Being relatively new to Prince, Crystal Ball is an album I've heard referenced a lot, but seldom discussed... what exactly is it? Old tracks? New ones? More stuff from the vaults?

Any info on the album would be appreciated.. also, is there a particular version of the album that would be best to buy?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

Its alot of stuff some vault stuff some. they are all old relatively speaking now.heres the track list
disc 1
crystal ball
dream factory
acknowledge me
ripopgodazippa
lovesign(remix)
hide the bone
2morrow
so dark
movie star
tell me how u wanna be done

disc 2
interactive
da bang
calhoun square
what's my name
crucial
an honest man
sexual suicide
cloreen baconskin
good love
strays of the world

disc 3
days of wild
last heart
poom poom
she gave her angels
18 & over
the ride
get loose
p control(remix)
make your mamma happy
goodbye


it comes with the truth the acoustic album don't worry bout kamasutra thats not very good. princes foray into ballet

Also, in addition to the above released 3CD set of previously unreleased material, released 1998, it's also the original title of Sign O' Times, which was released in 1987 as a double LP, but originally intended as a triple LP.

A whole LP of songs were stripped back before release, and title change of course.

All the songs taken off Sign O' Times have been since released in one form or another, except the original album opening track, Rebirth Of The Flesh, although a live version of said song was made available through the NPG Music Club in it's first year (no longer officially available).

Didn't this album collect tracks from his 1987 classic, Sign O The Times, that weren't on the album? How disappointing and sick is that?

eccotides said:

Yes, you should look for the round case version with that special 5th or 4th disc I think. There's also a booklet. I saw one of these on www.ebay.com. You should also go to a Coconuts record store closer to you. They have some of the most rarest albums there. At Coconuts, I don't think they will have the round version of Crystal Ball. So, good luck finding it.

It really depends on what it is you're referring to.

The retail CB is tracked as above. It came with "The Truth" and for some copies..."Karmasusutra". It was intended to be a 3 CD set of Bootlegs. The name refers to a 3-CD Album Prince was to release in 1987. Most thought that this release would give us fans good renditions of songs that had been in circulation but not released. It was assumed that many of the songs would be from that era and time period of where most of the "good" outtakes come from. What it was was some of that...and a lot of more recent material and remixes. Most of the song were not that old. The song listing and the distribution made many mad....and is now known as the Crystal Ball Fiasco.

The original CB was a 3-disc Album that originally was the Dream Factory and that became Sign of the Times (got that). And somewhere inbetween was the Camille album. Below is a good rundown of what it was supposed to be...a bit long, but a good read...

The below excerpts are taken from "The Vault" on HQ site...

The long road to what would eventually become Sign O’ The Times started with Dream Factory, planned as the fourth album attributed to Prince and The Revolution. The Dream Factory sessions proper began in mid-March 1986 when Prince returned to Minneapolis after working mostly in Los Angeles during the winter of 1985-86. He now began working in his new state-of-the-art home studio. Although he continued working now and then at Sunset Sound, most of his recording sessions until Paisley Park opened were held in his home studio. He also staged occasional sessions in the rehearsal warehouse, primarily live recordings with The Revolution (or parts thereof).

An early, tentative version of Dream Factory was compiled on cassette in late April 1986. At this early stage, the album was going to be an 11-track single LP. Side one: “Visions” / “Dream Factory” / “It’s A Wonderful Day” / “The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker” / “Big Tall Wall” / “And That Says What?” Side two: “Strange Relationship” / “Teacher, Teacher” / “Starfish And Coffee” / “A Place In Heaven” / “Sexual Suicide.” In addition to eight songs committed to tape since December 1985, this version included the 1985 Parade-era reject “Sexual Suicide” and two 1982 songs that had been given an overhaul by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman in 1985, “Strange Relationship” and “Teacher, Teacher.”

As work on Dream Factory proceeded it became evident that Prince had too much first-rate material for a single-LP. The album had grown into a 19-track double LP by the time a new version was assembled on June 3rd. Side one: “Visions” / “Dream Factory” / “It’s A Wonderful Day” / “The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker” / “It.” Side two: “Strange Relationship” / “Teacher, Teacher” / “Starfish And Coffee” / “Interlude” / “In A Large Room With No Light” / “Nevaeh Ni Ecalp A” / “Sexual Suicide.” Side three: “Crystal Ball” / “Power Fantastic.” Side four: “Last Heart” / “Witness 4 The Prosecution” / “Movie Star” / “A Place In Heaven” / “All My Dreams.” The new additions since the 11-track sequence were tracked in April and May of 1986, with the exception of “Last Heart” (recorded in January), “Power Fantastic” (March 1986), and the Parade leftover “All My Dreams.” The strangely titled “Nevaeh Ni Ecalp A” (“A Place In Heaven” spelled backwards) features a short piece of “A Place In Heaven” in reverse.

Although this configuration of Dream Factory was mastered, Prince didn’t consider it a final version as he continued working on songs for the album. At one point, there was talk of doing a Broadway-style musical, which may have been called Dream Factory. Prince recorded four songs live with the expanded Revolution for this project on June 17th and 18th: “Can’t Stop This Feeling I Got,” “Girl O’ My Dreams,” “We Can Funk,” and “Data Bank.”

