Madhouse - 24 (1988 Version)

So I noticed not nearly as many people have download the Jill Jones album compared to the other Prince-related albums I've been posting. That's probably my own fault as I made it available as part of another post. I'll probably repost it later this week just so it's clear where the links are. That said, this and the next three Prince posts are going to be for the Madhouse albums, although I'm not doing them in order. Instead I'm starting with the 88 version of 24 which, like it's 93 counterpart, is unreleased. This is, in my humble opinion, the superior version of the 24 album. I wouldn't rank it as high in terms of quality as 8 or 16 but that's not saying it's bad in any way. Rather, it's very synth and drum machine oriented, although it comes from around the same era as the Batman album so that's really no surprise. Otherwise, the only people we know for sure are on this recording are of course Prince and Eric Leeds, although samples of Anna Garcia, Appolonia and Vanity appear throughout the final four tracks, The Dopamine Rush Suite. Appolonia's appearance is simply Prince re-using her vocals from In A Spanish Villa, whereas Vanity's vocals are from the still unreleased Vibrator and have also been sampled on 8 and Orgasm from Prince's Come album.

Despite this album remaining unreleased, Prince must have been pleased with it to some extent as a lot of the material was reused in one way or another, although that doesn't necessarily mean any of it saw release. 17 (Penetration) was given to Miles Davis who did record his own version, although that recording remains unreleased and is not circulating among collectors. Miles' recording almost saw release on a box set Warner Brothers were preparing covering his years with the label, but Prince prevented it and another recording from being released. That other recording was Prince's studio-based collaboration with Miles, Can I Play With U?, although that's another story. 19 (Jailbait) was briefly considered for the Batman soundtrack and was actually used in an unreleased early trailer for the film. Many have compared the sound of 18 (R U Legal Yet?) to Batdance, but who knows if there was ever really a connection there. Otherwise, The Dopamine Rush Suite was edited down to a single track and saw release upon Eric Leeds' first solo album, Times Squared. I've heard it said that some of the recordings from that album may have been Madhouse outtakes as Prince shares co-writer status on almost every song, but again, only Eric and Prince probably know and it's not likely we'll get any answers about this in the near future.

Finally, I want to share some details regarding this copy of the album. While this is a lossless FLAC, I don't want to give any illusions that it's a perfect, CD quality copy of the album. The sound quality is VERY GOOD, but upon inspecting the spectral data, it looks like it may have come from a very good quality cassette rip. Here are some examples from Adobe Audition, and you can click on the images to load them in full size if they're too small to examine within this post.

18 (R U Legal Yet?)


24 (Orgasm)


Nonetheless, as cassette rips go, this is excellent. Also, on most discography listings I see track three listed as a 19 (A Girl and Her Puppy) and four as 20 (Jailbait), but I've always been suspicious of that and believe it to be inaccurate, so I've switched their labels around so that three is 19 (Jailbait) and four is 20 (A Girl and Her Puppy). If that sounds confusing, don't worry, the track listing has stayed the same, I've only changed the titles so the songs listed as 19 and 20 are still the same songs.


Madhouse - 24 (1988 Version)

FLAC Part 1

FLAC Part 2

V0 MP3

01 17 (Penetration)
02 18 (R U Legal Yet?)
03 19 (Jailbait)
04 20 (A Girl and Her Puppy)
The Dopamine Rush Suite:
05 21 (The Dopamine Rush)
06 22 (Amsterdam)
07 23 (Spanish Eros)
08 24 (Orgasm)


PS - This album has no official cover art, so while looking for an appropriate image Google presented me with the following. For those unaware, I am cursed to hunt Disney rarities in the same way I am cursed to look for Prince stuff. No, I don't collect figurines or anything like that, rather I hunt rare Disney films and workprints. Anyway, DAMN YOU PRINCE ERIC! DAMN YOU!!!