Paisley Park Power Trio was a short-lived ensemble formed by
Prince (known as an unpronounceable
Ƭ̵̬̊. symbol at the time) to record a one-take, direct-2-disc album on 14 June 1993 at Paisley Park Studios. The name was never used on official releases, only credited once on
The Sacrifice Of... The Undertaker bootleg DVD. The trio's studio jam session was filmed by
Parris Patton's crew, who at the time collaborated with Prince on a feature film with
Vanessa Marcil, star of the
General Hospital TV soap opera, and Nona Gaye (who later briefly dated Prince). The movie project was abandoned and transformed into a 40-min concert video,
[m=388667], with some random Marcil's footage overlaid on the band's performance. The VHS/Laserdisc video album came out in March 1995 on Warner Music Vision/Reprise Video, on the same day as
[m=547100] concert film and coinciding with Prince's
Ultimate Live Experience UK tour.
The eponymous audio album was never released, with the exact circumstances unclear. According to PrinceVault.com, Prince planned to release
The Undertaker as a Guitar World magazine CD insert, blocked by Warner Bros. Records at the last moment, and with the printed run supposedly destroyed by coating discs with a plastic covering rendering them unplayable. However, there's no source or citation provided for this claim (while plastic coating is not a common or documented technique for recycling CDs). In November 1994,
Guitar World, indeed, published a comprehensive cover article and interview with Prince that mentioned
The Undertaker several times. In the interview, Prince simply stated that Warner won't release the album, claiming he hadn't decided whether to publish it independently via NPG Records/Bellmark. The comprehensive 2004 book
The Vault: Definitive Guide by Per Nilsen and jooZt Matheij provides an alternative timeline. In early 1994, Prince privately manufactured a limited edition of around 1000 copies of [url=?id=r4447948]
The Undertaker picture CD[/url]. As the album sleeve was at the printshop, Warner Bros. discovered and canceled the project, ordering to destroy the entire pressing; a few surviving copies subsequently leaked into the collector's market.
Several tracks from the album were later re-recorded and released on other albums: Dolphin on
[m=113851] (1995), Zannalee on
[m=113855] (96), and The Ride on the '98
[m=355175] 4xCD compilation. Two original compositions, Poor Goo (dedicated to Prince's drum technician
James McGoo McGregor) and The Undertaker, were released as audio and video downloads via the NPG Music Club monthly subscription in November–December 2001, as part of
NPGMC Edition #10 and
Edition #11.
Paisley Park Power TrioƬ̵̬̊. — guitar, vocals
Michael B. — drums
Sonny T. — bass