The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale - Prince (CD 1999)

Now typically I wouldn t pay more than $10 for a CD with only 10 songs that didn t even reach 50 minutes long but I think this album is an exception. Here, Warner Brothers got their hands on a few songs that Prince might not have intended to release. The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale is a collage of material that the liner notes say, was written during the period beginning 1/23/85 and ending 6/18/94 and was originally intended 4 private use only. This original intention is definitely expressed by Prince in the cover art. It features him lounging backwards in a chair, elbow resting on the back of the chair, chin in hand, and eyes closed. To say the least, he doesn t look the least interested. The only other picture in the liner notes is one with his head down bent over in the chair. My guess is that this is what Warner Brothers intends to do with Prince for the rest of his career. This album came out just before or around the same time as Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic and hit the shelves with no promotion at all. Warner Brothers would do the same in 2001 when Prince began his Hit N Run tour just before his Rainbow Children release by dropping another greatest hits CD. It really contained virtually the same songs as The Hits and B-sides CDs released back in the nineties only minus the B-sides. The liner notes in this EP sized release have no song info aside from who performed and assisted in the creation of the songs. Drab to the maximum.

Despite the length disappointment, the quality of the songs is quite astounding in my eyes. It seems as if a majority of these songs show off Prince s attempts and experimentations with jazz and blues during the period of time listed. The result is 10 fairly decent additions to any Prince collection that shouldn t be overlooked.

The Rest Of My Life is a less than 2 minute little song that jumps off with some lively piano play and kicks off into some jazzy hornplay and a couple of decent solos that really set the tone for the first couple of songs on the album. It is still too short though.

It s About That Walk is a jazzy tune that has the same flava as Courtin Time (from Emancipation) and Pretty Man (bonus track on Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic featuring Maceo Parker). It features a swing styled beat and has some lively and truly invigorating hornplay from the NPG hornz. It is a playful and happy tune that is danceable. I like it because it has a lot of positive energy throughout. This song is a great exploration of sound for Prince that shows his immense versatility and genius.

The next song is a jazzy extended version of She Spoke 2 Me which was featured originally on the Girl 6 Soundtrack. Here Prince goes through the song just as in the original and at the end, he jumps into a jazzy jam session with the band. It includes a jazz guitar solo, keys solo, a bass guitar solo, and a drum/saxophone duet that are worth the eight and a half minutes of the song. It is a great addition to any Prince compilation. It's a smooth and mellow track that is beautifully extended in a way that doesn t lose the vybe of the original song. For me, this made the album worth dishing out some dough for.

5 Women is a perfect blues song where Prince has a great blues guitar solo that reminded me of B.B. King and Lucille. This song is five minutes of blues bliss. I like this track a lot too.

When The Lights Go Down is a beautifully made seven minute tune with some jazzy and blues undertones within. With a sexy little grove and the title as a theme you do the math!! Definitely a mid tempo romantic tune, Prince kicks the song off with a hoppin piano solo accompanied by softly playing bongos and a jazzy rhythm guitar holding a simple tune. Prince does it up on this one. After hearing these three songs in a row, I instantly met my personal purchase quota where if I like more than 3 songs on the album, it is a worthy purchase.

My Little Pill is one of those spacey weird one minute songs that sounds like it was intended for his Chaos and Disorder album. With slightly off key guitar play and keys, I really didn t see why this one was put on the album.

There Is Lonely is a slow blues song that really has that sad feeling to it. Luckily, it only is two in a half minutes long. It has a short little guitar solo that reminded me of the vybe he had going with on of my favorites, Question Of U only the guitar sound was more jazzy than rock.

Old Friends 4 Sale seems like a slow Duke Ellington style big band sound. A standard three and half minute long track, this song has Prince doing another blues jam. A decent song but a bit slow for my everyday tastes.

Sarah is an upbeat lively tune that reminded me of his days with The Time. It has some funky guitars and hornz throughout and has Prince jive talkin to a girl by the name of the track title. Again this is another short track that doesn t quite reach three minutes.

Extraordinary is a slow crescendo love song that is short as well (2 and a half minutes long). With Prince crooning tune a background jazz jam with jazzy guitar and drums led by a piano and a bit of orchestra style strings, this song keeps the flava of the rest of the songs on the album and was a fitting ending to the album.

Heres the track rundown

1. The Rest Of My Life
2. It s About That Walk
3. She Spoke 2 Me
4. 5 Women
5. When The Lights Go Down
6. My Little Pill
7. There Is Lonely
8. Old Friends 4 Sale
9. Sarah
10. Extraordinary


In the end, if you can find this CD for ten dollars or less, it is a worthy addition to a music collection if you like hearing Prince in a mode other than rock. Here he is stricting jazz and blues and trust me he does it well. If this had been an actual effort for Prince to make a jazz and blues album, it could easily be one of my favorites but there just isn't enough meat in this set up. Maybe one day he will try this experiment out again. In the end it is just another attempt by Warner Brothers to get more dough out of the man.