Another copy of Prince‘s super rare ‘The Black Album’ has surfaced.
The album was supposed to be released in 1987 as ‘The Funk Bible’, Prince’s 16th album. However, the singer had a ‘spiritual epiphany’ and demanded all 500,000 copies be destroyed, as he said the content was ‘evil’.
He later gave permission for it to be released on CD and cassette – but never vinyl.
Five vinyl copies surfaced in the States last year, and now another has appeared in Canada, after a Canadian former employee of Columbia Records’ pressing plant held onto one of the records .
“In 1987 he was working at Columbia Records Canadian pressing plant in Canada,” explains former Warner Bros executive vice president and rare record dealer Jeff Gold, of Recordmecca.
“When ‘The Black Album‘ was pulled and the copies that had been made marked for destruction, he kept one copy for himself. He never realised its rarity or value until reading about the discovery of the U.S. copies in Rolling Stone and contacted me.”
Gold helped the owner list the record online on Discogs yesterday for $27,500 (£20,600) – as it’s not sealed and has been played several times, that’s much less than the previous pristine editions, where one sold for $42,298 (£31,500).
It looks like the latest copy has sold already, in case you were about to take out a loan.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, Damon Albarn revealed that he once turned down an opportunity to collaborate with Prince – because the late singer wouldn’t let him smoke in the studio.
“It’s one of those could’ve beens, Albarn said in an interview. “I’ve got a few of those.”