psyche2 said:

databank said:

That.

This album is my holy grail.

.

I share your enthusiasm, but let's beware of what we wish for

Perhaps the title track is the stand out one and the rest are leftovers from Kamasutra

.

Now, seriously, I'm also curious and it seems that could be a great unreleased album given what was going on musically at that time in Prince's world.

I love the title track and Breathe, if they're any indication of the album's overall tone, and I'm among the happy fews who LOVE the sound of the so-called "plastic" years, so I'm pretty confident about digging the album.

But TBH it's not even that important. I've wanted this record for 23 years and I know I won't trip on it as crazily as I would have as if it'd been released as promised in 2002 (similarly, The Flesh sessions were my other holy grail before they leaked, and I probably would have listened to them way much more than I did had they come out 15 years ealier). I'm just curious to hear it.

I'm also concerned about the Estate finding and releasing a final configuration if there's one. According to HM Buff, Man O War was once considered for the record but if his memories are correct, that means there was at least one configration that predates Rave that had to be at least slightly different from what Prince wanted to release in 2002. Did he commit to finishing this final 2002 configuration? And if so, will the Estate find it and leave it alone, or will they feel compeled to mess with it, leading to another "fake album" situation similar to Welcome 2 America?

guitarman81 said:

Honeslty I would be happy with a Deluxe version of "The Undertaker" without all the crappy video edits and perhaps a bonus set of Paisly Park 3 Piece Jams from around that time.

My understanding is that there are 3 versions of it in existence:

The original video version (credited to the symbol and with a few minor differences in editing than the released version, and the original take of Dolphin).

The officially released video version.

The audio version that was supposed to be released with Guitar Magazine (which is the one you want I guess, since it lacks the edits and movie sound fx).

A perfect deluxe package would offer all three versions (+, I guess, a cheaper, standard version with the audio version only). Let's hope the Estate had enough common sense to see this the day they tackle it.

And for a proper SDE, there may indeed also exist enough material recorded with Sonny and Michael alone (if only from reheasals) to justify at least one CD of additional unreleased material.

I think The Undertaker could generate some hype if properly rereleased, as it is by far Prince's "purest" rock album (and, at least in our generation, there's a decent part of casual Prince listeners who are rockists and don't care much for the R&B side of his work). It was already a missed opportunity to quickly, discreetly drop it in video only back in 1995, targeting only hardcore fans. With a a proper, wider audio release, it would probably have generated some enthusiasm from the music press at the time.

nxx said:

I would take a different approach

I personally don't care much for remastered versions of classic albums we already know very well.

I don't really care for 7" edits and all that fluff either.

I also don't really want anyone trying to complete unfinished Prince projects, yuck.

Lastly, I don't see the point of releasing things like Camille, we have all that stuff.

What I am interested in though, is:

1. well-recorded live performances and rehearsals
2. demos and unreleased studio work which is in a decent enough state for release without significant tampering

I think this is what the majority of Prince's surviving & ageing fanbase is most interested in, so I don't believe tethering vault content to album SDEs is the right strategy anymore. Perhaps that worked for major hit albums like Purple Rain, but we've all bought enough copies of Purple Rain at this point right?

Instead what I'd propose is creating a three different streams of releases:

1. Classic album remasters - with some extras (b-sides, alt versions etc)
2. The Vault Collection - collating / archiving Prince's unreleased Vault studio work chronologically
3. Prince Live Series - cherry-picked live performances + rehearsals, videos etc

Splitting into three streams means there's greater flexibility for the Estate, avoiding the boom-or-bust pressure of these huge expensive SDEs that don't always sell, and the they can tune the release cadence of each stream individually, and maybe even go digital-only or subscription only in some cases if that's more appropriate. This gives the Estate maximum optionality for monetizing the different parts of Prince's back catalogue while it still has value.

I'd also start to do more "out of band" releases for RSD each year, it can be small things but it's a nice way to sustain fan interest with minimal effort.

PS Londell / Spicer, feel free to get in touch haha

[Edited 2/7/25 23:45pm]

I guess this could work, except for releasing the vault chonologically. There's simply way too much material, we'd all be dead before they reach 1995, + we've seen with the SDEs that the chonological approach doesn't make for pleasant listening experiences as albums, the tracklist is way too all over the place. Well curated, cohesive compilations from various eras would probably be the wisest approach when it comes to respecting the material.

