will somebody n e body tell me y this album REALLY wasn't released..first i heard he had a godly experiance....then i heard he saw satin and dude was chasin him..then i heard that camille (the alter ego) and spooky electric (the alter ego of the alter ego) got n2 it (< that one just trips me out)...then i heard he had a bad E trip....then i heard Ingrid Chavez (the spirit child) was with him...then i heard he had an xperiance and relealised that he could die @ any moment and that if he released it it would b the last thing he was judged on and he didn't wan't that (and he refused to elaborate more n the interview i read this n)....someone PLEASE tell y it really wasn't released. i kno atleast 1 of yall kno...

Moonwalkbjrain said:

I don't know the answer to this, but this part of your post just cracks me up! I am falling out over here. I keep getting a visual of Prince arguing with himself while wearing that half-Joker makeup from that Partyman video.



S

U answered your own question, he had a near death experience & did not want the last thing he released to be a negative album, plus the Black Album was supposed to be for private use only.....so I heard

Somehow, I don't totally buy into the spiritual stuff either. This rekkid was on the docks ready to ship to retail within 7 days and had already gone to radio for promotion. I think he just had a paranoid reaction from that dope he experimented with. Maybe he thought the music was attempting to kill him and it had to be destroyed before it got him
[This message was edited Sat Jul 10 9:27:08 2004 by psykosoul]

o.k. here is the real reason: one late night the leader from Eddie and The Cruisers broke in2 THE VAULT and stole the masters and after many years of making money off the bootlegg Prince got some hoods from north minnie 2 go and steal it back. there U have it. finally i feel so much better. i have been carrying this around me 4 years. whewwww, what a relief. now, go and spread the word. tell Ur children and have them tell their children and so on and so on.....

Redayh said:

o god now i got that visual 2 .



hmmm interestin interstin...corroborates the E trip stroy.....



okey doke...but the whole private use thing don't make sense bcuz it was already goin out 2 stores from what i've heard...thanx n e way yall

drugs.

When Lovesexy was finally released (thank god!) I recall a newspaper article which offered an explanation concerning the matter of the Black Album. Apparently, at the time, Prince had a type of "spiritual advisor" friend (some things never change, one supposes): a woman whose name escapes me today (I'd only ever seen the name the one time). Together they listened to the record and she broke it to him that it was kind of a negative fuelled record and that he ought to reconsider releasing it. He took her advice to heart--and made Lovesexy (thank god!) as a more elevated response to his negative mood.
A lie? A sham? An excuse to get two albums out at the same time or just more media-hype-controversy around the Prince-man? All of the above? Only Prince knows for sure!

I want to know why Prince said don't buy the black album but sung songs from it on the Lovesexy Tour. The simplest answer will be much appreciated.

ConsciousContact said:

drugs.

CynthiasSocks said:

Yeah, that'll do.

ConsciousContact said:

the little hypocrite! didn't he fire folks 4 usin drugs

The black album - This is Possibly Ur Brain On Drugs (never heard this album)
Lovesexy - this is ur brain After drugs...

Well, it IS very negative, especially the anger on Bob George (complete with gun-totting threats). I appreciate the Black Album as a document of Prince's moody ways. I remember that the singer of INXS named it as one of his favorite albums back i the 80's. Listen to it when you are really pissed off at something -- works for me.

it wasn't anything really nasty on the black album. the songs are interesting, i think that lovesexy was just a better album in the first place. the black album controverst only made people want the record more. i think it was all marketing to draw attention to himself. the myth of the black album kept a lot of prince fans interested in 1988.

ConsciousContact said:

(...From one of my old posts...)

OK, here's the truth about the whole 'Black Album thing' (short version)...

1. A lot of the tracks that appeared on the black album had originally been recorded by Prince as music for Sheila E's 29th birthday party on 11th December 1986. He originally had no intention of releasing them commercially.

2. Prince was getting a certain amount of critism for 'abandoning his black roots' and 'losing the funk' due to his more rock-orientated recent output. In response he started to assemble an album of mostly funky party tracks, which he called 'The Funk Bible'.

3. Prince finished 'The Funk Bible', and wanted to release it under a pseudonym, possibly Camille. He wanted to release the album without anyone initially knowing it was by him, so it would be an underground thing that would spread by word of mouth. He dropped the pseudonym idea (everyone already knew who Camille was), he then came up with the idea of releasing it in a plain black sleeve, with no listed artist or title at all. The Black Album was born.

4. The Black Album was given a WB catalogue number and release date, everything was going to plan. This would shut up the people who said he'd 'lost the funk'. The album appeared on WB's relase schedule listed as 'Something' by 'Somebody' to be released on 8th December 1987.

5. November 1987: The first set back... News had leaked out that Prince had a new album on the way, this upset Prince's plan. He hadn't intended the album as a 'proper' new album, it was supposed to be more like a side project (much like the later NPG albums). Prince reluctantly resigned himself to the fact that the album would be seen as his next album, and started thinking about his next project: Graffiti Bridge. The Black Album was pressed up ready for release.

6. Prince was concerned with releasing 'The Black Album' effectively under his own name, and was having second thoughts about it. He took a copy down to Rupert's in Minneapolis with the intention of getting the DJ to play it so he could see what kind of reception it got from the crowd.

7. At the club he met a songwriter/poet called Ingrid Chavez, with whom he ended up talking with at length that evening. Prince had been recently going through a sort of spiritual awakening (another reason he was having second thoughts about 'The Black Album'), and he found that Ingrid was very much in tune with his current wavelength.

8. It has been reported that the crunch came when he was looking at his reflection in the cover of the album, and Ingrid said something like 'You should learn to smile more'. At that point Prince realised that if he died now, 'The Black Album' would be his final work, and he definitely didn't want that as his last artistic statement.

9. 1st December 1987 (1 week before release): Prince calls WB chairman Mo Ostin (with whom he had a good, trusting working relationship) and says he wants to cancel the release of 'The Black Album'. Mo Ostin agrees to Prince's request and production was ceased. WB ordered all existing copies of the album destroyed.

10. A few copies of the album escaped destruction. Many promo and advance copies had already been given to friends and family, as well as WB executives and reps. about 100 vinyl copies 'vanished' from the Alsdorf pressing plant in Germany. Also about 10 CD's 'escaped' from the pressing plant in the U.S. These genuine 1987 pressings are still worth a bomb (especially the CD's).

11. After shelving 'The Black Album' and putting 'Graffiti Bridge' on hold, Prince immediately starts work on his next project 'Lovesexy'. He records half the album on 11th December! The first version of the album is completed by 21st January 1988, with only a few changes made before it's release on 10th May.

12. As part of his settlement with Warners in 1994, Prince agreed to a limited release for 'The Black Album'. Warners had wanted to release the album for some time (it came close to being officially released in 1991), but Prince had always been against it. He finally relented when it became a bargaining chip in his bid to be released from his contract. Prince used it as 'contract filler' along with 'Chaos And Disorder' and 'The Vault...Old Friends 4 Sale'.
”

nevertheless, willingly or not, it was one of the best publicity-stunts in his career. I thought it brought back a lot of mystery around him.

Can anyone confirm if it's true that the album, eventhough not released, made it to n2 in the roling stone album of the year poll? (think i read that somewhere)

greetz
Kev1n

BorisFishpaw said:

And thank goodness for that. It's the best "contract filler" that anyone's ever released.

Cloudbuster said:

I didn't know that it was going to be released officially until I saw it in a store that Monday! I was like I called my brother when I got home and casually said 'The Black Albums been released!!!' And off he tootled to the wrecka stow!!

BorisFishpaw said:

hmm thats some deep shit.