IstenSzek said:

EricHope said:

JUST got mine. I've heard exactly ONE song from it so far: The Dance Electric. And I don't like the mix. Sounds kinda halfway done, or like the mix engineer didn't really understand the track. The vocals are low in the mix, and there's a lot of key stuff missing (like the GUITAR SOLO!!!), and this mix doesn't match the one he did on the original Andre Cymone single. Was Prince actually involved with this mix, or was this all done posthumously? A disappointment for this song. I was looking forward to having a nice, crystal clear copy of Prince's version of this song, but what's already available on YouTube exceeds this version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgon_BQWxHg). Damn shame. This one is a miss. My fingers are crossed for the rest of it.

The released version is one of his vocal takes and the mix reflects that...
The proper mix version with guitar and extra percussion (before Wendy and Lisa provided vocals) would have been a great definitive release, this is just some unmixed "work in progress" thing... And then the "Wendy and Lisa" version on a remaster of "Around The World In A Day" or, better yet, the "finished" album between "Purple Rain" and "Around The World In A Day"...

Neversin.

We I think of We Can Fuck/Funk I think of A slow dirty grinding P-Funk with a hard grinding bass synth, I think of that 1986 version that bleeds in from I Can't Stop This Feeling I Got. The version on this release is just weak. I guess it's better in some ways than the GB, with all Testing positive nonsense. Does anyone knows if Prince recorded a version of Mondernaire with his vocals, like a demo or something.

[Edited 6/29/17 11:17am]

SchlomoThaHomo said:

IstenSzek said:

i think that should be:

I'd rather pee in anybody's cup
and when your cup overflow

I'm testin' postive and I'll pee some mo'

I thought it was, "I'll gladly pee..."

it is, you'r absolutely right. i couldn't think straight anymore last night
as it was about six hours past my bedtime

Romeoblu said:

Neversin said:

So sad... WBR and Prince had numerous archivers contact them over the years to start or help out with a "Purple Rain" Expanded set and provide them with material to let them know what was out there... Hearing this disc now is just sad and seems like a half-assed rush job for a payday...
"The Dance Electric" is the version before the guitar dub and the final edit, so why this one was included is just mind boggeling especially since this has been "out there" for years in better quality than this release...

"Love And Sex" is awesome and new to me...

"Computer Blue" is out there in better quality and without glitches...

"Electric Intercourse" is awesome and a huge upgrade to the 2.5 minute warped tape sample that was out there...

"Our Destiny/ Roadhouse Garden" now this is a real bad cut and paste job... The "Our Destiny" ending is longer and segues perfectly into "Roadhouse Garden", where this came from is just a big WTF moment for everyone I talked to the last days...
"Possessed" is awesome and new to me, only heard the instrumental of this...
"Wonderful Ass" and "Velvet Kitty Cat" is the same as the original tape that has been going around for eons... I just need a better version of the re-recorded "Velvet Kitty Cat" from "Parade" era, that would be perfect...
"Katrina's Paper Dolls" is Prince's first re-recorded version in great quality, the second version is the most awesome though...
"We Can Fuck", Holy fuck this is AWESOME! Only heard 6 minutes of this one in true steaming pile of shit quality for about 20+ years, this is truly amazing!
"Father's Song" is nice but not the finished studio version but the rehearsal guide tape with flourishes to work on...

So all in all, as I've said before, WBR/NPG never listened to fans, collectors or archivers who were more than willing to help out FOR FREE and without the need of any credit whatsoever...

Neversin.

Would be great to hear that second version, as I love this version.

Not what I was really expecting from the descriptions given a few weeks ago. Maybe those where about the second version. I was expecting something slower,darker.

Is it radically different?

People were describing a "non proper" studio version of the song as if it was THE studio version which I said it wasn't in that thread...
The second version has altered lyrics, is slightly faster with less synth and more "Angry-Cloud-with-highly-active-pickups" turned way the fuck UP riffing and speeded up vocals, which (of course as usual with some of his best efforts in the studio) was meant for someone else to record and release... You do the math...

Neversin.

BTW am I the only one who gets really fucking irritated by the piercingly loud hi-hat in "Wonderful Ass"?? As if it was remastered by an 80 year old who lost the ability to hear high frequency sounds and compensated by vision...

Neversin.

[Edited 6/29/17 11:30am]

Neversin said:

BTW am I the only one who gets really fucking irritated by the piercingly loud hi-hat in "Wonderful Ass"?? As if it was remastered by an 80 year old who lost the ability to hear high frequency sounds and compensated by vision...

