[I am referring to the '98 released version & not the original version of the Crystal Ball album]

I've seen that quite a few of you here have many issues when it comes to the released version of the album. When I first heard it [back when it was first released in '98. I bought it from Media Play], I really enjoyed it, because I really had no clue about the level of Prince bootlegs that were out there [I had only been a fan for a couple of years earlier, so I was trying to catch up on his actually released albums ].

I'm pretty sure this subject has been throughly beaten to the white meat already, but for those diehards & worshipers of Prince, how did you feel about it when you first heard it [song edits & all], & If you could have chosen the tracks to be on the 3CD set over what Prince gave us, which would you choose for your version? [keeping the same 3 disc-10 songs per disc structure]

[Edited 8/12/12 6:54am]

On one hand it was really disappointing because I already knew all the songs save maybe 5, and obviously I had expected a more lenghty collection of outtakes from 1978-1996. And of course the edits of Crucial and Good Love were like butchering to me

On the other hand many versions of songs were new to me, it was astonishing to have it all with such a great sound quality, I loved the flow of the whole album and when all was said and done I kinda loved everything on it. Crystal Ball was on HEAVY rotation for the whole 1998 year, I was just listening to it all the time and it brought me hundreds of hours of pleasure just as it is.

So it's part of my history now, and I love it the way it is. I wouldn't change anything on it because well, for me it's the soundtrack of 1998, and it was probably one of the most beautiful years in my whole life, and changing something on this album would be like coming back in time and changing 1998 and I really don't wanna do that, so u know...

I would've culled a lot of the 90s stuff. I like that it picked up most of the good Come/Gold era tracks that got lost in the shuffle, but there's needless crud on there too, plus the remixes, live, previously released and some shitty pointless editing. Not a fan of non-chronological releases of this kind either.

It could've been much better, but Prince's "trick" of beating the bootleggers meant he butchered a good idea on purpose.

Those CDs aren't exactly full either.

I liked it when it was released. Though I cannot remember the last time I played anything from it. I bought it in HMV though when it arrived in the UK, so I never went through the whole mail order palava. It was in a proper jewel case fat box thing, later I bought a 5 disc version online and it was in a stupid clear circular pill box thing. Bloody hopeless. The discs rattled about like fuck and if you were not careful it would scratch the discs.

There are things about the content I would change but I can't be arsed with tracklist things. So the thing I would have changed would have been the packaging.

I felt that he scrambled up the running order of the tracks in order to avoid making any kind of a "musical statement" with the release. If he had put all the SOTT era tracks on one CD and nothing else on it, it would have been probably his strongest record since, well, SOTT. Compared to what he put out next - NPS - there was a huge difference in quality.

I really like some of the 1990s tracks on it and don't hate the remixes, but he really should have just put more stuff on those CDs as there was so much empty space on them. I just get the feeling that he didn't want to make it as good as it could have been. Simply because he couldn't compete with the old stuff with the type of music he was making at the time.

So I would have just put out a release with pretty much the same material, but just compiled the material thematically:

CD 1 - SOTT era tracks

CD 2 - Gold Era tracks

CD 3 - Other stuff, remixes and crazy experiments.

[Edited 8/12/12 13:42pm]

I absolutely LOVED hearing Crystal Ball, Movie Star, Strays of the World, etc in crystal clear brickwalled sound (no sacrcasm here, the louder the better). And I loved the live version of Days of Wild which, imo, trumps the studio one. And I loved the songs I never knew existed - Cloreen Baconskin, Make Yo Mama Happy, Goodbye, the Truth album. Could have done without repeating Good Love, Tell Me How U Wanna B Done. Sure, I would have liked the disks maxed out a bit more too.

So this CD set stayed in very heavy rotation for two years at my place. I actually liked how they were randomly ordered and even shoddily edited - Prince wanted it to feel like a bootleg, even the scribbly font on the disks, albeit an official one.

Overall, one of my all-time favorites. I bought one from 1-800-NF originally (with 5th bonus disk then a cut-out clamshell edition on amazon in 2001 ($for $6.99!!! shoulda bought more)

i felt crystal ball was prince attempt to make his later work seem as relevant as his early work .. he could easily have filled 3 cds with great early outtakes .. instead we got 3 or 4 high quality songs with a buttload of pure crap

crystal ball

dream factory

last heart

movie star

a place in heaven

witness 4 the prosecution

train

we can funk

wonderful ass

visions

g spot

go

lisa

databank

baby go go

wouldn't you love 2 love me

do yourself a favor

100 mph

baby you're a trip

i wonder

all day all nite

roadhouse garden

i can't love you anymore

neon telephone

lust u always

electric intercouse

posessed

extraloveable

purple music

our destiny

eye am sure there are more .. i just tend to mix up the b sides and out takes in my brain .. lots o b sides he missed on the hits package .. if i love u tonite .. love or money ..

