Texas 16 January 1985

The Purple Rain album and subsequent tour cast a long shadow across the Prince world. It is an album and tour that defined him for the rest of his career, everything he did from 1984 was held up in comparison to this time. It is then surprising that I don’t listen to more Purple Rain bootlegs than I do. After all, it was the Purple Rain album that turned me from fan to fam. My first blush of love for Prince had come from the 1999 album but it is the following Purple Rain that would turn it into a lifelong passion. I can still recall the first time I heard the song “Purple Rain,” walking home from school, the opening chords of the song floating and then hanging in the air from a neighbor's open window. “When Doves Cry” in my father's car, driving past Latimer square, the opening hook stuck in my head for days after, the only part I could sing as I hadn’t been able to catch the lyrics. Yes, Purple Rain left quite a mark on me, as it did for all of us. With that in mind, I felt it necessary this week to return to the Purple Rain era, and perhaps a concert that isn’t appreciated as much as it should be. Prince played three benefit shows during his tour, one each in the first three months of 1985, and each one a matinee. Last year I did take a listen to the concert from February 1985, and this week I will be taking in a bootleg of the January 16th show. It is very similar to the setlist, and although this show isn’t a soundboard, it is still a very clean and clear audience recording. There was a previous poor-sounding release, but the 4DF release is an immense improvement and the recording of choice when listening to this show. If anything it has slightly more life to it than a soundboard recording, but I know there are people out there who don’t dabble in an audience recording, no matter how good the quality.

16 January 1985 (mat) Texas Southern University, University Auditorium

As far as the concert is concerned there are zero surprises, and the opening “Let’s Go Crazy” confirms that this concert is firmly anchored in the Purple Rain era. The spoken intro, the screaming crowds, and the ferocious guitar all mark it as 1985, and even if the guitar crunch is lacking on the recording, one can still sense the power of the performance. The sound is uneven through the first minutes, but it matters little as Prince and the band storm through this beloved power-pop number, the energy and passion carrying the moment, and the audience, through the door that the music has opened, and into the concert proper.

 

The quality of the recording settles for “Delirious” and at this point, the show does sparkle as Prince swings the concert upwards with more pop piled on top of a funky bass line and a sweaty piano solo that adds another texture to a song that is little more than a chorus and a bass hook.

There is a smoothness to “1999” that hadn’t been heard in the opening two numbers, and it leaves me with mixed feelings. I like how good it sounds, it’s crisp, clean, and easily digestible, but at the same time it lacks the urgency and energy of the “Let’s Go Crazy” and “Delirious.” The sing-a-long at the end does add to the song, as does Prince’s squeaking guitar, but it just misses that jagged raw edge that I look for in live recordings. Prince unfurls a stream of molten guitar work at the last minute that almost saves the day, but the rest of the song is too safe for my tastes.

 

The first minute of “Little Red Corvette” promises so much as it pulses slowly into life. However the chorus is flaccid, and there is the feeling that it has built itself up into nothing. The crowd is happy enough to sing with Prince through, and as always Wendy delivers with her well balance solo. The song though is barely three minutes and given a longer platform I am sure it could have delivered so much more.

The is a fantastic jangly weirdness that plays through “Take Me U,” distracting me from the vocals but giving the song much more interest. As always it is after the first minute where the song kicks off, Prince’s guitar ablaze for the final two minutes as he carves out his rock god status live on stage. The solo he plays is similar to what is seen on the “Take Me With U” live video (although shorter), no surprise at all as that was recorded in the same week in Houston.

 

There is a cuteness to the young voices chanting “we want Prince,” as the synth strains give way to a piano performance of “Free.” It’s a thoughtful introduction that slowly seduces the listener, bringing the performance to a more intimate place before Prince presents his simplistic agenda in the lyrics of “Free.” There is an immediate response from the crowd, but this doesn’t overwhelm the bootleg, and if anything it adds to the emotional pull of the song as the crowd cheer at the appropriate moments.

“God” is delivered to a silent crowd, and here the bootleg excels in capturing Prince’s emotive performance. The spirit of the song swirls around him, the mist of the music wrapping up the sound in a few minutes that sound heavenly. As much as I love this song, often it derails the concert, but in this case, it elevates it to a far more satisfying and rewarding experience.

This concert barely lasts an hour, and the final thirty minutes are given over to the most representative songs of the era: “When Doves Cry,” “Baby I’m A Star” and “Purple Rain.” It is “When Doves Cry” that opens this triumvirate, and Prince turns it into a celebration of pop perfection, the opening hook is given two minutes to weave its magic on the crowd. There is no denying this ear-worm of a hook, and even once the band brings their full weight to bear upon the song, it is still this addictive hook that remains at the forefront of my mind. The band however does have its own power, and as she does so many times, Wendy brings a classy touch of fire with her guitar and gives the song a sharper edge. The rhythm in the second part of the song is particularly alluring, and I am more than happy to hear Prince and the band stretching this out into a climatic jam that remains firmly anchored by Brown Marks bassline.

“Baby I’m Star” was consistently dragged out longer and longer as the tour went on, what we have on this bootleg is a tidy ten-minute package that does just enough to tick all the boxes of what we hear night after night on the long drawn out jams. The first half of the song is as we expected to hear, and the point where it normally steps off into another world entirely is strangely muted as the band plays a low-key rendition of what a longer jam might sound like. The solos are shorter, each given less time to cultivate and come to full fruition. Of course, it stays funky, but it never plunges to the depths of some other recordings. 

I have a couple of problems with the recording when it comes to “Purple Rain.” Firstly, there is some weird phasing effect on the guitar that spoils the delicacy of the opening moments. Further, we have a couple of people talking near the taper, making the opening couple of minutes a frustrating experience. The recording steadies though, and by the time we reach the chorus we are in a much better place, although again the recording is nowhere near as good as it had been earlier on. The song remains with a tinniness that I can’t shake, even as Prince’s climatic solo emerges from this moment with a striking boldness that was previously lacking. There are some great renditions of “Purple Rain” from this tour, this one remains par for the course. It doesn’t strike out in any new direction and comes in at a tidy ten minutes. One could wish for more, but to be fair this is a reasonable facsimile of what is heard on record, and what most would have expected to hear. And it does of course herald the end of the concert.

Not a perfect bootleg, but it does give non-fan a good overview of the Purple Rain era, and what a Purple Rain concert might feel like – a Purple Rain live greatest hits if you please. I enjoyed the brevity of it, and found the concert entirely listenable, except for perhaps the  final “Purple Rain” which did let it down.  The 2006 4DF release of this concert is a vast improvement from the previous circulating version, and although it too has faults, it is great to have a record of one of the three benefit concerts of the tour.