Prince was determined to re-record the masters owned by WB as an alternative to owning the originals. He released a single called "1999 The New Master" but did he re-record anything else? What about the rest of the 1999 album?

If '1999 the New Master' is anything to go by, I sincerely hope not.

I imagine them to be a set of re-recordings from 'For You' right up until 'Come' with Doug E Fresh freestyling on every single track!

I think he did loads. I am sure there was a remix he did or samples or something somewhere [!] where new clips of Controversey & othere's that I can't recall came out....& yes they sounded as bad as 1999 remaster!

Let's hope that Michael Howe will not consider these for release.

I don't think he did. Like most project he'd tout, it never saw the light of day, and likely wasn't even started. I think "1999" was as far as he got with it. He promised many things, and they never materialized. I would highly doubt with him being so prolific and recording so much music, that he took the time to revisit 15 years worth of material to re-record. The New Master was horrible, and there's no way I want that sort of production on those songs.

Remember when the NPGMC announced Best of ? Wasn't there rumblings at the time that in was going to contain new masters of some of the classics? It may have just been speculation.

I've just answered my own question... ( http://www.princevault.co..._Of_Symbol )

The Very Best Of is an unreleased album by announced in the One Nite Alone... tourbook as an exclusive CD available to NPG Music Club members (along with Xenophobia, Madrid 2 Chicago and Last December). Although Xenophobia was revised and released as Xpectation, the other albums were left unreleased.

Nothing else is known about the album, although from the title it seems likely that the album was a compilation of tracks recorded while Prince used the name (from 1993 to 2000), although, given licensing, it seems likely this would be restricted to master tracks owned by Prince, rather than by Warner Bros. (eliminating tracks used on The Gold Experience and Chaos And Disorder). Alternatively, it may have included some re-recordings of tracks which had been originally released by Warner Bros., but all information about the album is speculative.

The title may have been in response to Warner Bros.' release of The Very Best Of Prince, released in late July 2001, seven months before this album was announced.

I think it was HM Buff in the Uncovering Prince interview, who was P's engineer between 95-99 and who said that all he was aware of was a drum n bass attempt at rerecording Let's Pretend We're Married and that the project was soon dropped off. He also explained that the latino part in 1999: The New Masters was not some Prince eccentricity but, in fact, based on a part edited off the original 1982 recording. If I'm not confused about where I heard this, it was all explained here somewhere: https://www.youtube.com/w...9_swSFLF8s

There were also some rerecorded samples of Endorphinmachine (as "Rock Machine"), Let's Work and Dance On for the fans to play with on NPGMC in 2003, but it is unknown whether the tracks were rerecorded as a whole and whether it was part of this "rerecording the whole catalogue" project.

Sadly, I believe that this is all that we know since it is uncertain what the Very Best of was supposed to contain.

PURPLEIZED3121 said:

I think he did loads. I am sure there was a remix he did or samples or something somewhere [!] where new clips of Controversey & othere's that I can't recall came out....& yes they sounded as bad as 1999 remaster!

I assume u refer to the NPGMC samples I quoted above. I am not aware of any Controversy rerecorded samples unless I forgot about them altogether or missed them from the website at the time (I did my best to recover info about every snippet and bit of recording made available on P's various websites, but some short-lived ones may have slipped thru the cracks).

databank said:

PURPLEIZED3121 said:

I think he did loads. I am sure there was a remix he did or samples or something somewhere [!] where new clips of Controversey & othere's that I can't recall came out....& yes they sounded as bad as 1999 remaster!

I assume u refer to the NPGMC samples I quoted above. I am not aware of any Controversy rerecorded samples unless I forgot about them altogether or missed them from the website at the time (I did my best to recover info about every snippet and bit of recording made available on P's various websites, but some short-lived ones may have slipped thru the cracks).

The NPGMC sampler was completed by Morris Hayes years after its inception. It was previously abandoned because Morris talked Prince out of it, convincing him that releasing it was a very bad idea. Londell also said legally the release would have been very bad.

So the complete package is in the vault, but I highly doubt it will ever get a release.

You can hear all about it from Morris himself in the Uncover Prince interviews that The Violet Underground did.

leadline said:

databank said:

leadline said:

The NPGMC sampler was completed by Morris Hayes years after its inception. It was previously abandoned because Morris talked Prince out of it, convincing him that releasing it was a very bad idea. Londell also said legally the release would have been very bad.

So the complete package is in the vault, but I highly doubt it will ever get a release.

You can hear all about it from Morris himself in the Uncover Prince interviews that The Violet Underground did.

This is an entirely different project.

yep thanks, aware of that, was adressing the members statement on the sample stuff.

We asked Morris Hayes about it back in late 2017. Seems it didn't end up happening:

https://youtu.be/swouRcuY...6QB8MrAZkI

.

[Edited 7/19/19 15:48pm]

PURPLEIZED3121 said:

I think he did loads. I am sure there was a remix he did or samples or something somewhere [!] where new clips of Controversey & othere's that I can't recall came out....& yes they sounded as bad as 1999 remaster!

"The Purple Medley" was before he started re-recording any actual albums (and before he was actual free from WB) It was recorded and released in 1995 in conjunction to the Ultimate Live Experience in Europe, from what I remember.

He got as far as the 2nd album before he quit.

Maybe due to the lyrics and his propensity to censor or remove words at the time.

Most likely due to the atrocity of the "1999 New Master" and its reactions among fans.

databank said:

I think it was HM Buff in the Uncovering Prince interview, who was P's engineer between 95-99 and who said that all he was aware of was a drum n bass attempt at rerecording Let's Pretend We're Married and that the project was soon dropped off. He also explained that the latino part in 1999: The New Masters was not some Prince eccentricity but, in fact, based on a part edited off the original 1982 recording. If I'm not confused about where I heard this, it was all explained here somewhere: https://www.youtube.com/w...9_swSFLF8s

There were also some rerecorded samples of Endorphinmachine (as "Rock Machine"), Let's Work and Dance On for the fans to play with on NPGMC in 2003, but it is unknown whether the tracks were rerecorded as a whole and whether it was part of this "rerecording the whole catalogue" project.

