Just listened to "Rock Hard In A Funky Place" again through headphones.

After the X-time listening in what, 30 years or so?, it still remains on of the greatest and weirdest 'perfect-working' melody for a pop-funk song (imho).

The instrumentation is absurdly fantastic and impossibly genius.

Wonderful horn sections - did you noticed that a super complex hornsection IS the chorus of the song ? and not words as a chorus ?

How great is that !

Yet everyone of us can lalala-sing-a-long/whistle the notes to this great duo sax/trumpet chorus part.

Prince's cheeky nasty funny sung lyrics twirl around happy sounding slow-pumping funk.

And, it rocks as hell - mind the cutting guitar solo.

I think a lot of props need to go to the arrangements played by Eric and Atlanta,

a duo I truely miss up till this day in Prince's music.

Irreplaceable colours done by these two.

(remember 'In A Large Room With No Light', all 'Lovesexy' tracks, etc...)

-

The whole 'Black Album' is just wonderful - it's the collection, the sequence of the songs that make this album super. Impossible to rearrange them, or add something, or leave something off the album.

Let alone the impossible composition of the bizarre but yet again poppy funky and blues related 'Bob George'...

I still get goose bumps from the never-heard-before '2 Nigs 4 West Compton'...

etc...

etc...

-

That little growling funky synth bass line that most people can't even hear on cheap speakers or headphones...


I think Eric Leeds helped shape Prince's sound in a more flavorful solid way than even Wendy and Lisa.

ufoclub said:

That little growling funky synth bass line that most people can't even hear on cheap speakers or headphones...


I think Eric Leeds helped shape Prince's sound in a more flavorful solid way than even Wendy and Lisa.

I think Eric´s (and to some extent Eddie Minninfield´s ) sound is very underrated when it comes to Prince´s sound.

Sure, he gets his props here every now and then but Prince worked with so many great sax players such as Maceo or Candy or the NPG Hornz that Eric often gets taken for granted but I think that Eric was the one who gave Prince´s music that very special horn sound between ´84 and ´88.

I like all the others too, and it´s great that Prince had Maceo in his band when you know that he´d shot his name years before he was even in the band (for example during Chocolate) but Eric´s solos complimented Prince´s music a bit more than what Maceo or Candy did, and I love those two , but when it comes to saxophone solos my ears are just so used to Mr.Leeds´ sound that most other sax players just can´t compare, even though Eric Leeds would probably admit that Maceo Parker is someone he always looked up to.

Genesia said:

If you heard the sound quality of the boot I had, you wouldn't even ask.

I miss that. It forced you to track the arrangements under the hiss.
And that hiss reminded you you were among the ones "in the know", and that it was forbidden, that the music was in a state that you were not supposed to hear. There was an almost sexual excitement to it.

As a musician, it was comforting to know that Prince made simple cassette tapes, as we all do when we want to know how our songs sounds on a car speakers. It really brought a human side to Prince's superpowers, and a kind of intimacy with him (only he and we knew the shit).

But of course it worked that way because the support was organic. Hearing hiss on digital is an aberration, and can get on your nerves pretty quickly. Still, I miss the "paste" quality the bootlegs had on tape. It felt like being stolen, and I must confess, it added a little sugar on top of the joy to discover Prince's secret journal.

No bootleg , regardless of its sound quality, has ever stopped me from buying the legit release.

RODSERLING said:

mynameisnotsusan said:

RODSERLING said:

I was only 8 years Old in 1994, So à fiend of mine copied it for me in 2002 from internet, with à black CD in à black crystal package.
.
Was there à booklet in the official 1994 release? I Always wondered.
.

.
The Black album deserved to be in the usual top 500 lists of Rolling Stone etc. Because it was an incredible sound and in term of release/cancellation/ bootleg /marketing it is a milestone in the music industry

No booklet in the official release - literally a black square piece of card - one side matte one side slightly gloss. No type - just the peach on black sticker on the jewel case.

It obviously got lost in the whole slave/tafkap Warners dispute. Neither nor Warners cared when it got an official release.

scratchtasia said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

At the time, that it came out I was a bit iffy about Prince.

.

I had a boot, but my continuance in Prince music canon wasn't high at the time. I had a spark of excitement when I saw it, took me back to when I heard and received the Black album late 87

.

I had a rush, and then remembered where he was at currently and felt deflated and passed it over.I bought it a bit later though.

