Strictly theorization for the sake of it, nothing more. My b.s. guess would be 70% of the vault's contents have been leaked over the years. There's just so much already out there. I'm hope I'm wrong. It would be a shame to have such secure measures taken to protect the vault's contents only to have whatever was in there be somehow circulated.

I often wonder, especially within the last couple of years of his life, if he himself leaked stuff for the diehards to enjoy. If he was so anti-contract, anti-will and all that, what difference would it be to him to let some of the vault's contents leak, especially if he wasn't much long for the world?

More and more you hear of better sourced stuff circulating out there. Where is it all coming from? Makes you wonder. It's the source quality of stuff that seems to be more evident in recent years. Thoughts?

spookyelectric23 said:

Strictly theorization for the sake of it, nothing more. My b.s. guess would be 70% of the vault's contents have been leaked over the years. There's just so much already out there. I'm hope I'm wrong. It would be a shame to have such secure measures taken to protect the vault's contents only to have whatever was in there be somehow circulated.

I often wonder, especially within the last couple of years of his life, if he himself leaked stuff for the diehards to enjoy. If he was so anti-contract, anti-will and all that, what difference would it be to him to let some of the vault's contents leak, especially if he wasn't much long for the world?

More and more you hear of better sourced stuff circulating out there. Where is it all coming from? Makes you wonder. It's the source quality of stuff that seems to be more evident in recent years. Thoughts?

I suspect you are way, way out. When we hear of all the stuff that he Brent Fischer says he and his father added strings that wasn't released, or all the unreleased Stringenius stuff, or all the stuff that Marcus Anderson talks, plus the number of albums Morris Hayes said Prince recorded during his 2011-13 album hiatus - I think it's fair to say there is a HUGE amount of stuff we have yet to hear, just when it comes to studio recordings.

One question is - how many of these songs were finished, and if not, how close to being finished. If they were at the stage of the Deliverance stuff (I, for one, can't tell what was later added by Ian Boxill) - then it just needs to be treated respectfully and we're all good.

leecaldon said:

I suspect you are way, way out.

As do I.

I suspect we've heard a significant part of the "golden years" output, or at least know about these tracks (e.g. we've known about "Wednesday" for decades but it only recently leaked). I don't immediately recall any completely new songs appearing in recent years, although it is possible that there still are undocumented tracks. Uptown et al have documented this era in-depth and plenty of those involved have talked to them on and off the record. Note that I'm talking about completely new songs, not alternate versions of known songs.

.

Post-1995 is another matter. Security tightened and insiders at most hinted about projects or songs. IIRC Steve Parke shared a previously unknown Emancipation configuration a couple of months ago that contained at least one track title that was completely unknown.

I think the "WB" era stuff is around 50%. The post WB stuff is far less 20% and I am guessing on that because I do not believe we have a good idea of what was recorded. I can only base my guess on what people have hinted as what was recorded.

Cataloguing the Vault will be a lengthy and costly process. I am curious not only to the contents, but the quality and completeness of the material. It would be a shame if the earlier matereial is damaged and cannot be salvaged.

BartVanHemelen said:

I suspect we've heard a significant part of the "golden years" output, or at least know about these tracks (e.g. we've known about "Wednesday" for decades but it only recently leaked). I don't immediately recall any completely new songs appearing in recent years, although it is possible that there still are undocumented tracks. Uptown et al have documented this era in-depth and plenty of those involved have talked to them on and off the record. Note that I'm talking about completely new songs, not alternate versions of known songs.

.

Post-1995 is another matter. Security tightened and insiders at most hinted about projects or songs. IIRC Steve Parke shared a previously unknown Emancipation configuration a couple of months ago that contained at least one track title that was completely unknown.

Was 9 To 5 People a title people had heard of before it leaked?

BartVanHemelen said:

BartVanHemelen said:

I suspect we've heard a significant part of the "golden years" output, or at least know about these tracks (e.g. we've known about "Wednesday" for decades but it only recently leaked). I don't immediately recall any completely new songs appearing in recent years, although it is possible that there still are undocumented tracks. Uptown et al have documented this era in-depth and plenty of those involved have talked to them on and off the record. Note that I'm talking about completely new songs, not alternate versions of known songs.

