SquirrelMeat said:

I actually saw the black album before I heard it.

Being a 17 year old Prince nut at the time, two weeks before its release date, my local WB rep (the guy who dropped the records round to the local stores outside of London), made his usual visit to my local store.

I used to skip college to meet him and was often rewarded with promo display goodies out the back of his estate car (he used to reward me with the big shop displays for ATWIAD, Parade etc).

At the begining of December his showed me a vinyl of the Black Album, telling me it was coming out in two weeks, Prince didn't want it promoted, but the label were telling the stores to push it as a Prince album anyway. Early viral marketing I guess.

He gave me the vinyl to examine, and showed me the order release sheet for two weeks ahead (it had 'Somebody' as the artist).

Being 17, I wanted to have it early to brag to fellow fans, so I offered him £15 for it, when the average price for an album at the time was £5.99. He thought about it and said I could have it for £20. I turned it down and said I'd wait two weeks.

Obviously events happened and I was kicking myself. I got a tape copy from Chris Dawson in January 88, as we'd become friends as I'd helped him and Eileen with photos to compile issue one of Controversy magazine 6 months before.

I got an orignal vinyl a few months later, but paid £150 for it. Sold it later for £2k.

Fascinating story and yet another element to corroborate established facts.

It's insane to think how much money you could now make selling that copy if you hadn't decided to save 20 pounds, you must have been so mad at yourself

I find it even more insane though that WB personnel would illegally sell advance copies just to make 20 bucks, God how men can be cheap

.

Kind of the same thing happened to me with Gold Nigga in 93. When I saw the CD on the stand at the end of the concert in Paris, I thought to myself I'll just wait until it gets released in stores so I can buy the cassette instead, because I was into cassettes at the time. I've cursed myself for that when I later realized that it would never be rereleased (it was eventually thru mail order, but minus one song) and that I'd missed the opportunity to put my hands on a rare collectible.

.

I also had received 3 copies of ONA in 2002. I gave one to one of my best friend who is also a Prince fan, and another to my girlfriend at the time who liked the album a lot. I don't regret it because I'm glad I made them happy, but I just didn't realize at all at the time that I was giving away things that would be worth hundreds of euros each 15 years later

Susan Rogers:

The Black Album was recorded right around that time - just setting aside a couple of days of studio time in order to make music to dance to at Sheila's birthday party. We'd been working really hard on Sign o' the Times - and the songs on Sign o' the Times, the lyrics are clever, the topics are deeper, more introspective than your typical dance music. Those songs require a bit of time to write and produce and record. So Prince needed a break from all that. He just wanted to make some funky dance music, because he wanted music to dance to at Sheila's party.

So he took some time and recorded all that fun stuff and then set it aside and forgot about it. We pressed some vinyl - we would go to Grundman Mastering right on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood - we'd have Bernie Grundman master it for us, press us some acetates. We would take a stack of these acetates to the party and the DJ could play them and we could dance to them.

It ultimately became The Black Album - I believe this is how it happened - after the R&B music press wasn't as favourable in their reviews of the Sign ' o the Times album, and Prince wanted to prove, 'yeah, I'm funky, I still do funk music, I'm still a funk musician'.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36111200

DEAD ON IT

[Verse 1]
Riding in my Thunderbird on the freeway
I turned on my radio to hear some music play
I got a silly rapper talking silly shit instead
And the only good rapper is one that's dead on it

[Chorus 1]
Uh, Dead on it

[Chorus 2]
Shall we go back? (Yeah!)
Let's go

[Verse 2]
Negros from Brooklyn play the bass pretty good
But the ones from Minneapolis play it like it oughta should
A magnum fro is better when you got a poof on it
And the to and fro is funky when the grease is dead on it

[Chorus 1]
(Funky dead on it)
Uh, dead (on it) on it

[Chorus 2]
Shall we go back? Let's go

[Chorus 1]
They dead on it, wow

[Verse 3]
See the rapper's problem usually stem from being tone deaf
Pack the house then try to sing
There won't be no one left (ha ha) (on it)
Parking lot's on fire, brothers peeling out of the town
They say in disgust, they singing their guts
Rapping done let us down (down down)
You got to be dead... on it

[Chorus 1]
Dead on it

(Dead)

[Vesre 4]
All the sisters like it when you lick them on the knees
Don't believe me? (no)
Try it once then stop, they'll be begging
Please, please, please (please, please, please)
Shoo be doo wa, dead on it
What does that have to do with the funk?
Nothing, but who's paying the bills?
If you don't want to lick my knees, I'm sure your mama will