I was iffy on Prince's output of the early to mid-90s myself, but I ran right out and bought The Black Album on CD right away. It was definitely a sonic improvement over a copied cassette of a bootleg.

yep, later I thought the same, and went back and bought it, just to add to the others in the canon

I put it right between SOTT and Lovesexy as it was to be, sorta

OldFriends4Sale said:

scratchtasia said:

I was iffy on Prince's output of the early to mid-90s myself, but I ran right out and bought The Black Album on CD right away. It was definitely a sonic improvement over a copied cassette of a bootleg.

yep, later I thought the same, and went back and bought it, just to add to the others in the canon

I put it right between SOTT and Lovesexy as it was to be, sorta

Between SOTT & Lovesexy is the ONLY place to file Black Album. Sure it came out "officially" in 94, but, it was supposed to be late 87 and the bootleg was 88. Chronilogically it just doesn't fit between Come & Gold.

This release was a disappointment. Not only did it use the master from late 1987, the packaging was bland and uninspired. They should have used an all-black jewel case, and also included a decent booklet.

.

WRT how it came to be released in 1994: https://musicfans.stackex...a/3719/129 .

BartVanHemelen said:

This release was a disappointment. Not only did it use the master from late 1987, the packaging was bland and uninspired. They should have used an all-black jewel case, and also included a decent booklet.

.

WRT how it came to be released in 1994: https://musicfans.stackex...a/3719/129 .

"In advertisement the company offered an "amnesty offer" to bootleg owners: the first 1,000 people to send in their bootleg copies of the album would receive new copies of the album."

Anybody take WB up on that offer? All that I still had at the time was the perfect sounding LP & CD boots, I had long since traded/sold the others I had collected. If I had still had one of the shitty sounding ones I would have sent it in, but, not my good ones. Still have those!

BartVanHemelen said:

BartVanHemelen said:

This release was a disappointment. Not only did it use the master from late 1987, the packaging was bland and uninspired. They should have used an all-black jewel case, and also included a decent booklet.

.

WRT how it came to be released in 1994: https://musicfans.stackex...a/3719/129 .

-

Yes, thank you very much Bart.

I remember most of this info from way back, and of course from the Per Nilsen book,

but it's nice to have a refreshing reminder here.

-

And yes it's true, the used master from 1987 was such a pitty.

Why didn't they re-release it ? As a remaster ?

Since it was/is theirs...

-

I was happy to hear the Superfunkycalifragisexy long unreleased version with the BFTP 6 or 7 (?)

I'm sure there are still 'longer' goodies from these sessions.

I for one would love to hear a much longer '2 Nigs 4 United' amongst others...

-

I bought a cassette dub of the Black Album in '89 from a DJ who worked at a local wrecka stow here. It wasn't the worst sound I'd ever heard. I'd say a solid 7.5 out of 10. Played it to death. Of course, I picked up the '94 release, despite it being all but identical to the boot that I'd been listening to for five years.

I expected no more than we got - a replica of the intended '87 LP. To feel that more should have been done with the packaging and/or mastering in '94 is ridiculous, considering the specifics of this album. This is an album that Prince didn't want released - he reluctantly signed off on the '94 deal, yes, but it was nothing but a bargaining chip.

I've got the new P&M album on pre-order, even though I've had the Intimate Moments boot for 20+ years.

If they release any boot that I've already got, I'll purchase the official copy. To each their own, but that's always been the unspoken contract for the bootleg collector as far as I'm concerned.

smokeverbs said:

To feel that more should have been done with the packaging and/or mastering in '94 is ridiculous, considering the specifics of this album.

.

Yeah, how dare us fans paying good money for these things have any expectations, right?

ufoclub said:

mynameisnotsusan said:

No booklet in the official release - literally a black square piece of card - one side matte one side slightly gloss. No type - just the peach on black sticker on the jewel case. It obviously got lost in the whole slave/tafkap Warners dispute. Neither nor Warners cared when it got an official release.

Uh... that was how Prince was going to release it as part of the concept that it wasn’t a Prince album. No names, no booklet, no art... just a catalog number. I was disappointed they had the sticker on it that said it was Prince’s legendary Black Album... but I guess they had to do that.

Well I feel you on that one, but the momentum was already gone.

Everyone in the world knew about The Black Album.

-

I agree with BartVanHemelen that it could've been a great booklet with some introduction by someone like Sheila or Eric or Levi, or all of 'm, or whomever was in the camp at the time, whatever..

-

And I have to admid that I too was a bit dissapointed 'at the time' to see that sticker on the CD cover front. I think it was the word 'legendary' I didn't like. It was sort of like they agreed on the fact that boots were 'there'. I was naive enough to think it was just 'us' Prince fans who knew about this.

