While Prince was always comfortable parading around in fishnets and high heals, he was seldom as willing to expose himself emotionally. Refusing to do interviews after being supposedly misrepresented in his early press, the purple prodigy urged his fans to understand him through his music. This is easier said than done- while there was a strange authenticity to his sonic tirades, which often involved him miraculously conflating bringing a woman to orgasm with getting closer to God, his music is generally free from biography. An exception to this is Old Friends 4 Sale, a literal account of the comedown Prince went through upon returning home to Minneapolis after the production and extensive tour that followed Purple Rain, and of his friends’ opportunistic reaction to his success.

I expect this unguarded honesty made Prince uncomfortable as he pulled the song from release at the last minute (Warner Brothers later released a sanitized jazz version on the mishandled Vault compilation). By contrast, the original take of the song, with its spacious piano and unvarnished production does much more to serve this rare, unfiltered look into the mind of the man.

Sunset in my mind this evening

Some people who said they would die for me

Sold some old pictures and all my little memories

Chump change to unravel the mystery

But life ain’t no fun without fantasy

Some things are better left unsaid

Some people are better left untrusted…

Prince – Old Friends 4 Sale  3:33 mins/ 128 kbps/ 3.25 MB