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Listen: Unreleased Prince track ‘Electric Intercourse’ out now from ‘Purple Rain’ Deluxe edition

by Jackie Renzetti

April 28, 2017

The first unreleased track from the upcoming deluxe reissue of Purple Rain has been made available for streaming.

Though Prince sometimes played “Electric Intercourse” live, the studio version — featuring Prince’s falsetto over piano — was tucked away in Prince’s vault until Warner Bros. and NPG Records made the track available this week for streaming.

“Electric Intercourse” is one of 11 unreleased tracks included as a bonus disc in the remastered Purple Rain set, due for release on June 23. The complete set is now available for preorder on iTunes, with a price of $19.99. The cover art for the reissue is almost identical — but with the subtle difference that the floral-illustrated edges have a sheen of silver.

The reissue comes in deluxe and expanded deluxe packages, both of which include the remastered original album and the disc of unreleased tracks. The expanded version also includes a third disc of single edits and B-sides, along with a live DVD recording of Prince at a March 30, 1985 show at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. Full track lists for each disc can be found here.

The tracks were transferred from Paisley Park’s stereo masters, and remastered by Bernie Grundman, who worked on the original album.

Originally, Prince recorded a live version of “Electric Intercourse” at the August 3, 1983 benefit concert for the Minnesota Dance Theatre Company at First Avenue, according to the fan site princevault.com. Prince used the same recordings from that night — with light edits — of “Purple Rain,” “I Would Die 4 U” and “Baby I’m A Star” for the Purple Rain movie and soundtrack. “Electric Intercourse” was likely set to be included in the Purple Rain movie and album, princevault reports, but was replaced with "The Beautiful Ones."

The tracks at the Aug. 3 concert were recorded by David Z and Record Plant engineers from a truck outside the studio. Some of the engineers’ stage monitor videos have since resurfaced, David Z previously told The Current. While it’s unclear, this is most likely where this live performance of “Electric Intercourse” also comes from, which you can watch here.

Two other unreleased songs from the reissue, a medley called "Our Destiny/Roadhouse Garden," were recently played live by the Revolution at Paisley Park.

Jackie Renzetti studies journalism and political science at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She is an editor at the Minnesota Daily and co-hosts Radio K’s “Off the Record.”

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