With a new crop of unreleased songs descending upon us, I got to thinking about what a "best of the vault" would look like. Not necessarily the best songs or your personal favorites, but which vault tracks are like the Purple Rain, When Doves Cry, Kiss, Little Red Corvette of the vault? Any best-of for Prince has to include those songs, so what would make it onto a "Best Of The Vault"?

I think "Moonbeam Levels" is, hands-down, the vault's "greatest hit". It's been circulating for ages, it turns up on every other boot, every fan knows it, it's usually regarded as a great song...it's the unreleased equivalent of Purple Rain. Others on a similar level are probably "Extra Loveable," "All My Dreams," "Lisa," "Purple Music," maybe "Possessed," "Wonderful Ass," or "Schoolyard". What do you guys think is the 'best' of the vault?

1. The Voice Inside
2. Extra Lovable
3. Wonderful Ass
4. Electric Intercourse
5. Cosmic Day
6. Neon Telephone
7. Possessed
8. Moonbeam Levels
9. In a Large Room with No Light
10. Dance with the Devil
11. All My Dreams
12. (Secret Track) Wednesday

[Edited 11/8/14 11:07am]

Do yourself a favour

100 MPH

Turn it up

Soul Psychodelicide

Mind Bells

Love thy will be done

Hold Me

Open Book

Can you come outside and play

Dance with the devil

Work that fat

datdude said:

As for me ML is very overrated as is Electric Interecourse & the Vault itself. It made me appreci8 P as an 'editor'actually. I found myself going to Beautiful Strange, All Day All Night, then Xtraloveable, the Electric Chair instrumental remix, Purple Music

I do however agree that there are a lot of mediocre songs stored in the Vault if the leaked songs are a good representation of what's actually in it. I'm more interested in the live recordings (audio & video).

Nearly impossible for me to do...and without putting any time into it...something like this:

Wouldn't You Love To Love Me?

Moonbeam Levels

Extra Loveable

No Call U

Turn It Up

Purple Music

Possessed

G-Spot

Electric Intercourse(live)

Noon Rendezvous(rehearsal)

All Day, All Night

Our Destiny(live)

Roadhouse Garden(live)

Old Friends 4 Sale

The Dance Electric

Mutiny

Empty Room

Everybody Want What They Don't Got

All My Dreams

Wonderful Ass

Witness 4 The Prosecution

Data Bank

In A Large Room With No Light

Adonis And Bathsheba

The Sex Of It

The Grand Progression

Dance With The Devil

Love... Thy Will Be Done

Open Book

Hold Me

[Edited 11/14/14 12:27pm]

renfield said:

I think "Moonbeam Levels" is...the unreleased equivalent of Purple Rain.

It's the unreleased equivalent of Free. Popularity-wise, one could equate it with Purple Rain, I suppose. But (in my opinion) in terms of musical quality, the song is average...boring, even.

"Extralovable" and "Wonderful Ass" are bona fide hits, to my ears.

bluefish said:

renfield said:

I think "Moonbeam Levels" is...the unreleased equivalent of Purple Rain.

It's the unreleased equivalent of Free. Popularity-wise, one could equate it with Purple Rain, I suppose. But (in my opinion) in terms of musical quality, the song is average...boring, even.

"Extralovable" and "Wonderful Ass" are bona fide hits, to my ears.

I agree that ML is way, way overhyped, but its popularity make it one of P's most important songs.

Shockedelicus said:

bluefish said:

It's the unreleased equivalent of Free. Popularity-wise, one could equate it with Purple Rain, I suppose. But (in my opinion) in terms of musical quality, the song is average...boring, even.

"Extralovable" and "Wonderful Ass" are bona fide hits, to my ears.

I agree that ML is way, way overhyped, but its popularity make it one of P's most important songs.

As a songwriter, and someone who has listened 2 ML over 1,000 times since I first heard it in 1990, I can't imagine someone not thinking it among Prince's 100 best songs. But as long as there are people who love Jughead and Boy Trouble, I have to believe people will think just about anything. When Elvis Costello chose Moonbeam Levels to perform in the Prince tribute show a few years back, I see his taste as a musician and songwriter to be pretty good, so ML has to be seen as something special.

Of course, me being a songwriter, and Elvis being a songwriter doesn't make us any more of an authority than anybody else, but it looks nice on paper.

