Prince Estate Releases Raw “Calabama” After Critics Question Added Horns

Prince’s estate released the original “Calabama” without the added horns after his death, giving fans a way to compare it with the Timeless album version.

The four-track Calabama EP arrived earlier this week through NPG Records. It pairs both versions with two untouched recordings of “Prince And The Band.”

The estate said some critics wanted the raw track after learning about the new horns. It described “Calabama” as the only Timeless song with added music.

Prince recorded the song at Paisley Park on January 21, 2003, with John Blackwell on drums. Greg Boyer, Adrian Crutchfield and Lynn Grissett supplied the later horn parts.

The second “Prince And The Band” recording date is August 22, 2006. Maceo Parker plays saxophone, Ray Monteiro plays trumpet, and Boyer plays trombone.

The dispute reaches a core question for any vault release: how much should a team change a recording its creator left behind?

Timeless, released August 28, takes a broader view of Prince’s archives than a single-album session. Sony’s original announcement describes ten recordings spanning 1977 to 2016, ordered by year.

“I Am You” opens the set with a recording from Sound 80 in Minneapolis. The collection moves through “Heaven,” “With This Tear” and “Stone” before reaching “Calabama.”

It closes with “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?,” recorded during a March 4, 2016, show at Oakland’s Oracle Arena. That puts an early studio recording and a late concert performance on the same release.

Producer Chris James mixed and mastered the collection. He also worked with Prince and recorded “Bestest Friend,” another Timeless track, at Paisley Park in 2012.

The estate also plans to make selected untouched vault recordings available for listening at Paisley Park in 2027.