy from a friend back then. The quality was horrible, but wow did that thing get played back in the day. The bad quality actually made it funkier as the bass was DEEP. My friends who were not Prince fans LOVED it. Esp Bob George. One thing that was funny as when it was finally released in 94, I realised out my copy was actually sped up. I was slightly disappointed as that was the way I knew it up to that point. But I obviously got used to it as it remains one of my fave Prince albums and do think it would made an impact if it was released back in 87.

Cerebus calls this the Sign O The Times era.

Sometime not too long after the initial vinyl pressing was released I ended up finding one fairly easy in the Bay Area. Don't remember if it was at Amoeba or Rasputin's, but that kind of thing happens fairly often at those shops. They just get everything. Always liked this record and loved a couple of the tracks, but I do enjoy SOTT and Lovesexy more as whole pieces of work.

Purple Fan of the Black album, it's 1988 the Black Album was released in an underground kinda way and Prince and band are doing shows not large concerts. Shows in small venues like 1st Avenue and a bit bigger. Smoked stage dark instruments, featuring the black cloud guitar along with the peach, black double kick drum set, black lace leather and ruffled shirts, Dr Fink in a ministers black outfit & collar, aftershows at wild bars...

What would U like 2 C that's a part of the show you go 2 C?

What would be your ideal show setlist with the Black album music?

Here is mine

Sexy Dancer

Tamborine

Le Grind

Head

Superfunkicalifragisex:I would have him do a similar Superfunkicalifragisexy scene as he did in during the Lovesexy tour

13

Uptown

Boy's Club

Cindy C

Dirty Mind

Shortberry Strawcake

Rock Hard in a Funky Place

When 2 R in Love

Erotic City

Bob George:I would have him do a Bob George in a more similar fashion to the song, but with a 'living theater' feel

Computer Blue

Temptation

My son just asked me for my copy of the Black album last week. After listening to it, he said he didn't understand what the big controversy was about...and that right now it is his favorite Prince album.

I had four bootleg copies of varying quality before getting the official release in '94. Thankful for the official release, but it still does have a demo-like sound quality. Can you imagine what an Xtraloveable-like makeover would sound like? The Black Album is one of my all-time favs, for sure.

Dead On It

While specific recording dates are not known, basic tracks were recorded in March, 1987 at Prince's Galpin Blvd Home Studio, Chanhassen, MN, USA (during the same set of sessions that produced Cindy C. and Nine). The song includes a sampled line by Sheila E. taken directly from Holly Rock ("badder than a wicked witch").

Dead On It

Riding in my Thunderbird on the freeway
I turned on my radio 2 hear some music play
I got a silly rapper talking silly shit instead
Sayin' the only good rapper is one that's dead on it
Uh, dead on it
Shall we go back? (Yeah!)
Let's go

Negroes from Brooklyn play the bass pretty good
But the ones from Minneapolis play it like it oughta should
A mackin' fro is better when U got a blue bonnet
And the 2 and fro is funky when the grease is dead on it
Funky dead on it
Uh, dead on it
Shall we go back?
Let's go

Funky dead on it, wow

See, the rapper's problem usually stem from being tone deaf
Pack the house then try 2 sing, there won't be no one left
On it

Parking lots on fire, brothers peelin' outta town
They say in disgust, been singin' their guts
Rappin' done let us down (down, down)
We got 2 be dead on it
Dead on it (Dead)

All the sisters like it when U lick 'em on the knees
Don't believe me? (No)
Do it once then stop
They'll be beggin' please, please, please (please, please, please)

Shoo bee doo wa, dead on it

What does that have 2 do with the funk? Nothing!
But who's payin' the bills?
If U don't wanna lick my knees
I'm sho' your mama will, uh
Cuz we, cuz we, cuz we dead on it
De..de..de..de..de..dead on it, on it

La, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la

My bed's a coffin, Dracula ain't got shit on me
My nickname's Hellzapoppin', I'm badder than the wicked witch
I got a gold tooth cost more than your house
I got a diamond ring on 4 fingers, each one the size of a mouse
They dead, they dead on it

(Asses is crackin') {x2}

La, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la {x2}

Wait now, hang up, dial tone on the 3
U know, U know I'm busy, 2 scizzy
Can't nobody fuck with me!
Cuz I'm dead (on it, on it, on it) on it

(Shoo bee doo wa wa, dead on it)

Dead on it, on it, on it {fade out}
Dang, dang, dang, dang (Dead on it)
Shoo bee dang, dang, dang, dead on it
Dead, dead on it

purplethunder3121 said:

My son just asked me for my copy of the Black album last week. After listening to it, he said he didn't understand what the big controversy was about...and that right now it is his favorite Prince album.