don't need to hear his cartoon 2live crew attempts like hide the bone, poom poom, p control, days of wild .. EVA .. wish it was that kinda shit he kept in the vault and burned it down

Prince was definitely holding back from officially releasing many of his jems that had been bootlegged. He obviously wanted to give a mix of some bootlegged material, and some previously unreleased remixs, plus surprise us with some original tracks that even hardcore fans had never heard before (Cloreen Baconskin, etc.), so Crystal Ball is an odd mish mash of Prince music.

Here are favorites of mine that I would have put on it, including the Crystal Ball tracks that I would have kept.

Crystal Ball

Feline

Billy

No Call U

Girl O' My Dreams

Moonbeam Levels

Electric Intercourse

Computer Blue (full length version)

Possessed

All Day, All Night

Do Yourself A Favor

All My Dreams

Empty Room

Others Here With Us

Rebirth of the Flesh

Witness For the Prosecution

Schoolyard

Player

Poor Goo

The Undertaker

Our Destiny

Roadhouse Garden

Traffic Jam

Data Bank

Kiss (acoustic version)

Work That Fat

Cloreen Baconskin

Movie Star

Calhoun Square

The Ride

Days Of Wild

Strays Of The World

Goodbye

[Edited 8/13/12 4:03am]

I'd lose the remixes, put back the stuff that was edited out, and extend each disc to at least 74 minutes. There is really no reason to limit a compilation album to 49:49 (which doesn't even work out on some CD players) just because you happen to love jerking off to number and word play at the time of release.

There would definitely be more ground covered, and I'd separate the 3 discs into eras. 1978-1984ish, 1985-1990, 1991-1996

errant said:

I'd lose the remixes, put back the stuff that was edited out, and extend each disc to at least 74 minutes. There is really no reason to limit a compilation album to 49:49 (which doesn't even work out on some CD players) just because you happen to love jerking off to number and word play at the time of release.

There would definitely be more ground covered, and I'd separate the 3 discs into eras. 1978-1984ish, 1985-1990, 1991-1996

I never knew there was problems with anyone ever playing the disc. Did this happen to you? It never happened to me......

I will say that I would have liked to have had a whole disc filled Prince's original versions of songs he let others have...especially the Family's album, & his versions of The Time's songs, & of course Jill Jones too......I think that would have been pretty dope.

I could go with something like this (with a few uncirculating tracks I've never heard before thrown in to make it more interesting):

Rebirth of the Flesh
Dream Factory
Go
Sexual Suicide
Crystal Ball
Good Love
Wouldn't U Love 2 Love Me (Prince's vocal- 1986 version)
Wonderful Ass
Big Tall Wall
And That Says What?

Electric Intercourse
Delivery Boy
Heart Attack
Baby Go Go
Joy In Repitition (w/ intro drums)
Fuschia Light
Purple Music
We Can F-ck (original 1983)
Cloreen Baconskin
Eggplant

Last Heart
Witness 4 The Prosecution
Movie Star
A Place In Heaven
In A Large Room With No Light (1986 version)
Crucial
An Honest Man
Wednesday
Old Friends 4 Sale (original lyrics)
All My Dreams

Tittypants said:

errant said:

I'd lose the remixes, put back the stuff that was edited out, and extend each disc to at least 74 minutes. There is really no reason to limit a compilation album to 49:49 (which doesn't even work out on some CD players) just because you happen to love jerking off to number and word play at the time of release.

There would definitely be more ground covered, and I'd separate the 3 discs into eras. 1978-1984ish, 1985-1990, 1991-1996

I never knew there was problems with anyone ever playing the disc. Did this happen to you? It never happened to me......

No, I meant that like Emancipation, which was 3 discs at exactly 60:00 minutes each, Crystal Ball was formatted to make each disc work out to 49:49. At least that was the intention. A couple of them read something different depending on the CD player you put them in.

errant said:

Tittypants said:

I never knew there was problems with anyone ever playing the disc. Did this happen to you? It never happened to me......

No, I meant that like Emancipation, which was 3 discs at exactly 60:00 minutes each, Crystal Ball was formatted to make each disc work out to 49:49. At least that was the intention. A couple of them read something different depending on the CD player you put them in.

