Hear ‘Witness 4 the Prosecution’ From Prince’s ‘Sign O’ the Times’ Box Set
A previously unreleased Prince song, "Witness 4 the Prosecution (Version 1)," is available to stream ahead of the upcoming Sign O' the Times box set.
You can hear the song below.
Prince recorded at least three different versions of the track, two with the Revolution and one by himself. Two of those takes will be included on the Super Deluxe edition of the Sign O' the Times box set.
The package, which reissues the late artist's acclaimed 1987 LP, will be released Sept. 25 via Warner Bros. It includes newly remastered versions of studio and live material, along with more than 60 previously unreleased tracks from the Prince vaults.
Sign O' the Times, Prince's ninth studio album, is a sprawling double-LP that ventured into funk, soul, hard rock and psychedelic pop in approximately 80 minutes. The record, his first following the breakup of backing band the Revolution, produced four singles: the title track, "If I Was Your Girlfriend," "U Got the Look" and "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man."
The songs emerged from a handful of aborted projects: a double LP titled Dream Factory, the single record Camille and, ultimately, a triple disc drawing from all his material of the era, Crystal Ball.
Though many critics considered Sign O' the Times "experimental," Prince rejected that description in a 1990 interview with Rolling Stone. "I hate the word 'experiment,'" he said. "It sounds like something you didn't finish. Well, they have to understand that's the way to have a double record and make it interesting."
The Sign O' the Times box follows Warner's recent expanded reissue of Prince's 1982 double album, 1999. That release features the remastered original album, a live LP and DVD, a disc of promo mixes and B-sides and two discs of previously unreleased material from the artist's vaults.