I can see how it wouldn't be remotely shocking to someone growing up these days. Stuff like Bob George is in every other Gangsta Rap song. Murder is a regular topic in many of the songs put out by rappers in the 90's & 2000's (how many freakin' songs has Eminem done where he's killed his wife/girlfriend?). At this point, it's old hat, but back then it was rather controversial.

JediMaster said:

purplethunder3121 said:

My son just asked me for my copy of the Black album last week. After listening to it, he said he didn't understand what the big controversy was about...and that right now it is his favorite Prince album.

I can see how it wouldn't be remotely shocking to someone growing up these days. Stuff like Bob George is in every other Gangsta Rap song. Murder is a regular topic in many of the songs put out by rappers in the 90's & 2000's (how many freakin' songs has Eminem done where he's killed his wife/girlfriend?). At this point, it's old hat, but back then it was rather controversial.

Particularly because it was Prince. But in hindsight, that's the only song on the record that goes any further than stuff he'd released years earlier (Sister, Head, Darling Nikki, etc.).

Cerebus said:

JediMaster said:

I can see how it wouldn't be remotely shocking to someone growing up these days. Stuff like Bob George is in every other Gangsta Rap song. Murder is a regular topic in many of the songs put out by rappers in the 90's & 2000's (how many freakin' songs has Eminem done where he's killed his wife/girlfriend?). At this point, it's old hat, but back then it was rather controversial.

Particularly because it was Prince. But in hindsight, that's the only song on the record that goes any further than stuff he'd released years earlier (Sister, Head, Darling Nikki, etc.).

I agree and he's obviously been toying with BoB George type stuff previously (rel and unrel) Do Yourself a Favour is is very similar to the verbal assual on his woman in Bob George

and Extralovable's ending with violence and rape

Uh, yes
U like that?
Then come here, sit down
Let me talk 2 U
U hear that?
That's a 50 dollar bill
When's the last time U seen one of them?
That's what I thought
Let me tell U somethin'
When me and U used 2 be... me and U used 2 be 2gether
I didn't have no money in my pocket
That's all different now, that's all different
Now U wanna play, now U wanna play crazy
U're not crazy
U're no crazier than I, don't play, don't act like that
U didn't try 2 understand where I was comin' from back then
Why U tryin' 2 now?
Cuz U know I got that money, that's why
Uh huh, yeah
Sit down, don't talk, come here, sit down!
I'll kick your ass
What, U think U bad now?
I'll kick your ass
Come here, good God

Mmmm
Oh yes
Somebody call up the Colonel, I hear some chicken scratchin'
Pow!

If U see me walkin' down the street one day, baby
Don't say nothin'
U used 2 do me wrong, baby
That's back when I was doin' bad
But now, baby, now, baby, I got more money than I ever had
Oh Lord, yes yes
Do yourself a favor, baby
Take it on down the road
Let that sidewalk hit U where the dog should've bit U, yes baby
Oh Lord
Oh Lord, eh

I'll kick your ass
Don't U play crazy with me, I'm...
U... U not crazy, I'm crazy
I'm the one that's crazy {fade out}
U're not crazy
Come here
Don't U walk away from me
I don't care what I told U, come back here
U hear me talkin' 2 U, baby?
Come here, come here
I'll kick your ass

This was Prince at the Peak of his career, i remember getting a copy of the Black album on cassette as a Christmas present off my brother (tight git). The quality at the time was very good.

I remember thinking i had some kind of contraband on my hands lol, it was so exciting. The album for me was like a roller coaster ride, one minute i was like what the fuck!... the next...oh yeah!

With a little interjection from other ongoing projects i think Prince could have had fucking bomb on his hands......

My first lp version of TBA played too fast and was piss-poor quality. I lived with it for months thinking that's how it was meant to be and the best sound quality I'd get, then some time later saw the version with Old Friends 4 Sale and All My Dreams tacked on the end.

