Prince - Lovesexy: Homemade Deluxe Version

So it isn't my favorite Prince album, but there are a lot of people who love it so I figured why not. I love the b-sides, remixes and outtakes more than the album, but Alphabet St. is easily one of Prince's strongest singles, on par with the best songs of his career, and Glam Slam and the title cut are great songs. Actually, Lovesexy, the song, is rather incredible. It's clear how inspired Prince was to put that song together, what with all of the loops and extra voices running throughout it, though I wish the rest of the album sounded as invigorated.

This is my version of what Lovesexy would be if it were a two disc deluxe edition. The album is sourced from a very nice vinyl rip posted by Twofootputt. They had already edited it into nine tracks so you don't have to listen to the whole album continuously, and the only thing I changed was the end and start points for I No and Alphabet St. as well as making it 16/44 for CD. The single tracks are all taken from T's 12" Collection whereas the unreleased tracks are the best versions I could find. I have a version of this in FLAC too, but I figured I'd see if anyone was interested in this enough for me to post that first. Information about the tracks follows below in the track list.

I'm sure some will disagree with me, but who else thinks the cover art for Lovesexy is atrocious? I'm amazed how much creative control Prince got with Warners, yet he still bitched about them not letting him do what he wanted. They destroyed 500,000 plus copies of The Black Album, let him run back and record a new album that didn't seem radio or listener friendly, and then they let him put THAT on the cover! What did he have on them? A VERY informed person once hinted to me that when Prince re-signed with Warners in the early nineties, it wasn't necessarily with the expectation that he would continue to be a huge recording star, supposedly it was for a far more important ulterior motive. Of course I asked what but I never got an answer. Any guesses, cause I still don't have a clue, and all of the obvious things I pointed at they told me were incorrect.


Prince - Lovesexy: Homemade Deluxe Version
UPDATE: This is the old version. A new and MUCH IMPROVED version is online here. I'll leave this up for documentation but get the newer version, it's got a new transfer that sounds much better and additional tweaks have been made.


Disc 1:

01 I No
I know I've said this before, but in case you're not familiar with it, the music for I No was actually recorded for The Ball, an unreleased track from the original Crystal Ball album. The lyrics have been changed and the track seems to have been sped up a bit, but the backing track is still basically the same. The end of the song, with all the voices talking or arguing, was also in The Ball and was part of a segue that lead to the song Joy In Repetition.

02 Alphabet St.
03 Glam Slam
04 Anna Stesia
05 Dance On
06 Lovesexy
07 When 2 R In Love
08 I Wish U Heaven
09 Positivity
10 Escape (Free Yo Mind From This Ratrace)
This is the full length version of this song. It appeared as the b-side to Glam Slam.

11 The Line
An unreleased song from the Lovesexy sessions, Prince apparently thought this was fantastic but everyone else he was working with gave a lukewarm reaction. The lyrics are based on a poem by Ingrid Chavez.

12 Scarlet Pussy (7" Version)
The 7" and 12" versions of Scarlet Pussy are more than edited or extended versions of the song. They are significantly different mixes. Listen to the percussion for an example. This is one of the few songs credited to Camille, despite it not featuring a standard Camille vocal performance. This was the b-side to I Wish U Heaven. On it's label, the background is completely black apart from the peach lettering for the song title and the artist credit, which belonged completely to Camille.

Disc 2:

01 Cross The Line (Live Intro)
I'm not terribly familiar with the Lovesexy tour shows, so I'm assuming this intro was played at the beginning of the shows.

02 Alphabet St. "This Is Not Music, This Is A Trip"
The 12" remix of Alphabet St., this is a mostly instrumental track similar to a dub remix.

03 Glam Slam (Remix)
The 12" remix of Glam Slam.

04 I Wish U Heaven (Part 1, 2 & 3)
The 12" remix of I Wish U Heaven, sometimes this track is referred to as Take This Beat due to the lyrics in Part 3.

05 I No (Remix)
Nothing is really known about this unreleased remix of I No. It may be incomplete, it may even be unfinished. I have a slightly different version of this on a cassette that does not fade in at the beginning, but otherwise it's no different.

06 Alphabet St. "This Is Not Music, This Is A Trip" (Alternate Remix)
This unreleased remix features a lot of new vocals that appear nowhere else. Apparently some promo copies listed an additional remix of Alphabet St. that was about as long as this version, although when those copies are played the standard version of "This Is Not Music, This Is A Trip" appeared. As good as the regular remix is, this is pretty damn fantastic. Really a shame it was never released.

07 I Wish U Heaven (Alternate Version)
08 Positivity (Alternate Version)
Both of these are outtakes from the Lovesexy sessions. They each have differences from the released versions, although Positivity has the most notable difference as Cat performs the Music Is The Key rap she did on Cindy C.

09 Scarlet Pussy (12" Version)
From the 12" version of I Wish U Heaven. During the instrumental break in the middle of the track, if you listen closely you can hear Prince going on about something, but it's buried very deep in the mix. If anyone knows of an easy way to adjust this track so it's out of phase, let me know as that might be a way to figure out what he is saying. Very strange track, and as I mentioned earlier, a different mix from the 7" version.