I'm really starting to sink my teeth into to the world of prince (though I have been reading posts here for a little while without joining). I keep hearing about the Dream Factory album but it all seems mixed up. How many versions are floating around and are the Camille and Crystal Ball albums the same thing as Dream Factory? I have almost every Prince cd (not including the npgmc stuff) and I think I need some bootlegs now. This is the first place I thought of coming to for help on this.

Dream Factory was the double-LP follow-up to Parade - there was a final tracklist, which I'm sure others will post, but there were several working tracklists too.

Camille was the pseudonym record Prince worked on after the Revolution disbanded, which he then decided to expand into a 3LP set by adding a lot of the Dream Factory tracks, the set was then called Crystal Ball.

The 3 LP idea rejected by Warners, was then marred down to a 2 LP set and retitled Sign O' The Times.

For the best info on Prince, the book Days Of Wild is fabulous - it's like an orgasm of Prince information.

http://www.uptown.se/

Uptown are the only people doing real research on Prince's past recordings, they are the only people who really care enough to present accurate on Prince's music, and that includes any past or present official outlets.

www.guide2prince.org is a good site for bootleg info.

The Sabotage Remastered version has this track-listing..
1.Visions
2.Nevaeh ni ecalp a
3.Dream Factory
4.Train
5.The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
6.It
7.Strange Relationship
8.Slow Love
9.Starfish And Coffee
10.Interlude
11.I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
12.Sign O' The Times
13.Crystal Ball
14.A Place In Heaven
15.Last Heart
16.Witness 4 The Prosecution
17.Movie Star
18.The Cross
19.All My Dreams.

If you don't have it - I'd definately reccommend it.
The sound is top-notch, and the packaging is beautiful!!

OK, here's the evolution from Dream Factory into Sign O' The Times...


DREAM FACTORY version 1 (april '86)
side 1:
1. Visions
2. Dream Factory
3. It's A Wonderful Day
4. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
5. Big Tall Wall
6. And That Says What?
side 2:
1. Strange Relationship
2. Teacher Teacher
3. Starfish & Coffee
4. A Place In Heaven
5. Sexual Suicide


DREAM FACTORY version 2 (june 3rd '86)
side 1:
1. Visions
2. Dream Factory
3. It's A Wonderful Day
4. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
5. It
side 2:
1. Strange Relationship
2. Teacher Teacher
3. Starfish & Coffee
.. (interlude: wendy's guitar)
4. In A Large Room With No Light
.. (interlude: nevaeh ni ecalp a)
5. Sexual Suicide
side 3:
1. Crystal Ball
2. Power Fantastic
side 4:
1. Last Heart
2. Witness 4 The Prosecution
3. Movie Star
4. A Place In Heaven
5. All My Dreams


DREAM FACTORY version 3 (july 18th '86)
side 1:
1. Visions
.. (interlude: nevaeh ni ecalp a)
2. Dream Factory
3. Train
4. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
5. It
side 2:
1. Strange Relationship
2. Starfish & Coffee
.. (interlude: wendy's guitar)
3. Slow Love
4. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
side 3:
1. Sign O' The Times
2. A Place In Heaven
3. Crystal Ball
side 4:
1. The Cross
2. Last Heart
3. Witness 4 The Prosecution
4. Movie Star
5. All My Dreams


CAMILLE (november 5th '86)
side 1:
1. Rebirth Of The Flesh
2. Housequake
3. Strange Relationship
4. Feel U Up
side 2:
1. Shockadelica
2. Good Love
3. If I Was Your Girlfriend
4. Rockhard In A Funky Place


CRYSTAL BALL (november 30th '86)
side 1:
1. Rebirth Of The Flesh
2. Play In The Sunshine
3. Housequake
4. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
side 2:
1. It
2. Starfish & Coffee
3. Slow Love
4. Hot Thing
side 3:
1. Crystal Ball
2. If I Was Your Girlfriend
3. Rockhard In A Funky Place
side 4:
1. The Ball
2. Joy In Repetition
3. Strange Relationship
4. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
side 5:
1. Shockadelica
2. Good Love
3. Forever In My Life
4. Sign O' The Times
side 6:
1. The Cross
2. Adore
3. It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night


SIGN O' THE TIMES (december 21st '86)
side 1:
1. Sign O' The Times
2. Play In The Sunshine
3. Housequake
4. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
side 2:
1. It
2. Starfish & Coffee
3. Slow Love
4. Hot Thing
5. Forever In My Life
side 3:
1. U Got The Look
2. If I Was Your Girlfriend
3. Strange Relationship
4. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
side 4:
1. The Cross
2. It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night
3. Adore

(I've included interludes in brackets as they're often listed in tracklists published in various books and magazines, but almost certainly would not have been credited on the actual albums had they been officially released)

Thank you so much! So many versions...wow! How do you know this? Not that I'm doubting you or anything, just curious.

what a bounty of riches our little Prince had in 1986/1987. So much to choose from. So much never seen the (official) light of day.

I so love In A Large Room With No Light (but can see why it was replaced on the configuration by I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man - because it also had a really long title, erm no actually because it is the same kind of uptempo song)

I have to say I own the Version 3 Dream Factory released by Sabotage (sorry Prince, couldn't help myself) but would love version 2 AND Crystal Ball

I expect Prince never handed over the master tapes to Warner Bros for these early configurations. If he had his head screwed on right he'd release these in limited edition via his website - we fans would lap them up.

has anyone been successful in finding "and that says what?"
if so, what does it sound like?
just curious.

kimmie687 said:

That's not widely circulating.

There are several levels of hierachy in the bootleg/out-take trader circles - and those at the bottom (the majority) only receive tracks in less than stellar quality, long after the tracks have been sold and sold again.

Dunno if that particular track is in the hands of the upper tiers of theives, most of them are quite tight-lipped.