Roadhouse Garden - The Lost Prince and the Revolution album

Date: 02 May 2024 - Author: Vas Christian

This particular period of time, when five records were made at one time. Who does that?

Five records. That was the claim made by The Revolution's Wendy Melvoin during the 2020 podcast series, Prince: The Story of Sign 'O' The Times. While discussing the development of Sign 'O' The Times, Wendy spoke about how prolific Prince and his band were during the Revolution era, stating that they had accumulated five albums worth of material over their tenure.

This oddly specific 'five records' figure wasn't a number that Wendy had just plucked from the air. In Matt Thorne's wonderful 2012 book, Prince: The Man and His Music, Wendy brings this figure up again while recounting the story of how herself and her bandmate / partner, Lisa Colman, were let go from the band.

'We got back to LA, and he took me and Lisa aside and he said, “I've got to let you go.” And we're like, “But we just finished five records of material.” So we figured the reason he let us go was that he'd lost control and needed to get it back.'

It's difficult to tell exactly what she meant by this. Had she simply meant five records worth of material, or was she referring to five specific, finished albums? Was she including albums that had already been released such as Around The World In A Day and Parade, or was she only referring to music that was waiting to be unleashed such as Dream Factory or The Flesh?

It's unclear exactly which five she was referring to, however in a separate quote during the same podcast, she does list a variety of albums (some released, some not) that Prince had worked on within a few years of finishing Purple Rain…

This is like, during Around The World In A Day, Sign 'O' The Times, Parade, Dream Factory, Roadhouse Garden, Crystal Ball. All these records were all being done at once.

Out of the albums she had listed, the one I was most surprised to hear included was Roadhouse Garden. Although it can be argued that Dream Factory, Crystal Ball and Sign 'O' The Times were effectively the same album at various stages of development, the records listed above are all well recognised, documented projects (within Prince circles, at least) that he had worked on during the 80s, all with the exception of Roadhouse Garden. So, what makes this one different from the others?

This is the road that leads to where I live.

The first time that Prince had presented Roadhouse Garden to his fans in the form an album was long after the breakup of The Revolution. On Wednesday, 30 September, 1998, Prince (going by the name O(+> at the time) made an announcement on his website (Love4OneAnother.com) that "Prince and the Revolution r releasing a new album on NPG". One week later, he revealed that the title for this album would be Roadhouse Garden.

Although Prince had claimed to have reached out to members of his former band to collaborate on the record, the intention wasn't to come up with any fresh material. Much like Prince's 1998 collection of previously unreleased tracks, Crystal Ball, the plan was to take pre-existing Prince and the Revolution songs, give them a bit of spit and polish, and package them together as a new album.

In 1999, Prince would occasionally drip feed information about this album through his website. This was via in-house interviews or the '? Of the week' segment (where fans were selected to ask Prince questions directly).

On Tuesday, 19th January, 1999, during an interview with Love4OneAnother, Prince revealed the following…

What is the status of Roadhouse Garden?
Roadhouse Garden got sidelined 4 a sec but it will take at the most - 3 weex 2 finish..
most of the trax were cool 2 begin with
they just needed minimal production and a mix

Any titles - or is it a surprise?
some titles include...
"Witness 4 the Prosecution"...
and...
"SPLASH"
which was one of my favorites
all the songs that Wendy and Lisa sang on were left off...
of the Crystal Ball package
2 save 4 a Revolution album

Unfortunately, despite the claim that the album was only three weeks away from completion, it never materialised. After six weeks, on 3 March 1999, an email from Prince regarding Roadhouse Garden was published on the site SonicNet.

“It has songs on it that feature The Revolution in a front role, as a band; where songs on Crystal Ball were more recent “bootlegs” with various other musicians. Some song titles include: Splash, All My Dreams and In a Dark Room with No Light. The beauty of r ownership of the master tapes will b felt when one hears the REMIXED newly digitized versions of these classic REVOLUTION songs.”

Later that year during a Q&A session, the subject of Roadhouse Garden came up again.

Question from site user 'lineafunk' -
Whatever happened to the classic track "Empty Room" and the video shown at The Gold Experience tour?
"Empty Room" will b released with many other gems on a new compilation called Prince and the Revolution's Roadhouse Garden.

Question from site user 'Arc1Love' -
R there any plans to continue the release of Roadhouse Garden?
That's a ? better posed 2 Wendy and Lisa at this stage

Although fans at the time were excited about the idea of this Roadhouse Garden album, one person who wasn't so keen on seeing it come to light was Prince's then studio engineer, H. M. Buff.

'I'm glad it didn't work out, to be honest with you. I was very excited about it, but he thought he could improve on things, so I would transfer the mix of what was there and he would add those keyboards he liked so much at the time. But we didn't work on many songs. I remember “Splash” was worked on, “Roadhouse Garden” and “Wonderful Ass” once again came out of the Vault. Maybe there were a couple more that I don't remember.' - H.M.Buff (Prince: The Man and His Music, 2012)

Once we entered the new millennium, Roadhouse Garden was seemingly dead. Prince never mentioned it again. However, fans did get one final glimpse into what the album may have become. In the years that followed, graphic designer Steffen Bieker (who had previously worked on Prince's Crystal Ball website) included two unused album covers in his portfolio that Prince had commissioned. One was for an album simply titled Live, and the other was for an album called All My Dreams. It's never been confirmed but given that All My Dreams was a very popular Prince and the Revolution outtake slated for Roadhouse Garden, it's been speculated by fans that this may have been a relic of what the album became before being shelved indefinitely.

It's unknown if Prince ever had a final sequence in mind, however tracks that were considered / speculated to be included were…

It's Roadhouse Garden's status as a retrospective collection which was why I was so surprised that Wendy Melvoin mentioned it by name, while listing albums that she'd worked on with Prince. Sure, it works as a sort of catch all term for material that didn't make the final cut on any particular album, but surely she didn't mean that there was an actually Roadhouse Garden album that existed in the 80s? Well, according to fellow band mate, Dr. Matt Fink, there may have been.

Again, while being interviewed for Matt Thorne's book, Dr. Fink claimed that he couldn't recall there being an album that Prince was working on named Dream Factory. However, he did recall that Prince was “three quarters” finished with an album named Roadhouse Garden.

I must admit that at the time I read this, I didn't believe it. Thorne himself admitted that Fink's memory wasn't the sharpest when discussing material that he'd recorded with Prince in the 80s.

When I talked to Matt Fink about this era, he struggled to recall some of the songs, and needed me to jog his memory with song titles.

Surely Fink had simply confused the title Dream Factory (an album that Prince had trial sequenced a number of times prior to the Revolution breaking up in 1986), with the title of this retrospective collection that Prince was contemplating releasing in the late 90s / early 2000s. Upon further investigation, it turns out that it may have been me that was mistaken.

See the house? Open the door.

