Listen: Unearthed Prince Demo ‘Do Me, Baby’ shared by The Artist’s estate

Prince’s estate have shared an unheard demo of ‘Do Me, Baby’ to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his fourth album, 1981’s Controversy.

The demo was recorded in 1979 with Prince performing the entire track. The demo is faster than the version that made it onto the album and is also without the tracks multiple ad-libs.

A statement about the new release said:

“’Do Me, Baby’” is best known as the centre-piece of 1981’s Controversy album, but Prince first recorded the song years earlier. A demo featuring Prince and his best friend and creative collaborator André Cymone was initially recorded in 1978.

“Then a year later, Prince fully reimagined the track as a solo recording during the April 1979 recording sessions for Prince at Alpha Studios in North Hollywood, CA, with overdubs added in the same period at Hollywood Sound Records in Hollywood, CA.”

“From that 2″ multitrack master tape, a cassette rough mix – recently discovered in Prince’s legendary vault and labeled in the artist’s own handwriting – was rendered but ultimately shelved," the statement continued.

“…As was typical with Prince, he revisited the song afresh more than two years later when he created an entirely new solo recording of ‘Do Me, Baby’ at Sunset Sound in June 1981. That master recording was released on October 14, 1981, as the epic final song on Side A of Controversy.

‘Do Me, Baby’ was remixed by Prince’s engineer — the Grammy-nominated Chris James — as per the demo cassette's specifications. It was also mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Bernie Grundman, Prince’s longtime collaborator.

A replica cassette single of the demo — limited to 1981 units — with the ‘TDK’ logo that was on the original cassette with ‘PRN’ (Prince Rogers Nelson’s initials) is available. An etched 7” single pressed on purple vinyl that includes Prince’s original hand-written lyrics for the song has also been shared.

Prince’s “lost” album Welcome 2 America was released back in July. The album was recorded back in 2010 and was due to arrive the following year alongside his US tour of the same name. The tour went ahead as scheduled but the album never arrived.

After remaining stashed in a vault for a decade, the album is currently available to listen to, more than ten years after the record was made and five years after Prince's death.

Listen to 'Do Me, Baby' below.