The Prince Estate has issued a statement in a bid to end the confusion surrounding changes made to a song called Calabama. This is included on a new collection of previously unreleased Prince music called Timeless.
According to Prince Vault, Calabama was originally recorded by Prince on 21 January 2003. In a previously leaked version, when Prince calls “horns” in the bridge, the response is played on a synthesizer; in the Timeless version, these spaces are filled by a real horn section.
So, what’s the problem? The controversy stems from an answer given by Charles Spicer, Jr, a representative of the Prince Estate, when he was discussing the Timeless album at a recent release party at Paisley Park, Prince’s former studio complex.
Asked if anything on Timeless had been “changed, edited, completed, or remixed,” he replied that “contrary to what people may be saying, those recordings, all these recordings were taking off the formats that they were originally recorded on. Nothing was added, nothing was edited.”
When Prince fans studied the credits on the album, though, they saw that Greg Boyer, Adrian Crutchfield and Lynn Grissett were listed as horn players on Calabama. Although they did play with Prince while he was alive, Crutchfield and Grissett are not believed to have done so until 2012 – almost a decade after Calabama was originally recorded.
This led many to wonder if the horn parts were in fact added after Prince’s death, and it turns out they were right. Trombonist Greg Boyer confirmed as much on Facebook this week, telling a fan that the horn parts were “recorded a couple of months ago in my basement studio.”
Charles Spicer Jr then took to X to clarify his earlier statement, saying: “I want to correct something I said earlier. I stated that nothing had been edited or added to Calabama. I’ve since confirmed that the released version includes additional horns, so that statement was not accurate, and I will take responsibility for what I stated.”
The new Instagram statement from ‘NPG Records and The Prince Management Team’ confirms this, but adds a little more context and detail. “At the bridge of Calabama, Prince’s vocal calls out twice for “horns,” but the archived multitrack featured a synthesizer filling that space,” it says. “Consistent with Prince’s songwriting and production approach on numerous previous recordings, a group of horn players who played with Prince were assembled to overdub Prince’s synthesizer track with the intended horn line, and this version was released in Timeless.”
The statement notes that “all of Prince’s recorded parts remain intact,” and that the horn players used – Greg Boyer, Adrian Crutchfield and Lynn Grissett – had “close ties” to Prince and are fully credited. It also stresses that no other overdubs were used on Timeless, and certainly no AI.
While this might all seem like a storm in a teacup, it does highlight the potential problems associated with releasing an artist’s previously unreleased music after their death, with some asking if this is really what Prince would have wanted, and others simply seeking more transparency in the future.
On the latter point, the Prince Estate seems to be in agreement: “Going forward, we plan to provide even more details regarding the release of the music,” it says. It seems adamant, though, that even incomplete work that’s currently in ‘The Vault’ should see the light of day: “The recordings come in a variety of forms, many of which are simply unfinished. This should not prevent them from being released.”
The statement acknowledges that not everyone will agree with the additions in Calabama, or the way that the Prince archive is being handled more generally. However, it also says that “While it is fair to ask probing questions and assert your sentiments and perspectives on matters related to Prince, it is best done with kindness and respect.”
Whatever your feelings on all this, the flow of ‘new’ Prince music is unlikely to stop. Indeed, the statement ends with the promise that there’s “more to come and soon”.