I have the follow-up album to 1999. I could put it all together and play it for you, and you would go 'Yeah!' And I could put it out, and it would probably sell what 1999 did. But I always try to do something different and conquer new ground. – Prince (Rolling Stone magazine, September 1985)

For decades, fans have speculated and rumoured about the possibility that Prince had worked on many other shelved albums between official releases. These records have been affectionally termed 'the inbetweener albums.' If you've circulated amongst enthusiastic Prince fans for long enough, then you've likely heard whispers of 'the test cassette that Prince took on tour that was never released', or 'the alternate follow up album mentioned in a fanzine' that no one can seem to track down.

One fan that swore blind to have read about an unreleased follow up to 1999 was a forum user from Prince.org that went by the username of Blackguitaristz. In the mid-00s, he occasionally posted about an article that he'd read in a magazine, claiming that Prince had the album ready but abandoned it when he was given the green light to begin work on the Purple Rain movie. The title of this alleged album was The Dance Electric.

1983 "Aborted" Prince Album "The Dance Electric" (27 April 2004) [Archive Link]
Urban Legend/1983 "Dance Electric" album? (28 April 2004) [Archive Link]
The Dance Electric (14 October 2005) [Archive Link]
Also mentioned in another thread (on page 3) (06 November 2006) [Archive Link]

Cool story bro, except that Blackguitaristz' claim had a flaw. The title track, The Dance Electric, didn't exist until late 1984, months after work had wrapped up on Purple Rain and during the recording sessions that made up Around The World In A Day. As a matter of fact, Blackguitaristz' story often contained inconsistencies.

In 2004 he'd claimed to have read about this unreleased album in the magazines Sounds and Right On. However, by 2006 he was saying that he'd read about it in Black Beat. He also claimed that this unreleased album was alleged to have contained versions of The Beautiful Ones, Computer Blue and Darling Nikki (songs that we know were intentionally recorded with Purple Rain in mind).

As such, Blackguitaristz was often shot down for making this claim. However, he wouldn't back down, stating that it was possible that The Dance Electric may have existed as a concept at some point prior to the recording of the 1984 funk track that we have all come to know. I myself have made a cursory effort to track down such an article and verify these claims, unfortunately retro Black Beat magazines have become something of collectors' items and are not the easiest things to come by.

Other songs that Blackguitaristz had claimed to have read were included on The Dance Electric were Electric Intercourse, Extraloveable and 100mph.

Nevertheless, I was familiar with Prince's 1985 claim that he had a follow up to 1999 in storage, however I never took that quote too literally. I took it to mean that he could have created a follow up from shelved material had he wanted to (hence him saying 'I could put it all together'). I never took it to mean that anything substantial existed.

I would still be of that mindset today, had it not been for a single reply to a 20-year-old forum post discussing this phantom album. A post made by 'a ghost from the past'. Enter 'the man with the scary face'.

Is the demon a liar?

As fans, our collective knowledge of Prince's unreleased work may not be entirely comprehensive, however it is extensive. We may still have blind spots, particularly when it comes to Prince's post 90s recordings, but that doesn't detract from the fact that we possess a vast amount of information regarding Prince's songs, album and various other endeavours (movies, plays, etc.)

There are a great many bandmates, former employees, archivists, private collectors and writers that we owe our gratitude to when it comes to acquiring this information, however one key figure that has shared some incredible revelations over the decades is an individual who goes by the name Neversin.

Neversin has been kind enough to speak to me online briefly and very occasionally in recent years, however, I mainly know him through reputation. Neversin was not only employed by Prince in some capacity throughout the 90s and 00s but was also a friend to Prince. Through his close personal and professional connection to Prince, Neversin has become one of the most renown archivists of his work.

Over the years he has contributed information to books released by Prince sessionographer, Per Nilsen, has been credited in the acknowledgement section of Duane Tudahl's Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions 1983 1984 book, and used to be very active on Prince forums / message boards. He has since become more reclusive in recent years, but still maintains a presence in Prince circles.

The depths of his knowledge and the accuracy in what he has revealed over the decades cannot be overstated. Have you heard of songs such as Adonis & Bathsheba, Cosmic Day, Teacher Teacher, Vagina or Prince's original version of We Can Fuck? Neversin certainly had. He was discussing these songs online way before they were common knowledge. Forum users at the time even accused him of making them up, since these were previously unheard of amongst even the most committed fans, but he never lied.

What about details of unreleased albums such as the late 80s version of Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic? Early versions of released albums such as Come and The Gold Experience? Or details of unused artwork such the cover of the High album (before pictures of it were ever published)? What about Prince's short film, The Hard Life? All common knowledge amongst fans today, but a very different story when Neversin began discussing them.

The point I'm trying to hammer home is that when Neversin speaks, you'd be wise to listen. Why is this relevant? Because Neversin did respond on a forum thread regarding this rumoured Dance Electric album. In 2005, forum user BinaryJustin asked about this supposedly shelved follow up to 1999.

Forum frequenter, BorisFishpaw, responded to the question with the following intel. 'Prince has mentioned that there was an 'inbetween' album shelved in '83 but he's never said what it was called or disclosed its tracklisting as far as I know.' To which Neversin replied with three words, "Katrina's Paper Dolls"

The Dance Electric (14 October 2005) [Archive Link]

Maybe that's what makes her world go 'round

Seriously! Katrina's Paper Dolls? Don't get me wrong, it's a nice enough piece, but when placed squarely between 1999 and Purple Rain, it's hardly an earth-shattering title track, but apparently this was the case. According to Neversin, Prince had compiled a Katrina's Paper Dolls album after the completion of 1999. How far it got into development is anybody's guess? Whether it was an assembly constructed on a test cassette or got as far as having a fully mastered test pressing is unknown, but apparently it did exist in some form or fashion. So, what was on it?

The reality is, no one knows that either. At least no one has disclosed it publicly as far as I'm aware. It's not even mentioned on PrinceVault.com or within Duane Tudahl's superb book that covers Prince's 1983 studio recordings. Despite this, both Prince Vault and Duane's book may hold some clues.

Despite being as prolific as ever in 1983, Prince appeared to have been working through projects in a focused and systematic manner. Work on Purple Rain began two to three weeks prior to the Triple Threat tour ending. On Saturday, 26 March, 1983, Prince visited Sunset Sound studio in California, where he recorded Jungle Love with The Time. For the month that followed, Prince worked on The Time's Ice Cream Castle album pretty much exclusively.

Towards the end of April, Prince would pick up with girlfriend and protégé, Vanity, and sessions for her follow up LP would begin to overlap with Ice Cream Castle. The plan was that both albums would be products of the Purple Rain project as a whole. Once the body of work was finished on both Ice Cream Castle and the Vanity record, Prince began to focus on the main Purple Rain soundtrack LP, spending the summer working on songs such as Darling Nikki, and rehearsing numbers including Let's Go Crazy and I Would Die 4 U.

It's clear that from the end of March onwards, Prince was well and truly on the Purple train. There simply wasn't room for anything else. Had Prince completed a Katrina album, the only window he would have had to do it was on the Triple Threat tour itself. In fact, it was during this tour that the song, Katrina's Paper Dolls, was recorded.

There are four songs that we know of that Prince recorded during the Triple Threat tour, prior to locking in with The Time for Ice Cream Castle.