I knew they weren't part of the actual album, but to have two new songs would be a bonus.

Got it home, stuck it on and finally heard it in excellent sound quality and the speed it was meant to be played at.

It threw me initially, having got used to it sounding so fast previously, but it took only a few listens to appreciate that this was how it was meant to sound and it was like re-discovering it all over again.

a fantasy Black Album aftershow

Let's Work

Jack U Off

Bob George

Darlin Nikki

Rock Hard in a Funky Place

Shortberry Strawcake

Sex Shooter

Bambi

OldFriends4Sale said:

Cerebus said:

Particularly because it was Prince. But in hindsight, that's the only song on the record that goes any further than stuff he'd released years earlier (Sister, Head, Darling Nikki, etc.).

I agree and he's obviously been toying with BoB George type stuff previously (rel and unrel) Do Yourself a Favour is is very similar to the verbal assual on his woman in Bob George

and Extralovable's ending with violence and rape

It's been a while since I've read The Vault, but wasn't "Do Yourself a Favour" actually written by Pepe Wille? I mean, it doesn't really matter towards your point, since Prince still SANG the track, but I seem to recall that being one of those 94 East era songs that Prince contributed vocals on.

purplethunder3121 said:

My son just asked me for my copy of the Black album last week. After listening to it, he said he didn't understand what the big controversy was about...and that right now it is his favorite Prince album.

He got good taste.

It's easily my least favorite Prince album. I don't much like it.

"Superfunky" and "Rockhard" are good, the rest is meh. "Dead On It" is . "Bob George" is interesting, but not really a song. "When 2 R In Love" is good, but it's already on Lovesexy, which is a better album.

I'm sorry. Carry on with your love and appreciation, and info and whatnot..

[Edited 1/19/12 18:02pm]

JediMaster said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I agree and he's obviously been toying with BoB George type stuff previously (rel and unrel) Do Yourself a Favour is is very similar to the verbal assual on his woman in Bob George

and Extralovable's ending with violence and rape

It's been a while since I've read The Vault, but wasn't "Do Yourself a Favour" actually written by Pepe Wille? I mean, it doesn't really matter towards your point, since Prince still SANG the track, but I seem to recall that being one of those 94 East era songs that Prince contributed vocals on.

Yep, Prince took Pepe's song and made his own version, the end part is Prince's own violence hehehe

Black Album.... Classic! Still one of my faves, and, like for many others, the origin of my bootleg collecting.

I first heard about its existence, while simultaneously finding out it was canceled and wouldn't be released, in an article I read in December, 87... probably in Rolling Stone, but, not for sure. Excitement mixed with disappointment to learn about a new album... one that I'd never get to hear.

A few months later, probably March, maybe April, I read a couple articles about the album being bootlegged and bringing high dollars at swap meets and other underground venues. It seemed that the lucky few who had heard it loved it. I immediately began my quest to obtain my own copy.

The next day I went to the only mom & pop store in my town that sold "imports" (you couldn't say the word bootleg to the clerks or they wouldn't sell to you, you had to speak in code as if you were conspiring a drug deal ). They didn't have it in stock, and wouldn't offer any information as to if they could or would get it, but, they did have a vinyl bootleg called When Doves Cry It's A Sign Of The Times featuring a live performance from the SOTT tour. I bought it and listened to it non stop for days, at which point a friend told me that they had some copies of Black Album in stock and I went immediately to the shop and bought it.

That first copy was the vinyl release with the U Got The Look photo that as many have mentioned was the sped up version. I figured that out pretty quick. Even though Prince had often used sped up vocals, these at times sounded "chipmunky" to me. I experimented with slowing my record player down and was then sure that it was too fast.

It wasn't long before I learned that I was right and that the store had a new bootleg of the album that was not sped up. I bought that one, too. The cover was better also. It was all black and if you held it just right in the light you could see Prince's image. This one sounded perfect and was an immediate favorite.

By this point I was also hooked on bootlegs. It seemed like every time I saved up some cash and went to the shop there were more bootleg records. Over the next few months I got Charade, Camille's Crystal Ball, The Regent Of First Avenue, Just My Imagination, He's Got The Look and, of course, the original 3LP release of Small Club.

A little over a year into collecting bootleg vinyl, I came across The White Album on CD. It was an excellent quality release of part of the Livesexy show but what was most important to me was that bootlegs were on CD now!! Thus began a quest for the Black Album on CD.

A few months later my cousin in Atlanta obtained it for me. He spent $100 on it and came out ahead trading it to me. But it was worth it. The disc looked like a promo, the slim CD cover was embossed and the disc actually had a promo label. The tracklisting was accurate which was rare in those days (my original vinyl copy, like many boots in those days, had many inaccuracies in the track listing). One could almost believe it was a promo and not a boot, but, I wasn't fooled. It had some Lovesexy fonts on the cover, I could occasionally hear vinyl sounds, and the biggest clue: It was 2 tracks. Track 1 was side 1, Track 2 was Side 2. But, man, it sounded good, and damn, Lovesexy was only 1 track, this one at least had 2!

Between 89 and 94 I had at least 3 maybe 4 or 5 other versions of the boot on CD, usually with additional tracks, and of varying quality. That didn't stop me from buying it as soon as it came out. I now have the official version, that first CD that pretended to be a promo, and the good quality boot vinyl I got in 88. All the other versions got traded off over the years.

The Funk Bible aka The Black Album.... a Prince classic and a funk classic!

in my not-so-humble opinion of course

OldFriends4Sale said:

Share ur adventures in the underworld of finding you copy of the Black album pre1994 release

August / September 1988

I was at the flea market. There was a small vendor, some Stoner looking dude

He had a shoebox or two of cassette tapes with home made xerox covers

Obviously he had nothing of interest I was like you got any Prince ?

He was like "yeah i got The Black Album its some unreleased shit"

I was only 15 years old, but i knew exactly what he was talking about

I was hesitant to pay 6 or 7 dollars for a cheap $1.50 TDK cassette tape

I got home popped that sucker in and It was a legit decent sounding copy

When i flipped the tape over it was side one of "Small Night Club" in EX quality!

It was like having the coolest thing ever

StonedImmaculate said:

so I just went to the "P" section to search for Prince and...HOLY SHIT!!! This was my first experience with bootlegs and they had a TON of shit, all on vinyl. I damn near wet my pants. I totally forgot about the Black Album as I was out of my mind. Never saw it, so I grabbed "The Regent of First Avenue", the 03/21/87 show from the Ave. When I went to pay for it, the girl behind the counter looked at it, looked at me and said "Did you call me earlier about the Black Album?" I said "Yeah." She walked away...when she came back, she handed me my first copy of the Black Album, on vinyl.

Back in 1990 /91 I went with some friends out of town, we hit up some record store called "Ameba records"

As always i went straight to the Prince CD bin and noticed 2 bootlegs

My heart dropped it was crucial and the Black album on cd! at $40 something? a pop

I then it the vinyl section, they had Chocolate, Crucial and a few others.

I was reading titles to songs ive never even head of. I was in Awe!

None of my friends would even care or dare to listen to prince, so i was alone in excitment

I had about 25 bucks to spend, not even enough to buy one of the boots

I went back 2 weeks later with a fist full of cash! looked.. and looked all the boots were gone

I went up to the front counter and asked the guy outloud "Do you have any more Prince Bootlegs?"

The guy literally went to me and waved me to the back side..

He walks away into some back room.. comes back with a crate full of boots

Lets just say i went home broke

It was kind of bitter sweat becasue the boots i got sounded like shit

Wow, we share some of the same stories

motherfunka said:

I scored my first vinyl copy of the Black Album from the record collector's magazine called Goldmine in the summer of 1988.

I went to see a Lovesexy show in Chicago a few months later and was so excited to hear Bob George and Superfunkycalifragisexy live. .

Within 2 months of getting my copy of TBA, I went to the Lovesexy tour

And was when he played Bob George

djThunderfunk said:

The next day I went to the only mom & pop store in my town that sold "imports" (you couldn't say the word bootleg to the clerks or they wouldn't sell to you, you had to speak in code as if you were conspiring a drug deal ).

Yeah same here, they called them Imports knowing damn well they were bootlegs

[Edited 1/19/12 23:33pm]

mplsmike said:

StonedImmaculate said:

so I just went to the "P" section to search for Prince and...HOLY SHIT!!! This was my first experience with bootlegs and they had a TON of shit, all on vinyl. I damn near wet my pants. I totally forgot about the Black Album as I was out of my mind. Never saw it, so I grabbed "The Regent of First Avenue", the 03/21/87 show from the Ave. When I went to pay for it, the girl behind the counter looked at it, looked at me and said "Did you call me earlier about the Black Album?" I said "Yeah." She walked away...when she came back, she handed me my first copy of the Black Album, on vinyl.