Noodled24 said:

bluefish said:

renfield said:

I think "Moonbeam Levels" is...the unreleased equivalent of Purple Rain.

It's the unreleased equivalent of Free. Popularity-wise, one could equate it with Purple Rain, I suppose. But (in my opinion) in terms of musical quality, the song is average...boring, even.

"Extralovable" and "Wonderful Ass" are bona fide hits, to my ears.

Popularity-wise is what I was talking about. Purple Rain is synonymous with Prince in the mainstream, the song most people associate him with, and I think ML is the same amongst fans as far as vault tracks go. There are people who think PR is boring and overrated too, but there's no denying it's his signature song. SImilarly, I feel like Moonbeam Levels is the poster child for unreleased Prince songs

SuperSoulFighter said:

If unreleased versions of officially released songs count (and why not) then the original versions of: Computer Blue Old Friends 4 Sale We Can Funk

Absolutely! The fact that every hardcore Prince fan knows what "hallway speech" means puts Computer Blue on the list!

yeah, i think some "guidelines" as to what is meant by "Vault" would be helpful because for me, his versions of songs he gave to others (Jill Jones, The Family, The Time, Mazarati, Martika, etc.) are not what I'm interested in primarily. I think those songs are ultimately still "his" and we've seen/heard his vision for them even if it wasn't his voice on the track (I don't get the hate for Hannah's vocals on Plec Lec; she's no worse than Sheila, Vanity, Apples, Jill, etc.). So songs that have NEVER seen the light of day "officially" are what appeal to me and what i consider "true vault material."

I am assuming yoiu want a mix of the best and most well known of the outtake songs and the ones that are also the most well constructed. I would think all of these would make the cut, in no particular order.

.

Electric Intercourse - Needs no reasoning, use it as the starter or ender.

Moonbeam Levels - This is a nice song, quite cute and better than Free

Go - Seriously I love the keyboards and melody in this along with his voice and reggae feel of it.

Feel U Up - A song most are familar on Hits/Bsides, this 1981 Controversy era version runs rings around the 1989 remake we all know.

All day all night, - The Prince versions of Jill Jones songs are sublime, that should be an album in itself.

Lisa - Sexy early shocker about Lisa, beore she reveelaed her sapphic desires.

Extra Lovable - Get past the controversial lyrics, this is a great song

Lust u always - Another erotic gem

Purple Music - One of my favs, but placing on an album would mean editing and this thing really can not be molested in any form.

Neon Telephone - The type of frothy pop song we all love

If I Love u 2nite, many versions exist, a nice 1978 - 79 Sue Ann Carwell version and a poppy 1987 Prince version which suffers from the same quality mastering of Sign o the times. Either version is fine and maybe even include Mayte's.

Empty Room - A legendary song, haunting and evocative, again use either the 1986 or 1993 NPG version, but I prefer 1986.

Big Tall Wall - Cocky and nasty song, still an epic and funky

All my Dreams - One of the very finest, include with all the Wendy and Lisa vocals. Had it been released, this would have annihilated the charts.

A Place in heaven - Yes more Lisa and Wendy, but a great version with Prince vocals exists out there for the purist, imagine an extreme falsetto.

Train - Another great Parade/Crystal Ball era song about Susannah (Some times I think we should just do an album of songs about Susannah Melvoin, that would be a powerful disc in itself).

The Line - A good closer and its later too, so it balances out this mid 1980s mix a bit more.

.

I could include many more, but we don't want to overwhelm the first timer. Having these songs introduces his range and quality of bootlegs.

stillwaiting said:

I Wonder

Can You Come Outside and Play

Uh-Huh

100Mph

All My Dreams

Do Yourself A Favour

Mad

Hold Me

Open Book

Mind Bells

Dance With the Devil

Soul Psychadelicide

Come (other version)

Climax

I don't know about greatest hits because most of the vault stuff I've heard isn't really thrilling. I see why P only releases certain things. Even so, they have an interesting history to them. Take the Feel U Up/Irresitible Bitch demo, for example. It's funny how, for example, Feel U Up(demo)/Irresistible Bitch demo has pieces of Jerk Out, and Feel U Up(short stroke), Ballad of Dorothy Parker(drums) and of course Irresistible Bitch.

I do like how he sang Irrestible Bitch, demo version, though. His voice was intense.