Hear Prince’s Rare ‘7 (E

Aug 22, 2023

By Kory Grow

The Prince Estate has officially shared two previously unreleased recordings found in His Royal Badness’ fabled “Vault.” One is a version of “7,” a single off his 1992 “love symbol” album, that he recorded in the lower key of E-flat; and the other is the never-released “All a Share Together Now,” which he recorded in 2006, six months after the release of his hit 3121 album.

The Estate previewed the tracks last month at Paisley Park’s Celebration event. Attendees each received a cassette-shaped USB key containing the two tracks.

In the lower key, the alternate version of “7” (recorded Aug. 9, 1992) sounds dystopic even as Prince describes a utopian future. Despite the minor-key chorus of the original, there was a sense of hope (and sitar). But here, amid industrial whirring instead of Indian instruments, when Prince sings about his challengers accusing him, and his compatriots of speaking “not of love, only blasphemy,” you feel a darkness in his heart — a contempt for his doubters. Of course, that didn’t stop him from jamming a funky slap-bass solo at the end.

“All a Share Together Now” bears more of a jazzy, modern R&B feel just as you’d expect from the period between 3121 and Planet Earth. Prince recorded the moody track’s descending bass line, springy guitar, and Biblical story on Sept. 4, 2006. “The scriptures teach us, no matter how long,” he sings, “the debt of the ones before us must be paid, all a share together now.”

But while Prince sings about people working in God’s name, the story takes a turn about two thirds of the way through, as he describes a woman who picks a guy out of a room with a plot to end his joy and laughter. “Bass!” Prince shouts, a bit like Chuck D. “She tried to stop the bass.” Even then, he repeats the inclusivity of the song’s title.

The Prince Estate previously announced it would release new music at the Celebration event, which also featured appearances and talks with Chaka Khan, Chuck D, and Doug E. Fresh. Paisley Park even opened the vault for the event.

“For me personally, as one of the heirs, I can’t speak for all of them, I don’t mind if people hear the small stuff — the little stuff where he’s just sitting there playing with the piano and how he put it together,” Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson told Rolling Stone in 2021. “That might teach some little boy that wants to learn how to put a song together. We never know. Anything and everything, get it out there. If I live 100, 200 years, I would definitely be there helping to oversee getting it out. But Prince’s music will outlive me for sure.”