This is a quote taken from the Star Tribune special:

• TOM TUCKER: I'd say half the things I mixed for him never made it to a record. And half of his vault, right now, none of us have ever heard. Nobody but him. It's really a shame.

We tried to talk him into archiving everything when he was still with Warners. We were going to buy a convection oven and bake all the analog tapes, and archive them to digital. But at the last minute he pulled the plug. He said he didn't want anybody to hear all that music. Those old analog tapes are just gumming up down in his vault. And then what's going to happen if it's not in his will? What if it's in his will to destroy that stuff? That would be like half the Beatles' tunes being lost.

skywalker said:

?Donde estas, Wally?

Im sure as long as he's a Jehovah's Witness (God, how did someone in search of the truth get so fucking snowballed, and by George Benson and Larry Graham?) he's not going to put out anything with 'swear words.'

The vault is dead.

I can see it now, many years down the road after his passing. The person who is willed the vault finally enters and finds nothing but a bucket of ashes in the center of the vault with a little sign sticking out that says "Jehovah would not approve of these. - Prince"
[This message was edited Wed Apr 7 18:03:08 2004 by NCC2012]

skywalker said:

There was a previous threaed based on the entire article...Of course this quote stands out. Someone mentioned that you only bake tapes as a last resort to at least get some final sound out of them when they are practially almost gone.

Thank god someone has boots out there of most of this stuff (or a good majority of it) so it's preserved in some form or another. Could be why he wanted em all back...to find the best recordings cuz he probably went in there one day and went "holy crap! Wonderful ass is wonderfully melted" Probably not...but still funny to think about.

I do hope that there is still a lot preserved...they are his children afterall.

Why would you bake a tape? Sounds dangerous, I would have backed out too.

Im pretty sure at this point ,that either Prince or someone in his employ , knows how to store his music digitally( If he cares to do so).And those analog tapes can last a long time in the right conditions. For example, those Clare Fisher recordings that pop up in songs from time to time dont sound deteriorated and I beleive they were recorded several years ago.

Another Example: Chas Chandler held on to some Jimi Hendrix Recordings for decades , and gave them to the Hendrix Family after they obtained control of Jimi's estate.Many of these were cleaned up and released on the 2000 Boxset and sound brilliant.

I dont think Prince has to worry about it for now.

he's not releasing most of it anyways, since it was recorded pre-jehovah, his beliefs now prevent him from releasing most of the stuff that we've heard... unfortunately.

parker said:

{Begin science lesson}
That is standard practice to keep the oxide from gumming up on the rollers, pinchers, and tape heads, on a recording type reel machine. Its quite safe. Almost all masters have to be stored in absolute perfect conditions for them to NOT basically fall apart. Theres 2 parts to a tape, the plastic tape, and the oxide that coats the tape, which is where the music is held. That oxide is very pretentious and will actually fall off of the plastic tape if not stored properly.
{End science lesson}

It's definately sad that some of those recordings are probably detereorating - I can't help thinking Prince wouldn't want that to happen and probably has done something about it by now. If not, well, they are his possessions and he can do what he likes with them. An artist can paint a great painting and then burn it if he so desires.

As far as Prince never releasing these songs due to his current beliefs, well he can still delve into them and re-use a drum pattern, a bass line etc for new songs. This is probably a better way to think of the vault - lots of little memos and incomplete sketches that may or may not be developed into full ideas.

At least recordings from here on in are safe since he uses digital now.

This question has probably already been answered, but:

Where exactly is the Vault located? And how is it protected?

T

Some of you are simply obsessed by this religion thing that they add it up in every thread/discussion.

Some here suffer from a serious lack of tolerance.

Haven't u heard?

There are hardly any vault tracks in existence that aren't in one form or another in circulation.

The Work bootleg set featured much of Prince's unreleased output. Plus, since the mid 90s old unreleased vault tracks have basically been released, either altered or somehow incorporated in new releases over the last 10 years. There is no vault left to speak of.

That vault track ur yearning for is none other than Hot Wit U, Sensual Everafter or Pretty Man. They have all already been altered, butchered and rearranged. Many of the vault tracks ended up on C&D, NPS and Rave when Prince was in a lazy spell and couldn't get out of bed in the mornings. The originals were probably quite passable.

No point hoping for any vault tracks since they've already been released in awful incarnations, all except for the one tape sitting in the corner of the vault, which I'm told is an old TDK cassette tape with 'Nightingale' on it. Apparently there's a Mars Bar wrapper in there too, don't know how that got there.

Sorry.

...
[This message was edited Thu Apr 8 3:44:25 2004 by fauxnewbie]

klaatu said:

perhaps. but that doesn't mean that they aren't right about the facts.

klaatu said:

Thank you so much

Thanks, "cbastriani", for the explanation... U beat me 2 it.

NOW... There really is no need 2 worry, because there's something going on at Paisley Park right now that looks like a massive amount of digital recording or archieving.

Obviously, I can't say how I know this, but trust me... There's a lot of stuff happening at the Park while P's on tour.

