Does anyone know anything about the unreleased album Madrid to Chicago? Has anyone heard it? Who knew Prince spent so much time in the Windy City??? This is what Prince Vault says about the song/album page(s):

Madrid 2 Chicago is an unreleased album by announced as an exclusive CD available to NPG Music Club members (along with Xenophobia, Last December and The Very Best Of )....The tracks Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe, released through the NPG Music Club in January 2002, were announced as coming from the album. No other tracks are known, but the album was to be credited to , indicating that the album was completed before reverted to using the name Prince in May 2000.

While specific recording dates are not known, initial tracking took place in 1998, most likely at Paisley Park Studios, Chanhassen, MN, USA. The released version leads directly into the track Breathe (released on the same day, and also planned for Madrid 2 Chicago), indicating that they may have been recorded during the same sessions. The track was credited upon release to , even though it was released after Prince reverted back to his original stage name, as the track was recorded while using the name . The track's title (and its lyrics) come from the return flight Prince often took while Mayte lived temporarily in Spain.

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Here are the lyrics, which definitely bring to mind Rude Boy Prince.

Madrid 2 Chicago

Madrid 2 Chicago
Nothing but U on the mind
Bills 2 pay, my hairdresser's gay
And the present proves there's no time (Time)

3 pillow couch in a dark brown shade
Another misinterpretation and I still got it made (Made)
How am I gonna make this connection when I-I got nothing but U'
(Nothing but eatin' that pussy)

I got U on my mind, U on my mind
Madrid 2 Chicago
I got U on my mind, U on my mind
Nothing but U on my mind (Hey)

Transfer a million dollars 2 gold
The opposite of ivory color of your thighs
Is molded into my mind
Like the secret code of Egypt
And I love U, said I love U, I love U, I love U
Madrid 2 Chicago
And there's nothing but U on my mind (Mind)
U, baby

Madrid 2 Chicago
U on my mind
Madrid 2 Chicago
Got U on my mind
Madrid 2 Chicago
U, U

(Da da, da da, da da, da da)
U, oh, oh, U on my mind (Madrid 2 Chicago, Madrid 2 Chicago)
Got U on the mind (Madrid 2 Chicago, Madrid 2 Chicago)
Oh, I can't stop thinking about U baby

Madrid 2 Chicago
(Madrid 2 Chicago, Madrid 2 Chicago)
U, U, U, U, U
(Madrid 2 Chicago, Madrid 2 Chicago)
Oh, nothing, nothing but U on my mind, yah (U on my mind, on my mind)
Ooh, oh yes, as soon as I see U baby
I'm gonna put my tongue right there, ooh
Please fasten your seatbelts
We're making our final approach in...

©NPG Music Club

I don't think anything has been heard of the album beyond the two tracks (Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe) released at the end of the monthly NPG Music Club. If you haven't heard them, you can find them out there pretty easily.

Prince talked about "Madrid 2 Chicago" being about the flight from their home in Spain back to Minneapolis, by way of Chicago. He was entertaining his two women - Mayte and his music.

TrivialPursuit said:

Prince talked about "Madrid 2 Chicago" being about the flight from their home in Spain back to Minneapolis, by way of Chicago. He was entertaining his two women - Mayte and his music.

Do you happen to have any link(s) to when Prince talked about the song? The lyrics are a bit confusing to me. If he's singing about Mayte, you would think the title would depict Madrid as the destination instead of the departure point. Also, when he says, "The opposite of ivory color of your thighs is molded into my mind," that seems to suggest that the object of his affection has dark skin." Really, I'm left wondering if his "connection" in Chicago is about more than a flight layover.

FlyOnTheWall said:

Marco81 said:

ManOWar was originally on it, before it was placed on Rave. I think it's in one of the recent books that came out...

I wasn't aware of this. It must have been an early configuration of the album or an early version of ManOWar: since Prince planned to release the album at some point in 2002, it's unlikely the exact same song would have been featured on the album at that stage.

.

M2C remains my holy grail to this day but as far as I know, no one's ever heard it and it's not in the hands of any elite taders, so we'll have to wait until the estate releases it.

he's trying to make this about Cat glover...watch...