Uh, because we, because we, because we dead on it
De, de- de- de- de- de- de, dead on it, on it

[Chorus 3]]
La, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la

[Verse 5]
My bed's a coffin, Dracula hasn't got shit on me
My nickname's Hell's-a-Popping, I'm badder than the Wicked Witch
I got a gold tooth, costs more than your house
I got a diamond ring on four fingers, each one the size of a mouse

[Chorus 1]
They dead, they dead on it, on it

[Chorus 3][x2]

[Verse 6]
Wait now, hang up, dial tone on the three
You know, you know, I'm busy, to scizzy
Can't nobody fuck with me

[Chorus 1]
Because I'm dead (on it, on it, on it)
On it
Shoo be doo wa wa, dead on it
Dead on it, on it, on it

[Outro]
Dang, dang, dang, dang, (dead on it) shoo be dang, dang, dang, dead on it
Dead, dead on it

While specific recording dates are not known, basic tracks were recorded in March 1987 at Prince's Galpin Blvd Home Studio, Chanhassen, MN, USA (during the same set of sessions that produced Cindy C. and Nine). -PrinceVault

Man. This album was INTENSE! The tracks are scorching to me!!

I mean, he came up with it as just dance music but the shit was as intense as anything off of say '1999'.

P didn't play around. Even when you think he's playing around, (especially the track Dead On It), he's still got biting commentary to say(in Dead On It, about rappers).

I'm one of those who doesn't see 'When 2 R In Love' as out of place on this album; it fits fine to me. It's a ballad on a Prince album; it works.

Le Grind is off the charts in terms of the funk and screams and musical layers of shit; so is Cindy C, especially the guitar part crescendo with the horns. Bob George is a mind fuck; You've never heard Prince as off the wall as he was up to this point on that song.

Superfunki...my favorite in terms of the pure insanity of it all! The hardcore beat and crazy laugh at the beginning that never lets up in terms of intensity. I usually do skip 2 Nigs, but I listened to it recently; even that one has a lot going on in it.

Rockhard...another favorite of mine. Guitar is fucking flames, along with the slow drums. More than ever, you get what Prince said when he was quoted as saying that "funk is the space or moments of silence or something" that makes a track funky.

I love the whole thing! I love it now, more than I did when it came out in the 90's. Whoever turned up the volume of the tracks/maybe secretly remastered on TIDAL, THANK YOU! Any P I get nowadays, I treasure even more.

[Edited 11/29/17 11:53am]

williamb610 said:

Man. This album was INTENSE! The tracks are scorching to me!!

I mean, he came up with it as just dance music but the shit was as intense as anything off of say '1999'.

P didn't play around. Even when you think he's playing around, (especially the track Bob George), he's still got biting commentary to say(in Bob George, about rappers).

I'm one of those who doesn't see 'When 2 R In Love' as out of place on this album; it fits fine to me. It's a ballad on a Prince album; it works.

Le Grind is off the charts in terms of the funk and screams and musical layers of shit; so is Cindy C, especially the guitar part crescendo with the horns. Bob George is a mind fuck; You've never heard Prince as off the wall as he was up to this point on that song.

Superfunki...my favorite in terms of the pure insanity of it all! The hardcore beat and crazy laugh at the beginning that never lets up in terms of intensity. I usually do skip 2 Nigs, but I listened to it recently; even that one has a lot going on in it.

Rockhard...another favorite of mine. Guitar is fucking flames, along with the slow drums. More than ever, you get what Prince said when he was quoted as saying that "funk is the space or moments of silence or something" that makes a track funky.

I love the whole thing! I love it now, more than I did when it came out in the 90's. Whoever turned up the volume of the tracks/maybe secretly remastered on TIDAL, THANK YOU! Any P I get nowadays, I treasure even more.

This is possibly the greatest post I have ever read. Thank you.

SimonCharles said:

williamb610 said:

Man. This album was INTENSE! The tracks are scorching to me!!

I mean, he came up with it as just dance music but the shit was as intense as anything off of say '1999'.

P didn't play around. Even when you think he's playing around, (especially the track Bob George), he's still got biting commentary to say(in Bob George, about rappers).

I'm one of those who doesn't see 'When 2 R In Love' as out of place on this album; it fits fine to me. It's a ballad on a Prince album; it works.

Le Grind is off the charts in terms of the funk and screams and musical layers of shit; so is Cindy C, especially the guitar part crescendo with the horns. Bob George is a mind fuck; You've never heard Prince as off the wall as he was up to this point on that song.