Since Katrina's Paper Dolls wasn't recorded until Tuesday, 1 March, the album couldn't have been completed earlier than this date. The implication is that if the record was ever compiled, it must have been done in March during the second leg of the tour (or sometime shortly after while Prince was already working on The Time and Vanity's records).

So, possible candidates for a Katrina's Paper Dolls album includes some combination of the four tracks mentioned above, likely with some of the remaining songs recorded during the 1999 sessions (a period of recording that resulted in many unutilised tracks, such as Lust U Always, Purple Music and Do Yourself a Favour). It has been rumoured by more than a couple of fans that I've spoken to that Baby You're a Trip (8 July 1982, Sunset Sound, CA) was one of the recordings that Prince pulled from the shelf for inclusion on this album, however I've never had this confirmed.

On the subject of 1999 era tracks, at some point after Wendy Melvoin had replaced Dez Dickerson in the Revolution, Prince pulled an outtake from storage named Extraloveable. It was originally part of a working track list for 1999, but was replaced by D.M.S.R. Towards the end of the track, Prince does a roll call of band members, however it appears that at some point, Prince had updated the lyrics to reflect the fact that Dez was no longer a member. It's long been speculated that this revision was made relatively soon after Wendy joined. My question would be, why do it all? Why go to the effort of revising the track unless Prince had the intention of putting it out.

It's unclear as to exactly when Wendy formally replaced Dez, however Prince did add Wendy to his payroll during the Triple Threat tour, and Dez was recording solo work such as Modernaire as early as May 1983. So, although the window of opportunity is tight, it is possible that Extraloveable may have been revised with Katrina's Paper Dolls in mind.

It could be argued that due to Electric Intercourse's affiliation with Purple Rain, that this song may never have been intended for Katrina. This is certainly possible. Either it was specifically recorded with Purple Rain in mind, or it may have been included on Katrina originally, and later repurposed for Purple Rain.

What is interesting however, is how Wonderful Ass and Strange Relationship were both recorded adjacent to Katrina. Wonderful Ass being a song so closely associated with the Roadhouse Garden album (more on that later), and Strange Relationship which (much like Moonbeam Levels) seemed to be a song that Prince pulled out on several occasions while working on albums, struggling to find a home for it. This may offer us some clues as to what ended up happening with the Katrina record.

The knowledge of a Katrina's Paper Dolls album is fascinating in itself, but what does this have to do with Roadhouse Garden? Possibly more than you think.

Talking About The Roadhouse Garden

What proof is there that a Roadhouse Garden album actually existed in the 80s?

Matt Fink certainly seemed to think so, but as previously stated, his memory when it came to song titles was a little hazy during his interviews with Matt Thorne. Is it a leap to suggest that his memory when it came to album titles may also have been confused?

Wendy Melvoin also alleged to have worked on it during her time with Prince, but could she have been speaking metaphorically about the unhoused Revolution songs that Prince began rounding up in the late 90s? Probably not!

Although specific details about this album have never been published, in 2014 journalist and Prince.org moderator, Casey Rain, revealed something fascinating on his Tumblr page.

Never before seen unused Prince album cover art designed by Neon Park, who did album covers for Little Feat, Frank Zappa, David Bowie and more. It's thought that Prince commissioned this in 1985 for the “Roadhouse Garden” album which was never released.

I have to admit, this completely passed me by when it was first revealed and has only come to my attention in recent months. There is no way that this was commissioned for the late 90's Roadhouse Garden, since the artist tragically passed away in 1993. This reveal is huge!

The revealed artwork by Neon Park seemed to mimic the style of painter, Margaret Keane (thank you, Purple Rabbit Hole, for pointing this out). In addition to what appears to be a signature, the only other visible text on the painting are the words 'Imposter Destroy!' in a small bubble to the top right. I have no idea what the significance of 'Imposter Destroy!' is. Was this a working title for the album? Was it a title that Park had come up with himself?

Just the suggestion that this could have been intended for an 80's Roadhouse Garden is one thing, however confirmation of this artwork's authenticity by an insider potentially revealed more. Earlier this year in a Discord server for Prince fans, forum user Mr. Z was working on some homemade album art for a compilation playlist titled The Dance Electric, inspired by the urban legend that was championed by fans such as Blackguitaristz. The artwork wasn't anything overtly complicated. Simply consisting of a Purple Rain era photo of Prince with some stylised text, but it served its purpose.

When Mr. Z asked for the opinion of other users on the server, Neversin stepped in again with the following comment…
Make one with Neon Park's rejected “Imposter Destroy!” artwork for it when it was already called “Roadhouse Garden”…

Not only had Neversin confirmed that the Neon Park painting was indeed commissioned by Prince for the album that became Roadhouse Garden, but had he also, in a roundabout way, confirmed that The Dance Electric urban legend was also true?

It depends on how you interpret his words. Was Neversin suggesting that Prince commissioned artwork for a Roadhouse Garden album, and Park included the wrong title on the cover. Or was he saying that Prince had commissioned the artwork for a Dance Electric album (just like Mr. Z was working on), but the title had changed by the time the painting was delivered? Why else would Neversin bring up the Neon Park artwork within the context of a fan made Dance Electric album?

Either way, it's evident that a lost Prince and the Revolution album did exist, and that Fink wasn't wrong about Prince working on a Roadhouse Garden record. So, what was on it? Fortunately, we do have one final clue to bring this all together.

This is the house where we used to play.

The final piece of the puzzle fell into place in a similar manner to how the Imposter Destroy painting did, with Casey Rain revealing one detail, and Neversin bringing it into focus. This exchange began on Prince.org on Wednesday, 19 April, 2017.

EXCLUSIVE - Purple Rain Deluxe Tracklist Revealed! [Archive Link]

It was on this day that Casey had revealed the track list for the upcoming Purple Rain Deluxe package. Included within the set was a disc of 12 previously unreleased bonus tracks (12 when counting Our Destiny and Roadhouse Garden as independent tracks).

When forum user 'Purpleized3121' questioned whether Our Destiny / Roadhouse Garden belonged on a package of Purple Rain outtakes, since they'd heard that they were part of their own album, Neversin replied…

There's a finished album between "Purple Rain" and "Around The World In A Day"...
And now it seems some of the tracks from that album are bunched up on the "Purple Rain" Deluxe set, where they don't belong...

Our Destiny & RoadHouse Garden - weren't these for a separate album project.... [Archive Link]

He'd done it again! A second 'inbetweener' confirmed. This time it was the shelved follow up to Purple Rain. Since this collection includes both The Dance Electric and Roadhouse Garden, it's likely that this was the album that Mono Park created artwork for. It's also likely that this was the rumoured album that Blackguitaristz conflated with 1983's Katrina's Paper Dolls, especially since it appears that some of the tracks contained on it were salvaged from the Katrina sessions.

To avoid confusion, I'll refer to this album as Roadhouse Garden, however it's entirely possible that this album may have been titled The Dance Electric for a time during late '84 - early '85, and was later re-sequenced omitting the title track, thus becoming Roadhouse Garden.

