mediumdry said:

jfenster said:

since it was to be permanantly not-to-be reissued as per the deal with WB...how does that affect a future remaster?????

[Edited 12/7/19 11:01am]

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Since its story is intertwined with Lovesexy, they can put the remastered tracks in a Lovesexy remaster deluxe. That way they won't reissue the black album and have a richer Lovesexy deluxe.

yep that would be nice. It is quote ying yang.

not sure if the vinyls should be White and black because lovesexy is quitte dark in area,s, although its appearance.

the records are super-gemini.

[Edited 12/10/19 4:27am]

AZStreet said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

LOL

But you know how Prince is. He has always used double messages in songs, dual inspirations.

Did he explain in what way, it was supposed to be about him?

(Questlove Supreme on Pandora transcription)

Jesse: Like Prince would call me up...he had a weird sense of humor. He called me up long after I was gone...i think it was when my first album was about to drop?..cant remember but he said "I mentioned you in a song today" and I go "what are you talking about?"...."Raspberry Beret" and click, he hangs up. And so I listened to the song, and I had moved the opposite of everybody, so I'm in this area called Blaine, there was nothing out there but cows and shit and me...

Boss Bill: Old Man Johnson's farm

Jesse: Exactly. And then the other one was "I wrote a song about you". And at the time I was living in Paris and we criss crossed a lot. '89 maybe that was? Sent me this tape..like Bob George...like mothafucka that aint...*everyone laughs*

Questlove: Wait...wait

Jesse: you know there is a part of the song "the n****rs got a gun"dadadada all that shit...that's his sense of humor. So I had to go "yea that was funny".

Questlove: Wait. Can you explain the reference of Bob George? Like how is that cop you?

Jesse: The dude when he goes "Cant we just dance"...or whatever *laugh*. I dont...I dont know, But he..because his nick name for me for a long period of time was "Here comes Jesse 'Im OK' Johnson"...because you know *laugh* that was the time. We was just some street dudes and so whenever we would run into stuff and I would get called *censored*(sounded like 'fag') all the time. We would be at an in-store signing and some girl go "you *censored* and I be like "Bitch what the fuck you ugly"

*Everyone laughs. And he goes on to a story on Vanity and how she was like a sister to him and she used to cockblock him when they would go out as other women would be interested in him.

So ya....he didnt answer the question

[Edited 12/6/19 15:14pm]

Prince was probably just messing with his head, as he did. When was it that Jesse actually pulled a gun out on himself or his wife?

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Bob George was done in 1986, Jesse is talking about 1989

Nothing he is trying to connect to the song is matching.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Prince was probably just messing with his head, as he did. When was it that Jesse actually pulled a gun out on himself or his wife?

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Bob George was done in 1986, Jesse is talking about 1989

Nothing he is trying to connect to the song is matching.

Ya that was the first thing that made me do a double take.

I could tell Quest and crew didnt wanna push cause Im sure they did the scooby doo "awoooogh?" in their heads when he said that but went off on a tangent

[snip] (This is what happens when I post late at night. )

[Edited 1/13/20 8:32am]

drfeld said:

-- Begin rant --

I've just read four pages of comments on this thread (which is just the latest round in a discussion that has spanned three decades now) and nowhere did anyone mention the most obvious hole in the "spiritual awakening" excuse: If Prince thought the album was evil, and if Bob George was arguably the darkest part of the album, why did he go on to perform it repeatedly as part of the centerpiece of his Lovesexy tour?

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It's 2019 and some people still can't figure out the concept of the Lovesexy Tour.

.

I get it that the song was a lead-in to Anna Stesia, supposedly to show him overcoming the darkness and embracing the light. But he performed it every show (right after Superfunkycalifragisexy, another Black Album track). If he considered its existence to be such an evil stain on his soul, why would he put it out there in the world every single night of the tour? Why would he so brazenly promote a work that he thought was malevolent?

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He didn't promote it. Look, people can be complicated, and perhaps he felt a bit silly about his overreaction and thus now included some of those songs in his set.

.

Keep in mind that Prince was extremely shrewd and calculating when it came to his career choices. He deliberately shaped the public narrative he wanted, even if it wasn't the logical thing to do from a commercial perspective (e.g., following Purple Rain with ATWIAD).

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And then panicking and abandoning his idea of not releasing singles etc.

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I think the Black Album and Lovesexy were conceived from the beginning to be a two-part unit -- a cohesive yin-yang of darkness and light.

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How about you look at the evidence and the testimony of the people involved instead of making up bullshit?

.

I seriously doubt he ever intended to officially release the Black Album. I think it was part of a deliberately crafted narrative. What could be more mysterous and legendary than a secret album deemed too dangerous for public consumption? What would drum up (free) publicity more than an artist paying dearly to destroy his work (but only after a sufficient number of copies were strategically out in the wild)?

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Sweet jebus, this nonsense just won't die.

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If he really wanted to erase the existence of the album, he wouldn't have mentioned it. He had killed albums before, burying them in the vault.

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And we still learned of them.

.

We're well aware of his ability to stonewall and maintain absolute silence about things he didn't want to talk about. If he had kept quiet about the Black Album, it wouldn't have gained a following. His absolute silence could have made it a bizarre curiousity only known to the most dedicated fanboys. Instead, he deliberately did everything he could to foster the cult status the album gained: The enigmatic cover, the insistance that it display no track info or his name, the slightly inferior audio quality suggesting a mysterious provenance. He intentionally crafted it to be "forbidden", knowing full well that would make people want it more. It was his largest and last great stunt of self promotion.

