Madrid 22 July 1990

 

The fact that this is called the Nude tour, and not titled after any particular album, says something about what to expect from shows of this era. His album at the time, Batman, was a year previous and the Graffiti Bridge album wasn’t released until late in the tour. It’s a ‘greatest hits’ show, with just three Batman songs appearing on the setlist. In recent years this has become common for Prince, but at this time, 1990, it was a first for him and us as the listener. Today I am listening to a good quality soundboard show from Madrid in 1990. Although I am not a big fan of the setlist, the recording is a very high standard, and there are a few interesting arrangements for me to enjoy.

July 22, 1990, Madrid

The show opens with the “DAT intro.” Several songs and intros are spliced together, it sounds alright, but it doesn’t get my blood flowing like perhaps you would expect it to. There are spoken excerpts of “Party Up,” “Controversy,” “1999,” “Let's Go Crazy,” “Around The World In A Day,” and a few others, but nothing we haven’t heard before.

However, things pick up once the music begins properly. “The Future” sounds excellent, and much stronger than on the album. The low end is very solid, and Prince's vocals are muscular and well suited for the lyrical theme. I must comment on the quality of this recording, it's top-shelf. The band and music sound great, and there is just enough crowd noise to enhance the live feel to it. “The Future” is my favorite from the Batman album, and I feel many people overlook it. But like I said before, live it is excellent. There are some very nice rolls on the tom-toms at the end, before we roll into “1999.”

For me, “1999” is always a little hit or miss live. Sometimes it comes off great and other times I just don’t feel it. Luckily this recording is one where it comes off great. The beat is driving, and the band vocals are all very strong- no one is holding back anything. It is a fine choice for this early in the gig and along with “The Future” it very much puts people in the dancing mood- me included! There are no horns in the band, so it has that nice electric feel that I enjoy.

Without skipping a beat the band starts “Housequake.” It’s always played well, and here is no exception. As I said in the previous song, there is no horn section in the band, so it’s the bold keyboard stabs that fill in. I am not sure if Prince is dancing or not, I can only assume he is, but his singing is still very tight, there is not a loose moment in the song at all. There are some calls and shout-outs for the Game Boyz, I don’t know what they are doing, but at this point, I am glad I am listening and not watching this gig. Prince sings “Sexy Dancer” for a time over the beat, and it’s surprising how well it all fits.

 

“Kiss” is played very quickly. The guitar is almost none existent, and it’s the keys that do most of the work in the song. I tried hard to enjoy this arrangement, but I just couldn’t get there. Princes’ singing is good, and the band is tight, but this one just didn’t seem to have any soul. If I had to sum it up in one word it would be sterile. One redeeming feature for me was the playout section when Rosie Gaines sings “Let's Jam It.” She has one of those voices that demand to be heard, and this is our first taste of her singing tonight, and it sounds great.

There is no let-up at all as the heavy organ intro to “Purple Rain” begins. It’s a nice change to the guitar intro that we were familiar with previously. The intro doesn’t last too long, Prince starts on the verses pretty quickly. Did I say verses? Actually, it’s just a verse, a chorus and then the guitar takes over. I find that the guitar solo loses a lot of its impact with the rest of the song cut short, there is no sense of rising to the climax, and it doesn’t have the triumphant release like when he plays the whole song. It’s a shame that this is usually the default version, and has been for many years. The solo is very fine, I can’t fault it technically, but it does feel a little passionless. The song ends with Prince singing “Live for Love”, obviously a lyrical idea that floated around for some time before it became a song, before ending with one more reprise on the guitar.

Things perk up when “Take Me With U” begins. I will forever associate this song with the scene in the Purple Rain movie, and I always have a joyful feeling when I hear it. It’s not the type of Prince song I normally like, but in this case, it gets a pass. The energy levels are very good, and the song hums along. Sadly it ends before I have a chance to collect my thoughts on it.

The next song gets off to an upbeat swinging start as Prince asks the audience “Madrid, do you wanna hear the blues?” Now is when Rosie comes into her own. “Don’t Make Me Pay For His Mistakes” is a nice bluesy song that gives her plenty of opportunities to showcase her vocals. She dominates the first part of the song and makes it her own before Prince takes over with some fine blues guitar. Nicely paced, and not too heavy or showy it’s another side of his playing that I always enjoyed. Of course, it’s also a good chance for Prince to break out “If I Had A Harem.” The sound of the two songs is very similar, and if not for the lyrics I wouldn’t have noticed a difference.

 

“Alphabet St” starts very swiftly, and Prince races through the first verse before bringing it to a complete halt. After a long pause, he again races through the next verse before pausing again. This time the crowd's cheer is even louder, and with a shout of “Ok Ok!’ Prince resumes again. I love his rap in the middle of it, it’s hardly the sort of lyrics that would set the world on fire, but his delivery is a lot of fun. Even better is Rosie when she begins singing “It Takes Two” over the top of it. As you may guess, I am quite a fan of Rosie. Her voice is nice and full and adds a lot of strength to the whole concert. After Rosie, there is plenty of time for interplay between the drums and guitar, and instruments drop in and out seamlessly.

There is a change in tempo and mood when Prince takes to the piano and plays an instrumental version of “The Question Of U,” “An honest Man,” and “Under The Cherry Moon.” I had heard that Prince writes the majority of his music on the piano, and hearing him play here I can fully believe it. It’s only very short here but is a nice change from what we had in the first part of the show.

