Prince – 1999 Super Deluxe Edition

Prince – 1999 – CD reissues

Don’t want no reefer, don’t need cocaine
Purple music does the same to my brain
I’m high, so high

Don’t need no symbols, no saxophone
Just need to find me a style of my own
And I’m high, so high

© 1982-2019 Prince

Albumdata

Rating

Introduction

On September 10th, 2019, it was finally announced that 1999 was to be re-released. As a teaser a live recording of the song 1999 was released. A phenomenal performance with beautiful clear images dating back to 1982. On October 11th a studio outtake of International Lover was released, followed by the outtake Don’t let Him Fool Ya on November 8th.

Prince opening for The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

En route to the release many stories were unveiled. Amongst those was the tale about the disastrous shows as support act to The Rolling Stones on October 9th and 11th, 1981, at the L.A. Coliseum. The first night numerous racist and homophobic insults were hurled onto the stage accompanied by trash, cups, etc. Prince and band left the stage sooner than planned.

Prince felt humiliated and was on his way back to Minneapolis. Somehow, he was persuaded (by fan Mick Jagger and others) to do the second show as well. It was even worse than the first night. Having heard of the previous show, the audience came prepared. This time the stage was bombarded after just one note: rotting fruit, garbage, bottles, etc., etc. Once again the band didn’t play their full set.

In many articles and podcasts both shows were deemed important and formative, and the insults were put into perspective (read: trivialized), by reporter Robert Hilburn in particular.

At the time, the well-known American (rock) journalist Greil Marcus received a letter from one of his readers after his description of the events in Los Angeles:

You obviously are a fan of that faggot nigger group or you wouldn’t of lied about it. I just wanted you to know that us W.A.S.P. rock n rollers pay to see white performers and not niggers, faggots or tawdry critics like yourself President Reagan has proven once and for all that liberals, niggers, fags and minorities are out. Thank god for that. I can sure bet your ass on one thing, prince wont open up for the stones next time around.

© Food fight: Real life rock top 10, 1981 (12/81), Greil Marcus

Replace the name Reagan with Trump and we’re transported to 2019 in an instant, a disheartening observation.

Whether Prince’s experience during The Rolling Stones shows were really that formative, we’ll never know. Fact is that Prince was getting into a kind of flow, which led him to writing and recording a song a day. According to his engineer at the time, Peggy McCreary, it was even more than that at times (!).

Prince – 1999 Super Deluxe Edition

November 29th, 2019

And thankfully, that day has finally arrived: the release of 1999 Super Deluxe Edition. Happy as a child, because of the new music and perfect sound quality for a number of outtakes I had in my possession since the early 1990s, and two live shows recorded at the fantastic 1999 Tour.

Review

Prince – 1999 – Official release party

What can I say? This is just a beautiful release, filled with great photos, nice liner notes (by Guns ‘N Roses bass player Duff McKagan for instance) and lots of interesting and genius previously unreleased material.

And that’s what counts with this release. I bought the Super Deluxe Edition, which consists of 5 CD’s and 1 DVD. Discs 3 and 4 contain the material I was waiting for. Prince’s journey from Controversy to 1999 is well documented on both discs. The drum machine takes over and with that comes Prince’s genius way of using the instrument. The rhythms are simple, efficient and yet extremely funky. A number of songs are rockabilly, a style he frequently used at the time.

Songs like Feel U Up, Irresistible Bitch, Bold Generation, Possessed and Can’t Stop This Feeling I Got have all been released at a later time in different versions, as a B-side or on other albums. The beautiful Moonbeam Levels was the first songs to be posthumously released as part of the compilation album 4Ever.

Of all the songs I didn’t know yet, Rearrange is the very best, containing lots of heavy guitar playing. Truly phenomenal.

I already knew Feel U Up, Irresistible Bitch, Turn It Up, Purple music, No Call U and Do Yourself A Favor by heart from my (many) bootlegs. All of them are equally great and sound like they were recorded yesterday.

Prince – Purple Music – Handwritten lyrics page 1

Prince – Purple Music – Handwritten lyrics page 2

Prince – Purple Music – Original tapes

Purple Music

As far as I’m concerned, Purple Music is the most important song on this release, a minimal 11 minute funk song that shows Prince’s vision, ambition and experimentation all at once. Highly recommended!

1999 Tour

Concerts

Ans we’re not done yet. The 1999 Tour is well represented with a CD and DVD. Perfect sound quality of the concerts just before the international breakthrough. Prince and band are tight, hungry and highly motivated. Unique, important and impressive material.

Minor setbacks? Yes, two. Skipping Extralovable and Lust U Always is not right. It was decided that both songs were to be discarded, because lyrically they were deemed unsuitable for the current #MeToo climate. A disclaimer might have worked wonders.

Conclusion

A top release. A must-have for Prince aficionados, as it is for other music lovers. Prince is at the top of his game, the set contains lots of interesting g extra material and live shows. And, lest we forget, it contains the stunning 1999 album.

Songs

All songs “Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince”.

CD 1: 1999

Prince – 1999

• 1999
• Little Red Corvette
• Delirious
• Let’s Pretend We’re Married
• D.M.S.R.
• Automatic
• Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)
• Free
• Lady Cab Driver
• All The Critics Love U In New York
• International Lover

CD 2: Promo Mixes & B-Sides

• 1999 (7″ Stereo Edit)
• 1999 (7″ Mono Promo-Only Edit)
• Free (Promo Only Edit)
• How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore
• Little Red Corvette (7″ Edit)
• All The Critics Love U In New York (7″ Edit)
• Lady Cab Driver (7″ Edit)
• Little Red Corvette (Dance Remix Promo Only Edit)
• Little Red Corvette (Special Dance Mix)
• Delirious (7″ Edit)
• Horny Toad
• Automatic (7″ Edit)
• Automatic (Video Version)
• Let’s Pretend We’re Married (7″ Edit)
• Let’s Pretend We’re Married (7″ Mono Promo Only Edit)
• Irresistible Bitch
• Let’s Pretend We’re Married (Video Version)
• D.M.S.R. (Edit)

CD 3: Vault Tracks I

• Feel U Up
• Irresistible Bitch
• Money Don’t Grow On Trees
• Vagina
• Rearrange
• Bold Generation
• Colleen
• International Lover (Take 1) [Live In Studio]
• Turn It Up
• You’re All I Want
• Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)
• If It’ll Make U Happy
• How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore? (Take 2)

CD 4: Vault Tracks II

• Possessed (1982 Version)
• Delirious (Full Length)
• Purple Music
• Yah, You Know
• Moonbeam Levels (2019 Remaster)
• No Call U
• Can’t Stop This Feeling I Got
• Do Yourself A Favor
• Don’t Let Him Fool Ya
• Teacher, Teacher
• Lady Cab Driver / I Wanna Be Your Lover / Little Red Corvette (Tour Demo)

CD 5: Live In Detroit 11/30/82

• Controversy
• Let’s Work
• Little Red Corvette
• Do Me, Baby
• Head
• Uptown
• Lisa’s Keyboard Interlude
• How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?
• Automatic
• International Lover
• 1999
• D.M.S.R.

DVD: Live In Houston 12/29/82

• Controversy
• Let’s Work
• Do Me, Baby
• D.M.S.R.
• Keyboard Interlude
• Piano Improvisation
• How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?
• Lady Cab Driver
• Automatic
• International Lover
• 1999
• Head

Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: Prince – 1999 Super Deluxe Edition. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.