Publication: Addicted To Noize [Internet]
Date: September 19, 1996
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Title: "That Symbol Guy is Hard At Work"
Written By: Gil Kaufman

Hey, why not release a three CD set with three hours of music?

Fans of He Who Can't Be Named (the guy we used to call Prince), can expect to swing in the New Year in style. According to sources deep inside Paisley Park, the Mysterious One plans to release his 3-CD opus of all new material sometime around the dawn of 1997. The triple disc, entitled Emancipation, and his first since his notorious split with Warner Brothers Records, will be released on his own NPG Records imprint, although our source said a distribution deal has not yet been worked out. It will contain 36 songs, which we were assured was "not vault stuff, all brand new music, that he has been mixing and will continue to mix until it is pressed and distributed." In an unusual move, the ex-Prince will allow customers to purchase the CD first on his web site (http://www.thedawn.com), which is now mysteriously empty, revealing only a pastoral bath scene and a strange, lanky female figure with the familiar glyph tattooed on her shoulder, but which we are assured will soon be full of information allowing fans to decide how much they wish to pay for the discs. Additionally, the site will supposedly contain a mechanism by which fans can vote on how they would like to custom-tailor the next album, whether they want all guitar rockers, ballads, or a mix of both. Our source tells us that almost all the music on the forthcoming CD's was generated by the Purple One, with a few surprise guests here and there. Among the songs already completed are a version of the Stylistics' "Betcha By Golly, Wow" and a song with a classic Prince title, "Sex in the Summer." And, yes, the Man will definitely mount a U.S. tour, his first since 1993, in support of the set.