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 VersionUPDATE: 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 NoI 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 LineAn 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.
