Prince Rogers Nelson was a prolific artist. It was once said that a new album could be released annually for decades once he ducked out. With that in mind, it's easy to get frustrated thinking of all that's available but hasn't yet been seen or heard. 📷 Randee St Nicholas
Tonight, we're going to take a look at reissues, Paisley events, and other partnerships that have been established by Prince's estate, the organization charged with monotonizing and protecting his name, music, and likeness in order to promote his legacy for generations to come.
We start April 2016. Before Prince ducked out, he made a deal to reissue his back catalog. Dirty Mind, Prince and Controversy made it out, but more were to follow all the way up to Come.
Remember when we all were excited about how all those were coming out again? We got up to Parade...and then...Lovesexy and later were delayed...and later cancelled.
Meanwhile, the Official Prince Tribute was announced. Folks like John Mayer, Anita Baker and others were set to hit the stage, but they ultimately dropped out. It was still a good show though!
If you were in town and were lucky enough to score tickets during the opening week of Paisley Park, you would have been the first in the world to take a peek at Graceland's version of Paisley Park as a museum. (Tours were going on while P was here too btw)
Meanwhile, the Rhino reissues of Prince maxi singles started quietly coming out...despite main albums stalling for the moment.
Back to Paisley Park, they started a series of concert screenings. You could go for a tour, and then end out in the soundstage where you could watch all kinds of concerts in the best quality and sound system. A sampling part 1...
A Sampling Part 2. REAL TEARS RE THAT ACT I SHOW! I WANNA SEE! 😭
Problem was they would only announce these a few days prior...and we all know how expensive it is to get there last minute...
On the music side, a few more singles came out... Cream (including that prank call bit!), If I was Your Girlfriend, U Got the Look, Kiss.
Not long after the opening of Paisley as a museum, came the announcement of the first post duckout celebration.
They actually sold out of different tiers as time went along, and the world gathered in Chanhassen Minnesota to celebrate P on the one year anniversary of his duckout. Detailed notes of all the sessions here!
Record Store Day 2017 also had quite a drop of Prince goodies! We got picture discs for Batdance and 1999 and also the Maxi's for I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, I Wish U Heaven, Partyman and Pop Life, as well as a special Green edition of What Time is It!
Paisley had their first Prince night at the Twins in June of 2017 too! Purple Rain umbrellas were involved.
June 2017 also saw the release of Purple Rain Deluxe, said to be something P was working on before he checked out, it featured a DVD of the Carrier Dome concert as well as unreleased gems such as the original We Can Fuck. (Later known as We Can Funk). song.link/us/i/1229320882
The P estate released Love Symbol #2 with Pantone in June 2017 as well. More about that here!
Besides the announcement of Celebration 2018, things were relatively quiet on the estate front...until April 2018...perhaps because they were busy cooking?
A big launch of all sorts of media hit us all at once! We got vintage footage via the Nothing Compares 2 U video
Some investigation news came out....(do your googles we're keeping it on the up and up)
And of course Celebration happened! We got a Prince on the Big Screen which was either AMAZING or unsettling depending on your perspective due to the presence of him while not really being there...
Recap of 2018 with notes here! (Navigate back with the links at the top of the posts)
July 2018 saw the reissue of The Time's Ice Cream Castles on Neapolitan wax.
And Sonly Legacy's release of Prince's 1995-2010 catalog to streaming services (other than Tidal since they already had these and more). I remember being super excited watching folks react to this! 3121 was blowing minds!
In the fall of 2018, we got the kick off of the 4u Symphonic Tour
And the release of Piano and a Microphone 1983
November saw the slow roll out of the 1995 and later music videos
And the Prince episode of ABC's Blackish
Oh also summer 2017, the 4ever greatest hits boxset with great Herb Ritts prints of Prince!
Are y'all tired yet? WE AINT THROUGH!
Back to 2018...
Sony Legacy's next big push after getting his music out there, were thei reissues. They've made it a point to not be quiet about their releases...THEY WANT PEOPLE TA KNOW!
Musicology, 3121 and Planet Earth all out with lots of vintage merch to go with it from shirts to tour programs to slipmates to holographic art.... we really had it all! 😭
We all had our gifs collection already, but we got official ones March 2019
Now we're to the top of 2020. What a pivotal year! A pandemic would rage across our planet, turmoil in the US...it's going to be a time! Before it gets serious though...
Another night of live music at Paisley Park!
Sorry y'all left out the first post duckout group there, Nooky Jones back in August of 2019...
No celebration this year, but we DID get the release of my FAVORITE era of Prince! Box set and wax reissues and brand new wax issues especially of my favorite album One Nite Alone Piano and voice! Mech too!
Self promotion time! There was also a prodcast talking about this era! I was blessed to be invited to participate!
