Prince WOW! (ER065-066)

Eye Records
2 CD
Label : “Eye” Records
Catalogue : #65-66
2Disc Length : 79:44 / 77:54
Source : Soundboard Recordings
Date/Venue : Studio Outtakes / Demo / Other
Sound Quality : VG- / EX+
Year Of Release : 2008
Rating 4.5/5.0

Track Listing

Studio Outtakes / Demo / Other
Disc 1
1. Computer Blue 2. I Wonder U (Flute Layer) 3. I Wonder U (Full Orchestra) 4. Wow (Demo) 5. Wow (Sexy MF Groove) 6. Make Believe (Black MF Groove) 7. Make Believe (Houstyle) 8. I'll Do Anything (Blues Demo) 9. Damn U (Sax Mix) 10. San Jose Jam (NPG Music Club Glam Slam VIP Room) 11. Glass Cutter (NPG Music Club Demo) 12. Around The World In A Day (Versace Couture Show 2006 Mix) 13. Lolita (Versace Couture Show 2006 Mix) 14. Love (Versace Couture Show 2006 Mix) 15. Black Sweat (Versace Couture Show 2006 Mix) 16. Kiss (Versace Couture Show 2006 Mix) 17. Shhh (Versace Couture Show 2006 Mix) 18. Kiss (reprise) (Versace Couture Show 2006 Mix) 19. Feel Better, Feel Good, Feel Wonderful (NPG Music Club Demo) 20. All Along The Watchtower - Best Of You (Studio / Live Performance - Howard Stern Radio Broadcast : 20th January 2007) 21. Guitar (3121.com version) 22. Love (Acoustic) (3121.com version) 23. Shelby Introduces P-Funk 24. P-Funk

Disc 2
Tamar - Milk & Honey
1. Closer 2 My Heart 2. Milk & Honey 3. Can't Keep Living Alone 4. Holla And Shout 5. Kept Woman 6. Holy Ground 7. Beautiful, Loved And Blessed 8. Redhead Stepchild 9. All I Want Is U 10. First Love 11. Sunday In The Park 12. Beautiful, Loves And Blessed (reprise)

Bria Valente
13. Here Eye Come

Martika - Martika's Kitchen Outtakes
14. Beautiful Fabulous 15. Rub U Down 16. The Do

Sue Ann
17. Make It Through The Storm

Delia Derbyshire
18. Clouds

Prince & The NPG
19. Xenophobia (excerpts)

Comments
Fink's Comments  (rates this release 4.5/5.0)
The majority of the content contained in this release is already freely circulating amongst collectors on various titles, and whilst it's always good to have everything worth having on a single release, one can't help but feel that this is an out-and-out attempt to grab some easy cash. Everything on here which appeared on previous releases appears to be identical with no attempt at mastering/cleaning/tweaking the audio in any way, and "Eye" have credited themselves with being the first to release tracks such as the 14:04 version of 'Computer Blue' by using terms such as "was never circulating...until now" - blatantly untrue as it has been lifted directly from the Pure Funk release '30 Years Of Unreleased Funk Vol. 1', as have the numerous tracks intended for the I'll Do Anything soundtrack - simply lifted from the Pure Funk release and placed on here with zero audible improvement. Not cool.

That said, Disc 1 does also have it's fair share of items which (thus far) haven't appeared on a bootleg release, including the instrumental sax version of 'Damn U' taken from a WB test pressing, and various NPG Music Club / 3121.com "demo" tracks and alternate versions. The exception to this is a 7:44 instrumental version of 'DMSR' titled 'San Jose Jam' made available in the NPGMC Glam Slam VIP room taken from a Musicology tour soundcheck in San Jose from September 2004 (albeit a mono recording). The opening 12 tracks on Disc 2 contain the cancelled Tamar "Milk & Honey" album which was pulled from release in 2006. With the exception of the closing track, Disc 2 features an all-female collection of material. Bria Valente's dire 3121.com "Jam Of The Week" from October 2007 is followed by 3 uncirculating (until now) outtakes from the Martika's Kitchen sessions - sung by Martika, and supposedly written by Prince, it's clear why they remained off the album.

The most interesting item on Disc 2 is the 1 minute instrumental track titled "Clouds" dating from the 1960's and credited to Delia Derbyshire - interesting in the respect that the atmospheric intro proceeding the "Rain is wet and sugar is sweet" speech on 'Eye No' (and the Lovesexy album) appears to be this particular unknown early piece of electronic music - certainly Prince never gave credit for it's usage. The release ends with a number of instrumental excerpts of 'Xenophobia' which were briefly posted at NPGMC in December 2001. The audio quality throughout is of a high standard with the only tracks suffering slightly are Disc 1 (2-8), and due to the nature of the recordings, it's easily overlooked and doesn't affect the release overall. There are intermittent issues with mono/stereo recordings, but theses are presented as they were made available on NPGMC or 3121.com and no fault of "Eye" Records.

The booklet accompanying the release is a hefty 26 pages with a fair amount of detail and explanation given to each inclusion - great attention to detail and very thorough, especially the pages dedicated to the doomed Tamar project. Overall this isn't a bad release by any means, it's just that Disc 1 relies far too heavily on what was already freely available. A number of the other inclusions are questionable (Bria Valente, anyone?) however as outtake / studio releases are something of a rarity nowadays, I guess this is all one can expect.

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