Remember When: Prince Canceled an Album Days Before Its Scheduled Release

It’s fair to say that Prince‘s musical brilliance was accompanied by a few quirks and idiosyncrasies. These were on full display in late 1987 when he decided to nix a planned album release when copies had already been created and shipped with the anticipation of being sold.

The album became known as The Black Album, although at the time it had no official title. And it didn’t stay unreleased for all that long, as it was made available to the public in 1994 after years of being a sought-after bootleg. Let’s look back at some of the facts and fiction surrounding this storied project.

The Facts

Even by Prince’s prolific standards, the notion that he would release an album in December 1987, just nine months after the arrival of Sign o’ the Times (which was a double-album, mind you) was an eye-opener. This album, in Spinal Tap fashion, featured an all-black cover, an inverse of The Beatles’ White Album.

Prince had recorded a few of the songs around the same time as the sessions that produced Sign o’ the Times, and then worked on a few more in autumn 1987. Copies were pressed and sent out to retailers for a December release, while promotional copies started making the rounds.

A week before the album was scheduled for its release, Prince asked executives at Warner Bros. Records to cancel the release. It says something about his stature that they agreed to do this, considering the costs they likely incurred. (Relations between Prince and his record company eventually headed south in a major way, so maybe The Black Album fiasco was an early catalyst.)

The Rumors

Needless to say, once news of this hit the press, folks started speculating on what had happened. Some put the blame on Warner Bros. This theory suggested they were worried Prince was diluting his commercial prospects by flooding the market with too much material. Many wondered if the record company thought the music on the album, which mostly consisted of hard-driving funk with lyrics heavy on profanity and debauchery, was uncommercial in its own right.

There were also rumors about Prince’s role in all this. It was hinted that he wrote and recorded the music, so harsh and unrelenting in tone, in response to critics who thought he’d become too “pop.” Thus, when he reflected on the music at the eleventh hour, he thought it was a bit too dark for public consumption. (Which is kind of what happened. More on that in a bit.)

Prince started playing some of The Black Album songs live in 1988. In an accompanying tour program, he wrote a cryptic poem that implied the album came from his alter ego “Camille,” who’d been tricked by a demonic force into revealing bleak emotions. That was the extent of his explanation.

What (Probably) Happened

Prince’s actual decision to shelve The Black Album likely took place on a single, fateful evening. He had gone to a local club in Minneapolis to preview the record in front of an unsuspecting audience. That’s where he met an aspiring poet and artist named Ingrid Chavez, with whom he engaged in a lengthy conversation.

At some point, Prince also tripped on acid during the evening. The combination of these events convinced him he didn’t want The Black Album out in the world. His concern was he didn’t want this to be his final artistic statement in the event that something should happen to him. It wasn’t the message he wanted to promote.

In 1994, Prince, in the midst of his struggles with Warner Bros., agreed to the release of The Black Album, if only because it would count towards his contractual obligations. By then, his commercial prospects had faded, so the release wasn’t met with nearly as much hype as the initial shelving did. So ended one of the mysterious chapters in Prince’s illustrious career, with somewhat of a whimper instead of a LinnDrum bang.

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