PRINCE
1999: SUPER DELUXE EDITION
WARNER★★★★★
HOT ON THE HEELS OF ORIGINALS COMES THIS
COLLECTOR’S EDITION REISSUE OF 1999, COMPLETE
WITH A TREASURE TROVE OF UNRELEASED TRACKS
U
nless you’re a total
Classic Pop newcomer,
you’ll know already
just how important the
original version of Prince’s 1999
album is. It’s the record which
turned him from precocious funk/
rock maverick into, well, Prince.
Fed up of being ghettoised,
stung by being booed off-stage
supporting The Rolling Stones,
determined to be a more
disciplined bandleader after his
best friend Andre Cymone left...
it all combined into Prince writing
songs that were simply
undeniable. Creating Little Red
Corvette for the rock audience
and 1999 for the dancefl oor, on
his fi fth album Prince was ready
to enter the space race withCLASSIC
BEST REISSUE
NOVEMBER 2019selection of Prince songs neither
he or anyone else offi cially
released. At least with Originals
we already knew how good
songs like Manic Monday and
Love... Thy Will Be Done were
before hearing Prince’s versions.
This time, among the
alternative takes of Delirious and
International Lover and an early
version of Possessed are 17
songs Prince just kept locked up.
Those stories of the incredible
unreleased music? Start believing- at least 12 songs are Prince
in all his 80s majesty. Only
10-minute jam Purple Music,
workmanlike instrumental Colleen
and Bold Generation, where you
can hear Prince losing interest
halfway through, should have
stayed hidden.
Of the other demos, Do
Yourself A Favor is a tease
worthy of Cream; Yah, You Know
is mighty pop; Rearrange is an
enticing cousin of Raspberry
Beret; No Call U surely would
have broken any of the Paisley
Park protégés... and so it goes
on, over a jaw-dropping double
album. And once that’s done,
there’s a comprehensive
round-up of B-sides and remixes
and a celebratory live album of
a 1982 show from Detroit. Oh,
and a Blu-ray of a show fi lmed in
Houston just after Christmas.
By the time in the Houston
concert where you’ve seen Prince
starting to realise he’s fi nally
about to become a superstar,
with everything that entails –
roughly halfway into a
sensational Head – this boxset is
so good it’s taking the piss. It’s
fi ve CDs or 10 LPs based around
one album and all of it’s golden.
That’s how great Prince was once
he decided to go global. Treat
yourself or start making hints –
it’s going to be a purple
Christmas. John Earls
Michael Jackson and then
Madonna to be the biggest pop
star on the planet.
Those singles apart, 1999 is,
on the surface, an odd make-up
for a classic: its 11 songs spread
out over a 70-minute double
album. Tracks were allowed to
take as long as they needed on
an LP that’s almost as much jazz
in spirit as pop. But it’s loose and
limber – on-point fl oorfi ller
D.M.S.R. and prime fi lth-Prince
workout Lady Cab Driver could
easily go on twice as long and
still leave you wanting more.
It’s small wonder that Prince
was easily able to fi ll 70 minutes.
Just fi ve months after Originals
opened the vaults, this
astonishing boxset offers the fi rst© Allen BeaulieuREISSUES