Young,ignorent but funky.

-

I only became a fan in late 91 and only got most of his back catalogue in 94/95, but was lucky to end up with a cassette tape of it in 1993. It was a blank cassette (Teac D90) and it was a really muddy copy of a 7th generation bootleg. It was really fucked up and broke after a few listens.

.

I was not even planning on buying the album when it came out as that shitty boot (That cost $20 I did not have and I was a young teen at the time) gave my ass nightmares. But when Come came out and I wanted to buy a CD copy of it in late 94, the store was giving away a free copy of the Black Album with it and I decided to buy it.

.

Hearing it on that official CD changed my mind, it sounded hellagood compared to that ghetto ass tape I had. I bought come quite late and remember it was near the end of the year, as it was the last day of school and we were celebrating and I went into some city wrekka stow and bought it. This was around late Nov- Early Dec 94.

[Edited 9/8/18 1:57am]

BartVanHemelen said:

smokeverbs said:

To feel that more should have been done with the packaging and/or mastering in '94 is ridiculous, considering the specifics of this album.

.

Yeah, how dare us fans paying good money for these things have any expectations, right?

Ah, come on Bart, I've always been on your side. If it had come out in '87, it would have been just like that. Anyone buying it in '94 knew what they were getting, that's all I'm saying.

smokeverbs said:

BartVanHemelen said:

.

Yeah, how dare us fans paying good money for these things have any expectations, right?

Ah, come on Bart, I've always been on your side. If it had come out in '87, it would have been just like that. Anyone buying it in '94 knew what they were getting, that's all I'm saying.

.

Why do you lot KEEP MAKING UP SHIT?

.

Nobody said anything about "not knowing what we'd get". That still doesn't mean I can't criticize this lame release for what it was, especially when releases by other artists and frikking bootlegs were often packaged better.

.

Also, there is a MASSIVE difference between an "underground" release at the end of 1987 and a widely announced release in 1994 of a "legendary bootleg".

.

I really don't understand why so many Prince fans are always telling other Prince fans to be happy with shitty crumbs, when we could have had significantly betetr product. How about we stop lowering the bar?

.

Gah, I really can't understand that attitude. CB came in a shoddy plastic puck instead of the promised "crystal ball", and you lot said we couldn't complain, even though there had been a bootleg that had been released in a puck-like package years before and that bootleg was better because their package didn't scratch the frikking discs! Oh, and that bootleg had a frikking booklet!

BartVanHemelen said:

smokeverbs said:

Ah, come on Bart, I've always been on your side. If it had come out in '87, it would have been just like that. Anyone buying it in '94 knew what they were getting, that's all I'm saying.

.

Why do you lot KEEP MAKING UP SHIT?

.

Nobody said anything about "not knowing what we'd get". That still doesn't mean I can't criticize this lame release for what it was, especially when releases by other artists and frikking bootlegs were often packaged better.

.

Also, there is a MASSIVE difference between an "underground" release at the end of 1987 and a widely announced release in 1994 of a "legendary bootleg".

.

I really don't understand why so many Prince fans are always telling other Prince fans to be happy with shitty crumbs, when we could have had significantly betetr product. How about we stop lowering the bar?

.

Gah, I really can't understand that attitude. CB came in a shoddy plastic puck instead of the promised "crystal ball", and you lot said we couldn't complain, even though there had been a bootleg that had been released in a puck-like package years before and that bootleg was better because their package didn't scratch the frikking discs! Oh, and that bootleg had a frikking booklet!

Prince really frustrated you, didn't he?

rdhull said:

BartVanHemelen said:

.

Why do you lot KEEP MAKING UP SHIT?

Prince really frustrated you, didn't he?

Can't you see Bert up at 2am, pounding away on his Linux laptop fuming like the chubby guy in The Human Centipede 2, just pissed off at the world and correcting everything on the internet? Gheezus, his blood pressure must be sky high. If I cared enough about him, I'd feel sorry for him. But - I don't.

Amazing he knows four languages, allegedly, but can't figure out a paragraph break without typing a period instead.

TrivialPursuit said:

dodger said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Can't you see Bert up at 2am, pounding away on his Linux laptop fuming like the chubby guy in The Human Centipede 2, just pissed off at the world and correcting everything on the internet? Gheezus, his blood pressure must be sky high. If I cared enough about him, I'd feel sorry for him. But - I don't.

Amazing he knows four languages, allegedly, but can't figure out a paragraph break without typing a period instead.

