Album review
The Prince Estate has unveiled a previously unreleased recording titled ‘Witness 4 The Prosecution (Version 2)’. Recorded by engineer Coke Johnson at Sunset Sound’s Studio 3 on October 6, 1986, the track will appear on the upcoming expanded reissue of the late singer’s 1987 album Sign o’ the Times. Take a listen below.
Previously, Prince’s Estate shared ‘Witness 4 The Prosecution (Version 1)’, ‘I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (1979 Version)’ and ‘Cosmic Day’, all of which you can also listen to below. The forthcoming super deluxe edition reissue will include a total of 63 previously unheard Prince tracks, as well as two full concert recordings.
“When Country music artist Deborah Allen asked Prince if he could write a song for her, he decided to rework “Witness 4 The Prosecution” instead,” a press release states. “The original song contained contributions from the Revolution, but this re-recorded version is almost exclusively Prince (with the exception of Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss on sax and trumpet respectively), and it includes at least five different Fairlight keyboard tracks and seven layers of Prince’s own background vocals. Prince decided to keep the song, and would instead offer her “Telepathy”, which had been recorded and mixed on the same date.”
The expanded reissue of Sign o’ the Times comes out September 25 and is available to preorder now.