Contrary to Prince Vault, I recall the NPGMC listing Madrid 2 Chicago as an unreleased album from 1998. At the time, we (the members) were asked to vote for The Rainbow Children or Madrid 2 Chicago as the next released. Based on the two songs released (the title track and 'Breathe') members ended up choosing The Rainbow Children as they felt songs such as 'The Digital Garden' represented a change in direction from Prince and seemed more experimental.

laurarichardson said:

FlyOnTheWall said:

Do you happen to have any link(s) to when Prince talked about the song? The lyrics are a bit confusing to me. If he's singing about Mayte, you would think the title would depict Madrid as the destination instead of the departure point. Also, when he says, "The opposite of ivory color of your thighs is molded into my mind," that seems to suggest that the object of his affection has dark skin." Really, I'm left wondering if his "connection" in Chicago is about more than a flight layover.

—He is still thinking about her after he left and cannot not wait to return for more of her. Mayte skin was not Ivory she was a brown skin women he is thinking about her brown skin.

wasn't the Ivory Tower in A Love Bizarre representing Prince's pénis. <-I had to type that in French so it wasn't offensive

Swallow the pride and joy of the ivory tower

FlyOnTheWall said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Prince talked about "Madrid 2 Chicago" being about the flight from their home in Spain back to Minneapolis, by way of Chicago. He was entertaining his two women - Mayte and his music.

Do you happen to have any link(s) to when Prince talked about the song? The lyrics are a bit confusing to me. If he's singing about Mayte, you would think the title would depict Madrid as the destination instead of the departure point. Also, when he says, "The opposite of ivory color of your thighs is molded into my mind," that seems to suggest that the object of his affection has dark skin." Really, I'm left wondering if his "connection" in Chicago is about more than a flight layover.

Is it possible that they represent the feminine aspect of creating music?

.

A lot of people have talked about music as a womans body or sexual parts

.

The Roots band have a song called Act Too(Love of My Life) where they sing of the evolution of rap/hip hop as a woman having various sexual experiences

FlyOnTheWall said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Prince talked about "Madrid 2 Chicago" being about the flight from their home in Spain back to Minneapolis, by way of Chicago. He was entertaining his two women - Mayte and his music.

Do you happen to have any link(s) to when Prince talked about the song? The lyrics are a bit confusing to me. If he's singing about Mayte, you would think the title would depict Madrid as the destination instead of the departure point. Also, when he says, "The opposite of ivory color of your thighs is molded into my mind," that seems to suggest that the object of his affection has dark skin." Really, I'm left wondering if his "connection" in Chicago is about more than a flight layover.

It's explained more here: http://prince.org/msg/7/323557

Some have said it was about Robin Power, but hell no. not even close. Prince said it was about Mayte and the flight on the NPGMC site. There used to be a little Q&A section on NPGMC and he made a note about the song.

OperatingThetan said:

Contrary to Prince Vault, I recall the NPGMC listing Madrid 2 Chicago as an unreleased album from 1998. At the time, we (the members) were asked to vote for The Rainbow Children or Madrid 2 Chicago as the next released. Based on the two songs released (the title track and 'Breathe') members ended up choosing The Rainbow Children as they felt songs such as 'The Digital Garden' represented a change in direction from Prince and seemed more experimental.

I believe you remember incorrectly.

The whole TRC album was released first thru NPGMC on 2001/10/16, then commercially on 2001/11/20 while Breathe and M2C were only made available, again thru NPGMC, on 2002/01/17.

IDK what it is that you remember, but it's not the chain of events you describe. If fans were ever asked to choose between those 2 records, I have no recollection of it from that time (I was a premium member) and it doesn't add-up with any further data I've come-up with while doing my chronology research ever since, neither does it add-up with the info on Princevault.

It's always possible that both them and I may have missed something, but highly unlikely. If you could come-up with more detailed information, with dates and specifics, we could re-open the case, but at this point I'd say your memories are confusing you.

TrivialPursuit said:

FlyOnTheWall said:

Do you happen to have any link(s) to when Prince talked about the song? The lyrics are a bit confusing to me. If he's singing about Mayte, you would think the title would depict Madrid as the destination instead of the departure point. Also, when he says, "The opposite of ivory color of your thighs is molded into my mind," that seems to suggest that the object of his affection has dark skin." Really, I'm left wondering if his "connection" in Chicago is about more than a flight layover.

It's explained more here: http://prince.org/msg/7/323557

Some have said it was about Robin Power, but hell no. not even close. Prince said it was about Mayte and the flight on the NPGMC site. There used to be a little Q&A section on NPGMC and he made a note about the song.

