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Music News: Five copies of Prince's ultra-rare 'Black Album' discovered in a closet

One of five recently-discovered copies of Prince's 'Black Album.'
One of five recently-discovered copies of Prince's 'Black Album.'Record Mecca

by Jay Gabler

December 13, 2017

Prince planned to release his Black Album in 1987, then changed his mind...only after Warner Bros. pressed 500,000 copies. The label dutifully destroyed almost every copy, and though the album was finally released in 1994, original vinyl copies of the album are ultra-rare collector's items: only three have turned up since 1987.

A man who worked in the industry at the time was recently digging through his closet, trying to find some old vinyl to give to his daughter after she acquired her first turntable. He happened upon a couple of sealed Warner Bros. mailers, and what was inside? Count 'em, five copies of the Black Album.

The man is selling three of the copies for $15,000 each, reserving one to auction later, and, yes, keeping one for himself. It's unknown whether his daughter will be playing it on her new turntable. (Rolling Stone)

Additional accusations for Simmons

Three women have told the New York Times they were raped by music mogul Russell Simmons. "Mr. Simmons, a powerful gatekeeper in the entertainment and media worlds, damaged careers and self-confidence with his pattern of sexual assault and harassment, the women say," according to the Times story.

In the wake of previous accusations by other women, the Def Jam co-founder recently stepped down from his various companies. "I vehemently deny all these allegations," Simmons told the Times about the new accusations. "These horrific accusations have shocked me to my core and all of my relations have been consensual."

New trailer for Bowie doc

A new trailer offers a fascinating look at a forthcoming documentary, David Bowie: The Last Five Years. As Rolling Stone notes, the clip "teases an array of archival footage, photographs and interview clips. In one, Bowie lays out a tenet of his artistic philosophy: 'Always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being in. And when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about at the right place to do something exciting.'" The film premieres Jan. 8 on HBO.

BBC drops Homme over kicking incident

The BBC children's network CBeebies has indefinitely suspended broadcasts of Josh Homme reading bedtime stories. The BBC says that broadcasts of old and new clips featuring Homme are being held off "until the matter is resolved." The matter in question: a controversy surrounding Homme's kicking a photographer during a Queens of the Stone Age show last weekend. Homme has apologized for the incident. The victim, Chelsea Lauren, said she planned to file a police statement. (Pitchfork)

Go-Go's musical heading to Broadway

Producers of the musical Head Over Heels say they plan to take their show to first San Francisco, and then Broadway. The play, which premiered in 2015 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, features the songs of the Go-Go's, but it isn't your average jukebox musical: the story comes from Philip Sidney’s 16th century romance Arcadia. It's expected to hit Broadway for the 2018-19 season, which will also see the openings of The Cher Show and Bryan Adams’s musical adaptation of the movie Pretty Woman. (New York Times)

Lisa Loeb shares a secret about "Stay"

In a new interview with Stereogum, Lisa Loeb shared an interesting fact about her 1994 hit "Stay (I Missed You)."

She says she heard that Daryl Hall was looking for material for a solo album, so she wrote a ballad in the style of "Sara Smile." Hall's album wrapped up before she could pitch the song, so she recorded it herself and it became the first song by an unsigned artist ever to top the Billboard 100.

Loeb says she later told Hall about the song's history, and he replied, "Ah, I wish I knew about it!"

Chance enlists Muppets to say hi to daughter

Chance the Rapper has recently filmed an episode of Sesame Street, and while he was on set he and some Muppet friends recorded a special video greeting for his two-year-old daughter Kensli. (BuzzFeed)