Hear Prince’s Previously Unreleased 1983 Demo “Why The Butterflies”

Hear Prince’s Previously Unreleased 1983 Demo “Why The Butterflies”

One of the many Prince archival releases in the works in Piano & A Microphone 1983, which is a live cassette recording that Prince made in his Minneapolis home studio of him playing at the piano. Meaning, just as the title says, it’s just him, a piano, and a microphone. The album is out next week, and we’ve heard a handful of selections from it already: his take on the traditional spiritual “Mary Don’t You Weep” and a demo fro Purple Rain’s “17 Days.”

Today, we’re getting another track from the album, and it’s one of three songs on the record that have never been heard before and never made it onto an official Prince album. The song, “Why The Butterflies,” stretches out over 6-minutes, though it’s clear that Prince was still figuring out its exact structure. It’s still a glorious recording, though, and you get to hear a lot of different sides to the musician as he tests out what works.

Check it out via Noisey below.

Piano & A Microphone 1983 is out 9/21 via Warner Bros.

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