And clearly, with the ridiculous amount of material at hand, our only hope to get more than a few crumbs every year would be a subscribtion service where they could drop anything that's not considered fit for a wider physical release — unfininshed demos, redundant versions of songs, redundant alt. configs of albums, moderately interesting or poorly recorded shows and rehearsals (not to forget the Hard Life short film )

But TBH I don't think they care much (if at all) about what we think.

databank said:

guitarman81 said:

Honeslty I would be happy with a Deluxe version of "The Undertaker" without all the crappy video edits and perhaps a bonus set of Paisly Park 3 Piece Jams from around that time.

My understanding is that there are 3 versions of it in existence:

The original video version (credited to the symbol and with a few minor differences in editing than the released version, and the original take of Dolphin).

The officially released video version.

The audio version that was supposed to be released with Guitar Magazine (which is the one you want I guess, since it lacks the edits and movie sound fx).

A perfect deluxe package would offer all three versions (+, I guess, a cheaper, standard version with the audio version only). Let's hope the Estate had enough common sense to see this the day they tackle it.

And for a proper SDE, there may indeed also exist enough material recorded with Sonny and Michael alone (if only from reheasals) to justify at least one CD of additional unreleased material.

I think The Undertaker could generate some hype if properly rereleased, as it is by far Prince's "purest" rock album (and, at least in our generation, there's a decent part of casual Prince listeners who are rockists and don't care much for the R&B side of his work). It was already a missed opportunity to quickly, discreetly drop it in video only back in 1995, targeting only hardcore fans. With a a proper, wider audio release, it would probably have generated some enthusiasm from the music press at the time.

I once asked Michael B if there was anything else performed at that session, either before, after or somewhere in between, and he told categorically no. I'd have expected some left overs that they used to perform with that format around the time, Jailhouse Rock or even Calhoun Square. All in all the complete session clocks in at 30-something minutes, it could have made sense.

.

This is one of my favorite "albums", by the way. But it's already out there even with a video to go with (even if it's a trippy mess). There's not much to dig for I guess.

databank said:

psyche2 said:

I share your enthusiasm, but let's beware of what we wish for

Perhaps the title track is the stand out one and the rest are leftovers from Kamasutra

.

Now, seriously, I'm also curious and it seems that could be a great unreleased album given what was going on musically at that time in Prince's world.

I love the title track and Breathe, if they're any indication of the album's overall tone, and I'm among the happy fews who LOVE the sound of the so-called "plastic" years, so I'm pretty confident about digging the album.

But TBH it's not even that important. I've wanted this record for 23 years and I know I won't trip on it as crazily as I would have as if it'd been released as promised in 2002 (similarly, The Flesh sessions were my other holy grail before they leaked, and I probably would have listened to them way much more than I did had they come out 15 years ealier). I'm just curious to hear it.

I'm also concerned about the Estate finding and releasing a final configuration if there's one. According to HM Buff, Man O War was once considered for the record but if his memories are correct, that means there was at least one configration that predates Rave that had to be at least slightly different from what Prince wanted to release in 2002. Did he commit to finishing this final 2002 configuration? And if so, will the Estate find it and leave it alone, or will they feel compeled to mess with it, leading to another "fake album" situation similar to Welcome 2 America?

Yeah, Breathe was nice too. It was a very exciting time to be a fan around that time (2002). Those two hints about the project are definetely intriguing.

.

But I wouldn't consider these two anything "plastic", or related to that sound from from the late 90's. I always felt them more organic, or more in tune with the whole ONA period (Rainbow Children, ONA tour, album...).

.

Never heard about that bit about Man O War being into this project. News to me. But thinking about it, could make sense and perhaps the whole thing was conceived and created at the end of his marriage to Mayte. I always thought (or guess I heard somewhere) the title Madrid 2 Chicago was a reference to the flight he used to take after spending some days in Marbella where Mayte was living.

[Edited 2/10/25 7:12am]

mill8 said:

This is the nexxt disappointing release: https://recordstoreday.co...ease/18512

...and :

SIDE SIX = Etching

exactly what we need, and extra vinyl side with no music. Great!!!

Vannormal said:

mill8 said:

This is the nexxt disappointing release: https://recordstoreday.co...ease/18512

...and :

SIDE SIX = Etching

exactly what we need, and extra vinyl side with no music. Great!!!

Maybe next they'll release a blank CD for us to burn with 7 remixes of 7 on mp3@128 that they'll sell online for 77 dollars

.

[Edited 2/10/25 15:17pm]

NICKthebrick said: