So Charles Spicer claims they found a whole Jamie Starr Album in the vault from 1985 and they played 'Friction' from it at the Celebration.

This raises a lot of questions.

There are no facts or rumours prior to this weekend.
Dwayne Tudal's book never referenced any compiling or tweaking on 'Starr' tracks in 1985.

Are 'Starr' tracks only those with 'the voice' (AKA Cloreen), or more a vibe (AKA Movie Star).
Could Starr tracks simply be a compilation of demo tracks for Time songs (AKA Chocolate).
What could it contain? Cloreen, Tricky, Chocolate, Friction?

Do you believe Spicer?

What are your thoughts?

With all the information that has been established about Prince's vault in the last few decades, especially with Duane Tudahl's extensive research, there has never once been mention of an album under the Jamie Starr moniker. Prince only used the name for producer credits and never as an artist pseudonym. Between that and the ongoing incompetence of the estate, it seems far more likely that Charles Spicer is talking out of his ass and relayed the wrong info to listeners at Celebration.

I don't really believe Spicer or MakeMillions, for neither are Prince-recordings-experts.

They're (some sort of) lawyers, and self made businessmen (imo).

I think if there's a unknown Jamie Starr album, it could indeed be a Prince collection of songs for The Time, that sounds more plausible.

The only thing we need to know is the title of that album, (if it has a tiltle). The rest we can figure out ourselves more or less. Since there was no talk of a title, i don't believe it is a full unknown album.

Just my thoughts.

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One more thing, Dirty Mind, was and album made for 'home use', remember? It could've gone into oblivion if it wasn't discovered (by who was it again? management? Warners?), and then got a full release the way Prince recorded it (as some sort of a demo's collection). Even confirmed by Prince himself.

So, proof & fact about DM, let's keep the hope alive. We just never know.

Prince for sure recorded a lot more in that era (that we know of).

He recorded at home, and in paid/ordered-studio time. I think it could be possible that Prince didn't give all his recordings to his signed record company. But i'm no expert for that, others can correct me on this.

Maybe Prince indeed has more of these unfound (finished) collection of (chronologically) recorded ideas for albums or proteges. So, I keep this idea alive as some hope.

And right now some welcome hope is what we need desperately.

Because probably, possibly, this year will be a 'no release year'.

[Edited 6/28/24 3:00am]

Most of the side artists ended with Purple Rain. Vanity 6/Apollonia 6 wasn't going anywhere, the Time was over. Only Sheila E was left. The Family, which rose from the ashes of the Time went another direction musically, plus it had Susannah on vocals. So he had a mixed band (Family) a solo female singer (Sheila E) and there was Mazarati on the horizon, but that was a project that Mark was kinda in charge of.

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So he had no group for his male/macho funk side for his R&B audience, that first was the Time. I'm guessing that the feeling that he needed something like that also led to Camille and the Black Album.

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It might be that he had a "fuck it, I don't need nobody, open up the door, I'll do it myself" moment and used the Jamie Starr name (if for nothing else than something that gave direction to the songs and as a placeholder name).

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Now, if this is an 1985 interpolation between Ice Cream Castle and Camille, I'm very interested in what it is... of course, we might know some tracks already, or, if we're lucky, not, but I'd love to find out more about his thought processes about his career and stories he wanted to create around him. His songs are just moments as they came to him. Him combining songs into album ideas, that's where he's thinking about other things, and it's very interesting to me.

The listening session was going on in the same room as the dancing contest?!?

CRM said:

saintmont said:

CRM said:

The listening session was going on in the same room as the dancing contest?!?

Yes. Before the song was played Spicer asked 5 people on stage to do a dance contest on the song Friction. So as soon as the 5 started dancing, everyone started cheering them and screaming. The song could hardly be heard. The dancers seem to be more important than the once in a lifetime chance to hear an unreleased Prince song that you could have enjoyed. What a flop 😢

Jesus fucking christ, they keep finding new ways to surprise me with ther ineptitude like, they do one single listening session during the entire weekend and they still find a way to fuck it up by having an unnecessary impromptu dance-off that drowns out the never before heard vault music that was probably the main draw for most of the goddamn attendees.

saintmont said:

CRM said:

The listening session was going on in the same room as the dancing contest?!?

Yes. Before the song was played Spicer asked 5 people on stage to do a dance contest on the song Friction. So as soon as the 5 started dancing, everyone started cheering them and screaming. The song could hardly be heard. The dancers seem to be more important than the once in a lifetime chance to hear an unreleased Prince song that you could have enjoyed. What a flop 😢

Wow - that is unbelievably poor. I would have been asking Spicer for my money back at that point.

bozojones said:

I doubt such a thing exists, the estate and their flunkies most likely aren't even fams of the music, probably couldn't tell you the best bootlegs, live shows, or tracks the lifelong fans want to hear most. Wouldn't there be some way via ASCAP or the Library of Congress to verify if songs were copyrighted under Jaime Starr?

Maybe it's just like the others stated, all the Time and Apolonia stuff he was working on at the time, which would be fantastic to hear those done by Prince.

saintmont said:

CRM said:

The listening session was going on in the same room as the dancing contest?!?

Yes. Before the song was played Spicer asked 5 people on stage to do a dance contest on the song Friction. So as soon as the 5 started dancing, everyone started cheering them and screaming. The song could hardly be heard. The dancers seem to be more important than the once in a lifetime chance to hear an unreleased Prince song that you could have enjoyed. What a flop 😢

One would think a listening sessions is in super good quality and intimate atmosphere.

I imagine sitting down in a soft lit space, to be concentrated only on the music.

Quietness and concentration above everything, is what I should think.

Read some reviews now here and there from attendees, Prince fans; most found it mediocre at best.

Frist two days not in PP, sloppy organised, and all sorts of unclear info, even a few days before it all started...

SquirrelMeat said:

So Charles Spicer claims they found a whole Jamie Starr Album in the vault from 1985 and they played 'Friction' from it at the Celebration.

This raises a lot of questions.

There are no facts or rumours prior to this weekend.
Dwayne Tudal's book never referenced any compiling or tweaking on 'Starr' tracks in 1985.

Are 'Starr' tracks only those with 'the voice' (AKA Cloreen), or more a vibe (AKA Movie Star).
Could Starr tracks simply be a compilation of demo tracks for Time songs (AKA Chocolate).
What could it contain? Cloreen, Tricky, Chocolate, Friction?

Do you believe Spicer?

What are your thoughts?

.

Note that we got that info from people who made several mistakes last year when presenting unreleased music, including seemingly not recognizing a track was a cover of an Aretha Franklin song.