Paisley Park Power Trio

Paisley Park Power Trio was a short-lived ensemble formed by Prince (known as an unpronounceable Ƭ̵̬̊. symbol at the time) to record a "one-take," direct-2-disc album on 14 June 1993 at Paisley Park Studios. The name was never used on official releases, only credited once on The Sacrifice Of... The Undertaker bootleg DVD. The trio's studio jam session was filmed by Parris Patton's crew, who at the time collaborated with Prince on a feature film with Vanessa Marcil, star of the General Hospital TV soap opera, and Nona Gaye (who later briefly dated Prince). The movie project was abandoned and transformed into a 40-min concert video, The Undertaker, with some random Marcil's footage overlaid on the band's performance. The VHS/Laserdisc video album came out in March 1995 on Warner Music Vision/Reprise Video, on the same day as concert film and coinciding with Prince's Ultimate Live Experience UK tour. The eponymous audio album was never released, with the exact circumstances unclear. According to PrinceVault.com, Prince planned to release The Undertaker as a Guitar World magazine CD insert, blocked by Warner Bros. Records at the last moment, and with the printed run supposedly destroyed by coating discs "with a plastic covering rendering them unplayable." However, there's no source or citation provided for this claim (while "plastic coating" is not a common or documented technique for recycling CDs). In November 1994, Guitar World, indeed, published a comprehensive cover article and interview with Prince that mentioned The Undertaker several times. In the interview, Prince simply stated that Warner won't release the album, claiming he hadn't decided whether to publish it independently via NPG Records/Bellmark. The comprehensive 2004 book "The Vault: Definitive Guide" by Per Nilsen and jooZt Matheij provides an alternative timeline. In early 1994, Prince privately manufactured a limited edition of around 1000 copies of The Undertaker picture CD. As the album sleeve was at the printshop, Warner Bros. discovered and canceled the project, ordering to destroy the entire pressing; a few surviving copies subsequently leaked into the collector's market. Several tracks from the album were later re-recorded and released on other albums: "Dolphin" on The Gold Experience (1995), "Zannalee" on Chaos And Disorder (96), and "The Ride" on the '98 Crystal Ball 4xCD compilation. Two original compositions, "Poor Goo" (dedicated to Prince's drum technician James "McGoo" McGregor) and "The Undertaker," were released as audio and video downloads via the NPG Music Club monthly subscription in November–December 2001, as part of NPGMC Edition #10 and Edition #11. Paisley Park Power Trio Ƭ̵̬̊. — guitar, vocals Michael B. — drums Sonny T. — bass