When was this album assembled? It's difficult to know for certain since none of Per Nilsen's works, PrinceVault.com or Duane Tudahl's book have any information of such a record. However, Neversin did claim that this album had existed after Purple Rain and before Around The World In A Day. Given how additional work was being done on the tracks Our Destiny, Roadhouse Garden and The Dance Electric in late September through to early October, 1984, and that the Purple Rain tour began on 4 November, 1984 (upon which Prince recorded the final song and assembled Around The World In Day in December, 1984), the likely sweet spot for the assembly of Roadhouse Garden is October, 1984.

One area of contention when trying to work out what Prince's intentions were for this album, is the tremendous overlap between the development of Roadhouse Garden and Around The World In A Day. Is it likely that Prince was finishing off one album while powering through the development of a new one? Also, if Prince really was making an alternate follow up album to Purple Rain at the same time as Around The World In A Day, why isn't more known about it?

I too continually question how likely this actually is, however it should be noted that other than the recording dates for the individual songs on Around The World In A Day, we do not actually have a great deal of information on how the album took shape over time. With records such as Purple Rain, Parade, Sign 'O' The Times and Lovesexy, we have intel on preliminary versions of each album. We know a little about how these albums took shape during their growth. As it stands, all we know about Around The World In A Day is the released track list. We have no additional information about which other songs were considered for the record (other than Moonbeam Levels, which engineer Susan Rogers claimed was considered for almost every Prince album she'd worked on) or were substituted out until Prince reached a final sequence.

Since this is the case, we do not know if Roadhouse Garden / The Dance Electric was a preliminary version of Around The World In A Day which underwent such a drastic overhaul during the Purple Rain tour, that it ended up becoming a very different album. If this is the case, then it's possible that there might be some overlap in the tracks. Is it possible that songs such as Pop Life or America could have been included on Roadhouse Garden?

However, one theory that I find more appealing as a fan, is the idea that Prince was deliberately working on two solo albums in tandem, just as he did a decade later with Come and The Gold Experience. On the one hand you have Roadhouse Garden, the spiritual follow up to Purple Rain, featuring more songs recorded and overdubbed from Prince's legendary First Avenue performances. On the other hand, you have the more subversive Around The World In A Day. An album that Prince recorded to stretch his legs and offer something different, proving that he could be more than just the Purple Rain guy.

The latter theory actually makes it easier to whittle down what could have been on Roadhouse Garden, since presumably there would be no overlap between itself and the released version of Around The World In A Day.

So, which of the tracks on the Purple Rain Vault Disc did Neversin recognise as belonging to Roadhouse Garden? He didn't elaborate further, however, there were clearly enough of these tracks included for him to point out the overlap. I don't know for certain, but through the process of elimination, we can make some educated guesses.

Of the 12 tracks on the vault disc, I've ruled out the following…
Love and Sex: since this was included on a sequence of Purple Rain and hence qualifies as an outtake [LINK] [ARCHIVE].
Computer Blue (Hallway Speech Version): since this is a longer edit of a Purple Rain track.
Father's Song: since this was a piece integral to the Purple Rain story.

The following haven't been ruled out entirely, but have been placed on the unlikely pile…
Electric Intercourse (Studio Version): It's possible, but unlikely, that Electric Intercourse was considered for Roadhouse Garden. On the one hand, it was a song recorded for the Purple Rain movie / soundtrack but ended up being replaced by The Beautiful Ones, which explains its inclusion on this vault disc. On the other hand, it was also a song born during the Katrina / Triple Threat sessions, and from the outside it looks as if Prince did throw back to a couple of the Katrina era tracks when sequencing Roadhouse Garden. At the very least, had Prince seriously considered including Electric Intercourse on Roadhouse, I would have hoped that he'd of at least resorted to using the superior live dub than this version which sounds more like a demo.

Possessed: At first glance, Possessed belongs on the 'ruled out' pile due to it being so intrinsically linked to Purple Rain (featuring as background music in the film, and often being played on the tour). However, there were two very small factors which piqued my interest. The first was that Prince included this song in the encore of his First Avenue '84 birthday show (the same show where he recorded / debuted Our Destiny and Roadhouse Garden). The second was the parallels between Possessed in Purple Rain and It's A Wonderful Day in Under The Cherry Moon. Both tracks didn't serve a pivotal role in the film, instead just being background instrumentals, and although It's A Wonderful Day was not released back in the 80s, it was certainly long considered for inclusion on Prince's Dream Factory album (even being extended into a 12” remix). It's likely that Possessed was not included on Roadhouse, but I do have a small suspicion with this one.

So of the seven remaining tracks, which ones were likely included on Roadhouse Garden.
Our Destiny / Roadhouse Garden: Both a racing certainty.

The Dance Electric: Given all the rumours and conjecture surrounding this one, I'm convinced that this was in the Roadhouse Garden assembly at some stage of the album's development. I wouldn't even be surprised if the album was sequenced under the title The Dance Electric, with this being the opening number (just as it appears on the vault disc). According to Alan Leeds, Prince soured on the idea of releasing this song himself rather quickly, which may have led to an alternate sequence being made later, omitting The Dance Electric and making Roadhouse Garden the focal point.

Wonderful Ass: A track associated with the Roadhouse Garden collection of the late 90s. Given how this song underwent a major revision in September 1984, between the recording of the song The Dance Electric and the overdubbing sessions that polished Our Destiny and Roadhouse Garden, I'd say there was a strong possibility that Wonderful Ass was one of the original Roadhouse tracks.

Katrina's Paper Dolls: This is a difficult one. On the one hand, this song is older than most of the likely candidates for this LP, since it was recorded right at the beginning of 1983 before the Purple Rain sessions began, and didn't receive any sort of update or overdubbing in the meantime. Also, if Neversin's claim about it being the title track to its own album is correct, then it does cast some doubt on its inclusion on Roadhouse Garden. On the other hand, if it was included on Roadhouse then this may explain why this older track features on the Purple Rain Vault Disc in the first place. (If WB were indeed just padding the disc out with Roadhouse Garden tracks.) There does seem to be some correlations between this abandoned Katrina record and Roadhouse (such as Prince revisiting Wonderful Ass & Strange Relationship throughout 1984), so it's certainly possible that Katrina was also in the setlist.

Velvet Kitty Kat: As above, another difficult one. Although recorded after Triple Threat, this was an outtake intended for Vanity. A strange choice to include a song like this instead of the better-known Vanity outtakes such as Vibrator or G-Spot. Having said that, Prince did appear to take this song back for himself when he recorded a rockabilly version for the Parade album in 1985. Maybe he took it back earlier than we first thought and included a version on Roadhouse Garden?

