Chicago 21 November 1996 (am)

 Today’s show is a plan B for me. I was intending to write about another show that someone spoke highly of online, but when I started to listen to it, I found that it was very similar to another show that I had written about a couple of months ago. This aftershow from 1996 has been on my radar for some time, but I have never quite gotten around to listening to it. It sounds interesting from what I have previously read, the big downside is that it is a low-quality audience recording. Not to be deterred, I decided that it was just too intriguing and I had to give it a listen. 

21 November 1996, Chicago 

Rather aptly the show opens with “Jam Of The Year.” I am going to lay my cards on the table right from the start – I rather like the Emancipation album. Despite its plastic production values, the songs are still there, and there are plenty of them. This rendition of “Jam Of The Year” is quite interesting, the first couple of minutes it’s only instrumental, and has a good groove to it that bounces along nicely. I am not going to carp on about the audience noise throughout the recording, but be aware, that this recording has plenty of crowd noise, and there are plenty of times when Prince and the band sound secondary. The guitar plays a nice figure, and there is a loud cheer when Prince rather obviously appears at the two-minute mark. However, his appearance doesn’t move the song along at first, and the groove continues for another minute with plenty of cheers before he begins to sing. The bass line is well worth the effort to listen to, it’s tight and has a good bounce to it. The song ends after five minutes, it could have easily been stretched out much longer. 

 

Is that the opening chords of “Purple Rain” I hear? It is indeed, and the crowd noise increases several decibels. There is a long piano intro while Prince speaks directly to the crowd, several times referencing emancipation (the word, not the album). Some might find the crowd noise off-putting, but it does give it an intimate feel, and there is a sense of togetherness that the recording seems to capture. Prince pulls into his guitar break, and there is that sense of release that I often feel as he throws his head back and begins to play. It’s a shame therefore that the recording is thin at this point and the guitar sounds weaker than I would like. I know it’s the recording rather than Prince, and things get better as he slows it down and plays a more relaxed solo, the likes of which I hadn’t heard before. Any doubts I had about the recording fade at this stage, the quality of the show easily surpasses the quality of the recording. There is a further surprise, as the crowd begins to sing “ooww, owww, oowww” Prince starts to sing the first verse again. His guitar plays along, and I find it to be a touching moment. He is still finding emotion in a song that I thought had been emotionally wrung out. Again he plays into the beloved solo, and this time he pushes on with it and keeps his guitar wailing. There is the final reprise of “ooowww owwww oowwww” and my girlfriend is now looking at me oddly as I wave my arms from side to side. 

We are swept up into the here and now as a rather plastic-sounding “Get Yo Groove On” starts. This song is too smooth for its own good, and it’s easy to dismiss it as something that Prince could do in his sleep. But listening to it carefully now I can see that it’s well crafted, and Prince is making it look all too easy. There is nothing wrong with a smooth, well-crafted pop song, and that is what this is. The first half of the song is a bit of fun, and it’s only as it goes on do I find it’s a little devoid of fresh ideas in the second half. However, there is a brief guitar break by Prince that shakes things along. I do like it when the band throws “Six” into the mix, I hadn’t expected to hear that at a 90s show. The song finishes and part of me regrets praising it earlier on, there wasn’t as much there as I had initially thought. 

“The Most Beautiful Girl In The World” has a joyful opening, and it’s not hard to get caught in its charming web. Prince begins to talk to the crowd and then suddenly stops the song without singing. It’s disappointing, and I briefly frown, that is until I hear the next song begin. 

 

“The Ride” is classic mid-nineties Prince. Prince seems to relish it, and he wallows in the down and dirty groove with some dark guitar licks, and his laid-back vocal delivery. The guitar comes to the fore a couple of minutes in, and it’s worth the wait. It’s a slow-burning solo, and it certainly does have some intensity to it. It's stronger sounding than some of the other solos I have heard on The Ride, and I wonder if he is using a different guitar setup. As the solo progresses it takes on a voodoo sound, and I find myself listening very carefully to it. Prince name-checks some of the people at the show “Mavis Staples is in the house, R Kelly is in the house, Oprah Winfrey is in the house” Each name elicits a louder cheer from the crowd, and things become louder as Prince encourages the crowd to wave the wild sign, before playing with the crowd some more. The band then plays real low and Prince plays some dark licks on his guitar. There is not much more to say about this part, except that it is my favorite part of the song. This does go for some minutes before Prince closes it to a loud cheer from the crowd. 

Spirits are uplifted as Prince plays a loud, guitar-heavy sounding “The Cross.” The drums are down in the mix, and the crowd claps along. The most striking thing in the opening minutes is the heavy chug of Prince's guitar. However, this eases back in the next verse and the drums and keyboards come to the fore as the song progresses. Prince begins his solo, and the balance is restored. I have no complaints about the solo at all, apart from the fact that I would love to see it as well as hear it. The song is surprisingly short, and a horn sound suddenly appears in the mix near the end, I guess from Morris Hayes's keyboard. One final crescendo and we finally get a rest as the band stops between songs. 

“Do Me, Baby” is one of those songs that I find myself writing about week after week. That and “Purple Rain” seem to be in every show, and I can’t deny it’s well worth the inclusion, I would be terribly disappointed if I went to a show and didn’t hear “Do Me, Baby.” Prince takes his time before singing this one, but it’s not a gentle build-up as we have heard previously, at this shows there is plenty of intensity and screams from the crowd. I love it as Prince begins to sing as some women yell encouragement to him from the crowd. This one is squarely aimed at the women in the audience, and Prince’s scream gets an equally loud scream back at him. This continues as he begins to sing lines from “Adore,” and then Insatiable. Each song gets a couple of lines, and he also throws “Scandalous” and “How Come U Don’t Call Me” anymore into the mix just for good measure.  The squeals of delight settle down and Prince resumes singing “Do Me, Baby.” The song ends on a high with some more shrieks from Prince and a simple “Do me, baby, do me, baby” 

 

We go from his slow jams straight into some funk as the band strikes up “Sexy MF.” Prince’s rap on this doesn’t always do it for me, but I do enjoy that groove. The band swing on it as the song goes along, and Morris Hayes adds his touch which changes the direction of the song. Apart from the first minute, most of the song is instrumental, with several changes. I find it to be disjointed and off-putting, and there is a part of me that is secretly pleased as it ends. 

The bounce of “If I Was Your Girlfriend” begins and I am all in.  There does seem to be something missing in the song, I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is, so I’m just going to blame the recording. The bass isn’t as prominent as I like, and some of the other instruments I can’t hear very well. The crowd certainly likes it, and it’s one of those occasions where I think that perhaps I should invest in a time machine. Prince again tells the crowd that “Freedom is a beautiful thing” as the song comes to a rather unsatisfying ending. 

“One Of Us” surprised me when I first heard Prince cover it, but in retrospect, it makes perfect sense as a song Prince would cover. The lyrics are a good fit for his spiritual side, and the steady beat gives him room to put his stamp and guitar sound over it. This isn’t the best example of the song, Prince's vocals aren’t recorded well, in fact, nothing is except his guitar. There is the feeling that I am just tolerating the song between guitar breaks, which isn’t fair. His second break is when things become interesting, it’s not too long though and he is soon singing again. There is another guitar break that carries us to the end, I find it hard to get too excited about it, it’s good without being great. 

I am no great fan of “Sleep Around.” The song sounds busy, and yet it fails to grab me. Even listening carefully here I don’t find anything to latch onto. I have heard it plenty, it is fine to listen to when I am doing other things, it’s just when I give it all my attention I find it lacking. The performance here is good, and in the wider context, it’s a good fit. The song eases off later and Prince thanks the crowd. This part I like much more, it’s a more basic sound, and I can feel the groove better. There is a nice rhythm guitar sound, I have to listen carefully but it is there. And as soon as I write those words it comes to the fore and gets a minute to shine – Prince is laughing at my expense. There is a segue into “Take The A-train” and Prince uses this to finish up the song and move us into a “Chicago Jam.” 

 

Some cool bass play gets this “Chicago Jam” hopping, and there are a few occasions in the song when it is right out front. This is the last song of the show and Prince takes the opportunity to play with the crowd and get them chanting along. It’s a characteristic Prince-type jam, and Morris Hayes in particular gets plenty of time to play. The song has an easy groove to it, it never becomes intense and I bob along easily to it at home as Prince has the crowd chanting “C..H...I love you” The song ends with a horn flurry courtesy of Morris Hayes and his keyboard and the show ends appropriately with the sound of the crowd. 

There is plenty to dislike about this show, and yet I find myself liking it. Sure, the recording was less than ideal, and I didn’t warm to every song played. But the parts that I liked, I really liked. The rendition of “Purple Rain” was an oddity and something worth hearing, as was The Ride. It’s a nice document of this time, and something I should probably give more listens to.