Diving Deep Into ‘The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale’ — Prince
I’ve recently found myself being left home alone, entering my second week at time of writing this. A prospect which originally terrified me due to past experiences and trauma. As soon as I was left to be by myself, a whole week ahead of me, the first song to come to mind was ‘There Is Lonely’ by Prince, taken from his “1999” album ‘The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale’. Over the course of that week I listened to the album twice, had three songs playing constantly, and was so obsessed with ‘She Spoke 2 Me’ that I couldn’t function without lyrics or guitar licks playing on constant repeat in my head. And then when I decided to Rearrange my room, the driving force was the idea of rewarding myself with ‘The Vault’ on vinyl which, as I write this, I’ve just finished listening to. For the past week I have been living, breathing, loving and talking about this album constantly. So I thought, why not sit down and really dive deep into ‘The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale’?
Background:
The fabled purple vault in the depths of Paisley Park first began to open in the late 90’s. You could argue ‘Graffiti Bridge’ was a first instance of this, as a large majority of the tracklist was pulled from his vault and reworked to form his new album and soundtrack. But 1994 feels like the first time the vault was opened to the public explicitly, as ‘The Black Album’ was released by Warner Bros. Records — albeit against Prince’s will, and to fill a contractual obligation as 90’s Prince territory was the “Slave Era”, where he was battling his record label for creative liberty, freedom and Emancipation. 1996 rolls around and Warner Bros. Releases ‘Chaos & Disorder’, another contractual album filled with vault material. Liner notes written in the album read “Originally intended 4 private use, this compilation serves as the last original material recorded by O(+> 4 warner brothers records — may u live 2 see the dawn”. A similar note can be found in ‘The Vault’.
April 26th 1996 saw Prince deliver both ‘Chaos & Disorder’ and ‘The Vault’ to Warner Bros. Records, after agreeing to submit two albums worth of vault material to finally close the contract he signed (and later regretted) in 1991. As previously stated, ‘Chaos’ was released in 1996 but ‘The Vault’ was released in 1999, three years after Prince’s contract ended and he was emancipated from the chains of the contract he hated — so much he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol to combat their terms and control. How can you reign over somebody when their name is no longer on their contract? Beyond talk of contractual obligations, some songs from ‘The Vault’ is cut material from a movie soundtrack Prince was asked to worked. James L. Brooks approached him in 1992 to record the soundtrack for his upcoming movie ‘I’ll Do Anything’, with Prince recording ten songs in March 1992 and pulling ‘Empty Room’ (originally recorded in 1985) out from the vault. Of these eleven songs, eight were considered for the movie soundtrack, but Prince’s involvement never came to fruition. Three of the songs proposed for the soundtrack ended up being included on ‘The Vault’, finally seeing the light of day seven years later, with most of the others remaining in the vault (and can be found on various Prince bootlegs).
All this history behind ‘The Vault’ makes it, to me, such an interesting album, in addition to an example of his uniqueness. All songs present date between April 1985 and February 1996, meaning this collection of songs span nine years, all being shelved and hidden away from the public. Even the album artwork dates back to 1993, with photos being taken by Claude Gassian during Prince’s 1993 ‘Act II’ tour (performed in promotion of his 1992 album ‘Love Symbol’). Part of me wonders if these songs, had this album not been submitted as an effort to emancipate himself, would have ever seen the light of day? Even now, eight years after Prince transcended, we’re still having multiple discs of unreleased material released yearly. Events at Paisley Park play further unreleased music every year. ‘The Vault’ is jam packed with incredible music, showing a different side of Prince (at least it was in 1999), and I’m thankful to have been birthed into a timeline where ‘The Vault’ exists. This is probably an exceptionally bold claim, but I’m thankful for Warner Bros. releasing this.
Music:
Ya like jazz? Because this album has it in spades. If you go into this album expecting to get your ‘When Doves Cry’ or ‘Little Red Corvette’ on, you’re in the wrong house. ‘The Vault’ is a perfect album to juxtapose alongside the more “commercial” and well known albums released by Prince, as it’s an example of a man who can do any and all kinds of music. The general public know and love ‘Diamonds And Pearls’, but position it opposite ‘The Vault’, ‘The Truth’ and ‘One Nite Alone…’ and you’ll hear so many genres and sounds being explored, with the latter three standing as far more mellow and lowkey affairs than most of the music on ‘Diamonds’. ‘The Vault’ is one of the many hidden gems among Prince’s discography, and is perfect background music to move throughout your life and day to (I was listening to it while writing and cleaning). Nothing is too loud, rocking or bombastic so you can really unwind with it. Some tracks last a brief moment while some stretch on with long intros, solos and have room to breathe. And even though it doesn’t even reach the 40 minute mark, I always leave this album feeling incredibly satisfied.
I think the strongest songs on the album are the ones where you feel them breathe and come alive, like ‘She Spoke 2 Me’ and ‘When The Lights Go Down’. They’re eight and seven minutes long respectively, and while there’s a crux of a song in there, around both of them you have moments where all the players are given their time to shine. There’s bass solos, noodling on guitar, playful ad libs and, particularly on ‘She Spoke 2 Me, some incredibly addicting vocals. Something about hearing Prince sing “eye don’t wanna wake up” is so satisfying, which follows on from his typical erotic lyrics. I would say these two songs are the most jazzy of the pack, as there’s so much improv and playfulness to them. An interesting note is ‘She Spoke 2 Me’ being labelled as “- Extended Remix”, as the song was originally released in 1996 on the ‘Girl 6’ soundtrack, running four minutes shorter than this one.
‘5 Women’ closely follows suit in the jazz department and, to me, feels incredibly cinematic. I can imagine a guy singing it in a jazz club, surrounded by smoke, playing it with such emotion and feeling to get his heartbreak off his chest — or to scorn the ex who broke his heart who’s sat in the audience. ‘Purple Rain’ style. Its lyrics talk of a man who’s gone through five women to get the last one off his mind, backed with this wonderful instrumentation of horns and keys, building its story and intensity as you progress through the five minutes. Back in 1991 however, fans of Joe Cocker might have had their ears prick up if ever they heard this, as Prince offered it to Cocker in 1991 (in addition to ‘Old Friends 4 Sale’), who recorded his own version and released on his ‘Night Calls’ album.
‘There Is Lonely’ falls into that heartbreak category for me, sounding like a sad ballad filled with such sadness and loneliness. To me it falls somewhere between ‘Empty Room’, ‘Solo’ and ‘Dark’ (the latter two from Prince’s 1994 album ‘Come’) because of the emptiness within the lyrics, but a sadness which fills and fleshes out that void. Closing the album is ‘Extraordinary’ which, to me, feels melancholic. Despite the lyrical content concerning one person being deeply in love with another, how love champions and saves despite rough patches and conflict, it still feels as though there’s a tinge of sadness buried in there. A lover in denial, perhaps? Even though the song stretches two and a half minutes, it feels so much longer, and I was shocked to see it runs so short in actuality.
On the flip side are songs which scream happiness and bright colours, particularly with the two opening tracks, ‘The Rest Of My Life’ and ‘It’s About That Walk’. The latter is a personal highlight of the album for me, radiating with a glow and lyrics simply worshipping a girl (and her behind) that’s caught his eye. The former, another quick little jazzy jaunt, feels cinematic again in the fact it’d be the perfect soundtrack to a woman strutting down a city street with a smile on her face. Ready to start, live and experience the best day of her life. It’s a great opener, transitioning into the next song full of lust and horns.
Despite ‘Sarah’ being another upbeat song full of admiration for a woman, part of me feels as though it’s out of place on this album. It was the last song recorded and included on the album, being tracked in February 1996, but is still fun to listen and jam to. I’d throw it alongside the opening two tracks for pure vibes. ‘My Little Pill’ is my least favourite song on the album, easily and hands down. It feels so jarring and deeply dark and depressing. It’d be more at home on ‘Come’ or ‘One Nite Alone…’, especially with its piano work sounding like the star of the show. I would much prefer for ‘My Little Pill’ to be left off the album and ‘Empty Room’ to have been in its place. A song with a huge legacy in Prince’s discography which, almost forty years after being first recorded, still hasn’t had the studio version be officially released!
‘Old Friends 4 Sale’ is perhaps the most famous and beloved song on the album, and it’s understandable why the album is named after it. It’s perhaps one of the saddest Prince songs ever committed to tape, opening with “the sun set in my heart this evening” and progressing to sing about a moon shining nowhere. It then reaches a climax proclaiming he has “old friends 4 sale / get ’em while the getting is hot”, taking on this role of a street vendor. It’s probably a notion we could all relate to after a friendship has turned sour, or if you’ve felt somebody has ever used you, with Prince singing further how friends will “kiss you until they get what you got”. An absolutely heartbreaking tune which, if paired with ‘Empty Room’, may have been Prince’s most vulnerable and emotional moment yet. Both songs date back to the 1985 ‘Parade’ album sessions and were worked on through the 90’s, so evidently he had a penchant for both songs — or knew how much they stood out among the community thanks to being bootlegged so hard. Some fans claim to not like this version because of the lyric changes (done in 1991), but one thing we can thank the bootleggers for is letting both versions co-exist alongside each other.
Legacy:
With ten songs spanning nine years of recording, bouncing from project to project, only a handful of them were ever performed live. The first came with ‘5 Women’, being played for the first time in Germany on August 28th 1993. Next was ‘Extraordinary’, making its way into the setlist for Prince’s 2002 ‘One Nite Alone… Live!’ tour, and is even included in the accompanying live album. ‘When The Lights Go Down’ soon joined it, being played live for the first time at Paisley Park in June 2002. ‘She Spoke 2 Me’ received its first live performance in March 2009 at Club Nokia, at one of three performances in a single night Prince did to promote his recently released 3CD ‘LotusFlow3r’ set. And finally, ‘Old Friends 4 Sale’ wasn’t debuted until 2012 during the short ‘Welcome 2 Chicago’ residency, but a rehearsal from Paisley Park was streamed by DrFunkenberry in September that year as promotion.
I think where this album shines most is at Prince’s 2009 Montreux Jazz Festival show, where he played twice on the same day, with both feeling like historic shows in his performance history. Not only was there a rearranged version of ‘Little Red Corvette’ and a blistering performance of ‘Empty Room’, ‘When The Lights Go Down’ and ‘She Spoke 2 Me’ were flawlessly brought to life on stage. Considering both are from a jazz album, playing them at Montreux Jazz Festival was the perfect idea and choice. Seeing these often overlooked and forgotten masterpieces thrown in alongside more recent songs (‘Love Like Jazz’, ‘Elixir’ and ‘All This Love’ (2009)), unreleased gems and lively covers (‘All Shook Up’ by Elvis Presley), makes me love the shows even more. Prince’s shows at Montreux Jazz Festival from 2009 and 2013 are two personal highlights for me regardless, but shining some light on songs from what feels live an overlooked and forgotten album from his repertoire only reinforces that. And it was during his ‘LotusFlow3r’ era, and if anyone knows anything about me, it’s how ‘LotusFlow3r/MPLSoUND’ is my favourite Prince album.
One thing that absolutely shocks me though, is how ‘It’s About That Walk’ and ‘There Is Lonely’ were, as far as we know, never performed by Prince in his lifetime. Both feel like they could have easily slipped into multiple era’s Prince went through, and even the piano work of ‘My Little Pill’ could have been used as an instrumental or transition during one of his many piano sets (but hindsight does feel a little excruciating toward that song). Fast forward to February 2024 though, and ‘The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale’ is finally released on vinyl — for the first time ever! The first ever record I got was Prince’s own ‘Controversy’ album, and so many of his albums from 1996 to the mid 2000’s were missing vinyl pressings. People can say what they want about the current Prince estate, and I do have my own problems and revelations toward it. But one thing I cannot fault them for is finally giving me the opportunity to own my favourite albums on my favourite medium. Seeing ‘Come’, ‘Chaos & Disorder’, ‘The Vault’ and ‘Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic’ all sitting on my record shelf feels like a dream come true. Something fourteen year old me would have gone absolutely crazy for. If only they knew what lies ahead, their heart would break but the releases we have been fortunate enough to have would help null the pain. Keep the music flowing and all will be well in the world.
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