We Can Fuck Again, a difficult one. Personally, I find it hard to believe that Prince sat on such a masterpiece for as long as he did. If I'd recorded a track as monumental as this, I'd want it released as soon as possible. However, pragmatically, what are the chances of this being included on Roadhouse Garden? It turns out not that high. Apparently, even some of the most elite of archivers and collectors didn't have a good quality version of this track until the release of Purple Rain Deluxe. I'm guessing that if Prince had included this on an unreleased album, someone in the upper echelons of Prince collecting would have had a halfway decent copy of it. That being said, there is one minor detail which implies that We Can Fuck may have at least been considered for an album at some point. The poor-quality version that was supposedly circulating amongst the more hardcore collectors for years was only around 6 minutes in length. Either the leak was incomplete, or this was an album edit of We Can Fuck, specifically cut for inclusion on an album of some sort.

In summary, this is how I would rank these tracks from most likely to be included to least…

Most likely…
Our Destiny / Roadhouse Garden
The Dance Electric
Wonderful Ass

Possible…
Katrina's Paper Dolls
We Can Fuck
Velvet Kitty Kat
Possessed

Unlikely…
Electric Intercourse (Studio Version)
Love & Sex
Fathers Song
Computer Blue (Hallway Speech Version)

We have a handful of possibilities from the vault disc, but what else could have been slated for this album? Prince may have done a lot of recording in the time between the Triple Threat and Purple Rain tours, which might have you thinking that it would be near impossible to whittle the potential pool down for Roadhouse Garden. However, what makes the process easier is that Prince actually produced almost 7 albums within this time frame…

Ice Cream Castle – The Time
Title Unknown (unreleased) – Vanity 6
Purple Rain – Prince and the Revolution
The Glamorous Life – Shelia E.
Apolonia 6 – Apolonia 6
The Family – The Family
Most of Around The World In A Day – Prince and the Revolution

Although songs did get swapped between albums / artists occasionally, a lot of tracks from '83-'84 can be rounded up and disregarded if they were intended for other projects or groups. This already slims down the pool considerably.

I'm not going to create a fully comprehensive list of songs recorded between these dates. For that, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of Duane Tudahl's incredible book Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions 1983 1984, however, I will go through the timeline and highlight specific tracks and events that may be relevant to Roadhouse Garden.

Timeline (1983 - 1984)

After Prince completed the Triple Threat tour (details of songs recorded during this time are listed above) the remainder of 1983 was dedicated to the development of Purple Rain, as such, very few solo tracks were recorded during this time that weren't tied to the project in some way. Here is a summary of Purple Rain's development to comb over what was recorded and ensure that nothing that may have been sidelined for Roadhouse Garden gets overlooked.

March and April were predominantly taken up with sessions for The Time's Ice Cream Castle album. Although this did generate a couple of outtakes such as My Summertime Thang (27 March 1983, Sunset Sound - Studio 2, CA) and Chocolate (17 April 1983, Sunset Sound - Studio 2, CA), there is no evidence to suggest that Prince had any intention of releasing these ones himself.

Between Spring and Summer, Prince worked with Vanity for her second album. This resulted in songs such as Vibrator and G-Spot (both tracked in May, 1983, Kiowa Trail Home Studio, MN) This ended up getting scrapped when Vanity left Prince, and the Purple Rain project by extension.

During this time, Prince did collaborate with a few other artists such as former bandmate, Dez Dickerson, on Modernaire and Promise To Be True (again, both tracked in May 1983, Kiowa Trail Home Studio, MN), as well as with Stevie Nicks on I Know What To Say To You (16 July 1983, Kiowa Trail Home Studio, MN). However, I doubt anything worked on during these sessions would have been considered for a Prince album.

During the Summer, Prince (along with the Revolution) began rehearsals for their First Avenue performance on Wednesday, 3 August 1983. A vital event in the recording process of the Purple Rain album. Between July and September, some studio numbers were also recorded for the album such as Darling Nikki (Mid-late July 1983, Kiowa Trail Home Studio, MN) and The Beautiful Ones (20 September 1983, Sunset Sound, CA).

During October, Apollonia is hired to replace Vanity in the movie (as such, work begins contributing her vocals to songs). Pieces of music are also recorded that were poignant to movie such as the Jill Jones ditty Wednesday and John L. Nelson's Father's Song.

On Monday, 7 November 1983, Prince makes his first attempt at assembling a Purple Rain album, creating a test pressing. Although work would continue on the record during early 1984, a significant milestone had now been reached. It wasn't until Prince began work on Shelia E's debut album in December 1983, that Prince took a bit of time to produce a few songs for himself.

Prince would spend the early months of 1984 finishing up work on Purple Rain and the albums for his affiliated artists (The Time and Shelia E). Work was also rushed through getting an album together for Apollonia 6. These Apollonia sessions resulted in the creation of Take Me With U (27 January 1984, Sunset Sound, CA), which Prince would eventually take back for his own album, and Manic Monday (4 February 1984, Sunset Sound, CA), which was later offered to The Bangles. Again, more mood pieces were recorded for the movie such as the instrumental love theme, God, another recording of Father's Song, Wendy and Lisa's instrumental rendition of Purple Rain, plus the sounds of a woman crying (which were played backwards during the movie).

However, Prince would make a few more solo recordings throughout February and March…

*NB: Paisley Park (as recorded on 9 March 1984) was not the song that would later be released on Around The World In A Day, but was in fact an unrelated instrumental. Prince would later re-use the title when recording the more widely known song, Paisley Park (September 1984).

One interesting observation was that on Tuesday. 21 February 1984, Prince made a copy of The Glamourous Life album, along with three of his solo songs (Pop Life, God (the instrumental rendition), and Another Lonely Christmas). What's interesting about these three was that two of them ended up being B-sides to the Purple Rain singles, and Erotic City was yet to be recorded. It could just be a coincidence, but maybe Prince was originally considering Pop Life to be a Purple Rain B-side?

Either way, it seems that a lot of the solo tracks recorded around this time were either considered for additional slots on the Purple Rain album, B-sides, or music to include in the movie. This is highlighted by a compilation cassette Prince made on Monday, 19 March 1984 containing some of his most recent tracks.

Of these titles…
* When Doves Cry was included on the album.
* Love & Sex was considered for the album on one of Prince's handwritten track lists but was removed.
* Another Lonely Christmas, God (Instrumental) and 17 Days were used as B-sides.
* Possessed was used as backing music within the movie.

This left Pop Life, We Can Fuck and two instrumentals unaccounted for.

By April, Prince had tied up pretty much every loose end as far as the Purple Rain project went. Erotic City was recorded on Sunday, 25 March 1984, giving him one of his final B-sides of the era (all except for the vocal version of God, which was recorded far closer to the release of the Purple Rain 7” single), the soundtrack was finished, as were most of his protégé projects. The only exception being Apollonia, since work began on her album a lot later. Either way, Prince could draw a line under Purple Rain by May 1984, and begin working on something new.

One significant event in the development of the Roadhouse Garden album, would be Prince's return to First Avenue, for a special live show on Thursday, 7 June 1984 (Prince's 26th Birthday). What's particularly interesting about this show is that the last three songs that appear on the Purple Rain album had all been recorded at this venue the year prior (I Would Die 4 U, Baby I'm A Star and Purple Rain). The songs would undergo a lot of studio treatment in the form of editing, overdubbing, and mixing, but the basic tracking was all done live in concert. It seems that Prince used his June 7 Birthday gig to try and recreate some of that Purple Rain magic, recording three new songs (Our Destiny, Roadhouse Garden and All Day, All Night), all of which received similar studio treatment in the months that followed.

