Maps of Music

C-Note (2004)

Where the lyrics of C-Note take you, and where it was really made.

The title is built from the first letters of the track names, and some fans read the album as a reply to a fan-club fraud complaint.

Key places

Recording site in Copenhagen (2004)

Recording site Falkoner Salen — Falkoner Salen is listed as a recording place for the album. Four of the five tracks take their names from recording locations, and Copenhagen is one of them. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording site in Nagoya (2004)

Recording site Nagoya Century Hall — Nagoya Century Hall is listed as a recording place. The track Nagoya is named after the location where it was recorded. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording site in Osaka (2004)

Recording site Osaka-jo Hall — Osaka-jo Hall is listed as a recording place. The track Osaka is named after the location where it was recorded. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording site in Tokyo (2004)

Recording site Nippon Budokan — Nippon Budokan is listed as a recording place. The fourth track, Tokyo, is an instrumental in which Prince repeats the word from its title. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Empty Room recorded in Copenhagen (2002)

Live show Copenhagen — The fifth track, a live version of Empty Room, was recorded on October 25, 2002, in Copenhagen. The song itself was first recorded around August 1985. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• C-Note: live album by Prince and the New Power Generation
• Released in 2004; all five tracks had already been issued as separate MP3 files in 2003
• Genre: jazz, with five tracks taken from soundchecks during the One Nite Alone... Tour
• Four of the five tracks are named after the location they were recorded in
• Title built from the first letters of the track names: Copenhagen, Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo, Empty Room
• Highly experimental and reminiscent of the Madhouse project
• Atmospheric, with new age themes

Background

• Prince's fan club, the NPG Music Club, charged $100 for a membership
• Membership advertised that paying members would receive four exclusive albums
• After One Nite Alone... and One Nite Alone... Live! were released, members who felt deceived sent complaints of Federal Mail Fraud to the Minnesota Attorney General's office and the Better Business Bureau
• Some fans speculated that Xpectation and C-Note were Prince's response to being forced to comply with these demands
• C-Note is slang for a $100 bill

Recording

• The entire album was recorded live from the audio console by concert sound engineer Scottie Baldwin
• The first four tracks are instrumentals; the fourth features Prince repeating the word from its title
• The fifth track is a live rendition of 'Empty Room', recorded on October 25, 2002, in Copenhagen
• The song was written around August 4, 1985, when it was first recorded
• It is reported to have been written and recorded for Susannah Melvoin after relationship difficulty
• The Copenhagen track contains a portion of Miles Davis' 'Jean-Pierre'

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Prince Rogers Nelson, born June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota; died April 21, 2016 at Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
• Signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1977 at age 18; first album For You released April 7, 1978.
• Career spanned funk, rock, R&B and pop, with estimated sales over 100 million records.

Career

• Breakthrough with Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981) and 1999 (1982).
• Purple Rain (1984) made him the first singer to hold the number-one film, album and single in the US at the same time.
• Sign o' the Times (1987) is widely considered his greatest work.
• Changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in 1993, becoming known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince; reverted to Prince in 2000.
• Won seven Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Released in 2004 and sold in digital format only, through Prince's NPG Music Club
• The album is described as highly experimental, close in spirit to the Madhouse project
• Genres listed: jazz, quiet storm, jazz-fusion, jazz-funk and smooth jazz
• The album is also described as atmospheric and new age-themed
• Its tracks first appeared as five separate downloads in 2003, before the album release

Reappraisal

• Some fans speculated that the album and Xpectation answered the NPG Music Club membership complaints
• The speculation links the album's name to the slang for a $100 bill, the price of membership

Records

• Original 2003 downloads: five separate tracks, Copenhagen 13:28, Nagoya 8:54, Osaka 5:28, Tokyo 5:04, Empty Room 4:02
• 2004 re-release and 2015 TIDAL edition: Copenhagen runs 10:07 because it excises the Davis interpolation

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Four of the five track names are the recording locations, and the title spells them out by first letter.
• The NPG Music Club membership fee of $100 matches the slang meaning of C-Note, a $100 bill.
• The Copenhagen track contains a portion of Miles Davis' 'Jean-Pierre', which the 2004 re-release removed.
• 'Empty Room' was first recorded around August 1985 and is reported to have been written for Susannah Melvoin.
• Sound engineer Scottie Baldwin recorded the whole album from the audio console.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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