"Blanche"........DAMN!!!!!!

Going to go against the crowd a bit.

Forever In My Life (Early Vocal Run-Through) is probably my top pick. It's just beautiful and I don't even need the end jam but it's cool too.

Soul Psychodelicide is probably the biggest shock. If you told me one of my most rotated songs would be a 12 minute edit of hour long bootleg I've listened to a number of times, I would have never believed you. But it's a really fun track with the extra horns on top.

Walk In Glory is fantastic (Glory! Look at me! I'm freaking *solo*) and having All My Dreams in perfect quality is nice too.

I'm surprised on how great they made Housequake sound. It was almost like hearing it for the first time

For me, Blanche and Soul Psychodelicide are highlights so far.

In some ways I think I prefer the 1999 SDE vault material - this one feels a bit heavy on W&L whimsy for my tastes.

I have a feeling that Train would be great without the sound effects.

[Edited 9/28/20 0:23am]

I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying the B-sides and Edits LPs. Never really gave the 1999 / PR ones much spins after the first time. Even though I have them on the original LP's, these are blowing me away.

I'm really enjoying the live show too. I didn't really bother with those discs on the last two deluxes. Some really good versions.

I don't remember Sheila's voice being that good either. They were all really in their prime.

goosepumble said:

It be’s like that sometimes, when the dawn of the morning comes

These are becoming two of my favorites

So many to choose from but Soul Psychodelicide is making me shake my booty evertime I hear it.

All my Dreams

And that says what?

Love and Sex

A Place in heaven (Prince vocal)

In a large room with no light

Promise To Be True is also a nice song!

Cocoa boys, I really like the song, but the unreleased version is so much better. This version is overproduced unfortunately.

[Edited 9/29/20 8:26am]

It Be's Like That...so funky iwith a Sly kind of groove.

Can I Play With U...Don't understand the critics dislike of this funk JAM.

Say What?...Madhouse! Can't believe that's Wendy on Bass.

Rebirth...Of Course.

I see this one has not been mentioned much so i'll go with "Big Tall Wall #1" which is amazingly great.

Loving the whole set overall

I'm halfway thru Vault 2 and stand out so far is Blanche and Eggplant of songs that I haven't heard before. Add in Witness 4 The Prosecution and In A Large Room With No Light.

The777Man

WALKIN' IN GLORY.

wow....

*Everybody Wants What They Dont Got: This song sounds like the happy-go-lucky 70's am radio. The bouncy piano and the vocal melody are super "feel good". This has become one of my favorite P songs.

*In a Large Room With no Light: Fucking brilliant.

Mine just arrived late afternoon yesterday so I'm just digging into it but, TBH, so far I'm a little underwhelmed with the vault stuff and see why a lot of them were cut. I love Witness and Al My Dreams but have heard those a milion times.

So, to answer the question, SO FAR: "Witness for the Prosecution", but I'm just getting started - maybe 1/4 of disc 4 and 1/3 of disc 5 so take it with a grain.

Of the stuff I haven't heard before I like Blanche.

Saying I'm underwhelmed so far though is like saying I'm not into a movie after 10 minutes so...

[Edited 9/30/20 12:00pm]

jeffreymiller said:

toejam said:

It's great to finally hear In A Large Room in studio quality (as opposed to 5th generation cassette tape quality!). I rate that as one of his best songs ever.

Completely agree! Still can’t believe we have this masterpiece finally in pristine quality. This set is so mind blowing so far.

herb4 said:

Mine just arrived late afternoon yesterday so I'm just digging into it but, TBH, so far I'm a little underwhelmed with the vault stuff and see why a lot of them were cut. I love Witness and Al My Dreams but have heard those a milion times.

So, to answer the question, SO FAR: "Witness for the Prosecution", but I'm just getting started - maybe 1/4 of disc 4 and 1/3 of disc 5 so take it with a grain.

Of the stuff I haven't heard before I like Blanche.

Saying I'm underwhelmed so far though is like saying I'm not into a movie after 10 minutes so...

[Edited 9/30/20 12:00pm]

I was pretty underwhelmed, too. It's a lot of interesting experiments that don't quite work, piled up one after the other. It's easy to admire, but hard to love.

