The Prince Estate and Warner Records have dropped a demo version of Prince’s “Do Me, Baby” to mark the 40th anniversary of Prince’s Controversy, which originally arrived on October 14th, 1981. The previously unheard track was recorded in 1979.
The slinky track will be available as a limited-edition cassette and on vinyl, slated for shipping on January 31st; everything is currently up for preorder. Each will have a run of 1981 copies to mark the year Controversy was released. The cassette single replicates the original source format housed in Prince’s Paisley Park Vault. The etched seven-inch features Prince’s original handwritten lyrics vinyl and is pressed on purple vinyl.
The demo comes from Prince’s solo recording in April 1979, which he tracked at Alpha Studios in North Hollywood a year after he and André Cymone made an initial recording of the song. The final version of the song appeared two years later on Side A of Controversy.
From Rolling Stone US
