Sometimes, record execs know best. They certainly did in this case.

I have said this so many times before and the tracks on Crystal Ball didn't work with each other side by side. Warner was correct with their decision and wanted Prince to trim it down to a 2LP set and Prince did amazing job with it. U Got the Look was recorded in January 1987 and was the final track added. To me Sign O' The Times is a better and most complete record than the aborted Crystal Ball set.

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I'm not so sure the tape of this has been leaked. The original Crystal Ball set would have contained 6 tapes... one for each side for the 3LP release... unless was an in-house cassette that most recording artists share between band members executives, etc. Anything is possible for the in-house tape to be leaked.

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Two bootleg versions of this has been in circulation Pimpsandwich (2004) which is nice but the final two tracks are in the wrong place and Irukandji (2015) edition is annoying by adding in The Flesh as fillers. Their edition is nicer than the previous and it's possible it was taken from that in-house tape as mentioned above. Disc 1 would have been sweeter if they focus on Crystal Ball set by adding Girlfriend and Funky Place after the title track and began Disc 2 with The Ball leading it off to the end of the disc. I like both versions and the Irukandji edition is nice expect for the fillers and The Ball on their set is the best I have heard in years.

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The Crystal Ball tracks were taken from different sources and tweaked to make it an album and the original tapes are still in the vault and may get a release someday in the future who knows? Maybe the original tapes will sound better as in whole sound wise from the flow of the tracks one after another. Maybe I should look for three 40 minute blank tapes somewhere in my house and record each side just like the 3LP was originally intended to be by listening to them by flipping each side that I could have a different view of this aborted project since it doesn't exist on vinyl so cassette is the next best thing with my thoughts and I will get back to this thread another time.

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Camille would have been a great release too but Prince made the right call to have it shelved and again Warner was correct to prevent Crystal Ball otherwise we wouldn’t have Sign O' The Times and The Black Album in our music collections. One final note... I wished Prince had released the original Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic LP back in the day (1989... after the Batman LP) rather than that horrible version in 1999.

[Edited 8/17/16 6:26am]

Kobe said:

Irukandji (2015) edition is annoying by adding in The Flesh as fillers. Their edition is nicer than the previous and it's possible it was taken from that in-house tape as mentioned above. Disc 1 would have been sweeter if they focus on Crystal Ball set by adding Girlfriend and Funky Place after the title track and began Disc 2 with The Ball leading it off to the end of the disc. I like both versions and the Irukandji edition is nice expect for the fillers and The Ball on their set is the best I have heard in years.

Filler? The Flesh tracks are at the begining? Just skip them?

The Flesh sessions has nothing to do wth the Camille Era... the Camille fillers such as Feel U Up, Scarlet Pussy, U Got The Look (demos or the Long Look, Housequake (Razormaid) , etc would have been better fillers..afterall Crystal Ball was the expanded version from the shelved Camille LP... Sometimes I think Movie Star was a Camille track

bluegangsta said:

Kobe said:

Irukandji (2015) edition is annoying by adding in The Flesh as fillers. Their edition is nicer than the previous and it's possible it was taken from that in-house tape as mentioned above. Disc 1 would have been sweeter if they focus on Crystal Ball set by adding Girlfriend and Funky Place after the title track and began Disc 2 with The Ball leading it off to the end of the disc. I like both versions and the Irukandji edition is nice expect for the fillers and The Ball on their set is the best I have heard in years.

Filler? The Flesh tracks are at the begining? Just skip them?

[Edited 8/19/16 14:11pm]

WB was right...Crystall Ball would have been a little too much filler for most people...Sign O The Times was flawless

it would've been great but we wouldn't have had U got The Look which is one of his best singles and Lovesexy would've turned very differently as it wouldn't have started with no

U Got the Look was recorded late December 1986 and was added to the SOTT album in January 1987... Think about it... the song is almost 30 years old... amazing

bigd74 said:

it would've been great but we wouldn't have had U got The Look which is one of his best singles and Lovesexy would've turned very differently as it wouldn't have started with no