Prince estate issues rare (and goofy!) music videos from the '90s with Sony

When Prince was alive, a lot of his rarer music videos could only be seen online for a week at best before someone in the singer's camp had them taken down for being uploaded without permission. Now, Prince's handlers will be posting some of those old clips themselves on a weekly basis.

The Prince estate and its new partners at Sony Legacy have announced a new plan to issue a batch of old videos every week through mid-December from the Minnesota music legend's 1995-2010 era, a period of recordings that Sony now oversees and is marketing again.

Up first are seven fun clips related to his 1995-1996 albums "The Gold Experience" and "Chaos and Disorder." Among the highlights are a video for one of the finest full-throttle rockers in his discography, "Endorphinmachine" (which previously could only be seen on a CD-Rom videogame issued to promote the record), and a wonderfully oddball and truly of-the-era clip for "Rock and Roll Is Alive! (And It Lives in Minneapolis)" (issued as part of a VH1 broadcast special).

Yes, the most stylish and well-preened of rock stars -- then still in his "Slave" facepainting mode -- is wearing ski goggles and a puffy Vikings jacket in the "R&R Is Alive" footage, posted below. The song was reportedly recorded and the video filmed all in a whirlwind 24-hour period at Paisley Park in response to Lenny Kravitz's then-new song, "Rock and Roll Is Dead."

Drummer Michael Bland – the shrub-headed guy with the huge smile in the video – remembered on Facebook: "One of us had heard that some Prince fans made a 'Rock N Roll Is Alive' banner, went to a Lenny Kravitz concert and held it up during 'Rock N Roll Is Dead.' Apparently, Lenny told them to "take that sh*t down!!" We told Prince about it. He just stood there, gritting his teeth with anger."

Oh fer fun. The video series will continue through Dec. 14 and serves to promote the digital streaming of those albums and the excellent new 37-track anthology, "Prince: 1995-2010." All of the videos will be posted on the official Prince YouTube channel. Here's a schedule of the entire bonanza.

Nov. 9
From "Emancipation":
"Betcha By Golly Wow!"
"Somebody's Somebody"
"The Holy River"
"Face Down"
Nov. 16
From "Crystal Ball":
"Interactive"
From "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic/Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic":
"The Greatest Romance Ever Sold"
"Hot Wit U (feat. Eve) - Nasty Girl Remix"
Nov. 23
From "Chocolate Invasion":
"U Make My Sun Shine (feat. Angie Stone)"
Nov. 30
From "Musicology":
"Musicology"
"Call My Name"
"Cinnamon Girl"
From "3121":
"Black Sweat"
"Te Amo Corazón"
"Fury"
Dec. 7
From "Planet Earth":
"Chelsea Rogers"
"Somewhere Here On Earth"
"Guitar"
"The One U Wanna C"

Dec. 14
From "LOtUSFLOW3R":
"Crimson and Clover"
from "MPLSoUND":
"Chocolate Box (feat. Q-Tip)"