Emancipation

EMI Records

Released as a triple album to celebrate Prince’s parting with Warner Brothers, Prince had been stockpiling his material created since the mid 1990s to deny them to his former label, releasing this veritable catalogue under EMI when free from the bounds of his contract with his former label.

Imagine yourself sitting in a room with the biggest of the big in the recording industry, and you have ‘Slave’ written on your face. That changes the entire conversation.

Despite his distrust with record companies, Prince, whilst still under the name of The Artist Formally Known As Prince (Prince love symbol), released Emancipation with EMI barely a week after his contract with Warner Brothers Records had been fulfilled. Emancipation is Prince’s first album to contain cover versions: Betcha By Golly Wow! (The Stylistics); La, La, La Means I Love You (The Delfonics); One Of Us (Joan Osbourne) and; I Can’t Make You Love Me (Bonnie Rait). The track My Computer features vocals from Kate Bush who Prince collaborated with in 1993 for her song Why Should I Love You? (5:02).

Prince was very content with the relationship with EMI, the label gave him full autonomy over this release,  so much so he intended to put out a second album with them, however EMI fell into bankruptcy during the Emancipation album’s promotion. Despite this, Emancipation went on to sell two million copies and became the fourth biggest selling triple album in US music history (it is certified double Platinum by RIAA). Indeed the album contains so many songs its own lyric book had to be made separately available as was unable to be included with the set. The exact 60 minute running length of all three disks is entirely intentional.

Performers

All Instruments

The Artist Formally Known As Prince

Drums

Kirky Johnson

Keyboards

Morris Hayes

Bass Guitar

Rhonda Smith

Saxophone

Eric Leeds

Hornz

NPG Hornz

Data

Producer

The Artist Formally Known As Prince

Label

NPG Records

Distribution

EMI Records

Cover Art/Photo

Steve Parke

Released

22 years, 11 months ago, on 19 November 1996

Reissued

13 September 2019

Running Time

180:00

US Chart Peak

11

UK Chart Peak

18

Prince Album

#19

Singles from Emancipation

Betcha By Golly Wow!

EMI Records

Released

13 November 1996

US Chart Peak

31

UK Chart Peak

11

1. Betcha By Golly Wow! (3:30)
2. Right Back Here In My Arms (4:42)

The Holy River [CD1]

EMI Records

Released

13 January 1997

US Chart Peak

58

UK Chart Peak

19

1. The Holy River [Radio Edit] (4:00)
2. Somebody's Somebody [Edit] (4:30)
3. Somebody's Somebody [Livestudio Mix] (3:47)
4. Somebody's Somebody [Ultrafantasy Edit] (3:45)

The Holy River [CD2]

EMI Records

Released

13 January 1997

US Chart Peak

-

UK Chart Peak

19

1. The Holy River [Radio Edit] (4:00)
2. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World [Mustang Mix] (6:19)
3. Somebody's Somebody [Radio Edit] (4:30)
4. On Sale Now! (0:48)

NYC

NPG Records

Released

31 January 1997

US Chart Peak

-

UK Chart Peak

No Release

1. Jam Of The Year [Live] (5:20)
2. Face Down [Live] (8:26)

Supporting tour

Jam of the Year Tour

1997/8

• Love 4 One Another Charities Tour (USA & Canada)
  35 shows from 7 January to 29 June, 1997
• Jam Of The Year Tour (USA & Canada)
  65 shows from 12 July 1997 to 22 January 1998
• Newpower Soul Tour (Europe)
  17 shows from 30 April to 28 August, 1998
• Newpower Festival (USA & Europe)
  15 shows from 23 September to 28 December, 1998

Emancipation – review

The chains have broken and Prince (Prince love symbol) celebrates his emancipation from Warner Brothers in typically abundant style: a critically acclaimed, triple album, and which for trivia lovers is the longest playing pop album in history (its exact 60/60/60 minute running times are entirely intentional). The reason for this quantity of music on Emancipation is due to Prince just passing the old material to Warner Bros. to fulfill his contract while stockpiling the new songs for this release, through rival label EMI Records. And yes he was so over Warner, denouncing on the closing song their $100m contract: “Your money’s turned from green to brown” but furthermore Prince felt truly emancipated when Emancipation struck double platinum and vindicated for casting off from the safe harbour offered by world’s largest record label. Revenge was sweet but listeners will notice a fair amount of samples of older songs from the vault. The album also contains Prince’s first covers; the fawning Betcha By Golly Wow!, I Can’t Make U Love Me and La La La Means I Love You – the best of which is One of Us. The covers are outdone by the funk of Face Down, the energy of Sleep Around and the sincerity of One Kiss At A Time. The tracks that stand out above the many others (there’s a lot to chose from) is the pulsating My Computer and the epic The Love We Make. Joint 2 Joint is also worthy and not only as the first song in popular music to sample tap-dancing (taps courtesy of Savion Glover). You don’t need to interview the composer to learn of his life’s travails, just listen to the music – beginning with the honest White Mansion recalling Paisley Park and Prince’s life in freezing Mpls. A surprising marriage of quantity, quality and sheer variety proves that a lot is to be said for artistic freedom.

Emancipation is reviewed by Goldies Parade.

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