Beginning in 2022, there were reports that Third Man Records had permission from the estate to release the Camille album. For example:

"White and his Third Man Records co-founder Ben Blackwell have revealed that they obtained the rights to release the 1986 album, on which Prince employs pitch-shifting to perform under the guise of the album's androgynous titular alter-ego. "We're finally going to put it out," Blackwell told Mojo. "Prince's people agreed - almost too easy." "

https://ultimateprince.com/prince-camille-album-release/

I recall this release was confirmed by Jack White himself. However, it hasn't happened. Where/what was the breakdown? Or was it all a big misunderstanding?

It became pretty clear that Jack White had zero chance of getting this done and was taking his dreams for reality. Once he started deleting his social media posts about it, it was certain that goose was cooked.

.

The most generous explanation is that he talked about his brainfart with someone in the estate, and then mistook their politeness with confirmation and started blabbing about it in public and the rest of the estate just went "hell to the no". Plus this happened at a time when the old regime was getting replaced by the new regime.

.

That some people still think this is gonna happen: in what frikking dream world do you live?

never coming out. i guess third man wont be releasing anything from the estate like they did with the SOTT singles any time soon. or if they do, it will be something less unique, for now anyway. i remain hopeful it will come out at some point. maybe closer to 2027 when itll be the 40th anniversary of SOTT.

[Edited 6/8/24 2:20am]

BlueShakooo said:

Londell McMillan had (as far as I remember at X) answered the question about the Camille release planned by Jack White. He wrote something like: Mr. White must be ill-informed, because owning a record doesn't give someone the right to release it. Unfortunately I can't find that post.

Yeah, this was exactly the thing that confused me about that whole situation (the muddled lack of distinction between owning a record and having the rights to release it). I was surprised by the extent to which some fans seemed to treat it as a done deal when the Estate hadn't said a word about it

At every turn, the legacy of Prince gets pointed in the wrong direction.

I don't see why Jack & Third Man would lie about having the rights and be so public about the potential release if they didn't genuinely believe it would happen. To me it seems far more likely that the changeover of the estate threw a wrench in whatever plans were previously made, and then Jack had to walk it back.

It's a shame that Londell would rather make snide remarks about Jack White on social media than try to work out an agreement on the release. Not surprising given his general attitude, though.

bozojones said:

I don't see why Jack & Third Man would lie about having the rights and be so public about the potential release if they didn't genuinely believe it would happen. To me it seems far more likely that the changeover of the estate threw a wrench in whatever plans were previously made, and then Jack had to walk it back.

It's a shame that Londell would rather make snide remarks about Jack White on social media than try to work out an agreement on the release. Not surprising given his general attitude, though.

This (including the observation about Londell).

I'm confident Jack White and his TMR partner fully understand IP rights, etc. And did not confuse owning a copy of Camille vs. the rights to release it. I'm inclined to think the estate torpedoed it for whatever reason.

bizzie said:

The most generous explanation is that he talked about his brainfart with someone in the estate, and then mistook their politeness with confirmation

That's not the most generous explanation, IMO. Third Man Records had a deal to release the SOTT singles. They were in a business/contractual relationship. The vinyls were released. I don't remember anything bad happening at the time, so the project must have been successful. It's not unlikely that further projects were discussed, Jack being a Prince fan and all. Also releasing an 8-track album with no previously unreleased song is not a particularly risky move. (I know some of the songs are supposed to be different mixes, according to NS & Co., but that's another question.) It's almost like re-releasing singles, after all. It would have been a perfect RSD release. So I don't think it was just a brainfart. It must have been something more serious.

We all know what happened in 2022 with the Estate, so that change must have had something to do with the project being put on the back burner or cancelled.

The 'regime change" with the estate is exactly why it didn't happen. Jack & his folks had a deal in place with the previous regime, which was voided by the new group when they took over. This is the reason for Londell's rather dickish tweet.

This seemed like a no brainer for RSD. You know, something people might actually be excited about. Why would they release it?? Instead we have MORE bedsheets and pillows! Hurray!

Poplife88 said:

With the tracks already available, and this being a niche item, I agree with the calls for things like this to be RSD releases. Like poplife said, It's a no-brainer really.

[Edited 6/10/24 15:34pm]

SoulAlive said:

FrankieCoco1 said:

SoulAlive said:

Exactly.This thing would sell like hotcakes.Longtine fans and collectors go crazy over stuff like this.The estate is absolutely clueless.

https://www.bloomberglaw....H3S3L2K2U4 Just a reminder what is going on with the one side of the estate at the moment that owns 50% of it (with Primary Wave holding the other 50%).

It's always going to be a shitshow as long as Londell and Charles are around.

JoeyStarr69 said:

RODSERLING said:

RODSERLING said:

JoeyStarr69 said:

More importantly - what happened to the 2024 predictions thread? Mods removed due to too much RodSerling??

Because of Joris - the man who knew too much

Drop it.

Haven't all the tracks been released now ( after the SOTT Deluxe release) - Except Good Love which is available on a soundtrack I believe.

In that case, Im not bothered.

SquirrelMeat76 said:

Haven't all the tracks been released now ( after the SOTT Deluxe release) - Except Good Love which is available on a soundtrack I believe.

In that case, Im not bothered.

I'm pretty sure some of the songs have slightly different edits and/or segues than their officially released counterparts. Not to mention "Rockhard In A Funkyplace" never getting a properly mastered release since the official Black Album CD sounded terrible. So while all of the songs have technically been released, you can't get the 'authentic' Camille experience as was intended until the estate decides to put it out.

I wouldn't trust the current estate to get it right, though. They'd probably slap together all of the previously released tracks into a low-bitrate mp3 playlist and then have that pressed to vinyl

a completely pointless release.

Gooddoctor23 said:

a completely pointless release.

Slightly redundant, but not pointless. Even if you don't care about the aforementioned segue/edit differences, we'd still get a decently mastered version of "Rockhard In A Funky Place". Though they should also just remaster The Black Album altogether so it matches the audio quality of SOTT.

RODSERLING said:

JoeyStarr69 said:

More importantly - what happened to the 2024 predictions thread? Mods removed due to too much RodSerling??

Because of Joris - the man who knew too much

fredmagnus said:

What happened to the Prince Estate ?

In-fighting and lack of vision/direction?

Part of me still has hope, though. I'm still thinking about those "50-60 box sets" Duane mentioned in an interview last year.

RODSERLING said:

JoeyStarr69 said:

More importantly - what happened to the 2024 predictions thread? Mods removed due to too much RodSerling??

Because of Joris - the man who knew too much

obsessed much?! (and still haven't found a thing I see )

djThunderfunk said:

With the tracks already available, and this being a niche item, I agree with the calls for things like this to be RSD releases. Like poplife said, It's a no-brainer really.

[Edited 6/10/24 15:34pm]

RSD is a perfect platform to releae any album WB rejected but Prince wanted released and vice versa, I wonder when this will finally click with Duane and the Estate (probably never because that would actaully be smart)
Londel is seems to busy pretending to be Prince (business wise) instead of being a respectful and real professional , so we'll never get things that are a no-brainer and easy money to real professionals and we'll have to deal with these people that just make it up as they go
If only Primary Wave had a bigger stake than 50% then I'm sure we would be 'flooded' with releases instead of Paisley Park becoming a glorified clothing store with ugly overpriced ware Prince wouldn't even be caught dead in