Kong said:

My dad has always been a Prince fanatic and paid an enormous sum at the time to buy what we still think is an original copy of the album. He had to make a special trip to London from Cornwall for it and paid hundreds of pounds. He also used to sell casette copies of it and The Chocolate Box at car boot sales and flea markets, for a couple of quid a pop, along with some Dylan and Beach Boys boots. I remember the Prince ones having poorly photocopied pictures on day-glo paper, and from memory it was green for the Black Album and orange for Choc Box.

Memory is a little hazy as I was 10 at the time...

Can you post a pic of it?

EnDoRpHn said:

Kong said:

My dad has always been a Prince fanatic and paid an enormous sum at the time to buy what we still think is an original copy of the album. He had to make a special trip to London from Cornwall for it and paid hundreds of pounds. He also used to sell casette copies of it and The Chocolate Box at car boot sales and flea markets, for a couple of quid a pop, along with some Dylan and Beach Boys boots. I remember the Prince ones having poorly photocopied pictures on day-glo paper, and from memory it was green for the Black Album and orange for Choc Box.

Memory is a little hazy as I was 10 at the time...

Can you post a pic of it?

Of the tapes? I'll ask him if he's still got copies. You never know.

I sincerely hope he's still got the vinyl somewhere!

Kong said:

EnDoRpHn said:

Can you post a pic of it?

Of the tapes? I'll ask him if he's still got copies. You never know.

I sincerely hope he's still got the vinyl somewhere!

I meant of the original.

The day-glo paper reference sounds oddly like some of the bootlegged tape copies I saw on the East Coast back in 1988.

oh I forgot! in 88 I was in the Army and I was walking and I heard some Prince! It was Soft and Wet! WOW! So I walk in into a common area of a totally different unit. I started talking and I was getting a very rude welcome. I asked about the Black Album and again was treated rude. (one of the thought i was being racist or something) "What do you mean BLACK album?"

But I took note of the one guy's name and rank and I told him who I was and that if I got a copy I would bring him one too... and he kind of blew me off. A few weeks later I got a copy... and true to my word I got him one too! And I went and knocked on a few doors and found him. He was totally blown away. He would not even take it he asked for a taped copy... so I made him one.


And I never saw him again.

So discog's own info. says only about ten copies of the original 1987 CD pressing are believed to have escaped destruction (they say only two are known to have been sold).

https://www.discogs.com/Prince-Black-Album/release/2358778

I still haven't seen anything from anyone indicating that the CD copy was bootlegged, or whether the 1987 CD was in fact produced from the same master as (i.e., was sonically identical to) the eventual 1994 release.

[Edited 6/10/16 17:16pm]

EnDoRpHn said:

GirlBrother said:

It's entirely possible that the 1994 CD release was equalised to sound more flat, as a pastiche of the bootlegs. But it's equally possible that the 1987 CD release sounded just as flat.

That's the million dollar question. I'm inclined to believe option A -- When 2 R In Love doesn't have the same sonic punch on TBA as on Lovesexy. It sort-of sounds like bootlegged vinyl, which I think may have been both tongue-in-cheek Prince trickstery to fans as well as a big middle finger to WBR.

[Edited 6/10/16 17:17pm]

In 1988, me and a friend of mine decided to go to the Lovesexy concert that was going to be held at the Forum in Inglewood (Los Angeles). I remember hearing about the Black Album being cancelled, but had no hope of ever hearing it or even knowing that it was out there to be heard.

In line at my local Tower records to get tickets, people had boomboxes and car stereos blasting Prince's music. I heard Prince singing, but didn't recognize the song (and I knew EVERY song!), so I asked what song was that. The guy next to me in line said "that's the Black Album. You need a copy?" I said "HELL YEAH I DO!" So dude gives me his address and phone number and says to call the next day and he'll make me a copy on cassette for $10. Address was in Compton, which was only a few miles away, but had that reputation. I was scared to go. I thought it was a setup to go get robbed. But I went, paid my $10 and listened to that cassette on the drive home and everyday after for a month.

Still have it, will try to dig it out and post the pic.

That was my first knowledge of the existance of bootlegs. I'd heard the stories of the 300 songs in the vault from the Purple Rain days, but it never occured to me that anyone would have gotten a hold of this stuff.

I read that a promo copy with the gold print on it of the LP from 87 sold for 15K wow! Seems like about 14,500 too much but if the buyer is happy cool.

I remember calling a record store about an hour away from me, asking if they had the black album.

