Alexis Taylor – “Old Friends 4 Sale” (Prince Cover)
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Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor recently released his third solo LP Piano, a beautiful collection of live covers and original material performed unadorned and unaccompanied on the titular instrument. A few weeks ago Taylor visited Manchester’s historic Granada Studios to deliver a 20-minute set on the 4K performance video platform Low Four. Amongst a number of cuts from Piano, Taylor slipped in a cover of the rare and remorseful Prince single “Old Friends 4 Sale.” Here’s what Taylor had to say on the performance:
The song was recorded originally by Prince in 1985 for potential inclusion on the album Parade. It remained unreleased until around the late ’90s when he changed the lyrics and re-recorded an inferior version which was much more tame lyrically. My cover is of the original unreleased version which has circulated on bootlegs since the late ’80s.
Check out Prince’s original here, before watching Taylor’s faithful take below.
You can watch the rest of Taylor’s performance on Low Four below:
Piano is out now via Moshi Moshi.