Moonbeam Levels

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Moonbeam Levels

Prince4ever album.jpg
from the album 4Ever
1999 Deluxe.jpg
from the album 1999 Super Deluxe Edition
Song details
Performer: Prince
First Released: 22 November 2016 - 4Ever album
Album(s): 4Ever

1999 Super Deluxe Edition

Writer(s): Prince
Producer(s): Prince
Live Appearances
First and last live appearance:
Performed regularly on tour:
  • none
Performed occasionally in shows:
  • 1983 (partial rendition in piano medley), 2013 (partial rendition in piano medley)

Moonbeam Levels is song recorded on 6 July 1982 (the day before Lady Cab Driver), at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California. It was released as the only previously-unreleased track on the first posthumous compilation of Prince’s music, 4Ever, and in 2019 in a slightly longer version as the fifth track on the Vault Tracks part 2 disc of a Super Deluxe Edition edition of the 1999 album.

Even though it was recorded during the sessions for 1999, and considered for that album, it was never placed on a configuration of it. It was worked on further in June 1983 and considered for, but also not placed on any configurations of Purple Rain, and subsequently also for Around The World In A Day, possibly Parade and a 25 November 1986 configuration of the Crystal Ball set that would evolve into Sign O’ The Times. Finally it was also considered for inclusion on the aborted Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic album (different from the 1999 album Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic), as the ninth and final track on the mid-January 1989, configuration of the album before it was abandoned when Prince began work on the Batman soundtrack album.

In early 2002, during an online chat to promote the second year of the NPG Music Club, the moderators asked if members would be interested in a pristine copy of Moonbeam Levels, hinting that it might be available as part of the membership package. The song, however, remained unreleased until after Prince’s death.


Recording Information
Recording Sessions
Date Studio Additional info
6 July 1982 Sunset Sound – Studio 2,
Hollywood, CA, USA
Tracking
8 June 1983 Kiowa Trail Home Studio,
Chanhassen, MN, USA
Additional Work
25 September 1985 Sunset Sound - Studio 3,
Hollywood, CA, USA
Mix (Susan Rogers & Coke Johnson, Prince not present)
Recording Personnel
  • Prince - all vocals and instruments


Versions
Released Versions
Title Length Released Version Additional info
Moonbeam Levels 4:06 4Ever Studio
Moonbeam Levels 4:23 1999 Super Deluxe Edition
Studio



 
Additional Information

See also Trivia

  • This song was the first (previously unreleased) song from Prince’s vault to be released posthumously.
  • In the notebook, where Prince wrote his (undated) synopsis for what would become the movie Purple Rain, Moonbeam Levels is listed as one of the songs to be included in the film.

References
Moon Drop   < < < All Songs Unreleased Songs > > >   Moral Majority