Sabotage Catalog # SAB 43/44 Release Year    2CD Length 77.29 | 78.20 Date/Venue Studio Outakes Source Soundboard Quality EX

Comments
Dale's Comments  (rates this release 3.5/5.0)
As far as Sabotage releases go, this one isn't one of their best. Yes, the sound is pretty good through-out, and they did a fantastic job on the artwork, as usual. The thing that I don't get is why they didn't just release one disc without all the rehash. Take the new songs and some of the older (but improved quality) songs and make this one excellent disc instead of 2 so-so discs and I probably would have given it a few more spins.

Mike's Comments  (rates this release 2.5/5.0)
An odd collection of outtakes here, quite a lot from the early '80s as well more recent material from '99/'00. The sound is very good throughout which is a plus, though the inclusion of several fake outtakes is irritating. Not a bad compilation in all but there are better ones around.

Fink's Comments  (rates this release 2.0/5.0)
A below-par release by Sabotage's standards, in fact I'm rather surprised this was ever released under their name as the content is such a mixed bag. Disc 1 begins with the short intro version of 'Beautiful Strange' lifted straight from the Channel 4 1998 "Beautiful Strange" documentary where Prince is interrupted in the studio by a phone call to inform him Mel B has arrived for their interview - why this has been included on a collection of outtakes is a mystery.

Things improve nicely for the next few tracks and we have a number of unreleased outtakes in extremely high quality. Choosing to split 'One Song' into the opening dialogue and the song itself is a blatant attempt to fill out the disc though. Next, we have 'My Name Is Bart' which is one of the lowest points of this terrible release - there is no Prince input whatsoever and it's inclusion is a sign of how desperate Sabotage were to max this fucker out - a horrendously bad decision to include this one. The following 3 tracks have been taken from the cassette Prince sold to European radio in 1994 and include the 10 minute version of 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World' often referred to as #1 and originally released on the 'Now' bootleg.

The opening 3 tracks on Disc 2 are also highly questionable in terms of Prince's involvement. They are apparently attributed to 94 East however even that is highly suspect - it's safe to assume there is no Prince input here, which again begs the question as why they have been included by Sabotage. Track 4 is an instrumental titled 'Moments' which again is highly suspect as it has never been confirmed as a Prince track. The remainder of Disc 2 is an absolute mess of mislabelled tracks - 'Wet Dream Cousin' listed on the packaging as 'Real Love', and 'Purple Music' mistakenly titled as 'So High'.

Unfortunately the accompanying booklet sheds no light on any of the questions this release throws up and contains absolutely no information on the contents of the discs, instead focusing on an interview with a Paisley Park sound engineer from 1999 lifted directly from the Love4OneAnother site. In my opinion the worst release from Sabotage's vast back catalogue, and a release which should be avoided.