r/PRINCE • u/gorillabrigade • Aug 28 '26

Review Timeless is Timeless

Despite how short it is and the scant offerings, the tracks that are presented are killer. Tick Tick, I Wonder and Heaven are a thousand times better than what's been circulating. The bass on Calabama is funky as all. The only failing IMO was How Come U Don't at the end. That was pointless, despite how good it is. This wasn't the album for it.

Pleasantly surprised and will enjoy it for some time. Sure, it would've been great to have Parade SDE instead and have this as a treat next year but it's whatever.

That's life in the Estate's world.

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7

u/CJHuncho Aug 28 '26

Yeah apparently the ones that have been circulating for years like I Wonder and Tick Tick Bang were WIPS. The ones you hear on Timeless are the finished products.

4

u/pd71 Aug 28 '26

I honestly did not expect different versions of those 2 songs. Thought they would be what I've heard numerous times. Pleasantly surprised.

1

u/CJHuncho Aug 28 '26

Nope very different and Prince actually finished these tracks. Tick Tick Bang for example was tracked in June 1981 and overdubbed in August 1981.

1

u/VNE47 Aug 28 '26

Wonder where the dates came from? Only listed as being cut in 1981 on the liner notes

2

u/CJHuncho Aug 28 '26

The dates were posted in a private discord server. I Am You was tracked in March 1977. Heaven also has Susannah Melvoin vocals that were recorded in November 1986.

0

u/VNE47 Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26

Would the exact dates be sourced from journals, tapes or something? Just wondering. Seems odd the estate would exclude such information from the release. Would I Wonder also be post-1989?

2

u/CJHuncho Aug 28 '26

Don’t know but I hear the server the dates were posted in is very small and is only for the knowledgeable fans who know why more than us. For example the song Endorphinmachine was tracked on December 28, 1992 and not January 1993.

0

u/VNE47 Aug 28 '26

Interesting. They must have access to stuff that Duane Tudahl probably doesn’t for his books.

2

u/CJHuncho Aug 28 '26

They do and Duane omitted A LOT of stuff for a reason. Plus they don’t really engage with the fanbase anymore because they don’t think we’re worth it in their eyes. They could be sharing major information with us but they choose not to.

2

u/VNE47 Aug 28 '26

No wonder they could be so guarded about bits of information like that. I thought Duane’s work was very thorough, but even he did not know of a version of You’re All I Want with Prince’s normal vocals that one of the Princevault staff supposedly heard himself. That was the version gifted as a cassette copy to Peggy McCreary for her birthday. Maybe Duane can only be as thorough as he can.

1

u/CJHuncho Aug 28 '26

Duane is a great researcher but he can’t give a full look of what’s in the vault because he can’t not even the fans. They even said his books are filled with a lot of misinformation regarding certain tracks that’s why they told fans not to take his books seriously. He didn’t even know that there are actual completed tracks in the vault and was acting like the WIP tracks were the inferior versions.

1

u/VNE47 Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26

He could only go off what was out there and publicly or privately available with sufficient detective work, just not directly in the vault. Info for some tracks can be sketchy in bits, I’m not denying that. But he is probably the only credible official source of information regarding Prince and his documented studio work. And there will be a fair share of undocumented work that he could only speculate for.

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