I had to leave my number and then about an hour later a guy calls me and says if I show up in person with cash, he can make me a copy of it.

I drive to the store, he takes me into a back room, I give him the money and after an hour he comes out of the back with my cassette in hand.

felt like I was doing something very dangerous and illegal, lol

which only added to the excitement when I first popped in the cassette.

jaypotton said:

GirlBrother said:

Behold! The crappy bootleg CD. [img:$uid]http://i.imgur.com/X0Uvad4.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i.imgur.com/ZdcCzty.jpg[/img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i.imgur.com/BLkSCDF.jpg[/img:$uid] I'm pretty certain that Kris Dawson (Chris Dawson?) was a major player in late 80s UK Prince fandom. I think the story went that he finally met Prince and Prince stared at him across a table and said nothing - for like ten minutes. HAHAHAHA!

Chris Dawson was a "big player" in the UK Prince fan scene and owned a record shop (in Leeds I think). He co-founded Controversy magazine with Eileen Murton before going their separate ways. He then produced several rather lavish magazines called Crystal Ball including a very special Lovesexy commemorative issue (it was quite beautiful with very high production values, easily as good as the Lovesexy tour programme). At some point I think he went bankrupt and there were a lot of disgruntled Prince fans who had paid him for an event that Prince was supposed to be coming to but failed to show...might have that a bit wrong.

I knew Chris as i used to go over to his record shop in Otley, the Revolution, was awesome with painted walls like the ATWIAD album cover and load of rare albums mounted like Strange Tales and His Majestys Pop Life that I had only read about, he would talk Prince for hours and was a really cool guy I thought, I still have some of the Revolution magazines. He used to arrange concert tickets and trips, I went to the opening night of the Lovesexy tour in Paris with the Revolution, was a great trip and gig. He had contacts in the Prince world, he told me Prince came to Otley when he was over for the Lovesexy gigs in 88, Chris had a van painted in peach & black (like SOTT) and Prince wanted to be driven in it, so they went for a drive.

I also went on the trip for the opening night of the Nude tour in Rotterdam in 1990, this is the one where there was supposed to be an aftershow party, I believe some complaints were made that Prince had not agreed to do any such event. I actually got a call from the Yorshire police about it as I was booked to go on the trip, so was all abit mad. I just said any Prince fan would not expect an aftershow gig like that as an event for like £10 (I think it was something like that), they are normally last minute announcements and not sold months in advance.

As for the Black Album, I heard about it NME, I got a copy from a record stall where I used to buy my bootleg Prince live cassette's, I'm sure it was late December 1987, as I remember playing Bob George at a New Years party and my mum ordering me to turn it off as all our neighbours were like WTF lol

[Edited 6/11/16 11:37am]

electrodyne said:

ecnirp98 said:

I do not remember where I read about Black Album. I got the bootleg in a store in Genova. I listen it before the Lovesexy tour. The sound was not good, dirty.

When I got the cd in 1994 I listen it and... well, it did not work for me. I loved the Black Album, but the 1994 version was "flat". I don't know if the original 1987 version was flat too, but something is not working fine in audio, imho.

I still have the lp:

fabriziovenerandi said:

GirlBrother said:

ecnirp98 said:

As for the Black Album, I heard about it NME, I got a copy from a record stall where I used to buy my bootleg Prince live cassette's, I'm sure it was late December 1987, as I remember playing Bob George at a New Years party and my mum ordering me to turn it off as all our neighbours were like WTF lol

The thought of Prince driving around the Yorkshire moors in a paisley-painted Transit van is like something from Viz magazine. I'm doubtful, but who knows??? Who knew that Yorkshire loomed so large in Prince's universe? I mean, the only other obvious connection was Mel B and her inane interview techniques. He probably gave her one - on the swings. lol As for Bob George... I remember Channel 4 broadcasting the Dortmund show at like nine pm on a Friday night, and then repeating it on the Sunday afternoon at one pm, complete with the f-bombs. I had to turn it off before my mother heard. She thought he was a bad influence on me anyway, and that level of potty-mouthed nonsense on a Sunday would have tipped her over the edge.

I remember seeing the Black Van outside their office, which was a few streets from the shop, it had a Silhouette of Prince, the Revolution writing and addresses on it in the SOTT font in Peach (I went to the shop the week before Lovesexy 12" was released and bought a German Import version). I'm guessing the van had to be regularly resprayed every year for Prince's change of style !!!

I have heard from a few sources Chris did meet Prince, so it wouldn't surprise me if he went to visit when he played the NEC in 88, like you say, it does sound something out of Viz with him driving around a sleepy Yorkshire village, I don't think the locals could work out what the shop was about or what he sold.

