Prince Rare Purple
Contents.History The tour marked the live debut of the band now named as Wendy Melvoin made her appearance as the new guitarist in Prince's band, taking over for the departed Dez Dickerson, completing the iconic line-up of the band.In addition to and The Revolution, they were joined on tour by, and and her band. Despite gaining fame from their appearance in the film and releasing a third album, were not invited to tour, as by 1985 the group had been depleted, with many of its remaining key members quitting to embark on personal careers.Opening acts.Set list The Purple Rain Tour was the first Prince tour to open with brand new material. In this case, it was with the album opener, '.
A triple dose from the 1999 album followed: ', ' and '. An instrumental interlude of ' usually introduced another 1999 song, 'Free'. The B-side 'God' was often played, followed by a usual sequence of ', ', ' and ' (featuring a mirror setup onstage to mimic the video of the song). As encores, the remaining Purple Rain songs closed the concert, ', ' and '. The three songs were extended, often taking 30 minutes to perform. ' was often worked in, completing all the album tracks. Other songs sometimes included were 'Father's Song', ', the new 'Temptation', ' and '.
On rare occasions, ', ', ' would pop up. Later in the tour, an instrumental of 'Under the Cherry Moon' was sometimes played.
'I started collecting when I was 9 or 10,' says Mathieu Bitton, Lenny Kravitz's photographer who also happens to be (arguably) the world's most avid Prince memorabilia collector. 'I had to have every print and every pressing from every country.' Bitton's scrounging and decades-long persistence paid off, however, when the budding art director was tapped to design Prince's Ultimate Prince CD box set (photos ahead).
Since then, Bitton has collected countless of rare and one-of-a-kind Prince-related items, from a pair of blue heels (he won't tell us how he got them, just that 'they're from someone special') to a rare 'The Next Birthday' record (to celebrate Prince's own birthday), complete with yellow panties and matching vinyl. Bitton shared with Billboard, exclusively and in his own words, his massive and all-encompassing collection. This is a real copy from 1987, and I got it at Monster Melodies in Paris. December '87 he calls me and says, 'My Prince rep just left, and I have a few Black albums that were supposed to be destroyed. Do you want it?'
I told him to hold it for me because I'd be in the next day to get it. That day I took gold coins from my Bar Mitzvah and traded them in for cash. The next morning, I went to the record store and bought the Black album.
It cost 100,000 francs, which was around $1,800. I was 14 years old.
I used to hang around the WB offices in Burbank before I ever did work for them. One very lucky day in 1990, I was visiting a friend near there when my WB contact told me Prince was in the building for his next album and film Graffiti Bridge. I rushed over there and in very fateful timing, Prince, dressed in a very Princely yellow suit, was about to walk out. I said hello, having previously met him in Paris, him obviously not remembering me but being polite. I asked if he could sign something for me knowing he didn’t do that and wouldn’t do it, but his meetings must have gone really well because he was in a great mood and had someone hand him this photo and signed it for me and said, “Don’t sell it now!”.
Prince planned to put this out under the symbol moniker to be included as a bonus CD in an issue of Guitar World magazine, but the release was blocked by Warner Bros. Even though copies had already been manufactured. All existing copies were coated with a plastic covering rendering them unplayable and were trashed.
This is a surviving copy I got as a birthday present from a high-up WB executive a few years after the canceled release, and it includes a great version of The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman.' This is an extremely rare and very limited release made for Japanese radio. It includes all the tracks from Purple Rain, the songs by Apollonia 6 and The Time that were not on the original soundtrack, as well as Prince's greatest hits and Sheila E.’s 'The Glamorous Life.” When I was collecting Prince records, I found the best dealers in all the countries I collected albums from, and this has always been a very sought-after item.
There was a second release titled “His Majesty’s Pop Life” for the following album Around the World in a Day. I got both of them - as well as the Japan-promo-only 'Prince Syndicate” 45, which included Christmas messages from Prince and released artists - in Japanese. I remember feeling like I struck gold. Collecting records and posters has always been half the fun of traveling for me. This includes “Erotic City” 12”, “Purple Medley,” '7' (Acoustic Version) and ”Sexy Mutha,” none of which were featured on the final release, by Prince’s request. This is a very personal one for me, as it is one-of-a-kind. I collaborated with Prince fan Geoffrey Dicker on the track selection and was so blessed to be entrusted with art direction and design for the release.
I got these copies since I designed the labels and they were the only samples. I have other variations of the CD labels, but these are absolutely the rarest. This project was a dream come true and although I initially disagreed with removing the tracks, when Prince explained his choices to me in the small private room at the Zanzibar club in Santa Monica, Calif., I completely understood his stance due to his evolving spiritual beliefs. Everyone at WB backed his decisions. No one argued it. It was his music and he should be proud of any release bearing his name.
Prince Rare Purple Stone
The release was also pushed back six months so as not to compete with his 3121 album. It’s bittersweet to see this album in the top five on the charts today. I am still very proud of this project. Crack 3dm state of decay review. I also was told he was impressed with the final printing and packaging.