Why Legacy’s latest reissues are cause to celebrate

The decision of Sony Legacy to release twelve of Prince’s Warner era, non-soundtrack, albums, together, offers a long overdue celebration of his past releases – some the most recognisable music of the last forty years. A release catalogue Prince himself chronically under-valued throughout his later career.

Prince’s mind was unsentimentally set to the future, fostering no desire to remaster or restock his back catalogue, particularly since splitting from Warner in 1993 – not wishing to encourage sales. His mid- and late career albums passed in a rapid succession of short notice releases, sometimes given away free. On occasion, there was even a counter release issued to frustrate the success of the other. Prince was unerringly good at selling his music short. His rate of output proved impossible for record execs to hope to reap a profit out of the sales – the 80s and 90s saw Prince’s output reach breakneck speed, but the best stuff – in his own words – was stored securely in the vault, putting pay to any ambition Warner harboured to recoup its $100m investment. The relationship with their prized signing soured and, once independent, Prince was free to take any route to market he saw fit – from perfume here, to free covermount, and video game there. From a fan’s perspective the ever changing methods needed with which to obtain his music turned ever more complex. Each release inevitably involved following a new goose chase for that Target exclusive here or impossible to navigate, heaving loading, dial-up hating subscription website there – I yearned for a conventional release, you know, the dull normality of notice and guaranteed availability.

As a Prince fan, the euphoria of a release announcement would be tempered by a half-convinced belief that the purple rug could be pulled clean from under my feet at any moment. Those who were fans in the 90s were wised up to never taking releases for granted until the thing was firmly in your hands. But when it came it heightened the sense of occasion. Releases were rarely stress free, but the end result was always rewarding. Yet in live settings Prince freely dived into his hits and B-side rarities, including the tracks he wrote for other artists – if only people could buy them. His 1990s output dwindled from record store shelves, never to be seen of again: Emancipation, Newpower Soul, Crystal Ball, Rave, Chaos And Disorder, Come… gone.

Roll forward to 2019, when the inaugural tranche of Sony reissues returned three long-missed albums to the high street record store. They hadn’t vanished because Prince’s late career music were not worthy against his 1980 masterpieces, one look at Prince’s Billboard chart history will show Musicology, 3121, Planet Earth, LotusFlow3r and Art Official Age all charted within the top 5 – his many other releases were simply ineligible. Thereby walking into a record store to pick up and buy the new Sony Legacys returned the sense of excitement that it is to buy Prince’s music – the proper way. Picking them up in my hand rather than up from the doormat. Choosing “the one” and rushing home to put it on. Taking the day off specially. Despite not intending to, having already owned the originals, I snapped up the reissues and I treasure them just as much.

Whilst Legacy Recording’s latest batch, twelve albums spanning Prince’s Warner tenure, is actually the second wave of the same titles to hit the shops within a year. First reissued by Warner throughout 2020 ahead of their 1 January 2021 rights transfer deadline to Sony, it had been done so quietly many would barely notice the rebranding to the sunrise Warner Records logo (I thought that was pretty cool and bought the whole lot on that basis). The Legacy releases shall deserve fanfare: freshly retouched, re-pressed, repackaged and enhanced, the subtle touches of care. February will see me back to gather my third copy of these albums. To have Prince’s Warner era join the Sony reissues of his later career albums breathes new life into these iconic releases. Prince had no care whether fans could buy his music or not. But I do, and chomp at the bit to buy all twelve.

Whereas some fans have Tweeted disapproval The Prince Estate is not focussed on emptying the vault of the unreleased material. Indeed, having celebrated the fact last year’s Record Store Day vinyl reissue of The Truth as 2021s most sold LP on Discogs – The Prince Estate missed the point this second-hand marketplace is awash with sellers inflating the price of this $25 release. This misstep of offering “exclusivity” is not the road to embark because it “excludes” fans from what are well-intentioned releases. We all must support the proper curation these albums through wide and “normal” releases. The reissuing of the albums we love the most hardly constitute as money for old rope. There remains plenty of new stuff to look forward too, and it will come. A Super Deluxe Edition of Diamonds And Pearls looks most likely in 2022, and there’s hope for further reissues too. Highest on hitlists will be the internet only albums Xpectation (released 19 years ago to this day), C-NOTE, The Slaughterhouse and The Chocolate Invasion – oddly the products of Prince’s least commercially successful era, yet otherwise impossible music to own without subscription to a streaming service. As we begin the New Year we must reflect on this moment with good feeling for the future when in February we’d have seen the past saved for posterity.