think about it.

He's been out of contract for while, he's had plenty of chances to put out 'Dream Factory' as it should've been. He's had every chance to put out 'Roadhouse Garden'. The line about Wendy & Lisa not willing to help, is just an excuse. it's not like he bothered getting thier full approval / giving them full credit before.

I think he knows deep down that it's the only thing he's got to keep the loyal fans interested - the mystery of The Vault. But if he releases it he'll only show up his recent output to be weak in comparison.

There's talk of him contributing unpublished / unreleased songs from the PR era for some sort of anniversary release, but i think he'll just make another bad choice and decide keep them locked away...

what do you guys think...?

Prince has always been about looking forward. He will drop back and pull out some oldies occasionally (Empty Room). But some of the stuff he is doing now is wonderful - new and innovative and daring. Why do so many people seek comfort in the past, rather than excitement about the future?

it will come aout when he is sying, every1 knows it will b out by then

When he kicks the bucket, buys the farm, lives 6 feet under. Then and only then will you see these jems...

Just honest. Especially the x-rated ones.

chookalana said:

don't count on it. Mani is as much a Jesus freak than P. if she ever controlled his estate...

I doubt we will ever see 99% of the vault material



Half of the reason is personally I wont see it because if it ever was released , even 25%, by the time it is released I wont care.


be careful edit
[This message was edited Sun Apr 27 9:01:03 PDT 2003 by rdhull]

NME said:

i highly doubt that mani's gonna be the one controllin his estate...but yeah, i gotta feelin that we ain't gonna see any pieces of the vault anytime soon. brotha's been teasin us with this crap 4 years...

...clit & vault-tease!

bass said:

It's not seeking "comfort", it's seeking great music! Prince has changed, and I dig much of his new work, but it's almost as though it's the work of an entirely different artist. Used to be Freak Prince, now it's JW Prince. I liked Freak Prince, and I know that some of his greatest songs are locked away somewhere.

I also really doubt that JW Prince, who is in control of Freak Prince's work, will ever let them see the light of day. This makes me very very sad, and I try not to think about it.

Somehow, I think that an anthology set, or even just the
original albums remastered with an extra disc of all the
unreleased songs from that album/sessions would do great
things for him and get him some serious attention again.

That way, he'd get rid of all the old stuff and have it
out of the way and people would have their eye on Prince
again and there'd be more interest in his new[er] albums
and his npgmc after that.

It would be a win-win situation.

IstenSzek said:

niiice.

I'd like to hear the music that is locked away in the Vault but if he doesn't want it released then so be it. He has his reasons as to why songs never made it onto certain albums.

It's sort of like writting poems or short stories too. We have so many ideas that may fill our mind and we write them down to get them out and express ourselves. But sometimes you may read them afterwards and think this might not be my best work, and you might not want to share it with anyone. Maybe some creations are meant just for the original creator.

tackam said:

I agree. It makes sense. J Witnessing is suppressing that stuff in a way. I doubt he'll release the extended version of Darling Nikki for example. And based on that, I am starting to doubt he'll have anything to do with a 20th anniversary Purple Rain re-release.

It would bring the attention back to a Freak-Prince that he and his church would not want...sad really.

It's not like it was pornographic. Well, maybe Head, but...you know, like Lisa said, "people do it!".

I've always said, that it would be great if there were two lines of releases. His current stuff of course, where he would release more officially and in a broader sense to the public, all his latest musical works with an NPG Records label.

Then a whole other section of just rare Vault songs, albums and video's for the fans that could only be bought within the NPGMC. Maybe under another smaller label called Paisley Park Classic or something...!? I'm just throwing that out but something like that.

In that line we would see, The Dream Factory, Camille, that unreleased album inbetween 1999 and Purple Rain, The Crystall Ball, The Flesh, Madhouse 24(!), 1988/89 Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic, the psychadelic The Time album, etc., all as originally intended with ORIGINAL period ARTWORK!

Maybe he would re-release ALL his albums as special editions with the regular album on one disc (or two, for double albums) and on the next disc included, place outtakes for each album!

As for video, he would release ALL his official video's as a completeist retrospective DVD much like the latest David Bowie DVD. The general public would rush that one! ANd then release rare live shows like that Miles Davis New Years show on DVD, concerts from every era...there's just so many ways to go with this.

But these are just wishful dreaming ideas, in reality, I'm starting to get dissilusioned. I rather have music and video than a fancy interactive website. I would pay for that faster than joining. With the site it seems we're just getting strung along. Hoping, hoping deep inside that the cyberclips or the music we MAY find, will be something amazing from the vaults that either make you pee you pants or cry in emotional excitement...oh well.

If I were Prince & I had a vault, I certainly wouldnt be releasing it all in one go. Hes just pacing himself

NME said:

Is the general consensus that she's gonna be around that long?

Maybe he just doesn't want to release most of it, maybe he thinks a lot of it is inferior.