Sadly, I believe that this is all that we know since it is uncertain what the Very Best of was supposed to contain.

True. The full version is in the vault. I heard it once many moons ago. Wasn't even allowed to get a copy of it from the "elite collector" who had it.

toejam said:

TrcikyChristopher said:

TrcikyChristopher said:

TrcikyChristopher said:

Harps said:

He re recorded Starfish & Coffee but I believe this was just for The Muppet Show? I have it on a bootleg and the song is titled Starfish & Coffee 95

This (and Purple Medley) is all a few years before the "new masters" stuff.

.

[Edited 7/22/19 21:59pm]

NouveauDance said:

Harps said:

He re recorded Starfish & Coffee but I believe this was just for The Muppet Show? I have it on a bootleg and the song is titled Starfish & Coffee 95

This (and Purple Medley) is all a few years before the "new masters" stuff.

Yeah, but I don't think that's part of a re-recording stint. Many artists on Muppet episodes would re-record their songs for the show, because sometimes it included the Muppets singing or Dr. Tooth's band playing; so the arrangements and production was different anyway. So for "Starfish & Coffee" or anything else on there is just for the show.

I've never quite understood the purpose of The Purple Medley although I do enjoy it. I remember just being fascinated with it on the AMA's.

I know he re-recorded Hey Hannigan.

databank said:

I think it was HM Buff in the Uncovering Prince interview, who was P's engineer between 95-99 and who said that all he was aware of was a drum n bass attempt at rerecording Let's Pretend We're Married and that the project was soon dropped off. He also explained that the latino part in 1999: The New Masters was not some Prince eccentricity but, in fact, based on a part edited off the original 1982 recording. If I'm not confused about where I heard this, it was all explained here somewhere: https://www.youtube.com/w...9_swSFLF8s

There were also some rerecorded samples of Endorphinmachine (as "Rock Machine"), Let's Work and Dance On for the fans to play with on NPGMC in 2003, but it is unknown whether the tracks were rerecorded as a whole and whether it was part of this "rerecording the whole catalogue" project.

Sadly, I believe that this is all that we know since it is uncertain what the Very Best of was supposed to contain.

So it wasn't some Prince eccentricity because it was based on an earlier version of the song. An earlier version recorded by Prince. So it was in fact a Prince eccentricity.

I always liked that part myself and never had an issue with TNM as an alternate version.

TrivialPursuit said:

Yeah, but I don't think that's part of a re-recording stint.

That's what I was addressing to Harps.

toejam said:

We asked Morris Hayes about it back in late 2017. Seems it didn't end up happening:

https://youtu.be/swouRcuY...6QB8MrAZkI

.

[Edited 7/19/19 15:48pm]

Oh, sick!

toejam said:

We asked Morris Hayes about it back in late 2017. Seems it didn't end up happening:

https://youtu.be/swouRcuY...6QB8MrAZkI

.

[Edited 7/19/19 15:48pm]

I dont know, for Versace Experience II, all of those tracks are redone. Now either he just redid those tracks exclusively for Versace, or, he pulled them from new masters he already did and spliced them all together adding his "versace" whispers over the songs.

I think there is still a chance that he did do a handful of them. The buck doesn't stop at Morris, he could just not have all the info, or, just wasn't privy to it. I personally think Prince pulled this stuff from the vault for the versace II release. No real reason to make new masters of Love, Lolita or Black Sweat, so perhaps he just redid those at the time for continuities sake.

For those that haven't followed the Versace stuff, I am not speaking about Prelude 2 Gold. I am talking about the one he did in 2006-2007 with the redone versions of Kiss, Around The World In A Day, Lolita, Love, Black Sweat and Shhh.

At the very least, I think it is safe to say complete redone versions of Kiss, Around The World In A Day and Shhh exist. If that is the case, one has to ask themselves, why would he have stopped there?

[Edited 8/4/19 7:42am]

leadline said:

toejam said:

We asked Morris Hayes about it back in late 2017. Seems it didn't end up happening:

https://youtu.be/swouRcuY...6QB8MrAZkI

.

[Edited 7/19/19 15:48pm]

I dont know, for Versace Experience II, all of those tracks are redone. Now either he just redid those tracks exclusively for Versace, or, he pulled them from new masters he already did and spliced them all together adding his "versace" whispers over the songs.

I think there is a still a chance that he did do a handful of them. The buck doesn't stop at Morris, he could just not have all the info, or, just wasn't privy to it. I personally think Prince pulled this stuff from the vault for the versace II release. No real reason to make new masters of Love, Lolita or Black Sweat, so perhaps he just redid those at the time to keep the continuities sake.

For those that haven't followed the Versace stuff, I am not speaking about Prelude 2 Gold. I am talking about the one he did in 2006-2007 with the redone versions of Kiss, Around The World In A Day, Lolita, Love, Black Sweat and Shhh.

At the very least, I think it is safe to say complete redone versions of Kiss, Around The World In A Day and Shhh exist. If that is the case, one has to ask themselves, why would he have stopped there?

[Edited 8/4/19 6:35am]

I'm pretty sure he redid all those specifically for the Versace show (for which he was most certainly paid a more than reasonable fee, therefore it would have been lazy not to come up with new recordings). Prince would sometimes rerecord a song just for one lip-synched TV appearance in the 90's, it's very typical of him anyway, and recording the Versace thing probably didn't take him more than a day or 2.