Oh okay . I never understood why Prince did that with the time for either set. I wish he would have swapped the times. 49:49 each disc for Emancipation, & 60:00 for Crystal Ball. Then, we could have had more songs for Crystal Ball instead.

duggalolly said:

I could go with something like this (with a few uncirculating tracks I've never heard before thrown in to make it more interesting):

Rebirth of the Flesh
Dream Factory
Go
Sexual Suicide
Crystal Ball
Good Love
Wouldn't U Love 2 Love Me (Prince's vocal- 1986 version)
Wonderful Ass
Big Tall Wall
And That Says What?

Electric Intercourse
Delivery Boy
Heart Attack
Baby Go Go
Joy In Repitition (w/ intro drums)
Fuschia Light
Purple Music
We Can F-ck (original 1983)
Cloreen Baconskin
Eggplant

Last Heart
Witness 4 The Prosecution
Movie Star
A Place In Heaven
In A Large Room With No Light (1986 version)
Crucial
An Honest Man
Wednesday
Old Friends 4 Sale (original lyrics)
All My Dreams

LOVE IT - AWESOME, i hope 1 day this release appears in top notch quality

errant said:

I'd lose the remixes, put back the stuff that was edited out, and extend each disc to at least 74 minutes. There is really no reason to limit a compilation album to 49:49 (which doesn't even work out on some CD players) just because you happen to love jerking off to number and word play at the time of release.

There would definitely be more ground covered, and I'd separate the 3 discs into eras. 1978-1984ish, 1985-1990, 1991-1996

I agree completely. If you total up the amount of music it comes out to around 8967 seconds. Divide that in half and you get 4483.5 seconds. Divide that by 60 and you get seventy-four minutes and forty-five seconds. What does that mean and why am I doing all of this math? That means that the three discs that we got easily could have fit on two discs freeing up an entire third disc to fill up with more music. Instead of thirty songs we could have had forty-five.

My other beef was that it seemed limited to two eras, roughly 1983-1986 and 1993-1996. Now, those were arguably his two strongest eras so it makes a degree of sense that the set should heavily draw from them but I would have liked somehing pre 1983 and more music circa 1987-1992.

NouveauDance said:

I would've culled a lot of the 90s stuff. I like that it picked up most of the good Come/Gold era tracks that got lost in the shuffle, but there's needless crud on there too, plus the remixes, live, previously released and some shitty pointless editing. Not a fan of non-chronological releases of this kind either.

It could've been much better, but Prince's "trick" of beating the bootleggers meant he butchered a good idea on purpose.

Those CDs aren't exactly full either.

For real. Tell Me How U Wanna Be Done? Remixes of Loose, P Control & Dark? Were the vaults so sparse that this is what he considered had to see the light of day?

It was intention to make it as 'bootleg' like as possible, hence the jumble of tracks. Let's just be thankful he started there, otherwise we might have ended up with a constant droning hiss across the whole set and the blank spaces on the CD's filled up with tracks by Seymore Funk.

NouveauDance said:

Those CDs aren't exactly full either.

This...

In fact, if you burn them to cdr's for the car (as I did back in the day) there's room for the other 2 collections of vault tracks he released (Chaos & Disorder & The Vault: OF4S) to be squeezed onto the 3 discs.

I always thought those 2 albums were kindred spirits to CB and fealt they worked as one big set...

I loved it just the way it was!! I wish he would do Crystal Ball II with the rest of the boot stuff. CB is actually one of my favorite of all of Prince's cds. No complaints from me on this one

Tittypants said:

[I am referring to the '98 released version & not the original version of the Crystal Ball album]

I'm pretty sure this subject has been throughly beaten to the white meat already, but for those diehards & worshipers of Prince, how did you feel about it when you first heard it [song edits & all],

There had been a bunch of fake tracklists, and thenthe real one was posted. And nobody believed it, because it was insanely short. I recall looking up the songs on boots to figure out the length of the discs, and was a bit generous on the unknown ones, and got to approx. 50 minutes a disc IIRC. I just couldn't believe it. Not only was the song selection rubbish, it was a total rip-off.

And then it became known this "exclusive" set was going to be IN STORES before they'd started mailing the first sets out.

And then it turned out the store version had a printed booklet whereas the mail order one didn't.

And the "crystal ball" looked like a hockey puck.

And in plenty of cases the discs were shoved into a single slot which damaged the discs.

And then I heard the set. Turns out plenty of these songs had been segued into each other.

I thought the whole thing was stupid from the start: "hey let's reuse the name of a legendary unreleased album and use it for a random outtakes collection!" What Prince shoudl have concentrated on was deluxe editions of his albums, not this pile of random crap.

