Can I Play With U?

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Can I Play With U?

Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition
from the album
Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition
Song details
Performer: Prince (with Miles Davis)
First Released: 25 September 2020 - Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition album
Album(s): Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition
Writer(s): Prince
Producer(s): Prince
Live Appearances
First and last live appearance:
  • This track is not believed to have been performed live by Prince.
Performed regularly on tour:
  • none
Performed occasionally in shows:
  • none

Can I Play With U? is a song recorded on 26 December 1985 (the same day as A Couple Miles) at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California, with saxophone overdubs by Eric Leeds done the next day.

The track was sent to Miles Davis (in both instrumental and vocal versions) in January 1986, following a request from Warner Bros. for Prince to contribute to Davis' first Warner Bros. album (called The Perfect Way at the time, before being renamed Tutu). It was accompanied by a note from Prince, reading:
“I can tell just from listening to your music that you and I are so exactly alike that I know whatever you play would be what I'd do. So if this tape is of any use to you, please go ahead and play whatever you feel over it. Because I trust what you hear and play.”

Miles Davis added trumpet to the song on, or shortly before 1 March 1986 at Capitol Studios, Los Angeles CA, USA.

Prince contributed additional material to the track to extend it a few days later, on 1 March 1986, but neither Davis nor Prince were very excited by the final result, and after hearing the rest of the finished album, Prince asked that his track be removed, as it didn’t fit in with the style of the rest of the album.

After Davis died in 1991, Warner Bros. asked Prince to add some post-production to this track (as well as Penetration, Jail Bait and A Girl And Her Puppy) to include on his first posthumous album, Doo-Bop, but Prince was not interested in contributing to tracks that he felt didn’t show Davis at his best.

During a Love4oneanother.com "? of the week" in 1999, someone asked whether Prince had recorded in the studio with Miles Davis, to which Prince replied:

"EyeBlue.png have recorded with Miles... it sounds as u would xpect: chaotic and beautiful! Its release depends on the length of The War." [referring to feuds with record companies rather than the track The War]

The longer version of the track was planned for release (credited to "Miles Davis with Prince") as the twelfth track on a 2001 box-set of Miles Davis’s Warner Bros. work, entitled The Last Word, but the track was not included on the eventual 2-disc 2010 release, titled Perfect Way.

The song was released in September 2020 as the fourth track of Vault Tracks part 1, one of the discs with previously unreleased tracks included with the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition.


Recording Information
Recording Sessions
Date Studio Additional info
26 December 1985 Sunset Sound - Studio 3,
Hollywood, CA, USA
Tracking
27 December 1985 Sunset Sound - Studio 3,
Hollywood, CA, USA
Saxophone overdubs (Eric Leeds)
7 January 1986 Sunset Sound - Studio 3,
Hollywood, CA, USA
Probable mix
1 March 1986 (or possibly a few days earlier) Capitol Studios,
Los Angeles CA, USA
Trumpet overdubs by Miles Davis, synth overdubs by Adam Holzman, bass guitar overdubs by Marcus Miller
1 March 1986 Sunset Sound Studio 3,
Hollywood, CA, USA
overdubs, edits, mix
Recording Personnel

Versions
Released Versions
Title Length Released Version Additional info
Can I Play With U ? (featuring Miles Davis) 6:29 Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition Studio


Unreleased Versions
Title Version Additional Info
Can I Play With U? Studio Recorded 26 December 1985; before overdubs
Can I Play With U? Studio After Eric Leeds saxophone overdubs
Can I Play With U? Instrumental Instrumental version before Miles Davis overdubs
Can I Play With U? Studio version after Miles Davis overdubs, before final mix
Can I Play With U? Studio Slightly different mix than released on Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition
 
Additional Information

See also Trivia


References
Camille   < < < All Songs Unreleased Songs > > >   Can’t Keep Living Alone