New York 3 August 1986

 

Is the 1986 Hit N Run tour well represented by bootlegs? Are all the shows similar? Do I need to hear another one? The answer is you bet! (More importantly, should I be opening this post with rhetorical questions? All apologies to my high school English teacher). Yes, it is true that we already have several 1986 soundboard recordings, but as far as I’m concerned, too much is never enough. So it is with great joy that I am listening to the latest in our catalog of soundboard recordings, the second night of two that Prince played at Madison Square Garden in 1986. There is nothing here that we haven’t heard before but is always nice to wallow in the music of Prince when he was at the peak of his powers, a timely reminder that he was the little giant of the music world through the 1980s.

3rd August 1986, Madison Square Garden, New York

As is typical, the recording begins with a rendition of “Around The World In A Day” that gives us an indication of the quality of the recording from the start, a soundboard that has a nice stereo sound that grabs me as I listen on the headphones. The song is short. It is a bright start to the concert, but it doesn’t explode out of the gates as I have heard at other concerts.

There is a balance to “Christopher Tracy’s Parade,” with each player holding the music and song in an equilibrium. The quality of the recording is key, in this case, I rejoice in being able to pick out each part and break down the song into its constituents. The horns and guitar are the two that battle most for my attention, they are worthy contenders and each adds a different flavor to a song that pulls many ingredients together into a tasty dish.

 

The sound is almost too easy and smooth, “New Position” becomes undemanding in this light and lacks some of the funky punch that I have come to associate with it. While still being a cool moment, it doesn’t quite live up to all that it promises on record.

“I Wonder U” stands out among these early tracks, the horns in particular seem to take on a life of their own, and they add an eerily uneasiness to a song that I am perhaps overly familiar with. I want to give Wendy more praise in this case, but it is the horns that leap off the page and make this performance unique.

I can understand why Prince has the audience sing along with him, after all singing the songs you love with the performer you adore is a big part of going to a concert, but on bootlegs, it becomes a flat moment, and in this case it is no different as Prince leaves gaps throughout “Raspberry Beret” for the audience to sing, making for an uneven experience for us listening here at home. However, it is short, and the inner enthusiasm of the song itself can never be dampened.

 

There is unhinged energy to “Delirious” that picks up where “Raspberry Beret” left off, and although it is even shorter (barely a minute) it does garner a loud cheer from the crowd.

My favorite part of Parade shows is always the “Controversy/Mutiny” section, and here is no different as Wendy and Miko roll out the funky red carpet with their twin guitar strands before Jerome lives up to his role as a hype man and he does, in this case, have me hyped up. If you have a chair, now is the moment to stand on it and lose yourself in the music as Prince and the band turn everything up to eleven. “Mutiny” doesn’t quite have the deep groove that I crave so dearly, the organ doesn’t have the same juggernaut drive that I have come to expect,  but I care not one jot as I play the game and crank everything I have up as far as it goes. At this level, Eric Leeds is almost deafening as a cacophony of sound explodes from his horn, the world seemingly spinning backward as he plays. As a funky jam, things don’t get much better than this, and it's all I can do from weeping with pure unadulterated joy and love of the groove.

 

“Do Me, Baby” doesn’t put out the fire, but it does turn it into a smolder that burns with a different sort of intensity. It can’t be compared to the preceding song, but it is every bit as good and has me feeling just as hot as it plays. No doubt many women in the audience feel the same way, and the song is punctuated by howls and screams of delight. I would be the same had I been there if only I wasn’t so repressed. Make no mistake, this is just as much a pillar of the show as “Controversy/Mutiny”

I’m still coming down as Prince glides through “How Much Is That Doggie In The Window” and “Lady Cab Driver.” My interest is piqued again with the introduction of “Automatic,” although hearing it in this case only makes me wish he had played longer versions, and over more tours.

“D.M.S.R” has a rip-roaring start, the scream by Lisa cutting through everything with its sheer animistic power, and that only heightens the letdown as Prince quickly ditches the song to move onto more fertile fields.

It’s not usual for “When Doves Cry” to sound barren, in this case, it is even more so as Prince plays one of the driest versions I have heard. There is no escaping the heat he generates, the sound offering nothing soft or fluid, just the driest of drum sounds as Prince sketches out his lonely world. It is Wendy that rains on this parade as her guitar pours the emotion and colors that the song was previously lacking, her playing sounding all the more fearsome for the sparse soundscape behind her.

 

The sweet piano of “Under The Cherry Moon” has me far more enraptured than the vocal delivery of Prince. While the piano speaks of other worldliness and baroque psychedelia, Prince's vocals pull me back to Madison Square Garden and the here and now. The stereo of the recording heightens this uneasiness that I feel and the song leaves me with a raft of conflicting emotions.

