Ive read that the High album was shelved because Prince decided to go towards his loyal fans rather than commercial success. However, i must admit there are some good songs recorded for that album, most of which were released in the club year 1. I particularly like Vavoom, Gamillah and Props n pounds.
How close was the cd to coming out before it was shelved?
Did Prince have a 'dark night of the soul' about commercialism like he did with TBA on the eve of his release?
Maybe there r 2 many Q's but im interested to hear of any answers.


Isnt it interesting how the songs differ from TRC. Trc is much more traditionally music whilst High and Rave were much more electronic. TRC is great too but i really felt the voice over opinions spoilt it. It would have been much more cohesive and understood without them, with just the music to give the message. Songs like Last December to me had a much stronger Christian message than the voiceover narrative which was quite spooky. It did prove though what a great musician and personality Prince is, and yeah, id like to hear his Voice again soon!!

Freaker said:

It was shelved because he thought it was gonna be a big hit but then no distributor was nuts enough to pay him big bucks (when a Minneapolis station got an exclusive single to play, they barely got requests for more -- hell, even when he made a very neo-soul single with Angie Styone no-one cared). And thus it came to help "fulfill" NPGMC Year 1.

BartVanHemelen said:

Dude, you really need to get laid.

teller said:

teller said:

What does this have to do with his response??

Neversin.

Neversin said:

Exactly. Bart is correct with his comments and they were not mean or anything. I also have to say that the above theory makes no sense as he released all the songs to his hardcore fans via the club or through the singles.

The line about commericial success made me laugh this album would have tanked worse then Rave.

Vavoom bombed when played on KDWB.


.
[This message was edited Sat Aug 23 16:42:03 PDT 2003 by lovemachine]

I'm very happy the album never saw the light of day as an actual album.

The material is some of Prince's worst ever. It's just mediocre rubbish that he did in his sleep. It's awful.

The difference between TRC and the high album is huge. It's hard to believe that someone who could make TRC could make such poor material.

At the Celebration 2002, Femi Jiya (P's sound engineer) said that an High album has never been considered.

the high album was never going to be released because it wasn't good enough... i am amazed some people think the material on this collection of songs was ever good enough for a proper release.

I think someone said it best when they said that the High album wreaked of Prince "begging the public to like him again" or something along those lines. It's an okay album to listen to just for fun, but I'm glad that he only gave the tracks to the club and never officially released it.

It's not so much that the material is anymore weak than the vast majority of the other "pop" music being played on the radio. It's just that as a whole, the tracks from "High" don't come off sounding genuine or sincere. Again, a lot the tracks make Prince sound like the guy who just wants everybody to like him.

That's what I love about TRC, Xpectations, and N.E.W.S. One listen, and you know Prince isn't trying to win a popularity contest.

blackboab said:

and TRC was??

TRC should have stayed as a member only ahdio show and no further. High tracks would have started people buying his music again

jthad1129 said:

You are completely nuts, my friend! You go listen to "the album that would have started people buying his music again" , I'll stay with the superb TRC!

I guess I'm nuts too, b/c if High were released on CD it would get MUCH more play than TRC does. In fact, I can't remember the last time I felt like listening to TRC, although there are some great songs on there. The album as a whole is just so confused and unhappy.

theblueangel said:

There it is. That shows you it's real. It makes you feel something. I too can barely listen to it because it has a dark feel to it. However, there are times when I'm in the mood for some weird, hard funk/jazz/rock/whatever and TRC fits the bill.

cool, cool...

every1 has an Oppinion...

4 whateva reasons P didn't release "The High Album" is what he decided 2 do. i hope P keeps 2 the idea of releasing Music thru The NPGMC. people who want it who r Members will get it & whoeva doesn't think "it's good enuff" well... go listen 2 what u do like.

that's y Boots r so popular...

I agree with those who say that High would have been pretty successful (ie i think it would have given him mainstream success) Songs like My Medallion and U make my Sun shine would have made excellent singles for the public. I didnt personally like TRC too much, it was too different from his style, it had a nasty voiceover and made him seem older, while High showed he still had funky youth juice in him.

Can anyone post a tracklist of High? I want to recheck the songs on it to make a more balanced judgement of this album. I do agree UMakeMySunShine is a very beautiful song, but as far as I can remember I wasn't too impressed by the rest of the tracks.

There is no official tracklist for 'High'.

BorisFishpaw said:

Boris, do you know which tracks were considered to be on the High album? I don't mean a final tracklist but a list of tracks that might make it to the High album?

Probable 'High' tracks...

Vavoom
High
Supercute
Underneath The Cream
Sex Me, Sex Me Not
When Will We B Paid?
Silicon
U Make My Sun Shine
When I Lay My Hands On U
My Medallion
Golden Parachute
Jukebox With A Heartbeat
.

teller said:

Harsh man
[This message was edited Sun Aug 24 15:38:15 PDT 2003 by bananacologne]

When I Lay My Hands On U was great - strongest track on 'High' - 4 me anyways.
How come only 1 minute or so of the 'video' was made available? Looked quite cool. Did he shelve it at the 11th hour?

blackboab said:

i agree.

Freaker said:

Umm.. I don't know if you realize this or not, but, "U Make My Sunshine" WAS actually released as a single. It had a video and everything. And that says what about your theory? So really, all you've done is prove that commercially, the album is weak, otherwise, people would've been buying and requesting U Make My Sunshine like crazy.

High was just an attempt to write hit songs again, but I think that most of the tracks were at a demo stage. Thank god it was never released, I find it so weak..

This is the tracklist that I have a few found a few times on certain parts of the Internet:

1.Vavoom
2.U make my sun shine
3. My Medallion
4. When will we b paid?
5. Supercute
6. Underneath the cream
7. Golden parachute
8. The daisy chain
9. Gamillah
10. High
11. When I lay my hands on U

Other possible additions not listed here: Props N Pounds, Northside, Peace, Silicon, 20:45

Any tracklists you see are just made up by fans.

On a side note, it's highly unlikely that 'The Daisy Chain' or
'Gamillah' were ever included on 'High', as by the time that
the album was being mentioned they had already been
dubbed 'New Power Generation' tracks, and would have
probably been included on the unreleased 'Peace' album.

BorisFishpaw said:

Exactly...
The CDr's with the "High tracks" on it that came from Paisley Park were just CDr's with material on it for use at the Celebration...
These weren't so called different configurations of the "High" album...
Some of these CDr's even included Prince's version of "R U Ready?" which was recorded around the time of the "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic" album (and maybe even considered for inclusion on it)...
"Cybersingle", which wasn't considered for any album project...
"Peace", which was for the NPG's "Peace" album...
"Northside", which was also for the NPG's "Peace" album...
And some more which were released through the club in year 1...
Prince did however record and sequenced an album around the time of "High" that was ready for release... What was on it is a mystery though, could be things of "High" could be the "Peace" album or could be something completely different...

Neversin.

Neversin, that tracklist above is apparently the order it was sequenced. On first glance it looks strange but on listening it flows quite well.

Freaker said:

It may flow well, but that doesn't mean it's the tracklist of an album...
One of the reasons this cannot be a sequence is that "The Daisy Chain" and "Gamillah" were for the NPG's "Peace" album...

Neversin.