Former Prince engineer Ian Boxill releases 6 song Prince EP, "Deliverance"

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Reply #510 posted 04/22/17 11:43am

EddieC	(originally a comment continuing my previous post--but since it showed up on the next page, it didn't really work. Nothing important, any way.) [Edited 4/22/17 11:44am]
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Reply #511 posted 04/22/17 11:54am

jaypotton

EddieC said:

I agree with the people who say they want the "original" recordings, without Boxill's additions since Prince's death. But what does that mean? Boxill (at least according to his account) already did some arranging and recording on his own BEFORE Prince died with Prince giving his approval for those contributions to the tracks. Yes, Boxill was working in the capacity of an arranger, and almost certainly would never have gotten a producer credit (nor a composer credit) if those versions had been released by Prince. But they were still part of an overall Prince-led and -controlled project. So those versions (with Boxill's arrangements and recordings) would count as "real Prince outtakes" and, like the Eric Leeds on sax version of The Ballad of Dorothy Parker would be something I would want to have and consider actual Prince products. As much so as versions that were exclusively Prince and did not include any Boxill contributions (other than engineering work, obviously).

However, the post-death versions are what we have for now (perhaps the others will sometime be available to us, and that would be nice)--and they probably come close to what the norm for future releases will be. I don't know what the process used for the Purple Rain package was, and whether it was all done before Prince's death or not (I suspect not, based on some of the tracklist), but I'm guessing a lot of vault releases will require "finishing" in some way, at least for general consumption. They might dump material on us as much of Dylan's recent "clearing the decks" type releases have been, but I doubt it--if for no other reason than that collectors already have so much of it. I figure they'll do it in smaller batches, and aim for releasing things that "feel" like completed work--and that's gonna mean completing it, sometimes.

I don't anticipate huge amounts of additions, but I think that we need to get used to the idea that "official" releases from the estate are not going to be "Prince" versions--other people will be shaping them. This is obviously going to be the case as far as any "albums" or "collections" we see--but it's also going to be true for individual tracks. And if it isn't, some of us will complain about the result as many of us did about Moonbeam Levels--"it sounds like an outtake"--"it sounds like an old recording from 1982"--which of course it is, one he abandoned back then, without ever completely finishing, without ever mixing and mastering to a completed state, without ever placing in a definite context. People other than Prince will make what are artistic decisions--and Prince didn't even make the decision about who those people would be. So while there are going to be (I hope) many releases coming from the folks who have the legal authority to release Prince material, none of those releases will be Prince-authorized, or Prince-approved, or (in all likelihood) necessarily Prince-heard, or exclusively Prince-created. Boxill's attempted release obviously wasn't any of those things--but if the estate were to decide to release the same versions a month or a decade from now--which one assumes they could since their blocking of Boxill's release is based on the idea that the estate owns the recordings--they would suddenly become legal "official Prince releases" but they still wouldn't be Prince-authorized, -approved, or even -heard.

The posthumous releases are all compromised--none of them have Prince's authorization. Even those that he may have been working on or approved before his death he might have changed his mind on had he lived, adding, editing, or even cancelling. As far as I'm concerned, the official discography ended with Black Sweat on April 18, 2016. That's the last thing that we know came out with his approval; everything else (official or unofficial) is subject to other people's will.

I know this is long-winded and maybe unnecessary. I guess I'm just thinking aloud. But some people seem to be far more judgmental or certain about this whole issue than I am. So I thought I'd just see what my thinking really was. For what it's worth.

EddieC what happened to your paragraph breaks...very hard to read!

Edit: and yet they magically reappear when I quoted you? Weird. Maybe just my screen?
[Edited 4/22/17 11:56am]

'I loved him then, I love him now and will love him eternally. He's with our son now.' Mayte 21st April 2016 = the saddest quote I have ever read! RIP Prince and thanks for everything.

stpaisios	Only Prince had luxury to keep material like this... buried and unreleased. https://www.last.fm/user/...rchOfTruth
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laurarichardso n	stpaisios said: Only Prince had luxury to keep material like this... buried and unreleased. -/He did not keep it this fuckwad had the whole time.
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luvsexy4all	TheEnglishGent said: leecaldon said: It's all opinion. But I'm pretty certain if you were to take a survey of fans, Musicology and especially 3121 would be considered superior to Planet Earth. I agree with this, even though I personally prefer Planet Earth. PE is better than 3121.
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