Dream Factory is an unreleased album by Prince and the Revolution, planned for release following their third (and ultimately final) album Parade. There are three known configurations of the album, dated late April, 1986, 3 June, 1986, and 18 July, 1986.
Strange Relationship, Teacher, Teacher and I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man were the earliest recordings included on the album, originally recorded in Summer, 1982. Dream Factory was recorded in December, 1985, but Prince hadn't yet decided on the album, as he was unsure of how he would proceed following Parade, which was not yet released. By January, 1986, however, Prince proceeded with further work on an album, recording Last Heart and It's A Wonderful Day.
It was only in mid-March, 1986, however, that he embarked fully on the album, when Prince started working using a new home studio in his house, known as the Galpin Blvd Home Studio, Chanhassen, MN, USA. Recorded there from mid-March to mid-April, 1986, were The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker, Power Fantastic, And How, A Place In Heaven, Movie Star and Witness 4 The Prosecution. And That Says What? was recorded during the same sessions, but at the Crosstown Circle Warehouse, Eden Prairie, MN, USA. In mid-April, Crystal Ball, Starfish And Coffee, Big Tall Wall and Visions were recorded.
A tentative configuration of the Dream Factory album was compiled in late April, 1986, containing eleven tracks. Work continued in early May, however, with the recording of In A Large Room With No Light and It, and a new double LP configuration containing 19 tracks was compiled, dated 3 June, 1986. The album was mastered in early June, but Prince still didn't consider it a final version, and continued work on the album. Slow Love was recorded the following day. By mid-June, Prince was considering working on a Broadway musical, possibly also called Dream Factory, and it is possible that there was some overlap between the projects, but the musical was ultimately abandoned.
In early July, 1986, Prince recorded Train for the album, and in mid-July, he recorded The Cross and Sign O' The Times, and revamped the 1982 track I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man to complete the album. The final double LP configuration containing 18 tracks was compiled on 18 July, 1986. When Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman told Prince they wanted to leave his band in late July, however, the album was abandoned. Prince instead decided to eliminate most of the Revolution's input on tracks and to expand on the project by incorporating other tracks recorded later in 1986, resulting in the three-disc set Crystal Ball (which eventually was pared down to become Prince's next officially released album, Sign O' The Times).
Although many of the tracks were solo recordings by Prince, several include other members of the Revolution.
Many of the tracks considered for the Dream Factory album have been released in one form or another. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker, Strange Relationship, Starfish And Coffee, It, Slow Love, I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man, Sign O' The Times and The Cross were all included on the Sign O' The Times album. Train was released by Mavis Staples in 1989 on her album Time Waits For No One.
Power Fantastic was released (in edited form) in 1993 on The B-Sides compilation (included as the third and final disc on The Hits / The B-Sides). Dream Factory, Sexual Suicide, Last Heart, Movie Star and Crystal Ball were eventually released on the 1998 compilation Crystal Ball. A re-recorded version of In A Large Room With No Light was streamed online in 2009, but was not officially released. Visions remains unreleased as a Prince-related track, but was released (now renamed Minneapolis #1) by Wendy & Lisa in 1990 as the first track on a limited edition bonus CD included with their third album Eroica. It's A Wonderful Day, Big Tall Wall, And That Says What?, Teacher, Teacher, A Place In Heaven, Witness 4 The Prosecution and All My Dreams remain unreleased, however, as do the musical segues Interlude – Wendy and Nevaeh Ni Ecalp A.
Nothing is known about packaging for the album, as it is likely this had not yet been worked on at the time the project was abandoned.
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