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Utter nonsense, ignoring plenty of evidence. As if Warners was going to print hundreds of thousands of albums and release them to record shops for shits and giggles.

Well happy Birthday Sheila E and thanks for the inspiration that became the Black Album

OldFriends4Sale said:

Well happy Birthday Sheila E and thanks for the inspiration that became the Black Album

has sheila ever mentioned this party and the music etc??

jfenster said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Well happy Birthday Sheila E and thanks for the inspiration that became the Black Album

has sheila ever mentioned this party and the music etc??

I've never come across anything she's said about it. Cat was asked about it and said should just couldn't talk about. Some damn body needs to talk more about it.

Cat: The Black Album was the first time Prince got me on tape recording. It was intense. I can't even go into that right now, because, it's too intense. The album didn't really have any production. It was spur of the moment. The Black Album was about personal things he was going through, which is why I don't want to discuss it.

Whatever happened, Prince said he began to really consider his personal legacy. "I was very angry a lot of the time back then," he told Rolling Stone in 1990, "and that was reflected in that album. I suddenly realized that we can die at any moment, and we'd be judged by the last thing we left behind. I didn't want that angry, bitter thing to be the last thing."

drfeld said:

-- Begin rant --

I've just read four pages of comments on this thread (which is just the latest round in a discussion that has spanned three decades now) and nowhere did anyone mention the most obvious hole in the "spiritual awakening" excuse: If Prince thought the album was evil, and if Bob George was arguably the darkest part of the album, why did he go on to perform it repeatedly as part of the centerpiece of his Lovesexy tour?

I get it that the song was a lead-in to Anna Stesia, supposedly to show him overcoming the darkness and embracing the light. But he performed it every show (right after Superfunkycalifragisexy, another Black Album track). If he considered its existence to be such an evil stain on his soul, why would he put it out there in the world every single night of the tour? Why would he so brazenly promote a work that he thought was malevolent?

He may well have had a "bad trip" and I have no reason to doubt the stories of so many people who were closest to him. But I'm skeptical the ecstacy experience was the catalyst for destroying the records. To claim the album was too evil to see the light of day and then repeatedly rock out on it in highly choreographed live performances in front of hundreds of thousands of people has always made me think his official explanation for recalling the album was BS. (For those of you who didn't see the Lovesexy tour, it and the SOTT tour were his most elaborate, tightly orchestrated and theatrical performances. There was very little -- if any -- improvisation or randomness in the set lists.)

Keep in mind that Prince was extremely shrewd and calculating when it came to his career choices. He deliberately shaped the public narrative he wanted, even if it wasn't the logical thing to do from a commercial perspective (e.g., following Purple Rain with ATWIAD). Throughout his first decade, Prince painstakingly crafted his image, putting substantial forethought into what he wanted to accomplish. After ATWIAD, Parade and SOTT, the Black Album was his attempt to appear edgier, get back in rotation in the clubs and, yes, perhaps reestablish some lost appeal with a black audience. He couldn't have thought the album would be a mainstream success -- it didn't have anything that would have been a hit single on pop radio stations.

I think the Black Album and Lovesexy were conceived from the beginning to be a two-part unit -- a cohesive yin-yang of darkness and light. Just as the Black Album was crafted to be dark, Lovesexy was to be the light -- he called Lovesexy his gospel album. Maybe he thought he could have two albums in circulation simultaneously -- one being played on edgier urban radio and the other on mainstream stations. Tell me he wouldn't have wanted to accomplish that.

I seriously doubt he ever intended to officially release the Black Album. I think it was part of a deliberately crafted narrative. What could be more mysterous and legendary than a secret album deemed too dangerous for public consumption? What would drum up (free) publicity more than an artist paying dearly to destroy his work (but only after a sufficient number of copies were strategically out in the wild)? It's a public relations dream. His barely-cryptic plea "Don't buy the Black Album" only served to fan the flames -- intentionally.

If he really wanted to erase the existence of the album, he wouldn't have mentioned it. He had killed albums before, burying them in the vault. We're well aware of his ability to stonewall and maintain absolute silence about things he didn't want to talk about. If he had kept quiet about the Black Album, it wouldn't have gained a following. His absolute silence could have made it a bizarre curiousity only known to the most dedicated fanboys. Instead, he deliberately did everything he could to foster the cult status the album gained: The enigmatic cover, the insistance that it display no track info or his name, the slightly inferior audio quality suggesting a mysterious provenance. He intentionally crafted it to be "forbidden", knowing full well that would make people want it more. It was his largest and last great stunt of self promotion.

In reality, Prince embraced the Black Album. It was exactly the album he wanted it to be. He repeatedly promoted it in his performances even after he "denounced" it. He didn't do anything significant to stop its eventual official release seven years later. Where was his outrage?

So did the entire ruse accomplish what he set out to do? Good question. Also curious: did the record label know his intentions in advance? They seemed to let it slide a little too easily -- especially for an artist whose record sales weren't what they had been.

One last thing: Eight months before Purple Rain premiered, the somewhat-campy yet entertaining movie "Eddie and the Cruisers" came out. The movie tells of a bar band on the cusp of stardom years earlier, only to come to a crashing halt when its lead singer disappeared along with the master tapes for an unreleased album rumored to be their greatest (and darkest) work. The mystique made the band legendary. Prince was a movie buff -- tell me he didn't see this.

-- End of rant --

[Edited 12/11/19 22:20pm]