Prince and (ex-)Friends

I was recently contacted by DJ Polished Solid from No Turn Unstoned about one of our similar interests, PRINCE. Polished Solid DJs in Philadelphia every Sunday and you can check her show at the No Turn Unstoned site, but she has a special mix online for Prince's birthday with lots of side-projects and rare tracks. You can check that mix here and you better get on it, it's sweet! That said, DJ Polished Solid asked me if I knew anything about a few unreleased Prince-related projects and I knew I had a few things that might interest her as well as anyone else that enjoys his purpleness, so I present to you a collection of rare Prince tracks created for Jill Jones, Vanity 6 and for his own purpose. A little info the tracks is listed below.


Prince and (ex-)Friends

01 Jill Jones - Boom Boom
02 Jill Jones - Flesh and Blood
03 Jill Jones - My Baby Knows How To Love Me
04 Jill Jones - Girl Power
These four tracks are from the sessions for Jill Jones' unreleased second album. Despite appearing in Graffiti Bridge, Jill had a falling-out with Prince and the album was never finished, at least not as far as we know. It's worth noting that there has been some issue as to whether or not Girl Power is performed by Jill with the track having long been labeled a Sheila E. performance, but no matter who is on vocals I thought it deserved to be included here.

05 Jill Jones - G-Spot (Remix)
An unreleased remix from around 1987.

06 Vanity 6 - Sex Shooter
Vanity was supposed to be in Purple Rain until she went behind Prince's back and demanded more money from Warner Brothers. She was unceremoniously fired and the second Vanity 6 album, which was pretty much finished, was canceled. Most of the tracks ended up somewhere else (17 Days and G-Spot for example), but Sex Shooter was re-recorded for Appolonia 6's album. The basic track stayed mostly the same with the extended version being even closer to the original Vanity version. A finished copy of Vanity's version has never leaked, although a rather complete demo is in circulation with Prince handling the vocal duties for the rest of Vanity 6. This is that demo with the complete intro which doesn't appear on some copies.

07 Prince - God Is Alive (with Mavis Staples)
08 Prince - God Is Alive (Alternate Ending)
This was recorded sometime in the late eighties around the Lovesexy era or right afterward. Despite supposedly being one of Prince's favorite unreleased songs, it retains that status. This one is also interesting because of Mavis Staples' participation. She is unfairly looked at by some as a cheap replacement for better known R&B performers during the Graffiti Bridge era, but that is simply wrong. What Mavis may lack in name-recognition she owns in spades regarding her soul and ability. She continues to record today and doesn't need Prince to back her up. She has a new album coming later this year that she recorded with Jeff Tweedy and members of Wilco. She is a major talent and DON'T YOU FORGET IT!!!

09 Prince - instrumental
An unknown instrumental assumed to be from the Batman era.

10 Prince - Flesh and Blood (excerpt)
An excerpt of Prince's own guide vocal for Flesh and Blood. If I remember correctly, I'm kind of the reason this one leaked. Oops. For the record though, this is all I have of the track, so please don't ask. I wish I had more non-circulating Prince stuff but what I had I'm pretty sure everyone has now.

11 Prince - Love Machine
Prince's original guide vocal for Love Machine before giving it to The Time. There are some additional lines in this track and they're notably dirty. I believe that's Jill Jones singing on the chorus.

12 Prince - We Got The Power
An outtake from the Batman era which actually appeared in an early, unreleased trailer for the Batman movie. The chorus appears towards the end of Batdance.

13 Prince - Alphabet St. (This Is Not Music, This Is A Trip)
This is a different version of the remix which appeared on the 12" single for Alphabet St., although it may have been scheduled for release initially. Some promo releases list another version of of the This Is Not Music remix that is the same length as this version, although those promos feature the standard remix on both tracks. Regardless, this version features a TON of vocals, none of which have appeared elsewhere. Nice remix, but why it never got released is a mystery.

14 Prince - G-Spot (bass)
15 Prince - G-Spot (guitar)
16 Prince - G-Spot (keys)
These are unmixed fragments from G-Spot. As to whether they're intended for the original Vanity 6 version, Jill Jones version or another version entirely, who knows, and there isn't enough here to make a full mix from, but it's quite interesting to have these anyway.


So, I hope you enjoy these tracks but make sure you pay No Turn Unstoned a visit and check out DJ Polished Solid's mix, it's VERRRY NICE! And for what it's worth, happy birthday Prince.

Oh yeah, Jill is still recording and you should visit her myspace here. Gotta love Jill! Can't say the same for Vanity though, at least not without the 6.