During late April and May, studio versions of at least Our Destiny and Roadhouse Garden had been recorded. It wouldn't be a huge leap to presume that at least a demo of All Day, All Night was likely recorded during this period too, although there has never been any documentation to back this up. Presumably, The Revolution also spent time rehearsing these new numbers throughout this period, in addition to some of the Purple Rain material that they would be touring later in the year.

Something that I found interesting is that during this period, while these new songs were being worked on, Prince pulled one of his Katrina era songs from the shelf, Strange Relationship, and apparently did a bit of work overdubbing it. To me, this is the first indication that Prince was either updating and revising the Katrina album, adding new songs and turning it into Roadhouse Garden, or he was simply salvaging a few of his favourite tracks from that abandoned record during the development of a new one. This may explain why Wonderful Ass was soon to undergo a major revision with Wendy and Lisa's input, and why Katrina itself got mixed in with this pool of songs that ended up on the Purple Rain Vault Disc.

For years I couldn't decide whether to consider the new songs that debuted at the First Avenue Birthday show to be of the Purple Rain era or the Around The World In A Day era. This concert was pretty much the milestone that bridged the two. However, with this knowledge of the Roadhouse Garden album, I now consider this concert to be the dawning in of something new entirely. For me, these are now the first of the post Purple Rain numbers.

Although the First Avenue concert did contain flavours of Purple Rain, Prince seemed to deliberately avoid playing anything from the new album (which wasn't due to be released for another couple of weeks). Except for When Doves Cry (which had already been released as the first single), the First Avenue setlist was a mixture of fresh Roadhouse Garden material, Purple Rain B-sides and a few 1999 tracks.

It's association with Our Destiny and Roadhouse Garden makes All Day, All Night another strong contender for the Roadhouse record, however the fact that Prince chose to perform Possessed (one of the few songs that were unreleased at the time) lends some weight to the possibility that it may also have been considered. On the other hand, it can be argued that Irresistible Bitch and Possessed were performed during the encore since these were both part of the Purple Rain show repertoire that didn't include any songs from the upcoming album. The following day, Prince created a mix of Our Destiny, Roadhouse Garden and All Day, All Night.

To our knowledge, Prince didn't begin recording again until late June. His next project seemed to be an attempt to fill the void left by The Time, however it's unclear as to what Prince's intentions were straight off the bat.

There appears to be a little contradiction concerning the first couple of numbers recorded during what would eventually become The Family sessions. On Saturday, 23 June, Prince recorded an instrumental piece named Mazerati (this is how it was spelt at the time according to Warner Bros. logs). Apparently, the piece was a little bare bones after the basic tracking and didn't really take shape until Eric Leeds put a lead line on it. This would later be retitled Susannah's Pajamas and included on The Family album.

Logic would dictate that Prince originally recorded this with the band Mazarati in mind (a Minneapolis based band formed by Revolution member, Brown Mark). This chain of thought is strengthened by the fact that the following day, Prince would record a funk track by the name of 100 MPH (this being the track that would eventually appear on Mazarati's debut album).

According to Mazarati's rhythm guitarist, Tony Christian, Prince claimed that he'd recorded 100 MPH with Mazarati in mind. This suggest that Prince's intentions were to sign Mazarati and have them step into the shoes of The Time, however this didn't happen, at least not right away.

Instead, Prince decided to manufacture a new band using the remaining members of the Time. He appointed Susannah Melvoin (sister of Wendy and Prince's soon to be fiancée), along with saxophone player Eric Leeds (a wonderful musician who would become very influential on Prince's sound for the subsequent years) to join The Time's Paul Peterson, Jellybean Johnson and Jerome Benton to form The Family.

According to bass player Jerry Hubbard, who was offered a position in The Family, Prince had played him 100 MPH and asked for his opinion on whether it would be a good fit for the new band. As such, it's unclear what Prince's originally intentions were. Was he attempting to negotiate a deal with Mazarati at the time, or was his intention always to form The Family first? Were things moving too slowly for Prince with Mazarati, leading them to re-group at a later date? It does leave a bit of a question mark over the status of the song 100 MPH. Either way, it doesn't appear to be something that Prince had intended on keeping for himself.

Prince worked on the Family's record on and off from late June to mid August. The only 'Prince' track of note recorded during this period was America (23 July 1984, Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse, MN), which was born out of band rehearsals for the Purple Rain tour.

However, from the middle of August to the end of September, Prince committed a healthy run of recordings to tape at the Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse, MPLS, between rehearsals with the Revolution. The bulk of these recordings would end up on Around The World In A Day, however there were some interesting outliers that didn't…

On Wednesday 15th August, Prince would make a second attempt at recording She's Always In My Hair, however he ultimately decided that he preferred the original version. One month later he would take his original recording and spend the day mixing and dubbing it. On Friday, 17 August, he recorded The Dance Electric, a song with significant ties to this batch of Roadhouse Garden songs. After spending a couple of days working on it, Prince decided to do a vocal version of the Purple Rain love theme, God, in preparation for the mastering of the Purple Rain 7” single. At the end of God, he leaves a little clue relating to a potential future release with the closing lines referring to The Dance Electric…

Wake up, children.
Dance The Dance Electric.
There isn't much time.
Who screamed?
Was it you?

…much like he did when including a quote from Around The World In A Day in the Purple Rain tour book. On Friday, 7th September, Wonderful Ass (again, another song with strong ties to Roadhouse Garden) gets a major overhaul with additional vocals from Wendy and Lisa.

At the end of September, Prince continued working in Minneapolis, however he did send Wendy and Lisa to Sunset Sound studios in California to do additional overdubs and mixing on four songs. Between Thursday, 27 September and Tuesday, 2 October, Wendy and Lisa would do additional production on…

By the time we reach October, the Roadhouse trail begins to go cold. Prince would reach back to the Katrina era one more time at the end of October to attempt another recording of Strange Relationship. Duane Tudahl described this take of the song in his book as 'abandoned', so it's unclear if this version ended up in any sort of finished state. If Prince hadn't assembled Roadhouse Garden by this point, it's possible that this attempt at Strange Relationship was intended as a late addition, however it could just have easily been considered for Around The World In A Day instead.

If it's true that there was a finished Prince and the Revolution album between Purple Rain and Around The World In A Day, then all the songs for it must have been finished by October at the latest. Prince would record Condition of the Heart on Tuesday, 9 October, The Ladder on Wednesday, 31 October, then would depart for the Purple Rain tour (the first show being the Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, MI on Sunday, 4 November). Temptation would be the final Around The World In A Day song, recorded at Capital Studio's in LA, and the album was finished and compiled on Christmas Eve in a mobile truck outside the St Paul Civic Center in Minnesota.

