Prince was notoriously careful with any media that leaked from his clutches. He wanted everything to be perfect, and it was according to his vision. But now some things leak out.
If you like this, you may want to make a copy, because it may go away. I’m a media fan, and I keep my own archive which I will never trust to the cloud – it’s hovering around 6tb and I have 3 copies (one on my computer, one on a shelf next to my computer, one in my bank in a safe deposit box) I’ve got stuff on there that is very very hard to get anywhere else, like an original transfer of Farrebic, a direct-from-video transfer of Buckaroo Banzai (from before when the DVD came out, I transcoded it with my own rig after buying the VHS tape on Ebay for a ridiculous amount), I have an archive of The Sisters of Mercy that includes every known bootleg, which makes it some kind of museum-piece on its own, and I have a version of Ame Agaru where I added my own subtitles by translating from the French subtitles on a Polish-release DVD; that was an evening well spent in VideoStudio. I read a piece on Slate or Salon a while ago where some hipster was complaining how hard it is to find an unedited version of the original theatrical release of Star Wars and I snorted, “are you kidding? I have 5 different versions starting with the first. And all the versions of Blade Runner.” Anyhow, that’s all just bragging/rambling. If you’re obsessive, sometimes you get lucky in the topic of your obsession.
I also collect funky Prince material.
And, if you like Led Zeppelin, or Funk/rock, or Prince – you really need to give this a whirl.
Damn it, Prince, you could have been more careful with the opiates. Everyone knows that shit is dangerous, even to a god like you were. Now that you’re dead, you can’t control your music, and I’d happily trade that, to have you back. The world needs sexy funk right now.
I still have one of the “Team Banzai” buttons they were giving out at Balticon the year Buckaroo Banzai came out. I used to have it permanently on the lapel of one of my ‘conference talk-giving’ jackets. Sadly, only one person in 5 years came up to me and said, “I loved the trailer for that, I still have my headband!” Me too, buddy, me too.
That was really cool. I was kind of disappointed that it ended. I grew up on Led Zeppelin and don’t always like other interpretations, but I was rocking out to that video. Thanks Marcus!
Prince sounds great – what a guitar player! That is really cool.
But REALLY? You have a Buckaroo Banzai HEADBAND?!! That is so cool. I loved that movie.
Oh yeah, another thing I have in my archive is both of Tim Curry’s solo albums. For a while they were unobtainable (I did my own vinyl to mp3 conversion) but I think they are youtube now. His first album Fearless is quite good but too arch and clever for American audiences.
All The Sisters of Mercy bootlegs?! I bow to you!
I was at that Balticon. I had the headband and at least two buttons up until a house fire two years ago. My raffle ticket for the Team Banzai satin jacket was only off by one on the last damn digit. I’m still waiting for the sequel (or is it in your archive?).
I guess I can now include “I was at a Balticon that Marcus Ranum also attended” to my ‘Fringes of Greatness’ stories.
@Dave W, #5: whoa. I am super impressed! So there’s at least one.
Didn’t like the vocals, but that guitar work was Like Wow! Wipeout!
I am informed by people who used to go down to 1st Avenue to see Prince play that he could play anything with strings.
Also, one theory is that we’re in the simulation where they’ve given up and the interns are just fuckin with us. The killed Bowie and Prince off, and now they’re just experimenting with introducing viruses with weird properties.
Andrew Molitor@#8:
I am informed by people who used to go down to 1st Avenue to see Prince play that he could play anything with strings.
That’s an understatement. He was a master of something like 17 instruments.
On bass, he’s also incredible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP8eNzovNv0
He could play jazz piano, too.
Dave W@#5:
Whoah! Next you’re gonna tell me you were at all the Clam Chowder performances!
@Cat Mara – I even have the Temple
Of Love Touched by Ofra Haza vinyl and Andrew’s bald-headed show in Sao Paulo. Most of the bootlegs frankly suck.
Marcus Ranum @10:
Not all of them. I had other stuff to do, besides the Buckaroo Banzai trailer premiere. I think one of my friends was in the costume contest that year (’twas Balticon 18). I also spent hours on Sunday (?) morning listening to a guy play guitar and sing and get drunker and drunker while he did it. I think I called it a night when he was playing Jim Croce and sang, “If birds could make fishes come true.”
If I remember correctly from my Googling yesterday, Clam Chowder was a GOH at Balticon 19. At that time, my roommate was dating a woman who was personal assistant to Count Gore de Vol, who’d been invited to Balticon. I was sitting in the lobby one night and waved at her as she was speeding by, and she responded, “Can’t stop! I’ve gotta get the Count another beer!”
I hope you’ll forgive the thread necro… “I have an archive of The Sisters of Mercy that includes every known bootleg”
In that case you’re probably aware of the track circulating as “Fix – early demo” or “Fix – Craig Adams vocal demo” which features the bass-line to Fix and some weird Crowleyan incantation as vocals?
It might give you a giggle to see the true story behind the demo here: https://myheartland.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=581598#581598