For this collector of rare records, Nothing Compares 2 Prince
Angelo Schifano, a more than 30-year industry veteran and rare record collector, has spent a large portion of his life drawn to the magnetism and mystery of Prince.
Making Vinyl, a conference dedicated to the vinyl record industry, set up shop at the Loews Hotel in Minneapolis last week, attracting hundreds of devoted industry leaders, experts and audiophiles from across the world.
Among them was Angelo Schifano, a more than 30-year industry veteran and record collector, who’s spent a large portion of his life drawn to the magnetism and mystery of Prince.
“It's still kind of a magical place,” Schifano said of Minneapolis. “The first time [you visit] you think, ‘Why isn't everyone wearing Prince t-shirts?’”
This time around, and equipped with his own Prince t-shirt, Schifano came from his native Netherlands to host a presentation about his rare Prince records — a personal collection of roughly 2,000 Prince pressings that are regarded as among the most extensive and includes some of the rarest and most sought-after artifacts the larger-than-life artist left behind.
While some things in Schifano’s collection carry a big price tag, he said it’s the memories attached to a lot of those items that basically make them priceless.
“I was heavily into music in general. So as a 10-year-old, 11-year-old, I would take the top 40 shows — the hits shows — I would watch them religiously,” he said. “We were the first town in the Netherlands with MTV, so from ‘87, I knew all the pop hits at the time.”
Yes, he knew all the pop hits, but it wasn't long until he decided: The High Priest of Pop was in a category all his own.
“I kinda separated those two, for myself,” he said. “You had the regular music, kind of normal artists — and you had Prince. And Prince is his own genre.”
'the rest is history'
But it wasn't until the moment Schifano walked into the record store he passed each day on the way to school, that would send him on a path straight toward Prince pandemonium.
“His 7-inch record just looked at me, literally. Prince’s face was looking at me every lunch hour I passed by. And at some point, I thought, ‘I know this guy. I know a few songs.’ I had seen a couple of video clips; ‘Alphabet Street’ had been out, ‘Glam Slam' had been out."
The roughly $4-at-the-time, 7-inch single in question was “I Wish U Heaven,” from the artist’s 1988 album, “Lovesexy.” The pressing isn’t exceptionally rare, but to Schifano, this piece of vinyl was the beginning of “a journey that never really ended,” making its value worth far more than its weight in gold.
Schifano's presence inside Playland Records soon became a daily ritual, landing him a job at the store when he was around 14. Thirty-five years later, Schifano's collection of Prince records numbers in the thousands, a stack of around 700 singles alone.
"I think the charming thing is the whole process of the inconvenience of a record," he said. "It's 20 minutes — max — you have to turn it around. You have to be careful with the needle with the stylus; you have to handle the sleeves carefully, but your record collection is your record collection. They will have certain bumps and wrinkles, or a little stain or some little wear and tear, but that's your collection."
Schifano said as his record collection inevitably started to grow, so did the confines of his buying boundaries. Looking outside of just U.S. and European releases, Schifano soon was in possession of pressings issued in Japan, Canada, the U.K. and beyond. And while his collection does include the Purple One's most celebrated recordings with his most well-known bands, Schifano is forever on the hunt for A- and B-sides promising a deeper dive into Prince's projects on the side.
One of them, a jazz-fusion band known as Madhouse, released two albums in 1987 — "8" and "16."
"In the end, you just want to have it all," he said. "And with Prince, that means not only Prince albums and singles and 12-inches and promos, but all of his related artists or side projects. Madhouse is one of the coolest and most interesting and collectible side projects, I think, of his career."
On Prince's 33rd birthday, he and his backing band the New Power Generation put out a promo copy of "Gett Off," their first single from "Diamonds and Pearls." The original 12-inch copy was intended to be a one-off single not even meant to make the "Diamonds and Pearls" tracklist.
"Get Off" found wild success, and as Schifano said, "The rest is history."
'coincidence or fate?'
The history of Prince on vinyl cannot be told without the legend of "The Black Album." The super rare, super valuable pressing is one of collectors' most sought-after, as some could argue its mythos an embodiment of the Prince of Funk himself.
A week before it was scheduled for release in December 1987, Prince put a kibosh on the record abruptly — and decisively. The hundreds of thousands of copies that had already been pressed would ultimately be destroyed and speculation about the star's decision ran rampant — theories ranging from a bad ecstasy trip to the influence of fellow artist Ingrid Chavez, who Prince reportedly met that very night.
We'll never know the answer, but that's OK with Schifano, who prefers conversations about the highly desired, incredibly hard-to-come-by acetate album to be shrouded in a bit of mystery anyway.
"The Black Album" was finally released in 1994, but only for a limited time.
Although Schifano boasts thousands of limited edition, one-of-a-kind relics from a place in time once special enough to foster Prince, the collector said it's actually an album he received after the artist's death that he cherishes most.
A few days after Prince left our world, Schifano was asked to help arrange the singer's catalog and compile a tracklist that would take listeners on an emotional journey through the artist's Warner Brothers era.
"I can throw a brick here on the streets of Minneapolis and hit someone that can make a Prince compilation," he said. "I tried to do something extra and figure out if there were editions of songs or not released in certain parts of the world."
The final list comprised 40 tracks, plus a never-before-released song pulled from the vastness that is Prince's vault. With only a "raggedy mp3" bootleg version of "Moonbeam Levels" in his possession, Schifano sent it along as a suggestion to Warner Bros., the track a selection from Prince's "1999" studio sessions.
"It's a beautiful song," Schifano said. "It's [about] friends talking about the afterlife — looking for a better place to die. I thought this is a song that captures the mood.
"At the end of his life. He was doing these piano solo shows, so the songs were not necessarily sad of tone, but it was a different vibe. It was introspective. This song, 30-something years old, captured the same vibe."
It wasn't until a few months later that Schifano learned Warner would use his collaborative compilation for its track listing, and "Moonbeam Levels" would be the first of the late singer's locked-down compositions to be pulled from the vault.
Susan Rogers, a sound engineer who worked with Prince from 1983 to 1988, spanning albums including "Purple Rain," "Around the World in a Day," "Parade," "Sign o' the Times" and "The Black Album," had always been a fan of "Moonbeam Levels." Rogers was quoted in a book in the months following Prince's death, calling "Moonbeam Levels," "just so beautiful."
"'Moonbeam Levels' was the song that she always had wanted Prince to put on an album, but he had always pulled it back," Schifano said. "He would deem things crap that other artists would die for."
"But I found out it was Susan Rogers' favorite never to end up on an album track. So when I knew that, and she knew this whole backstory, it felt really special."
Rogers later learned that Schifano was involved with finally releasing the song into the world, thanking him with a signed test pressing.
From a curious kid in the Netherlands to a top-level music industry consultant, Schifano is now forever tied to The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.
"It's bittersweet," he said. "Of course, it took this tragedy for me to become in a position to give something back, but I must stress I am not entitled to it. I don't deserve it. I am just a crazy fan that maybe was at the right time at the right place."
...begging the question: Coincidence or Fate?
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