The final configuration of Dream Factory, now an 18-track double LP, was sequenced on July 18th. Side one: “Visions” / “Dream Factory” / “Train” / “The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker” / “It.” Side two: “Strange Relationship” / “Starfish And Coffee” / “Interlude” / “Slow Love” / “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man.” Side three: “Sign O’ The Times” / “A Place In Heaven” / “Crystal Ball.” Side four: “The Cross” / “Last Heart” / “Witness 4 The Prosecution” / “Movie Star” / “All My Dreams.” Other sequences of Dream Factory exist (assembled between the June 3rd and July 18th versions) with slightly different song sequences. “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man” was a reworked and extended version of a 1982 track. The Dream Factory project was aborted in late July when Lisa and Wendy announced to Prince that they wanted to go their own way and Prince made the decision to disband The Revolution.

Prince and his entourage left for Europe and the Parade tour on August 9th. A soundcheck and concert in Paris, August 25th, were recorded using a mobile truck. The soundcheck session included, amongst other tracks, “Coco Boys,” “Susannah’s Blues” (an instrumental), “Strange Relationship,” “Last Heart,” Al Green’s “Can’t Get Next To You,” and a first run-through of “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night.” Included on the list are only “Susannah’s Blues,” “Coco Boys” (live drums version), and the concert recording of “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night,” which was later thoroughly revamped for release on Sign O’ The Times.

Later in October, Prince embarked on yet another album project, Camille, which was going to be attributed to “Camille,” comprising tracks featuring his voice speeded-up. To put the Camille plan into practice, he recorded five new tracks over a nine-day period, October 27th to November 4th, adding a remixed version of “Strange Relationship,” “Housequake,” recorded earlier in October, and “Shockadelica, which came from a home studio session in September. The Camille album was sequenced on November 5th. Side one included: “Rebirth Of The Flesh” / “Housequake” / “Strange Relationship” / “Feel U Up.” Side two: “Shockadelica” / “Good Love” / “If I Was Your Girlfriend” / “Rockhard In A Funky Place.”

Camille was given a Warner Bros. catalogue number and a projected January 1987 release date. A test pressing was also made of a possible single, containing “Shockadelica” coupled with “Housequake.” Instead of pursuing the Camille project, however, Prince decided to expand on the record by incorporating other tracks recorded earlier in the year. “Rebirth Of The Flesh” is the only Camille track that remains unreleased, although a live rendition of the song was made available from NPG Music Club in 2001. Three of the Camille songs ended up on Sign O’ The Times (“Housequake,” “Strange Relationship,” and “If I Was Your Girlfriend”); “Rockhard In A Funky Place” was included on the Black Album; “Good Love” was released in March 1988 on the soundtrack album to the film Bright Lights, Big City and again on the Crystal Ball three-CD set in 1998; two tracks became B-sides, “Shockadelica” and “Feel U Up” (of “If I Was Your Girlfriend” in 1987 and “Partyman” in 1989, respectively).

Later in November 1986, Prince began work on an intended three-LP album set entitled Crystal Ball. A 22-track sequence was completed on November 30th. It contained on side one: “Rebirth Of The Flesh” / “Play In The Sunshine” / “Housequake” / “The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker.” Side two: “It” / “Starfish And Coffee” / “Slow Love” / “Hot Thing.” Side three: “Crystal Ball” / “If I Was Your Girlfriend” / “Rockhard In A Funky Place.” Side four: “The Ball” / “Joy In Repetition” / “Strange Relationship” / “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man.” Side five: “Shockadelica” / “Good Love” / “Forever In My Life” / “Sign O’ The Times.” Side six: “The Cross” / “Adore” / “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night.”

The projected Crystal Ball album incorporated seven songs resurrected from the Camille album (only “Feel U Up” was rejected) and eight tracks that had been included on Dream Factory (“Strange Relationship” was also a track on Dream Factory, but the Crystal Ball recording was lifted from Camille). In addition to these songs, Crystal Ball contained three songs completed in November 1986 after the Camille project had been aborted (“Adore,” “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night,” “Play In The Sunshine”), three songs recorded in August 1986 when Prince had cancelled the Dream Factory project (“Hot Thing,” “The Ball,” and “Forever In My Life”), and one song from July 1986 that was never included on Dream Factory (“Joy In Repetition”).

While many of the Crystal Ball tracks had been included on various configurations of Dream Factory, they were mostly songs with fairly limited input by Revolution members. Accordingly, Crystal Ball was for all purposes a return to Prince’s earlier one-man projects and the album was planned as a solo project, bearing the familiar imprint, “Produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Prince.” Not unexpectedly, the proposed three-LP set met with resistance from Warner Bros.’ chief executives. They balked at the production expenses of doing a three-LP set and questioned the sales potential because of the high price it would require. Reluctantly accepting the record company’s decision to shrink the album to two LPs, Prince reduced the album from three LPs to a 16-track two-LP, re-titling it Sign O’ The Times. He added a new song to the 15 remaining Crystal Ball tracks, “U Got The Look,” which he recorded at Sunset Sound on December 22nd 1986.
[This message was edited Thu Jun 17 19:39:46 2004 by superspaceboy]