The Black Album (Prince)
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| The Black Album | ||
 |
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| Studio album by Prince | ||
| Released | November 22, 1994 | |
| Recorded | 1986–1987 | |
| Genre | Pop, Rock, Funk | |
| Length | 44:44 | |
| Label | Warner Bros. Records | |
| Producer(s) | Prince | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Prince chronology | ||
| Come (1994) |
The Black Album (1994) |
The Gold Experience (1995) |
The Black Album is a Prince record that was originally planned for November of 1987 as the follow-up to Sign "☮" the Times. Referred to as "The Funk Bible" by preceding press releases and in a hidden message within the album itself, the work seemed to be a reaction to criticism that Prince had become too pop-oriented. The album had no printed title, no artist name or production credits and no photography. On promotional copies, only a song listing and catalog number were printed on the disc itself. The commercial version was to only have the catalog number printed in the color peach on the spine and was supposedly only to be released in vinyl format as an 'anonymous protest' to the recorded industry's looming discontinuation of vinyl in favor of compact discs.
However, just before the album was released to the market, Prince recalled all copies and abandoned the entire project, leaving roughly 100 European promotional copies in circulation, copies that would be widely bootlegged in the coming years. Rumors and hearsay abound as to why the release was derailed:
- A bad trip experienced by the artist while using the drug Ecstasy convinced him that the album was "evil" or represented an ominous portent.
- Prince experienced a "crisis of conscience" and marketing identity over the eroticism/violence of its lyrics.
- Warner Bros. Records, his record label, reached the same conclusion.
- Prince may have simply decided that the album was of inferior quality and not a wise release.
However in 2001, his long time keyboard player Dr. Fink told then-internet radio host Ernest L Sewell, IV, of The Ernest Experience Radio Show, that Prince said he saw the devil. He was paranoid due to drugs, and instead of the popular story of him seeing "God", he in fact had thought he saw Satan. He told his body guard Gilbert Davison this, and Gilbert in turn related it to Fink, and possibly other band members. It was this hallucination that had Prince running scared and decided to ditch releasing the album. He even asked for the cassettes of the album back from the band members that are routinely given to them to learn the songs by ear. Fink had later expressed discontent in that he wished he hadn't given it back, or at least made a copy of it for his own personal use.
In any case, The Black Album was shelved and replaced with Lovesexy, a brighter pop oriented album with elements of religious affirmation.
Almost immediately after the decision to shelve it, The Black Album emerged on the streets in bootleg form, arguably becoming popular music's most legendary bootleg, after The Basement Tapes. Several celebrities, including U2's frontmen The Edge and Bono, cited it as one of their favorite albums of 1988 (Rolling Stone magazine celebrity poll). By the time it was legitimately released by Warner Bros. in 1994 (again, containing only a tracklist and catalogue number printed onto the disc itself), almost every dedicated Prince fan already owned an illegal copy.
Rumor has it that The Black Album is the greatest selling bootleg of all time, allegedly shifting more than 500,000 copies in illegal form. Original copies sell for up to $5,000.00 or more. The music video for the Lovesexy single "Alphabet St." contains a hidden message reading "Please don't buy The Black Album. I'm sorry." Produced in Germany, a somewhat quaint and very similar-sounding so-called "Royal Cover Version" was released in the beginning of 1989 and created considerable furor and some legal disputes.
Despite the mystique surrounding it, The Black Album has typically been viewed by fans and critics as a somewhat pro forma, rushed effort by Prince, although it is treasured by aficionados of the artist's funkier side, being as close to a straight funk album as anything he ever recorded. The title refers both to the album's all-black cover design and to Prince's attempt to earn back his credibility among the black pop audience with a release that was heavier on rhythm than its last few predecessors — in particular Around the World in a Day and Parade, both of which had been viewed as moves away from the African-American fanbase that had once been his mainstay. There is also an obvious allusion to The Beatles (also known as The White Album).
Notably, the album features one of the most shockingly unusual Prince songs, "Bob George", in which he assumes the identity of a cursing, gun-wielding alter ego who murders a woman and dismisses the figure of Prince as "that skinny motherfucker with the high voice". The track features a growling monologue which is slowed down to the point of being unrecognizable as Prince. Some fans theorize that this song is intended as a commentary on the glorification of violence and misogyny often found in gangsta rap, then just emerging as a style. Prince has also used the "Bob George" voice on several outtakes from this period.
Unusual features of The Black Album include the hip-hop parody "Dead On It", and the song "Cindy C.", which supposedly refers to then-emerging supermodel Cindy Crawford. The album contains several instances of characters speaking to one another, with several of them addressing a musician named Frankie; one of the most interesting passages occurs halfway into "Cindy C.", where a woman can be heard in the right speaker railing on Cindy for not being able to dress, dance or even walk. "Dead On It" features a verse on licking girls' knees. The instrumental funk jam "2 Nigs United 4 West Compton" was revisited as a live song on the One Nite Alone... Live! album. "Rockhard In A Funky Place" was originally a song for the Camille project. After the album's fade out, dissonant feedback fades in, followed by Prince saying "What kind of fuck ending was that?" before fading out again.
Prince performed Bob George and Superfunkycalifragisexy on his Lovesexy tour.
[edit] Track listing
(all tracks written by Prince)
- "Le Grind" – 6:44
- "Cindy C" – 6:15
- "Dead On It" – 4:37
- "When 2 R In Love" – 3:59 †
- "Bob George" – 5:36
- "Superfunkycalifragisexy" – 5:55
- "2 Nigs United 4 West Compton" – 7:01
- "Rockhard In A Funky Place" – 4:31
† Also appears on Lovesexy.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Black Album lyrics
- The Black Album by Prince information site information/history
