Prince — The Importance of Bootleg Culture
I remember my first Prince bootleg. It was the 18th of July 1986 configuration of the album “Dream Factory”, a precursor to the masterpiece, “Sign O The Times”. I was still a new Prince fan. I had the hits on heavy rotation but I knew my purple-music journey was far from complete.
Of course, I was aware this was “Sign O The Times” era, so I expected something like the title track or “I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man”. After a short instrumental (“Visions”) and some heady introductory track, the screams of Prince with his many vocal abilities proclaim, “This is what it’s like in the Dream Factory!”. I knew within just seconds that this would be a very different experience from what I was familiar with.
Attitudes and reactions like that permeated the album from beginning to end, but there was something about the third track — “Train”. The pulsating bassline, the James Brown-style horns and those many vocal abilities just took my breath away. Even this early in my fandom and discovery of Prince’s catalogue, I held this rather obscure and unreleased track in such high regard, as something on the level of “Baby I’m A Star” or “Alphabet Street”.
This early engagement with the underground of purple bootlegs changed the way I consumed the albums. With so much content online — outside of the official Prince catalogue — listening to albums became almost like a project. When was this recorded? Are there any alternate versions available? What did the track listing look like before it was sent to the record plants? As a result, when I think of the “1999” album, it’s not just those 11 tracks, the 3 b-sides or even the two protégé albums from that era… It’s also “Moonbeam Levels”. It’s also “Baby, You’re A Trip”. It’s also the alternate extended version of “Delirious”.
This is an education in artistic development and decision making that no school can provide. To have such access, when you can (for the most part) listen to what someone made one day to the next and what they did with it.
One of the earliest examples of this [in the Prince world] was The Black Album. Intended for release in December 1987 (just nine months after “Sign O The Times”), it was scrapped at the last minute and recording began on more positive productions. This would become “Lovesexy” an album about sex, god and “yes”. The Black Album still escaped, with copies finding their way out and distributed through various channels. The idea that someone would rid an entire album was strange — it still is, especially one of such quality.
If you were a fan and hadn’t already heard the unreleased album, you certainly heard about it — in fact, many would hear some of the songs as Prince would perform them of the Lovesexy Tour.
In some cases, the development of a song is documented. Early mixes, alternate versions, live versions and the variety goes on…
“We Can Fuck” was recorded over a 48-hour period, shared between the years 1983 and 1984. It features some of Prince’s darkest lyrics, taking an almost possessed-like persona, articulating the lust and submission he feels for someone, topped off with the dichotomies of insecurity and smugness throughout. If Tipper Gore was upset with “Darling Nikki”, she probably would have had an emotional breakdown, had this song been released.
The track was re-recorded under the more conservative title, “We Can Funk” in 1986. This version is vastly different from the original, musically. Perhaps more interestingly, this new interpretation of the original was recorded in sequence with two other songs. It never made it to any kind of release.
Then in 1989, Prince went back to the original 1983 recording and built around it, along with George Clinton.
What’s incredible about this song, is how precisely we can document its development. Do we have every recording or mix that was ever made? No. But the 8 different versions floating around on the internet and various bootlegs should give you a pretty good idea.
As a result, I can pick which ever mix I like. I choose the experience I wish to have with the song.
With the availability of so much, one would assume it’s just easy access and there is no room for fantasy. Wrong.
Prince’s unreleased music has been investigated and speculated about for decades, with so many resources providing extensive detail on many titles not yet released/ leaked/ unattainable by any means. The impressive documentation on PrinceVault, compiled from a multitude of sources provides an amazing free resource for those who wish for a reference to their musical journey, whether starting today or 41 years ago.
If a narrative is more to your liking, Duane Tudahl’s recent “Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984” is perfect for any entry-level Prince fan or those who just appreciate a good read! It contains almost all available information about the making of Purple Rain and emphasises on the incredible work ethic of its creator.
While hardcore fans will argue about the ethics of bootlegs or leaks ad nauseam in various forums, no one can deny they enhance the fan experience and extend the artistic appreciation. They’re a peak-in of development, struggle and decision making. In the current music world, where everything produced seems to require meeting some criteria of flawlessness, understanding the process of how music is made puts the human back into this type of expression.
In the upcoming March episode of #JCsMusicology, we explore the diversity of content created from late December 1985, until the release of Lovesexy in April 1988. For updates, like this page.