Back in 1990 /91 I went with some friends out of town, we hit up some record store called "Ameba records"

As always i went straight to the Prince CD bin and noticed 2 bootlegs

My heart dropped it was crucial and the Black album on cd! at $40 something? a pop

I then it the vinyl section, they had Chocolate, Crucial and a few others.

I was reading titles to songs ive never even head of. I was in Awe!

None of my friends would even care or dare to listen to prince, so i was alone in excitment

I had about 25 bucks to spend, not even enough to buy one of the boots

I went back 2 weeks later with a fist full of cash! looked.. and looked all the boots were gone

I went up to the front counter and asked the guy outloud "Do you have any more Prince Bootlegs?"

The guy literally went to me and waved me to the back side..

He walks away into some back room.. comes back with a crate full of boots

Lets just say i went home broke

It was kind of bitter sweat becasue the boots i got sounded like shit

We do seem to be loners at time with this secret Purple knowledge lol;-)

djThunderfunk said:

It wasn't long before I learned that I was right and that the store had a new bootleg of the album that was not sped up. I bought that one, too. The cover was better also. It was all black and if you held it just right in the light you could see Prince's image. This one sounded perfect and was an immediate favorite.

THAT is the vinyl I picked up! My second version of the Black Album (after the initial cassette I received). Wish I still had it!

I was going through some old stuff and I found a the case that held my beloved copy of the Black Album on one side and the original Crystal Ball on the other. My friend who made the copy for me also did manual handwritten artwork. There was no photoshop back then

I will scan and post as soon as I can

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

I was going through some old stuff and I found a the case that held my beloved copy of the Black Album on one side and the original Crystal Ball on the other. My friend who made the copy for me also did manual handwritten artwork. There was no photoshop back then

I will scan and post as soon as I can

Cool! I have a CD copy of the same boot.

LONG LIVE the BLACK ALBUM!

...and CINDY C too!

Blue Tuesday 12.1.1987

Ruperts Dance Club [Minneapolis Minn.]
Paisley Park studios [Minneapolis Minn.]

Prince

Cat
Warner Bro.
Ingrid Chavez
Karen Krattinger
Susan Rogers
Matt Fink
Gilbert Davison
Mo Ostin
Marylou Badeaux
Eric Leads

From the perspective of Warner Bros., the Black Album was emblematic of the label's concerns about Prince's career. Increasingly, his marketing decisions seemed designed to alienate the public rather than to increase his record sales; meanwhile, his material was becoming consistently less accessible. The company desperately wanted Prince to come up with catchy songs that would re-establish him as a potent hit-maker and guide him back towards Purple Rain-like levels of fame. What it got instead was The Black Album.

Despite Warners trepidation, plans for the release went forward and hundreds of thousands of vinyl albums, cassettes, and compact discs were pressed for distribution. As he often did just before putting out new albums, Prince went to a nightclub to audition it for an unsuspecting public. On December 1,1987- a little more than a week before its scheduled release-Prince went to Rupert's, a Minneapolis dance club. Entering undetected by the crowd, he made his way to the deejay booth and played songs without fanfare to see how club goers would react.



insert from: NightGod source: Cat Glover

I filmed a behind the scenes video of her modeling shoot last year (the one many of you have seen on youtube), and spent a couple days hanging out with Cat Glover. She is very open and shared some amazing stories with me. This is one:

1987: Prince had never tried Ecstasy, and was curious about it after Cat told him what it felt like. He asked Cat to get him some (it came from her, where the common misconception is that it came from Ingrid). Cat was in LA when Prince made his request. She got some and flew in to MN and was staying at a hotel when Prince's limo showed up. While they were both in her room, Cat suggested Prince take half a dose "because he was so small". He took the full dose and told Cat to wait for him. He rode off in his limo and Cat didn't hear from him until much later.

Prince decided to go to a club while he was tripping. It was here that he met Ingrid Chavez, which eventually led them to Paisley Park. Cat said she didn't think Ingrid knew Prince was tripping on E. Prince called Cat later from the limo and told her about Ingrid. She was riding with him at that point, and the three of them went out to Paisley, making for a historical night in Prince's career.

