Concept for the "Dream Factory" album cover (misattributed to an aborted side project called The Flesh) by Susannah Melvoin
1987, Part 2: This Is What It’s Like In The Dream Factory
This is a strange entry for me. I’m basically talking about albums that were never released. There are a number of these in Prince’s discography, but most of them could be regarded less as complete works unto themselves and more as “works-in-progress.” These albums are different. They were fully recorded and compiled, submitted to the record company, and even mastered before being withdrawn. These are, truly, the ones that got away.
Don’t Get Too Serious, It’s Just A Dream
Prince’s constant recording can create interesting situations in his discography. If you just listen to the released studio albums in order (as I did and do), It feels like Prince disbanded the Revolution in 1986 and then completely started over to record “Sign O The Times.” Or, at least it would, except for the track “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night,” which uses a live performance of Prince & The Revolution as its base. So that “clean break” didn’t really happen, did it?
It seems that Prince did not know for sure that “Parade” would be the last album with The Revolution. In the lead-up to the release of “Parade,” Prince’s recording schedule continued much as before. When “Dream Factory” was submitted to Warner Bros. on July 18, 1986, it was credited to “Prince & The Revolution.” Wendy & Lisa were especially featured, and even sang lead on a few tracks.
I’m Quittin’ All My Friends, Much To Their Surprise
The music itself is typical of this period of Prince’s work in that it is solid gold all the way through. Prince himself seemed to regard the material highly as well. Of the eighteen tracks in the July 18 configuration of “Dream Factory,” twelve were released by Prince during his lifetime, mostly on “Sign O The Times” and his 1998 album “Crystal Ball,” which has very little to do with the unreleased 1987 album of the same name. The rest of the tracks were released in 2020 as part of the “Sign O The Times” super deluxe release. There are times in Prince’s life when he very much missed the mark in assessing the quality of his own work, but this is not one of them. All the music on “Dream Factory” is crazy good. If he had released it as planned, it would have been a hit probably on par with the success “Sign O The Times” eventually enjoyed.
So why didn’t he drop this album on an unsuspecting public? I can find nothing solid on this, but I think the reason is probably very clear: once he decided to jettison The Revolution, “Dream Factory” was doomed. It’s hard to say exactly when Prince decided to leave his band behind, but now we can narrow down the window for that decision. “Dream Factory” went to Warner Bros on July 18, and the last performance of Prince & The Revolution was September 9. Did the “Parade” tour really go that badly?
Or Is This Just A Mirage You Feel?
The late 80’s were a time of extraordinarily rapid turnaround for Prince’s albums. A prime example is the next unreleased album, called “Camille.” Prince submitted “Camille” to Warner Bros. just under two months after The Revolution’s last show.
The album was an expression of Prince trying to find a new refinement of his sound that would carry his career forward, but it’s always seemed weird that he intended this to be released in this form. That he did seriously intend to release it is not in doubt. He not only submitted it, the plans for release were finalized enough for the album to have a catalog number issued by Warner Bros.
These songs are full of interesting choices. For one thing they are all distorted, making the pitch of the lead vocals feel a slight bit higher than they would normally be. Second, there is an overt hip-hop influence at work. Two of the songs are raps. Not brilliant raps by any stretch, although “Housequake” really qualifies more as a “patter song” than a proper rap. And finally, the album was intended to be credited to “Camille” with no mention on the album whatsoever of Prince.
These songs have all been released in various places, although the exact versions on the album may or may not have seen the light of day - but that's due to change some time soon. Jack White's interest in the project has led to Third Man Records getting the rights to release "Camille" at last. Back in 1987, Prince pulled the album in order to expand on it to the point that it really became another album entirely.
Ever Had A Crystal Ball?
“Crystal Ball” has as its base a mashup of tracks from “Dream Factory” and “Camille.” It does add one a song I won’t mention here, because I plan to extol its virtues in a later entry, but more or less that’s the album. I mention this because that is probably the reason it was submitted to Warner Bros on November 30, 1986 as a triple album.
There's little to say about the music on this album at the moment. Basically, the tracks are all released in other places, and are better talked about in their commercially-available contexts. But the album itself is worth mentioning because it represents one of the first times Warner Bros. ever balked at something Prince wanted to release. A triple album was just not on the cards for them at this time. When they heard it, they loved the music, they just felt there was too much of it. Prince called one of the executives (Mo Ostin), beginning the call with “Hey, I heard you don’t like my album.” Ostin did not bother with Warner’s main complaints, which were: a triple album cost too much to produce, was too much for a listener to digest and cost too much for the average consumer to buy. This problem was made worse by Prince's pace of releasing albums in general. Why buy a triple album now when in another eight months you'd be able to get another, possibly more affordable release?
These are all completely legit reasons, and would have been compelling to anybody but Prince. Ostin knew better, and gave the reason he hoped Prince would hear: This is a masterpiece, but it needs to be leaner, meaner and more focused. Prince needed a hit album, and hit albums have a laser focus that cannot be achieved on a triple album.
Prince hung up on him.
A few days later, Prince delivered a double album called “Sign O The Times,” and it is widely regarded as his best album.
NEXT WEEK: 1987, Part 3: Everybody Still Wants to Fly
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