Superfunki...my favorite in terms of the pure insanity of it all! The hardcore beat and crazy laugh at the beginning that never lets up in terms of intensity. I usually do skip 2 Nigs, but I listened to it recently; even that one has a lot going on in it.

Rockhard...another favorite of mine. Guitar is fucking flames, along with the slow drums. More than ever, you get what Prince said when he was quoted as saying that "funk is the space or moments of silence or something" that makes a track funky.

I love the whole thing! I love it now, more than I did when it came out in the 90's. Whoever turned up the volume of the tracks/maybe secretly remastered on TIDAL, THANK YOU! Any P I get nowadays, I treasure even more.

This is possibly the greatest post I have ever read. Thank you.

No problem, family. I love Prince! Can you tell?

SimonCharles said:

williamb610 said:

Man. This album was INTENSE! The tracks are scorching to me!!

I mean, he came up with it as just dance music but the shit was as intense as anything off of say '1999'.

P didn't play around. Even when you think he's playing around, (especially the track Bob George), he's still got biting commentary to say(in Bob George, about rappers).

I'm one of those who doesn't see 'When 2 R In Love' as out of place on this album; it fits fine to me. It's a ballad on a Prince album; it works.

Le Grind is off the charts in terms of the funk and screams and musical layers of shit; so is Cindy C, especially the guitar part crescendo with the horns. Bob George is a mind fuck; You've never heard Prince as off the wall as he was up to this point on that song.

Superfunki...my favorite in terms of the pure insanity of it all! The hardcore beat and crazy laugh at the beginning that never lets up in terms of intensity. I usually do skip 2 Nigs, but I listened to it recently; even that one has a lot going on in it.

Rockhard...another favorite of mine. Guitar is fucking flames, along with the slow drums. More than ever, you get what Prince said when he was quoted as saying that "funk is the space or moments of silence or something" that makes a track funky.

I love the whole thing! I love it now, more than I did when it came out in the 90's. Whoever turned up the volume of the tracks/maybe secretly remastered on TIDAL, THANK YOU! Any P I get nowadays, I treasure even more.

This is possibly the greatest post I have ever read. Thank you.

OldFriends4Sale said:

SimonCharles said:

This is possibly the greatest post I have ever read. Thank you.

Back at ya, 'OldFriends4Sale'! Your name is one of my most favorite songs by P, the original bare bones version with just bass, drums, piano and keyboard. Hopefully, the estate will release the original version of Old Friends, one day; maybe on a Parade or Around the World Deluxe.

One can wish...

bigd74 said:

the bit that confuses me is why cancel an album due to having a bad feeling, then a year later on tour for the next album playing 3 or 4 songs from it.

Prince wanted to release the Black Album at Christmas and then release Lovesexy in the Summer of 88 as a Died in Sin/ Born Again type of revelation and someone told him that WB wasn't going for it.

You get Lovesexy in Spring 88 along with the Black part of the concert seguing into the rebirth/Lovesexy part.

williamb610 said:

Man. This album was INTENSE! The tracks are scorching to me!!

I mean, he came up with it as just dance music but the shit was as intense as anything off of say '1999'.

P didn't play around. Even when you think he's playing around, (especially the track Bob George), he's still got biting commentary to say(in Bob George, about rappers).

I'm one of those who doesn't see 'When 2 R In Love' as out of place on this album; it fits fine to me. It's a ballad on a Prince album; it works.

Le Grind is off the charts in terms of the funk and screams and musical layers of shit; so is Cindy C, especially the guitar part crescendo with the horns. Bob George is a mind fuck; You've never heard Prince as off the wall as he was up to this point on that song.

Superfunki...my favorite in terms of the pure insanity of it all! The hardcore beat and crazy laugh at the beginning that never lets up in terms of intensity. I usually do skip 2 Nigs, but I listened to it recently; even that one has a lot going on in it.

Rockhard...another favorite of mine. Guitar is fucking flames, along with the slow drums. More than ever, you get what Prince said when he was quoted as saying that "funk is the space or moments of silence or something" that makes a track funky.

I love the whole thing! I love it now, more than I did when it came out in the 90's. Whoever turned up the volume of the tracks/maybe secretly remastered on TIDAL, THANK YOU! Any P I get nowadays, I treasure even more.

The only thing you forgot here was .....

