Come (album)

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Come
Come cover
Studio album by Prince
Released August 16, 1994
Recorded 1991–1994 Paisley Park Studios, Chanbassen, MN; The Record Plant, Los Angeles; Larrabee Sound Studios, Los Angeles
Genre Pop, Rock, Funk
Length 48:40
Label Warner Bros.
45700
Producer Prince
Professional reviews
Prince chronology
The Hits 2
(1993)		 Come
(1994)		 The Black Album
(1994)

Come is a 1994 album by Prince, and his first full release since his public dispute with his record company, Warner Bros.

Contents

[edit] Evolution of the album

Most of the songs from the Come album were recorded in early 1993 during a highly prolific time for Prince. An early collection of tracks included: "Come," "Endorphin Machine," "Space," "Pheromone," "Loose," "Papa," "Dark," and "Poem." It was unknown at this time if these tracks were indeed intended for an album. In late May 1993, Prince's then band member, Mayte Garcia, sent a letter to a Prince fanzine listing the above tracks, plus a few others: "Interactive," "Peach," "Pope," "Solo," and "Race." Most of these songs were newly written, except "Peach" (written in 1992), and "Race" (written in 1991 during the Love Symbol album sessions - it uses a scratching sound effect similar to Love Symbol's "The Continental").

After Prince's name change to an unpronounceable symbol, he intended to release new songs under that moniker in formats other than albums. He would fulfill his contract to Warner Bros. by delivering unreleased material from his music vault. Prince conceived an "interactive musical experience" called Glam Slam Ulysses - a musical loosely based on Homer's Odyssey. Thirteen tracks were selected and premiered as the first new material from Prince. These songs and many others would travel back and forth between different concepts of albums in a relatively short frame of time. The Dawn was a triple-album concept. The track listing is unknown, but the idea was scrapped for single album releases. Some of these ended up on Come, and some on a new album called The Gold Experience. There was also an idea floating around for The Beautiful Experience that took on various forms before its final release as a maxi-single.

On March 6, 1994, Prince submitted a tape of eight songs to Dutch radio stations which included the song "Pheromone." Five days later, he submitted the first version of the Come album to Warner Bros. The album consisted of: "Poem," "Interactive," "Endorphine Machine," "Space," "Pheromone," "Loose," "Papa," "Race," "Dark," "Solo, and "Strays of the World." This version of the album has been leaked, and is commonly known as the Come Test Pressing. Interestingly, the title track was absent. Warner Bros. rejected this version, asking for the title track and some other new material, such as the recent hit "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World." Prince tooled with the title track, creating an 11-minute horn-boosted sexual romp. He added it to the album and resubmitted it to Warner Bros., and they agreed to it.

Prince changed the album once again, removing the more rock-oriented tracks "Interactive," "Endorphinemachine," and "Strays of the World." He broke up "Poem" into segues throughout the album, with the remainder retitled as "Orgasm," and also included the newly-written track "Letitgo." This final version was submitted to Warner Bros. on the same day as a configuration of The Gold Experience. Prince wanted them to release both albums simultaneously, so the Prince material would compete with the one released under the symbolic moniker in the charts (with the latter having more commercial material). Warner Bros. accepted both albums, but refused to release them both at the same time.

Upon release, Come received little support from Prince, who derided the album as "old material," despite the fact that many of the tracks had been recorded during the same sessions that produced The Gold Experience. Since Prince placed the more up-tempo and commercial material from these sessions on The Gold Experience, the overall tone of Come is somewhat dark and experimental in nature. As it stands, the album is an interesting look inside Prince's mind, and one of his most sensual and foreboding albums; perhaps more so than the Black Album. Despite Prince's apparent marketing neglect, Come performed moderately well, reaching #15 in the U.S., going gold and receiving heavy R&B airplay with the single "Letitgo." In the UK, the album was a hit, debuting at #1. Prince also released two maxi-singles in support of the album.

[edit] Track listing

All tracks composed and arranged by Prince; except where indicated

  1. "Come"
  2. "Space"
  3. "Pheromone"
  4. "Loose!"
  5. "Papa"
  6. "Race"
  7. "Dark"
  8. "Solo"(Prince/David Henry Hwang)
  9. "Letitgo"
  10. "Orgasm"

[edit] Singles and Hot 100 Chart Placings

  1. "Letitgo"
  2. "Solo"
  3. "Alexa de Paris" (UK)
  4. "Pope" (UK)


  1. "Universal Love Radio Remix"
  2. "Space"


[edit] Miscellanea

  • The album lists "Prince: 1958–1993," indicating that Prince had "died" in 1993, and was reborn under his Love Symbol alias.
  • The moaning on "Orgasm" is that of Vanity, recorded in 1983 for the unreleased track "Vibrator." In the liner notes, Vanity is credited as "partner on ORGASM: she knows."
  • In 1993, a funkier instrumental version of the song "Pheromone" was used as the theme music for the Black Entertainment Television (BET) music video program, Video LP.
  • The church depicted in the background of the record's cover is the Sagrada Família in Barcelona

[edit] External links

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