Just thought I'd take a moment to pay homage to a great unreleased joint:

"Witness 4 The Prosecution"

Friggin' great tune, recorded more than once. My personal fave is the "Dream Factory" album version, which featured the gospel choir sound and a killer guitar! Rumour has it, it was also slated to be on the discarded "Roadhouse Garden" project.

Thoughts on this track?

the guitar is killer on this
tho' the version i have is really crap sound quality
one of my fave unreleased trax

JediMaster said:

The completed version of 'Witness 4 The Prosecution' sounds way too "finished" for my taste.

I much prefer the unfinished 'Dream Factory' version where, without so many overdubs, Prince's furious guitar playing really comes to the fore.

As for the 1986 re-make of 'Witness' the less said about that one the better.


.

giotto said:

So, you prefer the stripped down, demo sounding one? Thats cool. It actually took quite a while for me to figure out which one I liked better. Both have some fine points. I just grew to love the "choir" sounding background vocals on the latter version. It really fits the tone of the song.

Next to All Day, All Night, it's my favorite boot.

Yes, but only the first funky blues-rock version, IMO. Kind of an unsual song for him at the time, as far as the sound is concerned.

The more electronical version, I don't like too much.

i have it on crucial. i bought crucial a couple years before crystal ball came out and i was not too impressed with crystal ball because i heard all the songs already. i guess that is one downside to hearing the bootlegs of songs before they are officially released.

love this song.

calldapplwondery83 said:

I forgot there was a more electronic based one. So I guess that means there are at least three versions of this track?

SaintPauli said:

Oh definitely a downside. By the time The Gold Experience came out I had had most of the album for over a year! Still loved it, which says something about that album, as oppossed to some that I'm instantly sick of from hearing boots.

EvilWhiteMale said:

That is another great track. Its really almost identical to the version on the Jill Jones album (which I love), but for some reason the Prince one is just a bit better. Maybe its just because the song fits his personality so much more?

I hear there are different versions to this song and I hear this song get praised all the time.

The one I've heard, wasn't all that, in my opinion. So maybe I got the wrong version.
The one I have starts out with "This is the story of two childhood sweethearts..."

Please advise,
Do I need to look for another version?
[This message was edited Thu Feb 26 12:55:29 2004 by yamomma]

yamomma said:

I think that's the later, more electronic version. Pretty boring compared to the other two. One has a very stripped-down guitar sound, while the other is more heavy bass, with lots more going on in the background vocal department. The first two versions are all kinds of kick ass, and I could understand anyone preferring either one. The third version is pretty much forgettable (as you can see, I forgot all about it until cadapplwondery83 brought it up!)