So you found me
Good, I'm glad
This is Prince
The cool of cools
Some of you not know this
But some of you may know
Some of you may not want to know
We are here to do service
Please don't try to stop us
For we come regardless
For we are strong as we are intelligent

So come vibe with us
Welcome to the Funk Bible
The new testament

muleFunk said:

williamb610 said:

Man. This album was INTENSE! The tracks are scorching to me!!

I mean, he came up with it as just dance music but the shit was as intense as anything off of say '1999'.

P didn't play around. Even when you think he's playing around, (especially the track Bob George), he's still got biting commentary to say(in Bob George, about rappers).

I'm one of those who doesn't see 'When 2 R In Love' as out of place on this album; it fits fine to me. It's a ballad on a Prince album; it works.

Le Grind is off the charts in terms of the funk and screams and musical layers of shit; so is Cindy C, especially the guitar part crescendo with the horns. Bob George is a mind fuck; You've never heard Prince as off the wall as he was up to this point on that song.

Superfunki...my favorite in terms of the pure insanity of it all! The hardcore beat and crazy laugh at the beginning that never lets up in terms of intensity. I usually do skip 2 Nigs, but I listened to it recently; even that one has a lot going on in it.

Rockhard...another favorite of mine. Guitar is fucking flames, along with the slow drums. More than ever, you get what Prince said when he was quoted as saying that "funk is the space or moments of silence or something" that makes a track funky.

I love the whole thing! I love it now, more than I did when it came out in the 90's. Whoever turned up the volume of the tracks/maybe secretly remastered on TIDAL, THANK YOU! Any P I get nowadays, I treasure even more.

The only thing you forgot here was .....

So you found me
Good, I'm glad
This is Prince
The cool of cools
Some of you not know this
But some of you may know
Some of you may not want to know
We are here to do service
Please don't try to stop us
For we come regardless
For we are strong as we are intelligent

So come vibe with us
Welcome to the Funk Bible
The new testament

Thanks, mule!

Hats off to the maniac that actually got what Prince was saying.
I can picture the guy rewinding his K7 over and over.
Mind-blowing artists get mind-blowing fans.

Rebirth Of The Flesh was suppose to be on the Black Album but he changed his mind and put Le Grind in its place. They played snippets of it in a promo package Prince sent to the then popular syndicated radio show Radioscope. This was before he cancelled the album after that bad Ecstacy trip

SanDiegoFunkDaddy said:

Rebirth Of The Flesh was suppose to be on the Black Album but he changed his mind and put Le Grind in its place. They played snippets of it in a promo package Prince sent to the then popular syndicated radio show Radioscope. This was before he cancelled the album after that bad Ecstacy trip

It would have made sense to have ROTF as an opener, however this is the first time I ever hear of any such configuration, what is your source?

.

It's also unclear to me what they played on Radioscope: Snippets of the whole record? Snippets of ROTF?

.

If that radio show is your only source could you please be more specific (as far as you can recall, I realize it was 30 years ago): What exactly was played? What exactly was said? And how long exactly before the intended release date (it would have to have been quite a while before, if it was an early config)?

.

I don't mean to doubt your word or anything, but I find it extremely unlikely that a promo copy of an alternate configuration may have made it to a radio station without anyone, Uptown and Princevault included, having ever documented any such configuration or event. It's not unthinkable your memories may trick you (ROTF may, for example, have been played on the same night but from a bootleg, and it may also have been after the album's canceled release).

SanDiegoFunkDaddy said:

Rebirth Of The Flesh was suppose to be on the Black Album but he changed his mind and put Le Grind in its place. They played snippets of it in a promo package Prince sent to the then popular syndicated radio show Radioscope. This was before he cancelled the album after that bad Ecstacy trip

It totally fits. I have a problem with ROTF, I can't attach it to either Parade or SOTT.
Even on Camille it is kinda off, all is kinda laid-back, and I think Shockadelica is a better grinder.
I hear the same spirit. If it's true, it belongs as TBA opening (as far as album track-lists go. We know that Prince did not necessarily record things for a particular record in mind). But I would not ditch The Grind.

1725topp said:

Loved it when I got it on cassette in '88. My purple friends and I played it like it was a heavily suppressed government secret. It was so damn funky and the perfect bridge between SOTT and Lovesexy. Prince was clearly the baddest mofo on the planet, and I didn’t need to waste my time talkin’ to fools who thought otherwise.

nuff said

OldFriends4Sale said:

SimonCharles said:

This is possibly the greatest post I have ever read. Thank you.

do we need an orger post of the year contest?

luvsexy4all said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

do we need an orger post of the year contest?

Could be that we do...except, that wasn't just post of the year.

databank said:

SanDiegoFunkDaddy said:

Rebirth Of The Flesh was suppose to be on the Black Album but he changed his mind and put Le Grind in its place. They played snippets of it in a promo package Prince sent to the then popular syndicated radio show Radioscope. This was before he cancelled the album after that bad Ecstacy trip

It would have made sense to have ROTF as an opener, however this is the first time I ever hear of any such configuration, what is your source?

.

It's also unclear to me what they played on Radioscope: Snippets of the whole record? Snippets of ROTF?

.

If that radio show is your only source could you please be more specific (as far as you can recall, I realize it was 30 years ago): What exactly was played? What exactly was said? And how long exactly before the intended release date (it would have to have been quite a while before, if it was an early config)?

.

I don't mean to doubt your word or anything, but I find it extremely unlikely that a promo copy of an alternate configuration may have made it to a radio station without anyone, Uptown and Princevault included, having ever documented any such configuration or event. It's not unthinkable your memories may trick you (ROTF may, for example, have been played on the same night but from a bootleg, and it may also have been after the album's canceled release).

That's what I feard: BS.

What was Sheila doing on the Tonight show then? Did she perform?

.

.

OldFriends4Sale said:

12.1.1987

the Tonight Show

during the SOTT period I never saw Sheila in a black 1 legged outfit, and the SOTT period was over at this point. A Purple double kick drum set. Interesting idea that they were gearing up for the Black album era

GaryMF said:

What was Sheila doing on the Tonight show then? Did she perform?

.

.

OldFriends4Sale said:

12.1.1987

the Tonight Show

during the SOTT period I never saw Sheila in a black 1 legged outfit, and the SOTT period was over at this point. A Purple double kick drum set. Interesting idea that they were gearing up for the Black album era

so freakin hot....

I believe she talked a little about what they were doing/about to do in the camp, and she did play some new 'purple' double kick drums

GaryMF said:

What was Sheila doing on the Tonight show then? Did she perform?

.

.

OldFriends4Sale said:

12.1.1987

the Tonight Show

during the SOTT period I never saw Sheila in a black 1 legged outfit, and the SOTT period was over at this point. A Purple double kick drum set. Interesting idea that they were gearing up for the Black album era

I would love to see that footage of Sheila!

When 2 R In Love

While specific recording dates are not known, basic tracking took place in early October 1987 at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, MN as the final track recorded for "The Black Album" (during the same set of sessions that produced U, I Guess I'm Crazy and Take This Beat). -PrinceVault

How in the hell did he have time to come up with all of those songs in such a short period of time? That is what I always wondered...2 nigs, le Grind, Bob George, Cindy C...they all sound like they took some time and effort to conjure up including background vocals, horns drums over artificial drumming...mastering...damn!!!

Serve it up, Frankie

This is precisely what I intend to do, honey

Honey, do you know I let Robert cut my hair this morning?
(Honey, look at this one here) (I'm looking Joe trying to see)

Oh girl, where'd you get those shoes?

You know he had me looking so bad (Honey, she's so free)
I'm so tired

These are "come-and-fuck-me" pumps (Who, Robert?)

Maurice thinks: (Mm, I think that's right, honey)

Go on up to her, say something

Maurice, what, what can I serve you? (You mean he's male?)

Baby, I swear to God if you don't kiss them
I'm going to kick your super natural ass!

Frankie, play something, bitch!
(Squirrel Meat!)

Uh! Don't try it!

Cat, what's happening babe? (Bitch, would you play something?)

Get out of my face! (Honey, it's not that type of party)
(Talk to me, talk to me - do you remember me?)

What cha mean? (Honey, he could teach you the answer to life)

Honey, you see these pumps? (Bitch!)
(Answer? Honey, you ain't gonna quit)

I want to, I want to: (Who you calling bitch? Black Ho bitch!)
I want you to meet some friends of mine (Bitch!)
(Frankie, play somethig - shit!)
(Who you calling ho bitch? Black ho bitch!)
No, no - You'll like them
They're, they're musicians

2 nigs united for West Compton [x2]




Dont let Robert cut your hair hunny

^ Classic dialogue, crazy, dope music . Y ppl no like, cuz it's instrumental?

OldFriends4Sale said:

12.1.1987

the Tonight Show

during the SOTT period I never saw Sheila in a black 1 legged outfit, and the SOTT period was over at this point. A Purple double kick drum set. Interesting idea that they were gearing up for the Black album era

didn't Patti LaBelle help design that outfit?