Rave Unto The Joy fantastic (unauthorized release, 1989)
Still reeling from the Crystal Ball debacle, Prince's first public statement of 1987 was an announcement that he was retiring from studio recording.
The statement, which was sent out by Prince's New York-based publicist Michael Pagnotta, also said that "after releasing fifteen plus albums in nine years (including his proteges), [Prince] is turning his creative talents to alternative media -- including live theater, interactive media, nightclubs and motion pictures."
The announcement was greeted with skepticism at Warner Bros., throughout the record business and even among some of Prince's associates. "Prince is a very mercurial fellow," said Eric Leeds, a saxophonist who has toured and recorded with Prince and who currently records solo albums for Prince's label, Paisley Park. "He could change his mind tomorrow. I just kind of chuckle when I hear those things. I say, 'Okay, here he goes again.'"
But this time, Prince was serious.
The newly assembled "Sign 'O' The Times" band played a one-off performance of the entirety of the Crystal Ball album on March 22, 1987 at the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue and 7th Street Entry, where Prince had tried out new material throughout his career. At the concert, Prince announced to the audience that release of his new album, Sign 'O' The Times, had been canceled. Then he receded from view, making no new public appearances for the remainder of 1987. He insisted that he was finished with the music business for good.
At Warner Bros., there was no official comment, but executives took a low-key, somewhat amused approach to the news. Prince's "rebellion" was giving the company precisely what it had asked for -- a break from new Prince material. "People were laughing," said a source at the company.
Prince made no official statements or public appearances in 1988.
But official retirement did nothing to halt the frenetic activity at Paisley Park. Late 1987 and early 1988 were spent working on a pop album with Prince's new girlfriend Anna Garcia, whom he had renamed "Anna Fantastic." Prince wrote all of the songs and recorded the instrumental backing, with Garcia providing lead vocals.
Against Prince's wishes, Warner Bros. became aware of his involvement with the album and evinced an aggressive interest in releasing the new material -- any new material. Prince was furious. He had intended to keep the project under wraps. With work on the album nearing completion, he suddenly decided against its release. Instead, Garcia would star in a new film project he had conceived as a vehicle for himself and a number of his closest friends. From the outset, Prince declared that the film was not intended for public consumption.
Set to star were veteran soul and funk legends Mavis Staples and George Clinton, as well as a large cast of Prince's lesser-known proteges and confidants. Anna Garcia would play struggling singer "Carmen Electra," Prince's love interest in the film.
Stern orders were issued to employees of Paisley Park: Keep the movie project a secret. Under no circumstances was Warner Bros. to find out what they had all been up to.
Throughout the shoot Prince continued to insist that the film would never be screened.
In late 1988, Kim Basinger arrived in Minneapolis, ostensibly to secretly shoot scenes for Graffiti Bridge, as the film project had come to be known. But it wasn't long before Prince was spending an increasing amount of time with her away from the set.
Basinger's arrival happened to coincide with the commencement of a new Prince album. As Warner Bros. executives had predicted, Prince could not stay away from music forever. But more than two years after Prince's last record release, no attempt had been made to re-establish a line of communication between Paisley Park and the offices of Warner Bros. Records. Some industry insiders were beginning to worry that Prince might withhold his new music from release.
During long hours working alone together in the studio, Basinger would scandalize Prince with tales of the Batman movie set. Prince was excited by the prospect of what was sure to be a wildly successful Hollywood film, and he begged her to obtain dialogue tracks from the post-production team before its release so that he could use them in preparing sampled rhythms for his new songs. He also worked many of their running in-jokes about the Batman production into the lyrics of the new album. Ultimately, though, in early 1989, Prince sent Basinger back to Los Angeles, cutting her vocal contributions from the songs he had already completed. Notably, he retained the exclusive audio footage she had smuggled into Paisley Park. It seemed to Basinger that Prince had never truly intended to help her develop her musical talents. Feeling used, the actress departed Minneapolis with ruffled feathers.
"He knew exactly what he was doing," Basinger would say in a 1997 interview.
Prince finished the record, alone at Paisley Park, on February 3, 1989. He seemed to have lost interest in Graffiti Bridge, and the film crew was dispersed at the end of February.
And then:
June 18, 1989: Prime time. The Sunday night before the release of the hotly anticipated Batman movie, an infomercial starring Prince Rogers Nelson aired simultaneously on the three major U.S. television networks.
"Hello, America," Prince said with a wry smile as he strode calmly towards the camera. "Can you keep a secret?"
Prince's new 2-CD set, Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic, was being made available for a limited time only via his new toll-free phone line, 1-800-NEW-FUNK. For $19.99, the two discs would be mailed directly to the customer's home. No record label. No middle-man.
The commercial aired an average of six times, on each station, before Warner Bros. executives managed to intervene and have the spots pulled. In the late 1980s, commercials were distributed to affiliate stations via satellite, and directives from the parent networks were slow to filter down to the disparate regional broadcasters.
Prince's toll-free line was flooded with calls from all over America.
Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic
1989
disc 1 .zip file
disc 2 .zip file
disc one
01. Batdance
02. Big House
03. The Voice Inside
04. Melody Cool
05. Elephants & Flowers
06. Everybody Want What They Don't Got
07. Good Judy Girlfriend
08. We Can Fuck
09. If I Had A Harem
10. Pink Cashmere
11. Strange But True
12. God Is Alive
13. Moonbeam Levels
14. Still Would Stand All Time
disc two
15. The Line
16. Electric Chair
17. Thieves In The Temple
18. Soul Psychodelicide
19. The Question Of U
20. Joy In Repetition
21. Dance With The Devil
22. The Grand Progression
23. Cross The Line
24. Graffiti Bridge
25. Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic
Rave quickly became the most bootlegged release of all time.
Lawsuits flew like missiles. But Prince had already skipped the country. Fully ready to tell his side of the story, he gave several interviews to the American press via telephone from the Netherlands.
"I acted on the advice of my spirit."
Do you normally do that. Is it reliable, your spirit's advice?
"Of course."
Prince never returned to America. Just as speculation surrounding his stunt reached a fever pitch, disaster struck.
Prince was riding his experimental motorcycle through the streets of Amsterdam (possibly at dangerous speeds) when he was blindsided by a military vehicle out on urban maneuvers. He was killed instantly upon impact.
Sensing opportunity, Warner Bros. rushed out the original 3-disc Crystal Ball album, and made arrangements to release Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic through official channels. Incredibly, both multi-disc albums lodged into the top-40 for the remainder of 1989. That summer, six Prince singles charted simultaneously.
In the fall, the film Prince had left unfinished, Graffiti Bridge, was discovered by Warner Bros. staffers who had been dispatched to retrieve Warner property from Paisley Park. Editing was completed in late 1989 by Warner Pictures staff, and the picture opened in a tentative number of theaters during Christmas weekend. Showings rapidly expanded as demand spread by word of mouth. While it didn't quite reach the commercial heights of Purple Rain, the film spawned a moderately successful spin-off series on the fledgling Fox television network. Jamie Foxx starred as a young, pre-Purple Rain Prince, and was supported by a rotating cast of celebrity guest stars across three full seasons.
Prince of course thought all of this was hilarious. His staged death had gone off without a hitch. In reality, he had dropped his stage persona and retired to Japan, spending his days tinkering around the periphery of the video game industry.
It is rumored that he invested by proxy and made a killing on Internet stocks in the late 1990s.
