I know DIRTY MIND was a raw LP of 'demos' but even they were fully realized, fleshed out recordings...

I've heard some more traditional 4 track demos from Prince's early career in the mid/late 70s but it appears that once he was able to pricure a full recording studio he just recorded songs from scratch without bothering to record skeletal demos, even when he was touring.

What are your thoughts??

I think there are some examples out there of "skeletal" demos that were far past the time of which you speak: there's a 1982 version of 17 Days in rehearsal on piano that is very stripped, the demo of Kiss on acoustic, the bluesy one he did for Alphabet St. and the slow take of Thieves In The Temple come to mind...have you heard any of these? They are divine, imho, he's always amazing in his raw, elemental composition methods. Pure instinctual songwriting at it's best..

[Edited 2/22/17 9:21am]

Anthoknee said:

I think there are some examples out there of "skeletal" demos that were far past the time of which you speak: there's a 1982 version of 17 Days in rehearsal on piano that is very stripped, the demo of Kiss on acoustic, the bluesy one he did for Alphabet St. and the slow take of Thieves In The Temple come to mind...have you heard any of these? They are divine, imho, he's always amazing in his raw, elemental composition methods. Pure instinctual songwriting at it's best..

[Edited 2/22/17 9:21am]

Good points! Yes, I've heard the Kiss demo and Alphabet Street one...forgot about those.

"Last Heart" is a released demo on Crystal Ball, too.

'We Can Work It Out' <-- part of deal cutting WB demo

'So Blue' '78/'79 Demo

'Gotta Broken Heart Again' '78/'79 Demo

1978 demo with lyrics recycled in 'Sometimes It Snows In April'

'Sister' '78/'79 Demo

`84 P/David Coleman Early/Demo Version of 'Around The World in a Day' (began with DC demo with a birthday gift of Sunset studio time; features prominent bassline, acoustic guitar and drums; released version built on top from some of the underlying tracks on this demo)

December 1985 demo of 'Eternity' for Vanessa Williams

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Carefully treading a poorly defined line separating a true demo, from an early take or initial tracking. Some subjective overlap between these categories.

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I'd count 'Last Heart' as a demo, although the very recording that was released on CB'97 obviously made multiple Dream Factory tracklists/test configurations, and with respect to his comments in the liner notes on his intent of re-recording it, I believe it was more about his unhappiness with the results of a hastily tracked song than beng truly a demo sketch.

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[Edited 2/22/17 11:48am]