But, Prince’s vault HAS been opened…

We heard someone on the radio the other day complaining, “When are they gonna open up Prince’s vault of music and start releasing music?” Whether or not you believe Prince’s music should be released (as opposed to, say, us all honoring his wishes and keeping it all off the internet)…

the inevitable is inevitable: whoever has control will eventually crack open that safe and start leaking the beats…

But, when?  Frankly, it’s already happened. While Warner Brother did heavily promote the release of the deluxe version of Purple Rain, several other long-ago-taken-off-the-market works have suddenly appeared all over the net. Yes, prayers do get answered, we can now, legally, buy a crystal-clear version of the 1986 album The Family, the post-The Time Prince project that gave us the original version of Nothing Compares 2 U. Also available is 16 tracks of Prince and sax-man Eric Leeds jamming out of some great purple jazz under the name Madhouse.  And, without any internet buzz that caught our eyes (but apparently some local news coverage), the long-bootlegged “Moonbeam Levels” was released as part of the completely unnecessary Prince4Ever compilation.

When will be get a full release of unreleased material?  Nobody knows.  And, maybe we shouldn’t.  Maybe, honestly, we should clamor until everything that was ever released and then pulled is rereleased, and then stop. We finally got The Family back, and Madhouse.  But, once The Black Album is available again, do we really need more?  Prince would say no.

-N8M