Check out the whole season here! @Miss_EThompson is in it too!
@Miss_EThompson SiriusXM did their first cycle of a Prince dedicated channel featuring an unreleased radio show that gave us a peek inside Prince's house parties with a live set!
@Miss_EThompson This really cool celebration happened! Screening the NYE show on Youtube and an afterparty of a marathon DJ Set that went through the night!
@Miss_EThompson Ah sorry bouncing back to 2018 really fast.... Prince Estate x Minnesota Timberwolves
@Miss_EThompson Their whole season featured P in some way and they did great videos interviewing P's old basketball crew from when he was a youth!
@Miss_EThompson Gotta shout out some new things around Paisley as well! If you haven't been in a while, there's an amazing new exhibit that talks about P growing up in Minneapolis! It also speaks of his activism! Get a peek at it here!
@Miss_EThompson WB is still sliding out things every once in a while..! The reissue of the Hits 1 made the scene Jan 2021. This was previously quite a pretty penny on wax!
@Miss_EThompson And the Prince Paris Saint-Germain luxury clothing line
@Miss_EThompson Whew! That's a lot, huh? And I'm sure I even missed some things! Like when they live streamed the Carrier Dome Purple Rain concert on Youtube among other things...
@Miss_EThompson Over the last 5 years there have been approx 70 different new and old physical music releases, dozens of new and older music videos, tons of new and vintage merch (didn't even mention all the pop up shops or the store that refreshes regularly)....the Prince Estate has been BUSY!
@Miss_EThompson Also keep in mind, the folks behind the creative output of Prince, I'm talking the people doing the actual research and making the actual deals is are NOT large in number. The actual feet on the ground are much fewer than you think.
@Miss_EThompson Even when P was here, especially post 2004, it was legit less than 10 folks doing that work...and the situation isn't much different now, probably even fewer.
@Miss_EThompson ...but remember that "the estate" is made up of human beings just like us. Let's have compassion for them and this heavy and important burden they carry. I'd rather them take their time and do their work right rather than rush things out based on our demands, wouldn't you?
Extra Credit : They can drop stuff like this whenever they want! 💜
From Paid in Full: The Battle for Black Music. Highly recommend this 3-part doc. #Prince was part of a legacy of many who came before him working for the same cause in the rights of artists, and specifically Black artists. Was really cool to see in the context of that history.
This documentary was done by Idris and Sabrina Elba and it was extremely well done. Check for it for free in the BBC iPlayer or on CBC in Canada. It hasn't come out yet with an American distributor.
I am not going to clip his entire segment though it was only about 5 minutes of a 3-hour documentary. I think it's important to see it in context with this full work.
I'm just going to say, don't look to other people to tell you what your opinion should be about anything. Whatever you feel is valid because that's how you relate to it.
All this talk and meanwhile the music is getting lost which is exactly what I warned about in the first place. Gimme Glam Slam as a franchise, Paisley as a studio, the musical process, the evolution of how he approached business...but nope headlines off the messy stuff...
See what happens when we cross post with other fandoms? The first peak was business in our fam, the last 2 were just me posting about going to DragonCon, live tweeting an Acolyte panel and my picture with Manny Jacinto. Around 30k impressions off of 2 main posts. 🧵
I've been on one about helping people learn about Prince in a multitude of ways. We need more carrots! Lots of people noted my necklace with his symbol, I swapped my DragonCon lanyard out for a Prince one, gave out Prince pins....
Purposely wore his symbol in my Manny picture. Across all my social media this picture was seen at least 13,000 times.
Chatting with folks about doing a group Prince cosplay next year. You can apply to host workshops, panels, and be a vendor as well. This also happens during the same weekend as the annual Lovesexy party. Con tickets are discounted right now. 5 days $100.
It's legit a fan run convention to celebrate whatever you're a fan of. Space for every niche! Prince needs to be represented here more for sure I saw him all over the vendor area with bootleg merch, lol.
I'll be talking about it more as the deadlines approach. While this is not necessarily focused on Prince like our celebration would be, it is absolutely an opportunity to expose him to people because most people who go to stuff like this know who he is. (Someone handed me this.)
It was a pleasure to compile how we celebrate anniversaries of Prince's legacy. #Come30 is an extremely relevant era of #Prince's life that applies to what's going on in the industry and in society now, just like 2 other albums that have 10 year anniversaries next month. 🧵
At the first post transition celebration at @PaisleyPark, Damaris Lewis said we, as fam, are ALL stewards of Prince's legacy. We should look to each other to make sure his legacy is accessible in the multiple dimensions of how we experience his life work.
Extra special thanks to folks like @polishedsolid who gather scholars and fam in her offering of a safe space for people to speak with passion and intelligence about our hero.