After going through the timeline of 1983 to 1984, there are not a huge amount of tracks recorded during this period that are both credited to Prince and the Revolution and not associated with other projects. Here are my thoughts on potential likely contenders for a The Dance Electric / Roadhouse Garden album…

Katrina Era

Highly Likely: Wonderful Ass (Early-mid January 1983, Kiowa Trail Home Studio, MN)
Given its inclusion on the Purple Rain Vault Disc, the fact that Prince took it out of the vault for the revised Roadhouse Garden collection in the late 90s, and the fact that it underwent significant overdubbing so late in 1984, I'd rank this one as highly likely.

Likely: Katrina's Paper Dolls (1 March 1983, Universal Recording Corporation - Studio B, IL)
Given its inclusion on the Purple Rain Vault Disc (despite being recorded so early in 1983), plus the significance this song had to Prince (using it as the title track for a potential album), there's certainly a good chance that this was part of the assembly.

Possible / Unlikely: Extraloveable (3 April 1982, Sunset Sound, CA)
The fact that Prince decided to update the roll call on this song strongly suggests to me that he had plans for it outside of 1999. Even though the window of opportunity for including it on the Katrina album was so tight, I'm more inclined to believe that the song was updated for Katrina's Paper Dolls than Roadhouse Garden. Prince's little jab at Dez made more sense in the context of his departure being fresh. Post Purple Rain, a line like that would just seem petty.

Very Unlikely: Electric Intercourse (14 January 1983, Sunset Sound - Studio 2, CA)
I haven't ruled out the possibility that Electric Intercourse, being such a strong Purple Rain outtake, may have been carried forward to the next Prince and the Revolution album. Having said that, I'd like to think that the live dub of the song would trump this original studio version.

Very Unlikely: Strange Relationship (14 March 1983 - estimated date, Kiowa Trail Home Studio, MN)
I think the fact that Prince pulled this song out during the preparation of his 1984 Birthday show demonstrated that Strange Relationship was certainly a contender for Roadhouse at some point. However, the fact that Prince attempted another take of the song in late October, and ended up revising the song so heavily between 1984 and its eventual final master in late 1986, shows that Prince simply wasn't satisfied with the song in the state it was currently in.

Late 1983 / Early 1984

Likely: She's Always In My Hair (29 December 1983, Sunset Sound - Studio 3, CA)
The fact that this song didn't end up on Around The World In A Day, despite being so heavily worked on in September 1984, suggests to me that this song was certainly a contender for Roadhouse Garden. The argument can be made that Prince worked on it during this time as he'd always intended on using it as a B-side early on in the development of Around The World In A Day, and that's certainly possible. However, I'm personally of the belief that this was a contender for Roadhouse first, and was selected as a B-side a few months later in order to salvage it from a then shelved album.

Possible: We Can Fuck (30 December 1983, Sunset Sound - Studio 3, CA)
The fact that this song…
1) is such an amazing piece
2) was recorded so close to She's Always In My Hair
3) appeared on the Purple Rain Vault Disc
4) seemed to exist in the form of an album edit (possibly)
5) would be re-recorded with the Revolution in 1986
6) would eventually be salvaged on Graffiti Bridge
… all suggests to me that this could have been a significant number on Roadhouse Garden. At the same time, the fact that details surrounding this recording remained so murky for so long, with Neversin himself claiming that he only had a naff quality copy of the edit up until 2017, puts a fair amount of doubt in my mind.

Unlikely: The Dawn (7 January 1984, Sunset Sound - Studio 3, CA)
It would have been great, given that Prince ended the credit roll of Purple Rain with the message 'May u live 2 see the dawn', for The Dawn to feature on his next album. Having said that, if Warner Bros. had padded the Purple Rain Vault Disc with Roadhouse Garden tracks, and given that The Dawn was recorded smack in the middle of the Purple Rain sessions, why wasn't it also included on the vault disc?

Songs from First Avenue 1984

Certain: Our Destiny & Roadhouse Garden (7 June 1984, First Avenue, MN)
The fact that both Casey and Neversin identified Mono Park's artwork as being intended for Roadhouse Garden, all the work that went into dubbing and mixing these tracks, and the fact that they were made to segue together as a continuous piece, I'd say that both tracks were racing certainties.

Highly Likely:All Day, All Night (7 June 1984, First Avenue, MN)
Due to its association with Our Destiny and Roadhouse Garden, plus it being worked on in the same dubbing sessions as the prior, I'd say this one is also a highly likely inclusion.

Possibly: Possessed (17 March 1984, Sunset Sound, CA)
Again, given how it was included in the 1984 Birthday show, was previewed in the Purple Rain movie, and the vocal version appeared on the Purple Rain Vault Disc, it's certainly a possibility. However, the fact that it appears in all these places can also be explained away by it simply being a piece of music recorded for the Purple Rain movie, and nothing deeper than that.

Post Birthday Show.

Unlikely: 100 MPH (24 June 1984, Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse, MN)
When I first began looking into possible candidates for inclusion on Roadhouse, I briefly entertained the idea of 100 MPH being part of the running order. Partly due to Prince's ambiguous intentions for the track, and partly due to its similarities with The Dance Electric. However, after reading more into the song's history, and the fact Prince entertained the idea of offering it to the Family as well as Mazarati, I don't think Prince was ever serious about keeping this one for himself.

The Purple Rain Tour Rehearsal Sessions

Highly Likely: The Dance Electric (17 August 1984, Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse, MN)
According to Alan Leeds, there was a lot of excitement for The Dance Electric when Prince's people first heard it, however when he got the chance to speak to Prince about this one, Prince had seemingly soured on the idea of releasing it himself. Alan made it sound as if Prince had decided very quickly that this wasn't for him. I don't doubt that this was a decision that Prince made eventually (ultimately giving up the song for André Cymone to release in 1985). However, considering that Prince gave the song to Wendy and Lisa to work on, six weeks after committing it to tape (along with Our Destiny, Roadhouse Garden and All Day, All Night), I doubt that the decision came as a quickly as Alan remembers. In fact, given the rumours surrounding this unreleased album, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the working title of the record for a time.

In summary, my final guestimations for this album are...

Highly Likely / Certain:
Wonderful Ass (Early-mid January 1983, Kiowa Trail Home Studio, MN)
Our Destiny (7 June 1984, First Avenue, MN)
Roadhouse Garden (7 June 1984, First Avenue, MN)
All Day, All Night (7 June 1984, First Avenue, MN)
The Dance Electric (17 August 1984, Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse, MN)

Likely:
She's Always In My Hair (29 December 1983, Sunset Sound - Studio 3, CA)
Katrina's Paper Dolls (1 March 1983, Universal Recording Corporation - Studio B, IL)

Possible:
Electric Intercourse (3 August 1984, First Avenue, MN)
We Can Fuck (30 December 1983, Sunset Sound - Studio 3, CA)
Possessed (17 March 1984, Sunset Sound, CA)

It's almost time to go

So, what happened to this album? Despite us not knowing a definitive track list, it appears that all the likely contenders began to disperse throughout 1985, as if Prince was dismantling the record.

