Kares said:

JorisE73 said:

YEs, also like Little Red Corvette, Let's Work, Mountains 12" versions etc.
But there is also the longer album version of Little Red Corvette that;s doesn't fade out that should be released, but now still only gatekeepers get to hear these things and I don't thikn the Estate has any interest in revidsiting the already released SDEs.

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I'm sure these were the exception though, not the rule. Of course he has put extra work into the 12" singles (and remix EPs) he deemed important, but that's only about a couple of dozen songs – as opposed to (possibly) a thousand that were recorded longer and then were cut back for an album configuration.

Yes true, Crucial being agood example. The version on a earlier verison of Cryustal Ball/SOTT has an edit onf the song with Clare Fishers strings that ends the album. The full 'guitar' and 'sax' versions on teh 'Crucial' bootleg (Without Fisher's strings) weren't meant to be released like that I was told.
I guess teh version on Crystal Ball 98 was the verison Prince wanted released but without the strings.

[Edited 1/15/26 10:27am]

Kares said:

JorisE73 said:

YEs, also like Little Red Corvette, Let's Work, Mountains 12" versions etc.
But there is also the longer album version of Little Red Corvette that;s doesn't fade out that should be released, but now still only gatekeepers get to hear these things and I don't thikn the Estate has any interest in revidsiting the already released SDEs.

.
I'm sure these were the exception though, not the rule. Of course he has put extra work into the 12" singles (and remix EPs) he deemed important, but that's only about a couple of dozen songs – as opposed to (possibly) a thousand that were recorded longer and then were cut back for an album configuration.

.
For the 12" of LRC, as far as I know, he didn't actually record any extra bits, he just had to reassemble the original 2" tape that he foolishly razor-edited into dozens of pieces previously.

Kares said:

Kares said:

.
I'm sure these were the exception though, not the rule. Of course he has put extra work into the 12" singles (and remix EPs) he deemed important, but that's only about a couple of dozen songs – as opposed to (possibly) a thousand that were recorded longer and then were cut back for an album configuration.

.
For the 12" of LRC, as far as I know, he didn't actually record any extra bits, he just had to reassemble the original 2" tape that he foolishly razor-edited into dozens of pieces previously.

Oh, I tink Morris Day said Prince recorded extra guitar bits for it with him in the studio.

JorisE73 said:

Kares said:

.
For the 12" of LRC, as far as I know, he didn't actually record any extra bits, he just had to reassemble the original 2" tape that he foolishly razor-edited into dozens of pieces previously.

Oh, I tink Morris Day said Prince recorded extra guitar bits for it with him in the studio.

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Morris wasn't around at Sunset Sound when P worked on the LRC 12"

Kares said:

JorisE73 said:

Oh, I tink Morris Day said Prince recorded extra guitar bits for it with him in the studio.

.
Morris wasn't around at Sunset Sound when P worked on the LRC 12"

Oh ok, maybe someone else mentioned it.

BTW, I just found this quote from David Leonard that is relevant to our topic:

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“When I would edit for him, every song that we ever recorded was a full reel of tape, like 12–15 minutes long, and everything that came out on the record was edited down to the short, radio versions, but all the originals are long. So the dance versions, the long versions, are the actual originals. They’re the full-length versions, and then everything on the record was cut down.”

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(note that a "full reel of tape" refers to a 10.5" diameter reel of 2" wide tape, which is typically 2500 feet long. When used at 30 inch per second speed, it has a total playing time of 16 minutes, therefore the vast majority of Prince's multitrack recordings are maximum 16 mins long. Occasionally they ran the tape half-speed, at 15ips, which allowed a total recording/playing time of 32 minutes. 'America', for example, was tracked this way. A higher tape speed generally means better sound quality, although the bass response is better when recording at a lower speed.)

.

[Edited 1/15/26 16:17pm]

I suppose the "Final Version" isn't always the "Full Version"

I'm not keen on the idea of the estate editing anything unless it's absolutely needed.

I think the live studio takes we've got so far are fantastic.

It's incredibly unlikely track 7 on disc 5 of an SDE is going to bother the charts. I don't see why anything really needs to be edited at this point.

Ndorphinmachina said:

It's incredibly unlikely track 7 on disc 5 of an SDE is going to bother the charts. I don't see why anything really needs to be edited at this point.

Agreed. Just a clean up job should bve enough.

JorisE73 said:

Ndorphinmachina said:

It's incredibly unlikely track 7 on disc 5 of an SDE is going to bother the charts. I don't see why anything really needs to be edited at this point.

Agreed. Just a clean up job should bve enough.

.
I thought I've already clearly explained why it could be neccessary to edit some tracks, but again:
– because possibly a lot of songs were recorded as long jams, not because P wanted to release them that way, but because it was one of his recording methods to record a long raw material and edit/create the final composition afterwards.
– because a lot of songs aren't mixed yet, and mixing often involves editing out certain parts. It is extremely rare (and typically a very bad idea) that every recorded note of every instrument on a multitrack tape ends up in a final mix.
– because P championed the album format throughout his career so any respectful attempts of maintaining his legacy should aim to release albums, cohesive works of art, even if it means making up album configurations for tracks that aren't part of any P-approved album tracklists already. And stitching together 12-15 min long jams is not an album.
– "just a clean up job" doesn't result in an enjoyable track, if there is no mixdown tape found. It HAS to be mixed first and mixing means some editing decisions too.

[Edited 1/16/26 14:36pm]

It's indeed quite unlikely that anything previously unreleased at this point will have any significant commercial success, at the level of Prince's hits (Kiss, Purple Rain, etc.). (Ndorphinmachina's point)

It's not a reason, though, to release this previously unreleased material without attemping to present it in a manner consistent with how Prince worked. I think we can all agree that the order of the tracks on those outtakes CDs on the SDE sets is suboptimal, artistically devoid of any meaning, even not very enjoyable (yes, I know it shouldn't be a criterion, but still), and that some "creative sequencing" should have been attempted.

I think I understand Kare's point that jams, etc. should be mixed/edited , because that's how Prince worked.

But obviously we don't know how Prince would have done it, so it those cases where creative mixing/editing is done, both versions (raw + mixed/edited) should really be released. They don't have to be present on the same release. A mixed/edited version on the main release, plus the raw recordings released online, on a "low-key" site, would be enough.

In the same vein, I don't think everything should be released on streaming platforms. Only some of the releases.

[Edited 1/16/26 14:48pm]

olb99 said:

obviously we don't know how Prince would have done it, so it those cases where creative mixing/editing is done, both versions (raw + mixed/edited) should really be released. They don't have to be present on the same release. A mixed/edited version on the main release, plus the raw recordings released online, on a "low-key" site, would be enough.

.

I agree. I can imagine that to be the solution. (Or as a bonus disc of a deluxe CD-version.)

[Edited 1/16/26 14:53pm]