Neversin.

[Edited 6/29/17 11:30am]

i find the high end finger cybals and highhats on this entire release to be a huge distraction .. these frequencies should not be this loud .. they should tuck comfrotably under the vocals not drown over top of the vocals

TheThem said:

Disc 2 is excellent, thank you very much.

Just getting Electric Intercourse and Our Destiny/Roadhouse Garden officially released is progress in terms of his legacy. Possessed in this configuration is visionary, and don't even get me started about Dance Electric, Wonderful Ass and We Can Fuck. Objectively, the only reason there's so much quibbling is that, of course, a minuscule amount of folks on this planet has obtained various recordings of various quality, some of it higher some of it lower.

I'm a happy member of that tiny community, but way more people will eventually buy Purple Rain Deluxe that just the sum of us, crusty hardcore Prince fans.

If you don't want to sound like an old Frankie Avalon fan in a couple of years, you've got to support the mainstreaming of his legacy. The saddest thing that could happen is for these songs to have no commercial viability at all --and no future. No future means all of us elite prince collectors dying one by one with our select knowledge of his greatness.

Disc 2 is a step in the right direction. Never mind that we probably could have picked a better track list collectively, it does strike a balance between what the average hardcore fan has been wanting and what he or she has been needing without even knowing it. So we get Velvet Kitty Cat along with the legendary Hallway Speech Computer Blue.

Hopefully, we'll hear more in the coming years. That boxset you've been wanting for ages? We'll only get it if more people care, and people barely care to chase leaked Prince tracks.

[Edited 6/29/17 17:34pm]

Computer Blue shoulda been a 12" back in tha Day!!! Backed w/the slightly extended version of "Darling Nikki" & another B-side.......WOW!!!!

[Edited 6/30/17 19:08pm]

Anyone else notice the intro 2 "Our Destiny/Roadhouse Garden" is tacked onto "The Ladder" (from AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY)?

woogiebear said:

Computer Love shoulda been a 12" back in tha Day!!! Backed w/the slightly extended version of "Darling Nikki" & another B-side.......WOW!!!!

Computer Love was a 12" back in the day. That song was on heavy rotation in my house in 1986.

I'm not sure Computer Blue would have had much mainstream impact as a single, but I would have been ecstatic if it'd been released in its full form on a 12". It would have only added to his status at that time.

The reuse of the intro for The Ladder has been well documented, though it actually didn't click with me at first.

I just have to add to what some others had said about "Electric Intercourse" because I absolutely adore the live and rehearsal versions so many of us have heard. I was soooo hoping for a good quality studio recording of the live arrangement. So passionate, so sensual. <3 This studio version we have now is almost a completely different song to me. I like it, but it doesn't come close to the live version.

Anyway I have to say that as soon as Disc 2 started, goosebumps! It's so amazing we have these tracks in this quality. Thanks so much to all involved in getting these into our hands and ears!

airth said:

woogiebear said:

Computer Love shoulda been a 12" back in tha Day!!! Backed w/the slightly extended version of "Darling Nikki" & another B-side.......WOW!!!!

Computer Love was a 12" back in the day. That song was on heavy rotation in my house in 1986.

I'm not sure Computer Blue would have had much mainstream impact as a single, but I would have been ecstatic if it'd been released in its full form on a 12". It would have only added to his status at that time.

The reuse of the intro for The Ladder has been well documented, though it actually didn't click with me at first.

Sorry......I meant "Computer Blue"

Nice overall, but.....
Would have liked to have seen "All Day, All Night" on here since it was performed during that time.
Electric Intercourse. It's strange to hear people say they dug this studio version more than the live. I guess folks really live their own experience. Personally, the studio version is ok, but I never would have latched on to it like the live version or the band reheasals. I heard them in the mid 90's the first time,and was instantly hooked. I think people deserved to hear the live version on here as well. It's one of my favorite live performances by Prince. I find it interesting that Prince so dramatically reworked this song live only a month after the studio version. I put the live version up there with the Beautiful Ones. Would never say the same for the stuidio vers.
Our Destiny/Roadhouse Garden. Not digging these versions. Prince's versions live and in rehearsal were better. While Destiny is clearer and easier to understand with Lisa, it doesn't have the contrast that his version brings. Roadhouse is also a bit flat compared to the live version and rehearsals and it doesn't segue seemly from Destiny here. I think it would have been cool to include these on the disc as well. Again, I always dug those versions and these studio versions did nothing for me. Would have been good for the people to hear what intially grabbed the diehard fans..

