Jack White Says He Would ‘Never Mess With Prince’s Music’ as Fans React to His Purchase of Prince Album
Rock star Jack White has recently come under public scrutiny after suspicions arose regarding his recent acquisition of a Prince album. The former White Stripes frontman has since made a statement via his Instagram account to clarify his intentions. He claimed he would “never mess with Prince’s music.”
Jack White recently acquired Prince’s album ‘Camille’
“In 1986, Prince wrote and recorded a self-titled album called Camille under his short-lived feminine alter-ego, but it was scrapped shortly after test pressings of the finished album were produced,” NME reports.
Jack White has now acquired one of the test pressings through his label, Third Man Records. The company paid a reported $50,000 for the works and intends to produce and release the album.
Prince’s Camille is not a full-length album. It includes eight songs, which eventually appeared on other albums in the artist’s catalog. The album is also unique in that it features vocals that Prince “pitched up” to achieve a specific sound. Prince’s studio technician at the time, Susan Rogers, says the process involved recording on tape set to half-speed and returning it to regular speed for a slightly higher, more feminine sound. Rogers told Cambridge University Press: “We did some things in a slightly high pitch — not double-speed — but a slightly high-pitched voice, and that would be Camille.”
Following the sale, White said in an interview with Daily Star (via Music-News.com): “We are able to re-edit it as it was originally planned. So that is great news.”
His statement sent fans reeling.
So White quickly followed up with an Instagram post, which has since been removed. “I want to make sure the message is clear, neither I nor third man records, have any intention of ‘editing’ or ‘remixing’ Prince’s music,” White wrote. “I was referring to simply putting the songs in the original order that the album Camille was in, as those songs have been put out in multiple releases since Camille was first taken off the presses.”
Jack White also owns Elvis’ 1st recording
Prince’s Camille is not the first high-profile acquisition that Jack White’s Third Man Records has made. In 2015, RollingStone reported that the label also acquired Elvis’ first-ever recording made at Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service for $4 in 1953. The recording featured an 18-year-old Elvis singing “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.”
White purchased the recording for $300,000 at auction as an anonymous buyer and later revealed his intentions to “re-create the original 1953 10-inch 78 rpm disc ‘[as] close to the historic original as to almost be indistinguishable from one other’” (via RollingStone). Third Man Records then released Elvis’ restored work on Record Store Day on April 18, 2015.
The former White Stripes frontman’s upcoming album
Jack White has also been busy creating his own music, with 2022 seeing a new double album from the 12-time Grammy-winning musician. The first of the two albums, Fear of the Dawn, was released on April 8 and features what RollingStone calls a “gamut of old-school White Stripes, Beatlesque experimentation, and American-jazz [flair].”
The second album, Entering Heaven Alive, is due out July 22 and ends with a lighter, jazzier version of the opening track from Fear of the Dawn, bringing the two-album experience full circle in only the way White can.
