1987 4 me.

First one for me was TBA in 1988, incomplete and hissy AF.

This is a great question.

My first foray was the Black Album. Messed my whole world up.

A friend gave me a very poor bootleg pressing of The Black Album around 1990, 1991.

Got a cassette from a rcord fair in the UK aorund 1991–92.

There was a manufacturer who used to copy CD/LP bootlegs onto cassettes and seel them cheaper. A bootlef bootleg! The look was very distinctive, perhaps produced on an old photocopier or risograph, where they use floursecent paper (yello, orange, pink) with coloured toner printed on top.

I think my first was called 'Crucial' and contained the title track, along with anumber of other '86 ish things, including Can't stop / We can funk / Girl o My dreams.

I also Had a D&P themed one that included School Yard and Donald Trump.

Fun days!

I remember the thing that made me look was The Black Album in 1988. But soon that year I found Charade and Chocolate Box. All vinyl at independent record stores.

My friend had the Crystal Ball record set. The one with the 3 faced painting of Prince and it mislabelled "Crystal Ball" the song as "Expert Lover". What was that bootleg called?

Wolfie87 said:

My question is simple. How did you find out that the record store had bootlegs? How did you even know that Prince had bootlegs? If, for instance, I didn't anybody who was a fan in my area, how would I on my own hand find out about the bootlegs? Who were these store owners that had a treasure trove in the back of the record store? And did you just go up and ask them "hey, I love Prince. Do you have any rare stuff back there?"

I read an article that said the Black Album was spreading around as a bootleg. I had already heard it once on a borrowed cassette from a university radio DJ who promptly took it back. I called up the most popular independent record store in Houston called Infinite Records and inquired, and they told me they were getting some in. I drove 30 minutes to the center of the city to buy it a few days later. It was a horrible sounding one with a rewd version of the U Got the Look photo on the cover. I loved it.

After that, I would go back and check the Prince section, and sure enough they had live bootlegs and "Charade" alongside with the official releases. Often they were under "Prince Imports".

The same thing happened with an independent record store in Austin, I would just go in and search through. But in one case I walked in and they were playing the Small Club bootleg on their store speakers. I was like "What!!??"

They didn't have any extra copies at the time, so the store owner actually made me a cassette copy for a few bucks.

Then I discovered record conventions. In Austin I found a teasure trove of boots to sift through in record dealers stacks. I remember finding "Platinum" that way. Henry Rollins happened to be going through records right nest to me.

In London I went to Camden Market and ehre were a ton of bootlegs. I got a Black album on CD that was EQ'd better than the official release dropped a year later.

Then came getting bootlegs by mail from contacts on Alt.Music.Prince

The craziest thing was when, as a fan, I designed a CD cover and booklet for what others made into the boot CD release "Nagoya '89"

I was just fueled on my fandom and craving to do graphic design at the time.

I traded for something like 20 pressed boot CD's for that assignment. That was like 20 years ago! Most of those were live soundboards.

That was all negotiated with an in between contact, so I had no contact with the bootleggers. The in between contact was overseas... "Richard". He had contacted me from connections on alt.music.prince

There was no cash payment, just a trade for music.

Remember him? It's probably been 15 years since I've heard or seen siign of him.

All this bootleg stuff is now on youtube, etc.

And of course, key tracks are now getting officially released.

Wolfie87 said:

My question is simple. How did you find out that the record store had bootlegs? How did you even know that Prince had bootlegs? If, for instance, I didn't anybody who was a fan in my area, how would I on my own hand find out about the bootlegs? Who were these store owners that had a treasure trove in the back of the record store? And did you just go up and ask them "hey, I love Prince. Do you have any rare stuff back there?"

I was late to the Prince party but I soon discovered bootlegs. My first was, Welcome To The Beautiful Experience. It was purchased from and independent record store and there was nothing under the counter about it. The CD was in the Prince section with all his regular stuff. It was clear it was a bootleg though. I bought it, took it home and played it loud. It was a

superb soundboard recording and I was so happy. I went back the next weekend and bought another. I can't remember which one it was but it was another live show. This one though, it sounded like someone had recorded it from a microphone in their pocket. Was horrible. I took it back, complained and got a refund. Couldn't believe that a proper shop was selling something which sounded so bad, it never occurred to me that there would be poor quality bootlegs . From then on they let me listen before purchasing.