Prine composing songs about Madonna in 1996, Robin Power in 1998, Vanity in 1999... Why do people have to BS fantastic stories like that? How do their brains work, making connections that are nowhere to be found like that?

[Edited 11/18/17 10:41am]

PS, the thing is that this had to be have been written around 1998, as princevault notes. It was about him flying from Spain to MPLS (there was a layover or whatever in Chicago), leaving her in the house, and him flying back to take care of business or whatever, then go back again.

This song was put out on NPGMC #12, which was January 2002. Mayte was out of the picture by that point (the NewPowerSoul villa was probably sold by that point, too). There's no reason he would have written a love song so long after the fact. He sat on the song for three years before releasing it. The album was supposed to be a smoothy jazzy type record. But the sound of the song is reminiscent of production on NPS. Just odd timing for the release, but it was a good treasure in the NPGMC releases.

OldFriends4Sale said:

laurarichardson said:

FlyOnTheWall said: —He is still thinking about her after he left and cannot not wait to return for more of her. Mayte skin was not Ivory she was a brown skin women he is thinking about her brown skin.

wasn't the Ivory Tower in A Love Bizarre representing Prince's pénis. <-I had to type that in French so it wasn't offensive

Swallow the pride and joy of the ivory tower

We had a debate about this 2 years ago. I disagree with this interpretation: "ivory tower" is a classic metaphor for the isolation of the rich and powerful, and in the context of that song's other lyrics I believe it makes for more sense than a sexual metaphor. Just my own interpretation though, we can of course never know what they really meant.

RJOrion said:

he's trying to make this about Cat glover...watch...

I'm really flattered by your attention, RJOrion, but why would I try to make this about Cat? Just because she's from Chicago? Hardly. Besides, I don't even know if she ever lived in Chicago after leaving Minneapolis and London.

laurarichardson said:

FlyOnTheWall said:

Do you happen to have any link(s) to when Prince talked about the song? The lyrics are a bit confusing to me. If he's singing about Mayte, you would think the title would depict Madrid as the destination instead of the departure point. Also, when he says, "The opposite of ivory color of your thighs is molded into my mind," that seems to suggest that the object of his affection has dark skin." Really, I'm left wondering if his "connection" in Chicago is about more than a flight layover.

—He is still thinking about her after he left and cannot not wait to return for more of her. Mayte skin was not Ivory she was a brown skin women he is thinking about her brown skin.

Are we looking at the same lyrics, Laura? What suggests to you that he just left this person about whom he can't stop thinking? Every indication to me is that there's someone waiting for his arrival. "Where is she waiting?" is the question in my mind. Minneapolis, as some on this thread suggest...or Chicago? Otherwise, as I asked in the OP, why not make Madrid the destination? Or, why not make it Madrid 2 Minneapolis? Why make Chicago the focus?

Moreover, I know that Mayte is Puerto Rican (brown), but when one thinks of "the opposite of ivory," the color ebony (or black) usually comes to mind, as in the Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder classic, "Ebony and Ivory."

FlyOnTheWall said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

FlyOnTheWall said:

Do you happen to have any link(s) to when Prince talked about the song? The lyrics are a bit confusing to me. If he's singing about Mayte, you would think the title would depict Madrid as the destination instead of the departure point. Also, when he says, "The opposite of ivory color of your thighs is molded into my mind," that seems to suggest that the object of his affection has dark skin." Really, I'm left wondering if his "connection" in Chicago is about more than a flight layover.

Is it possible that they represent the feminine aspect of creating music?

.

A lot of people have talked about music as a womans body or sexual parts

.

The Roots band have a song called Act Too(Love of My Life) where they sing of the evolution of rap/hip hop as a woman having various sexual experiences

I guess it's possible, but, if that's the case, surely he could have used a less graphic metaphor. Personally, it sounds like, to me, Prince is literally counting down the minutes until he gets between those "opposite of ivory...thighs."

Also, approximately what year did Prince begin his conversion to the JW faith? I'm asking because this song is definitely more Rude Boy than JW Prince.

databank said:

TrivialPursuit said:

FlyOnTheWall said:

Do you happen to have any link(s) to when Prince talked about the song? The lyrics are a bit confusing to me. If he's singing about Mayte, you would think the title would depict Madrid as the destination instead of the departure point. Also, when he says, "The opposite of ivory color of your thighs is molded into my mind," that seems to suggest that the object of his affection has dark skin." Really, I'm left wondering if his "connection" in Chicago is about more than a flight layover.

