Prince probably has more material in his vault than any artist the ever recorded on a professional level.

I don't recall seeing any artist's posthumous releases over 2 years after they have died be as unsatisfying as this.

Maybe there was so much material that they were overwhelmed? Unorganized?

Etc.........

I don't know the reason's behind it, but this 1st release is not a good start imho.

They r going 2 have 2 do better than this.

This will be the 1st Prince official release that I won't be buying.

How about we turn this thread into something constructive? Prince's estate should research (if not actively seek advice from) Frank Zappa's estate. Like Prince, Zappa left an enormous catalog of unreleased material from the studio and live shows. His estate has been releasing these recordings for 25 years, everything from one-off concerts to lavish box-set rereleases of his albums stuffed with bonus material. Zappa's fanbase was much smaller than Prince's, but loyal to the point of obsession (like some Prince fams). I would think that if the Zappa Family Trust can sustain his legacy and their livelihoods with their strategy, the Prince estate could do the same (especially since Prince's music was immensely more popular and suitable for commercials - yuck, Prince Estate, if you're reading, please stop doing that).

Graycap23 said:

Prince probably has more material in his vault than any artist the ever recorded on a professional level.

I don't recall seeing any artist's posthumous releases over 2 years after they have died be as unsatisfying as this.

Maybe there was so much material that they were overwhelmed? Unorganized?

Etc.........

I don't know the reason's behind it, but this 1st release is not a good start imho.

They r going 2 have 2 do better than this.

This will be the 1st Prince official release that I won't be buying.

I agree. It is so diappointing.

Graycap23 said:

Prince probably has more material in his vault than any artist the ever recorded on a professional level.

I don't recall seeing any artist's posthumous releases over 2 years after they have died be as unsatisfying as this.

Maybe there was so much material that they were overwhelmed? Unorganized?

Etc.........

I don't know the reason's behind it, but this 1st release is not a good start imho.

They r going 2 have 2 do better than this.

This will be the 1st Prince official release that I won't be buying.

I hate to be negative, but I detect no lies here. With that said, you should buy it and we all should support it. If we don't, then it will get worse. Remember, Warn-A-Brothers plan is for these releases to fail to devalue the vault. We can't let that happen.

its a shame they didnt let a real fan from the early 80's be taken into consideration...imagine the funk album with Turn Me Loose ..that would get people excited

Just listened to this release... So underwhelmed... Ok blah blah the creative process of the recordings, ok cool... But this shouldn't have been released as an official release period.

This should've been a bonus disc, and all the money spent on this is just a waiste by the estate, these are demos nothing more, the sound quality is not good, and quite honestly all the other boots like Blast are worth more than this official release.

So dissapointed, I guess we have to wait until the Tidal release.

I put this on in a recording studio............awful.

Hard 2 believe someone/anyone thought this was a good idea.

was this in any way "fixed" from the cassette they found???

As someone posted on the housequake fb, I think this pretty much sums up everything about this release:

"It’s his practice tape , he never would’ve released it . There are no song arrangements nor singing just piano riffing ending nowhere. "

Bart is salivating over how many good reviews are being released about this, yet the end result is, this is so dissapointing as an official release, it was the wrong choice, really wrong of them to release these demo tapes and charge fans over $30 for a deluxe edition. Not cool.

I don't necessarily have an issue with this release. I've always wanted to know about Prince's creative process and this is just barely a peek into it. It hasn't been marketed as anything else other than what it is: him practising at the piano songs he would later develop. No studio tricks, just him at a piano.

For a full first post-death release from the Vault, maybe it could have been comething more substanstial ok fine but I don't see anything incredibly wrong with it. In fact, it's an interesting artifact from an incredibly prolific artist. In 10 years this will be seen as an important post-death release.

And also, not everything that is to be released needs to be from the mid-80s.

people who don't appreciate this, don't like songs like Condition of the Heart

or Leaving 4 New York

they just want something to make their hips grind

as others have said,this should have been the bonus disc of a better,more complete release.

OldFriends4Sale said:

people who don't appreciate this, don't like songs like Condition of the Heart

or Leaving 4 New York

they just want something to make their hips grind

A pathetic utterance.

luvsexy4all said:

was this in any way "fixed" from the cassette they found???

The guy in charge of organizing the Vault said it's an improvement over the "substandard" bootleg release. To my, admittedly untrained, ears it sounds no different to what I heard nearly 30 years ago. That bootleg was known for being above-average quality (cenrtainly not "substandard").

pricetag said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

people who don't appreciate this, don't like songs like Condition of the Heart

or Leaving 4 New York

they just want something to make their hips grind

A pathetic utterance.

luvsexy4all said:

was this in any way "fixed" from the cassette they found???

I don't hear much of a different from my copy from 30 years ago.

Mackopolis44 said:

I heard the tape today, oh boy! A set of songs and Princely noodling, It really made me kind of sad, Picking the bones of our genius man. (To the tune of A Day In The Life by The Beatles ) I've had many reservations about this release and they were all confirmed this morning 😢

According to some fams in the other piano and a mic thread, noodling is the true artistry of the prince recording process, and only sophisticated fans can appreciate it...

[Edited 9/21/18 12:21pm]

feeluupp said:

Mackopolis44 said:

I heard the tape today, oh boy! A set of songs and Princely noodling, It really made me kind of sad, Picking the bones of our genius man. (To the tune of A Day In The Life by The Beatles ) I've had many reservations about this release and they were all confirmed this morning 😢

According to some fams in the other piano and a mic thread, noodling is the true artistry of the prince recording process, and only sophisticated fans can appreciate it...

[Edited 9/21/18 12:21pm]

chic people and purple academics

the whole scene was according to one attendee very Haight Ashbury

What's sad is if a bootlegg lable were to release this with the same packaging and sound quality

y'all would be jumping over one another to get this release

so so sad that fans would support bootleggers before the estate. I'm sure were going

to get some good stuff soon or maybe not if we don't support him.

dbpdexter said:

What's sad is if a bootlegg lable were to release this with the same packaging and sound quality

y'all would be jumping over one another to get this release

so so sad that fans would support bootleggers before the estate. I'm sure were going

to get some good stuff soon or maybe not if we don't support him.

Already happened over 20 years ago... And not many people were jumping over that boot, was entirely forgotten until the estate announced to release it..

feeluupp said:

feeluupp said:

dbpdexter said:

What's sad is if a bootlegg lable were to release this with the same packaging and sound quality

y'all would be jumping over one another to get this release

so so sad that fans would support bootleggers before the estate. I'm sure were going

to get some good stuff soon or maybe not if we don't support him.

Already happened over 20 years ago... And not many people were jumping over that boot, was entirely forgotten until the estate announced to release it..

Wrong. My sense is that you weren't around at the time. The boot was considered top-notch then--both because of its sound quality (rare during the late 80's/ early 90's) and its access to just Prince and a piano. Also, I suppose it's true people don't keep talking about 30-year old product but you just made up the idea that it was "entirely forgotten".

HollywoodSt said: