The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale

The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale
Prince's studio album
Publication (s)	August 24, 1999
admission	April 20, 1985 - February 1996
Label (s)	Warner Bros. Records
Format (s)	Compact Disc , MC
Genre (s)	Pop , R&B , rock , jazz
Title (number)	10
running time	39:19
occupation	All songs were produced, arranged, composed and performed by Prince. The following people completed the recordings: Michael Bland - drums in The Rest of My Life , It's About That Walk , She Spoke 2 Me , 5 Women , There Is Lonely , Sarah , Extraordinary Sonny Thompson - E-Bass in The Rest of My Life , It's About That Walk , She Spoke 2 Me , There Is Lonely , Sarah , Extraordinary Levi Seacer Jr. - rhythm guitarist in The Rest of My Life , It's About That Walk , She Spoke 2 Me , 5 Women , There Is Lonely Tommy Barbarella - Keyboard in It's About That Walk , She Spoke 2 Me , Sarah Morris Hayes - Keyboard in It's About That Walk , Sarah Sheila E. - Contributions not defined Ricky P., Tom Tucker - additional production in 5 Women Clare Fischer - arrangements by the string orchestra in Old Friends 4 Sale Michael B. Nelson - Trombone in The Rest of My Life , It's About That Walk , She Spoke 2 Me , Sarah Brian Gallagher - tenor saxophone in The Rest of My Life , It's About That Walk , She Spoke 2 Me , Sarah Kathy Jensen - baritone saxophone in The Rest of My Life , It's About That Walk , She Spoke 2 Me , Sarah Dave Jensen - Trumpet in The Rest of My Life , It's About That Walk , She Spoke 2 Me , Sarah Steve Strand - Trumpet in The Rest of My Life , It's About That Walk , She Spoke 2 Me , Sarah Prince, Michael B. Nelson - Arrangements of Wind Instruments Ray Hahnfeldt, Steve Durkee, Shane Keller, Peggy Mac, Susan Rogers, Michael Koppelman, Steve Noonan, Dave Friedlander, Brian Poer - sound engineer Kirk Johnson, Stephen Marcussen, Steve Durkee - Mastering Claude Gassian - photographer Steve Parke - art director and collage
production	Prince
Studio (s)	Paisley Park Studio ( Chanhassen ) Sunset Sound ( Los Angeles ) Davout Studios ( Paris ) Warner Pioneer Studios ( Tokyo ) Platinum Studios ( Melbourne )
chronology Crystal Ball / The Truth (1998) The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (1999)

The Vault ... Old Friends 4 Sale ( English for The Vault  ... Old Friends to sell ) is the 22nd studio album of the US musician Prince . It was released on August 24, 1999 on the Warner Bros. Records label and is the last album that was part of the 1992 contract between Prince and the label. At that time, Prince had extended his current contract for six more albums to December 31, 1999. Due to differences with Warner Bros. Records, however, he had given up his stage name in 1993 and instead carried an unpronounceable symbol as a pseudonym . After that, Prince did not want to publish any new songs with the recording company.

The music on the album belongs to the genres of pop , R&B and rock music . In addition, some songs have elements from the jazz area . Guest musicians included Clare Fischer and Sheila E. , although their contributions to the album are not defined. Neither Prince nor Warner Bros. Records ran any significant music promotion for The Vault ... Old Friends 4 Sale ; it could not achieve gold or platinum status internationally. Music critics rated the album mostly negatively.

Emergence

The album The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale is the fourth and final studio album after Come (1994), The Gold Experience (1995) and Chaos and Disorder (1996) to be part of the 1992 contract between Prince and Warner Bros. Records counted. After 1999, the label only released the greatest hits compilations The Very Best of Prince (2001) and Ultimate (2006). It was not until 2014 that Prince worked with Warner Bros. Records again and released the albums PlectrumElectrum and Art Official Age for the record company .

According to the information on the booklet of the album The Vault ... Old Friends 4 Sale , Prince recorded the songs between January 23, 1985 and June 18, 1994. But this information is considered dubious; According to the booklet, he recorded the song Old Friends 4 Sale on January 23, 1985 in Los Angeles , California, but on that day he was demonstrably giving a Purple Rain concert in Cincinnati , Ohio with his then backing band The Revolution . However, the distance between the two cities is around 3,500 kilometers. In addition, Cincinnati is not mentioned as the recording location in the booklet. The date June 18, 1994 can also be doubted; Prince recorded the song Sarah only two and a half years later, in February 1996. During recordings from 1991 to 1996 he was supported by members of his backing band The New Power Generation .