I would have thrown in the reheasal of Noon Rendezvouse as well. It's mind blowing.
Just my take.

cracknbush said:

Nice overall, but.....
Would have liked to have seen "All Day, All Night" on here since it was performed during that time.
Electric Intercourse. It's strange to hear people say they dug this studio version more than the live. I guess folks really live their own experience. Personally, the studio version is ok, but I never would have latched on to it like the live version or the band reheasals. I heard them in the mid 90's the first time,and was instantly hooked. I think people deserved to hear the live version on here as well. It's one of my favorite live performances by Prince. I find it interesting that Prince so dramatically reworked this song live only a month after the studio version. I put the live version up there with the Beautiful Ones. Would never say the same for the stuidio vers.
Our Destiny/Roadhouse Garden. Not digging these versions. Prince's versions live and in rehearsal were better. While Destiny is clearer and easier to understand with Lisa, it doesn't have the contrast that his version brings. Roadhouse is also a bit flat compared to the live version and rehearsals and it doesn't segue seemly from Destiny here. I think it would have been cool to include these on the disc as well. Again, I always dug those versions and these studio versions did nothing for me. Would have been good for the people to hear what intially grabbed the diehard fans..

I would have thrown in the reheasal of Noon Rendezvouse as well. It's mind blowing.
Just my take.

I'd like to see them see official release--but I'd prefer live releases to be separated from studio tracks (yeah, I know Purple Rain's got live tracks already). I'm not sure, quite honestly, that they don't work better within the show, anyway--but that's how they grabbed us, anyway--not as isolated tracks. But I wanna see a lot of live releases, and that's probably not gonna happen. But I want studio releases of such tracks to get out, if they exist, so I'm glad they went the way they did (with the hope that the show will follow).

Having digested the disc now for about a week, I'd have to say I'm enjoying this all. Yet of the tracks I hadn't heard previously in some version -- Love and Sex, Velvet Kitty Cat, and Katrina's Paper Dolls -- only the first is knocking me on my butt.

Velvet and Katrina are competent, but sound a bit like giveaway tracks relative to most others I can immediately think of from this era. I've read that Velvet had been intended as a Vanity/Apollonia 6 track, and I think this plan would have worked best for Katrina, too... perhaps as a quaint little tune sang by Susan. Love and Sex, on the other hand, is a keeper; a Prince romp on par with nearly any from the Purple Rain period, classic Linn programming and all. I can't stop listening to it.

Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't conflicted about Love and Sex on one front: From the over-the-top intro... to the "Upper Room" references... to the shouted vocals and call-and-response play between Prince and the backing singers, Love and Sex is an unveiled riff on the African American liturgical tradition. (The Upper Room, from Christian literature, is the synagogue chamber in which the Last Supper, several of Jesus' post-resurrection appearances, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost are said to have occurred; elsewhere, as seems the case in this song, the term is used metaphorically as a reference to the Christian afterlife.) I'm not offended by this, but the naked parody -- and the utter tack of a song about a sexual throwdown in heaven -- seems almost too tongue-in-cheek to take seriously... even for Prince. I can see why there was never a project fitting for its release... though it may have worked thematically for performance during the Lovesexy tour.

[Edited 7/2/17 10:34am]

And I too would like to have seen All Day, All Night on this. G-Spot and Wednesday as well.

Neversin said:

BTW am I the only one who gets really fucking irritated by the piercingly loud hi-hat in "Wonderful Ass"?? As if it was remastered by an 80 year old who lost the ability to hear high frequency sounds and compensated by vision...

Neversin.

73 years old, actually.

Lammastide said:

And I too would like to have seen All Day, All Night on this. G-Spot and Wednesday as well.

I agree, A.D.A.N and g-spot would have been amazing. Id happily swap the dance electric for either.

In fact G-spot is the prince track above all others I wish would have been released.

Shame the vocal is so buried in the dance electric.

bluegangsta said:

Neversin said:

BTW am I the only one who gets really fucking irritated by the piercingly loud hi-hat in "Wonderful Ass"?? As if it was remastered by an 80 year old who lost the ability to hear high frequency sounds and compensated by vision...

Neversin.

73 years old, actually.