.

Post-1995 is another matter. Security tightened and insiders at most hinted about projects or songs. IIRC Steve Parke shared a previously unknown Emancipation configuration a couple of months ago that contained at least one track title that was completely unknown.

I agree completely (though I live in hope that there is a vault full of new material). I'd love to hear some very recent, prior to his death new stuff that he'd been working on if there is any.

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

BartVanHemelen said:

I suspect we've heard a significant part of the "golden years" output, or at least know about these tracks (e.g. we've known about "Wednesday" for decades but it only recently leaked). I don't immediately recall any completely new songs appearing in recent years, although it is possible that there still are undocumented tracks. Uptown et al have documented this era in-depth and plenty of those involved have talked to them on and off the record. Note that I'm talking about completely new songs, not alternate versions of known songs.

.

Post-1995 is another matter. Security tightened and insiders at most hinted about projects or songs. IIRC Steve Parke shared a previously unknown Emancipation configuration a couple of months ago that contained at least one track title that was completely unknown.

Was 9 To 5 People a title people had heard of before it leaked?

.

http://www.princevault.co...on=history

love2thenines2003 said:

I think that.....hum my guess is that etc.... few months ago even the specialists of Prince's music did not even know there were a studio version of Electric Intercourse and a full orchestrated version of Father's song....

.

So? We knew those songs existed. Was it a surprise to hear an alternate version? Sure. And I suppose we'll get plenty more. But completely unknown songs from the 1980s? That's going to be rare, I suspect.

BartVanHemelen said:

there were 35 completed unreleased albums mentioned in the 90's ..

I agree with Bart.

There will no doubt be a few surprises from the golden years, but I would have thought that most have been, at the very least, documented, even if they have not been heard. A few dozen might have slipped the net.

For xxample, I'm not expecting 1999 II to appear with mostly unknown material. It's likely to have an throwaway statement and if something was tracked in that era, its going to contain the both vault tracks already documented and tracks that eventually found their way onto albums, b-sides and proteges.

If there is an era that more material might surface, I would say its the 79-81; where studios were erratic and physical information harder to come by.

I suspect that maybe about 30-40% of the Warner recorded material has leaked and maybe a good 10-15% of the post Warner recorded material has leaked up to this point. Overall, I think that it's 25-35% of the vault that has leaked over the years. This is so much to consider when discussing recordings in The Vault. This is still lots of recordings of songs in the studio as well as live recordings to consider and did I mention those rehearsal jams? There's still lots of soundboard recordings that has not leaked from both the Warner years and post Warner years. The recordings post Warner years has been locked away for many years and little has leaked from that time considering that this is 20 years of stuff.

[Edited 8/3/17 15:32pm]

[Edited 12/18/17 8:53am]

luvsexy4all said:

Virtually nothing post WB has leaked: a few Emancipation outtakes and a handful of other tracks (maybe 5 at the very most?), so I'd say more like 0,3% of post WB material has leaked.

Regarding WB songs IDK. There's a reasonable quantity of songs that are known to exist but uncirculating (we could actually count 'em from Pvault), probably more unheard songs than we suspect (I was pretty baffled when I recently learned that 2 Musicology songs dated back to the mid-90's, among other discoveries) but I doubt it goes beyond a few dozens. On the other hand recent leaks and PR Deluxe have proven, if nothing else, that there must exist a ridiculous amount of alternate versions and recordings of known songs. I wouldn't dare to make an estimate in terms of percentage, because I'd probably be dead wrong.

Revolution81 said:

4 lust was completely unknown, until Jill leaked it a few years ago

And the fact that a second, entirely different version of it was revealed to exist last year, produced by a top notch British producer outside of the confines of Paisley Park, and yet no one knew about it, makes your example even more significant

Also, nowadays there's ways to clean up music with online recording software, "remastering" things, boosting the levels here, adjusting the treble or mid-range there.. That may account for why some versions sound so much better than others. It does seem that the majority of his early to late '80s stuff has been leaked in abundance. I do need to get into his post-1996 calatog a lot more. I'd be lying if I said I listened to everything from every era. I should. I'll get there, somehow, little by little.. Even so, it's awesome that he was as prolific as he was and that you can hear so much unreleased stuff. Even his works in progress are interesting. Gives you a fly on the wall vantage point of hearing where he was at at a given time when creating songs. I just dug it when he had the Revolution around. Lisa's singing voice, to me, is as identifiable and part of Prince's sound at the time as his own voice was. I began to fall off following him from new record to new record after 'Emancipation'. It all just became too bizarre and hard for me to follow at the time. Even though he's always was the main man, the boss, I still enjoyed him best when he collaborated with the Revolution. To each their own, as the good saying goes. Peace.