It's explained more here: http://prince.org/msg/7/323557

Some have said it was about Robin Power, but hell no. not even close. Prince said it was about Mayte and the flight on the NPGMC site. There used to be a little Q&A section on NPGMC and he made a note about the song.

Thanks, TrivialPursuit!! I enjoyed reading that thread. The Org has such colorful characters!!

BTW: I'd sure love to see that note P wrote regarding the song.

OldFriends4Sale said:

laurarichardson said:

FlyOnTheWall said: —He is still thinking about her after he left and cannot not wait to return for more of her. Mayte skin was not Ivory she was a brown skin women he is thinking about her brown skin.

wasn't the Ivory Tower in A Love Bizarre representing Prince's pénis. <-I had to type that in French so it wasn't offensive

Swallow the pride and joy of the ivory tower

I'm not going to touch this. Nope.

RJOrion said:

FlyOnTheWall said:

I'm really flattered by your attention, RJOrion, but why would I try to make this about Cat? Just because she's from Chicago? Hardly. Besides, I don't even know if she ever lived in Chicago after leaving Minneapolis and London.

why?...because you referenced this song in the Cat Glover thread during your paternity claims and Capriccio Caesar slide show...

For the record, someone else, I believe Laura, mentioned "Madrid 2 Chicago" on the Cat Glover Interview thread. I would have never thought of it otherwise, but now that the subject has been raised, color me intrigued. Okay?

TrivialPursuit said:

PS, the thing is that this had to be have been written around 1998, as princevault notes. It was about him flying from Spain to MPLS (there was a layover or whatever in Chicago), leaving her in the house, and him flying back to take care of business or whatever, then go back again.

This song was put out on NPGMC #12, which was January 2002. Mayte was out of the picture by that point (the NewPowerSoul villa was probably sold by that point, too). There's no reason he would have written a love song so long after the fact. He sat on the song for three years before releasing it. The album was supposed to be a smoothy jazzy type record. But the sound of the song is reminiscent of production on NPS. Just odd timing for the release, but it was a good treasure in the NPGMC releases.

Does anyone know by which means Prince flew most often: private jet or commercial airlines?

BTW: I agree that the estimated timing of the song's origin seems odd. With those lyrics, surely M2C was written before he began studying with Larry Graham and the Jehovah's Witnesses.

FlyOnTheWall said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Is it possible that they represent the feminine aspect of creating music?

.

A lot of people have talked about music as a womans body or sexual parts

.

The Roots band have a song called Act Too(Love of My Life) where they sing of the evolution of rap/hip hop as a woman having various sexual experiences

I guess it's possible, but, if that's the case, surely he could have used a less graphic metaphor. Personally, it sounds like, to me, Prince is literally counting down the minutes until he gets between those "opposite of ivory...thighs."

Also, approximately what year did Prince begin his conversion to the JW faith? I'm asking because this song is definitely more Rude Boy than JW Prince.

I believe the conversion started around late 1997/early 1998

databank said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

wasn't the Ivory Tower in A Love Bizarre representing Prince's pénis. <-I had to type that in French so it wasn't offensive

Swallow the pride and joy of the ivory tower

We had a debate about this 2 years ago. I disagree with this interpretation: "ivory tower" is a classic metaphor for the isolation of the rich and powerful, and in the context of that song's other lyrics I believe it makes for more sense than a sexual metaphor. Just my own interpretation though, we can of course never know what they really meant.

IDK

everything in this block of lyrics is straight up sex

but it could easily be a dual metaphor

.

.

ˌaɪ.vɚ.i ˈtaʊ.ɚ/ disapproving

I love when 'obscure' songs are discussed and there is possible meaning to relationships experiences or religion etc
I've always had this song and never thought about it beyond the title

OldFriends4Sale said:

OperatingThetan said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I believe the conversion started around late 1997/early 1998

That being said, he also had masturbation and sex toy references in 'Mellow' from 'The Rainbow Children'. 'Supercute', 'Underneath the Cream' and 'Sex Me, Sex Me Not'also had quite heavy sexual content and were released much later. Then there is the original cover from the 'High' album, also used on some promo posters of the Hit 'n' Run tour of the same period.

Well Prince was married at the time he wrote this and he may have written this after leaving Mayte and having a layover in Chicago. Seems to be some complaining about having to work in the song.