Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Crystal Ball
2. Dream Factory
3. Acknowledge Me
4. Ripopgodazippa
5. Love Sign
6. Hide the Bone
7. 2morrow
8. So Dark
9. Movie Star
10. Tell Me How U Wanna B Done

Disc 2:

1. Interactive
2. Da Bang
3. Calhoun Square
4. What's My Name
5. Crucial
6. Honest Man
7. Sexual Suicide
8. Cloreen Bacon Skin
9. Good Love
10. Strays of the World

Disc 3:

1. Days of Wild
2. Last Heart
3. Poom Poom
4. She Gave Her Angels
5. 18 and Over
6. Ride
7. Get Loose
8. P. Contro
9. Make Your Mama Happy
10. Goodbye

Disc 4:

1. Truth
2. Don't Play Me
3. Circle of Amour
4. 3rd I
5. Dionne
6. Man in a Uniform
7. Animal Kingdom
8. Other Side of the Pillow
9. Fascination
10. One of Your Tears
11. Comeback
12. Welcome 2 the Dawn

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27020 in Music
• Released on: 1998-03-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Box set, Import

Album Description
Limited import quantities found of this 4CD set released in 1998 and currently out of print domestically. Thirty one tracks in all including 'Dream Factory', 'Lovesign', 'Da Bang', 'Crucial', '18 & Over', 'Get Loose' & 'Goodbye'. Packaged in a standard do

Amazon.com
Call him what you want--Prince, O(+>, TAFKAP, or the Artist: If this massive collection--three archival CDs and a fourth "unplugged" disc--proves anything, it's that music, not his name, is the reason we should still care about Funkytown's most famous musical exponent. Crystal Ball contains moments of unfettered brilliance, including furious jams ("Acknowledge Me," "Interactive," "Da Bang"), sexadelic funk ("Tell Me How U Wanna B Done") and unexpected hilarity ("Movie Star"). There's filler, too, like the mindnumbing vamp "Cloreen Bacon Skin" and the Broadway miscue "Strays of the World," but overall, this set is valuable if only as a rare glimpse inside the little guy's throne room during the height of his purple reign. --Daniel Durchholz

Customer Reviews

My favorite and most listened to piece in my library
I wasn't going to review this item, but considering the other two reviews, especially Raymond Wesner's, are very pathetic. So here goes:

This 4 disc set is filled with outtakes, alternate mixes, some live, acoustic, and experimental pieces. I like Prince for his more artistic endeavors, namely his early-mid 90's period, where the majority of this material originates.

I think largely this set consists of music intended for his albums 'Gold Experience' and 'Come', along with a couple alternate mixes of songs that actually did appear on those albums. These tracks include 'Days Of Wild', 'P Control', 'Get Loose', and maybe songs like 'Interactive', 'Acknowledge Me' and 'Dream Factory'; they've got that strong vibe that exists throughout those albums. 'Honest Man' sounds like a track that had been substituted by 'Solo' on Come, but that's just speculation.

Other/most tracks are compositions that Prince made for 'private use only': 'Crystal Ball', 'Poom Poom', 'Chloreen Bacon Skin' (an experimental drum/bass guitar mix which features Morris Day), 'Tell Me How', 'Calhoun Square', 'The Ride', and 'Da Bang', to name a few (this is after all a HUGE collection of music).

I honestly love every track, minus a few weaker tracks: '18 & Over', 'Rippopgodazippa', and some others sound like they have a purpose but not for wide listening.

I don't listen to the last disc much, if at all. It just doesn't do much for me, as I'm not a fan of acoustic material, but I should definitely give it another try.

Altogether, there's a good 3 hours of music on this collection. It may not be Purple Rain, but Prince isn't Purple Rain, so if you're disappointed that you can't hear any 'When Doves Cry', you should probably go back to 1984, because this stuff is more forward-looking than a lot of fans are willing to admit.

Ball on the Home Court
The original concept for Crystal Ball was a 3-record collection for release in 1986, but the project eventually became the 2-LP release, Sign o' the Times. Crystal Ball then became this multi-disk collection of odds-n-ends from 1983-1996 that was released in 1998.

This is a sweeping look into the vault through outtakes, alternative mixes, experimental doodlings and live tracks. The material is not presented in chronological order and does lean heavily on the 1990s recording period.

Though the collection may not be for casual fans, it is an excellent peek into the shaping of music by the iconic artist while he is on the home court.

Worth it for the last disk alone
I've had "Crystal Ball" for quite some time. I haven't played most of it for a while, but I find disk 4 just stunning - so much so, that in the last couple of years its probably my most played prince disk. Considering the size of my Prince collection (I've got most (if not all) of his officially released album stuff + various other tidbits, including stacks of vinyl, picture disks and more) I think that says something.