currently i am doing some mental gymnastics about a potential tape (disc) purchase. this is nothing new, look you see, and invariably the wresting ends with me making a purchase. factors such as cost and no existing shortage of tapes (discs) are in play, however. also, and this is quite rarely an aspect i stop to consider, i am wondering if i actually want this imminent release. well, it is imminent at the time of writing.
as to what tape (disc) this is, well, it's the "special edition" (or if you will deluxe edition) of Around The World In A Day off of Prince or, to be specific, Prince & The Revolution. but yes, Prince. not sure if this has been done specifically for the 40th anniversary of the record or if it is just, as has been the case thus far, Warner just issuing whatever is "ready to go" with the exhaustive work being done to in respect of the massive vault of music Prince left behind.
whilst writing this i have my existing tape (disc) of Around The World In A Day on. the sound quality is just fine, so the "remastering" side of it holds little appeal. indeed the album is really good, yet noticeably i would suggest the really good aspect rotates around the truly great, outstanding Raspberry Beret. i am not entirely sure i need variations of the other songs here, with particular emphasis on spending north of £20 on a north of twenty minutes (!) version of America.
yet i have ended up buying most of the Prince "deluxe" reissues. of the ones from the last few years i believe i have only skipped Diamonds & Pearls thus far, mostly as it was an album i wasn't overtly keen on. also i have gone with the "modest" versions of any "special editions", rather than the "ultra" or if you will deluxe ones with dozens of discs in them.
it occurred to me that listening to Around The World In A Day once again would kind of help me decide on laying out cash. also playing the existing special edition tapes (discs) what i have could not hurt, as the very worst which would happen is that i would be listening to some quality tunes. so, that's what i have gone done, and of course musings (or thoughts) on them follow here.
bit of a contradiction here, for the "worst" of the special editions just happens to be what i would consider Prince's greatest artistic accomplishment, being the Sign ☮ The Times album. saying debating or even "arguing" what any artists' "best" or "greatest" work is generally something i would avoid, since it's all so subjective. also it tends to suggest other stuff is "worse" or weaker in some respect, which is a ridiculous thing to do with a body of work like Prince left behind. quite likely i could go on about the album and bore you, but that's not the point of this post.
tapes (discs) one and two of this three (3) set are the Sign ☮ The Times album "as is". split according to the double album on record (vinyl) it was released as. not 100% sure but i think it got released as a single tape in the 80s. whereas it states that the album is "remastered" it doesn't sound noticeably different from my 80s CD set, or the 90s re-issue i picked up to play as i drove around. not really a surprise, as Prince absolutely did not p!ss about or compromise; what you got on the record was exactly as he wished it to be heard.
i did indeed knowingly buy this fully (or totes) aware that the third disc, the "extras", would be of exceptionally limited, if any, interest. no "lost" recordings here, just b-sides, remixes and very, very bad single edits of songs. whilst it's nice to have relatively rare Prince songs, like Shockadelica, i have never ever been a Prince "completist". remixes of U Got The Look and Housequake are pretty decent, but then the as is originals on the album are fine. absolutely awful are the single edits, in particular the alarmingly cut in half I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man. this epic song is one of my favourites by Prince, this "single edit" is virtually unlistenable.
debate all you will (or want) about what Prince's "best" album may very well be, but there is absolutely no possible, logical or cohesive argument against the fact that Purple Rain is his most iconic. however great the music was before this album (and film) it was this what put him on the map and assured it as being so that, no matter what he did after, he would remain there. of course there are those who would say this is also his "best" or greatest work, and it is difficult to fault such a view.
leaving aside the intrinsic genius of the album proper and this is probably the bestest, greatest ever special edition of a specific album what i have ever had. the disc or unreleased or (ludicrously) rare tunes is outstanding, if none are quite the high grade to make it to the album proper. another disc of singles is actually good. dismissing the "single edits" and then the b-sides and remixes are a very welcome addition to the Purple Rain collection. then you have the video (disc) of a televised concert from, i think, 84. might be 85. i can kind of remember my dear friend who introduced me to Prince getting hold of a copy of this video when such was reasonably rare.
for sheer quality of music and lavish presentation this is value for money. all too often extras are something you might play once out of curiosity. not so with the Purple Rain set, as each disc is worth repeat plays. well, ok, the concert film maybe not all that often. there are only so many times one can watch Prince ask an audience what they think of his posterior (not the word he uses) and then witness him make sweet, sweet love to the stage. only so many times, yet more times than you may think.
what, if not this, would be "bestest" ever album specific special edition? immediately the only competition i can think of is either the two or three tape (disc) editions of Rumours off of Fleetwood Mac, with the 3rd disc being a live one that's "nice but not essential". that Warner Bros are behind both that and this Purple Rain one offers a glimpse of promise as to what they might eventually do with the Bowie catalogue they spent so much money on procuring.
yes indeed i have just noticed that i have gone done this in a "reverse chronology" way, since the third and final here is the earliest album of the lot, 1999. oddly, and usually i need no such excuse, i did have quite a decent reason to buy this. my existing copy of the album was a first disc release of it, back when the maximum time on one disc was something like 74 minutes. so as to release the double album as a single disc they dropped DMSR off of it. so this represented a chance to get the album "proper" on a compact disc for the first time.
not much i can say about this album that has not been spoken of, except to say, yes, probably, i would think the titular 1999 is the song most likely to be as strongly identified with Prince as Purple Rain. go on then, i will say something. the first six tracks - 1999, Little Red Corvette, Delirious, Let's Pretend We're Married, DMSR and Automatic are a superb, sublime, vivid, ecstasy fuelling, brutal, stark, bold and thoroughly enjoyable trip. not sustained across the remainder, which is possibly why this one does not get quite as celebrated as the two above.
as to the extras on this "special edition", quite the revelation. to go against what i have said before, weirdly the single edit of 1999 really works, in the same way the single edit of Bowie's Let's Dance worked - taking an epic song and cutting it down to pure pop gold. exactly why anyone was doing a mono mix of anything in the early 80s is beyond me, yet the (relatively) rare mono mix of 1999 is a curious, interesting listen. the other mixes are good, and for the win the b-sides How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore and Irresistible B!tch are as strong as what made it to the album proper.
unlikely that any of this will have been of any "practical" use, but then again i am rather surprised to see a whole load of you reading my recent post on Bowie variations. mostly i think the consideration here is that Prince absolutely did not compromise, any and all versions of his albums got released with some precision to sound exactly as he wished them to be heard. you can't really go wrong getting any kind of official release of any of these three.
my dream Prince releases? well, i was lucky enough to get a copy of The Black Album when it got a quite limited reissue, but would buy again for fun. otherwise the sheer "sex is awesome" funk of Dirty Mind and Controversy have long been favourites, if there's any more of the material from them sessions in the vault they can release them and have my money.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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