. Oh puh-lease you lot . Seriously though how the fuck do you get a paragraph space. In my defence I only know one language

Shift Return

Frankly, it's a silly trick on an old message board system that shouldn't even be an issue. But Shift Return will do it for ya.

TrivialPursuit said:

Shift return does not work. I am still getting clumoped together text.

[Edited 9/8/18 17:30pm]

This is an interesting question because I'm shocked that I'm actually having this concern/conflict over the upcoming release Piano and a Microphone since I've had that boot since 90/91. Yet, to answer your question, in the past, I never had an issue or thought of not purchasing something that I had as a boot once it was released officially. As such, I was happy to purchase the Black Album in 94 even though, by then, I had to very high-quality CD versions of it. Of course, the cassette tape version I had of the Black Album was a bit "rough," but not as bad as some other folks' copies. However, today, I'm not sure that I want an official copy of Piano and a Microphone, not because I have a copy of it and have had a copy of it for years but because there is so much better unreleased work that I'd rather have. Don't get me wrong; I like the boot of Piano and a Microphone (and I don't feel comfortable even calling it that), but it's not like it's something that defines or even provides some essential insight into Prince's artistry. So, for it to be released over so much other stuff that seems to do more to provide a more well-rounded understanding of Prince is somewhat baffling. On the other hand, The Black Album is essential Prince, a major mark, if not movement, in his artistic journey, as evident by his use of it during the Lovesexy Tour. So, fans who wanted a major aspect of Prince's artistry wanted The Black Album when it was finally officially released, even if that release was five years too late. In contrast, I'll probably purchase Piano and a Microphone only because I own it as a boot, and, as such, it's been my policy to purchase boots that are finally released officially. But, other than playing it just to hear how much better the official version sounds than the boot, I probably won't be playing Piano and a Microphone a lot because, again, there is just so much better stuff to enjoy. But, The Black Album was some funk that had to be obtained.

BartVanHemelen said:

smokeverbs said:

Ah, come on Bart, I've always been on your side. If it had come out in '87, it would have been just like that. Anyone buying it in '94 knew what they were getting, that's all I'm saying.

.

Why do you lot KEEP MAKING UP SHIT?

.

Nobody said anything about "not knowing what we'd get". That still doesn't mean I can't criticize this lame release for what it was, especially when releases by other artists and frikking bootlegs were often packaged better.

.

Also, there is a MASSIVE difference between an "underground" release at the end of 1987 and a widely announced release in 1994 of a "legendary bootleg".

.

I really don't understand why so many Prince fans are always telling other Prince fans to be happy with shitty crumbs, when we could have had significantly betetr product. How about we stop lowering the bar?

.

Gah, I really can't understand that attitude. CB came in a shoddy plastic puck instead of the promised "crystal ball", and you lot said we couldn't complain, even though there had been a bootleg that had been released in a puck-like package years before and that bootleg was better because their package didn't scratch the frikking discs! Oh, and that bootleg had a frikking booklet!

I'm with Bart. There's nothing wrong to point out the huge discrepancy between Prince's status (the genius, the importance of his work and the legacy, blah blah) and the audio quality of his output, pre or post-mortem. As he stated earlier, there is a shitload of minor (or rather, lesser known) artists that are properly curated, with labels often being over-generous (who gives a shit about take #27 except for anal retentives).

Go compare "Superfunkycalifragisexy (30 years)" to the 1994 release, it's blatant. Bootleggers often cared more about the sacrosaint Prince's legacy than Prince himself.

And this continues, like a curse. Aside from the novelties, PR Deluxe is a fucking disgrace, from the anecdotal glitches to the different levels of masterings, deaf engineers errors (the hihat on "Wonderful Ass" has oversized trebles that would pierce the eardrum of anyone under 20), and cheap packaging and booklet. Orgers reported the audible hiss in Spike Lee's latest joint end credits, which in my book would be a no-no, no matter how good the performance. Audio quality is criminally underrated since the advent of the mp3 format, and again I second Bart, let's stop lowering the bar. Especially when it's about a musician that filled his records, for the most part, with tons of headphones-only details and flourishes.

It's a huge, huge paradox and a sad state of affairs, to have Prince's work universally considered as of relevance, and to witness that any obscure cult band from whatever genre and decade gets a better, more respectful (for the artist AND the listeners) curation.

[Edited 9/9/18 14:48pm]

Purplegarden said:

Shift return does not work. I am still getting clumoped together text.

[Edited 9/8/18 17:30pm]

Just make sure you do it three times to get some white space between lines.

Like this.