The heavy beat of “The Question Of U,” and the full band play for a more recognizable version of the song. A firm favorite for many, this is one song that has sounded great on every live recording I have heard. The beat is very strong here, but it doesn’t overwhelm the song, the guitar solo is very loud and more than compensates for the heavy beat. The guitar doesn’t get the final word however, there is some very good keyboard following it and as the beat continues there are several loud cheers from the crowd, so I am assuming Prince is doing some dancing. He then speaks for a short time, the normal pimp talk he usually comes out with, and follows this with his “Electric Man.” I have heard him play it like this many times, and it’s something I like a lot. I would like to hear him play this without it being incorporated mid-song like this, quite what else he could do with it I guess we will never know. He doesn’t rush this section at all, and it stretches out to a decent eight minutes.

 

“People call me rude, I wish we all were nude” serves as his introduction to “Controversy.” Sometimes this song is overworked, but here it is light and funky. He sings only the first few lines, and then over the same music sings the chorus of “Do Me, Baby.” Somehow it works and he gets away with it. Rosie then starts singing it, and by the way, have I mentioned how great she is? Prince also sings “D.M.S.R” and I feel slightly cheated I was hoping from the setlist it might be a fuller version. I would have said the same for “Do Me, Baby,” but fortunately, after a couple of minutes of “Controversy” he does pull it back and the band slips into “Do Me, Baby” proper.

After a suitable long and beautiful introduction Prince begins to sing. Three-quarters of the way through the show and he shows no shortness of breath or fault in his vocals. It sounds just as good as it does on record. The vocal section is short, the bulk of the song is the introduction, but that’s no bad thing at all, the song stands out as the emotional high point of the evening.

Rosie is again to the fore as she sings an Aretha Franklin cover- “Ain’t No Way.” I don’t want to again write about how good she is, but when she is playing I just want to stop writing and just sit here and listen. Maybe she does overwork some sections of the song, but overall it’s very good.

Finally, we get another Batman song, and it’s “Batdance.” Is the band playing it? I can’t tell. There are a lot of samples on this, it would be easy to just roll a tape and let Prince sing on it. The drums sound live, so I am going to presume the band is playing along to some samples (or vice versa I should say) “Batdance” is an original-sounding song, unlike almost anything else he has done. It does work live, but my only complaint would be the Game Boyz chanting over it at one stage, but it’s only very brief. By now it is apparent that the band is playing it, and they do a fantastic job of it.

 

“Partyman” gets the long chanting intro that we have seen on the long version of the video. All hail to the new King, again I guess that on stage Prince is pretty much playing out like the video. The song is lively and played as heard on record. I had to smile when I heard the line “Ladies and gentlemen, no pictures please”- not much has changed in the last 25 years! The first half of the song is sharp, but in the second half the band moves into second gear and things start getting exciting. There is a funky guitar running throughout, some rapid samples, and some furious keyboard bursts playing horns. There is only one way to end the song, and that is of course with the maniacal Joker laugh.

I didn’t expect to like “When Doves Cry,” but it was great. The beat is always going to sound fresh, and the band plays a suitably stripped-back version- something that doesn’t always happen. I like some aspects of live performances of “When Doves Cry,” there is often some great funky guitar work going on, and this one is no exception. In fact, I forget to listen to it as a whole, and the first time I found myself concentrating solely on the guitar. The bass comes on strong later in the song, and again it adds a lot to it. There are not many live arrangements of “When Doves Cry” that I like, but this is definitely one of them. The song gets a very long play out, and there is plenty happening, this one will get plenty more listens, I’m sure.

There isn’t much to “Baby I’m A Star.” It’s just an excuse to have a long jam and turn the concert into a party. The first few verses quickly give out to a long groove over which everyone gets a chance to play their bit. Even the Game Boyz get a shout-out and a chance to play some rhythm. Normally I would love this, but there isn’t too much here that gets me excited, and I know it's blaspheme but to be honest, I find some parts of it boring and repetitive. Michael B however is always excellent and is the best thing about this long playout. Rosie also is another high point, but I have already given her plenty of coverage here. This is a Prince Blog, not a Rosie blog, so I will refrain from commenting on her again. I am doing the song an injustice here, it is a lot of fun, and it’s played for those at the gig rather than those of us sitting here at home. With that in mind, I would say that if I had been there I am sure I would have been dancing my ass off. However it is uneven and the low point is when Tony M delivers some verses mid-song, despite the funkiness of the music his vocal delivery is like a lead weight to it. But then it’s all redeemed by a short burst of “We Can Funk.” It’s a shade lighter than I had heard before and is more mournful than dark. A very nice smooth delivery of a classic. The song ends on this note, but after a brief “Don’t you wanna go home?” Prince kicks back into the groove. It’s only another minute before it all comes to an end.

I am still scratching my head about these gigs. I am not sure what to make of them. This one had some great songs, and some wonderful moments, but much like the final song, it was a little uneven. I did enjoy listening to it, but I would skip some tracks if I could, unfortunately, some of the things I would skip are buried mid-song. These shows are a turning point in Prince's career, and it’s about now that I lost interest in his main concerts, and instead started listening to far more after shows. However the twists and turns in his career have me relistening to a lot of things and seeing them in a new light as the years go on, and this one certainly stands up well to a relisten.