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Prince · S6 E7
The Vault
Paisley Park's legendary basement. Thousands of unreleased songs, full albums never heard, footage no one has seen. Prince records faster than anyone can release
April 2016, Paisley Park. A team enters Prince's vault for the first time without him, and what they find is staggering: thousands of unreleased recordings, enough music to release a new album every year for decades.
"Partyman" (Prince, 1989). A #1 hit from the Batman soundtrack, flashy and manic. While songs like this were topping charts around the world, dozens of finished albums sat locked inside a climate-controlled vault at Paisley Park. The public got the hits. The vault got everything else.
The Vault
The vault at Paisley Park is not a metaphor. It's a physical, climate-controlled, bank-style room built into the complex, containing thousands of songs on tape, DAT, cassette, and hard drives. Full albums that were finished, mastered, and ready for release sit next to demos, live recordings, and music videos nobody has ever seen.
Sources
Matt Thorne, "Prince"
Minneapolis Star Tribune
The Guardian
TAP TO REVEAL: What's the most famous album Prince ever put in the vault?
“I make music because I can't stop. What I do with it after is a different question.”
— Prince, on his recording habits
Partyman, Prince (1989)
Prince wrote and recorded the Batman soundtrack in what was reportedly a matter of weeks, creating songs to match scenes from Tim Burton's film. "Partyman" was written for the Joker's art museum scene, and the song's manic energy mirrors the chaos perfectly. Listen for how the production is dense and layered compared to the minimalism of Kiss, with horns, synths, and guitar all competing for space. It's the sound of someone who has a vault full of ideas and enough studio time to use all of them at once.
Sources
Rolling Stone
Billboard
Inside the Vault
Starfish and Coffee, Prince
From Sign o' the Times (1987). A song about a girl named Cynthia Rose who brings starfish and coffee to school for lunch. It's one of the strangest, most joyful things Prince ever recorded, and the fact that he released it at all is a reminder that for every song that left the vault, dozens stayed locked inside.
Starfish and Coffee, Prince (1987)
"Starfish and coffee, maple syrup and jam, butterscotch clouds, a tangerine." The lyrics read like a children's book written by a genius. It's the kind of song that only exists because Prince had a studio where nobody could tell him it was too weird to release.
What 2019 posthumous Prince album contained his original demos of songs he gave to other artists?
The vault is the greatest unreleased music collection in history, and Prince will spend the rest of his career filling it. Next season: Sign o' the Times, the double album that many critics consider the greatest record ever made, and the proof that even without The Revolution, Prince is just getting started.
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To be continued
Season 7: Sign o' the Times
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