Wednesday, 30 January 1985 - Prince creates a short edit of She's Always In My Hair, likely in preparation for the 7” single Raspberry Beret.
Friday, 3 May 1985 - Prince mixed half a dozen songs, seemingly looking for something to offer Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles. Despite ultimately selecting Manic Monday, All Day, All Night was one of the titles considered by Prince to offer up.
Sunday, 12 May 1985 - Jill Jones recorded vocals for Our Destiny during sessions building material for her eventual debut, but the track was ultimately rejected. Although her album was a long time in the making, Jill would eventually record a lead vocal on All Day, All Night at some point in 1986, and release it in 1987.
Wednesday, 15 May 1985 - Prince makes a mix of The Dance Electric and offers the song to his childhood friend André Cymone.
Later, in March 1986, Prince would also make edits of Wonderful Ass, and considered using it as the B-side for Mountains.

It seems as if Prince spent the first half of 1985 dishing out these songs to friends and associates as fast as he could. Did Prince have a change of heart about this record? One theory I have is that Prince may have intended to release both Roadhouse Garden and Around The World In A Day in quick succession (similar to how he wanted to release Come and The Gold Experience back to back in 1994), and Warner Bros. cautious of releasing too much too quickly, told Prince to choose one and shelf the other.

There's an album here!

On the subject of 'inbetweener' albums, had you have asked me last year 'when was the most likely period for a lost Prince and the Revolution album to exist?', the period between Purple Rain and Around The World In A Day would probably be my least likely choice. Yes, there were a small handful of outtakes that were unaccounted for, but these could easily have been explained away as tracks considered for Around The World In A Day that didn't make the final cut. However, there was a period where Prince recorded many original songs that are not associated with any particular project, and this was from the middle to the end of 1985.

The body of the Parade album was recorded over a very short period of time. The first recording made for the album was Life Can Be So Nice, recorded in the early hours of Wednesday, 17 April 1985 (having worked through the night on 16 April). The first assembly and test pressing for the album was finished on Wednesday, 1 May 1985. As such, the initial version of the album was recorded and mastered over a period of about 2 weeks. In fact, 9 of the 11 tracks were recorded over a five-day period.

A preliminary version may have been assembled, but Prince would continue to make tweaks to the record until the end of the year, mainly by replacing some of the numbers with more commercial / radio friendly songs that would be used for singles. Apart from these sporadic updates, the body of the work was done. The album had a structure.

Despite not having a great deal left to do on the album, plus factoring in that Prince had fewer associates around to record for*, this didn't stop him from recording amazing songs (many of which still haven't been released to this day).

*During this period The Time was long disbanded, Appalonia was now surplus to requirements, The Family project was short lived, and Madhouse hadn't formed as of yet. Aside from Sheila E. and Jill Jones, Prince didn't have many outlets for his music during this time.

In addition to all of these gems, Prince also requested that Wendy and Lisa spend some time at The Complex Studios in Los Angeles, doing additional production on some of his vault tracks…

It was during these sessions that Lisa would compose Carousel (Thursday, 27 June 1985), which Prince would later re-work into Power Fantastic (19 March 1986, Galpin Blvd Home Studio, MN), and Wendy would get the ball rolling on Mountains (30 November 1985, Washington Avenue Warehouse, MN). After returning from California, Wendy & Lisa also did additional work on Girl O My Dreams (Originally recorded: Spring-Summer 1982; Updated: 21 July 1985 at the Washington Avenue Warehouse, MN).

Just as Prince had done during the Purple Rain sessions, on Wednesday, 25 September 1985 he compiled a cassette of his most recent tracks, seemingly to select potential B-Sides for his singles.

Just this partial selection of the tracks he'd been working on, demonstrates the quality of his output during the time…

What strikes me as incredible is that, despite the fact that the vast majority of these tracks were never intended for a particular album (at least not that we know of), Prince could have effortlessly selected 9 or 10 tracks from this period and constructed an amazing record. It's as if he was letting off steam from producing Under The Cherry Moon by making another killer album at the same time.

When discussing the concept of an 80's Roadhouse Garden album amongst friends within the Prince fandom, songs like Go and Empty Room often get floated as possible contenders (likely through their association with the compilation Prince was considering in the 90s). Personally, I'm not so sure. The idea that Prince made an album after 1999 (Katrina's Paper Dolls), and then then decided to salvage parts of it to make Roadhouse Garden, that is something I can believe. But the idea that Prince would revive this album for a second time after Parade, that's a bit harder to digest. I think the fact that Prince worked so hard and fast to dismantle the album in early 1985 says to me that Prince was ready to move on to new things. I could be wrong.

Speaking of Prince's compilation project, it's fascinating to think that had Prince released a Roadhouse Garden album in 1999 as originally intended, that means he would have released three albums in succession, all named after records that he'd abandoned in the 80s (Crystal Ball (1998), Roadhouse Garden (1999), and Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (1999)). He clearly wanted to make up for a lot of missed opportunities at this time.

Unfortunately (as is often the case a lot of the time when peaking behind the curtain at Prince's unreleased work), we're left with more questions than answers. Will we ever have definitive insider knowledge surrounding any of these unreleased projects? Well, it's been 40 years already. Chances are that if any track lists or test cassettes were ever going to surface, they would have done so by now. As such, my hopes aren't high for this one.

There is one final point I would like to finish on. We may never know exactly what Prince's intention was for Roadhouse Garden, but we do know, at the very least, that it exists as a concept. We may never know if a track list was ever set in stone, but we have a decent idea of what songs were likely intended for it. For whatever reason, Prince didn't take the opportunity to release this album in his lifetime, but as fans often say, we are the ones carrying his legacy forward now. Either you can wait another 40 years for Prince's estate to release it, or you can get to work and be your own executive producer. Just as Morris Hayes did for Welcome 2 America, I encourage every fan to open your DAW software, gather the songs together, make up some cover art and have fun with it. If you don't know how, buddy up with a fan who does. This year, find this lost Prince and the Revolution album for yourself, and dance the dance electric. (There isn't much time!)

Special Thanks To...

Neversin ● Casey Rain ● Matt Thorne (thank you so much for the updated copy of your amazing book) ● Duane Tudahl ● jooZt, Edgar Kruize, and everyone else with a hand maintaining PrinceVault ● Joris who was a great help with this subject ● Silent Mikey for tipping me off to some of these crucial forum posts ● Scififilmnerd and the rest of the team behind the purple door (you know who you are) ● Bert C for the inevitable spelling and grammar corrections I’ll be sent ● Nightchild ● Mr. Ant ● Mr. Purp7e Mu2ic ● Danny ● Brandon ● Paul Natkin ● H. M. Buff ● Steffen Bieker ● Neon Park (Rest In Peace) ● Wendy Melvoin, Matt Fink and the rest of The Revolution ● Katrina (Forever loved, never forgotten) ● And as always, the funkiest man who ever lived, Prince.

Additional reading...

Prince: The Man and His Music - Matt Thorne
Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions 1983 1984 - Duane Tudahl

Note: Updated on 3 May 2024 to correct some minor errors. Thank you to everyone who contributed corrections.