What do you think Prince thinks of bootlegs? This is meant more for discussion than anything else.

I have heard stories from him walking into a store, grabbing the entire boot section of his stuff and walking out saying “thank you these are mine” to stories that he puts out or is somehow involved with the distribution of a few of them. But he seems very anti anything that has to do with them…like shutting down sites that even discuss them. Yet provides no info what-so-ever regarding the vault. And is insulting when it comes to showing us “the vault” on the npgmc site (well in it’s last incarnate).

Does anyone know what he has said about bootlegs? Does he have a different view on the outtakes and unreleased material vs the live stuff. I hear he tapes like all of his shows…and does a video for most of his songs. Why does he do this if he doesn’t want it to get out there.

He has to realize that at this point he is so far along, that this issue is a beast all of it’s own. There is of course a huge monetary value he could make if he would tap into the vault of outtakes and live material. He must know this. How could he not?

Funny, many artist embrace the fact that they are studied and collected. Bjork.com for instance, lists all the boots available, but doesn’t tell you where to get them. I think it’s an honor to be one of the most collected artists out there.

Or is it just a mystery to all why he hasn’t or does not acknowledge the potential of this stuff?

He's against

superspaceboy said:

He probably does that because he wants to see or hear them for himself. Just because he is 'out there' does not imply that everything he does is public property.

i think he sees what's out there.

remember when he asked us to send him some of his bootlegs?

i think what he did with them was to clean them up and put it on the work(vol.1-5).

PRINCE'S VAULT....MAN OH MAN.

Prince wants to kill Bootleggers, but like Boots.

He sells his own bootleg. I bought a Bootleg tape from Paisley Park at one of his parties. It was "Face Down Live from New York Bootleg" and that is what it said on the tape.

avatarfunk said:

I think that could be true. And this goes along with the gumming of the vault tapes. It may have been the only way to have those songs preserved was to ask for the boots back and see what did come back in what quality.

If this theory is true...it must have been a sad day when he went into the vault and saw what had happened and what needed to be done. But a hole in that theory is...he must know of some collectors out there..or even someone within his circle must have had those as well.

Does anyone know what the text was and how the message was delivered regarding sending back boots. I actually got a kick when I heard that's what he did. I thought there was no way in purple hell he's going to get those back. Did he? Did one of the PP's feel sorry and send back their stuff?

he likes him, cuz they sometimes better than his albums!

aww, now that's a joke. i'd never say that about his albums, but there's no telling what my boot will do.

superspaceboy said:

Bootlegs annoy the hell outta Prince. He doesn't like them.
(and he doesn't like the way lots of fans go on about them all the time)

superspaceboy said:

[This message was edited Fri May 7 22:13:52 2004 by KeLo07]

I wish he would just release them himself.

I honestly believe that after Lovesexy was released he was ambivalent about the Black Album being so widely distributed. He must have been - a good portion of the Lovesexy show was made up of material from that album.

bwnladybug said:

Prince can't sell a bootleg of his recordings. If he is selling it, then it is automatically "officially released" and can not be considered a real bootleg.

BinaryJustin said:

good point on P being ambivelent on the Black album is a good one. hough he only played songs from the album and the ones chose were part of the story sequence. Starting with Dirty Mind/Controversy/Superfunky/Bob George ...and then Anna Stasia. It was the moment when the concert trancends a concert.

My take on the sequence is well the dirty mind caused him to do something controversial...take ecstacy thus become superfunky...and Bob George Emerges...also is the darker side of E.... and then he redeems himself with Anna Stasia. It's also a commentary on the Black Album. WHere he implies he went to a darker side and then is redeemed.

RupertZ said:

Yes, this was an early item offered through the club, before the downloads happened.
It's a 5$ dollar cassette single with Face Down and TMGITW, and I received mine in the mail.
The word "bootleg" appears on the cover for no good reason I can think of...it is most certainly official merchandise.
For all I know, you can still get this at the NPG music store.

Eugnj420

RupertZ said:

No, it wasn't automatically "officially released". He was selling straight from Paisley to his patrons. There were no advertisments or big parties for it. Just like when he was selling The War.

Check with some of Paisley Parks Old School Crew and they can confirm what I am am stating.
They are called the Paisley Park Party Crew.

eugnj420 said:

I bought mine a few years back.

Spookymuffin said:

He gets so upset he spills the tea and wishes he could fight.

It seems to me that the flow of bootlegs (studio stuff, not live material) pretty much dried up after Prince left Warners and took control of his own stuff. That tells me it wasn't Prince releasing that stuff in the 80's - 90's.

RodeoSchro said:

Dried up????? Someone pulease him him to the flow

RomeoMustDie said:

Yup, dried up.
You could probably name all the circulating unreleased post-WB songs on one hand.
(If you discount tracks promo'd to radio but not released and the NPGMC tracks)