| Songwriter is an unreleased multi-disc album and book Prince worked on in 2008 (late winter and spring). The book-album format was inspired by the 21 Nights book and its accompanying CD Indigo Nights which was planned to be released the same year. According to a former (unnamed) collaborator, Prince’s aim with this project was to reveal the sources of inspiration and the origins of certain songs as he was "tired of people inserting themselves behind the meaning of [his] songs or assuming they know who or what [he] was writing about".
At least two volumes were compiled in 2008 (one of them went as far as the mastering stage in mid-March 2008). Each volume was going to have a separate release. The first compilation, titled Songwriter Vol. 1, contained tracks that were previously released on Planet Earth (Guitar, The One U Wanna C, Lion Of Judah, Somewhere Here On Earth, Future Baby Mama), Musicology (Cinnamon Girl, A Million Days, Call My Name) and 3121 (Te Amo Corazon). The tenth track, 4ever, was released on Lotusflow3r in 2009 (the version included on Songwriter Vol. 1 was slightly longer however). Oddly enough, considering the aim of this compilation, the eleventh and final track is a cover Aretha Franklin 1972’s song All The King’s Horses. Prince’s version, recorded in 2002, remains unreleased. The artwork of the book was a portrait of Prince made by artist Pablo Lobato (whose art was also used for the unreleased The Rainbow Children 2 album).
A second disc is known to exist and contains acoustic versions of Still Waiting, Free, 7 (listed as Seven), Girl and I Will. The acoustic version of Free released by The Prince Estate in 2025 as a digital single may come from this CD, but this has not been verified. The other acoustic versions remain unreleased. Nothing is known about other potential volumes.
Songwriter Vol. 1 would have consisted of a CD and book and was supposed to come out after the 21 Nights/Indigo Nights book-album. Eventually the project was scrapped for unknown reason. More information will be added if it becomes available.
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The Rainbow Children 2 ◄