I got a cassette of The Black Album in 1988.That's also when I first heard of other unreleased songs by Prince.

In the early 90s,I found some vinyl bootlegs at a local 'mom and pop' record store.I was thrilled.The funny thing about those boots...they were sloppy and some songs were mislabled or misspelled.On one of them,the song "Crystal Ball" was titled "Export Lover"

Wolfie87 said:

My question is simple. How did you find out that the record store had bootlegs? How did you even know that Prince had bootlegs? If, for instance, I didn't anybody who was a fan in my area, how would I on my own hand find out about the bootlegs? Who were these store owners that had a treasure trove in the back of the record store? And did you just go up and ask them "hey, I love Prince. Do you have any rare stuff back there?"

This was a process of discovery for me. I was maybe 14 years old and had started hunting through record shops and record fairs (one off events with loads of independent sellers under one roof – amazing!) for Prince stuff.

Flipping through the records and CDs you would sometimes hit one that you didn't recognise. The more you flip, the more you build a picture of what consititutes the official discography, and you become hyper aware of anything that is rare or unusual. So the japanese pressings are cool, promos are cool, posterbags, picture discs and wait …

• Why does this one have such crappy printing?
• Why isn't it on Paisely Park or Warners?

• It contains songs I've never heard of!

• The songs I do know are funny lengths
• The price seems like more than I should pay for this volume of music
• The labels look a bit cheap
• This is not something I have seen in more reputable stores

I think those were the tells for me. I only read things about bootlegs after actually finding them, I think. I recall that when I first found a Black Alblum I thought I had unearthed THE Legendary Black Album! Which in a way I had, and it felt magical, though mine had a Contrversy era photo on the cover and All my Dreams and something else tacked on the end).

This porcess still goes on today, with people on here occassionally posting: "I saw this live recording on Amazon / Spotify / Tidal and it looks real! Is it real? I kinda looks real but …" … and then then get a bit of a beatdown from our friendly community and if they are lucky they get referred to a list like my one above

[Edited 10/10/20 11:30am]

[Edited 10/10/20 11:30am]

[Edited 10/10/20 15:03pm]

I got a really crappy casette of The Black Album in early 1988. Ever since then, I became friends with a trader and my world was blown by the bootleg market.

The Fall of 87, my fav record shops owner was there. He knew I was a Prince fan, simply handed me a tape of the Black Album. U know the rest.......

ufoclub said:

billymeade said:

ufoclub said:

I remember the thing that made me look was The Black Album in 1988. But soon that year I found Charade and Chocolate Box. All vinyl at independent record stores.

My friend had the Crystal Ball record set. The one with the 3 faced painting of Prince and it mislabelled "Crystal Ball" the song as "Expert Lover". What was that bootleg called?

He's Got the Look

You're right. But looking it up that was a live boot. I meant this one (with a completley different cover):

The day Nelson George hipped me to Revolver Records NYC in late 1987

ufoclub said:

billymeade said:

ufoclub said: He's Got the Look

You're right. But looking it up that was a live boot. I meant this one (with a completley different cover):

I have this one!!

This is a good topic.

I heard about the Black Album in 1988, but can't remember where. This was obviously long before the Internet. It must have been from MTV or Rolling Stone.

I had no idea how to get a copy. Again, this was before the Internet so there was no way or order or download a bootleg version. And I live in a very small, rural town with a tiny record store that didn't have bootlegs.

Fortunately, a friend of mine took a trip to London and came across a copy of the Black Album. She knew I was a fan and brought me back a copy, so I managed to get it pretty quickly.

Shortly thereafter (1989) I went off to college. That's when the bootleg world really openned up to me. The local record shops carried bootlegs. I also met a lot of other Prince fans, most of whome where happy to share their collections, but a few refused unless I had songs to trade. (They argued giving stuff away for free would devalue it, which infuriated me. It's value comes from listening to it and enjoying it as a community of Prince fans. Any monetary value is Prince's and Prince's alone.)

[Edited 10/11/20 7:29am]