I have been dreaming….and was contemplating what the consequences would have been had Prince released the Dream Factory rather than Sign ‘O’ The Times in 1986/1987?

Ignoring the relevance of the departure of Wendy and Lisa for the moment I believe that once a double-album release had been decided on then Dream Factory would have been a stronger album release with potentially more hit singles than Sign ‘O’ The Times. As is stands Dream Factory already contained 8 tracks that would eventually find their way onto Sign with only really U Got The Look missing which eventually became a hit single.

For my money I much prefer Dream Factory over Sign – I love [nearly] all the tracks not present on Sign: All My Dreams, Visions, Train, Interlude, A Place In Heaven, Last Heart and the best two Witness 4 The Prosecution and Crystal Ball. In addition I think that I Could Never…and certainly Strange Relationship improve on the ‘original’ Sign ‘O’ The Times versions.

Now certainly some would say; ‘What about Housequake, Adore, If I Was Your Girlfriend and U Got The Look’ but releasing Dream Factory it doesn’t preclude the release of these tracks on a subsequent album. In fact I think this would have benefited albums releases in 1987/88/89 i.e. Lovesexy et all.

Anyway what y’all think?

For reference the two track lists:

18 July 1986 Dream Factory configuration:
Visions / Dream Factory / Train / The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker / It / Strange Relationship / Starfish And Coffee / Interlude / Slow Love / I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man / Sign O’ The Times / A Place In Heaven / Crystal Ball / The Cross / Last Heart / Witness 4 The Prosecution / Movie Star / All My Dreams

Sign ‘O’ The Times:
Sign ‘O’ The Times / Play in the Sunshine / Housequake / Ballad / It / Starfish /Slow Love / Hot Thing / Forever In My Life / U Got The Look / If I Was Your Girlfriend / Strange Relationship / I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man / The Cross / It´s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night / Adore
[Edited 3/22/06 5:30am]

Hmmmm - I dunno, IMO SOTT is a stronger double album because it's main theme is stronger.

SOTT, the song, packs a punch and sets up a great (if very loose) theme for the LP.

The song Dream Factory is kinda like 3121, it's more of an opening intro to the album, and doesn't work as well on it's own, unlike SOTT.

To this end, I also think SOTT is stronger than CB - Not that it wouldn't have been neat to have a 3LP release, but chopping it down to 2LP just honed it to a sharper point.

NouveauDance said:

What he said!

NouveauDance said:

I was kinda thinking it would have also been a 2-disc album - a couple of tracks little more than segues. I just think there would have been a greater choice from which to choose quality singles releases. SOTT's single releases were a bit hit and miss - maybe it was just wrong choices.

I'm my perfect world, SOTT would have been released, but had Slow Love swapped with A Place In Heaven, and Its gonna be a Beautiful Night replaced with Movie Star & All My Dreams.

SquirrelMeat said:

Certainly Movie Star is my least favourite track on Dream Factory - but it's still ok.

I'm not mad keen on It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night and wouldn't want to lose All My Dreams either.

I'm surprised there aren't many Dream Factory fans to continue my debate..
[Edited 3/23/06 3:53am]

Of course not from a commercial standpoint, but from an artistic standpoint, Warner should have let him release Crystal Ball back then, IMO. Too much fantastic stuff on there that's left unheard.

calldapplwondery83 said:

But if you assume either Dream Factory [or Crystal Ball for that matter] were issued as a 2LP then why not commerically?

Certainly Dream Factory IMO contains more 'commercial' single potential.