To me, The Family is one of the greatest albums ever made and I can't help but wonder how much stronger Parade could've been if Prince had kept the best songs from that album for his own album the following year. Something like this would've been even better than SOTT imo:

1. High Fashion

2. Mutiny

3. The Screams of Passion

4. Under The Cherry Moon

5. Girls & Boys

6. Venus De Milo

7. Nothing Compares 2 U

8. Mountains

9. Desire

10. Kiss

11. Anotherloverholenyohead

12. Sometimes It Snows In April

I gotta admit, I would give my right arm to hear full Prince-vocal versions of Nothing Compares, Mutiny and Passion.

The Family album is definitely amongst his very best work.

Fiona01 said:

I gotta admit, I would give my right arm to hear full Prince-vocal versions of Nothing Compares, Mutiny and Passion.

The Family album is definitely amongst his very best work.

I read yesterday on Facebook that the Family album with Prince vocals is circulating, soon to be widely available. No idea of the reliability of the guy who wrote it. I think Mutiny is out, though.

MattyJam said:

To me, The Family is one of the greatest albums ever made and I can't help but wonder how much stronger Parade could've been if Prince had kept the best songs from that album for his own album the following year. Something like this would've been even better than SOTT imo:

1. High Fashion

2. Mutiny

3. The Screams of Passion

4. Under The Cherry Moon

5. Girls & Boys

6. Venus De Milo

7. Nothing Compares 2 U

8. Mountains

9. Desire

10. Kiss

11. Anotherloverholenyohead

12. Sometimes It Snows In April

That's a very different album to Parade, isn't i? Great, but very different...

I totally get where you're coming from but to me the "weird" stuff from Parade like the first four tracks, Life Can Be So Nice and Do U Lie are really an integral part of what makes the albums feel so different and special to me. I know a lot of people find, say, those first few tracks quite insubstantial given their short individual track times but I love how Prince is able to take us to so many different places and encompass so many different moods and styles within a few minutes of music. Something like your tracklist would undeniably be a fantastic collection of songs and would probably be among my favourite Prince albums yeah, but I feel something of that weird Parade feel would be lost to me.

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

I totally get where you're coming from but to me the "weird" stuff from Parade like the first four tracks, Life Can Be So Nice and Do U Lie are really an integral part of what makes the albums feel so different and special to me. I know a lot of people find, say, those first few tracks quite insubstantial given their short individual track times but I love how Prince is able to take us to so many different places and encompass so many different moods and styles within a few minutes of music. Something like your tracklist would undeniably be a fantastic collection of songs and would probably be among my favourite Prince albums yeah, but I feel something of that weird Parade feel would be lost to me.

Great response RaspBerryGirlFriend.

It's not that I don't enjoy Parade as it is and I do enjoy the first three tracks and agree that the album is very unique amongst Prince's canon of work. But to me, that opening sequence on The Family's album, the one-two-three punch of HF, Mutiny and Screams of Passion is just incredible. When you add Nothing Compares 2 U and Desire into the mix, you just have pure gold.

Would it have made Parade more of a traditional album? Yeah, I guess so, but Prince gave away some of his strongest songs to The Family. I can't help but wonder if he regretted that decision, seeing as the band proved an unfruitful venture for him. And it's well documented that Prince himself wasn't entirely happy with the final version of Parade.

Nonsense.

Both albums are complementary and perfect as they are.

SomeSoldier said:

Fiona01 said:

I gotta admit, I would give my right arm to hear full Prince-vocal versions of Nothing Compares, Mutiny and Passion.

The Family album is definitely amongst his very best work.

I read yesterday on Facebook that the Family album with Prince vocals is circulating, soon to be widely available. No idea of the reliability of the guy who wrote it. I think Mutiny is out, though.

Early cuts of Mutiny, High Fashion and Desire have been out for nearly three decades, as well as an alternate cut of Susannah's Pajamas.

MattyJam said:

databank said:

Nonsense.

Both albums are complementary and perfect as they are.

Thanks for your helpful response.

databank said:

SomeSoldier said:

I read yesterday on Facebook that the Family album with Prince vocals is circulating, soon to be widely available. No idea of the reliability of the guy who wrote it. I think Mutiny is out, though.

Early cuts of Mutiny, High Fashion and Desire have been out for nearly three decades, as well as an alternate cut of Susannah's Pajamas.

You mean the rehearsal tapes? That's not the same as having proper guide vocal versions of the album tracks.

MattyJam said:

databank said:

Nonsense.

Both albums are complementary and perfect as they are.

Thanks for your helpful response.

Well what else was I to say?

I'm not gonna say "yeah great idea" if I don't think it is, am I?

MattyJam said:

databank said:

Early cuts of Mutiny, High Fashion and Desire have been out for nearly three decades, as well as an alternate cut of Susannah's Pajamas.

You mean the rehearsal tapes? That's not the same as having proper guide vocal versions of the album tracks.

Those are not rehearsal tapes but early versions of the same studio versions that ended on the album. The Screams Of Passion is from a rehearsal.

databank said:

MattyJam said:

Thanks for your helpful response.

Well what else was I to say?

I'm not gonna say "yeah great idea" if I don't think it is, am I?

Still, I think that calling it "nonsense" was unnecessarily harsh. At the end of the day, most fans would agree that 85-86 was an incredibly prolific time for Prince, and everyone else in this thread has admitted that the tracklist I came up with would've made for an incredible Prince album. I know it's all a moot point, seeing as it is what it is and you can't re-write history, but it's only a bit of fun.

databank said:

MattyJam said:

You mean the rehearsal tapes? That's not the same as having proper guide vocal versions of the album tracks.

Those are not rehearsal tapes but early versions of the same studio versions that ended on the album. The Screams Of Passion is from a rehearsal.