Peace.

G.

Another point 2 B made is that not many people truly know how much music Prince has stashed away. 4 those of U that say there's little if any, U R most definately wrong.

That's all 4 now.

G

klaatu said:

I second that statement, a definite lack of tolerance.

Giovanni777 said:

No one here knows for definite how much music is stashed away - therefore you can't make the statement 'there is not much there' any more than you can say 'there is tons there'.

However, there's more evidence to suggest that there is quite a bit in there - there's been lots of recording sessions catalogued where as yet unreleased tracks were worked on - they must be kept somewhere! Plus, Prince must record a lot of his live performances - otherwise where did the recent Hawaii and Bataclan downloads come from? Even if the vault was just full of live recordings it would still be stacked to the ceiling!

And of course he's got all his gold bullion in there too.

Well let's look at another musician who "divorced" himself from his past: Cat Stevens ... When Cat became Yusef Islam many moonshadows ago, he demanded Island/A&M Records to cease releasing/reissuing his albums (then of course there's that whole other side of "did he or did he not condone the death of Salmon Rhusdie" blah, blah, blah)... However, all that changed a few years back when he allowed Universal to reissue his entire catalogue. He then decided to donate royalities of songs he was 'proud' of to aide various organizations (for instance, ALL the money towards the sale of his Box Set went to 9/11 relief funds) ... I think age has played a huge role in changing Cat's (err, Yusef's) mind about his past and rather viewing what he did as 'wrong' or 'evil' became more reference to an old song of his "On The Road To Find Out" regarding his journey from where he came from to where he is now. Prince, hopefully, will do the same (making nice with the nasty) or at least make peace with what he created then. If he's taking about bringing back Music as an art-form, then why doesn't he view his entire body of work as art?
[This message was edited Thu Apr 8 10:55:43 2004 by QueerAsFunk]

There's not really any reason to think that his current religious beliefs completely blind him to the merits of vault stuff that happens to have a few swear words on it. After all, he's a mature guy. Even though he has a history of being impulsive and making pronouncements about not recording or touring anymore -- he always comes around. He goes through cycles of being more interested in his old music and those in which he won't play much of it, but I think especially as he gets older, he has an eye on his legacy. Not to mention the fact that the stuff is just worth money, and we know he's not going to throw any of that away.

If the goal of his religious impulses are to understand and become more completely himself, I think that will work towards his not being ashamed of his old work.

P himself would have a good laugh over this discussion -- just a guess!

I hope the songs are kept safe and released someday. Otherwise we may never hear great Prince songs again.

2 "Metalorange"...

I DO know there is a lot of material there, most of which none of U have heard...

U didn't see my post before that one... U should check it.

Easy,

G.

It's his work, so I guess he can do as he pleases with it, but it would be a shame if we didn't get to hear this music at some time or another.

It's unrealistic to think we'll hear all of it, considering there is so much, it wouldn't be commercially viable to release it all and turn a profit - unless Prince released them himself through the download store, but seeing as he's had independent means of distribution for over 10 years now, and we haven't seen much other than the tracks on Crystal Ball (many of which were only a couple of years old any way) tracks come through these avenues - it seems unlikely that he will be doing this himself.

Remember when NPGMC started up, we got Splash in the first month, I don't think it was out of the blue - I think it was a marketing technique to get fans to sign up, we thought, "Hey, an UNcirculating Revolution track from 1986, I'm gonna sign up if this is what we are getting".

Then nothing else - to this day (Except for the odd live track).

So he is aware that his fanbase desire to hear this older music.

I think there may be an element of insecurity in not releasing it - in as much that if he released tracks from 1982-86, along side new music - the fanbase might think "The Flesh vs NEWS" - Man, Prince was much better then!" So, if reviews/fans say this, he starts thinking it himself, and anyone would find that hard to contemplate - to face you might be past your prime.

Regarding the religious thing, I don't think that helps either, but who knows if Prince will still be a JW in 2, 5, 10, or 15 years time?

IMO, JW is not "the Truth" at all.

Prince has recorded every concert he's peformed since 1979 Capri theater debut. Between Prince and Bobby Z. even the rehearsals. He's also video taped all his concerts. I'm sure the vault is quite full of gems!

Thank U Sexualsuicide...

I don't think anyone wants 2 know how I know what's going on at PP, as there have been no questions about one of my previous posts... This is good, so I'll just keep the rest on the DL...

Peace.

G.
[This message was edited Thu Apr 8 11:48:35 2004 by Giovanni777]

I don't obssess over stuff that might or might not exist; I'm just thankful for the stuff he has released.

um.. i am pretty sure that Prince wouldnt throw away anything. Come on be serious.

Remember him taking Anita Baker 2 the place in '92 i think, and she said it looked like a library!? so awesome!

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I will say because most of the songs in the vault are unfinished, like half way done songs.
I believe i've seen it in a interview with a band mate that said he has lots of unfinished songs.

Records like i do, just have so many ideas that u create just half of a song and move on, then go back to any that u want to finished.
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