[Edited 8/4/17 10:41am]

If you listen to the Morris Hayes interview, he mentions 5 complete songs from the 80's that were better than Purple Rain, and he only heard them that one time when P played them for him. He also mentions that P always mixed things up and recorded everything. My guess would be that there are many, many more surprises waiting.

Misslink88 said:

If you listen to the Morris Hayes interview, he mentions 5 complete songs from the 80's that were better than Purple Rain, and he only heard them that one time when P played them for him. He also mentions that P always mixed things up and recorded everything. My guess would be that there are many, many more surprises waiting.

I, like many others, would like to hear those tracks. Too bad titles or more information was not revealed. Thanks for the information.

leecaldon said:

dodger said:

leecaldon said:

I suspect you are way, way out. When we hear of all the stuff that he Brent Fischer says he and his father added strings that wasn't released, or all the unreleased Stringenius stuff, or all the stuff that Marcus Anderson talks, plus the number of albums Morris Hayes said Prince recorded during his 2011-13 album hiatus - I think it's fair to say there is a HUGE amount of stuff we have yet to hear, just when it comes to studio recordings.

One question is - how many of these songs were finished, and if not, how close to being finished. If they were at the stage of the Deliverance stuff (I, for one, can't tell what was later added by Ian Boxill) - then it just needs to be treated respectfully and we're all good.

Didn't one of 3EG also say they recorded something like 200 songs for Plectrum Electrum. I guess some may be alternate versions as The Breakdown and That Girl Thang were mentioned. . There must be a shit load of alternate versions, one I've always been keen to hear is the rock version of Solo that Michael B spoke of

I thought they said they learnt (eg rehearsed) 200 songs. I assumed it was to be able to turn it on live. Didn't Hannah specifically mention learning tracks like Lets Work?

My guess is that they learnt 200 from the back catalogue AND recorded them, but in the context of live studio recordings, like much of the Plectrum Electrum album. In that contextm there could be dozens of versions of certain tracks.

SquirrelMeat said:

spookyelectric23 said:

Also, nowadays there's ways to clean up music with online recording software, "remastering" things, boosting the levels here, adjusting the treble or mid-range there..

.

Do you seriously think there weren't Prince fans with access to (semi-)professional recording equipment in the past? FYI the boot of The Dream Factory was T's excellent work in cleaning up a cassette source. His 12" collection was and is legendary for its sound quality. There's several of such people and they've been around for a long time. Ditto for video work, hence the bootleg DVD versions of the 1985 Syracuse gig being as good or better than WBRs official release.

Not worth an attempt to begin to speculate/guess the %age. When little gems like Yah U know or the Deliverance EP pop up the mind truly boggles as to what remains unreleased across his entire career.

MIRvmn said:

luvsexy4all said:

there were 35 completed unreleased albums mentioned in the 90's ..

So with those 35 albums + every unreleased album he made since the 90's it should be somewhere around 40-50 unreleased albums

39 mentioned at first Celebration with artwork, liner notes and ready for release at any moment and that vault had 1000+ songs and at that time was going thru songs and trying to place them into configuration to make albums. That was late 90s.

nelcp777 said:

Misslink88 said:

If you listen to the Morris Hayes interview, he mentions 5 complete songs from the 80's that were better than Purple Rain, and he only heard them that one time when P played them for him. He also mentions that P always mixed things up and recorded everything. My guess would be that there are many, many more surprises waiting.

I, like many others, would like to hear those tracks. Too bad titles or more information was not revealed. Thanks for the information.

He did mention another song "Born to Die".