Can't remember what I've heard and what I haven't. I know I've heard the rehearsal tapes.

databank said:

MattyJam said:

databank said:

Well what else was I to say?

I'm not gonna say "yeah great idea" if I don't think it is, am I?

Still, I think that calling it "nonsense" was unnecessarily harsh. At the end of the day, most fans would agree that 85-86 was an incredibly prolific time for Prince, and everyone else in this thread has admitted that the tracklist I came up with would've made for an incredible Prince album. I know it's all a moot point, seeing as it is what it is and you can't re-write history, but it's only a bit of fun.

Let's not be oversensitive, I didn't call u names or anything, no harm done. To me it was nonsense, pardon me 4 living.

jdcxc said:

databank said:

Nonsense.

Both albums are complementary and perfect as they are.

Yes. Does anyone know if the Universal deal includes all his "associates" albums?

The Time, The Family, The 6's, the Sheila E's and maybe a few others are stuck with WB for all eternity.

The rest belongs to the estate, but Universal are carpet sellers, they're unlikely to release anything low profile anytime soon

MattyJam said:

databank said:

Those are not rehearsal tapes but early versions of the same studio versions that ended on the album. The Screams Of Passion is from a rehearsal.

Can't remember what I've heard and what I haven't. I know I've heard the rehearsal tapes.

If u have any of the big collections (The Work, Work It 2.0, iVault), they should all be on it. If not, you know where to find me

databank said:

MattyJam said:

Still, I think that calling it "nonsense" was unnecessarily harsh. At the end of the day, most fans would agree that 85-86 was an incredibly prolific time for Prince, and everyone else in this thread has admitted that the tracklist I came up with would've made for an incredible Prince album. I know it's all a moot point, seeing as it is what it is and you can't re-write history, but it's only a bit of fun.

Let's not be oversensitive, I didn't call u names or anything, no harm done. To me it was nonsense, pardon me 4 living.

Can't you tell I take my fantasy tracklistings very seriously?

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

Fiona01 said:

I gotta admit, I would give my right arm to hear full Prince-vocal versions of Nothing Compares, Mutiny and Passion.

The Family album is definitely amongst his very best work.

Prince's version of "High Fashion" and "Mutiny" have been out there for ages, and they have the bass in them too. The Family's versions don't have bass.

I like when an album tells a story (could be a soundtrack to it's own movie)
.
The Family album has that, the Glamorous Life has that, What Time Is It? has that, Vanity 6 has it, even Madhouse has it

.

I just think Under the Cherry Moon would have been a much better movie, a success even if we had band scenes. High Fashion would have been perfect for the movie. The Family could have been a hired band performing at Mary Sharon's birthday part, the night or day part. Mia Bocca performed by Prince(Jill Jones) & the Revolution at either the day or night part of the party.
Prince having a society of musicians would make sense over him being a gigolo. And him being at the party of this high society rich girl, makes sense of him being a hired musician. But a random man walking into that kind of party not so much

.

Under the Cherry Moon would have been a much different kind of movie (a romance movie):Nothing Compares 2 U, the Screams of Passion, Mutiny -I don't know how they would fit in the movie as is.

.

Yes, High Fashion, Desire could have been included

Nah, he had no shortage of other great tracks that could have made Parade longer.

"High Fashion" seems like it was tailor-made for Parade/UTCM.The lyrics describe a "stuck up little rich girl".

jdcxc said:

databank said:

Nonsense.

Both albums are complementary and perfect as they are.

Yes. Does anyone know if the Universal deal includes all his "associates" albums?

the singer's estate announced an agreement with Universal Music Group to release his music recorded after 1995 alongside music from his vault, including outtakes, demos and live recordings.

The Paisley Park and Associates project are WB owned.

[Edited 2/12/17 13:24pm]

getxxxx said:

jdcxc said:

databank said: Yes. Does anyone know if the Universal deal includes all his "associates" albums?

the singer's estate announced an agreement with Universal Music Group to release his music recorded after 1995 alongside music from his vault, including outtakes, demos and live recordings.

The Paisley Park and Associates project are WB owned.

[Edited 2/12/17 13:24pm]

For one thing there were few side projects after 1995.

Another thing is that no, Paisley Park and Jaimie Starr albums do not fall under WB's exclusive deal.

WB remains sole proprietor of the masters for the projects I've named above, there was no masters reversal in 2014 and the estate have no say regarding what WB does with them, though a deal woulmd need to be secured if WB wishes to add previously unreleased material to reissues.

Oppositely, WB lost the masters for most other Paisley Park projects in 1994, therefore those records, as well as NPG Records releases, belong in full to the estate and may be subject to the Universal deal if it comprises anything that is, by default, not subject to the WB exclusivity deal.

no.

rob1965 said:

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

I totally get where you're coming from but to me the "weird" stuff from Parade like the first four tracks, Life Can Be So Nice and Do U Lie are really an integral part of what makes the albums feel so different and special to me. I know a lot of people find, say, those first few tracks quite insubstantial given their short individual track times but I love how Prince is able to take us to so many different places and encompass so many different moods and styles within a few minutes of music. Something like your tracklist would undeniably be a fantastic collection of songs and would probably be among my favourite Prince albums yeah, but I feel something of that weird Parade feel would be lost to me.

Well put. Agreed 100%. And although P's versions of the Family-album's tracks are superior to their original, I'd still say that an album like Parade deserves its genius because it is what it is. Good example is the comparison between Charade and Parade: the 1st one is a very strong album, the 2nd one is a genius album. And the difference between those two is far less than the suggested tracklist above. I do like that tracklist, but not as a replacement for or a completion of the already existing Parade album.

disagree that Princes versions were better. I appreciate he worte them - his voice did not work as well for them IMO.