Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/29/new-mind-blowing-prince-mu.html
…
1 Like
Wasn’t this the stuff Prince rejected?
3 Likes
we’re getting some stuff mixed right now
I don’t like the sound of that. From what I understand, Prince had tons of music in the ‘vault’ that was 100% complete and ready to go, he just taunted the record companies with it and stored it away. There should be enough music there that doesn’t have to be touched that any reference to “mixing” should be confined to digitally remastering some of the pre-digital tapes. In any case, who is doing this “mixing”?
13 Likes
As much as I’d love to hear this stuff, I can’t get past this being just another case of people trying to get rich off a dead guy.
In fact, if there ever was such a thing as music “piracy,” this is most indubitably it.
7 Likes
True, but sometimes it’s the dead guy’s kids. I’d say that’s all right.
Also, sometimes they’re releasing really good stuff. That’s okay to me too. You’d rather bury them together with all their unreleased work?
4 Likes
I understand (I think!) your sensibility here but the artist’s vision of what should be available to the public isn’t everything. The work speaks itself. Kafka asked that all his unfinished work be burnt, instead it was published and is his legacy.
In the case of the music industry: it didn’t have a pipeline to put out as much content as Prince made when he was at the height of his fame. It didn’t fit into promotional schedules etc.
But I would like to echo @KingGhidorah’s concern with music being tinkered with and remixed. There should be enough material available which just needs mastering for release without turning it into a Sagrada Familia type… hommage, or kitsch appropriation project.
Frankly I think that even substantially unfinished music could be released and enjoyed.
4 Likes
As I understand it, Prince had thousands of songs and hundreds of videos all mixed, mastered, and ready for release, locked up in his vault. Kevin Smith talks about it a little when he tells the story of working on a video shoot for him.
7 Likes
Will Prince be touring to promote these releases?
1 Like
If true, Prince’s career is going to continue to shamble on, undead, for decades.
I remember reading 20+ years ago that Prince was constantly making music. That he wanted to put out 2, 3, 4x more music than the record label wanted to release. So I am sure there are tons of songs locked away to mine.
However, while I own many of his older albums or best ofs, I have nothing after the symbol album. Nor do I recall hearing anything on he radio after that. Did he lose his main stream appeal? Did he get more experimental? If one were to pick up one of the newer albums, which should one try?
3 Likes
To be fair, indeed, if Prince really did not want his music released he would have found a way, somehow, to destroy it.
2 Likes
They would still need to be mastered for release now. Streaming didn’t exist when he would have overseen that, if indeed it was ready mastered.
1 Like
7 Likes
The good news is that if you are a Prince fan, you can pirate this music and give it a listen. Or you can give the money to lawyers and such and then be disapointed.
Sort of. Prince recorded pretty obsessively and he went as far as to make entire albums, music videos, documentaries or movies just for his own pleasure and had no intention of ever releasing them to the public. He said as much while he was alive that all of it he’d never released while he was alive, though i’m unsure as to the why. I’m sure there’s also rejected mixes and cut songs in his music vault as well but as far as i know it’s mostly a lot of private stuff he did for himself.
Hell there’s an infamous Kevin Smith (yes, that Kevin Smith) story where he recorded a documentary for Prince and never got paid for it that was never released. I’m fuzzy on the details but he goes over it on An Evening With Kevin Smith but i’m sure he talks about it elsewhere.
3 Likes
Bringing to mind the Elvis/Anti-Elvis duality, the likelihood of a Prince/Anti-Prince duality, and the unavoidable question of whether Michael J. Fox has any Prince in him.
2 Likes
Mostly, yeah. I know at one point in his life he got very religious, which i’m sure made him be more picky about the sort of music he wanted to make and put out but it likely also turned off a number of fans from his later music as well.
I’m personally not that huge of a fan of his, i do enjoy his stuff if someone happens to put on his work but it’s not my cup of tea.
With Tupac!
3 Likes
4 Likes
“Gold” and “Come” both came after the symbol album in the same decade. Gold is mostly good, Come is half-good. “The Rainbow Children”, if you are willing to overlook the Jehovah’s witness philosophy, is one of his best realized works, no real attempts at making singles, just a full piece as an album. He gets spottier and spottier as time goes on and there’s a lot of stuff to sift through. When he had his “comeback” in the early 2000s, his best work was 3121. There are some gems in the music he released through his online club, a compilation of which is called “The Chocolate Invasion pt 1”(part 2 is less good). I eventually ran out of patience looking for the one excellent song out of ten. His very last work is worth a listen, I think. Hit n’ Run pt 1 has him working with another producer, which I generally don’t like at all, but this person retained a Prince feel while updating his sound with modern color and texture. Hit n’ Run pt 2 is produced by Prince himself and has a couple standouts “Extralovable” and “Stare”.
2 Likes
