With a chilling introduction on iTunes, this is not an album one can easily forget: “You are forgiven if you feel a little uncomfortable listening to these recordings; you were never meant to.”
Piano and a Microphone 1983, released on Sept. 21 of this year, is a posthumous studio album compiled of cassette demos sang by the late and great Prince. Each song on the album was recorded solely by Prince as he sat at his piano and played songs that were later released or yet to be released, simply to get the feel of whether the song felt right as he was playing it.
According to Billboard, “the tape had been heavily bootlegged for years but with substandard sound. Michael Howe, Prince’s final artists-and-repertoire person at Warner Bros. Records while the musician was alive, was a fan of the tape and wanted to find the master copy. He found it in Prince’s vault, home to thousands of unreleased Prince recordings and live performances.”
It is a beauty and privilege to hear the raw brilliance of Prince’s artwork. If you close your eyes and listen, you can imagine yourself in the room while Prince is sitting at the piano, jamming out to his conceivably next top hit. Being able to witness, in a sense, something we would not have even known existed otherwise is a matter of luck, or better yet, serendipity.
Knowing the intimacy in which the songs were recorded, listening to this album is as if we are peeking into Prince’s soul. To be inside the mind of a gifted artist, even if it is just a toe in the door, is taking a glimpse into another world entirely.
Among the nine songs included on the album, you are sure to recognize Purple Rain, released in 1984, and International Lover, released in 1982.
Photo from : https://flypaper.soundfly.com/editorial/tribute-to-the-music-of-prince/