I remember the first time I went I got the train to Leeds from Manchester, then got on a bus to Otley, when I got off the bus I asked a local where the Prince shop was, I got the response in a Yorshire accent that I would have to goto the wallpaper shop for Prints

[Edited 6/11/16 13:25pm]

ecnirp98 said:

I remember the first time I went I got the train to Leeds from Manchester, then got on a bus to Otley, when I got off the bus I asked a local where the Prince shop was, I got the response in a Yorshire accent that I would have to goto the wallpaper shop for Prints

Se7en said:

EnDoRpHn said:

The first Prince album released to CD on the ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE was Lovesexy.

I'm almost 100% certain I bought Sign 'O' The Times on CD the day of release. I don't recall even owning a cassette of this album at thetime of release.

jtfolden said:

EnDoRpHn said:

The first Prince album released to CD on the ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE was Lovesexy.

I'm almost 100% certain I bought Sign 'O' The Times on CD the day of release. I don't recall even owning a cassette of this album at thetime of release.

Which country? The CD was not released on the same day as the LP and cassette in the United States.

Just noticed the Princepedia is working again, and its article on TBA contains an interesting remark WRT it being released on CD in 1987:

.

The original compact disc pressing was made by Sony DADC rather than WEA Manufacturing.

.

It appears that claim is also in other Wikipedia articles. It did lead me to this:

.

There was also a Knight-Ridder story by Gary Graff from March 8, 1987 on compact disc releases that said the following about Prince's output:
.
"PRINCE. All the post-Dirty Mind albums are on disc and each features sound superior to the album. Beware of 1999, though, which is missing the dance vamp "D.M.S.R.""
.
Unfortunately, I don't have a link (I found the article on Westlaw). I don't know why the reviewer would have referred to "post-Dirty Mind albums" being on CD if Dirty Mind was in print on CD at that point.

.

Check out these early WBR CD catalogs: http://www.lindaronstadt....logs_.html

.

[Edited 7/12/16 4:12am]

My guitar teacher recorded me a copy from his recorded copy (on cassette) in 1990. I remember going to the local record shop in Hertfordshire, England to buy it on the original day it should of been released only to hear it had been withdrawn. I saw the Lovesexy tour in London in summer of '88 and wondered what all these new songs were (Bob George, Superfunky.....) - pre-internet days....

I like the Black Album, it's not his strongest from the 80's, but there's some classic cuts on there (Superfunky...., Rock Hard & Cindy C) - Dead On It is not great though, and I don't understand the love for Bob George, it worked from a theatrical point of view on the Lovesexy tour, but as a song, as a listening experience, not for me

electrodyne said:

Some questions for everyone: 1. Where, when & how did you first learn of & listen to The Black Album? What were your thoughts on it then-and-now?

I listened to it when I got the album in late 1987 or early 1988.
My then GF now wife worked at a record store Fooks Records in Heerlen, the Netherlands.
A regular customer and to us known Prince fan on one day came into the store with a bag containing 7 original copies of the Black Album.
He told my wife that he got them from his uncle who at that time worked in the record plant in Alsdorf (only 11 miles/ 18km from Heerlen). His uncle took some records with him before they were destroyed.

A couple of weeks later, I got the Lovesexy CD from him. Weeks before it hit the stores.
I didn't have a CD player myself at that time, but a friend of mine, whose father worked at Philips, had one. So we went to his place to listen to the CD and thought it was a 'misprint' as the CD only contained 1 track. Now we know better

2. Do any "old-timers" who traded or bought bootleg cassettes still have their cassettes & sleeves? What was story behind your cassette tape? If so, would anyone mind sharing hi-resolution pictures of your cassettes, please? It's for a project. Feel free to send a private message or post here.

I still have the LP. And the Lovesexy CD.

[Edited 7/12/16 4:54am]

My future brother-in-law was a huge Prince fan - one day I came home from school and he and my sister were lsitening to Bob George (this would've been like 1990), it sounded like the freakiest thing I'd ever heard. I clearly remember my sister saying "Don't tell mom you heard this!"

It was on an old clear cassette that just said "Black Album"

Later I got a boot called "Black Album in a Dirty Mind" which had wonderfully awful lyric translations including my favorite from Dead On It: "Nick Rhodes from Brooklyn plays the bass pretty good".

I think I heard it on a Tom Joyner radio show (the parts that were not editied due to explicit content). Just samplings.