Prince recorded the song Old Friends 4 Sale on April 20, 1985 in Los Angeles in Studio 3 of the Sunset Sound Studio. He originally placed the track on the 1986 album Parade , but Prince ultimately didn't release it due to personal lyrics . The original lyrics of Old Friends 4 Sale are among the most autobiographical of his career; in this he is disappointed with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis , because they - without informing him - were busy recording albums for the SOS Band in Atlanta , Georgia during the ongoing 1999 tour and therefore the concert on March 24, 1983 in San Antonio in Missed Texas at HemisFair Arena . All flights were canceled due to a snow storm in Atlanta. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were members of Prince-founded band The Time , which was the opening act for the 1999 tour. In addition, Prince alludes in the lyrics to the exit (May 1983) of his guitarist Dez Dickerson in his then backing band, because he started a solo career. In addition, Prince describes the cocaine addiction of his former personal bodyguard Chick Huntsberry (* 1941; † 1990) when he - after he was dismissed by Prince towards the end of the Purple Rain Tour in 1985 - for lack of money for the US tabloid The National Enquirer sold an interview telling alleged details about Prince's life. In 1991, Prince reworked the lyrics with less personal content - this version is also featured on the album The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale .

Prince recorded 5 Women at Warner Pioneer Studios in Tokyo in September 1990 when he toured Japan on the Nude tour . He later passed the song on to Joe Cocker , who revised the piece and released it on his album Night Calls (1991). Cocker asked Prince if he could play guitar in the revised version, but Prince declined because he was busy with other projects at the time. Prince recorded the song She Spoke 2 Me during the Love Symbol album recordings in late 1991 at his Paisley Park studio in Chanhassen , Minnesota. The version on The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale is available in an extended remix and is four minutes longer than the version released in 1996 on the soundtrack Girl 6 of the film of the same name by director Spike Lee .

In March 1992, Prince received a call from film director James L. Brooks who was about to produce a musical called I'll Do Anything that would star Nick Nolte and Julie Kavner . He asked Prince if he could contribute the soundtrack to the musical. Prince showed interest and wrote the songs My Little Pill , The Rest of My Life and There Is Lonely , which the actors of the film were supposed to interpret. He recorded My Little Pill in March at Paisley Park Studio before touring Australia with the Diamonds and Pearls tour in April . Prince recorded The Rest of My Life and There Is Lonely in mid-April 1992 in Melbourne at Platinum Studios. When the musical I'll Do Anything was completed, Brooks presented test screenings in front of an audience in which the actors performed the songs Prince wrote. However, viewers were not convinced of the concept and Brooks decided to rewrite I'll Do Anything as a conventional comedy film . The songs that Prince had already composed for the musical were not used by Brooks in the comedy film. In 1994 I'll Do Anything (German film title: Are you going to Hollywood? ) Was released in cinemas and received very poor reviews from film critics .

After Prince finished the Diamonds and Pearls tour in mid-July 1992, he recorded the song Extraordinary at Paisley Park Studio in September . Originally the piece was supposed to be released on the album Concrete Jungle by singer Rosie Gaines in 1993, but this was discarded for unknown reasons.

It's About That Walk was recorded by Prince on September 2, 1993, three months after his name change. He recorded the song at the Guillaume Tell Studios - also known as Davout Studios - in Paris when he performed the Act II show in France. He recorded the piece Sarah in February 1996, also after his name change. Sarah recorded Prince in his Paisley Park studio. There is no information about the recording of When the Lights Go Down .

On April 26th, 1996 Prince Warner Bros. Records presented the album The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale with already completed artwork and final tracklist, so that the label could no longer influence the album. Warner merely stated that the terms of the contract had been met.

marketing

Just before the album The Vault ... Old Friends 4 Sale was released, Warner Bros. Records announced it as a "notable music event." In contrast, Prince wrote on his website at the time that a Warner Insider had already listened to the album and told him it sounded “like a contractual obligation”. He also suspected that the songs "were indeed very old". Prince confirmed this assumption and told the US music magazine Rolling Stone : “The composition of the songs is none of my business. There are a few songs from a long time ago - that has nothing to do with me anymore. "

A press secretary described Prince's situation at the time as follows: “It was the last album he had yet to deliver to Warner, so he was in something like this: 'This' is what I still owe you. Bye! '". In addition, the press spokesman pointed out that Prince will not do music promotion and he does not care whether Warner will bring the album out.

When Warner The Vault finally released ... Old Friends 4 Sale , the label was doing little advertising. The company only placed an advertisement in the US magazine People Magazine , did little advertising on the Internet and produced merchandising items such as posters , postcards and greeting cards. Warner wanted to release the song Extraordinary as a pre-release single in mid-August 1999 , but Prince did not agree with it. Ultimately, no singles were released, no music videos were produced and Prince did not follow a tour for the album.

When a reporter asked why the album wasn't released until 1999, then Warner spokesman Bob Merlis replied that it was a " marketing judgment". You wanted to wait until you thought the audience wanted something like the album The Vault ... Old Friends 4 Sale .

Design of the cover

The booklet consists of only two pages, on which two photos of Prince from 1993 can be seen. On the front cover, he sits astride a black chair and supports himself with his forearms on the backrest. He wears a purple shirt-like top, matching tight pants and high heels . On the back cover, Prince is sitting - this time in the usual position - on the same chair with identical clothes. His head is bowed and he seems desperate.

Similar to the album Chaos and Disorder (1996), the phrase “originally intended 4 private use only” can be read in the booklet of The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale . The liner notes in the booklet are superficial and vague; for example, it is not specified which musicians play which instruments on each song.

music

All the songs on The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale album contain live drums . The album is mainly instrumented and arranged with real musical instruments, such as brass instruments , guitar , bass , piano , keyboard instruments and percussion - electronic instruments such as synthesizers can hardly be heard. The arrangements are mostly sparse, the production is simple and has no technical aids. As with most of Prince's albums in the 1990s, the songs on The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale fall into different musical genres ; Pop , rock , soul , jazz and blues can be heard. In contrast to the usual Prince albums, funk plays a minor role.

The song The Rest of My Life is from the music genre rock, which is accompanied by bass and Tingel-Tangel piano playing . The piece has a start-stop rhythm , so that it does not seem played continuously. The lyrics are about maintaining a positive outlook on life. It's About That Walk is an up-tempo number influenced by blues and swing , paired with brass arrangements. In the lyrics, Prince deals with a woman's butt ; For example, he sings that she has an “ass like a fine cut diamond” that is “mounted on two stone legs”. According to Prince's band members at the time, his girlfriend and later wife Mayte Garcia inspired him to write the lyrics. The extended remix of She Spoke 2 Me contains compared to the album version from 1996 four minutes long instrumental music that has elements from the field of jazz. The piece is sometimes reminiscent of the Prince song Willing and Able from the album Diamonds and Pearls from 1991. 5 Women is from the blues genre. In the lyrics, Prince needs "five women" and "five months" to be able to forget a previous relationship, but he does not succeed. When the Lights Go Down is more reminiscent of an improvised bedtime jam than a finished song. Percussion support the piece, which is influenced by jazz. The rhythm phrase consists of playing the piano. In the lyrics, Prince deals with a pair of lovers, after whom they have left "the stupid worn-out games" behind.

The 1:08 minute piece My Little Pill contains only spoken text by Prince, which is supported by a guitar riff that seems disharmonious . The lyrics are about a single mother who escapes from life and its responsibilities by taking pills . There Is Lonely is a melancholy number from the rock genre, paired with a jazz guitar phrase played by Prince . The lyrics allude to the story of Cain and Abel in the biblical account of Genesis . Old Friends 4 Sale is a song from the blues genre that also contains elements from the pop and rock genres. Clare Fischer added a string orchestra , which gives the song an approach of dramaturgy . Prince's vocals are accompanied by his piano playing and the lyrics are about a man who feels betrayed and abandoned by his friends. Sarah is a rock genre song that is influenced by the blues and supported by brass. The piece is based on a bass riff that keeps recurring and is only interrupted by the chorus . In the lyrics, Prince describes a woman named Sarah who wants to have fun for one night. It is not known whether Prince alludes to a real-life woman or whether Sarah embodies an imaginary person. The love song Extraordinary is a soul ballad that Prince sings in his typical falsetto . In the lyrics he deals with an unspecified woman, for whom he was born to love.

List of titles and publications

No.	song	author	length
01	The rest of my life	Prince	1:40
02	It's About That Walk	Prince	4:26
03	She Spoke 2 Me (Extended Remix)	Prince	8:20
04th	5 women	Prince	5:13
05	When the lights go down	Prince	7:11
06th	My little pill	Prince	1:08
07th	There is lonely	Prince	2:29
08th	Old Friends 4 Sale	Prince	3:27
09	Sarah	Prince	2:53
010	Extraordinary	Prince	2:28

The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale was released on August 24, 1999 on Compact Disc and MC . The name “Prince” is given as the artist of the album and not the unpronounceable symbol that he wore as a pseudonym at the time of publication .

Single releases

No singles were released from the album, but four promo CD singles have been released; Extraordinary was only released in the USA, The Rest of My Life only in Japan, 5 Women and It's About That Walk only in Germany. Extraordinary serves as the B-side of The Rest of My Life , the other songs are 1-track CD singles.

Cover versions

Only a cover version is known of the album; Alexis Taylor, lead singer of the band Hot Chip , recorded a new version of Old Friends 4 Sale in July 2016 after Prince's death .

reception

Press

Music critics rated the album The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale mostly negative. While some emphasized praise that on the album of music Jazz play a prominent role, but many felt the 39-minute album was uninspired and insignificant.

Tommy Udo of the British newspaper New Musical Express was disappointed with the album; it was "cobbled together" and "this hodgepodge" allowed "uncomfortable questions" such as "Grandpa, did you really think that this guy was a genius ?" about Prince. Udo awarded four out of ten stars and came to the decision that the album was the “perfect revenge” from Warner Bros. Records “on their former slaves”.

Daniel Durchholz of the UK music newspaper Wall of Sound took a similar point of view, stating: "Not everything he [Prince] does is touched by genius." In his opinion, it would have been better for Prince to keep the album for private use would have. The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale may have different styles of music, but the melodies are not the best. Durchholz gave 60 out of 100 points.

Alluding to Prince's name change at the time, Adam Sweeting of the British daily The Guardian asked : "What did that talent formerly known as Prince?" Although he delivers "excellent performances" on some songs, overall the album sounds "like a pile of leftovers". The Vault ... Old Friends 4 Sale is "mainly a reminder of Prince's gigantic talent that was mysteriously lost". Sweeting gave only three out of ten points.

Natalie Nichols from the US daily Los Angeles Times gave two out of four stars. The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale “hovers between fascinating and disappointing”. It was to be expected that the album would not have any songs "of the caliber When Doves Cry (1984), Kiss (1986) and Diamonds and Pearls (1991)," she wrote.

Mark Weingarten of the US magazine Entertainment Weekly gave The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale a grade of B + on a scale from A + to F and wrote: “This compilation of leftover outtakes from Prince's years with Warner Bros. Records sounds more engaged than that many of his independent releases in recent years ”. In conclusion, he drew that the album was "a welcome stopgap solution for a tolerant fan base."

Mark Zeltner from the online magazine PopMatters.com said the album had no self-contained musical theme . The music is "always interesting and sometimes even breathtaking", but overall The Vault ... Old Friends 4 Sale sounds "like a series of songs that were forgotten or discarded by their creator a long time ago." He highlighted the song It's About That Walk praised it, which at times reminded of a collaboration between James Brown and Smokey Robinson . Extraordinary is also "an excellent song" and "an incredibly beautiful ballad" in the style of The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (1994). Zeltner gave the album six out of ten points.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic wrote, was the album better than Come (1994) and Chaos and Disorder (1996), "the two other remnants of the Warner era". The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale is a humble, jazz-inspired album that is "almost irresistible." Erlewine gave three stars out of five.

Jason Ferguson of MTV - Online had a very different opinion . He described The Vault ... Old Friends 4 Sale as "a fascinating album" and praised most of the songs; For example, 5 Women is "probably the best heartbreak song of all time", There Is Lonely "a devastatingly great ballad" and Old Friends 4 Sale is "a beautiful and touching" song. The highlights of the album are the three songs It's About That Walk , When the Lights Go Down and Extraordinary .

Nick Dedina of the online music service Rhapsody was also impressed with the album; for him the three songs The Rest of My Life , She Spoke 2 Me and Extraordinary are the highlights. But “the jewel in the crown” is the title track Old Friends 4 Sale . He wondered why Prince had "buried" this song.

After Prince's death in April 2016, the music journalists Albert Koch and Thomas Weiland from the German music magazine Musikexpress reviewed the album The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale and gave it four and a half out of six stars. They wrote that the album was "a brass-driven R'n'B-Funk-Blues-No-Bullshit record" that "leaves a more homogeneous impression than some of the" regular "ones from the 90s".