I expanded the playlists with the extended cuts and b-sides from disc 3, the missing tracks from Crystal Ball 98, and a few of my favorite boots / other songs from the era. This way there's more music, and I get a break from the "interesting" tracks in favor of some that are a bit more fun to listen to.

Mintchip said:

herb4 said:

Mine just arrived late afternoon yesterday so I'm just digging into it but, TBH, so far I'm a little underwhelmed with the vault stuff and see why a lot of them were cut. I love Witness and Al My Dreams but have heard those a milion times.

So, to answer the question, SO FAR: "Witness for the Prosecution", but I'm just getting started - maybe 1/4 of disc 4 and 1/3 of disc 5 so take it with a grain.

Of the stuff I haven't heard before I like Blanche.

Saying I'm underwhelmed so far though is like saying I'm not into a movie after 10 minutes so...

[Edited 9/30/20 12:00pm]

I was pretty underwhelmed, too. It's a lot of interesting experiments that don't quite work, piled up one after the other. It's easy to admire, but hard to love.

I expanded the playlists with the extended cuts and b-sides from disc 3, the missing tracks from Crystal Ball 98, and a few of my favorite boots / other songs from the era. This way there's more music, and I get a break from the "interesting" tracks in favor of some that are a bit more fun to listen to.

Still looking forward to digging into these discs though. I need to go to my old school ritual: fire up a bowl, grab some headphones, lay in my bed in dark room and really LISTEN but time is hard to come by right now. For a long while, every time I got a new Prince record it was:

- pop it the car's cassette deck on the ride home/to work. Absorb it and feel first impressions.
- Get home, spark up some weed, shut the lights and headphone that bitch real loud that made certain stuff come alive in new ways and let me hear the layers.

One thing I DON'T like (and they did this on the other SDE's) is running extended versions back to back to back. After about a half hour, I'm good on "Hot Thing" or whatever track it is. An already long song starts over with the same track delivered in a different way so I get tired of it. Not sure how else they might have done it though so I'm not complaining but it accounts for my least played discs being the extended remix ones, as much as I like a lot of them.

I think I'll have to splice some of those up into my into my own mix. Choose my favorites.

[Edited 9/30/20 15:29pm]

Here are the 11 vault tracks I rate a 9+:

"Crystal Ball 7" mix"
"Power Fantastic (Live in Studio)"
"Strange Relationship (Original)"
"Cosmic Day"
"When the Dawn of the Morning Comes"
"Wally"
"A Place in Heaven"
"Witness 4 the Prosecution (Version 1)"
"Soul Psychodelicide"
"Train"
"Walkin' in Glory"

Moonbeam said:

Here are the 11 vault tracks I rate a 9+:

"Crystal Ball 7" mix"
"Power Fantastic (Live in Studio)"
"Strange Relationship (Original)"
"Cosmic Day"
"When the Dawn of the Morning Comes"
"Wally"
"A Place in Heaven"
"Witness 4 the Prosecution (Version 1)"
"Soul Psychodelicide"
"Train"
"Walkin' in Glory"

I'm surprised you give the 7" edit that high of a rating. It's a bit of a sloppy edit (why didn't they start it cleanly??) but I guess its the main meat of the song...?

No one's said "I Need a Man" yet and that one jumped out for me. Sounds like a radio hit for somebody.

So did "walk in Glory"

LoveGalore said:

Moonbeam said:

Here are the 11 vault tracks I rate a 9+:

"Crystal Ball 7" mix"
"Power Fantastic (Live in Studio)"
"Strange Relationship (Original)"
"Cosmic Day"
"When the Dawn of the Morning Comes"
"Wally"
"A Place in Heaven"
"Witness 4 the Prosecution (Version 1)"
"Soul Psychodelicide"
"Train"
"Walkin' in Glory"

I'm surprised you give the 7" edit that high of a rating. It's a bit of a sloppy edit (why didn't they start it cleanly??) but I guess its the main meat of the song...?

Good point! The full-length beauty is my 4th favorite Prince song, and I find all parts of it spellbinding. Hearing it as a 7" edit presents some obscure alternative universe in which "Crystal Ball" was released as a single, and it's fascinating to me. So no, it doesn't hold a candle to the full version, but it doesn't have to for me to still love it, I guess!

Having now had a week to digest it all, I'm find my go to track to be 'Love And Sex'.

Moonbeam said:

Moonbeam said: