In the tradition of the The Journey From Prince To O(+> and Prince Vs. Warner Brothers – The Fans Lost blogs, here’s a sequel covering the music O(+>/Prince released from 1998 to 2004 from his famous vault of hundreds of unreleased songs. Crystal Ball, The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale, The NPG Music Club, The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse, including looks at abandoned projects like Roadhouse Garden and Crystal Ball II – it’s all here!
The unreleased 1993 and 1994 configurations of Come and The Gold Experience - whose stories were chronicled on the Prince Vs. Warner Brothers – The Fans Lost blog here - would be the last truly inspired and great new O(+>/Prince material for many years afterwards. Some of his subsequent album releases were marred by his lyrics dealing more and more openly with his Jehova’s Witnesses beliefs, making bass player Larry Graham disliked by a lot of Prince fans for having converted him.
Fans took solace in collections featuring material from O(+>/Prince’s famous vault with hundreds of unreleased tracks – releases like Crystal Ball (1998), The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale (1999), the NPG Music Club releases (2001), The Chocolate Invasion (2004) and The Slaughterhouse (2004). This blog examines the evolution of these projects, as well as the unreleased Roadhouse Garden (1998), The New Power Generation: Peace (2000), High (2000) and Crystal Ball II (2000).
The genesis of Crystal Ball as The Vault When O(+> released his Emancipation album on 19 November 1996, it was announced in the booklet: “Coming soon: The 3 CD set of previously bootlegged material – Crystal Ball.”
Crystal Ball was originally the title of Prince’s 1987 album Sign O’ The Times before the record company Warner Brothers had him reduce it from three to two LP’s and leaving out the Crystal Ball title track. When O(+> talked to Rolling Stone to promote the release of the triple CD album Emancipation, he said: “Sign O' The Times was originally called Crystal Ball and was supposed to be three albums. ‘You'll overwhelm the market,’ I was told. ‘You can't do that.’ Then people say I'm a crazy fool for writing on my face, but if I can't do what I want to do, what am I? When you stop a man from dreaming, he becomes a slave. That's where I was. I don't own Prince's music. If you don't own your masters, your master owns you.”
Now that he was free of his contract with Warners, O(+> was going to do the things they didn’t allow him to do, and that included releasing a triple CD Crystal Ball, now a collection of tracks from his famous vault with hundreds of unreleased songs. The idea for the Crystal Ball collection came earlier, when Prince’s publicity firm announced on 7 June 1993, his 35th birthday, that Prince had changed his name to the symbol of his latest album. O(+>’s intention was to fulfill his Warner Bros. contract with “Prince” recordings from the vault while continuing to record and release new material as “O(+>.” And in 1994 he started making The Vault collections for Warners to release, numbering them Volume I, II and III. These collections spun off into the 1996 Chaos And Disorder and 1999 The Vault… Old Friends for Sale Warner releases before morphing into the independently released Crystal Ball collection as work on them continued on and off for three years until Crystal Ball finally saw release in early 1998.
The Vault Volume I became The Gold Experience In the summer of 1994, O(+> had tried in vain to get Warner Brothers to release his Gold Experience album in tandem with the Come album. With no release of The Gold Experience in sight, O(+> figured that the songs on it were becoming old news = vault tracks and assembled a Vault collection that contained many tracks from The Gold Experience. This Vault configuration was one of the sources for the Outtakes 1993-‘94 bootleg which appeared in 2004.
O(+>: The Vault Volume I (summer 1994) 1. Chaos And Disorder (4:13) 2. Listen 2 The Rhythm 3. Now (4:30) 4. Right The Wrong (4:42) 5. Acknowledge Me (5:27) 6. Ripopgodazippa (4:39) 7. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World (4:37) 8. 319 (3:19) 9. Shy (5:04) 10. Billy Jack Bitch (5:31) 11. Eye Hate U (6:12) 12. Gold (7:36)
The song Chaos And Disorder became the title track of its own 1996 album that also included Right The Wrong which was recorded on the same day as Chaos And Disorder in October 1993. Listen 2 The Rhythm, recorded as The Rhythm on 6 April 1989, would get re-recorded as The Rhythm Of Your Heart for Mayte's 1995 Child Of The Sun album. Acknowledge Me and Ripopgodazippa carried over to disc 1 of the 1998 Crystal Ball collection. The rest of the tracks from The Gold Experience ended up getting released a year later when that album was released after all in 1995.
O(+> also set out to make The Vault Volume II and III which along with a then assumably reworked Volume I were offered to Warner Bros. in late 1995 before spinning into the released Chaos And Disorder and The Vault… Old Friends For Sale albums in 1996 and ultimately becoming the 3-CD Crystal Ball collection in 1998.
The Vault Volume II tracks Detroit Free Press asked O(+> in December 1997, “You’re one of my favorite guitar players. Are we going to see any more music like Purple Rain or Chaos & Disorder? I’m interested to hear more of that rock, bluesy style,” to which O(+> answered: “Disc 2 of Crystal Ball is for you!”
And even from the genesis of that disc as The Vault Volume II, the concept seemed to be a collection of mostly guitar driven tracks. O(+> shot a video for the Vault Volume II track The Same December on 8 November 1994. The song had a similar sound to the version of Dolphin that was included on The Gold Experience, indicating that they were probably recorded at the same time.
A video for the Come remix 18 And Over was also made which indicated that O(+> had come to regard the track as a song in its own right and that it was probably included as such on the original The Vault Volume II collection.
Two older songs, the 4 August 1985 Prince And The Revolution recording of the song Empty Room and the May 1993 recording of Zannalee, also got the video treatment, indicating that they were also included on The Vault Volume II.
I Like It There was recorded in late 1994 and in October 1995 a video was made for the track featuring a playback performance of the song with The Paisley Park Power Trio of Michael Bland on drums, Sonny Thompson on bass and O(+> on guitar.
Another likely candidate for inclusion on The Vault Volume II was Calhoun Square which was recorded 15 June 1993, and which was bootlegged around this time. It was an overdubbed version that finally saw release on disc 2 of the 1998 Crystal Ball collection, though.
O(+>: The Vault Volume II (October 1994) Track list unknown but includes: I Like It There (3:15), The Same December (3:24), 18 And Over (4:52), Zannalee (2:51), Empty Room (3:25) and Calhoun Square (4:28)
Except for Empty Room and 18 And Over, all of the tracks had been recorded with members of The New Power Generation.
Possible The Vault tracks The Vault Volume II appear to have been a compilation of songs that didn’t make Come or The Gold Experience. As such, Interactive, What’s My Name and Strays Of The World could have been on it. Those three songs were certainly on Crystal Ball disc 2, but Hide The Bone was on Crystal Ball disc 1 but not on The Vault Volume I. It’s About That Walk was probably saved for Volume III because it got released on The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale. Somebody’s Somebody and New World could have been included on either volume before getting included on Emancipation. Of course, the compilation could also have included tracks that have never been released or bootlegged and remain unknown to fans.
Work on the three The Vault volumes wrapped in December 1995. At that time, the collections were offered to Warner Brothers who declined to release them, but in 1997, quite a few tracks from The Vault were bootlegged on the Past, Present & Future II bootleg credited to The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.
Prince: The Vault Volume I, II and III (December 1995) Track list unknown, but includes Chaos And Disorder (4:13), Right The Wrong (4:42), Acknowledge Me (5:27), Ripopgodazippa (4:39) and Dark (Remix) (5:14) on Volume I; Interactive (3:04), I Like It There (3:15), Calhoun Square (4:29), The Same December (3:24), Zannalee (2:51), Empty Room (3:22) and Strays Of The World (5:06) on Volume II; 18 & Over (4:56), 5 Women (5:19) and Sarah (2:51) on Volume III
Dark (Remix) was retitled So Dark for Crystal Ball, but is identical, while 18 And Over was retitled 18 & Over.
The Vault spins into Chaos And Disorder In early 1996, negotiations began between Warner Bros. and O(+>’s new attorney, L. Londell McMillan. An agreement was quickly reached that O(+> would ultimately deliver two albums of material from the vault to the label which would then release him from his contract.
O(+> decided that those two vault-releases should be The Vault Volume II and III, but instead of just letting them be released as they were, he decided to do quite a lot of additional work on Volume II in particular, updating tracks, removing tracks and adding new ones and transforming Volume II into the Chaos And Disorder album and Volume III into The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale. Chaos And Disorder would get released in the summer of 1996, but The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale wouldn’t get released until 1999.
O(+>: Chaos And Disorder (1996) Chaos And Disorder (4:20) I Like It There (3:15) Dinner With Delores (2:46) The Same December (3:24) Right The Wrong (4:39) Zannalee (2:43) I Rock, Therefore I Am (6:15) Into The Light (2:46) I Will (3:36) Dig U Better Dead (4:00) Had U (1:26)
Chaos And Disorder and Right The Wrong were taken from The Vault Volume I. The album retains the guitar-driven rock theme of The Vault Volume II without actually including all of the tracks from there. Besides Chaos And Disorder, I Like It There, The Same December, Right The Wrong and Zannalee, it’s unknown if Dinner With Delores, I Rock, Therefore I Am and Had U also came from The Vault, but Into The Light, I Will and Dig U Better Dead were taken from an early 1996 configuration of Emancipation. Except for I Like It There, The Same December and Had U, the rest of the tracks were reworked for inclusion on the Chaos And Disorder compilation. Zannalee was the only song previously known to fans and many preferred the original version to the overproduced version on this collection.
Prince: The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale (1996) The Rest Of My Life (1:40) It’s About That Walk (4:26) She Spoke 2 Me (Extended Remix) (8:20) 5 Women (5:13) When The Lights Go Down (7:11) My Little Pill (1:08) There Is Lonely (2:29) Old Friends 4 Sale (3:27) Sarah (2:52) Extraordinary (2:28)
The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale had a nice, cohesive – almost jazzy - feel to it musically. All of the tracks were recorded – or reworked as in the case of Old Friends 4 Sale – in the 90s. An unknown version of The Rest Of My Life surprised fans, but along with My Little Pill and There Is Lonely it had previously been bootlegged on a tape with songs for the aborted soundtrack for the 1993 movie I’ll Do Anything. An edit of She Spoke To Me had appeared on the soundtrack for the 1996 movie Girl 6.
Besides 5 Women and Sarah, it is unknown how many of the rest of the songs that came from The Vault Volume III, but Extraordinary came from an early 1996 configuration of Emancipation.
It's About That Walk, When The Lights Go Down and Extraordinary were the only previously unknown tracks for fans, but some of the previously bootlegged songs had been reworked. The piano intro of 5 Women had been cut off and horns by the The NPG Hornz had been added to the track. Sarah had some rhythmic guitar playing added and keyboard had replaced the piano at the end.
The Vault becomes Crystal Ball Where The Vault Volume I, II and III featured mostly recent recordings from O(+>’s vast mid-90’s projects, the release of some of them on the Chaos And Disorder and The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale collections left room for even older tracks when The Vault got reworked into Crystal Ball in 1996/1997.
In July 1996, Hans-Martin Buff became O(+>’s main recording engineer on the Emancipation album, and when work on that album was wrapped, they set about assembling Crystal Ball and built it around the skeleton that The Vault Volume I, II and III provided after removal of the released tracks.
In 2018, H. M. Buff told The Violet Reality about working on Crystal Ball: “It was fun for me as a fan, of course. I virtually got a list of songs, and he opened the vault for me and then I went shopping and it was one of those little trolleys like you have in hospitals and such and I filled that sucker up and brought it upstairs. We started transferring it from tape machines to digital and we did a lot of editing. Quite a bit. Specifically, I remember the song Crystal Ball itself and Days Of Wild and Cloreen Baconskin and weird stuff like that. We mixed one or two and did a couple of segues and stuff, but it was a very quick process – like two weeks so that was really easy. (…) It happened quite a bit that we would take old tapes up which was one of the real perks of my job. (..) There were a couple of comments about a song I’m not going to tell you about that did not make it onto Crystal Ball which is quite amazing. It was a well-known song by another eighties pop star that he did a new backing for that he was asked to. It was never released. And he commented on how the stars - people were just partying to it. (…) There was one song which is out now which was my favorite bootleg ever which is Wonderful Ass and that was the one Revolution song I remember that was supposed to make it onto Crystal Ball. And that was left off.”
It is possible H. M. Buff was talking about Why Should I Love You? by Kate Bush as the song by another eighties pop star O(+> was asked to do a new backing for. After all, they had recently collaborated again on the song My Computer for Emancipation, so why not include their past collaboration from March/April 1991 on Crystal Ball? That didn’t happen, though, but Prince’s take on Why Should I Love You? turned up on YouTube in January 2022 and can be heard right here while reading on:
H. M. Buff edited Crystal Ball tracks shorter “Probably the most independent task I had… He would – and I did that with Crystal Ball, and I did that with Days Of Wild on that project and with any new song he did – he would say ‘cut out the beef,’” H. M. Buff revealed to Funkatopia in a 2022 interview and mentioned his work on Emancipation as an example: “So let’s say the new song would be like eight minutes long, it would be based on a beat Kirk programmed that would be eight minutes long and then he would write a song through there and then he’d do a rough mix and then he’d give it to me and say ‘cut out the beef’ and then I would just listen to it, musically with producer ears, and go, like ‘this is where I’m getting bored. Maybe we should take that out?’ And then I’d suggest that to him. ‘Why don’t we…?’ And then that eight-minute song would be 5:20 or 4:50 or something. And the same with Crystal Ball, he said ‘edit it’ so I went and made it a bit more concise, and he approved some edits. Some he didn’t.”
H. M. Buff’s 8-9 minutes long edit of Crystal Ball obviously wasn’t approved by O)+>, as the version that got released on Disc 1 lasted ten and a half minutes. Anyway, “Same with Days Of Wild live thing. It’s on the third Crystal Ball disc,” H. M. Buff continued in the Funkatopia interview. “And it’s the same with Cloreen Baconskin. That as well was twice as long. That’s the thing about Prince. He was an enormous Prince fan. He thought that the guy Prince was just awesome. Me personally, I like Cloreen Baconskin because I like weird. A lot of the more pop-oriented people, they start foaming at the mouth. ‘Why would you out that on a record?’ (…) but Prince, he liked everything on there equally.”
Cloreen Baconskin wasn’t exactly “twice as long,” though. In Matt Thorne’s 2012 Prince biography, H. M. Buff also recalled working on Crystal Ball: “There were two songs on that album that I edited until the cows came home – Crystal Ball itself and Cloreen Baconskin. (The latter) was really long, there was another four minutes to it.”
Artists are partial to their recent stuff She Gave her Angels was also an edit and probably replaced Empty Room on Crystal Ball as they had musical similarities. She Gave Her Angels was likely recorded in June 1995 as the lyrics mention that month. In the booklet for Crystal Ball, O(+> said it was about his then fiancée Mayte. The song was originally supposed to have been on the Emancipation album, though. “I think one of the great losses of Emancipation was She Gave Her Angels which ended up on Crystal Ball,” H. M. Buff said in the 2022 Funkatopia interview. “And the reason why it ended up there was that it was on the Muppet Show so it should be released, but that was like the center point of the second disc until The Holy River took over. That would have been a huge Bohemian Rhapsody size song sonically and in terms of content.”
A new longer edit of 18 & Over was also made, and it’s possible Crucial is also a 1997 edit of the 1986 song. Movie Star, also from 1986, had an intro added with a bit of Jam Of The Year from Emancipation played at the party Prince enters in the song and the “right there, honey” part was edited out. Fans would be a bit peeved about essentially getting a new version of Movie Star instead of the original version.
As for the selection of songs on the collection, H. M. Buff told Funkatopia: “I would have taken some of that cool stuff like Splash or Wonderful Ass that was on the list as well but didn’t make the cut on Roadhouse Garden or there. Somehow, he thought a remix of 2morrow was just as valid as that stuff and that’s something I learned during that project: He doesn’t see a difference between the creative worth of what he did last year compared to some treasure of the eighties.”
Number one at the bank O(+> decided to sell Crystal Ball directly to fans over the internet. His keyboard player in his New Power Generation band, Morris Hayes told about that decision in a 2018 The Current interview: “The internet was an interesting situation because I think that's around the time where Madonna and all them got these big crazy deals, and I think he was just telling me, ‘Man, I don't need a label. Think about it. If you have a name - Madonna don't need a record label. Janet Jackson doesn't need a record label. They have names that are so big now, if we implement the sales online that we could do, then I think it's over.’ And I think that could've really singlehandedly sunk the record labels had he succeeded outright.”
1-800-NEW-FUNK began taking pre-orders for Crystal Ball in May 1997 and it was announced that the set would be shipped within a month, but nothing happened. In an interview published in July 1997, O(+> said that Crystal Ball might be ready to ship by Christmas. The delay became official when O(+>’s website Love 4 One Another stated in August that the album would not be manufactured until 1-800-NEW-FUNK had received 100,000 orders.
At an MTV press conference in August 1997, O(+> talked about the impending release of Crystal Ball: “I have a new package called Crystal Ball. And it’s a 50-dollar package and there’s gonna be 4 CDs in it. And it’s kinda like a piece of art. It’s a crystal ball sort of and the CDs go inside, and you can sit it on your coffee table. Now it’s an expensive package to make so to cover the cost we have to price it that way. But if you do the math, 150,000 copies - you’ve taken care of your business and it’s a good day at the races. You see what I’m saying? Alright. You have to understand, NPG is going to be taking the bulk of that money and then we pay our cost to the manufacturer and distribution is just a postage stamp. Crystal Ball is pretty much a bootleg. You know underground classics.”
“It’s finished. We just mastered it and we’re just pressing out copies now. And we’re taking orders. It’s ready to go. We’re waiting till the orders get to a certain point and then we start mailing them. ’Cause after a 100,000, like I say, that’s a good day at the races. (…) I don’t like the ideas of platinum albums and all that other kind of stuff. It doesn’t mean anything. When you’re taking the bulk of the proceeds... I mean what do you care. I don’t need to be on a chart at that point. I don’t need a number one. It’s number one at the bank.”
“At the bank, I’m platinum at 50,000 copies,” he added to USA Today.
Crystal Ball distribution angered fans O(+> explained in several interviews by fax while on tour in the US how wonderful the Internet was because he could record music and the fans could have it instantly. “As soon as I’m done with it, I get it on, take orders and press records.” In an interview with Sacramento Bee published 28 September 1997, it said O(+> had received more than 70,000 pre-orders for Crystal Ball. “It’s coming out by Christmas,” he stated.
By October, the number was reported as 84,000. Still, it would take an additional month after Christmas for the wait to be over. On 29 January 1998, 1-800-NEW-FUNK began shipping Crystal Ball to fans who had pre-ordered the set. The 3-disc Crystal Ball collection consisted of mostly outtakes and leftovers and a fourth disc was The Truth album. A 5 CD limited edition of O(+>'s Crystal Ball collection that was only available from 1-800 NEW FUNK also contained The NPG Orchestra: Kamasutra. The mail order edition did not have the booklet with O(+>’s comments to the songs chosen for the compilation. The fans were expected to get that information from a website created specifically for the project.
The delays and lack of information regarding the release caused a great deal of frustration and anger amongst O(+> fans. Shortly after the news that shipping would commence, it was announced that the set would also be officially released to retail stores which upset many fans who had been led to believe it would only be available to those who ordered it from 1-800-NEW-FUNK. To further rub it in, Crystal Ball (including the booklet) became available in many retail stores in mid-February 1998 before it reached fans who had mail-ordered the set – and at a much lower price. This caused many fans to cancel their pre-orders. The botched marketing of Crystal Ball was widely viewed as a fiasco.
"When somebody wants to say that you’re a flop in the industry, that’s because you only get seven cents an album” (if you’re signed to a label), Prince told The Guardian in July 1998. “We sold 250,000 copies of Crystal Ball. That’s all we ever intended to sell. Now it’s finished, over, and guess who gets the lion’s share?”
Evaluating the release model NPG keyboard player Morris Hayes talked about the Crystal Ball release in a 2018 interview with The Current: “The biggest problem I think he had was that he didn't trust anybody. So, in order to make that record, Crystal Ball, there was a big kerfuffle about it because people had put in orders for this thing and waited like months and months. Then he did a deal with Best Buy, and it ended up coming out in the regular store while the people who had put deposits were still waiting for theirs. I think it was just a fulfillment thing. We had three people in the back that was trying to get these things out, and he had so many orders, you can't get three people - but he didn't want outsiders in there, so he had people that he trusted, but only a few that were doing it. And I think - just in my own mind again - I'm no record mogul and I'm not anybody that is savvy with that whole thing, but I just thought, ‘Wow, had that rolled out in a big way it could've upended the situation.’ Anybody that had stature like him could say, ’Oh, so Prince had this model that he's proven could sell these things and get them out there.’ Of course, nowadays that's commonplace. But back then I think it would've been a very frightful thing for the record labels had he been really successful in the rollout of Crystal Ball on the internet like he wanted. I think then it would've been really scary for them because any artists with a name, once they got out of their record deal, would be like, ‘yeah’ – they’d have their own distribution because now they have the name recognition to put it out.”
Evaluating the content Crystal Ball encompassed 25 tracks and five remixes that concentrated on two periods: The 1985-1986 Parade and Sign O’ The Times era and the 1993-1996 years which spawned Come, The Gold Experience, Chaos And Disorder and Emancipation. The only exception was Cloreen Baconskin which dated back to 1983. Thus, the Crystal Ball collection was hardly representative of Prince/O(+>’s entire career.
O(+>: Crystal Ball 1998 (CD) Disc 1: 1.Crystal Ball (10:28) 2. Dream Factory (3:07) 3. Acknowledge Me (5:27) 4. Ripopgodazippa (4:39) 5. Lovesign (Shock G’s Silky Remix) (3:52) 6. Hide The Bone (5:03) 7. 2morrow (4:13) 8. So Dark (5:14) 9. Movie Star (4:25) 10. Tell Me How U Wanna B Done (3:15) Disc 2: 1. Interactive (3:03) 2. Da Bang (3:19) 3. Calhoun Square (4:46) 4. What’s My Name (3:03) 5. Crucial (5:06) 6. An Honest Man (Vocal) (1:13) 7. Sexual Suicide (3:39) 8. Cloreen Bacon Skin (15:37) 9. Good Love (Edit) (4:55) 10. Strays Of The World (5:07) Disc 3: 1. Days Of Wild (Live 9/12-1995) (9:19) 2. Last Heart (3:01) 3. PoomPoom (4:32) 4. She Gave Her Angels (3:52) 5. 18 & Over (5:40) 6. The Ride (Live 28/10-1995) (5:13) 7. Get Loose (3:31) 8. P. Control (Club Mix) (5:59) 9. Make Your Mama Happy (4:00) 10. Goodbye (4:34)
Crystal Ball started out with the title tracks from Prince’s unreleased 1986 Crystal Ball and Dream Factory albums – Crystal Ball being a different edit of the previously bootlegged track and Dream Factory being a slightly different version of the then recently bootlegged track. Crystal Ball also included previously unheard versions of Crucial, An Honest Man and Sexual Suicide from the 1986 era, as well as a pristine release of Last Heart which had been bootlegged since the 80s. Cloreen Bacon Skin was basically an early version of the 1984 The Time B-side Tricky. The previously unknown Make Your Mama Happy was a nice surprise.
The collection was a treasure trove for fans of O(+>’s 1993-1996 era of music. They finally got songs like Acknowledge Me, Ripopgodazippa, Hide The Bone, Interactive, What’s My Name, Strays Of The World and 18 & Over which they knew from bootlegs since 1994.
A live recording of Days Of Wild from Paisley Park on 9 December 1995 got included on Crystal Ball instead of the original studio recording of the song, though, which was a bit disappointing, but obviously O(+> himself was more pleased with this recording. The live version of The Ride was lifted from the 1996 Love 4 One Another TV movie. Get Loose was previously known as Loose Dub #2.
Critical reaction Crystal Ball didn’t attract much attention from the mainstream music media or radio. The reviews were mixed with some critics complaining that much of the music sounded uninspired and aimless and concluded that O(+>’s famous vault didn’t contain many superior tracks. “As usual the music is funky and often fun – but most of it is for fanatics and completists only,” noted the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “There are good reasons most of this stuff wasn’t released,” added Entertainment Weekly. Still, around 100,000 copies of Crystal Ball were sold in the US so it did become number one at the bank. It peaked at number 62 on Billboard’s Pop Chart and at number 59 on the R&B Chart.
Many fans felt the release was an anti-climax after the long wait. Almost everything had previously been bootlegged or heard in concert – Make Your Mama Happy, Da Bang and Poom Poom were the only tracks that had been completely unknown to fans prior to the release. They wondered why O(+> hadn’t included the gold they knew were in his vault. Some also thought that the collection should have presented the tracks as recorded chronologically, but O(+> had approached making the collection as if he was making an album. And once initial feelings of disappointment had died down, many fans came to realize that it was actually a pretty good release. And the reason a lot of tracks that seemed obvious for inclusion weren’t included was because they featured contributions from Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin and O(+> was saving them for a projected Prince And The Revolution collection.
The official Crystal Ball website that was made featuring O(+>’s liner notes and the lyrics to the songs on the collection has been preserved online right here: Explore the Crystal Ball
The genesis of Roadhouse Garden When Wendy & Lisa released their Girl Bros. album on the Internet in September 1998 like O(+> had done with Crystal Ball, they told Rolling Stone: “When last we spoke (with O(+>) he wanted us to do a reunion for the VH1 Honors, and we thought, ‘Oh that could be a really cool idea. We’d go onstage and do like four of the old tunes on a couple of acoustic guitars and a piano.’ You know, like really strip it down, get rid of all the fluff. He came back to us with a proposal that we would dance through the audience with these outfits on and have a huge parade of people behind us, waving banners and playing like five of the songs, but only like ten seconds of each song and the rest is just jamming. We were like, ‘How about if we do it this way: No one else onstage but the three of us, no big deal, la la la – that would really be something.’ We never heard from him again on the subject. That was two years ago.”
Instead of a reunion with Wendy & Lisa, O(+> performed The Holy River from his Emancipation album at the VH1 Honors on 10 April 1997, but later he began to consider making an album with Prince And The Revolution – the first since Parade in 1986. However, it would be made up of Prince And The Revolution tracks from his Vault instead of getting the band together to make new music. The album was to be called Roadhouse Garden and would be made in much the same fashion as the Crystal Ball compilation released in 1998. Both of these compilations derived their titles from unreleased albums with Roadhouse Garden originally being the title of a Prince And The Revolution album made in between Parade in 1985 and Dream Factory in 1986.
Paisley Park Recording Engineer H. M. Buff revealed that in a 2018 interview with The Violet Reality: “And then we actually started Roadhouse Garden. I got another list with songs. Splash was among them and Roadhouse Garden. That came out of the vault, but we only worked on that for like two days. We did that in ‘98. And I’m personally glad he didn’t do it because I remember Roadhouse Garden, he actually transferred the mix to tape and then started doing overdubs. Yeah, so…”
Lisa Coleman & Wendy Melvoin
Abandoned after updating three tracks On 7 October 1998, O(+> announced on his Love 4 One Another website that he was working on a new Prince And The Revolution album entitled Roadhouse Garden named after the unreleased 1984 track. The album would consist of “things left unfinished” when the band broke up and “several new cuts that O(+> is putting together using parts from many tunes.” O(+> claimed to have offered Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin co-production work on the project, something which they later denied. It was initially planned for a 1999 release.
In an email to SonicNet published 3 March 1999, O(+> said: “Eye have been allowing 4 the run of Girl Bros. b4 the release of the Garden record. It has songs on it that feature The Revolution in a front role, as a band; where songs on Crystal Ball were more recent “bootlegs” with various other musicians. Some song titles include: Splash, All My Dreams and In a Dark Room with No Light. The beauty of r ownership of the master tapes will b felt when one hears the REMIXED newly digitized versions of these classic REVOLUTION songs.”
However, the Roadhouse Garden project was quickly abandoned. Prince then said anyone wanting to know what happened to the project should ask Wendy and Lisa, so Matt Thorne – author of the biography Prince from 2012 - did. They told him: “Because we’re gay. The Lord thinks we’re evil, and we’re damning the Revolution to hell.”
H. M. Buff further told Matt Thorne: “I’m glad it didn’t work out, to be honest with you. I was very excited about it, but he thought he could improve on things, so I would transfer the mix of what was there, and he would add those keyboards he liked so much at the time. But we didn’t work on many songs. I remember Splash was worked on. Roadhouse Garden. And Wonderful Ass once again came out of the vault. Maybe there were a couple of more that I don’t remember.”
Other tracks considered for Roadhouse Garden included Witness 4 The Prosecution, Empty Room, A Place In Heaven and Moonbeam Levels.
In an interview with MTV on 6 November 1999, Kurt Loder asked O(+>: “There’s been some talk of some old tracks with The Revolution, your previous band, your old band, coming out as an album called Roadhouse Garden. Is that possibly, maybe, going to happen?”
O(+> replied: “We did three tracks for the record, meaning I went in and finished them, and then I put Roadhouse Garden on the backburner, so nothing’s really happening with it.”
Not exactly a Prince And The Revolution release In early November 1998, Warner Brothers re-issued the 1982 Prince single 1999. It reached as high as number 10 on the UK chart. O(+> criticized the release on his Love 4 One Another website, complaining that the bulk of the profits went to the owner of the master recording, Warner Bros. He then announced that he himself was preparing to release several new versions of 1999.
The 1999 – The New Master EP was initially planned as a preview of the Roadhouse Garden album by Prince And The Revolution which was said to be only a few months away. Paisley Park Engineer H. M. Buff commented the matter in the 2018 interview with The Violet Reality: “Yes, there was a lot of talk about re-recording the masters and we worked on 1999 and there was one attempt at a remake of Let’s Pretend We’re Married, and I know that Morris Hayes did some really cool backing - almost drums and bassy background tracks - for that, but that’s where that ended. The end of the re-recording project. By the way, it was really interesting for me doing that 1999 thing. Most people don’t know about it and that’s probably okay, but there’s like this Latin part in it and I always thought, ‘What a weird idea to stick that in there,’ and then I got the original tape out so I could listen to it and there’s a Latin part in there, so he just in that version put it out but it had been thought of before.”
1999 – The New Master was released on 2 February 1999 credited to Prince And The Revolution even though no actual members of The Revolution appeared on it. The EP co-credited The New Power Generation and Chaka Khan, Larry Graham, Rosie Gaines (who told biographer Alex Hahn for his 2004 book Possessed – The Rise And Fall Of Prince that she didn’t get paid for her participation), Doug E. Fresh and actress Rosario Dawson appear on some of the tracks. The EP featured seven updated versions of 1999 and peaked at number 150 on Billboard’s Pop Album Chart and number 58 on the R&B Album Chart. It was priced as an EP which is why it didn’t chart as a single.
Prince And The Revolution: 1999 - The New Master EP (1999) 1. 1999 - The New Master (7:09) 2. Rosario (1999) (1:19) 3. 1999 (The Inevitable Mix) (5:46) 4. 1999 (Keepsteppin’) (4:33) 5. 1999 (Rosie Doug E. In A Deep House) (6:23) 6. 1999 - The New Master (Single Edit) (4:30) 7. 1999 (Acapella) (5:11)
An unfulfilled re-recording ambition “I wanted to buy my masters back from Warner Bros.,” O(+> told Paper in June 1999. “They said no way. So, I’m going to re-record them. All of them. Now you will have two catalogs with pretty much exactly the same music - except mine will be better - and you can either give your money to WB, the big company, or to NPG. You choose.”
Prince had done a re-recording of his 1978 song Soft And Wet prior to 26 January 1999, but if his re-recordings were anything like 1999 – The New Master, no one really wanted him to re-record his old albums. (1999 – The New Master wasn’t very good if you’re not into rap.)
“The plan at the time was to redo the whole 1999 album,” H. M. Buff told Matt Thorne. “He even announced he was going to re-record the original album, but it never went anywhere other than my taking the original tapes and transferring them to digital tapes. (…) A lot of people complained about the Latin part in 1999 – The New Master. Funnily enough, there was a Latin part on the original that was edited out at the time.”
Releasing something under the name “Prince” helped ease O(+>’s upcoming name-change back to Prince into the public consciousness. As a Jehova’s Witness, his name could not be a heathen symbol, and in May 2000 Prince discarded the symbol name and became Prince again.
An almost Prince And The Revolution reunion To celebrate him being called Prince again, the inaugural Prince: A Celebration convention took place at Paisley Park 7-13 June 2000. This special event celebrating Prince’s legacy included an onstage reunion with the male members of The Revolution, Dr. Fink, Bobby Z and Brownmark at the closing show on 13 June at the Northrop Auditorium in central Minneapolis. They performed America. Larry Graham was also present on stage during the show which probably explains the absence of Wendy & Lisa. Because, as Alex Hahn wrote in his 2004 book Possessed – The Rise And Fall Of Prince: “Ex-Revolution drummer Bobby Z. Rivkin, who visited Paisley Park in 2000, was forced to listen to Prince and Larry Graham engage in a homophobic rant, according to another former band member whom Rivkin told about the meeting. Prince explained to Rivkin that prior to any reunion of the Revolution - an idea discussed several times over the years - Wendy and Lisa would be required to publicly renounce their homosexuality. As Rivkin listened incredulously, Prince said he would insist that the women hold a press conference and ‘apologize’ for their lifestyle.”
A Celebration with 20 re-mastered recordings Skip a year ahead, and in NPG Ahdio Show #4 released 15 May 2001, a Prince album entitled A Celebration was announced. The announcement stated that Prince was in negotiations with a major record store chain to distribute the album, said to contain 20 "remastered re-recordings" of Prince’s greatest hits along with "at least four brand new songs". This album was not released, however, likely due to the Warner Bros. release of The Very Best Of Prince in July 2001.
It is not known which songs would have been included on the album, and how much the track list overlapped with the setlists used on the brief A Celebration tour, which was likely initially intended to promote the album. The tour was canceled after only six concerts, partly to avoid the appearance of supporting The Very Best Of Prince, and partly because of Prince wanting to spend time with his father, whose health was ailing at that point.
A second Crystal Ball in the making In late 2000, a Crystal Ball Volume II was in the works. It was intended to act as a follow-up to the 1998 Crystal Ball release. Similar to the first set, Crystal Ball Volume II was planned to include previously unreleased outtakes and remixes. The album was planned as a 2-CD set to be shipped with packaging for the The Truth and Kamasutra albums that were included in the original Crystal Ball 5-CD package, so that the two discs could take their place in the package instead.
The album was announced during the Celebration in June 2000, when iMac computer screens at Paisley Park Studios offered names of a selection of albums for fans to vote for to be released next, and within the option for Crystal Ball Volume II track names were shown which users could vote on for inclusion on the album. The list showed 22 tracks, and 17 tracks were eventually chosen by fans.
The tracks offered and voted for included a much wider scope of recordings than the original Crystal Ball set, mostly ranging from 1980-1991 with one track recorded in 1999.
It is not known if the collection was completed, but the 17 tracks that got voted on to it were, in chronological order:
American Jam (1980) Strange Way Of Saying Eye Love U (1981) U’re All I Want (1982 or 1991) – released on the 1999 Super Deluxe Edition in 2019 as You're All I Want Turn It Up (1982) – released on the 1999 Super Deluxe Edition in 2019 Xtraloveable (1982) Lust U Always (1982) Katrina’s Paper Dolls (1983) – released on the Purple Rain Deluxe Edition in 2017 Electric Intercourse (1983) – released on the Purple Rain Deluxe Edition in 2017 Love And Sex (1984 or 1986) – released on the Purple Rain Deluxe Edition in 2017 or on the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition in 2020 Others Here With Us (1985) Evolsidog (1985) Kiss (Xtended Version) (Never released b4) Girl O’ My Dreams (1982 or 1986) Everybody Want What They Don’t Got (1986) – released on the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition in 2020 Adonis & Bathsheba (1986) – released on the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition in 2020 3 Nigs Watchin’ A Kung Fu Movie (1987) Eye Wonder (1990 or 1991)
Also scheduled for inclusion: Wonderful Ass (1983) – released on the Purple Rain Deluxe Edition in 2017 What Should B Souled (1999)
Tracks that didn’t get voted on it: She’s Just A Baby (1981) If It’ll Make U Happy (1982) – released on the 1999 Super Deluxe Edition in 2019 Girl – either previously released or Prince’s version of the The Time track Gotta Stop (Messin’ About) – B-side of Let’s Work in 1981 Come Elektra Tuesday (1985)
It is a pity this collection didn’t get released, but maybe Prince’s religious advisor Larry Graham found songs like Xtraloveable and Lust U Always too risqué for a Jehova’s Winess to release? When the 1999 Super Deluxe Edition was released in 2019, those two songs certainly got left out for mentioning rape. And when old Prince songs were played on his NPG Ahdio Shows in 2001, words like “fuck” (on My Name Is Prince), “shit” and “ass” (on The Good Life) were censored, much to the dismay of fans. Recording new songs without dirty words was one thing, but censoring past works… So, “Wonderful Ass”? No. It wouldn’t do for a Jehova’s Witness to release such a song. Prince had to clean up his act.
Tracks on Crystal Ball II that were both previously unknown to fans at the time of voting and still remain unknown 23 years later were American Jam, Kiss (Xtended Version), 3 Nigs Watchin’ A Kung Fu Movie and What Should B Souled. The rest have either been bootlegged or officially released on posthumous releases like the 1999, Purple Rain and Sign O’ The Times deluxe editions. No career spanning vault tracks collection have been released since Crystal Ball.
Another collection fans could vote for at the June 2000 Celebration which never got released either was When 2 R In Love: The Ballads Of Prince that would have included previously released songs like Do Me, Baby, Adore, Insatiable and Scandalous.
A really good period Following the release of Emancipation in 1996 and Crystal Ball packaged with the acoustic album The Truth in 1998, O(+> released an album entitled Newpower Soul under the name The New Power Generation in 1998 and produced albums for Larry Graham and Chaka Khan that same year.
O(+>’s main recording engineer at his Paisley Park studios H. M. Buff recalled this era in Matt Thorne’s 2012 Prince biography: “There was a period around Newpower Soul that I thought was really good. (…) It was Linn-y, it had guitars on it, and I thought it was really well done. And it had Marva King on it. And there were a couple that came out later, like Sadomasochistic Groove, Welcome 2 The Slaughterhouse, Madrid 2 Chicago - Beautiful Strange I thought was a great song – Silicon. Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? is a really funky song. (…) Michael Bland played on Y Should Eye Do That….”
Other songs from this period that H. M. Buff recalled recording included Golden Parachute and When Eye Lay My Hands On U. “Vavoom was a little later, afterwards,” he said.
Sadomasochistic Groove which was recorded in May 1997 would later get retitled S&M Groove. A lot of these songs would end up getting released both in Prince’s 2001 NPG Music Club and on the 2004 The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse collections, so they had a history before becoming vault releases. When O(+> assembled an album entitled Beautiful Strange in 1998, it is unknown how many of them made it onto the track list. Only the title track and a cover of Twisted have been confirmed being on that album.
Twisted was originally written as an instrumental by Wardell Gray in 1949 before getting lyrics added by Scottish jazz singer Annie Ross in 1952. It was released as a single the same year and later got included on the album King Pleasure Sings/Annie Ross Sings.
O(+>: Beautiful Strange (1998) Tracklist unknown, but includes Beautiful Strange (4:55) and a cover of Twisted
Beautiful Strange became Madrid 2 Chicago In November 1998, O(+> recorded the songs Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe and the Beautiful Strange album morphed into a “smooth jazz” Madrid 2 Chicago album. “Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe were one suite,” H. M. Buff recalled in the Matt Thorne book. “There was something else I forget and Man 'O’ War. And that would be the start of the album for a while, and then we’d take some from the previous batch into it and then he would reconsider and make new sequences.”
Prince: Madrid 2 Chicago (1998) Track list unknown, but includes Madrid 2 Chicago, Breathe and Man 'O' War
The Madrid 2 Chicago album was votable for release during Prince: A Celebration week at Paisley Park in June 2000. When it didn’t get released, the songs Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe were released as a single in the NPG Music Club in January 2002.
When O(+> toured Europe in December 1998, he performed the new song Hypnoparadise as an instrumental. It is unknown if that song was on the Madrid 2 Chicago album. By summer 1999, that album morphed once more, becoming Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic and still including Man 'O' War. Former NPG drummer Michael Bland played on some of the tracks, including the previously mentioned Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? He also played drums on a song entitled Don’t Say No that remain unreleased, as does What Should B Souled which was considered for inclusion on the unreleased 2000 Crystal Ball II collection.
Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? is similar thematically to Undisputed so it is possible that it was replaced by Undisputed on the Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic album which got released on 9 November 1999. A few months before that, Beautiful Strange was released as the title track of a VHS home video release only available through O(+>’s 1800NewFunk.com website and his store in Minneapolis. The video featured mostly live recordings from a London show on the 1998 New Power Soul Tour.
In 2001, a Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic album became available through the NPG Music Club. It featured remixes and variant versions of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic tracks, including a remixed version of Beautiful Strange from summer 1999.
Recording as The New Power Generation again O(+> began the new millennium by starting work on a new New Power Generation album in February 2000. As on the previous New Power Generation album, 1998’s Newpower Soul, O(+> performed the lead vocals himself. On the new song Peace, he made fun of being called The Artist Formerly Known As Prince at the end of the song, so the decision to call himself Prince again had probably been made at this time. Also, on the Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic album, “Prince” received a co-credit – possible because the title track originated in 1988 when he was called Prince, but it helped ease the name back into the public perception of him.
Other NPG tracks recorded at the time included The Daisy Chain, Northside, Props N’ Pounds, 2045 Radical Man and My Medallion.
O(+> made a sampler cassette featuring tracks by himself and songs he had recorded with other artists. It included samples of Peace and 2045: Radical Man credited to The New Power Generation. The Remix of Man ‘O’ War from Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic would get released on the Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic album.
O(+>: Man O War (Remix) NPG Records Sampler cassette (2000) Man O War (Remix) (5:11) The New Power Generation: Peace (Edit) (1:31)* The New Power Generation: 2045: Radical Man (Edit) (2:18)* Rosie Gaines: Hit U In The Socket (Excerpt) (1:18) Rosie Gaines: Trouble (Never Give Up) (Excerpt) (1:15) Madhouse: Seventeen (Excerpt) (1:27)* - cover of Kamasutra/Overture #8 Madhouse: Eighteen (Excerpt) (1:49)* - cover of Promise/Broken Chaka Khan: Come 2 My House (Edit) (1:49)* Larry Graham: Do U Wanna Get Funky (Excerpt) (1:34)**
The full versions of the two Rosie Gaines tracks would get released later, Hit U In The Socket – a new remix of a 1991 recording - in the NPG Music Club and Trouble (Never Give Up) from 1992 by herself as T.R.O.U.B.L.E. on iTunes. The two Madhouse excerpts originated in 1995 where the full tracks had been included on an unreleased Madhouse: 24 album as Overture #5 and Overture #6. And they were covers of the 1994 NPG Orchestra: Kamasutra tracks Kamasutra/Overture #8 and Promise/Broken released in 1997.
The Chaka Khan track had been released in full in 1998, and the Larry Graham track was an excerpt of an outtake from his 1998 album.
After recording the track Gamillah in May 2000, the NPG album entitled Peace was assembled.
The New Power Generation: Peace (2000) Track list unknown but includes Peace, 2045: Radical Man, Northside, The Daisy Chain, Gamillah
Recording as Prince again In May 2000, Prince made an announcement that he was discarding the symbol name and returning to “Prince”. It came as no surprise. At a New York conference he said that the O(+> name had been a means of escaping “undesirable relationships” – that is, his contract with Warner Brothers. In 1993, though, he had framed the name-change as a spiritual imperative – not legal subterfuge. Maybe it had been a bit of both?
He celebrated by recording the song CyberSingle which he released for free on his NPG Online website in June 2000. In May 2000, Prince also started work on what would become his first album recorded as Prince since 1993’s Come album. He recorded Supercute and High – the latter having Prince singing “Prince is gonna get you high,” like “My Name Is Prince part 2”.
Throughout the summer, work continued on what would become an album entitled High that was completed 8 August 2000. It included Underneath The Cream which had previously been included as a B-side on an unreleased pre-19 July 2000 The Hot Experience 12” with remixes of songs from the Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic album, as well as U Make My Sun Shine – a duet with Angie Stone featuring backing vocals by the girl group Millenia. A cover of When Will We Get Paid by The Staple Singers which Prince retitled When Will We B Paid? was also included.
The catchy new song Vavoom was initially left off the High album, though. When Eye Lay My Hands On U and Golden Parachute were said by H. M. Buff to be from the 1997/98 Newpower Soul era. The Daisy Chain and Gamillah were taken from the recent NPG: Peace album, which My Medallion possibly also was.
Prince: High (8 August 2000) 1. When Eye Lay My Hands On U 2. Supercute 3. Underneath The Cream 4. Golden Parachute 5. When Will We B Paid? 6. The Daisy Chain 7. Gamillah 8. My Medallion 9. U Make My Sun Shine 10. High
The first four tracks are very laid-back and mellow, setting the tone for the album. In the middle there’s When Will We B Paid? as the required guitar track and The Daisy Chain as the required funk track, but still with a kind of laid-back groove. Gamillah is totally mellow, while My Medallion is sort of an odd track meant to be humorous, before it’s back to mellow with U Make My Sun Shine. The album ends on a High note with a faster track, but nothing too wild. All in all, it seems like a very even experience – a lovely mellow album from a mature artist with a few throwbacks to wilder days. It’s a very pleasant listen.
All of the tracks would get released as downloads in Prince’s NPG Music Club during 2001, except U Make My Sun Shine and When Will We B Paid? which were released as a single that same year. It is unknown if the single version of U Make My Sun Shine was the High album version or an edit thereof.
Underneath The Cream would get included again as a B-Side for a new Hot Wit U 12” single sequenced on 20 October 2000 that also remains unreleased. Golden Parachute and The Daisy Chain would get released on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection of NPG Music Club tracks, while the rest of the High album morphed into The Chocolate Invasion in 2003 with additional NPG Music Club tracks.
Tracks switching from NPG to Prince While working on the High album, Prince streamed a rehearsal recording with The NPG, Good Life recorded 15 July 2000, on NPG Online beginning 21 July. When accepting a Yahoo! Internet Life Award on 24 July 2000, Prince had made a short award acceptance song, Thank U Just The Same, based on My Medallion from High. And on 26 September 2000, the NPG: Peace track 2045: Radical Man was released but credited to Prince on the soundtrack for the movie Bamboozled.
Bamboozled – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (26 September 2000) 2045: Radical Man (6:37)
Meanwhile, Prince kept busy recording new songs, like Sex Me Sex Me Not and Judas Kiss. The latter, which would get retitled Judas Smile in October 2001, was possibly intended for the NPG: Peace album with Prince sending “peace” to other artists, including Common and Erykah Badu who also appear on the Bamboozled soundtrack. The lyrics mention “bamboozled” a lot and the song might have been inspired by the movie. But Judas Kiss also mention “the chocolate invasion” in the lyrics and would end up credited to Prince on The Chocolate Invasion compilation that the High album morphed into.
1, 2 (The Future) of which an excerpt was played in the NPG Music Club Ahdio Show #2 edition in March 2001 was probably also recorded in autumn 2000, but not necessarily for any of the albums Prince was working on at the time. He also co-wrote the track Rowdy Mac for The Fonky Bald Heads of which an edit was included in the same Ahdio Show as 1, 2 (The Future). Rowdy Mac got released on the summer 2001 self-titled Fonky Bald Heads album.
Larry Graham recorded Bada Boom – a cover of the 1995 O(+> song PoomPoom that was released on the Crystal Ball collection in 1998. So, when Prince made an NPG2000 album at this time, it is unknown if it was the NPG: Peace album that had evolved into that, or if it was the NPG Records Sampler cassette featuring various artists in the vein of the 1994 1-800-NEW-FUNK album that laid the groundwork for it.
NPG2000 (2000) Unknown if NPG album or 1-800 NEW FUNK style compilation
Launching the NPG Music Club Prince decided that rather than trying to reclaim commercial success, he would rather cater to loyal fans and completely sidestep the machinery of major labels. He understood that his previous attempt at a fully independent distribution model, the problem-fraught Crystal Ball, had left many supporters and industry observers doubtful that such an endeavor was feasible. But he had a new plan. The Internet, Prince believed, would allow him to eliminate the logistical snafus that plagued Crystal Ball and provide music to fans in the simplest, most direct possible way: With a few clicks of a computer mouse and the inputting of a credit card number they could download songs. Even better, the lead time between his creation of music and its delivery to consumers would be reduced to practically zero.
Thus was born the New Power Generation Music Club (NPGMC). The very first version of the NPG Music Club launched on February 14, 2001. The Club first took the form of a downloadable player that would act as download manager as well as media player. The fans would install the player on their harddrives, and then by joining the NPG Music Club they would their get monthly downloads through the player. For an annual fee of $100, members would be given access to new songs each month. Downloads included an hour long Ahdio Show which was essentially a podcast and 3 to 4 new Prince songs, often with accompanying videos. However, the downloadable player version of the NPG Music Club was short-lived as it was decided that a web-based approach would work better for Prince’s audience. With an estimated membership of between 5,000 and 50,000, it is likely the NPGMC was quite profitable for Prince, given the low overhead and high profit margins.
Digital releases from the vault The first postings in the NPG Music Club included tracks previously slated for High and NPG: Peace along with various pieces that hadn’t been slated for any particular project. Naturally, Prince had recorded an NPGMC Commercial lasting four minutes that could be downloaded with the launch of the club in February 2001. Also available as downloads were When Eye Lay My Hands On U from High and Peace from NPG: Peace. The radio show/Ahdio Show podcast featuring lots of talking between the music included short previews of High, My Medallion and Golden Parachute from the High album. All three songs would be released as downloads with later shows.
Several older Vault tracks were also shared though. The 1985/86 Prince And The Revolution track Splash that was considered for both Crystal Ball and Roadhouse Garden was available as a download along with the 1993/94 Gold era outtakes Mad and Funky Design. The Ahdio Show included excerpts of a couple of remixes - Love Sign (Ted’s Funky Chariot Mix) from 1994 and a 1993 Carmen Electra: Go On (Witcha Bad Self) dub remix. There was also a longer play of Madhouse: Seventeen (the cover of Kamasutra/Overture #8) than on the 2000 NPG Records sampler cassette, as well as a Days Of Wild Guitar Jam recorded at Paisley Park on 23 October 1999.
NPG Ahdio Show #1 downloads (18 February 2001) When Eye Lay My Hands On U (3:40) NPGMC Commercial (4:01) Mad (5:33) Funky Design (3:47) Splash (3:57) Peace (5:32)
The second NPG Ahdio Show edition was accompanied by four 1995 Gold era live performances, as well as a video for The Daisy Chain that had been on both NPG: Peace and High. The Ahdio Show itself included Silicon which H. M. Buff mentioned as being from the 1997/98 Newpower Soul era. The song would get released as a download with Ahdio Show #10.
NPG Ahdio Show #2 downloads (22 March 2001) We March (Live at Paisley Park 22 October 1995) (3:29) Vicki Waiting (Live at Paisley Park 22 October 1995) (3:51) Letitgo (Live at Paisley Park 22 October 1995) (3:45) Return Of The Bump Squad (Live at Paisley Park 23 October 1995) (4:04)
Rare singles from High and Peace In many respects, Prince seemed to be succeeding at using the Internet to establish a direct connection with consumers. Perhaps, as he had been arguing for years, major labels would soon become unnecessary. But he was catering to his followers and not attracting a wider audience. The club received little attention from the general public and mainstream media. Maybe that’s why Prince decided on also releasing a handful of singles in April 2001 – to reach a wider audience? But only the first one, U Make My Sun Shine, was released with wide distribution. The rest only saw limited distribution – they were only sold at concerts and remain rare collectors’ items.
The single that was distributed widely was U Make My Sun Shine b/w When Will We B Paid? from the High album. The single version of U make My Sun Shine was revealed to be an edit when the full version got included on the 2004 The Chocolate Invasion collection.
Prince & Angie Stone: U Make My Sun Shine CD-single (10 April 2001) 1. U Make My Sun Shine (5:55) 2. When Will We B Paid? (4:07) – by Randall Stewart
A video was also released to promote the single:
Supercute and Underneath The Cream from the High album were also released as a single but with limited distribution.
Two singles off the NPG: Peace album were also released with limited distribution. The Peace title track was backed with 2045: Radical Man which had been released on the Bamboozled soundtrack as a Prince track. Now it was an NPG track again.
The New Power Generation: Peace CD-single (April 2001) 1. Peace (5:32) 2. 2045: Radical Man (6:37)
New Power Generation: The Daisy Chain CD-single (April 2001) 1.The Daisy Chain (6:11) 2. Gamillah (3:10)
Although The Daisy Chain and Gamillah had been included on the High album, they were originally on the NPG: Peace album and were now credited to The New Power Generation again. The video for The Daisy Chain can be watched on YouTube right here:
The Daisy Chain was also released as a download with NPG Ahdio Show #3 in April 2001, along with Northside from the NPG: Peace album, a cover of Habibi by Jimi Hendrix and The Work Part 1 from the upcoming Rainbow Children album.
NPG Ahdio Show #3 downloads (22 April 2001) The New Power Generation: The Daisy Chain (6:11) The New Power Generation: Northside (6:31) Habibi – a Jimi Hendrix tribute (4:58) The Work Part 1 (3:36)
The show itself included an edit of Sex Me Sex Me Not. The full version would get released as a download with Ahdio Show #5. Two unreleased tracks from the vault were also included in the third show, an instrumental version of Superfunkycalifragisexy from the legendary 1987 Black Album and The Time: Murph Drag from their unreleased 1989 album Corporate World. And there was an excerpt of America as performed in San Francisco 23 May 1986.
The Peace and High songs kept coming When the recordings for NPG: Peace were made in February 2000, they included the track Props N’ Pounds. It is unknown if it got included on the album, though, as it includes Kurt Loder from MTV commenting on the talents of Prince, not The NPG. But it got included in NPG Ahdio Show #4 in May 2001, although with the host of the Ahdio Show presenting the content of that month’s edition in the middle of the song. An updated version with less commentating on Prince’s talents and more singing was released as a download along with the Ahdio Show. The new version would get included on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection.
The full version of Rosie Gaines: Hit U In The Socket from the 2000 NPG Records sampler cassette was also released as a download, and to separate it from earlier versions of the song which would get released later, it was nicknamed NPGMC Remix.
NPG Ahdio Show #4 downloads (15 May 2001) Props N’ Pounds (4:35) Rosie Gaines: Hit U In The Socket (4:06)
The Ahdio Show included mostly live tracks from the vault this time around. From the 31 August 1986 Parade show in Hamburg, Germany, there was Christopher Tracy’s Parade, New Position, I Wonder U, Raspberry Beret, Delirious, Controversy and A Love Bizarre. The live version of Strange Relationship was from 1st Avenue, 21 March 1987. From New York, 25 March 1993, there was Damn U, The Max and Johnny which may have been from an unreleased 1993 live album. Get Wild was from The White Room in London, 5 April 1995. “Shit” had escaped censorship in A Love Bizarre, Get Wild and Johnny, but “fucking movie” was garbled up in Strange Relationship and “shit” was garbled up in Deuce & A Quarter.
When Prince assembled the High album, the Vavoom song from those recording sessions was left out. It now became the B-side of a High single. Two versions were made of the High single, a 2-track CD-single containing an edit of Vavoom and a 3-track CD-single with the full version.
Prince: High CD-single (2001) 1. High (5:05) 2. Vavoom (Edit) (4:07)
Prince: High CD-single (2001) 1. High (Edit) 2. Vavoom (4:35) 3. U Make My Sun Shine (Edit)
The edit of Vavoom would get released as a download with Ahdio Show #9 while the full version would get released on the 2004 The Chocolate Invasion collection. The track time for the High edit remains unknown, as does the fact if the edit of U Make My Sun Shine is the same as on its previous single release because these High singles were never released. They were kept at Paisley Park where some copies escaped into the hands of lucky guests at the annual Celebration events in June. Now they’re worth a small fortune.
Songs for The Slaughterhouse For NPG Ahdio Show #5 in June 2001, Supercute, which had been released as a single, was released as a download along with Sex Me Sex Me Not which was recorded after the Peace and High albums had been assembled. Both Supercute and an extended version of Sex Me Sex Me Not got included on the 2003 The Chocolate Invasion compilation. Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? came from the 1999 Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic sessions and would get included on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection.
NPG Ahdio Show #5 downloads (11 June 2001) Supercute (4:16) Sex Me Sex Me Not (4:27) Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? (4:30)
The only unreleased vault track in the actual Ahdio show was a remix of the 1994 Come album track Race (nicknamed NPGMC Mix). Instead, there were short previews of songs from Prince’s upcoming Rainbow Children album, The Rainbow Children, Family Name and Digital Garden.
With the next edition, NPG Ahdio Show #6, NPG Music Club Members were treated to O(+>’s version of Van Gogh – a 1996 Emancipation outtake with saxophone by Eric Leeds given to the group Van Gogh who released their re-recording of the track in 1998. The song originated in 1995 where O(+> added music to a handful of lyrics by Sandra St. Victor.
Club members also got S&M Groove which was an edit of Sadomasochistic Groove which was recorded in May 1997, but didn’t make the 1998 Newpower Soul album. It would get included on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection. And they got Hypnoparadise which had been played as an instrumental on tour in 1998 and may have been included on the 1998 Madrid 2 Chicago album. Hypnoparadise would also end up on The Slaughterhouse. An instrumental version of the 1996 Emancipation track The Holy River rounded out the month’s releases.
NPG Ahdio Show #6 downloads (7 July 2001) Van Gogh (5:59) S&M Groove (5:07) Hypnoparadise (6:02) Instrumental – The Holy River (3:05)
The Ahdio Show included the new song Her Way sung Kip Blackshire who was in Prince’s band at the time. The song was intended for his debut album due in 2002, but it remains unreleased. Prince himself performed Eye Like 2 Play which got bootlegged as Western Song. In the brief segue-like song, Prince gets booed off the stage in a country bar. And there was Madhouse: Asswhuppin’ In A Trunk from the unreleased 24 album from 1994/95.
More High tracks released With Ahdio Show #7, there were downloads for both The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse. Judas Smile was recorded after the High album was assembled but got included when it got remade as The Chocolate Invasion in 2003. Horny Pony had previously been released as the B-side to Cream in 1991. The NPG: Get Wild (Miami Mix) was probably made in 1994. Golden Parachute was from the High album but would end up on The Slaughterhouse in 2004.
NPG Ahdio Show #7 downloads (28 August 2001) Judas Smile (6:39) Horny Pony Get Wild (Miami Mix) (5:42) Golden Parachute (5:35)
The High album title track was included in the actual Ahdio Show. It would get released as a download with Ahdio Show #10. Otherwise, the show just included three live tracks from Prince’s vault of unreleased material: Automatic, DMSR and The Dance Electric from Los Angeles, 30 May 1986.
With the next edition of NPG Ahdio Show, #8, fans finally got My Medallion from High following the preview in the first show. They also got a 1988 rehearsal version of the unreleased 1986 Camille track Rebirth Of The Flesh, a previously released remix from the 1990 Thieves In The Temple single and Contest Song, which was supposedly a O(+> composition now credited to The NPG.
NPG Ahdio Show #8 downloads (18 September 2001) Thieves In The Temple (Remix) Rebirth Of The Flesh (Rehearsal ’88) My Medallion (5:07) The NPG: Contest Song (3:34)
The September Ahdio show didn’t contain any unreleased Vault material but included Pearls B4 The Swine from the forthcoming One Nite Alone piano album. Coming in the wake of 9/11 and the fall of the Twin Towers in New York, it was a special episode dedicated to spiritually themed songs from Prince/O(+>’s back catalogue. It was put together by artist and creative director Sam Jennings who worked for Prince for nine years, developing his online business, the NPG Music Club, as well as designing the packages of several Prince albums, including Musicology and 3121.
Prince with Sam Jennings
Working on the NPG Music Club On 18 September 2016, Sam Jennings wrote on Facebook about his experience working with Prince on the NPG Music Club and how he got involved with the making of The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse – the two compilations that would collect tracks released through the club: “Prince and I were just about halfway through the first year of the NPG Music Club in September 2001. During this first year, the Club delivered regular monthly downloads of previously unreleased Prince music and videos. Included in each month's edition was about an hour-long podcast that Prince would record from Paisley Park, except nobody called them podcasts back then, we simply called it an ‘Ahdio’ show.”
“In these Ahdio shows, Prince almost never spoke as himself, instead choosing to use distortion on his voice to create more of a character that would speak between the songs he chose to play. He did little skits or got band members like Morris Hayes to join in and contribute. It was great fun and a big part of what we had to offer each month.”
“By the time of our eighth edition of downloads in September, Prince asked me if I would like to put together the Ahdio show this time. I jumped at the chance and told him I would come up with some possibilities we could discuss. (…) I was honored to contribute to the Club in a meaningful way, beyond my other duties keeping it running smoothly. Prince was so pleased with the end result and the reaction that he asked me to be an Executive Producer on the Chocolate Invasion and Slaughterhouse CDs.”
The final High tracks released The next NPG Ahdio Show was released in November 2001 following the release of the Rainbow Children album in October and was accompanied by two rounds of downloads. Up first, members got the single edit of Vavoom and Supercute from the recent limited single release. Supercute would get included on The Chocolate Invasion, as would the full version of Vavoom. The next round of downloads was live tracks – Live 4 Love from Sydney in 1992, The Undertaker from the 1995 VHS home video release The Undertaker, and the new track We Gon’ Make It Funky as performed with Maceo Parker at Paisley Park 13 June 2001.
NPG Ahdio Show #9 downloads (15 November 2001) Vavoom (4:05) Underneath The Cream (4:02)
NPG Ahdio Show #9 downloads (20 November 2001) Live 4 Love (Live in Sydney 1992) (6:52) The Undertaker (Live) (9:45) We Gon’ Make It Funky (feat. Maceo Parker) (Live at Paisley Park 13 June 2001) (4:47)
The Ahdio Show also included a couple of new tracks, the song Jukebox With A Heartbeat which remains unreleased and a rehearsal excerpt of Prince and The New Power Generation jamming on the song Northside that was released with Ahdio Show #3. There were also live versions of Let’s Go Crazy, Kiss, Irresistible Bitch, She’s Always In My Hair, When You Were Mine, Insatiable and Scandalous from New York, 25 March 1993, and possibly lifted from an unreleased 1993 live album. But now, they were censored with the word “shit” garbled electronically on Kiss and Irresistible Bitch.
The tenth edition of NPG Ahdio Show also came with two rounds of downloads. First up came the final tracks from the High album, Gamillah and High which would carry over to The Chocolate Invasion. Fans also finally got Silicon which had been previewed in the second Ahdio Show. It would become the opening track on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection. A few days later, a couple of live tracks followed, Poorgoo from the 1995 The Undertaker VHS home video and Gett Off from San Francisco, 3 December 2000.
NPG Ahdio Show #10 downloads (15 December 2001) Silicon (4:47) High (5:05) Gamillah (3:10)
NPG Ahdio Show #10 downloads (19 December 2001) Poorgoo (Live) (4:38) Gett Off (Live in San Francisco 3 December 2000) (3:03)
The end of the NPG Ahdio shows NPG Ahdio Show #10 consisted of a DJ set with all previously released but now censored tracks from Prince’s back catalogue, including "bitch" now being garbled up in My Medallion. Also, from less and less talking between tracks till now no talking at all indicated that Prince was losing interest in making the shows. The next one did also become the last. It was another DJ set, but it did include a still unreleased remix of Hot With U from the 1999 Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic album and live versions of The Question Of U, Groove On/The Undertaker and a cover of the 1957 Jerry Lee Lewis song Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On from an unknown, but probably then recent date.
The final Ahdio show was accompanied by two rounds of downloads. First up was the previously mentioned Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe single and four tracks from the forthcoming One Nite Alone piano album that would get released in full later that year. The second round had an edit of the 1986 Anotherloverholenyohead music video and a live performance of Face Down from the Chris Rock Show in February 1997 which was just a playback performance to Face Down from the NYC Live 1/11/97 cassette released that year.
NPG Ahdio Show #11 downloads (17 January 2002) Madrid 2 Chicago (3:14) Breathe (2:01) One Nite Alone… U’re Gonna C Me Here On Earth A Case Of U
NPG Ahdio Show #11 downloads (30 January 2002) Anotherloverholenyohead (Live) (3:00) – edit of 1986 video Face Down (per4mance) (3:08) – from The Chris Rock Show, February 1997
High becomes The Chocolate Invasion With the end of the NPG Ahdio Shows, Prince conceived the notion of making CD collections of tracks released through the NPG Music Club and those became The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse compilations. Sam Jennings told Funkatopia in March 2023: “Prince had the idea to release a compilation of music from the music club and he let me kind of run that project. I put together the list of songs I thought it should be and I put together the order that it should go in. I worked with the engineer to sequence the CD and he gave me an executive producer credit for it which is pretty cool. You know, piecing the songs together – just kinda figuring out which song would go good with another one, what song should open it and what song should close it - those kinds of things were all definitely what I was thinking of. (…) The idea was to release it as a CD but that didn’t happen, so we just released it as a downloadable group of material.”
The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse were assembled in the autumn of 2003 with The Chocolate Invasion being a new configuration of the High album. It derived its new title from the lyrics of the two newly added tracks, Judas Smile and an extended version of Sex Me? Sex Me Not which both mention “the chocolate invasion”, the latter in a rap added in the middle of the song. In Judas Smile Prince sends a lot of “peace” to other artists, so it might have been moved to The Chocolate Invasion from the NPG: Peace album from which The Slaughterhouse album developed because of “the chocolate invasion” lyric. Certainly, two High tracks migrated to the The Slaughterhouse album, Golden Parachute and The Daisy Chain, which left room for the addition of Judas Smile and Sex Me? Sex Me Not on The Chocolate Invasion.
The High single B-side Vavoom was brought in to replace Prince’s cover of When Will We B Paid? which was released on the U Make My Sun Shine single, so the album was now all original Prince compositions. And with the addition of the three tracks Judas Smile, Vavoom and Sex Me? Sex Me Not, the album was now much livelier than the previous mellow High configuration. Also, U Make My Sun Shine was a much better choice to close the album than High, just like Adore on the 1987 album Sign O’ The Times.
Prince: The Chocolate Invasion (2003 – released digitally in 2015) 1. When Eye Lay My Hands On U (3:40) 2. Judas Smile (6:33) 3. Supercute (4:13) 4. Underneath The Cream (3:59) 5. My Medallion (5:07) 6. Vavoom (4:35) 7. High (5:05) 8. Sex me? Sex Me Not (5:40) 9. Gamillah (3:09) 10. U Make My Sun Shine (Feat. Angie Stone) (7:05)
Gamillah which had been first on NPG: Peace, then on High and then a B-side to an NPG single was now back on this reworked High configuration. Except for U Make My Sun Shine which was released as a single, all of the tracks had been released as downloads in the NPG Music Club in 2001, but Vavoom only as an edit. Also, Supercute now differed slightly from the previously released single version by segueing from Judas Smile and the latter had an additional synth hit just before the words "pinnochio mentality" that censored the word “nigga”. Sex Me? Sex Me Not was now extended, and U Make My Sun Shine was also longer than the previously released single version – no one knew that had been an edit, so there were some surprises for fans on the collection, making it worthwhile even if one had been a member of the NPG Music Club.
From 7-CD set to downloads from online store The Chocolate Invasion was originally intended as a 7-CD set by Prince announced in the NPG Music Club on 15 October 2003. The seven discs included in the set were promoted as The Chocolate Invasion: NPGMC Trax Vol. 1, The Slaughterhouse: NPGMC Trax Vol. 2, C-Note - all compilation albums of mostly previously-released NPG Music Club tracks, One Nite Alone… and The War which were both previously released, Xpectation which had previously been available as a download and The Glam Slam Club Mix previously included as the main content in NPG Ahdio Show #11. The set was announced with a flash file containing a clip of the track Judas Smile from which the set’s name was taken. The packaging was shown as a round pleather CD carrying case with The Chocolate Invasion embossed on the front. No release date was given.
On 13 November 2003, the NPG Music Club announced: "The Chocolate Invasion is put on hold 4 now, indefinitely. There was a problem with the manufacturing and until the bug is worked out, we'd rather not have u wondering when ur home would b invaded. As soon as we have any new info 2 report, u will b notified immediately. The members of the NPGMC deserve the best, thank u 4 ur patience."
The website streamed the previously unreleased track What Do U Want Me 2 Do? from the upcoming album Musicology as "a little something 2 chill 2" at the same time as the announcement to make up for the delay. The project was never officially cancelled, although all of the previously unreleased compilations, except The Glam Slam Club Mix, were instead released for download when the NPG Music Club Musicology Download Store opened on 29 March 2004.
Release of The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse Before The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse were made available as downloads in the NPG Music Club Musicology Download Store in 2004, a couple of changes were made to The Chocolate Invasion. My Medallion was left out - possibly because of the previously censored word “bitch” - to make room for a new version of the 1989 Batman era song The Dance which had also been reworked in 1991. The track list was rearranged with The Dance being placed where Sex Me Sex Me Not had been and then Sex Me Sex Me Not taking the place where My Medallion had been. With The Dance not having been released before, it offered an incentive for members of the NPG Music Club to buy the collection too.
Prince: The Chocolate Invasion download (2004) 1. When Eye Lay My Hands On U (3:40) 2. Judas Smile (6:33) 3. Supercute (4:11) 4. Underneath The Cream (4:00) 5. Sex Me? Sex Me Not (5:41) 6. Vavoom (4:35) 7. High (5:04) 8. The Dance (4:41) 9. Gamillah (3:07) 10. U Make My Sun Shine (Feat. Angie Stone) (7:04)
At 45 years old, the Chocolate Invasion would be Prince’s last sexually preoccupied album. The Slaughterhouse featured songs with darker subject matter than The Chocolate Invasion. Debi McGuan did the cover illustrations for both The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse. The concept was ten songs on both collections, leaving out Jukebox With A Heartbeat but granted, that wasn’t released as a download separate from the Ahdio Shows in the NPG Music Club and it has yet to see an official release.
Prince: The Slaughter House download (2004) 1. Silicon (4:14) 2. S&M Groove (5:07) 3. Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? (4:30) 4. Golden Parachute (5:35) 5. Hypnoparadise (6:02) 6. Props N’ Pounds (4:35) 7. Northside (6:31) 8. Peace (5:32) 9. 2045: Radical Man (6:35) 10. The Daisy Chain (6:13)
All of the songs on The Slaughterhouse had been released as downloads in the NPG Music Club, except for 2045: Radical Man which had been released on the Bamboozled soundtrack. Silicon had now been edited about 30 seconds shorter, while Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? had an additional synth hit at 1:10 just after the sentence "u'll never know" to censor the word “nigga”.
The last four tracks Northside, Peace, 2045: Radical Man and The Daisy Chain had previously been released credited to The New Power Generation, leading many to believe that just as High became The Chocolate Invasion, The Slaughterhouse was a reworking of the NPG: Peace album. With both Silicon and S&M Groove being from the 1998 NPG: Newpower Soul era, it is quite possible they might have been included on NPG: Peace in 2000. Hypnoparadise and Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? also preceded the Peace album and so could theoretically have been included on it. Props N’ Pounds came from the NPG: Peace sessions, so it may also have been on that album. Golden Parachute came from High, as did The Daisy Chain originally.
Digital release of the 2003 configuration In 2005, while Prince still had the NPG Music Club Musicology Download Store, he also released the live versions of We March, Vicki Waiting and Letitgo originally released with NPG Ahdio Show #2 in March 2001. All three tracks on this digital EP were recorded at Paisley Park 22 October 1995.
Live From Paisley Park EP downloads (2005) We March (3:29) Vicki Waiting (3:51) Letitgo (3:45)
Also, the live version of Strange Relationship recorded at 1st Avenue 21 March 1987 from NPG Ahdio Show #4 was released through the NPG Music Club Musicology Download Store. And it was still censored with “fucking movie” garbled up.
In 2006, a new version of The Dance was included on Prince’s 3121 album, so when The Chocolate Invasion was re-released as a download from the streaming platform Tidal in December 2015, Prince went with the 2003 configuration that had the uncensored My Medallion on it before it was replaced by the earlier version of The Dance. Fans now had two configurations of the album, yet none on CD. But Sam Jennings said in a March 2023 Funkatopia interview: “I would love to one day release an expanded edition as a physical product and with a book to go with it to talk about the music club. I think that would be really interesting and fun.”
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