Prince 1990s 9 Items

For the first time on vinyl! Released in July 1996, Chaos and Disorder came with a rare disclaimed penned by Prince (then known as the unpronounceable “love symbol”): “Originally intended 4 private use only, this compilation serves as the last original material recorded by [The Artist] 4 Warner Bros. Records.” Prince’s contentious relationship with the label was at its lowest point, and this record—a taut 39 minutes of dexterous guitar and simple but addictive pop melodies—was a crucial final link in the chains that kept him from releasing the music the way he wanted. Any internal turmoil was not represented in tracks like “Dinner With Delores” (a minor U.K. hit) and the rollicking title track, a staple of his live shows. “Someone told me that Van Halen did their first record in a week,” Prince told the Los Angeles Times of the album’s quick creation. “That’s what we were going for—spontaneity, seeing how fast and hard we could thrash it out.”

Released ahead of 1995’s The Gold Experience, the first album credited to Prince’s infamously unpronounceable symbol, The VERSACE Experience (PRELUDE 2 GOLD) was a gift to attendees of the designer’s collection at Fashion Week in Paris. Produced at the time as only a very limited edition promotional cassette, it featured remixed versions of future favorites “Pussy Control,” “Gold” and “Eye Hate U” as well as rare and commercially unreleased selections by The New Power Generation and Prince’s jazz-fusion project Madhouse. The rare promotional cassette went on to be incredibly sought after, with one copy setting a record as the highest priced cassette every sold, fetching over $4,000. It was recreated as a limited edition cassette release as a Record Store Day exclusive in April 2019 and was one of the most popular releases.

3 disc in 8 panel softpak with 12 page book PRINCE IN CONCERT: RAVE UN2 THE YEAR 2000 (2000) Prince promoted the release of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic with the In Demand Pay-Per-View concert Rave Un2 the Year 2000, which aired on New Year’s Eve, 1999 and featured special guests like Maceo Parker, Larry Graham, George Clinton, and Lenny Kravitz. The DVD of this concert was released as a standalone release in 2000 and features 23 tracks plus 4 “bonus groovez.” Tracks from across Prince’s career are featured including hits like “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Purple Rain,” “U Got The Look,” “Raspberry Beret,” “Gett Off” and “Kiss” and more rare tracks like “She’s Always In My Hair,” “The Christ (originally “The Cross” from Sign O The Times) and “Nothing Compares 2 U” plus cuts from Rave Un2 like “Baby Knows” and “The Greatest Romance Ever Sold.” In addition guests for the special contribute songs like Lenny Kravitz performing “American Woman” and “Fly Away,” The Time contributing “Jungle Love” and “The Bird,” Cynthia Robinson and Gerry Martini joining Larry Graham for a Sly And The Family Stone reunion with covers of “Everyday People” and “Higher” and more.

For a time, Prince seemed to find the commercial freedom he was looking for on the Internet. Almost a year before the release of The Rainbow Children, he founded the NPG Music Club, a website where subscribers could access new music (and occasionally things from his storied vault) for a nominal subscription fee. One of the first full releases for club members was this remixed version of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic; highlights include a remix of Hot Wit U that incorporates elements of the Prince-penned Vanity 6 hit Nasty Girl and the previously unreleased “Beautiful Strange.” In addition five of the tracks are remixes with new musical elements (Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic, Undisputed (The Moneyapolis Mix), The Greatest Romance Ever Sold, Hot Wit U (Nasty Girl Remix), and Man'O'War (Remix). Four songs are the same recording as the originals, with an extended portion at the end of the song (Tangerine, The Sun, The Moon And Stars, Baby Knows and Prettyman). The remaining tracks are identical to the original release.

Was released on vinyl in limited commercial release in 1999 but our version includes the last 2 tracks that were left off the original pressing RAVE UN2 THE JOY FANTASTIC (1999) Prince had taken quite the ownership of the year 1999, so it was no surprise that the last year of the millennium was one of The Artist’s biggest. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (another name from the past, a 1988 project that was aborted in favor of the soundtrack to Batman) is a pop-leaning, major-label album, featuring a surprising amount of guest artists (Chuck D of Public Enemy, Eve, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow) and a clutch of radio-friendly tracks (“The Greatest Romance Ever Sold,” “So Far,” “So Pleased,” “Hot Wit U,” a cover of Crow’s “Everyday Is a Winding Road”). The star-studded Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic was the first and only album that Prince would release with the major label Arista Records, and the final album of previously unreleased material that he credited to his unpronounceable symbol.

Prince and the New Power Generation embarked on the The Act II Tour in the summer of 1993. This European leg the preceding US ‘Act I Tour’ wasn’t so much to showcase new material, instead Prince opted to play many of his greatest hits. Of course the freshly released ‘Love Symbol’ songs weren’t completely left out of the party, ‘My Name is Prince’ and ‘Sexy MF’ being some of the highlights of this memorable performance, now available on limited edition yellow coloured vinyl.