I couldn't care less how I get it, official, bootleg - whatever, I'm happy.

I am wondering why the songs he has in the vault on his website is all stuff we have heard before? and why do some people seem to be saying that they like being able to listen to those samples? Give me a break. Don't they have this stuff at home? Anywho,, I've given up waiting for any vault stuff to be released.

bass said:

Music we haven't heard before is not "the past". It is new music to our ears and music is timeless anyway.

He has tons of great songs in the vault that we haven't heard. Why do you find it so perplexing that we'd like to hear those songs?

one of these days, the vault will be emptied. i don't know when or how, but it'll happen.


or is that just wishful thinking???

I think that when we do hear what's in there, we won't be calling it gems... Many unreleased and rare tracks have been hyped immensely among P-fans. But most of them are nowhere near as good as the released stuff from the eighties. Think about it: all official archive-type releases, all the npgmc downloads of unreleased tracks, how much is on there that could compare to Purple Rain, Kiss, When You Were Mine, SOTT etc?

I don't think that Prince will ever release most of this stuff.There is nothing stopping him from doing so.He is free from Warners and he owns the master recordings to these songs.He could release a 'Crystal Ball' type compilation every year if he chose to.I just think he's lost interest in these old songs.And now that he is a JW,he may not wanna go back and revisit his (more sexual) past (a song like "Extra Lovable" for example).

But hey,you guys should just be glad there are bootlegs

NME said:

I think that releasing Roadhouse Garden can't be done without full aproval of the musicians involved at the time.
So I disagree with it just being an "excuse".

But I agree that he messed with his fans by promising them acces to the Vaults when he would be "free" and not doing so. Indeed he does it to keep the interest alive and perhabs he wants to pass the rights to release the Vaults to his heirs.

VelvetSplash said:

I have to agree with the above. Of course, I would much prefer if the vault tracks were released officially (thereby being assured our money is going to the right place, i.e. Prince's pocket) but if they're not, then I'll gladly pay a little more and get it on bootleg.

When is P gonna understand that some of his 'followers' don't care where the unreleased material, whether it be from NPG or Sabotage et al, we're still gonna fork out (on a regular basis) for material we haven't heard.

P is sitting on a potential goldmine with the all the unreleased material. It's a shame our hard earned cash is being diverted away from a minneapolis bank with his name on it!

so be it, then!

huggy said:[quote]
I think that releasing Roadhouse Garden can't be done without full aproval of the musicians involved at the time.
So I disagree with it just being an "excuse".
quote]

maybe, but then surely he would've had to tell Wendy & Lisa about some of the tracks on Crystal Ball..? and maybe even the NPGMC live downloads from the Parade Tour...

You know in the very beginning, before the NPGMC started and the idea was first being mooted - I thought this was the point of the club - to release stuff that his fans would be interested in (out-takes, new music, live etc) - whilst releasing a new CD of music every couple of years to the general market.

To me, this business model seems the most intelligent - it pleases the fans, the casual listeners, the record companies, and it means Prince can stay relevant in the music business, without saturating the market with his product, yet still satisfying the salivating fans who enjoy a constant stream of new product.

I dunno, I guess Prince see's it differently, and it's his work, so he can do as he pleases - but I think he's a fool on this issue.

NME said:[quote]

huggy said:

Perhabs he did get the permission he needed for Crystal ball and NPGMC downloads. I would think probably, to some (contractual) extent at least.

VelvetSplash said:

From a strictly business point of view I completely agree. I also think it is a shame that Prince does not give anybody access to him to tell it to him like it is.
Now he sits with his court in his palace.
In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.

bass said:

Noone is dwelling in the past, they're just arguing that these tracks never got the proper presentation. All we have are some poor sound quality illegitimate copies of them. People are just rooting for them to be presented in their best form.

They're great songs and theres a demand for them among his fanbase.
[This message was edited Mon Apr 28 8:36:38 PDT 2003 by Tom]

NME said:

I'm sick of waiting for them to be released. If it happens some time betwen now and the day I die, thats wonderful. But its not on my priority list of things to worry about anymore.

On Prince's JW status keeping the songs from being released. Maybe. You know even when he was a "Freak" he wasn't all that inclined to release songs that were in the vault.

Would it be good business to release that stuff. Sure.
I figure that Prince sees himself as an artist first and a businessman second or third. If he has artistic reasons for not wanting certain songs released, maybe he thinks they suck, maybe he wants to use them in another form later etc.. then that's his prerogative. Anyway, no matter how much he eventually releases there's always gonna be this suspicion that he's holding back the really good stuff from us.

maybe he dos'nt have as many songs as some think. or maybe most are incomplete and boring 2 him now. and im sure if its old, its mostly sexual content.which is not the direction the ship is flowing as of now.

I have braced myself for that fact, if for no other reason than he's eccentric and self-centered. It really doesn't matter what his views are. That's the way he is.

You never know what's gonna happen with this cat from one year to the next. But I'd consider any new vault material like "found money."