Post Description

1. The Ride  
2. Poorgoo  
3. Honky Tonk Women
4. Bambi  
5. Zannalee   
6. The Undertaker
7. Dolphin 


Prince – Unreleased Album “The Undertaker” Pre-Master CD

An incredibly rare CD Reference disc of Prince’s unreleased 1993 album The Undertaker, from the collection of Recordmecca’s Jeff Gold, a former executive vice president of Warner Bros. Records who worked closely with Prince and art directed a number of his album covers.

The Undertaker was recorded during a single live-in-the-studio session, with NPG drummer Michael Bland and bassist Sonny T.  Jeff Gold recalls that in 1993 Prince showed senior Warner Bros Executives a video of the recording session, and discussed it’s possible release.  Gold was given this CD at the time by a member of Prince’s management.

Princevault.com alleges that Prince planned on releasing The Undertaker as “a covermount CD to be included with an issue of Guitar World” magazine” and that “the release was blocked by Warner Bros. after copies had already been manufactured, and all copies were coated with a plastic covering rendering them unplayable.”  Gold doesn’t recall this at all–only that this was one of a number of projects that Prince presented to the company, but ultimately abandoned.  Prince did occasionally press his own records (such as the “Gett Off” 12″) and this may have been a project Prince initiated, but was unable to follow through with, as he had an exclusive recording contract with Warner Bros.

The songs are guitar driven power-trio versions of rock and blues songs, including a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women and a version of “Bambi” (originally on 1979’s Prince.)  The title song was a song Prince had previously given to Mavis Staples, and “The Ride”, “Zannalee”, and “Dolphin” would all be re-recorded future releases. Wikipedia notes a video recording of the performance was released in Europe (on VHS and Laserdisc) with small edits throughout the performance and “Dolphin” replaced by the audio track from the official video of the song from The Gold Experience.

The songs included are The Ride/Poor Goo/Honky Tonk Women/Bambi/Zanalee (Prelude)/The Undertaker/Dolphin.  In near mint condition, with Jeff Gold’s letter of authenticity and Recordmecca’s lifetime guarantee.