Charts

Charts	Top ranking	Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK)	44 (5 weeks)	5
Austria (Ö3)	40 (4 weeks)	4th
Switzerland (IFPI)	21st (6 weeks)	6th
United Kingdom (OCC)	47 (1 week)	1
United States (Billboard)	85 (5 weeks)	5

The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale has sold fewer than 500,000 copies worldwide. About 140,000 copies were sold in the USA. This makes the total sales comparable to the 1996 album Chaos and Disorder . Jason Draper, author of Prince books and observer of his musical career, saw that one of the main reasons for The Vault's commercial failure ... Old Friends 4 Sale saw that some songs from the album were already on bootlegs in previous years.

literature

• Jason Draper: Prince - Life & Times (Revised & Updated Edition). Chartwell Books, New York 2016, ISBN 978-0-7858-3497-7 .
• Alex Hahn: Obsessed - Prince's turbulent life . Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 2016, ISBN 978-3-85445-610-0
• Per Nilsen: DanceMusicSexRomance - Prince: The First Decade. Firefly Publishing, London 1999, ISBN 0-946719-23-3 , OCLC 40610683 .
• Ronin Ro: Prince - Inside the Music and the Masks. St. Martin's Press, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-312-38300-8 , OCLC 428027211 .
• Matt Thorne: Prince. Faber and Faber, London 2012, ISBN 978-0-571-27349-2 , OCLC 794814748 .
• Uptown: The Vault - The Definitive Guide to the Musical World of Prince. Nilsen Publishing, Linköping 2004, ISBN 91-631-5482-X , OCLC 186521364 .

Web links

• Princevault.com , information about the album The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Booklet of the CD The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale by Prince, Warner Bros. Records, 1999
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Uptown (2004), p. 412.
3. ↑ The Rest Of My Life. In: Princevault.com. February 27, 2016, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
4. ^ It's About That Walk. In: Princevault.com. February 27, 2016, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
5. ↑ She Spoke 2 Me. In: Princevault.com. November 10, 2016, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
6. ↑ 5 Women. In: Princevault.com. December 28, 2016, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
7. ↑ ^{a b} There Is Lonely. In: Princevault.com. April 20, 2016, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
8. ↑ Sarah. In: Princevault.com. February 27, 2016, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
9. ^ Extraordinary. In: Princevault.com. December 20, 2016, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b c d} Uptown (2004), p. 411.
11. ^ Purple Rain Tour - January 23, 1985. In: Princevault.com. February 27, 2016, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
12. ↑ Nilsen (1999), pp. 176-177.
13. ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 173 u. P. 179.
14. ↑ ^{a b c} Uptown (2004), pp. 411-412.
15. ↑ Hahn (2016), pp. 244–245.
16. ↑ Hahn (2016), p. 278.
17. ^ Ro (2011), p. 301.
18. ↑ Ro (2011), pp. 298-299.
19. ↑ ^{a b} Ro (2011), p. 299.
20. ^ Ro (2011), p. 298.
21. ↑ Thorne (2012), p. 347.
22. ↑ Thorne (2012), p. 348.
23. ↑ Hahn (2016), p. 123.
24. ↑ Goosebumps: Alexis Taylor covers “Old Friends 4 Sale” by Prince. In: Testspiel.de. July 6, 2016, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
25. ^ Ro (2011), pp. 300-301.
26. ↑ Draper (2016), p. 145.
27. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Reviews - The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale. In: Princetext.tripod.com. 1999, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
28. ↑ Reviews - The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale. In: Princetext.tripod.com. 1999, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
29. ↑ Draper (2016), p. 145., "What became of the talent formerly known as Prince?"
30. ↑ Reviews - The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale. In: Princetext.tripod.com. 1999, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
31. ^ Prince, The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale. In: Popmatters.com. 2017, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
32. ^ Prince - The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale. In: Allmusic.com. 2017, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
33. ↑ The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale. In: Napster.com. 2017, accessed April 8, 2017 . 
34. ^ ME editors: From the big Prince special - an overview of all albums. In: Musikexpress.de. May 22, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2017 . 
35. ↑ Prince. officialcharts.de, accessed on February 18, 2019 . 
36. ↑ Prince. austriancharts.at, accessed on February 18, 2019 . 
37. ↑ Prince. hitparade.ch, accessed on February 18, 2019 . 
38. ↑ Prince. officialcharts.com, accessed February 18, 2019 . 
39. ^ Prince - Chart History. billboard.com, accessed February 18, 2019 . 
40. ↑ Draper (2016), p. 145.
41. ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 413.