The War Prince single

NPG Records

single

“The Evolution will be corlorized”

The War is a 26-minute jam performed live in front of an audience at Paisley Park Studios by Prince backed by the New Power Generation on 20 June 1998. The released portion is edited down from the original 46-minute long jam. The track’s theme is the Armageddon of the human race. The War was released as Prince under the name of The Artist Formally Known As Prince (Prince Love Symbol), initially as a RealAudio download from love4oneanother.com on 21 June offered for a token $1. From 1 July it was available in physical format initially on cassette and later CD available for purchase through his official merchandise outlet 1800newfunk.com, despite the back cover bearing the print “4 promotional use only”. The cassette version was given away with sales of Crystal Ball by way of an apology due to the delay to process the 250,000 mail orders taking so long to fulfil.

My old record company would never allow me to release something like that.

The track becomes ever more profound and time passes. In it, Prince warns of the essentials of life running out of resources, nationalism, and questions where this will end: a microchip in your neck. In view of more recent events, such as COVID, the invasion of Ukraine and the climate emergency, The War carries as much relevance today than did in 1998.

The artwork pictures NPG’s bassist Rhonda Smith giving birth to the world. Its pioneering use of internet distribution, The War was the Yahoo! Best Internet Only Single of 1999 and was later additionally available in digital format from NPG Music Club on 26 March 2005. It is the longest track ever released by Prince.

Performers

Vocals/Guitar

Prince Love Symbol

Drums

Kirk Johnson

Guitar

Kathleen Dyson

Rhythm Guitar

Mike Scott

Keyboards

Morris Hayes

Bass Guitar

Rhonda Smith

Backing vox

Marva King

Data

Producer

Prince Love Symbol

Label

NPG Records

Distribution

NPG Records

Released

28 years ago on 21 July 1998

Running Time

26:00

US Chart Peak

Ineligible

UK Chart Peak

Ineligible

Orig. Formats

Tracklist

1. The War (26:00)

The War single review

Profoundly unique within the canon of Prince’s releases, The War is a mighty 26 minute jam live session captured at Paisley Park played in front of an audience on 20 June 1998, which are heard in track chanting to the music. Backed with the full NPG, the music is hypnotic and later on develops out with lyrics – a rallying cry for freedom. Not just creative freedom as was his long-standing campaign at that time but personal freedoms whether racially, spiritually, or political. “The War will go on and on” is the theme Prince aligns with to length of the song, the longest track he would create over his career.

Its narrative poses the decision whether to go to a land of paradise at the expense of a microchip placed in your neck. This was a notion made popular by the X-Files TV series at that time, its central storyline rooted on government led human experimentation. The War closes out with Prince on guitar delivering the highlight. To push home the theme of freedom The War was issued first on cassette which was mailed free to anyone who had placed an order for the Crystal Ball CD set. It was a living demonstration of artistic freedom, that free from recording contracts, Prince could put out anything and under whatever distribution method he wanted, even give it away free. Despite its length, The War requires no commitment to hear it through and is a corner of Prince’s discography everyone is advised to visit.

The War is rated 4 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.