Well we will have something to look forward to when we are in the old folk's home and think this sound is the real deal !

gandorb said:

bluegangsta said:

73 years old, actually.

Well we will have something to look forward to when we are in the old folk's home and think this sound is the real deal !

At least the main album was remastered by a nineteen year old (that's how old Josh is, right?)--oh, wait. He's too young to remember how things really sounded before the loudness wars. Oh well.

woogiebear said:

NorthC said:

woogiebear said:

Anyone else notice the intro 2 "Our Destiny/Roadhouse Garden" is tacked onto "The Ladder" (from AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY)?

Yeah, I hear that too.

We all heard that! I'm wondering if anyone heard the 2 elements tacked onto Crystal Ball from We Can Fuck. No one responded yet, I think.

ufoclub said:

NorthC said:

woogiebear said: Yeah, I hear that too.

We all heard that! I'm wondering if anyone heard the 2 elements tacked onto Crystal Ball from We Can Fuck. No one responded yet, I think.

The Ladder strings is old news... On the other hand I don't know what made it from WCF to CB, can you explain?

In the end, and as I feared, this probably isn't a record I'll listen as much as I should have. Why? because I was pretty familiar with all but one song on that set, in one version or another. Nothing WB could have done here: bootleggers just have ruined it for us (and Prince for not opening the vault earlier). Just imagine the SHOCK this CD would be to us if not for bootlegs. Father's Song wouldn't be more or less different to our ears but it would be the first time we hear The Dance Electric with Prince vocals, the parts from We Can Fuck that didn't make it to GB would be entirely new to us, Computer Blue Hallway would have come as a complete revelation and we'd only know Possessed vaguely from the very different live version and the short snippet in the film. The 7 remaining tracks would be entirely, 100% new to our ears. When Crystal Ball was released in 98, I'd had most of the songs too, but for 6 years at most (and sounding much worse), but now it's been 25 years since I got my first bootlegs, and most have been reissued with great sound quality ever since...

So here I'm in this strange position where I've been familiar with some of those tracks for about 25 years, and all but one of the ones I wasn't have finally made their way to bootlegs over the course of the last few years. It's nice to have it all sounding nice, but no revolution. Lucky are those new fans who just realize now that father's Song was in Computer Blue or the strings from Our Destiny were on The Ladder. I wish I could hear this set with their innocent ears

In the end I now pray that songs totally unfamiliar to us will make the bulk of future releases, and that means that mostly post 1995 vault releases will be really interesting, since so much WB years has (and will) leak(ed).

NorthC said:

woogiebear said:

Anyone else notice the intro 2 "Our Destiny/Roadhouse Garden" is tacked onto "The Ladder" (from AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY)?

Yeah, I hear that too.

The strings were recorded for Our Destiny and then used later for The Ladder.

databank said:

In the end, and as I feared, this probably isn't a record I'll listen as much as I should have. Why? because I was pretty familiar with all but one song on that set, in one version or another. Nothing WB could have done here: bootleggers just have ruined it for us (and Prince for not opening the vault earlier). Just imagine the SHOCK this CD would be to us if not for bootlegs. Father's Song wouldn't be more or less different to our ears but it would be the first time we hear The Dance Electric with Prince vocals, the parts from We Can Fuck that didn't make it to GB would be entirely new to us, Computer Blue Hallway would have come as a complete revelation and we'd only know Possessed vaguely from the very different live version and the short snippet in the film. The 7 remaining tracks would be entirely, 100% new to our ears. When Crystal Ball was released in 98, I'd had most of the songs too, but for 6 years at most (and sounding much worse), but now it's been 25 years since I got my first bootlegs, and most have been reissued with great sound quality ever since...

So here I'm in this strange position where I've been familiar with some of those tracks for about 25 years, and all but one of the ones I wasn't have finally made their way to bootlegs over the course of the last few years. It's nice to have it all sounding nice, but no revolution. Lucky are those new fans who just realize now that father's Song was in Computer Blue or the strings from Our Destiny were on The Ladder. I wish I could hear this set with their innocent ears

In the end I now pray that songs totally unfamiliar to us will make the bulk of future releases, and that means that mostly post 1995 vault releases will be really interesting, since so much WB years has (and will) leak(ed).

I completely agree with your assessment. I don't think people realize how jaded thay have become about all the unreleased material, so when it is officially released they focus on the small details rather than enjoying the whole. It makes sense given that they have been enjoying the song for years, and were hoping for some exciting new element to appreciate.