I was playing some of my favourite Prince bootleg tracks the other day and one thing occurred to me... The songs that he has released (of those we had on bottleg!) quite a few of them don't work quite as well. Some examples are:

We can Funk - The funk was left on the editing room floor!

Can't Stop This Feeling I Got - Same treatment as "We Can Funk" during the GB sessions.

Endorphine Machine - The guitars were replaced with keyboards and it completely lost it's bite! I love the bootleg version.

Something in the Water - I heard the out-take long after the studio version, obviously... The piano version is absolutely amazing. The synth version fits in with the 1999 album, but i think the song was so much stronger with the piano.

Old Friends for sale - No need to comment here!

There are of course many others... Without bootlegs, who knows what other gems of songs he has 'broken' when he re-recorded them for release, or of course he may have fixed them!!!

The bootleg industry gives us a glimpse of this... Perhaps it's better to be kept in the dark?

Tick Tick Bang: the New-Wave was lost in 1990
Irresistible Bitch: his voice is so cool in the demo-version

Ive still never managed to find the piano version of something in the water, and its absolutely killing me. Is it on the work. I can only find and alternate synth version (sounds like a rehersal).

Tick Tick Bang definitely was ruined on Graffiti Bridge, as was we can funk. I totally agree about irresistible bitch, but its the original Feel U Up thats really cool. The "Camille" version he released in 1989 is crap compared to this.

I thought the times version of Data Bank was dreadful, in fact its interesting to see that he kind of left his old songs alone after the mishap of Graffiti Bridge.

Empty room is a bootleg that has got better over the years. I like the live version he released, but I reallly want to hear a studio version of this, one with guitars, flutes, strings...the works.

CrozzaUK said:

Yeah ... but Feel U Up is one of the few that isn't totally ruined in '89 / '90 ... I still like the '89 version!

the piano version of Something in the H20 is up there with the released..but not better. Up there...but not better.

dasmf said:

"Something in the Water" is my favorite song ever. I think the released version is perfect- the pinnacle of Prince's career. That said, I LOVE the piano version as well, but nothing touches the original in all of Prince's catalogue, in my opinion.

How about remixes? I'm really glad the version of Dark on Crystal Ball wasn't the one he decided to release in the end! All that beautiful natural sound omitted in the name of it being a "phatter joint"...pshh...he just wanted it to sound more hip-hop/r&b.

Anyway good thing we got the original on that one. Or was there an earlier version that was even better?

ThataintFunky said:

The '89 version is the '86 version, i.e. it was released in 89, but re-recorded in 1986.