& If you could have chosen the tracks to be on the 3CD set over what Prince gave us, which would you choose for your version? [keeping the same 3 disc-10 songs per disc structure]

Bzzt wrong. Compilation albums should be filled to the rim. Anything less is a rip-off.

BartVanHemelen said:

Tittypants said:

[I am referring to the '98 released version & not the original version of the Crystal Ball album]

There had been a bunch of fake tracklists, and thenthe real one was posted. And nobody believed it, because it was insanely short. I recall looking up the songs on boots to figure out the length of the discs, and was a bit generous on the unknown ones, and got to approx. 50 minutes a disc IIRC. I just couldn't believe it. Not only was the song selection rubbish, it was a total rip-off.

And then it became known this "exclusive" set was going to be IN STORES before they'd started mailing the first sets out.

And then it turned out the store version had a printed booklet whereas the mail order one didn't.

And the "crystal ball" looked like a hockey puck.

And in plenty of cases the discs were shoved into a single slot which damaged the discs.

And then I heard the set. Turns out plenty of these songs had been segued into each other.

I thought the whole thing was stupid from the start: "hey let's reuse the name of a legendary unreleased album and use it for a random outtakes collection!" What Prince shoudl have concentrated on was deluxe editions of his albums, not this pile of random crap.

& If you could have chosen the tracks to be on the 3CD set over what Prince gave us, which would you choose for your version? [keeping the same 3 disc-10 songs per disc structure]

Bzzt wrong. Compilation albums should be filled to the rim. Anything less is a rip-off.

I actually saw the clear case version the set in Media Play when I bought my copy, but it looked so cheesy to me @ the time, I just went with the CD case version of it.

When it comes to the length of the discs, I really don't think it matters. As long as people would have got more of what they wanted, instead of what they did get. Then, if CB II would have actually come out, everything still would have been okay....

Yes, the release of it was a fiasco, and no, I'm not a huge fan of some of the song edits or the inclusion of the 2 live tracks but I'm thankful that we did get at least something. some great tunes that we've never heard and others like "Ripop", "Last Heart", "Hide the Bone" and "Crystal Ball" (albeit edited) in clean quality. I'm not a huge fan of revisionist history of what Prince should of put on an album. If it was up to me I would love to have 3 discs of material that has never circulated with at least 60 to 70 minutes of music on each discs. I would love to hear tracks like "Eggplant","Come Elektra Tuesday", "In a Winter Mood" and material from "Everybody's Jam" or "Flesh" tracks but that didn't happen. I would of paid the asking price of the set just to have "Cloreen Baconskin". I just find it amazing that Prince actually went to the vault and put that material out. It's been 14 years since it's release and we probably got 4 or 5 six tracks(although mostly redone takes ie. "In a Large Room", "Extralovable", God Is Everywhere", "Rave 2 the Joy Fantastic" or a rehearsal version of "Rebirth of the Flesh" since then. So yes, it could of been a stronger set but I'm complacent that we at least got what we did.

Peace

Big Chick

BigChick said:

It's been 14 years since it's release and we probably got 4 or 5 six tracks(although mostly redone takes ie. ... God Is Everywhere", "

errant said:

BigChick said:

It's been 14 years since it's release and we probably got 4 or 5 six tracks(although mostly redone takes ie. ... God Is Everywhere", "

"Everywhere" is a reworking of "God Is Everywhere" a vault track from 1985.

it's time he did another outtakes set.

what about the songs that fans were asked to vote on (the other possible CB tracks)?

I remember Kiss (Xtended) and American Jam ?

[Edited 8/15/12 14:12pm]

what if crystal ball 2 comes out and its like ...

rich friends

the christ

2 whom it may concern

livin 2 die

hot summer

horny pony

Xcrement

3 handed woman

we getts up extended mix

jughead LIVE!!!

roadhouse garden (featuring a rap by andy allo)

stuff like that ... would you be ............... satisfied?

BigChick said:

errant said:

"Everywhere" is a reworking of "God Is Everywhere" a vault track from 1985.

source? I know that track exists, but I've never seen anything tying them together.

errant said:

BigChick said:

"Everywhere" is a reworking of "God Is Everywhere" a vault track from 1985.

source? I know that track exists, but I've never seen anything tying them together.

I've heard it. It's not exactly the same track but "Everywhere" retains elements from "God is Everywhere"

Big Chick

TrevorAyer said:

what if crystal ball 2 comes out and its like ...

rich friends

the christ

2 whom it may concern

livin 2 die

hot summer

horny pony

Xcrement

3 handed woman

we getts up extended mix

jughead LIVE!!!

roadhouse garden (featuring a rap by andy allo)

stuff like that ... would you be ............... satisfied?

Hell no!