"High Fashion" by The Family has never been released. But I have. How? It was played on a uStream video ages ago. I pulled the video off the web and isolated the track. There's only minor chatting over parts of it by the folks on the stream, so other than being played over a mic, it's quite listenable, although with video quality being lower a decade ago, it's warbly-adjacent. Almost, but not quite, but sorta?

It starts with a quick sax riff, kicks in some beats, then gets to the song. There's a break in the middle with some typical Prince weird percussion (sorta reminds me how "All Day, All Night" went heavy in parts; lotta banging of some detuned toms; also think about how he improvised before "Kiss" on the Rave Un2 The Year 2000 (not quite as "busy") The song then goes back into the sax solo and adlibing.

Just before it would normally segue into "Mutiny," it breaks down into some heavy beats, and the muted-bass in the song is brought to the forefront. It's thumpy and funky. Reminds me of the bass mastery on things like "La La La, He He Hee" or when he's in the studio recording bass for "Partyman." A lot of Clare's strings can be heard over this section, too. They feel more pronounced. Could be the mix, could be just the way it was recorded over the stream. The song comes to a quick end, but the strings continue for a few seconds.

All in all it's about 6:32 long. I cut right around the song, and that's how long my file is in time. Princevault doesn't note a time, but does note there was an extended version cut, but remains unreleased. The extended is about 87 seconds longer than the album version. The basic elements of the songs are there, as with most Prince remixes back then. There are no added clanky drum machines or the like. It's a classic mix.

Anyone else ever heard it? It sucks that it was never released on the 12". Maybe if those protege albums get a makeover, this will show up on it. Cuz in full stereo with that nice vinyl warm mid-range, it has to be aural heaven.

[Edited 4/29/21 14:03pm]

This is a mix I've always wanted to hear!

FragileUndertow said:

I remember hearing about the 12" version here on the org. It was played during some stream interview or something? In fact it may have been you who pointed it out (TP: maybe?) When you hear about unreleased tracks being played you got to think others have copies, too. It's a shame it's never leaked or released.

I'm very surprised it never leaked especially with the Prince versions of most of those songs on The Family. Not necessarily from the person in the uStream but from whoever.