The straightforwardness of “Anotherloverholenyohead” speaks to me in a way that “Under The Cherry Moon” does not. Some funk and rhythm that I can move to, Wendy still manages to insert some of the sound of the previous song in with her wonderful jazz-sounding piano solo, and as always this is the most fascinating part of the song. Here even more so as she stretches right out and fills the midsection of the song with a solo that is full of her personality and character.

The jump to “Soft And Wet” is abrupt, the ending of the previous song apparently snipped. It makes for an uncomfortable bedfellow next to “Anotherloverholenyohead,” but nevertheless is a pop moment in a concert that would have challenged a purely pop audience thus far. “I Wanna Be Your Lover” covers the same territory, its slabs of poppy chords emanating from the keyboards and hammering the audience over the head with a Top 40 sound. At this point listening to the concert again moves from a cerebral exercise to a pure celebration of music.

Prince teases with “Head,” and then fails to deliver. After hearing some outstanding versions of this at other shows, in this case, it is all talk and no trousers. Instead of an intense slow burn, we get some of the main riff, before Prince interrupts for some audience chanting. I can’t complain too much about it, this show has already given me plenty in other ways.

There is an extra spring in the step of “Pop Life,” to my (admittedly poor) ears it is a tad too fast, and the bass skips and jumps rather than bounces through the song. It still takes me to a happy place, even if I do have to sing slightly faster to keep up. And Prince’s comment “Who let that bird in” as Eric plays sums up what I have always felt about that solo, it does sound like a bird in early spring just taken flight.

 

The sass and slip of “Girls And Boys” is clearly heard in the separated stereo sound, the groove coming in one ear while Eric Leeds gives me plenty of attitude in the other.  Taking both together, the song becomes an entirely Revolution performance, Prince’s vocals almost secondary to the band. The final moments cement this thought as they come together to drive the beat home in the last minute of the song.

There is something about the live performance of “Life Can Be So Nice” that doesn’t quite gel with me. Perhaps there is too much going on for me to properly hear in this case, and listening to this live performance has me wanting to dig out the album and give it a decent listen.

There is an unusual mix to “A Love Bizarre” and in the first minute, each instrument sounds almost separate in their playing. Things improve, and soon the music is restored to a truer sound, a cohesiveness and innately funky rendition of one of Prince’s most beloved ‘jam’ songs at the time. This one is no exception, with Shelia E. onboard, Prince drives the band through a ten-minute performance that carries all the funk you could wish for. I could compare him to funkateers of the past, but there is no point, Prince is unique in his ability to squeeze every drop of funk out of a pop song and turn it into a scorching worlds-end rendition. Even his shouts of “Who’s house, Wendy’s house” can’t deflect from the fact that all the funk is emanating from one power source, himself.

 

“Sometimes It Snows In April” is about as far from this funk fiesta as you can get. It does have its place at the show though and is the emotional core that grounds it all after such flights of fancy. Prince’s vocals can be heard echoing around the arena, and there is a very real sense that he has the audience eating out of the palm of his hand as he plays. In a show full of color and spectacle, this is a real moment that touches even the most cynical of hearts.

There is almost a ponderous plod to “Purple Rain” in the opening minute, but Prince makes amends with an invested emotional delivery that matches “Sometimes It Snows In April” for pure heart. Normally the emotion of “Purple Rain” bleeds through Prince’s guitar solo, in this case, he generates that feel from his vocals, and although the guitar does shriek and howl as expected, the real tears come with Prince’s singing. After a show of so many textures and genres, “Purple Rain” plays like a unifying rally call, and one last chance for the crowd, the band, and Prince, to sing together and share the moment. Even thirty years on it sounds like an epic finish that a concert such as this deserves.

I knew what to expect from this recording, and I thought that after overdosing so heavily on 1986 Prince in the past, perhaps in this case I would be immune to the temptations within. However, I am merely human and even with my jaded outlook on bootlegs, I still found myself entranced by the spell that Prince cast in 1986. There are other soundboards of 1986 in circulation, and every single one of them is essential. This one is no different, I urge you to hunt it out, it’s just as rewarding as any other you have heard. 1986 will never grow old to me, and with shows like this in circulation Prince will forever remain young.

Thanks for reading this far, and thanks to Mace2theO for providing the first-hand account of the concert below
-Hamish

Mace2theO:

I was at this show (and the day before). One of my main memories of this evening was when exiting MSG at the end, there was a large group of teenage girls crying like banshees, screaming “The m*th*r f*ck*er didn’t play ‘Kiss'”