Even more interesting is her source for where she got the Ecstasy in the first place: Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.



Back @ Ruperts Dance Club: As the music played over the sound system, Prince mingled with the crowd and eventually became involved in a detailed conversation with a singer-songwriter-poet in her early twenties named Ingrid Chavez. An attractive brunette with a serious and reflective air, Chavez had moved to Minneapolis several years earlier to work on music with a friend. But that collaboration had soured, and since then she had been working alone on her poetry and spoken-word pieces. Like Prince, Chavez had grown up in a strictly religious home (in her case, Baptist), but as an adult she too sought spiritual answers outside the confines of any specific religion.

Prince and Chavez seemed fascinated by each other despite an apperent lack of sexual chemistry, and, after a while, they drove back to the recently completed Paisley Park studio complex. They continued a lengthy and intense conversation about religious issues, love, and life fulfillment, but Prince eventually excused himself, saying he had a stomachache. Waiting to see where the strange night would go next, Chavez stayed put while Prince disappeared elsewhere in the complex.

At about 1:30am Karen Krattinger received a strange phone call. Speaking with uncharacteristic emotion, Prince apologized for having been so hard on her, said he had trouble expressing his feelings, and that he loved her.

At about the same time that night, Susan Rogers also got a phone call from Prince, asking her to come to Paisley Park. After four years as Prince's engineer, she had resigned that post shortly after the completion of the Black Album i October 1987. But she agreed to go to the studio. Arriving in the rehearsal room, she found it dark, save for a few red candles that cast ominous shadows across the walls. Out of the gloom she heard a woman's voice.

"Are you looking for Prince?"
Rogers, who would later learn this was Chavez, answered, "Yes."
"Well, he's here somewhere," Chavez replied.
Abruptly, Prince emerged out of the darkness, looking unlike she had ever seen him before. "I'm certain he was high," Rogers said. "His pupils were really dilated. He looked like he was tripping."
As he had with Krattinger, Prince struggled to connect emotionally with Rogers. "I just want to know one thing. Do you still love me?" Rogers, startled, said she did, and that she knew he loved her.
"Will you stay?" Prince asked.
"No, I won't," she said, and left the complex.
"It was really scary," she recalled of the evening.

Matt Fink confirmed the sequence of events, saying he was told by bodyguard Gilbert Davison, who was present at Paisley Park that evening, that Prince had taken the drug Ecstasy. "He had a bad trip, and felt that [the Black Album] was the devil working through him," Fink said. Chavez has also said that in the course of the evening Prince decided that The Black Album represented an evil force.

...

But something had changed. Prince believed that he had experienced a spiritual and moral epiphany, and that Chavez, serving as a guide, had shown him the way to greater connection with God and other people. The Black Album, he decided, represented the anger and licentiousness that he must leave behind. After casting about for months for a way to truly put the Revolution era behind him, he had found one.

Days after the ecstasy trip, Prince contacted Warner Bros. chairman Mo Ostin and insisted that the Black Album, with its release just days away, be canceled. "Prince was very adamant and pleaded with Mo," recalled Marylou Badeaux. Although Ostin ultimately agreed, halting the release was a logistical nightmare for Warners. Five hundred thousand LPs - which now needed to be destroyed - had been pressed, and were on loading docks ready for shipment to stores. A small number of vinyl records and cds escaped destruction, and The Black Album quickly became available on the bootleg market, with fans selling and trading cassette duplicates of widely varying fidelity.

Prince has never given a clear public explanation of the decision to shelve the album, but the program from his next tour included a cryptic discussion of the Black Album's "evil" nature, and refers to December 1, 1987 (the night he spent with Chavez at Paisley Park), as "Blue Tuesday".

Having shelved the Black Album, Prince immediately threw himself into the recording of his next LP, Lovesexy, which he conceived as a document of his epiphany.

...

Moreover, very few of Prince's associates related to the lyrical messages, and also wondered why Ingred Chavez, who seemed to some a bit odd, was playing such a huge role. When band members seemed confused by the lyrics of the title track, he rerecorded it to make the meaning ring out more clearly. It still didn't work. "I did not understand what the term 'lovesexy' was supposed to mean," Eric Leeds said. "People weren't getting it."